summer of vegan cooking round up

When you live with a Gemini, anything can happen. Eight years ago, when we met, the Significant Eater was a smoking, drinking, caffeine slugging, omnivore. Over the years his eating and living choices have gone through many twists and turns. This summer he’s a clean living, “wholefood” vegan.

Despite being a self-confessed Food Nazi, compared to him I’m a moderate. Though others may not think a diet without meat or dairy inhabits the middle ground, it’s been consistent for well over two decades. So dropping the eggs and fish from the home menu shouldn’t be a challenge, should it?

While I embrace the opportunity to increase my intake of wholegrains, beans, seeds and nuts (the cornerstones of vegan protein) on a daily basis, the biggest issue has turned out to be quantity and diversity, rather than actual ingredients. The SE is an active guy who even at the height of his meat loving could still devour a leafy green salad made from the entire contents of the fridge’s veggie crisper.

It’s been a tough summer for me for entirely different reasons. While I haven’t entirely gone off my tucker, it’s certainly dropped down in my priorities. If ever there was a time when I’d be happy to come home from work and just eat a boiled egg and some lettuce from the garden, this is it. Instead I’ve had to plan ahead to soak beans, cook up pots of quinoa, brown rice and millet, bake/fry/steam tofu and tempeh, and cut, peel, julienne, dice and grate a truckload of vegetables.

So, onto the culinary highlights

Porridge probably shouldn’t be summer highlight but it was – a massive fruit salad with either oat, millet or quinoa/amaranth porridge. Toss in some seeds and nuts and it’s an amazing start to the day.

Heidi’s (not so) wild mushroom tacos. With fresh tacos from Casa Iberica, guacamole and using Asian mixed mushrooms and small cubes of smoked tofu to her chilli/wild mushroom recipe. Made a nice change from beans.

A Japanese inspired broth (1+ litre veg stock, a knob of finely julienned ginger, 2 tsp mirin, 2 tsp tamari – to taste) with soba noodles, tofu, veg (carrot, green beans and zucchini – spring onion would have been good). Simple and nurturing.

Madhur Jaffrey's spiced rice with cashews. An old favourite, still a delight. (There’s an online adaptation here).

Mushroom risotto, like this earlier version but sans butter and booze. Sometimes you just need a little ballast in your gut after all the salads.

Vegan BBQ – whole corn in the husk, portabella mushrooms tossed in olive oil and garlic and a biodynamic soy burger (from Tofu trek, very tasty and didn’t dry out). With a cucumber, tomato, red onion salad – with the dregs of the mushroom marinade and a splash of balsamic vinegar. (Grilled eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes are also lovely. I sometime pre bake jacket potatoes til 2/3 cooked, then slice, toss in oil/garlic/rosemary and grill on bbq)

More salads than you can poke a stick at

The SE’s super salad made from quinoa, grated beetroot and carrot, salad greens, plus steamed spud and pumpkin. Dressed with tamari, toasted sesame oil and lemon juice dressing. When I replicated it I ditched the cooked veg and add fried tempeh. Yum.

Kitchen sink salad with chickpeas – blanched green beans, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, (red onion might have been nice), toasted cashews and itty bitty capers. Dressing made from orange juice and zest, sherry vinegar, walnut/olive oil, a little garlic, mustard and salt. An ok salad uplifted by a stellar dressing.

Seaweed salad with (I found some old wakame in the pantry, it’s hard to get now due to the radioactive contamination around Japan) grated carrot/finely sliced cucumber and celery salad with dressing of rice vinegar (Tetsuya’s nori vinegar)/tamari/sugar/roasted sesame oil/chilli flakes.

Did I document the food I made this summer? Nope...sorry...not sure how this one ended up in the camera

Rice noodles, smoked tofu, grated carrot, cucumber, mint and coriander. Dressing lime juice, sugar, chilli and tamari (I did miss the fish sauce but it was still nice).

Roasted veg salad (spuds, onion, beetroot, pumpkin) with fresh chives and a vinaigrette mixed with cashew butter and garlic.

Carrot/daikon/cucumber salad (adapted heavily from The Asian Vegan Kitchen). Mix the finely sliced veg with toasted sesame seeds. Dressing equal parts rice vinegar and sugar, a touch (or a lot) of green chilli, pinch of salt and 2-3 drops roasted sesame oil. (I made this one a number of times)

Sweet things

Finally cracked Tony Chiodo’s chocolate tart made with silken tofu (it’s the delectable dish on the back of the book). It was a labour of love but worth the effort.

And the more wholesome and happily hippy raw fruit pie.

The winning ingredient of the season?

Kimchi. You’ve got to search for one made without fish sauce or MSG, but it’s worth scrummaging through all the tubs in your favourite Asian grocery store). It got thrown on top of brown rice with other salads and bits and pieces, in homage to Yong Green’s Dragon Bowl. A handy, no fuss meal with lots of zing.

Tempeh and kimchi gyoza

As you know I’m a sucker for a good gyoza and figured kimchi and tempeh would make an inspired filling. And yes it did. I salivate for it now, just writing about. If you don’t know how to make gyoza use this equally delightful vegan version as a template. For the filling use equal quantities of tempeh and kimchi, whizzed up in the food processor for a finer consistency. Serve with the same rice vinegar/tamari/chilli oil dipping sauce.

So what have you been eating this summer?

Hotcakes

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of the blog that Mark Bittman is one of my favourite culinary pin up boys men. If I had to nominate a top three there’d also be delicious Nigel and our own lovely Tony. But let’s not be heterosexist, my soft spot for Annabel also deserves a mention.

What all four of these cooking heroes have in common is a laid back attitude to home cooking. There's also a shared joy of homegrown produce and a relaxed approach to following recipes. All of which tick my boxes.

But back to Mr Bittman. I enjoyed his recent New York Times piece on whole-grain pancakes. The accompanying video showed him incorporating some cooked oatmeal (porridge) with a scant amount of flour, herbs, nuts and dried fruit. I took notes as I watched! I made guesses as to quantities. Why? Because at the time I couldn’t actually find the recipe.

As fate would have it, last weekend came around and I awoke to an unexpected dose of mild food poisoning (sadly from an oldish favourite on Brunswick Street). My partner suffered likewise, sealing the deal as to the source of the infection. Once my digestion calmed down all I wanted to eat was porridge. Which meant the next day, when I was fully functioning again, a cup or so of rolled oats slowly cooked with rice milk and a little banana sat waiting to be used in my fridge.

My version varies somewhat from the original but they look and I suspect taste pretty authentic. The notes in italics explain the variations. The quantities were more than adequate for two very hungry adults.

Super healthy pancakes with oats and cardamom

Combine the following dry ingredients:

2 tabs ground almonds
2 tabs raw rolled oats
I chopped the almonds roughly in the food processor then threw in the raw whole oats for a couple of whizzes. The texture in the finished product was lovely – but I really wonder if it needed the raw oats at all.
1/2 tsp salt
Seeds of about 4 pods cardamom
I pounded salt and herbs together in a mortar and pestle. The aroma was quite strong, so I used this as a guide to the amount of cardamom seeds I used. The cardamom was very subtle in the first pancake I cooked but was more noticeable in later ones.
1/2 cup unbleached flour
This was perfect, in both texture and binding of the batter.
1 tsp baking powder

Wet ingredients

Whisk together:
1 egg
1/2 c rice (or other) milk
I added a further 1/3 cup when mixing the final batter. to get to the right consistency.
1 tsp vanilla extract
As there was a trace of banana already in my porridge and I knew I’d be using the perfect runny apricot jam on top, no need for the addition of dried apricots. Even without that, I think they’d be over kill. The vanilla, though not in the original recipe, was a subtle flavour enhancer that I’d use again.

Stir into the combined wet ingredients:
1+ cups porridge
I had a bit over a cup of left over porridge cooked with a little banana and rice milk from the day before. As leftover porridge tends to congeal, using clean hands to break up the lumps through the wet ingredients was the most effective method.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir gently.
Despite my initial scepticism, it really does create a “batter consistency”, even with so little flour. They needed to be loosened a little more with milk. I decided to let the batter sit for half an hour. That’s the general rule for flour based pancake batters, the flour swells a little but more than that the cardamom has a chance to infuse.

Cook in rice bran oil in a hot pan. They needed at least 4 minutes a side. And like most pancakes I find it better to do a small one first, then the pan seems to get into its groove and the following ones cook more smoothly – or is that just me?

Served with a spoonful of the most heavenly, runny organic apricot jam a client had given me but maple syrup or a little honey would do the trick.

Verdict: When I first read the recipe I must admit my first thought was "crispy fried porridge". But my second thought was "crispy fried porridge could taste really good"! The oatmeal did make the pancakes a little damp in the middle, rather than the more cakey nature I'm familiar with. The ground nuts added a lovely texture that complemented the oats.

Overall - a delightful, very filling and healthy breakfast!

Though next time I might soak rolled oats over night, rather than cooking them to see how that works.

solstice giving update

At winter solstice I gave thanks and started an experiment. In gathering my (and your) favourite healthy cookbooks I linked them to a Fishpond (online Australasian bookstore) affiliate program. The promise was to give any profits from affiliate sales to my favourite charity. As an act of faith I donated $200 in advance to the Smith Family’s Learning for Life and I’m glad to say that has almost been met in affiliate sales.

Today, while listening to 774 I caught Ian Thorpe talk about his foundation. Those of you who’ve read my other (ranty) blog may know I’ve had a thing for Thorpie over the years. But all jokes aside, after listening to flipper feet talk I’m proud of what he’s done to encourage literacy in Aboriginal communities. So continuing the theme of giving I’ve donated $200 to his charity. If you’d like to support it too by purchasing books via this Fishpond link or directly through the foundation, good on you.



As for the virtual bookshelf I’m building elsewhere, it’s still a work in progress. The list of things to consume my post holiday replenished energy supplies in the New Year grows ever longer! You’re welcome to continue to add your thoughts on healthy food related reading.

A big addition to my original list is my cookbook of the year, Tony Chiodo’s Feel Good Food.

Feel Good Food
I’ve broken my minimalist rules this year with a small haul of recipe books and Chiodo’s is certainly the healthiest.

Lisa Dempster recommended

The Asian Vegan Kitchen: Authentic and Appetizing Dishes from the Continent of Rich Flavors
I like the idea of an Asian cookbook that avoids mock meats/sauces and focuses on the authentic vegetarian recipes. It’s winging its way to my letterbox right now!

I’m keen to check out Lucy’s suggestion, it's just a pity I didn’t remember it when I ordered the Hema Parekh’s book! But good to see that Fishpond currently have it on sale.

Jam Today: A Diary of Cooking with What You've Got

A few of you also suggested

The Yoga Cookbook: Vegetarian Food for Body and Mind


Speaking of cookbooks I made an interesting discovery recently. Do you ever fall in love with a book in the shop, bring it home, touch it lovingly from time to time but never really end up cooking anything from it? This year I realized that the key to success is committing to make at least one recipe from the new book within the first week of purchase. This reduces the likelihood that it will languish on the shelf with its recipes mere pipe dreams.

What books are tickling your fancy, culinary or otherwise, this season?

A big thanks to all of you who clicked through to Fishpond in the last 6 months and bought all sorts of wonderful books and electronic equipment via the affiliate link. It gives me a buzz to think that your reading choices are helping some Australian children learn to love words and become readers for life.

Hope you all are keeping your head above water and remembering the spirit of the season.


Update: Lucy added From Spiders to Water Lilies Cambodian cooking for a great cause.

the return of the mojo

The last few months have been a bit of a blur. There’s been lot of comings and goings, short trips to NZ/interstate (the former being like an interstate trip except you have to check in hours earlier and there’s duty-free goodies) and some shuffling around at home.

The Significant Eater is away for large chunks of the time now and though I’ve always been an advocate of the pleasures of cooking for one, my repertoire has been stuck on repeat. My high rotation menu of stir-fries, frittatas, curries, pasta/noodles and variations on vegetables with rice, reminds me of a week I spent in the Daintree with only the resort restaurant to eat at. The limited menu was on a three day cycle, making the second half of the stay very boring.

My mojo’s not been helped by the garden being between seasons. The parsley and coriander are on the way out and there’s just silverbeet for fresh greens, wholesome but not exactly inspiring. I can’t face another leaf of the super bitter radicchio. Waiting to fruit are tomatoes (grosse lisse, tommy toes and sugar lump), strawberries and grapes.

If the locusts don’t get them first.

Previously I’ve relished solo time, giving me the opportunity to beta test weird and wild concoctions (aka “imagination meals”) without having to explain the experiment to someone else. But the problem with loosing your mojo is that there is no desire to go beyond the known. End of the year fatigue has kidnapped my imagination and a whole raft of glossy cookbooks won’t get it back.

Fortunately in the past week the season seems to have begun to shift. The market haul yielded local strawberries, organic mangoes and a half decent avocado. Winters drabness is finally giving way to the stars of the fruit family that excite the senses.



Also on the up are my herbs in pots – Vietnamese mint, regular mint, rosemary tarragon. The latter I’ve had for a couple of years but am always at a loss as to how to use. Aniseed is not my favourite flavour, especially in savoury cooking. It’s refreshing to chew on a leaf but I’m yet to fall in love with the herb. Any tarragon tips?

With the whiff of promise breezing in I’ve finally been inspired to tackle two cooking projects I’ve had earmarked for an age. This weekend saw a second batch of savoury fritters, in an ongoing attempt to tweak Annabel Langbein's soda water batter and while listening to Tony Chiodo being interviewed on Eat It on Sunday I put on a pot of quinoa. I’d intended to make one of his salads but instead found some parsley still suitable for consumption and finally made a quinoa tabbouleh.

Double win!

Where’s your kitchen mojo at this spring/autumn?

Sneak preview - recipes later this week.

I'm excited - Feel Good Food

A few weeks ago I shared a few cookbooks healthy enough to get the Food Nazi stamp of approval. I'm excited to add a new one fresh off the press. Unlike many other foodbloggers I don’t actually buy many recipe books, to hand over my hard earned cash these days I have to be sure that I’ll actually cook from it, rather than just be seduced by the pretty pictures.

Tony Chiodo has had a mention on this site before, I did one of his wholefoods cooking courses years ago that began with learning how to sharpen our knives and ended with making a yummy fruit kanten. Readers living further a field from Melbourne may not of heard of him but a potted history includes being apprenticed under local French chef Jacques Reymond, then studying and working in Italy before swapping animal fats for tofu at the Kushi Institute where he trained in Macrobiotics. I met Tony long after I'd become a fan of his cooking at Wild Rice Cafe (back in the days when you could find healthy food to eat in St Kilda) and Cafe Angelica in Kew, so I can say with a clear conscience that it really is his culinary skills that hooked me before I was subjected to his Italian charm.

While his first book Eating Well: Tony Chiodo's Food for Health and Happiness, based on his Epicure column in The Age, didn’t give me the same tingle (nice but not as wholesome as his workshops) Feel Good Food is everything I’d hoped a Chiodo cookbook would be – a wonderful marriage of European lushness with Asian inspired health affirming food. For example, there’s a baked silken chocolate tart with a picture that looks so good I want to lick it off the page. The crust is made from spelt flour, ground almonds and coconut oil and the ‘silken’ filling is based on tofu, cocoa and rice syrup. I love his idea of adding cardamom to a sweet quinoa dish too. As you’d expect from a macrobiotic influenced cookbook the savoury dishes use a variety of grains, beans and soy. There are also a handful of seafood and chicken dishes but overall the book is about 80% vegan (including the cakes and how to make tofu sour cream).

I was happy to see some old favourites from his cooking classes included in the book, like the millet and cauliflower mash (that tastes more exciting than it sounds), variations on his pilafs and the aforementioned kanten (a jelly made with agar agar).

His recipes are accessibly written but may include ingredients unfamiliar to a novice. However it includes clear instructions on how to use or cook them, such as recipes for steaming millet or quinoa. There are also some commonsense guidelines on how to cook and eat well, including seasonal eating and incorporating colour, texture and flavour. Like the recipes, the information is conveyed with a sense of fun and exploration without being preached at.

Feel Good Food manages to deliver a very challenging brief, it presents food that looks and tastes so great that your guests or family won’t know they are being fed “health food”.



Feel Good Food

Feel Good Food is well worth the $45 I paid for it, though if I'd followed my own Fishpond link I could have got it for a few bucks cheaper!