Lemony bliss balls

 Lemons (especially super juicy and fragrant Meyers) make an amazing guest star in this take on the traditional nut/fruit ball.  The recipe is super easy to make if you have a food processor and are the perfect healthy snack.

 

Lemony bliss balls

1 cup raw cashews (or your favourite type of nut)
10 – 12 Medjool dates, pitted (if dry, soak in warm water for an hour first and pat dry)
2 – 3 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
Zest of 1 lemon, unsprayed/organic
½ tsp vanilla extract (optional)
½ tsp sea salt
1/3 cup desiccated or shredded coconut to roll balls in

Pulse all ingredients except the coconut, in a food processor or blender until the nuts are well chopped. Check the mixture’s consistency, it needs to stick together to form a ball. If too crumbly try adding another date or two, or a bit more juice, water or a dash of coconut milk.

Add the desiccated coconut to a small dish. With clean damp hands, form into balls (I used a heaped teaspoon per ball) and roll in shredded coconut.

Store between layers of baking paper, in an airtight container and keep in the fridge. I’ve seen fruit and nut ball recipes that suggest they keep for up to 3 months but in my house they’ve never lasted this long!

 

Variations

No lemons – try orange juice (and zest if unsprayed)

No dates – try dried figs, may need to be soaked first

No coconut – use sesame or crushed hemp seeds

This first published my professional website, now archiving recipes on blogger

Evolution of the truffle

At this time of year I often make truffles. Something luscious, vegan and packed full of kilojoules is the perfect way to celebrate the solstice.

Over the years the truffles have evolved from a coconut cream based chocolate ball, to an infused coconut oil one. 

The problem with truffles is they’re often frustrating and time consuming to make. The mix needs to be firm but not so cold it shatters, nor so warm it melts just looking at it. Let’s face it – late at night on the solstice eve, constantly walking between the workbench and fridge to rechill the mix between every half dozen truffles gets a tad tiresome. In humid December weather, sitting in a tepid bath with an icy drink (and smouldering companion) would be way more fun.

A couple of months ago I promised to take a sweet to a friends place for dinner. I dithered. I dathered. Until finally I only had a couple of hours to concoct something. The ‘something’ became a cubed version of truffles, simple cut into mouth-sized bites. 

If time permits you can still go down the sensory truffle path and infuse the oil with orange peel, spices or something else equally delicious (chilli anyone?). But the version I ended up creating with walnuts and liqueur worked fine. Lets put it this way; there were no complaints or leftovers.

Because how I conceptualised this recipe and what actually went into it are slightly different - I'm giving two different ingredients lists. I know some of you actually like qualities and others (like me) have a 'look and adapt' approach. Lets keep everyone happy!

The truffle that became a square

Freeform ingredients list

Base
2 parts good quality chocolate

1 part coconut oil (plain or infused)

Pinch of sea salt

Texture and flavour

A handful of walnuts, broken into smallish pieces - and/or nut paste

A generous handful of something fruity with an edge e.g. dried cherries, freeze dried raspberries or orange zest

OR a couple of tsp of a good quality liqueur such as Grand Marnier or Frangelico if you want to extend the nut thing use hazel instead of walnuts. (Note: too much grog might stop it from setting)

A quantified list of ingredients

200 gm 80% good quality chocolate
100 gm coconut oil
100 gm almond butter (make sure it's pure, check the ingredients especially if its a big brand)
3/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp Grand Marnier

Method

If you’re going to infuse the coconut oil, start this a day or two before. Otherwise the chocolate slice takes a few minutes to put together, plus another hour to chill.

Assemble your ingredients and find an appropriate tin or container. Ideally use a square or rectangular baking tin (nothing with sloping sides or alas, you’ll just have to eat all the trimmings!)  Aim for a size appropriate to the mass of ingredients so that the chocolate concoction comes up to about 3-5 cm high (depending on how small our large you want your squares). Metal is ideal, you don’t need to grease, though you can line with baking paper if desired.

Blitz or chop the chocolate so they’re in even sized pieces. In a double boiler gently heat until half the chocolate is melted.

If your coconut oil is solid, melt over a low heat – it takes a very short time so don’t take your eye off it. I usually let it half melt then turn the heat off.

Combine the chocolate, nut paste (optional) and oil (hopefully they’re still semi solid rather than a liquid but it still works, though the nuts or fruit might drop to the bottom). Mix through the nuts, fruit and/or flavouring of choice.

Refrigerate for about an hour until fully solid (use the freezer if in a hurry). It's a good idea to allow it to come up to room temperature before cutting, to avoid snaps and shards. If necessary, run a warm knife around the edges and cut into bite-sized cubes. Of course if you painstakingly lined the tin, you just have to pull the slab out and cut.

You can pretty up the cubes of chocolatey goodness with a sprinkling of cocoa, icing sugar or rose petals but really, these taste so good they don’t need they don’t need it.

Heide’s carnival cookies

Did you notice I don’t have a single biscuit recipe on this blog? There’s a slice, lots of muffins, a handful of desserts and far too many drinks in the sweet treats section. Well today I’m going to remedy that omission and guess what, it’s vegan!

Vegan Schmegan! How can a biscuit without sugar, butter or flour taste any good? 

Oh my goodness, domestic goddess supreme Heidi Swanson’s done it. A dairy-free, gluten-free (it your oats are untainted), egg-free and even (added) sugar-free sweet treat that has people coming back for more. Even the chocolate-vanilla-y aroma of these “cookies” has me salivating.

But first a little nomenclature: Being an Anglo-file, at least where language is concerned, makes me baulk at calling these cookies. Beyond semantics, I tend to pigeonhole a biscuit/cookie as a disc of something sweet and crispy. The carnival cookies (suitably Americanised due to their country of origin) certainly evoke the spirit of a biscuit but are also reminiscent of an unleavened version of my muffins. The banana makes them soft and a little doughy.

Whatever. They passed muster and weren’t ruined by my habitual tweaking. A tad more chocolate on hand than recipe called for, no problem, you can never have too much chocolate in a sweet morsel. Not a huge fan of peanuts? The walnuts substituted nicely. I also ground my own almonds, gave the rolled oats a quick whiz (rather leaving them whole as indicated in the original recipe), popped the corn, passed a cinnamon stick over a fine grater and was a little heavy handed with the remains of my homemade vanilla extract.

The might look a little well done but it's just the chocolate the chocolate that includes chunks and powdery goodness

Carnival cookies

(adapted from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day: Well Loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen)

4 small or 3 medium bananas, mashed

1.5 teaspoons natural vanilla essence/extract

60g coconut oil, melted

120 g rolled oats, blitzed for a couple of seconds in a food processor

60 g almonds, blitzed to make almond meal

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 tsp good quality ground cinnamon, or half a cinnamon quill finely grated

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

100 g walnuts, lightly crushed but still chunky

180 g chopped dark chocolate (70% plus) or good quality chocolate chips

1 heaped tablespoon popping corn, popped with a little coconut oil (about 20 g of popped corn)

Preheat oven to 180c

To make the popcorn: Heat a large pot with a tight fitting lid. Add a scant teaspoon of coconut oil, throw in the corn kernels and put on the lid. Shake pot every minute or so and let the kernels do their thing. Once the popping has subsided remove from the heat and carefully take off the lid. Allow the popcorn to cool, discarding any unpopped kernels.

In a large bowl combine mashed banana, vanilla and coconut oil. In another bowl assemble the dry ingredients: the oats, almond meal, baking powder cinnamon and salt. I ground everything myself in my powerful mini food-processor, one by one blitzing the oats, almonds and chocolate.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir til combined. Gently fold through the chocolate, then the walnuts and lastly the popcorn. The mixture is quite wet but have faith because it will hold together ok.

There is enough mixture to fill two baking sheets. I only have one so cooked them in two batches. The first following Heidi’s instructions to use a heaped tablespoon of dough, shaped into a ball by hand, came out quite large and round, needing about 18 minutes of cooking.

The second tray I used less, barely a level tablespoon of mixture per cookie, rounded to a ball by hand then flattened slightly on the tray. This batch took about 14 minutes to cook in my oven. The smaller size is perfect for a mouthful of something sweet with coffee or a treat. The small mouthfuls have also been a hit impromptu festive gift.

Update January 2013:
I've made a second batch, no measuring this time and all came out fine. Yippee, I so love baking intuitively rather than with the accoutrements of a pseudoscientist (like something out of the Ponds Institute).

Variation: This batch was made with cornflakes leftover from my dad's visit, I subbed them for popcorn. The combo of chocolate, cornflakes and walnuts was reminiscent of Afghan biscuits from my childhood. That's a good thing.

Further variations I'd consider in the future include desicated coconut and dried cherries. Possibly together. With chocolate of course.

This is a wonderfully adaptive recipe and non-vegans love the biscuits equally as much as those eschewing dairy and eggs. A perfect replacement for my (non-vegan) banana-based muffins.

Hate banana? Try some applesauce or a chunky, cooked apple puree. I reckon that would work just as well.

dessert gyoza

This post has been in the pipeline for the past year. Blame the delay on gluttony. This is a morsel best eaten hot, so the restraint required to delay gratification and take a photo is quite large.

For those pedants loving precise measurements, the joy of this recipe is that you can make a small batch of three or four (if you can restrain yourself) for some late night solo pleasure, or dozens for a large crowd. As only a teaspoon of filling per gyoza is needed, a little goes a very long way. You can whiz up a batch in a mini food processor (for this job a regular sized processor is way too large, unless you like A LOT of dessert) and store the leftovers in a jar in the fridge for later use.

While flour isn't exactly a health food, this recipe does incorporate wonderful antioxidant rich dark chocolate with the calcium (and other nutrient) abundance of figs and nuts. It's also vegan/dairy-free.

Chocolate gyoza

2 parts dark chocolate, at least 70% (For two people 40 grams of chocolate is enough)

1 part dried figs

1 part walnuts

Gyoza wrappers*

Coconut oil

Icing sugar (optional)

To the make the filling either finely chop the chocolate, fried figs and walnuts, or blitz in a mini food processor.

Take a gyoza wrapper; place a heaped teaspoon of filling mixture in the centre, run a little water around the outer few centimetres of the wrapper, fold and gently press together. You can crimp by hand or use one of those nifty cheap plastic gyoza presses from an Asian grocery store. Repeat until you have the desired number of gyoza.

Heat a frying pan on medium. Add a teaspoon of coconut oil (really this is the best oil for the job) and place as many gyoza as you can in the pan. It’s ok for them to snuggle up next to each other. Cook for about 3 minutes on the first side, flip over, then another 2 minutes on the other. Or til just golden.

Plate up. Dust with icing sugar if desired and eat while hot.

Variations

What do you like with your chocolate? I settled on figs and nuts to slightly mitigate the sweetness and bring a little more healthy goodness to the dessert.

But if you’re not a health freak you can spike pure chocolate with a little orange zest, a splash of liqueur, a smidgeon of sea salt or even black pepper.

* you can find gyoza wrappers in the fridge at most Asian grocery stores.

in season: get it while it's good

I figure in Australia being a vast land and all that, almost anything is in season somewhere in the country at any time of year. Hass avocados, for instance, are grown all year round according to the industry’s marketing information. But Melbourne prices tell a different story when it comes to quality and availability.

I’ve put together a guide from organic stalls and farmers markets for what looks good, in Melbourne this April. Feel free to add to it.

Fruit
Apples are at their peak; worth spending a bit more to explore the dozens of different organically grown varieties that taste like apples did in your childhood.
Pears are slowly ripening.
Mandarins are heading the new citrus season, watch out for local oranges and grapefruits coming soon.
Limes have been a cheaper buy than lemons in the past month. If local trees are anything to go buy it will still be another month or so til lemons make a come back.
Persimmons, just in for their short and sweet season.
Quinces are starting to trickle in.
Still some figs about but not for much longer.
Grapes are on the way out but still a good buy.
Chillies are still abundant in my garden.

Nuts
The new season Tasmanian walnuts have arrived and taste great.
Chestnuts are starting to make an appearance.
Keep an eye out for local hazelnuts.

Vegetables
Pumpkins are still abundant and cheap.
Root vegetables are coming into their own – carrots, beetroot, sweet potato are a good buy.
Hopefully later in the month we’ll see some interesting mushrooms.
Say goodbye to tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini and cucumbers as their season ends and prices rise.

Update It's the second to last week of April and am overjoyed to report that feijoas are now in season too. I got a kilo of (admittedly small sized) feijoas for $3 from the market. The bonus was they were grown locally and without sprays. Larger ones were $7.50 (from the most expensive conventional stall at the entire market) and $9.50 (organic).

a nettle delight that you won't find on masterchef

Masterchef is over and hopefully we won’t have to hear the word “journey” (unless it’s in conjunction with some mode of transport) for a very long time.

I neither loved nor loathed the series, was not so secretly pleased that the finale was duked out between two grown up women (rather than an over confident bloke or a darling young 20 year old) but was saddened to hear that it really hasn’t inspired a generation of children to cook. According to a tweet by Stephanie Alexander, a formidable authority on all things to do with healthy food and young people, kids were more inspired to cook by the ads than the show itself.

@GrowCookEat: Masterchef claim that kids turned onto real food. From a class of 22, 8 told me they cooked chocolate cupcakes inspired by Betty Crocker ad.

I would have liked to see more cutting edge cookery, especially in the last week. So I present for you the key ingredient I would have selected for a mystery box challenge – nettles! And lets add a twist; the dish needs to be vegan as well. Come on, it’s the final week lets up the ante a bit more – lets make sure its is gluten-free to boot.

This is my humble offering, harvesting my only current backyard crop of abundance. Having earmarked small footprint family’s intriguing nettle pate, I had a flashback to another herb and avocado spread that I had earlier concocted. What I whipped up is a hybrid of the pate and my detox parsley pesto.

Nettle, nut and avocado dip

5 cups (approx) fresh, or 2 cups steamed, nettles
1/2 cup pistachio nuts (soaked and dried if you want to release extra goodness)
1/2 cup walnuts (optionally soaked as above)
1 large avocado
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
1/2-1 tsp coriander (cilantro) seeds, roasted and ground
1/2-1 tsp cumin seeds, roasted and ground
pinch of salt
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon young (shiro) miso

Carefully harvest your nettles, choosing the young tops if you can. Wash well and shake dry. Place in a large pot on low heat with no extra water. Keep lid on and shake every few minutes. It should take about 10 minutes to steam the nettles in this manner. Once cooked drain off any excess water.

Roast and grind the cumin and coriander seeds with a pinch of salt.

Pulse nuts in a food processor til semi crushed. If you go to far they will become nut butter. Add the garlic, ground spices, avocado, and lemon juice process some more. Now throw in the drained nettles and miso paste. Blend to the desired consistency, I like my nuts to still have some texture but its up to you. Season with additional salt and lemon juice, to taste if needed.

The dip goes well with crudités or rice crackers. There is a hint of the green grassy taste of nettles but be assured there is no sting.

Who knows, maybe next year nettles rather than tonka beans will be the must have herb of the season.



If you have no nettles consider using some steamed spinach, radiccio, rocket a bunch of your favourite fresh green herbs.

WHB #156 - mint

I wake to a bright Sunday morning. The early light streams into the lounge room and I find myself up at a ridiculously early hour (one that begins with 7) slavishly writing my morning pages, surrounded by three contented cats and the sound of birds singing. These spring days are golden. The weather is still unpredictable – with sunshine, thunder, lightening and hail all in the same week, or even day. But this time of year flecked with green is special, before summer gets you by the throat and the land becomes parched.

The garden is in flux. Today is the day we intend to rip out the last remnants of our winter vegetable bed (silverbeet will be on the menu tonight) and rebuild the soil to plant a few tomatoes and maybe strawberries after then next bout of hoped for rain. Most of my herbs are in pots these days, easier to keep the thirsty plants alive with the clean kitchen wastewater. The happiest with this frequent dampening routine is mint. With every watering it flourishes.



I love to drink fresh mint tea but don’t cook with it often. I relish mixing it into Asian salads, with coriander, Vietnamese mint and fish sauce. But with such an abundance of the herb I don’t use it nearly enough.

Morning writing finished, my rumbling tummy brings me back to the present, I know I need food, an appropriate first meal to honour the day. The fruit bowl represents the juxtaposition of seasons, winter apples and oranges meeting tropical mangoes and bananas. I dreamt last night of bananas growing in Wellington, not as they should do but on a vine instead. Not sure weather to blame fears of global warming or all the muffins I have been eating for that one. Regardless I take it as a sign that this herb, commonly regarded as a fruit, will feature in breakfast today.

To greet the new day I make a fruit salad featuring mint, toasted coconut and cashews. The mint gives it a taste of summer.

Trans-seasonal fruit salad
(Serves 2)

1 mango, diced
1 –2 bananas, sliced
1 pink lady apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 orange, skin removed sliced or in segments
1 handful of cashew nuts
1 handful of shredded coconut
fresh mint
lime juice

Prepare your fruit, feel free to vary the ingredients with what you have available, though the mango and banana work best with coconut.

Place a heavy bottomed pan on high heat and carefully toast the cashews, shaking the pan frequently til brown (you may notice that I hurried mine a little too much), remove the nuts and add the coconut. If the pan is still hot just swirl the shreds around off the heat and you will see them toast before your eyes, so be vigilant. Remove from the pan to ensure they don’t continue cooking.

Mix the fruit, coconut and cashews together in a bowl. Shred some fresh mint and add a squeeze of lime. Stir gently.

Eat immediately.




The mint family is a large clan with many variations. Medicinally Mentha piperita is favoured for its cooling, carminative properties. A steaming hot cup of peppermint tea can help clear the sinuses and settle a troubled stomach or racing mind. It is the perfect way to finish a fatty or spicy meal.

I also love mint in it’s many incarnations in laksa, green mango salad, prawn and noodle stir fries and as a refreshing summer drink muddled with lime juice, sugar and soda water.

This post celebrates Weekend Herb Blogging’s third birthday and is hosted by it’s founder Kalyn at Kalyn’s Kitchen - congratulations, what an amazing gift this weekly feature has been.

From next week Haalo, a fellow Melbournite, will be taking the reigns to care for this much loved event. Thanks again Kalyn for creating and nurturing Weekend Herb Blogging for these three years.

searching (for a good wife?)

blanching almonds for the solstice cake


While I've been busy baking and cooking up beans, all things that make me feel most uncharacteristically 'wifey' (despite my long dead aunt's prediction, circa 1979 when as a sweet young thang and made my first beef stroganoff, that I would "make someone a good wife" I've firmly remained the unmarrying kind) I finally discovered the code to put in a search function on the blog. It makes me feel so competent when I do things like changing fuses (a thing of the past now the house has been rewired) or learning how to write html.

Anyway - the search feature, below the profile box on the right, is now at your service to explore all things food nazi. Please enjoy.

word of the day

Apropos of nothing –today’s word from the kitchen is…



nuts.

We get through a stack of them here at chez-food nazi.

Here are some thoughts on the subject:

While toasting/roasting your nuts heightens the flavour, the health obsessed part of me cautions to do this a little as possible. The good oil in nuts is denatured by heat, turning all that wonderful anti-inflammatory action into quite the opposite.

On that subject, general exposure to light and heat will speed up a nut’s journey to rancidity. That is when the oil has turned (as above) and the flavour goes from healthy sweetness, to bitterness of the wrong kind. To avoid this buy nuts in small batches from suppliers with a high turn over and keep in a dark place. Even better if you have the space, refrigerate them.

Almonds are my favourite nut. They contain a significant amount of calcium, magnesium, potassium, folate and Vitamin E – making them a very healthy snack.

Raw nuts contain “good oils” – omega 3’s and other clever constituents in nuts like almonds can actually lower LDL cholesterol. Walnuts are cited as playing a role in the “French Paradox” – where beneficial aspects of a diet can negate some of the coronary causing, harmful ones. Strangely people are quick to slug down the red wine in the name of science but have forgotten about the nuts and bitter leafy greens that were considered equally as important.

Peanuts are actually legumes, growing under ground rather than as fruits on trees. Peanuts are highly prone to being contaminated with aflatoxins, a potentially carcinogenic mold. I prefer other nut pastes, like almond, pistachio or macadamias to peanut butter any day. For a nutty satay sauce try substituting peanuts with cashew nuts.

I fell in love with Pistachios a couple of spring detox’s ago when parsley pesto become my new best friend. They blend well with a variety of fresh green herbs to make a spread or pesto.

When grinding nuts, do it in short bursts. A couple of seconds can be the difference between an almond meal and almond butter!

What’s your favourite nut?

Creamy quinoa with banana, cinnamon and almonds

I’m in love!

Well, not just sneakingly with Bret from Flight of the Conchords but another foreign import.

Quinoa is a seedy/grain with when cooked is soft yet yields a subtle crunch. I have previously explored red and white quinoa in savoury recipes such as stuffed artichokes and a simple pilaf but thanks to a recent post from fellow quinoa-lover Heidi at 101 cookbooks I realised it was time to explore what this grain could offer with a little sweetness.

There is a delightful evolution that occurs through the sharing of recipes. Heidi’s starting point was a quinoa berry breakfast featured in Dr John La Puma's “Chef MD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine”, which she shared with us as her version of a warm and nutty cinnamon quinoa recipe. Being the opposite of blackberry season in this part of the world I changed the fruit, nuts, sweetener and milk to what was on hand. The method is the same, yet each combination creates another possibility of flavours.

The second star to this mighty breakfast (or healthy dessert) is a little cassia bark. I’ve always preferred the flavour of the bark found in my favourite Asian grocery store, over the dusty, milder quills of cinnamon from the supermarket. The tougher, gutsier cassia is easily grated with a microplane or grater, so sprinkling is over this cereal is dead easy. Cassia lifts this dish onto an even higher plane, not just in taste but also in health benefits. Latest research shows this versatile herb not only eases digestive upsets but is very promising in lowering blood glucose in diabetes as well as neutralising a few rogue triglycerides.



I see no need for 1% or low fat milk as the original recipe calls for. Basically you are diluting your white fluid of choice 50:50 with water, which inherently renders it lower in fat. Soy milk, if you are not allergic to it, is a pleasant way to get a dose of phyto-oestrogens (a preventer, rather than promoter of breast cancer as it has often been mis-reported), rice or oat milk would do but only resort to cows milk if you lack imagination or resources. While keeping to the original quantities there is one other variation, this made a hearty breakfast for 2 rather than 4 and kept us going all day! Every mouthful was met with mutual groans of joy. This is my new favourite cereal for breakfast, making it a great gluten-free and dairy-free way to start the days

Tip: Always wash your quinoa before using it. If you don’t the bitter residue left on the grain will make you wonder why people rave about this rather expensive addition to the pantry.

Creamy quinoa with bananas, cinnamon and almonds

1 cup soy, or other milk of your choice
1 cup water
1 cup quinoa (red or white, it doesn’t matter which but I made this with red quinoa because it looks so pretty) rinsed well
1/2 – 1 tsp cassia bark or cinnamon, try grating it yourself for freshness
a handful of almonds, cut into slivers with a sharp knife
1 banana
a drizzle of maple syrup

Combine the milk, water and quinoa in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. While doing this if you have a gas cook top, warm a heat diffuser mat on another burner. Once boiling stir well, cover and transfer the pan to the heat mat (if not just turn the heat down to low). Simmer for about 15 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add slices of banana and a generous sprinkle of cassia/cinnamon, stir through the quinoa, turn the heat off and leave the pan covered for another 5 minutes. Meantime, toast the slivered almonds in a hot pan until they begin to turn brown. Shake frequently and remember to remove from the pan from the heat the moment the almonds are done to prevent burning.

Spoon the quinoa into the bowls, garnish with another slice of banana, toasted almonds and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Take a deep breath and dive in!




This week’s Weekend Herb Blogging is hosted by Laurie at Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska. Check out her site in a couple of days to see the full round up of herb and vegetable recipes from around the globe.

nut loaf that some would call a roast

It’s been years since I made a nut roast but I will never forget my first experience of one. Living in London in my early 20’s, I was fortunate enough to have two Christmases. The first was at my boyfriend’s house before everyone took off to their families for the big day. It involved a roast turkey (which being vego I avoided), paper hats, lots of alcohol and a fair few waifs and strays, mostly of the melancholic Welsh variety. On the 25th I hopped on the tube to South London with the friend who I’d been staying with, for an all girl, mostly lesbian, vegetarian Christmas. There was paper hats, lots of alcohol, a rousing game of Trivial Pursuits – and nut roast. How quaint, I remember thinking.

Living in London through the next year I quickly discovered a nut roast is the way that the British vegetarians mark a celebration. Or at least they did in that part of the twentieth century. I bought the tradition back to Melbourne to some of the vegetarian shared houses I lived in. But folks, it’s been a while and although I embraced this culinary challenge (spurred on by Lucy) it has involved a lot of digging in my memory banks to dredge up a recipe. I know there have been many variations. I have used the same recipes to even make more labour intensive nut or tofu balls, rather than the roast which is essentially a loaf. On that point, I don’t believe the dish has in any way represented faux meat, rather it is a “roast” in the sense that it is a hearty baked dish for a cold climate, one that is shared with friends and family, often in celebration. But technically speaking it is a savoury loaf of the vegetarian variety.



My nut roasts have tended to include ground almonds and other nuts and cooked brown rice or tofu. Using only nuts tends to make a very rich loaf. Adding rice can cut that richness but sometime makes it heavier and more crunchy. Tofu reduces both the richness and weight. For this venture I decided to combine all three. For flavour I have always used sautéed onion and garlic and a generous splash of tamari (a less harshly flavoured, Japanese version of soy). A dash of roasted sesame oil is a great way of adding the essence of the seeds without the bulk. Lucy’s version, though cheesy, appealed to me by including mushrooms – so since I was heading back to the drawing board on this recipe, I added some fresh shitake mushrooms for the first time and they were a definite winner.



Ok quantities, don’t laugh – I actually did some weighing and measuring for this one but I’m going to throw my notes out. After all, every loaf tin or container I have cooked this in over the years has varied in size – so I am going with a radical suggestion regarding the amounts needed of three of the main ingredients – to do them by eye!

Nut Loaf with Shitake Mushrooms

Approx 300g, raw nuts, I used almonds and cashews, ground in a food processor. (Pulse the nuts til you get a coarse, breadcrumb like consistency. If you over do it you will end up with nut paste)
1/2 – 1 block, firm tofu, squeeze out the excess water, crumbled
1/2 – 1 cup, cooked brown rice
1 – 2 tabs, vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
100 – 150 g, fresh shitake mushrooms, diced
2 (possibly more) eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon, tamari
Roasted sesame oil or raw sesame seed

Cook the brown rice in advance using the absorption method. Leftover rice is fine.

Heat your oven to 180c. If you want to eat some roast vegetables with the loaf, it is a good idea to prepare them first and get them underway. I roasted a lovely acorn squash and some parsnip, which was perfect.

Sauté the onion and garlic slowly in the vegetable oil and allow to cool. Do the same with the mushrooms.

Now here comes the radical bit – get your loaf tin and half fill it with nuts before grinding them. This give you a base amount of nuts and the other dry ingredients to use. Use about half the amount each of tofu and cooked brown rice. If you want a less rich loaf, only 1/3 fill the tin with nuts and try equal quantities of rice and tofu.

Mix the ground nuts, rice, and crumbled tofu in a large bowl. Add the cooked onion, garlic and shitake mushrooms. In a separate bowl, beat your eggs with the tamari. Slowly mix the eggs into the other ingredients – you want the mixture to hold together without being too eggy. Try rolling it into a ball and see how smooth it looks.

Press the mixture into your loaf tin lined with baking paper and either sprinkle sesame seeds or splash the top with a little sesame oil.

Depending on the size of your tin and the wetness of the ingredients it will take about 40 minutes. Start checking from 30 minutes.

Serve with a sauce or gravy of your choosing. In the past I often put together a very speedy and simple mixture of miso paste and tahini, whipped together with warm water until it was the consistency of gravy. This time I went whole hog and made a slow cooked tomato sauce, with finely chopped onion, lots of garlic, wine, salt and pepper. It really gave the loaf a bit of a lift.




This post has risen to Johanna’s challenge ”a neb at nut roast". Entries close April 18.

more tales from the spring clean

Nature has a way of giving our body just what we need, exactly when we need it. In summer all that sweet, juicy fruit cools us down. Autumn gives us delicious stores of energy by way of nuts and grains. Winter vegetables come from the ground with starches to keep us going. Spring wakes us up and gives the liver a kick.

It is no accident that I choose this season to do a little detoxing. Leading me into this phase has been some great cleansing foods, fresh herbs like turmeric and nettles. Now as I pull out the other side of a week of mainly fruits and vegetables – it is time for one of my fast becoming favourite medicinal foods: artichokes.

This edible thistle is not only a flavoursome treat but a nifty way to lower cholesterol, encourage healthy liver function and a whole lot more. As Melbourne commences it’s down hill run – from grand final day today (aha, that’s why I can here people screaming outside!), through the spring racing carnival, then into the Christmas/New Year sprint – this liver assistance could not come at a better time.

While you can simply steam artichokes and dip the leaves in something luxuriously fatty, like olive oil or melted butter, I prefer to turn them into a complete meal. This is another variation on the Significant Eater’s stuffed artichokes. Befitting the upside of the end of my detox I whipped up this vegan, gluten-free version for lunch.

Vegan stuffed artichokes

nut mix
raw pistachio nuts (we were out of pine nuts)
1 cloves of garlic/per artichoke
a handful of parsley
1 sun dried tomato/per artichoke
(or a dash of salt and pepper)

Grind together in a food processor

Combine 1 part nut mix with 1 part rinsed, uncooked quinoa. I’m always amazed at how much stuffing can fit into the nooks and crannies of an artichoke. Depending on the size, you can squeeze in up to 1 cup.

Trim the top off the artichoke and rub with a little lemon juice to stop discoloration. Discard any outer leaves that are tough. Cut off the stalk and set aside to steam. Now start stuffing. Starting on the outside, ease apart the leaves and push in the mixture. It is easiest to use your hands. I tend to do it over the bowl holding the stuffing mix. Ease your way around, to fill in as many layers as you can be bothered with. I’ve often thought of Shirley Conran when I do this and mutter “and you thought life was too short to stuff mushrooms – try artichokes sometime!”

Place the stuffed artichokes in a steamer, along with the stalks and cook for 45-60 minutes. The leaves should be tender and the quinoa all light and fluffy.

To eat, peel off a leaf and scrape the stuffing off with your teeth.

Definitely not a dish for knives and forks.

McKeith’s balls

The day had arrived. It had been an age since I first said “I must make those smoked tofu and kidney bean burgers!”. I checked off the ingredients – all present and correct.

Doing my best to follow a real recipe I reached for the “You are what you eat cookbook” and flicked to an earmarked page. Did I follow Dr McKeith’s recipe to the letter? This is a close representation but as always I made a few twists and turns to put my stamp on it. A food processor is an essential piece of kitchen gadgetry for this one, don’t even think about using a mortar and pestle!

Smoked tofu burgers

Heat the oven to 200c.

1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic
2/3 – 1 cup of your favourite nuts and/or seeds (I used almond and pistachio)
1 carrot, grated
1 can organic kidney beans, well rinsed
200 gm smoked tofu, roughly cubed
1 “small bunch” of parsley (I used half a large bunch), chopped
2 tsp vegetable bouillon powder (the wonderful imported Marigold, if you can’t get extremely good, not too salty vegetable stock powder, maybe use a dash of tamari instead)
2-3 tsp roasted sesame oil

Start at the top of the list by giving the onions a blast in the food processor, then add garlic and nuts. Throw in the carrot and give it 1-2 pulses, then the beans - enough to break them down a bit without turning them into mush. Now add the tofu, parsley and bouillon powder. Whiz it about til the ingredients have blended without being totally smooth. (McKeiths way is to throw all ingredients in at once and process for 7-8 minutes – that seemed excessive to me, especially as the tofu I was using already had a creamy consistency.)

Now taste the mixture. At this point I added a touch of sesame oii. Does it need anything else? The mixture should hold together well, so you can form balls easily.

Cover a tray with baking paper. Now form your burgers (or balls if you’d prefer little bite sized cocktail numbers). I made 11 medium sized burgers but its up to you what size and thickness you make. These took about 20 minutes at 200c to turn a nut brown colour, larger versions might take longer.

Once cooked the burgers were on the soft side but held together ok. They were neither crispy or chewy. If you want a more robust burger add cooked brown rice or substitute it for the kidney beans. I had flash backs to making tofu balls in my shared house days!



For nostalgia’s sake – heres a basic template for making tofu balls

Tofu balls

I always made these by hand, which is a very sensual process, but a short whiz in the food processor would speed it up if you prefer.

Equal quantaties plain tofu and cooked brown rice (brown has a nuttiness and a texture that white doesn’t have so don’t substitute). The vegetables as above (carrot, onion, parsley) are optional. A slurp of tamari (soy sauce) and a little sesame oil. Roll into balls, up to the size of a tennis ball (this will take longer to bake) and roll in sesame seeds. Bake in a moderate oven.

These go well with peanut sauce!


If you liked these recipes: try my nut roast.