Author Archives: Deb

About Deb

Vegetarian since 17, taught myself to cook as a matter of urgency when my mother had no idea what to give me. That was over 30 years ago. Now a mother of 2, I emigrated from London in 2002 with my Australian husband. After watching Forks Over Knives, reading The China Study, etc, we chose to go plant-based so stopped eating eggs and dairy a couple of years ago.

Sweet Potato, Capsicum & Chickpea Soup with Spinach

This is really a meal in a bowl and yet another easy way of getting fantastic nutrition into children – you can puree this soup if you want to hide the awesome but yet suspicious ingredients!  Along with a hunk of wholegrain bread this is dinner on the table in 30 minutes.

Sweet Potato, Capsicum & Chickpea Soup with Spinach
 
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Recipe type: Soup
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 medium / large brown onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 large red capsicum (bell pepper), diced
  • 2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • ¼ teaspoon ground chllies
  • 2 cups cooked chickpeas
  • 500g sweet potato - diced
  • 1.2 litres vegetable stock
  • 1 small glass white wine
  • 2 large handfuls of baby spinach leaves
Instructions
  1. Heat large soup pot over a medium heat and sauté the onion, garlic, and capsicum until softened a little, be careful not to burn the garlic
  2. Add the spices, chickpeas, sweet potato, wine and stock and bring to the boil.
  3. Once the potatoes are tender, stir in the baby spinach and stir until wilted.
  4. Use a potato masher or stick blender if liked to make a little smoother, or serve chunky.

 

Mexican Chickpea Quiches

These are real crowd pleasers, perfect as part of a party banquet, but equally at home as part of dinner with maybe some rice and salad.  These are flavoured a la Mexican, with cumin, coriander, red and green capsicum, onion and red kidney beans, but they can be themed any how – swap out the spices for fresh shredded basil, drop the beans but add sliced black olives and they become pizza quiches.  Try sweetcorn and Thai curry paste and make Thai inspired quiches, or try potato, pea and maybe cauliflower, with curry powder and they’re Indian!  The sky’s the limit! 🙂

Mexican Chickpea Fritters

Mexican Chickpea Quiches
 
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Recipe type: Snacks
Cuisine: Mexican
Serves: 15-18
Ingredients
  • 2.5 cups of chickpea flour (also known as besan flour / garbanzo flour)
  • 3 cups of water
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • chilli powder - to taste (optional)
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
  • 1 medium red capsicum (bell pepper), diced small
  • 1 medium green capsicum (bell pepper) diced small
  • 1 medium red onion, diced small
  • 1 cup red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 cup sweetcorn, frozen or canned
  • Equipment: 12 hole muffin tray (I used silicon for easy removal) - stand on a large baking tray before filling if you are using a silicon one.
Instructions
  1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C
  2. In a large bowl, combine the chickpea flour, herbs and spices, water and salt and whisk well. Set aside.
  3. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat and fry off the capsicum and onion until tender. Tip the vegetables into another bowl and mix in the beans, corn, & olives
  4. Pour the batter into each muffin tray, filling ⅔ full.
  5. Using a small spoon, add a heaped teaspoon of the vegetable mixture to each muffin hole.
  6. Stir each muffin hole to distribute the vegetables.
  7. Place into the oven, bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch. Allow to cool until able to handle them. Place upside down on the baking tray (use baking paper to line) and pop back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes until bottoms are also golden.
  8. You should have enough batter left to make a few more.
  9. Lovely served hot, warm or cold.

 

 

Kale & Red Pepper Bites

These are fantastic little crispy bites, with whole grains, lentils, kale, onion, red pepper, and flavoured with Italian herbs. The grain and lentils all cook together into a fabulously textured kind of porridge which is an amazing base to make burgers, and sausages with.    Perfect for parties, lunchboxes or just snacks to keep in the fridge when hunger strikes!

Kale and Red Pepper Bites2

The other ingredients are then just stirred in and I used a mini muffin tray for easily shaped and uniform results.

mini muffin tray

Impossible to eat just one!  We love them topped with hummus and a red pepper relish.

Kale and Red Pepper Bites

Kale & Red Pepper Bites
 
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Crispy and delicious, this little bites are perfect party or lunchbox items
Author:
Serves: 30-34
Ingredients
  • ½ cup medium grain brown rice
  • ¼ cup millet
  • ¼ cup split red lentils
  • ¼ cup quinoa
  • 1 box of frozen kale
  • 1 red capsicum, finely diced
  • 1 large onion, finely diced
  • 1 tsp Italian dried herb mix
  • ½ tsp garlic granules
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 1 tablespoon low sodium tamari / soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon of tahini - optional
  • juice of half a lemon
  • zest of a whole lemon
  • ¼ cup ground almonds - optional (makes them more crispy but you can leave out for school lunchboxes).
  • Equipment: mini 24-cup muffin pan
  • Sesame seeds - optional
Instructions
  1. Rinse the grains and lentils in a fine sieve under running water for a couple of minutes.
  2. Place them in a rice cooker (or saucepan - but you may need to add an extra half a cup of water before the grains are fully cooked, depending on how tight fitting the lid is) with 3 cups of water, and put it on to cook.
  3. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade. / 375 Fahrenheit.
  4. Meanwhile, put the kale into a sieve over (in which the sieve will be enclosed) and cover in boiling water.
  5. Place a large frying pan over a medium heat, and "fry" the capsicum and onion, adding a splash of water or stock to stop them sticking. Do not allow to get too moist. Once softened after a few minutes, add the herbs and garlic. Cook until the moisture has evaporated out and the vegetables are fairly dry but not sticking to the pan.
  6. Drain the kale, and squeeze all the water out of it with your hands - I find it easiest to do this in 3 or 4 small handfuls, and set aside.
  7. Once the grains are cooked, (they should be fairly dry also) tip them into a large bowl, and tip in the contents of the frying pan. Sprinkle in the kale, breaking up any lumps, then add the nutritional yeast, tamari, tahini, lemon, zest & almonds and thoroughly mix (clean hands are best for this!).
  8. Sprinkle some sesame seeds if using into the bottom of each muffin hole, then pack the mixture firmly on top, pushing down to ensure no air pockets which will stop them coming out cleanly. Sprinkle some more sesame seeds on top.
  9. Pop into the top of the oven for 20 minutes. Take out, allow to sit for 5 minutes then invert the tray onto a cooling rack, making sure they all come out (you might need to loosen stubborn ones around the side with a plastic knife), place that on top of a baking tray and then pop back in the oven for 10 minutes to crisp up the bottoms.
  10. My mixture made 34, so you can use the tray again to use up the mixture for another 6-10 bites.

 

Quick Cheezy Sauce

As promised here’s the recipe! This worked really well on lasagme but would be equally at home in a pasta bake.

Quick Cheezy Sauce
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 large leek, chopped and washed
  • (About 2 cups)
  • 2 heaped dessert spoons of hummus
  • 1 cup soy milky lite
  • 1.5 T miso paste
  • ⅔ T lemon juice
  • 2 heaped dessert spoons potato starch
Instructions
  1. Soften leeks with a splash of water in covered small saucepan until softened.
  2. On a very low heat, add the miso, hummus and lemon juice, mix well then add the milk and potato starch. Whisk to mix thoroughly then once it has thickened use a stick blender to make completely smooth then cook over a gentle heat for 5 minutes.

 

Cauliflower, Coriander & Orange Pilaf

 

Cauliflower Coriander and Orange Pilaf

Cauliflower Coriander and Orange Pilaf

Cauliflower, Coriander & Orange Pilaf
 
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Recipe type: Rice dish
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1.5 cups rice & lentil mix
  • ¼ cup quinoa
  • 1 tsp "Chicken Style" stock powder
  • 7 spring onions, sliced
  • 1 green (or other colour) capsicum, diced
  • 1 medium cauliflower, separated into florets
  • 2 tablespoons ground coriander
  • zest and juice of a large orange
  • 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce / tamari
  • 1 bunch of coriander, chopped
  • Dessicated coconut - garnish
Instructions
  1. Put your rice, lentils and quinoa on to cook (same pot). I use a rice cooker and added 3 cups of water and 1 tsp of chicken style stock powder. You may need a little more water if you're using a lidded saucepan.
  2. Meanwhile, toast your pine nuts and chop / prepare all the other ingredients
  3. Once your grains and lentils are cooked, in a large frying pan or wok which has a lid, stir "fry" the onion and capsicum for a couple of minutes. Add the ground coriander and move it around until you can smell it toasting.
  4. Add the cauliflower florets, half a cup of water and cover for 5 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender.
  5. In a large bowl, tip your cooked grains & lentils, the cauliflower mixture, the orange zest and juice, soy sauce and toasted pine nuts and stir well to combine.
  6. Dish up and top with the chopped coriander, and coconut if desired.

 

Incan Salad

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South American deliciousness in Incan Salad: Quinoa, Sweet Potato, Rice, Corn and Beans with an avocado, lime and chilli sauce. Sprinkled with some spring onion greens, chopped coriander leaves and hemp seeds. This one will keep you full for hours!

Incan Salad
 
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Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: South American
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 2 cups or 300g cooked quinoa (about ½ cup dry)
  • 2 cups or 360g cooked short grain brown rice (about ¾ cup dried)
  • 2 cups frozen corn, defrosted
  • 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 180g cooked sweet potato cubes (2 large sweet potatoes, peeled, diced, roasted)
  • Garnish (optional):
  • 4 spring onions, chopped
  • small bunch of coriander, chopped
  • hemp seeds to garnish - optional
  • Dressing:
  • 1 medium avocado (about 220g of flesh)
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 75ml lime juice
  • 100 ml water
  • 1 tsp semi dried chopped chillies (Gourmet Garden brand) - or to taste
  • 1 heaping teaspoon rice malt syrup or other liquid sweetener
  • zest of a lime
Instructions
  1. To make this salad really easy to throw together, peel, dice and roast your sweet potato the night before or earlier in the day, then refrigerate.
  2. You could also cook your grains too and refrigerate so you don't need to wait for your grains to chill before assembling the salad. You can also leave out the rice altogether and double the quinoa but as it's quite an expensive ingredient this does help to cut the cost!
  3. You can cook brown rice and quinoa together in a rice cooker, just combine the ½ cup quinoa and ¾ cup dried grains with 2 cups water.
  4. Make the dressing by blitzing all ingredients apart from the lime zest in a blender, or jug and a stick blender, or a fork and some elbow grease will do the same job. Stir in the lime zest, taste and adjust the salt / lime juice etc to your taste. It should be quite tart to contrast with the sweetness from the potato.
  5. In a very large bowl, combine the rice, quinoa, sweet potato, beans, corn and cubes of potato and combine well. Stir through the onions and coriander - or leave in bowls if you have sensitive taste buds around the table so everyone can add their own.
  6. Serve with the sauce and hemp seeds to sprinkle if liked.

 

 

Mexican Pasta

Quick and easy weeknight dish that can be on the table inside 30 mins and you can spice it up or down depending on you or your family’s tastes.

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Mexican Pasta
 
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Cuisine: Italian / Mexican
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 300g wholewheat fusilli /penne etc
  • 1 medium red onion, diced
  • 1 green capsicum diced
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced
  • 1 t cumin
  • 1 t coriander
  • 1 t oregano
  • 1 t smoked paprika
  • ¼ - 1 tsp chilli powder to taste
  • 1 can kidney beans
  • 1.5 cups sweetcorn
  • 1 can chopped tomatoes
  • 1 jar mild (or medium / hot) salsa
  • Garnish:
  • 1 avocado diced
  • Chopped coriander
  • Hot sauce
Instructions
  1. Bring water to the boil in a large pot and boil your pasta.
  2. Water sauté the onion and capsicum over a medium heat, then after a few minutes add the garlic and herbs / spices and stir for another minute.
  3. Add all other ingredients apart from garnishes and mix thoroughly. Simmer until hot then tip in drained pasta once it's ready.
  4. Dish up and garnish as desired with avocado, coriander and hot sauce.

 

Kale & Tofu Cannelloni

I’ve always loved cannelloni, but filing those little dried pasta tubes is very fiddly and time consuming!   This one uses wholewheat lasagne sheets, and a light and tasty tofu kale filling, baked in a rich tomato sauce and topped with crispy breadcrumbs.  Simple enough for a family dinner but good enough for company too!  Also another great way to get kale into your children!

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Tofu Kale Cannelloni
 
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Recipe type: Cannelloni
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • FILLING:
  • 1 bunch kale
  • 375g plain firm tofu
  • ⅓ cup soy milk
  • 2 tablespoons white miso paste
  • 1 T American style mild mustard
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 T chopped fresh dill
  • ¼ cup chopped walnuts
  • 2 T nutritional yeast
  • 1 small onion (slightly larger than a golf ball size) finely diced
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced
  • PASTA:
  • 4-6 wholemeal lasagne sheets (I used instant variety)
  • SAUCE:
  • 375g of your favourite oil free Bolognese / tomato & basil style pasta sauce, a jar or homemade - (or a can of chopped tomatoes, blended with 1 tsp garlic granules, 1 tsp onion granules, 1 T tomato paste & 1 tsp sugar until smooth, then stir in 1 tsp dried Italian herbs).
  • BREADCRUMB TOPPING:
  • 1 slices wholemeal bread
  • ¼ cup walnuts
  • 1 T nutritional yeast
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp grated lemon zest
Instructions
  1. De-stem the kale, roughly chop and simmer in large pot of boiling water for 8 mins until softened.
  2. Rinse under cold water, take handfuls, firmly squeeze out the water and then slice each handful into 4-5 pieces.
  3. Meanwhile, fry the onion and garlic in a small pan over a gentle heat with a splash of water until softened.
  4. Mix the soy milk, miso, mustard and salt together in a small bowl
  5. Put the tofu in a food processor and pulse a couple of times, before adding the kale, dill, walnuts, nutritional yeast, soy milk mixture and the onion and garlic mixture. Pulse until it is breadcrumb like, not so much that it becomes a green paste! Remove the blade and this is now ready for your lasagne sheets.
  6. NB: If you don’t have a food processor, mash the tofu with a fork until like breadcrumbs, finely chop the kale and thoroughly mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
  7. Bring a large wide pan of water to the boil.
  8. Prepare a lasagne style baking dish by lining it with half of your tomato sauce.
  9. Boil each sheet of lasagne separately for 4 minutes, pop into a bowl of cold water or run under the cold tap; remove to a chopping board. As each one is done you can start layering your cannelloni dish, or cook them all ahead of time and layer between baking paper to prevent them sticking together. If storing in the fridge, wrap in cling film so they don’t dry out.
  10. Heat the oven to 180 o Centigrade.
  11. Take a lasagne sheet and cut it in half across the long side (i.e making two rectangles, not long skinny strips). Take one piece and scoop up approximately 2-3 tablespoons of the filling and arrange it in a tube shape across the lasagne, then roll up. The two edges should overlap by about 1-2 cms, so use this as your guide to how much to put in!
  12. Place your cannelloni tube in the sauce at one side of your dish.
  13. Keep this going as your boil your sheets, cut, fill, roll and place.
  14. Pack them snugly against each other. You should need 4-6 full lasagne sheets, making 8-12 cannelloni before you use all your filling and they ideally will just fill up your dish. You may need to cut the last one in half to fill up the gap in the corner. Mine looked like this:
  16. I used 5 sheets, so 10 cannelloni.
  17. Pour the rest of the sauce over the cannelloni.
  18. For the breadcrumb topping, put all the ingredients in a food processor or small chopper, process until breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over the top of the cannelloni.
  19. Place in the oven for 25 minutes or until breadcrumbs crisp and sauce is bubbling. If breadcrumbs are browning too quickly, cover the dish with a sheet of foil.

 

Kale, Quinoa, & Carrot Salad

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Quinoa, Kale & Carrot Salad
 
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Recipe type: Salad
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • ½ bunch kale
  • 2 tsp tahini
  • 2 T orange juice
  • 175g dry quinoa
  • 1 large carrot (about 250g, unprepared weight)
  • ½ cucumber (about 200g)
  • 1 small red onion (about 60g unprepared weight)
  • 4 tablespoons sunflower & pumpkin seeds
  • 60g sultanas/ raisins etc
  • DRESSING:
  • 150 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 25 ml tahini
  • 1 tsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground
  • 3g salt
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
  • 10 ml white wine vinegar
Instructions
  1. Put the quinoa on to cook - rinse well first in a fine sieve, and use double the volume of water (or prepare earlier, and refrigerate). Once cooked, place in a large wide bowl to cool and refrigerate until needed.
  2. Wash, de-stem and finely chop the kale, place in a large bowl
  3. Add the 2 tsp tahini and 2T orange juice and massage really well for 5 minutes until it has reduced in size and is softened.
  4. Coarsely grate the carrot, finely dice the cucumber and onion and add to the bowl with the cooked quinoa.
  5. Toast the seeds in a small pan over a medium heat until crisp and golden.
  6. Make the dressing by combining all the ingredients - whisk in a jug or use a blender.
  7. Pour most of the dressing over the salad and mix well. Allow to sit for 30 minutes before serving with extra dressing if liked, plus the seeds and dried fruit on top.

 

Oil-free Red Pepper Pesto

This is a game changer.  I’ve tried making many many pestos without oil over the years and been mainly disappointed.  The essential oil in basil it seems has to blend with some other kind of oil to be drawn effectively from the leaves and the pine nuts / cashews didn’t seem to be enough.  The liquid which comes from red peppers (capsicums for the Aussies reading) is a funny oily kind of substance which I thought might work.  So happy I was right.  You have to try this. 🙂

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Oil-free Red Pepper Pesto
 
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Recipe type: Sauce
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 4 small / 3 medium / 2 large red peppers / capsicums
  • 1 large bunch basil (or use 2 if they're smaller like supermarket bunches)
  • 2-3 tablespoons raw pine nuts or cashew pieces
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 1 garlic clove
  • ½ - 1 tsp salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees centigrade.
  2. Wash your peppers well, then place stalk-up on a baking tray lined with baking paper (bring the paper up over the sides as you want to catch any escaping juices).
  3. Wash your basil, then pluck off all the good leaves (not blackened / bruised) and tender stalk tips and put them in your food processor
  4. Add the nooch, garlic - sliced, and salt
  5. After about 20 minutes check your peppers and rotate them carefully, turning blackened spots underneath and be careful not to pierce them so the juices escape.
  6. Check again after 15 minutes and rotate once more. After 45-60 minutes they should be ready depending on your oven. They should be and collapsing but not flat yet!
  7. Place them in a bowl, and cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 15 minutes or until just cool enough to handle, but still warm / hot. Wearing disposable gloves can help here!
  8. Holding them over the bowl, split them open, remove the stalk as many seeds as you can and peel off as much as the skin as you can. Let the juices drip into the bowl. Place pieces of flesh into another bowl as you go along. Once you're finished, place a fine sieve over the bowl of prepared peppers, and tip your bowl containing the seeds, stalks and skin over it, adding all that lovely syrup / juice to your peppers. Discard the other bowl contents.
  9. Add your peppers and juice to the food processor with your basil etc., and process on high until it is the texture you like. It helps if the peppers are still a little warm.
  10. Adjust the seasoning and serve.
  11. This makes an excellent dip also if you add a can of chickpeas /cannellini beans.