Broccoli Bolognese

The inspiration for this recipe came when out for dinner in an Italian restaurant one time my husband was eating his veggie spaghetti and I looked over and couldn't get over how much the head of the broccoli sitting there looked like ground mince! I wondered if I could turn broccoli into bolognese!
I am pleased to say that yes, indeed it really does work out, and it strangely does look similar to mince bolognese! Add some familiar flavours and you'll definitely have a very satisfying bolognese even without mince! We love this meal & have it frequently - especially when broccoli is $1.99/kg!

BROCCOLI BOLOGNESE

Serves 6

You'll need:
2 medium onions
4 garlic cloves
1 kg broccoli
1 teaspoon "beef" style stock powder (I use Massel)
1 Tablespoon mixed Italian herbs
700g jar tomato passata
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

Optional to serve:
Nutritional yeast
basil leaves

Chop the onion and crush the garlic.
Dry fry together on a heated frying pan. Sprinkle over the stock powder. Cook until onion is translucent. 
Chop the broccoli as finely as possible, creating little crumbs with the broccoli head. You can add the stems if you would like to, or omit them.
Add the broccoli to the pan along with 1(ish) cup of water and cook until the broccoli is tender and most of the water is absorbed.
Stir through the passata and herbs. Tear the basil leaves and add them too. 
Bring the heat down to low and continue to cook - stirring frequently until the passata is warmed through.
Serve over pasta or potatoes, and with nutritional yeast and extra basil leaves if desired. 

Submitted for Healthy Vegan Fridays.

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Healthy Carbonara

Childhood memories of carbonara are not my most favourite to be honest. Thick cream & egg heavy pasta topped with fat dripping bacon and smelly parmesan cheese. 
Not my idea of tasty food.....

But then again, that didn't turn me off experimenting with this dish to turn it into something healthy, light and totally delicious :-)

Healthy Vegan Pasta Carbonara

(Makes 3 Serves)

You'll need:
250g dried pasta of choice

1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1-1 1/2 cups chopped mushrooms

Sauce:
1/4 head cauliflower
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup motherless milk of choice
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon cornflour
1/2 teaspoon ground sage

Lentil "bacon" bits:
1/2 cup lentils (already cooked, either home made or from a can)
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke

Extra nutritional yeast to serve


Bring a large pot of water to the boil and cook the pasta per packet directions.
Slice the onion and crush the garlic. Dry fry with the mushrooms until browned well.
Place the lentils in a fry pay with the soy sauce, maple syrup and liquid smoke. Dry fry until the lentils begin to pop open. You can chop them into smaller pieces if you wish to make them more similar to 'bacon bit.
 


Place all the sauce ingredients into a blender and blend til smooth. 
When the pasta is cooked, drain and return to the pot. Pour the cauliflower cream sauce over the pasta and stir til pasta is evenly coated.




Serve with the mushroom/onion mix and lentil 'bacon' bits. Top with nutritional yeast.

Submitted to Healthy Vegan Fridays.

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Fallback food: Easy Mexe-Pasta

We all have those days when we walk in the door after work and need dinner on the table in less than half an hour. 
In fact, sometimes that happens more often than not in our busy lives.
Here's a super easy meal to fall back on for those days:

Easy Mexe-Pasta

 

You'll need:
pasta of choice
canned mexican bean mix
bag of baby spinach leaves
salsa spice mix of choice 




 


Bring a large pot of water to the boil and cook the pasta for the recommended time.
Drain the pasta and return to the pot along with the mexican beans, spinach and spice. 
Stir over low heat until warmed through and spinach has wilted.

Serve sprinkled with nutritional yeast.

You can adjust the quantity of ingredients as needed.
To serve 3, I used 250g pasta, 160g spinach, 1 can mexican beans and 1 teaspoon salsa spice mix.


I have discovered a new range of spice mixes! They are from an Australian Company called "Your Inspiration at Home". They make amazing products that add a wonderful taste to food and are super easy to use. They offer a HUGE range of spice blends, dip mixes, chocolate powders, baking spices, flavoured sugars and salts, along with tea and coffee. All the products have no added preservatives, MSG, gluten, or anti-caking agents. That means no numbers or letters! A big tick in my opinion!
If you'd like more information about these products and how to purchase them contact me on this facebook page.

Red, White & Green Pasta

Pasta is an Italian meal right???
So why not make it in Italian colours.....
A quick & easy meal that everyone will love! With the added bonus of minimal washing up!!!!


Serves 3
You'll need:
250g pasta of choice 
3 cubes frozen spinach
1 cup frozen peas
1 can cannellini beans
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 cup tomato passata cooking sauce

basil leaves 
freshly cracked black pepper

Bring a pot of water to the boil. Add the pasta, spinach & peas. Cook until pasta is al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, prepare the sauce.
Combine the drained beans, garlic and passata together in a blender and blend until smooth and thick.

 






Drain the pasta and then return to the pot. Pour the sauce over the pasta and stir til well combined. Return to the stove and gentle heat on low until the sauce has warmed through - approx 5-7 mins.


Serve topped with ripped basil leaves and black pepper.

Lentil Lasagne

I have always loved lasagne! And now that I'm vegan its no different!
This was what my daughter requested for her birthday meal - so it must be good!  

LENTIL LASAGNE

In a pot combine:
2 cups of green lentils
Add 4 cups water
Cover and cook til lentils are soft - approx 25mins.
Remove from heat and stir in:
1 Tablespoon Italian herbs
1 cup tomato paste

Cover 4 wholemeal lasagne sheets in boiling water to soften. Drain when ready to assemble lasagne.

Make the cheesey sauce by combining in a blender:
1 roasted red capsicum (I use a jarred one that is soaked in vinegar not oil) 
1 onion
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
3/4 cup soymilk
1 teaspoon cornflour
Blend til smooth and thick.

Assemble lasagne by placing half the lentil mixture on the bottom of a large baking dish and spreading til evenly distributed. 
Spread a thin layer of the cheesy sauce over the lentils.
Follow with two lasagne sheets.
Spread a thin layer of Italian Passata Cooking sauce over the lasagne sheets.
Add the remaining lentil mixture, topped by the remaining two lasagne sheets. 
Cover the lasagne sheets with the remaining cheesey sauce.
Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Slice and serve :-)

Christmas meal and using leftovers

Sorry I didn't post this sooner after Christmas. I have been enjoying spending time with my family whilst we are on a break from work and school! 

I guess I feel like this post isn't really about a traditional 'Christmas meal' as such, but more about using up leftovers - regardless of what they are left-over from! Its about finding different ways to use what you have, instead of just reheating it and eating it.... again!

And also to share a few salad recipes that I love, which are quick & easy to make when large family gatherings require a variety of dishes! 

Let me start by sharing a picture of our Christmas dinner table:

As I saw it all sitting there it truly felt wonderful! Such healthy food! I love being able to host eating occasions and Christmas is no exception to the rule!

A huge range of salads always makes me smile!

I have mentioned before that I'm a huge fan of this couscous salad from PCRM.
It's really delicious and seems to be like equally by omni's and herbies.
 
 





 


A garden salad never goes astray! I love to add fresh basil leaves from our garden and I love the added colour that a red onion gives. 

I really enjoy making a rice salad too. 
I'm a big brown rice fan so I enjoy turning it into a sweet salad.

Here's how:
Simply combine
2 packets microwave brown rice
2 chopped spring onions
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup seed mix (pumpkin & sunflowers seeds and pine nuts) 
2 teaspoons dried cumin
1 teaspoon  dried coriander
juice of one orange

Serve with the zest from the orange.
 

We made veggie kebabs for the BBQ which worked out way better than I was expecting! I enjoyed them even with the tomato!!! The veggies cooked really well and they were very tasty, even without oil or any dressing/marinade.
Corn pieces on the BBQ always work out exceptionally well too.





















There were quite a few kebab sticks leftover.
So I just used a fork to remove the vegetable pieces and warmed them in the microwave. Added them to leftover garden salad along with some dressing I had made to be a 'leftovers lunch'.

 Another PCRM recipe that I regularly make is this three bean salad (I just use whatever canned beans I have on hand, picture shows butter beans and a four bean mix).

The leftovers from the bean salad turned into a pasta meal for our family.

I just boiled some pasta and added the salad along with 1/2 cup tomato paste.

Super simple meal but totally delicious!

I also made my carrot salad recipe, just with the added addition of a grated apple too. This salad is quite sweet which makes it great for getting children used to enjoying some salads.

Leftovers also make wonderful carrot cake simply by combining wholemeal self-raising flour, a flax egg and some soymilk to the salad!!! ;-)

I made 3 kilograms of spiced wedges!
Clearly I over-catered when it provided our family with a whole other meal. Though, I'm grateful for that really! We LOVE potato nachos!
Our toppings were the leftover carrot, peas and corn mix with refried beans and salsa!

Super easy and tasty meal :-)

This brings me to the last salad I'm sharing today.
Mexican salad. One of my favourites lately. 
Lettuce, red kidney beans, tomatoes, capsicum, corn, spring onion and avocado. Topped off with home-made tofu sour cream.

It makes a great fresh burrito filling!

Particularly nice on warm days when a heated filling isn't necessary.

I can't finish this post without mentioning dessert of course!
Chocolate coconut whipped cream with dark chocolate shavings.
Everyone loves this and its so super quick & easy to make.
A few cans of coconut cream left in the fridge overnight. Scoop out the top thickened layer being careful not to add the water below. Whip the cream using beaters. I add Your Inspiration at Home chocolate powder but cocoa powder works too.

I was so very very pleased with how well my trifle worked out.
I made a basic vanilla cake (like this cake minus the cocoa), whole and blended raspberries, made soymilk custard and assembled them in layers. Topped with fresh berries to make a delicious vegan trifle :-)
Everyone agreed it was super yummy!
 
And I don't think you need to know how to use up leftover dessert! You just EAT IT! ;-)

Question of the day:
Do you enjoy eating leftovers? Do you re-purpose them or just reheat and serve how it originally was? 

Pasta with Greens

If you've followed my blog for some time it will probably come as no surprise to you that I'm a pasta lover! In fact our whole family is! I am very pleased that I have finally got my husband to be a pasta eater too now!
I love to serve pasta in ways that aren't always just a standard red sauce and this is one of those alternative ways :-)
The little kick of sweet chili sauce adds a lovely touch without too much heat - don't skip it! 

PASTA WITH GREENS

You'll need:
250g pasta of choice
1/2 bunch kale, chopped into little pieces
8 large broccoli florets, chopped into little pieces
1 can chickpeas, drained

1 cup soymilk
1 Tablespoon cornflour
1 Tablespoon sweet chili sauce
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon garlic

Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook for recommended time. With 3 minutes spare, add the kale, broccoli and chickpeas.

Drain the pasta and vegetables.

While the pasta is draining, use the pot to make the cheesey sauce. 
*Remove the pot from the stove*
 
Combine all the sauce ingredients (soymilk, cornflour, sweet chili, nutritional yeast, garlic) in the pan and whisk together til cornflour and nutritional yeast has dissolved and the sauce in smooth. *This won't work properly if the pot is on the heat still as you need to dissolved cornflour in COLD fluid.






Return to the heat and continue to whisk until slightly thickened. Approx 3-4 minutes. 
Pour the drained pasta and vegetables back into the pot and stir well until all pasta has sauce over it.

Serves 3

Precooked Grains

 

I previously shared with you my tip about how handy it is to keep a snack box in the freezer.

Now I'm here to share another tip that is just as easy & just as wonderfully helpful.

Precooked grains

I often cook up a variety of grains on the weekend and store them in containers in the fridge. They are great additions to main meals or salads, breakfast or even to make desserts like rice pudding.

I can't recommend highly enough getting a rice cooker if you don't already have one. We got a cheap one and it works fantastic - switch it on and leave it to do all the hard work - no worries about the time or a pot bubbling over! :-)

They really do cook more than just rice!

Just keep in mind that cooked grains will only last about 3-5 days, so make sure that if you won't use them in that time then you freeze them instead.

Here's some recipes that you can use precooked grains for:

Barley choc smoothie

Leafy couscous salad 

Chickpea, rice and sweet potato stew 

Cheezey brown rice 

Tropical brown rice breakfast 

Pasta bake 

 And can't forget yesterdays recipe of Stuffed capsicums.

Pasta Bake with Cauli-'Cheese' Sauce

 

I love pasta! And I love a good pasta bake. Here's a way of adding some veggies to the mix!

Pasta Bake with Cauli-Cheese Sauce

Serves 4-6

250g wholemeal pasta (shape of choice)

1/2 head cauliflower

Cook the pasta per packet directions. Drain and then place in a large baking dish.

Break the cauliflower into pieces and place in a bowl of water & microwave on high for 10 minutes until softened.

In a blender combine:

1 small onion, quartered
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup tahini
1 clove garlic
2 Tablespoons cornflour
1 teaspoon sage
And the cooked cauliflower

Blend til smooth and thick.

Pour the cauli-cheese mixture over the pasta & gentle turn the pasta til the cheese sauce has been spread evenly over all the baking dish and all pasta is moistened.

Sprinkle with breadcrumbs, chives and black pepper.

Bake in a preheated 200C oven for 20 minutes until lightly browned on top & warmed through.

Slice and serve.