Sausage rolls

It’s an Australian classic, the sausage roll. Sausage mince encased in pastry and baked. Always tomato sauce on the side. Sesame seeds on top.

It comes out at parties, the footy and from the bakery on the weekends. Where meat pies could be sometimes gristly (is that how we spell that? I could not find confirmation!) the sausage rolls were just delicious. Less messy too.

So. What’s a vegan to do? Well, we veganize it! In case you hadn’t figure us out we are a crafty lot. Making cheese without dairy and sausage rolls without meat. It’s a brave new world out there

These are really simple to make and surprisingly like the real thing. I have given them to omni’s and they went down in a flash. As for the international viewers of this space, you should give them a go, tomato sauce on the side.

And to put my hat in the eternal debate: I keep my tomato sauce in the fridge. Where it should be 😉

Vegan Sausage Rolls

• 2 teaspoons of oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1.5 cups cooked brown lentils (from a can is fine)
• 1/2 cup oats (optional – makes a firmer mince)
• 1-2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 1 cube of not-beef stock
• Salt, to taste
• 2 sheets of vegan puff pastry, defrosted
• 2 tablespoons of non-dairy milk (I use almond)
• 2 tablespoons of white sesame seeds

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking paper/silpat. Heat up the oil over medium heat in a small saucepan. Add the diced onion and garlic and saute gently until translucent and starting to brown. After about 4 minutes add the pecans into the pan.

2) When the onions are cooked, remove from heat and place in a food processor (I use a mini, but it’s a bit of a squeeze so if you can be bothered getting your big one out, it may be worth it). Add the lentils, soy sauce (start with 1 tablespoon), tomato paste, stock and optional oats. Pulse until combined and the mixture holds together.

3) Lay out the puff pastry and cut in two lengthwise. In each half spoon out the mixture into the centre. Wet your fingertips with water and roll the pastry over the mixture, sealing the mixture with more water. Put the seal side down, and cut a number of steam vents crossways. Do this with the other pieces of puff pastry until all the mixture is gone. Cut the rolls into either half or bites-ized pieces and place on the baking tray

4) In a small bowl pour out the milk. Brush the of the sausage rolls with the milk and then immediately sprinkle over some sesame seeds.

5) Bake in the oven for approximately 30 minutes, or until golden on top. Enjoy with tomato sauce, as Australians would do

Notes

If you cut the sausage rolls into bite-sized pieces they are called, party sausage rolls, and would be good for entertaining. Gently reheat in the oven if you have to

Taste these as you go, remembering meat is a bit salty and has a umami quality, but try not to overcompensate too much! Also try not to overblend the lentil mixture. But if you do, it’ll still be tasty and thankfully the pecans will give some texture.

Broccoli and tofu saute with tahini & ginger dressing

I would call this a stir fry, but in the interest of honesty, it’s a saute!

Quick and easy, down and dirty. These are the sort of meals I have been trying to make more often! When cooking is an activity, an enjoyment – as it obviously is for me – there are times when I feel compelled to try to make more complex, time consuming meals than strictly necessary. Plenty of nights this works well, but there are nights where I want something quick and easy.

This isn’t the quickest meal, due simply to the brown rice which usually takes about 40 minutes to cook. But for me time is not necessarily as important as stress and this is easy! One pot with rice and another pan where everything is cooked. A dressing thrown together, and dinner is ready.

The dressing in particular is great. Tahini – so we’re already off to a great start – with ginger and a touch of sriracha to pull it all together!

Broccoli and tofu saute with tahini & ginger dressing

• 1 cup of brown rice
• 1 block (400g) of tofu, pressed
• 1 large head of broccoli, chopped into bite sized florets
• 2 small red capsicums, roughly diced
• 1 bushel of kale, destemmed and roughly chiffonaded
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon of mirin
• 2.5 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• Sriracha, to taste (don’t go too easy on the sriracha though!)
• 3 tablespoons of oil
• Coriander and seasame seeds, to garnish (optional)

1) First we’ll start with the rice. Cover 1 cup of rice with 2 cups of water into a medium pot and add salt. Cover the pot and turn heat to high. When boiling turn to low and let simmer. It takes approximately 40 minutes to cook, but check periodically to ensure there’s enough water.

2) Whilst the rice is cooking, prepare your vegetables and dressing. For the dressing, put the tahini, ginger, mirin, rice wine vinegar, water and sriracha in a small bowl and whisk together. Taste and adjust the vinegar and sriracha as required. Put aside.

3) When there’s about 15 minutes left for the rice, we’ll start the vegetables. Firstly heat up a heavy pan (I used cast iron) over high heat. Whilst the pan is heating, dice the pressed tofu. Add in about a teaspoon and a half of oil. When hot add the tofu to the pan and give a quick toss. Add a sprinkle of salt. Toss every minute or so for 3 or 4 minutes until the tofu is crispy on most edges. Remove from pan.

4) Keeping the pan hot, add in a touch more oil and add the capsicum. Sprinkle on some salt and toss every minute for about 2-3 minutes until the capsicum is charred in some places but still has some bite. Remove from the pan into the same bowl as the tofu. Repeat the process with broccoli and kale, remembering to salt and going for a crisp but charred vegetable!

5) When the vegetables and rice are done, layer the rice in a bowl and add the vegetables and tofu on top. Liberally top the vegetables with the dressing and garnish with sesame seeds and coriander if desired.

Notes

Serves 2-3

Play around with the dressing. Sometimes I add miso, sometimes I add lemon juice instead of vinegar. However I should say, the tahini and ginger really is delicious. And of course, sriracha!

Pretty much any vegetable you like will work here. The key is charring but retaining the crispness of the vegetable.

As written here the tofu is a blank slate. I often bake the tofu in my favorite marinade of the moment rather than simply saute, so definitely do that. Add it to the oven just after you put on the rice. Alternatively, when you saute the tofu add a bit of soy sauce for some added say flavour.

Coconut-braised kale and lentils with sweet potato

I don’t have too much to say today! Life is humming along, the days are getting shorter and I know soon the cold will be here. However it is still mild and sunny, and my life seems to maintain it’s rhythms.

This is an easy make ahead meal. If I was going to make ahead I would put together the braise and then just gently reheat on the stove. Roast the sweet potato on the day if you’ve got the time 😉 There’s just something so delicious about freshly roasted sweet potato!

This is definitely a template more than a recipe (despite appearances). I’ve given some ideas for variations down the bottom of the recipe, just don’t skimp on the ginger, lemon or coconut milk! Everything else is negotiable!

Coconut-braised kale and lentils with sweet potato

• 1 large sweet potato, washed and cut into 3cm cubes
• 1/2 a medium celeriac, peeled and cut into 3cm cubes
• 1.5 teaspoons paprika
• 1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 2.5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 onion or leek, diced
• 1 cup of mushrooms (any type will do), washed and diced
• 2 bushels of kale, deribbed and roughly chopped
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 5 cm ginger, peeled and grated
• 1.5 cups (1 can) of already cooked brown lentils
• 1 can of lite coconut milk (or go full cream if you’re feeling it!)
• 3/4 cup vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon of sriracha, then to taste
• Coriander, to garnish (optional)
• Salt, to taste

1) Preheat the oven to 180C. Toss the cubed sweet potato and celeriac in with the paprika, ground cumin, nutritional yeast and 1.5 tablespoons oil. Lay out in a single layer on a pan and put into the oven. They will take between 30-45 minutes. Toss once.

2) Whilst the potatoes and celeriac are roasting, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. When the pan has heated add the onion, a sprinkle of salt and saute for about 5 minute until translucent. Add the mushrooms and continue to saute for approximately 5 more minutes.

3) Add the kale to the saucepan and stir occasionally for about two minutes until starting to wilt. Proceed to add the ginger and lemon zest to the pan and toss gently with the onion and kale. Add the coconut milk and stock and turn up the heat.

4) When the milk is simmering add in the cooked lentils, sriracha and lemon juice. Taste and add more sriracha, salt or lemon juice as necessary. When you have got the desired taste. turn down to low, cover and keep warm until the sweet potatoes are done.

5) Place the sweet potatoes in the bottom of the serving bowls. Spoon the kale and coconut milk over. Garnish with coriander if desired.

Notes

Any type of root would be good with this! I just happened to have celeriac and sweet potato, but really any root vegetable would work (except maybe beetroot!). Same with the protein. I had precooked lentils, but I reckon any precooked legume you’ve got lying around would work. Just generally customize to what you have around! And of course, change up the greens to what you’ve got. If you’re using a more gentle green maybe chuck it in a few minutes before serving just to let it wilt.

Loosely inspired by this and this.

How to massage kale

I think my superpower might be salads and bowls. Seriously if everyone had a superpower, mine would be the rather underwhelming ability to create delicious salads. I mean they’re delicious – so that’s obviously good, but that is my only contender really for superpowers. So interpret that as you will.

This is a little primer on massaging kale. I eat a massaged kale salad at least once a week and usually more like 3-4 times per week. I know the internet loves kale, but with good reason. Especially when massaged it is the base of a salad that can keep. It doesn’t wilt and can match up with a huge range of flavours.

A few notes on techniques just in case you haven’t massaged your kale yet (!):

• De-rib the kale the easy way. Grab at the base and then rip up. A bushel of kale will take only a few minutes to de-rib
• Finely chop. Curl the leaves up and then chiffonade. Occasionally a salad may call for bigger leaves, but in my opinion the chiffonade is generally the way to go
• Salt and oil. Sprinkle some salt over the washed and chopped leaves and then drizzle some oil. The amount is of course related to how much kale you’re massaging but you do want enough to cover the leaves and to neutralize any bitterness
• Get in there with your hands! Literally grabs handfuls of the leaves and massage away! They tend to reduce to about half their original volume and turn a darker green. The leaves will also start to feel more tender
• Then add whatever other dressing you desire. At least always some vinegar or lemon juice! And a splash of soy sauce (or tamari) adds a delicious savouriness. Just a splash and a quick massage through – it won’t taste like soy sauce as much as bring some umami to the whole production

From there you are pretty much add whatever you want. I like to go with a theme and like to make my salads filling. So definitely a protein of some description (beans, edamame, tofu, seitan, tempeh), vegetables – usually cooked – but with maybe a few raw (I do like raw vegetables in the right context, but cooked is generally my preference), and a dressing or avocado. We’re part way to a bowl. In fact add in a grain or a potato and we’re there 🙂

Green Smoothie Power!

I haven’t yet written about my love of smoothies. Mainly because it waxes and wanes. I go through periods where it’s all I want and then suddenly can’t look at another one. When you begin to have a dread, or even a sense of boredom, that’s a good a sign as any to change it up.

I had been in smoothie lust for most of this summer. And then about a month ago I stopped. Didn’t want to. Oats were back in town.

This morning however the smoothie train arrived in the station again. This is a riff on basically every green smoothie in existence. But it is delicious – zesty from the lemon and mild from the addition of zucchini – and I may be back on board the smoothie train.

Green Smoothie – Lemon and Zucchini

• 1 cup of non-dairy milk (I use unsweetened almond)
• 3-4 leaves of kale, roughly torn
• 1 zucchini, chopped into chunks
• 1 tablespoon of chia seeds
• 3-4 ice blocks
• Handful of frozen mango chunks (maybe 3-4)
• 1 banana, chopped into chunks
• Juice of half a big lemon

Pretty much just chuck everything in to the blender in the order listed. Blend until smooth.

Taste and adjust the lemon juice and milk as needed.

Favourite Cookbooks

Despite my love of cooking, I would not necessarily say I was a big cookbook person. I’m a meticulous cookbook person, but not a big collector. I love to flick through them and get ideas, but the internet has somewhat usurped their need for specific recipes. If I’m craving say, doughnuts I can just go into Google and type “vegan doughnuts”, and voilà, recipes.

So, when I do buy a cookbook, I like it to be good. And more than good, I want to use it. I want to flick through and want to make pretty much everything. I want to be taken on a journey when I’m not sure. Good photos and interesting but accessible recipes.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good start!

Isa Does It! – Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Surely you know Isa! I’m not really sure what to say, except this is THE vegan cookbook. Like she’s so great.

Basically every recipe’s a winner (I’ve tried one I didn’t like. And I’ve tried a lot!). It’s both simple and straight forward, but also flipping delicious. An omni friend bought it. I trust the recipes, and they never fail to put something down you want. And you will want. If you really don’t know Isa (!?) check out her website for sure and just buy this book. No regrets.

Plenty – Yotam Ottelenghi

The book that made me fall in love with vegetables, middle eastern foods, cooking, and basically directly in love with Yotam Ottelenghi. This is a beautiful book. The photos of food are some of my favourite. Fresh and unarranged.

The recipes are surprising. At times you will wonder, but follow them. Seriously, follow them. He has a way to make vegetables sing. It’s not vegan, but most often you will be replacing yogurt or feta, so think creamy and zesty replacements. Plenty More was in close contention, but Plenty is still inspiring me almost four years after buying it, and it will continue to inspire me on the days I forget how much I love to cook and eat.

Salad Samurai – Terry Hope Romero

This is a dark horse. Slim and with a niche (kind of, I mean we do all need salads in our life) focus. And yet, I have slowly but surely found myself turning more and more often to this book. The combinations are often somewhat unlikely and intriguing. Yet it’s salad, so customizing to accommodate what you’ve got is easy as long as it’s in the same theme.

I would seriously recommend Salad Samurai. Use the recipes as a jumping off point. Incorporate the proteins, salad toppings and dressings into other things. It took me a while to *get* it, but I now frequently turn to Salad Samurai when it’s time to answer the question “what’s for dinner?”

Oh She Glows – Angela Liddon

Having been a semi-frequent reader of Angela Liddon’s blog, I was intrigued by her first book. As a meticulous curator (or a cheapskate!) of cookbooks I followed the blog tour until I gave in.

Well. It was worth it.

The brownies alone are worth the price of admission (they may be free on the blog, but buy the damn book), and everything I’ve tried has worked. These are straight forward, but delicious. She also has a great section on making staples – including my favourite vegan mayo recipe – and the snack section is really good too. Also the smoothie section. I was finally made a believer. The recipes really are all excellent!

 I would love some more recommendations for great cookbooks, so please make suggestions in the comments. 🙂

Sweet Potato Time!

Today we are going to talk about the god of dinners, sweet potatoes. Don’t know what you want for dinner? Sweet Potato. I want a carb but that’s a vegetable? Sweet Potato. Something to fill out this curry? Sweet Potato. I want it to go with practically everything? Sweet Potato.

My usual fall back when I really don’t know what to eat is some sort of roasting (of a sweet potato, but then I think given the subject matter today, this goes without saying). Today’s dish is a delicious variation on that theme, and a meal I eat in some form basically every week.

A whole roasted sweet potato, split and filled with a sauté of a greens and beans (most commonly kale and white beans), maybe throw in a carrot, and then topped with some sauce or hummus. My favourite is basically some variety of Isa‘s cashew cheeses.  But then I totally think some whizzed avocado would aso go well with this. Maybe with some black beans, Mexican spices and a squeeze of lime. You just want something creamy really to tie everything together. The sweet potato is your oyster.

The roasting of the sweet potato takes a while but is totally hands-off cooking time. If you know you won’t have much time, roast in advance and then heat up whilst you sauté away. There are a few components in this meal to be sure, but they can all be made at the same time.

Sweet Potato Time

• 2 Sweet Potatoes
• 2 tablespoons of oil, divided
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced (optional)
• 1 can of white beans or chickpeas
• 1 bushel of Kale, destemmed and shredded
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
• Juice of half a lemon (or more!)
• Some type of sauce (variations on this are my favourite)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

1) Preheat your oven to 200C

2) Scrub your sweet potatoes and then use your hands to rub in about half a tablespoon of oil. Season with salt and pepper. Place onto baking tray and into oven. These will take approximately 40-50 minutes, dependent of course on the size of your sweet potato.

3) Whilst the sweet potato is roasting, blend up any components of your sauce if necessary

4) Approximately 20 minutes before your sweet potato is done,  add one tablespoon of oil to a large heavy saucepan over medium high heat

5) Add onions and salt to taste. Add in carrots at this point if using.

6) Saute until the onion is translucent and starting to brown. Proceed to add in the white beans and kale

7) Leave the white beans and kale for approximately five minutes, stirring occasionally. You want to heat the white beans, and preferably start to get some crispy bits of kale

8) Add in the minced garlic and lemon juice. Stir and taste. If the kale is underdone, give everything a bit more time. Don’t forget to add more salt if necessary.

9) When everything is ready, remove the sweet potatoes from the oven and slice lengthwise. I like to mash up the insides a bit. Place the saute on top and then finish with the sauce.

Notes

In many ways,  this is more of a guideline then a recipe. There is obviously heaps of room for customization. Leftover curry- use that. Wanting something fresher? Avocado and black beans. Use this as a starting off point and maybe you too will be eating it once a week!

And don’t forget to taste. Salt. Lemons. Vinegars. Herbs. Spices. 🙂

Dr Vegan (Or how I learned to stop worrying and just go vegan)

When I was an omnivore I was barely aware of the animals at all. I didn’t yield or submit to some sort of pressure. It barely entered my mind. Certainly never at the dinner table. Food was food. My personal history will show a concern for the amount and kilojoules of the food. Maybe an environmental concern or health concern. But I have said previously “I don’t care about the animals”. I feel appalled and ashamed now, but it is what it is.

I thankfully know better now.

Becoming vegan always felt right. I kind of always felt I would be a vegetarian. I generally preferred vegetarian meals and in a hilarious contrast to the rest of the world, vegetarian cooking always seemed exciting. Mainly because I grew up on an undeniably nutritious, but not particularly exciting meat and three veg style diet. I ate whole foods. But where was the flavour? My Mum, a good cook and a really excellent baker, bless her is a recipe follower (hence the good baking), so things like “salt to taste” tend to get ignored. She doesn’t taste her food as she goes and half my meal is eaten in the tasting!

I digress. I started my real vegetarian journey with a “how long will it last?” type attitude. At first I wanted to keep eating seafood and fish (possibly the loves of my food life at that point) but then my boyfriend at the time pointed out this inconsistency with vegetarian ideals. So, fish were out. Anyway the environmental cost of fish was probably too high and I doubt I would have continued to consume fish.

Fell in love with cooking. I always enjoyed cooking, but Plenty by Yotam Ottelenghi was the first cook book I genuinely loved. I still do. The flavour, the herbs, the passion. Bought and opened my first pomegranate. Never having tasted one before I made a mess, looked like a murdered and had a generally great time cracking it open. Those ruby red delicious seeds were worth every minute.

The internet was a great place too. I remember reading the PPK (we will talk about Isa some other time. My love needs a whole post!). Making a tahini and miso dressing. Roasting vegetables. Using herbs and spices. Small things, but comforting and delicious explorations outside the world of food I had really known.

I was vegetarian for about a year and for about six months of that I was transitioning. Testing myself. Getting to know the pitfalls and the saviours. Cheese and eggs were not my loves. I rarely ate either (an eating disorder – definitely another post! – which interrupted my teenage years, stopped any affection I could have had for those). Yogurt was the hardest thing to replace. Yogurt and muesli in the morning, a breakfast staple for years. The first food item I bought when I moved into my first share house.

Eventually my distress with eating animal products, driven by a general sense it was wrong – nothing specific – meant I *had* to go vegan. I tried to put it off for ages. I was worried about the social consquences. How will my friends react? What will I eat when I go out? Will people think I’m weird. But at some point the rewards (animal foods) did not outweigh my feeling I was doing something wrong.

And here I am.

Snacking

It has been a while! Things kind of got in the way and when you don’t make things a priority, well tomorrow never comes! But things are good, and despite being not in the best way a few months ago, I am feeling good and like myself these days.

Can I say that I’m perfectly content cooking things, internetting, reading, listening to music? I love to hang out with people, but I also feel a comfort and a contentedness in my own time. Doing who knows what. Cooking. Making plans. Thinking. It sometimes seems blasphemous not to be always busy. Dreading the question “what are you doing on the weekend?” as I try to cover up my two activities and totally nonplussed at all the space. It’s my space 🙂

Anyway recipe time….

I am definitely keen to start putting some photos to these. But my food photography (and general photography) skills are lacking big time. And terrible food photos are pretty bad (see here for examples. There is swearing and it may be considered offensive, but then, that’s kind of the point, non?).

So Snacks. Love them.

Peanut Butter Bananas on Toast

• Two slices of bread
• One large, ripe banana
• Two tablespoons of natural peanut butter (smooth or crunchy is fine, but try to get a runnier brand)
• One teaspoon of dark agave nectar
• Pinch of sea salt

This is barely even a recipe, more an assembly. But I like to go toast, medium rounds of banana, drizzle of peanut butter, drizzle of agave and sprinkle of sea salt.

This also works without the toast, which I enjoy quite frequently. Just halve or slice the banana and drizzle the rest on.

Also, for extra decadence, you could of course fry the banana first. All warm and caramelly. Or flambé! (Although i can’t vouch for that. Or know how to safely set fire to things. But also booze soaked bananas! I think I need you in my life.).

Broccoli and cabbage!

First things first, this is part of a bigger meal. Corn fritters, with chickpea flour. They were delicious, but, um, well they didn’t come out quite right. A bit messy to photograph and maybe not as perfect as they could have been.

I am keen to always vegetable (yes, I’m using it as a verb) my food. Always can add in a bit more, another green, another floret.

However tonight as dinner was rapidly approaching ready, I realised I had spent all my time making this (sidenote: hell yes! I have had my eye on making this for ages and then tonight, bam! Really easy. For GF friends, my guess would be to just add more walnuts and omit the bread) and then the corn fritters. Broccoli and cabbage to the rescue.

Thinly slice a head of broccoli and half a red (or white) cabbage. Sauté until a little bit charred. Add the salt. Squeeze of lemon. Taste. Adjust. Dinner. Vegetable.

Broccoli and Red Cabbage

• 2 teaspoons of oil
• 1 head of broccoli
• 1/2 red cabbage (or white)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt (or to taste)
• Squeeze of half a big lemon

1) Heat up a medium size pan (I used a cast iron pan) over medium high heat. Add the oil

2) Whilst the pan is heating, thinly slice the cabbage and the broccoli. For broccoli I like to pull or cut the florets off and then slice them

3) Place the broccoli and cabbage in the pan. You should hear sizzle.Sprinkle the salt over and toss

4) Toss them every so often for approximately 5 minutes. You want a few charred bits, but also for the cabbage in particular to retain some crispness.

5) When the broccoli and cabbage are done, drizzle over the lemon juice, toss to combine and serve

Notes

Serves 2-3 people as a generous side

With all cruciferous vegetables (such as cauliflower, broccoli, kale and cabbage) I think there is a real importance to salting correctly. Even more than many other vegetables, salt really makes cruciferous vegetables come alive, so don’t be afraid to salt. And taste.

As always a bit of acid at the end of cooking (this time in the form of lemon juice) brightens everything up. Seriously if you start to sense a theme across this blog, it’s because these are two of the best ways to make food taste good!