Cheesy Baked Cauli & Capsicum

I am totally in love with these mini capsicums that are readily available in the grocery store lately.
There's something about the mixture of the colours and their little cone shapes that I just find incredibly appealing!

Here's our families favourite way of using them lately. This makes a great side dish. 
The capsicums make little cups that hold the cheese sauce - just delicious :-)

CHEESY BAKED CAULI & CAPSICUM

You'll need:
250g tub of mini capsicums
1/2 head cauliflower
1/4 cup nutritional yeast 
1 Tablespoon cornflour
2 teaspoons onion flakes
1/2 teaspoon each sage, garlic powder, paprika
1/2 cup motherless milk of choice
1/4 cup water

Half the capsicums and scrape out the seeds. Place in a baking dish along with the cauliflower broken into florets. 

In a microwavable measuring jug, combine the remaining ingredients and stir with a fork until dissolved. 
Microwave for 1 minute until the mixture starts to thicken.

Pour over the vegetables.

Place in a preheated 200C oven for 40 minutes until veggies have softened and lightly browned.

The top will be crisp and underneath will be filled with oozing-gooey-cheesy sauce :-)

Question of the day:
Are mini capsicums available in your area?
Do you use them as mini scoops for anything?

Baked Quinoa Pizza Pie

This is neither a pizza nor a pie really..... but rather inspired by both pizza and pie!
Either way - it's totally delicious :-)

BAKED QUINOA PIZZA PIE

Pie:
3 cups cooked quinoa
1/2 green capsicum
1/4 cup corn kernels (or other pizza veggies of choice like mushrooms)
1 spring onion
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup tomato paste 1 teaspoon garlic flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon chili

Chop the veggies and basil leaves.
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and stir until well combined.
Press into a lightly sprayed casserole dish. Press down well.

Next make the topping.

Cheese sauce:
2 generous Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 Tablespoon cornflour
1 cup plant milk of choice

Whisk together all the ingredients in a microwave safe jug.
Microwave for 1 minute or until thicken.
Spread over quinoa mixture.

Bake 30 minutes in a preheated 180C oven.

Slice and serve.
This will slice better if it has had time to cool first. 

 Submitted for Healthy Vegan Fridays.

Add your healthy vegan recipe on these blogs:

Herbivore Triathlete 
Hello Veggy 
Rock My Vegan Socks



Question of the day:
What dishes have inspired you to be creative with their flavours but in an alternate way?

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.

Add your healthy vegan recipe on these blogs:

Herbivore Triathlete 
Hello Veggy 
Rock My Vegan Socks

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 :-)

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

The Best Nacho's I've Ever Had

Now that's a bold statement.... But it really is true!

So I just HAD to share what I did to make them so tasty!

 
I cut a packet of wholemeal pocket pita breads into little pieces the size of corn chips and spread them out on a lined baking tray. Baked the pieces in a preheated 180C oven for 15 mins until golden brown and crunchy.

While the bread pieces were cooking I chopped an onion, a zucchini, a capsicum and a cup of button mushrooms. I then dry-fryed the veggies with a sprinkling of cumin, oregano and a teaspoon garlic, until the veggies were just softened.

Once the bread pieces were done I removed them from the oven & topped them with several dollops of tomato paste. I then added the cooked veggie mix, a can of corn kernels, a can of drained red kidney beans and popped the tray back into the oven for a further 10 minutes to warm the other ingredients. 

While that was cooking I made some cheesy sauce. 
This is how:
In a microwave proof glass measuring jug I combined-
1 teaspoon cornflour
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Using a fork I slowly added 1/2 cup soymilk and stirred until all the ingredients were dissolved. I then microwaved the cheesy sauce for 1 1/2 minutes until thickened but not totally firm. 

I removed the nacho's from the oven and topped with a few dollops of salsa, splashes of cheesy sauce & some mashed avocado.

THE BEST NACHOS EVER!

There was something amazing about the mix of the salsa with the cheesy sauce. And I loved how the pita bread stayed crispy despite having LOADS of toppings.

Question of the day:
Is there a particular food that you cook at home that you enjoy more than when you eat it out at a restaurant? 

For me the answer to that question is usually - EVERYTHING! 
However these nacho's needed a special mention because I never have cheesy sauce on top at a restaurant!

Now THAT'S a vegan Pizza

Who said vegans can't have great pizza?

This is sooooooooo good - in fact I think I can call it the BEST pizza I've ever had :D

I used a wholemeal pizza base & put a mixture of BBQ and sweet chilli sauce on the base.

Topped with a huge handful of baby spinach leaves, roasted eggplant, chopped button mushrooms, spring onion and green capsicum - and of course.... topped with my pizza cheeze sauce. I did however use cannellini beans in place of the chick peas in the recipe.

Seriously good!

I still love a good no-cheese pizza every now and then also - a pizza place down the road from us does an AWESOME pizza too.

Because lets face it....

EVERYONE LOVES

I stumbled across this the other day - for some great vegan pizza ideas check out this Website.

Pizza Cheeze Sauce

Miss cheese on a pizza?
Don't like non-dairy cheeses?

Here is the ultimate pizza topping!

In a food processor combine:

1/2 cup chickpeas

3 Tablespoons soymilk

1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

Drizzle over your pizza and cook!

This makes enough to lightly cover one pizza. 

YUMMO!

Prior to cooking

Baked :-)

Also great in toasted sandwiches, or "fold-over pizzas".

NB: You can also use white beans in place of the chickpeas in this recipe. The 'cheeze' will be whiter in colour and will have a smoother consistency. But I promise you its equally as delicious.

Cauliflower stack

This is a nice quick easy one! 

I often do it for lunch if I have some leftover cauliflower - or on those lazy nights for dinner :-)

It's quite tasty - even if it doesn't look the best! I was just experimenting one day trying to make a "cheese" sauce and it worked :-)

Ingredients:

1/2 head cauliflower

about 1 cup soy milk

cumin - approx 1 teaspoon

curry powder - approx 1 teaspoon

garlic powder - half teaspoon

nutritional yeast - 1 tablespoon

salt - sprinkle

corn flour - 1 tablespoon

(you can add more of less of the herbs/spices to suit your personal taste)

Mix corn flour into soy milk while still cold until completely dissolved. Add nutritional yeast and stir til dissolved.

Add other herbs/spices.

Lightly fry cauliflower in a non-stick frying pan for approx 10 mins until partly cooked.

Add the milk mixture. Stir constantly while thickens.

Serve over toast, turkish bread or other bread of your choice.

Sprinkle with black pepper and parsley.