Saturday 26 November 2016

Vegan Festive Blog: how to make a vegan thanksgiving/christmas feast in 37 degree heat


Thanksgiving. As aussies, we don't really know what it is, but we're willing to use it as an excuse to have dinner in the backyard under the xmas lights that have been up for the last three years in the hottest night so far this year and call it practice for xmas, just in case we feel like it.

Also, massive photo fail. The above is the cornbread remnants covered in Tofutti cream cheese and strawberry jam, which it turns out is a solid breakfast decision.

The following is a list of links to recipes I followed to make a vegan Thanksgiving dinner for six people, with serving suggestions.


Pre dinner snacks:

Why yes, I did make aquafaba mozzarella, thanks for asking:


It was easy and mainly involves non active time, you can make it the morning if you want to use it that evening, probably just soak the cashews the night before.

I used the liquid from one can of chickpeas, which was about 3/4 of a cup, but it didn't seem to make a difference in the grand scheme of things.

When it came to serving, I turned it out of the ramekin I set it in having refrigerated it for six hours as intended, sliced it with a cheese slicer (it's soft, and not as rubbery as mozzarella, so a regular knife mushed more than cut). It did stay together well for the main part. I sliced it and popped it on a bit of sliced tomato with a basil leaf on top. I also served with marinated olives, crackers, and Obela dip. Bloody delicious. Here's a picture of the leftovers:


Main meal:

- Prospect Park Potato Salad from Veganomicon
- Quinoa Black Bean Salad from Appetite for Reduction
- Roast veggie salad (based on garlicy brussel sprouts in Vegan With A Vengance)
- Pumpkin Corn Bread from Isa Chandra

All this went out at once. Here's a regram from Bec, at least someone was taking pictures of the food.




I did make the following amendments to the recipes:
- Halved the potato salad recipe
- I couldn't get fresh cranberries or chestnuts for the Seitan Roast, so I used half a tin of tinned chestnuts and half a cup of dried cranberries, I also used a torn up breadroll in the stuffing and no flour.
- Roast veggie salad was six halved brussel sprouts, four carrots chopped into thick sticks, and a handful of stringless beans in finger lengths all tossed in oil, a splash of maple syrup, salt, and three cloves of chopped garlic and roasted for an hour at about 120 degrees celsius. I added almond flakes in the last 10 minutes and served in a salad bowl on a bed of baby spinach leaves.

From a timing perspective I made the seitan stuffing, quinoa salad and potato salad in the morning so they could cool in the fridge during the day,  then around half five I put the veggies in to roast and started steaming the seitan around six. The cornbread can be made anytime, I think I did it around the middle of the day to free up the oven for later.

Dessert:

My favourite thing in the whole wide world.



I hadn't hazarded vegan pumpkin pie but I'd been wanting to very much. But pumpkin can be hit and miss at the best of times, so when I saw this Vegan Sweet Potato Tart from Fragrant Vanilla cake I knew it was fate, and it was bloody delicious. I used a pie crust from Vegan Pie in the Sky, which I baked blind for ten minutes, then served with Veganomicon vanilla icecream. I made the pie on the day, but it's actually better the day after so might recommend pre-making next time.

Seriously, though, if you're freaking out about hosting a vegan festive meal, don't. If you add extra people, do another salad or two. Maybe a pearl cous-cous sweet potato number? Then sit back, relax, and watch the compliments roll in.

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Wednesday 6 May 2015

Vegan Dinner Recipe: Pasta Alfredo with Mushroom and Sundried Tomato



This recipe is the bomb. It's easy. It's quick. It uses one pasta pot and an blender. It's delicious. Sure, it's probably not going to win any healthy eating prizes, but it's worth it for the taste. We eat this like once a week, because, well, we're vegan, so we're super healthy naturally, right? :)

Sunday 3 May 2015

Vegan Dinner Blog: Artichoke Pasta






This is not my own recipe, this is a link to a delicious recipe I found on One Green Planet. I'm trying to get back into recipe blogging, but failing that I'm putting up links when I make a meal off the internet because... you know... we all gotta eat, and frankly, there are some PHENOMENAL recipes already there for the taking and I am here to guide you to them!

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Vegan Lunch Recipe: Trio Of Dips


As a vegan, my idea of a naughty dinner isn't fast food. That's my idea of being really grossed out. My idea of a naughty dinner is carb loading on home-made turkish bread smothered in delicious dips. Also, if you can bear to share, these also are really easy to whip up when people are coming over, and can be made extra healthy by serving with chopped veggies and crackers.

Saturday 16 November 2013

Vegan Lunch Recipe: Brown Rice and Pineapple Salad


I love pineapple. I love it with ice-cream, I love it on pizza. And I love it in salad. It's one of my favorite savoury salad fruits, along with mango. Anyway, even people who aren't cracked about pineapple should give this salad a go. It makes a lovely colourful accompaniment to any picnic table.

Monday 11 November 2013

Vegan How-to Recipe: Burger Buns


These are everything in the processed white-fluffy-bun range your little heart could POSSIBLY desire. I now, even though it's considerably more work, make burger-buns EVERY TIME I want to have burgers because they taste SO MUCH BETTER than supermarket ones. I promise. TO THE KITCHEN!

Friday 8 November 2013

Vegan Dinner Recipe: Burger Beet Patties


Just say yes, guys. Just say yes. I found this recipe on the post punk kitchen, and I make them ALL THE TIME. With my own home made burger buns. Hells yes, these burgers are the business. And friends, are they FILLING. Let us begin:

Sunday 3 November 2013

Vegan Lunch Recipe: Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas and Cauliflower






This is a great salad. It's great with other salads, it's great with gluten shnitzels (which I'll be serving them with), and it's great on its own for lunch. AND it's protein packed because of the quinoa/chickpea combo. Boom.

Thursday 31 October 2013

Vegan Dinner Recipe: Nut Burger Patties



This recipe is adapted from one of the Hare Krishna recipe books. I'm pretty sure it was originally vegan anyway, bless them, but I added some stuff for extra deliciousness.

These babies can certainly be eaten on buns, with a bit of ketchup and mayo and mustard, some fried onions, some sliced tomato, lettuce, beetroot, avocado... god I'm hungry. Or, if one can't deal with the idea of eating bread (that was me) One could serve it with bean salad and a roast veggie stack. DEEE-LICIOUS.

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Vegan Lunch Recipe: Easiest Mixed Bean Salad






Ever had that uh-oh, I-have-to-take-a-plate-to-a-picnic-I'm-already-late-to feeling? Or even that dinner-is-in-half-an-hour-and-it's-all-beige-thus-far feeling? Who hasn't. Let's make it colourful and massively tasty, and take half an hour. This is a go-to summer salad which is great for lunch, or a side for dinner. And it's like ONE STEP SALAD. Boom.


Friday 18 October 2013

Vegan Breakfast Recipe: Miracle green smoothie


I am not one to get over-excited about smoothies. In fact, I have harboured a deep suspicion about smoothies for some time now, assuming drinking your breakfast is a rookie move. Even as I get older and lazier, I still like chewing. Furthermore, I used to not think of a smoothie as REAL FOOD. 

Until I met THIS smoothie. This guy is so packed with nutritious goodness it keeps me full for hours, and makes me feel AMAZING. I am not kidding.

Saturday 12 October 2013

Vegan Dinner Recipe: Orecchiette with white wine, garlic and greens






This is a delicious, visually appealing dinner. A grown-up dinner. A dinner that I got from a cookbook and altered slightly... and that cookbook was by my fave vegan author, Isa Chandra Moskowitz. LOVE HER. It's not an all-the-time dinner... there's no protein source included... but it's really, really tasty. And therefore excellent to serve to non-vegans, to set a good example about how TRULY QUALITY a good vegan pasta can taste. Let us begin:


Tuesday 8 October 2013

Vegan Dessert Recipe: Ginger and apple steamed puddings






I had a lot of apples. A LOT. I also had the desire to slather something in caramel sauce and coconut ice-cream... and I realised the best way to do that was through together a whole load of delicious stuff and steam it in the oven.

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Vegan Dinner Recipe: Pad-Thai, sort of






You know that bit in Hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy, where Arthur keeps trying to get a cup of tea from the machine on that improbability space craft and it keeps on giving him 'something that is almost entirely, but not quite, exactly unlike tea'? This is my 'something that is almost entirely, but not quite, exactly unlike Pad-Thai'.

I love a good stir-fry, but I generally get the hankering for one right before I make dinner, so there isn't time to pre-plan it shopping-wise. So tonight I got together all the bits and pieces I had that seemed appropriate and made the closest approximation to Pad-Thai that I could. And it tasted AMAZING. So I'm passing on the recipe to you guys. Don't say I don't do anything for you!

Sunday 29 September 2013

Vegan Dinner Recipe: Rainbow risotto for a rainy day



Risotto. Is there anything more satisfying on a rainy day? This risotto is a flavourful medley of reds and greens, and, once you have the hang of it, is pretty easy, just with a lot of stirring.

Sunday 22 September 2013

Vegan Breakfast Recipe: Chia pudding



When you go to work very, very early in the morning (or you're just very, very lazy) sometimes putting any effort into breakfast at all is really hard. And maybe you would be tempted to skip breakfast, but we all know that is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

With this handy prepare-the-night-before, keeps-for-a-couple-of-days recipe, you will ALWAYS eat breakfast, and LOVE it. And you can feel good about the fact that you're eating all those awesome power foods, so you can feel full all morning, AND you've basically eaten dessert for breakfast. This is a win win!


Thursday 19 September 2013

Vegan Lunch Recipe: Fresh rice-paper rolls






You know how sometimes you're all like, "wow, I really feel like a sandwich, but I don't actually feel like bread, and I definitely don't feel like a salad." You know how to solve those problems? Instead of bread, rice-paper. YEAH. And it is actually as easy as making a sandwich.


Tuesday 17 September 2013

Vegan Breakfast Recipe: Staying-in-bed-all-day pancakes






These pancakes are SO GUARANTEED AMAZING that firstly, you will dream about them, and secondly, you will be in such a carb-sugar coma afterwards that it's the perfect excuse to have breakfast in bed. So you don't have far to fall into your carb-sugar coma. And in that coma you will dream about these pancakes. AND THE VICIOUS CYCLE WILL CONTINUE.

Here, friends, is the recipe:


Friday 13 September 2013

Vegan Dinner Recipe: Colourful corn pudding with beans






This recipe is basically my tortillas recipe but with corn pudding instead of tortillas. Make the pudding first, then serve with bean and corn mix, an avocado salsa, some sour-cream, and a sneaky jalepeno if you're feeling dangerous. The balance of flavours between the sweet corn pudding and spicy toppings and smooth avocado makes this baby a winner in either summer or winter.


Monday 9 September 2013

Vegan Dessert Recipe: Oh-My-God Caramel slice



I saw a post on instagram where somebody had made vegan caramel slices, and I got all nostalgic for the little buggers. I remember they used to get the most glorious caramel slices in at Ginos, the caramel was to die for. I guess the amount of butter they packed in those babies would lead to me dying for them as well, eventually. Anyway, I decided to look on the net for approximate recipes.

There were so many, and I would love to have a go at some of the raw recipes at some stage soon, but this first go I went for extreme processed sugar decadence. And it went pretty well, I must say, although these slices are certainly not for all-the-time.

But if you want to hear someone say "I can't believe that is ACTUALLY vegan" then these are probably what you want to produce.