Orange Soup

I must admit that I don't really consider myself a pumpkin fan.....
but I do love pumpkin smoothies, pumpkin pancakes, baked pumpkin and of course, pumpkin soup. I guess that does make me a pumpkin fan then!!!
One thing I have come to learn over the years is that just because a pumpkin soup is called "pumpkin soup", when it contains more than just pumpkin it tastes even better!
Here's a combination I love. All the warmth and fullness of a pumpkin soup with just a hint of curry. 

PUMPKIN & CHICKPEA SOUP

You'll need:
1 onion
1 small sweet potato
1 carrott
1/4 kent pumpkin (or other pumpkin of choice)
1 can chickpeas
1 Tablespoon curry powder
1 Tablespoon brown sugar (can be omitted)
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon vegemite (trust me it works!)
Approx. 4 cups of vegetable stock

Chop all the vegetables. Drain the chickpeas. Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover with vegetable stock (amount will vary depending on your pot). You can make this soup thicker or thinner depending on how much stock you use.
Cook on low for 8 hours.
Once all vegetable are soft. Blend half with a stick blender.

You can also make this over a stove top. Just bring to the boil & then simmer til all the vegetable and soft.

Submitted for Meatless Monday A-Z: Yams (also known as Sweet Potato)

Potato Chop and Bake

I love a meal that is easy to prepare. 

This requires a bit of chopping but no 'cooking' other than putting it in the oven.

This can be prepared in advance and kept in the fridge til its time to bake.

So tasty for something so easy :-)

 

POTATO CHOP AND BAKE

Serves 4

5 medium potatoes

1 can chickpeas

1 leek

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup mushrooms

1/3 cup nutritional yeast 

2 garlic cloves

2 cups plant milk

pepper

Chop the potatoes into 2cm cubes. Spread over the base of a large baking dish.

Drain the chickpeas and pour them over the potato cubes, followed by the chopped leek, chopped mushrooms and frozen peas.

 

Sprinkle the nutritional yeast evenly over the vegetables.

Combine the cloves (crushed) in a jar with the milk and pepper (as much as desired). Mix together.

Pour the milk mixture over the vegetables and nutritional yeast.

Cover with foil and place in a preheated 200C oven and bake for 50-60 minutes until potatoes are soft and milk is absorbed.

Serve

Question of the day:
Do you prefer meals that require lots of chopping, or lots of hands-on type cooking?

Kids Lunchbox Club - Chickpea Nuggets

 

Today's recipe is a childhood favourite turned healthy. If you saw the way chicken nuggets were made perhaps you'd never eat them again, let alone give them to your children.

Yet I don't believe in deprivation....
So fill your kids lunch box with these nuggets instead :-)
(Or your own, or your husbands.....)

Although panko breadcrumbs do work best fried, they also work baked to give a nice crispy outer layer - of course you can fry these nuggets if you would prefer.

CHICKPEA NUGGETS

You'll need:

2 tins chickpeas

2 spring onions

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sage

1 teaspoon garlic powder

*panko breadcrumbs to coat

Drain the chickpeas and mash well.

Finely chop the spring onions and add them to the mashed chickpeas along with the other ingredients.

Stir until well combined.

The mixture will hold together.

Shape into nugget pieces and coat in panko breadcrumbs.

Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Apparently these are best served with either tomato sauce, BBQ sauce or mayonnaise - depending who you ask in our home ;-)

Mexican Chickpea Filo Pie

All this talk of pie has made me cave in.....

Yep that's right, I'm finally making a recipe with pastry!

Well I did promise the occasional treat right?!?!? ;-)

Mexican Chickpea Filo Pie

You'll need:
1 can chickpeas
1 onion
1 capsicum
1 zucchini
1 cup corn (either fresh, frozen or canned)
1 tsp each paprika, cumin, oregano
1/2 cup salsa
4 sheets filo pastry

Chop the onion, capsicum and zucchini. Combine in a large frying pan with the drained chickpeas and herbs. Dry fry until veggies are mostly cooked through. Stir through the salsa.
Line a pie tin with the sheets of filo.

Pour the veggies mixture into the pastry and gently fold the pastry over the veggies. Brush the top of the pastry with plant-milk of choice. 

 

Bake in a preheated 200C oven for 20 minutes until lightly golden brown on top.

Slice & serve :-)

Meatless Monday - Heart of Palm

Today's Meatless Monday food is heart of palm.

 There's only one problem with me doing a post about heart of palm..........

I have NO idea what it is! I was reading all about it, and I still have no idea what it is and I don't think I've ever seen it in any of our grocery stores either!

But thanks to google images I can say that when they are sliced they look pretty similar to Water Chestnuts! So a recipe with water chestnuts is what you get instead this week ;-)

It seems that most people instantly think of stir-fry or spring rolls when you say 'water chestnut', and I must admit that to date I have only ever used them in a stir-fry, but I wanted to try something a little bit different this time.

Water Chestnut Falafels

1 packet falafel mix
1 small tin water chestnuts
2 Tablespoon tamari

Drain the water chestnuts and chop into very fine pieces.
Prepare the falafel mix as per packet directions and include the soy sauce in the mix.
Roll into balls and bake at 180C for 15 minutes.

I love this packet of falafel mix because it is very basic - just contains chickpeas, faba beans, spices & baking soda - no added nasties. It's also very easy to make. Just add water :-)

A tip for baking falafels instead of frying - don't have them in the oven for too long. They dry out really easily.

And for those of you who know where to find "heart of palm" - I 'think' they would work in this recipe too!!!!!

I loved the flavour of these, slightly exotic but very tasty. The texture was great too - having something a bit crunchy in the middle of each bite!

Chickpea, rice & sweet potato stew

My husband doesn't like eating rice. 
I missed eating rice.
So this dish came about.
He likes rice when its served actually "in" part of the meal - just not separately.

I have my rice fix. He doesn't eat plain rice. Everyone happy :-)

I love how simple this meal is & yet its wonderfully satisfying. It is also quick to make which means I can get it done no matter what the day has delivered.
It reheats well & since we're a home of leftover lovers it suits us quite nicely.
It could easily be doubled if you need extra.

In a large stock pot combine:

1 chopped onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic (or 2 squashed garlic cloves)
1 chopped green capsicum
1 chopped carrot
1 corn cob, kernels removed
1 tin drained chickpeas
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 chopped medium size sweet potato
800g tin diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon each: thyme, paprika, marjoram, sage

Cover, bring to the boil & then simmer for 15 minutes until the sweet potato is tender but not fallen apart.

Yep, its really that easy!

Serves 6

Meatless Monday - Garlic

Welcome to another edition of Meatless Monday. Today we're using garlic.

I love garlic. I add it to most of our main meals. Here's a great example!

Beat-the-flu Pasta

Winter has really hit here. I hate the cold. I'm lucky that I rarely get sick, but I sure hear lots of people around constantly sniffling & coughing.

Lets fight off that cold & flu season with some good food! Yet when we're feeling down we also feel like comfort food too. This recipe both comforts and provides flu-beating goodness!

To serve 2 you'll need:

200g corn pasta (or other pasta of choice)

1/2 cup chickpeas

small bunch broccolini

1/2 lemon

4 cloves garlic

2 Tablespoons tahini

Bring a pot of water to the boil & add the pasta. Cook for recommended time frame, adding the broccolini and chickpeas with 3 minutes to spare.

Drain the pasta and the veggies.

Return the pot to the heat and add the juice of the lemon, tahini and crushed garlic along with a tablespoon of boiling water. Stir well. Pour the pasta/veggie mix over the sauce & combine to make sure all the pasta pieces have a light coating of the sauce over them.

Serve with freshly cracked black pepper.

Chickpea Pie Stew

As you've probably worked out by now I like to be the 'easy queen'.
This is another quick and easy meal that is great for those evenings when you're walking in the door a little later than you might have liked, but still need to get dinner on the table.

This is a bit like a stew and a bit like a pie. That's why its called 'pie stew'.
The bottom half reminds me of a chickpea stew and by adding the sweet potato on the top it reminds me a bit of shepherds pie!
None the less, whatever it is, the simply flavour combination tastes amazing.


Mix together in a large baking dish:

• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can drained chickpeas
• 1 teaspoon cumin

Bake 200 for 15 minutes.
While the 'stew' part is baking, peel one large (or 2 small) sweet potatoes and boil til soft (your choice microwave or stove top).

Mash the sweet potatoes and spread them over the top of the chickpea mixture. Sprinkle the top with paprika. Return to the oven to bake for another 15 minutes.

Serve. Goes well with a side of steamed veggies or salad.

Submitted for Healthy Vegan Friday.
You can add your recipe at these blogs:
carrie on vegan                    veggie nook                    greenthickies  

Chickpea & Veg Medley

Here's another of my quick & easy meals that takes less time than ordering take-away!
It makes for a great meal by itself, compliments a basic mash or salad, or can be served as a side. Makes a great salad topping the next day and can be warmed up later to use as leftovers!
Very practical recipe!
Enjoy!

You'll need:
1 can chickpeas
1 small onion
1 small red capsicum (or half large)
1 small head broccoli
4 button mushrooms
1 carrot
1 zucchini
2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon veggie salt
1 Tablespoon tamari
juice of half a small lemon


Chop all the veggies into rough chunky pieces.

Put the chopped veggies, crushed garlic & salt into a frying pan, add enough water to just cover the bottom of the pan.
Cover the pan with a lid and allow to steam the veggies for 7-10 minutes until veggies are tender.


Add the drained chickpeas and the tamari and lemon. Saute for 2 minutes whilst stirring to allow all the veggies to be coated with the sauces and to allow the chickpeas to warm through.

 Serve.

This is the veggie salt I use:

It makes for a great stock replacement. Often stock powder contains maltodextrin, and sugar - both of which are not overly desirable for me! This product just has salt & veggies with mineral rock calcium phosphate as an anti-caking agent. I personally can't taste the difference and really enjoy using this!

WIAW - Unprocessed Tuesday Week 2

I decided to post Tuesday's meals this week for what-i-ate-wednesday! Why post Tuesday instead of Wednesday you may ask?!? Well because Wednesday's meals always seem so boring being my work day! 

Today I experimented a bit, so I thought it would be more fun to share today!
Possibly Wednesday will be full of today's leftovers anyway ;-)


Breakfast -->
Banana Oat Pancakes
Same as my blueberry-choc-oat-pancakes, just omit the blueberries and add one over-ripe mashed banana.

Lunch -->
I experimented with making my own tortillas! :-/
Let's just say... next time I'll stick to store bought ones!
It was a lot of fun but they just weren't so great to roll up into a salad wrap. 
That said, they were still very tasty.
They worked out way better as 'dipping bread' for this pumpkin cheeze-sauce than for wraps!

Dinner -->
More experimenting :-) I love having fun in the kitchen.
What is that quote Nigella Lawson says at the start of her series Kitchen - "If I'm in the kitchen, I'm happy". Well personally, I couldn't agree more.

For this evening's meal I made Cauliflower fried-rice with sweet potato and chick pea burgers.

The cauliflower fried rice but a bit of an experiment but it was soooooo amazingly tasty that I'm going to make it again and then share the recipe soon! 
I did go back for seconds ;-)

The sweet potato and chick pea burgers were really simple. Just steam a small sweet potato and then toss it in a food processor with a drained can of chickpeas, chopped spring onions and enough besan flour to hold the mixture together. Then bake for 30 mins until golden brown. ~Really tasty~

Dessert -->
As always.... banana ice-cream! This time with cherries and cocoa too :-)
mmmmmm black forest flavour soft-serve! Soooooo good!

To see some of my experimenting with the tortillas continue scrolling below!

Letting the dough sit

Rolling out the tortillas - bit sticky :-/

Much better rolling out with flour instead of paper!

Dry-fry the tortilla

Yay a puffed one!!!!!!!
Lucky number 3 ;-)

And making the sweet potato burgers....

DIY Thursday

Who's joining in the 21 day kickstart?

Thursday evenings suggested meal is: Kickstart DIY: Green, grain and a bean

 

                                         Green: Silverbeet

                                         Grain: Quinoa

                                         Bean: Chickpeas

Here's the DIY adventure that I had:

Today at Coles I picked up this awesome McCormick recipe-creations spice pack for only $1.14! Of course that meant I had to incorporate that into my meal too.

This mixture of herbs & spices was just AMAZING! They really complimented each other & I will definitely be using these recipe-creations packs again.
This blend contains ground coriander seeds, coriander leaves, chili, garlic, paprika, and lemon pepper.
I used only a third of the pack and have stored the rest in a glass jar use at a later date.

To make my DIY meal I chopped a whole bunch of silverbeet, added water and placed in the microwave for 5 minutes. 
I boiled half a cup of quinoa in 1 cup of water for approx 15 minutes until the quinoa was cooked through.

I chopped a yellow capsicum & an onion. Placed them in a pan to water saute with the spices provided in the pack (except the coriander leaves).  I sauteed for 5 minutes til the onion was soft then added a drained tin of chickpeas and a teaspoon of lemon juice.

I assembled my collection of "green, grain & bean" on my plate and topped with the coriander leaves provided by the marvellous spice pack!

Result:
AmAzInGlY delicious meal that was quick & easy that will now become a regular!