Spicy Red Lentil & Tomato Soup

• 1 brown onion chopped finely
• 2 cloves of garlic (or 3 if you’re really into it)
• 1/2 red capsicum chopped
• 1/2 cup dried red lentils
• 2 cups of water
• 2 cubes veg stock
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 2 tspn of chilli paste (you could use fresh chilli or japalenos, I find that i get the most flavour from chilli paste)
• 1 tspn of salt (I use pink rock salt)
• pepper to taste
• chopped basil
• chopped parsley

Boil the lentils in a saucepan. Meanwhile lightly fry the onion, capsicum and garlic together. Once all is cooked, drain the lentils and add one cup of water, veg stock and stir through for a few minutes. Put everything else in the mixture except parsley and stir occasionally for about 15 minutes on high heat. Let it cool a little bit and then but 2/3 of the mixture in blender. Mix it all together back in pan and top with parlsey and pepper to serve.

Creamy Pasta Free Eggplant Lasagne

This is an easy pasta free lasagne that I often make. All you really need to do is make a simple marinara sauce, and with the use of a few vegan staples and some fresh vegetables you're all good.

Note: You need a mandolin or slicer for this recipe!

I use the marinara sauce recipe you'll find in Veganomicon, with a few changes. 

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 & 1/3 can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon flour (diluted in water, to thicken the sauce)
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• Black pepper & salt
  
  For the lasagne:
• 1 large eggplant
• 1 zucchini
• 2 cups baby spinach
• 1/3 cup toffuti cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• squeeze of lemon
• Vegan cheese (optional)

For the cream layers, you'll need to slightly heat the toffuti so that it's spreadable. Mix in the nutritional yeast and add squeeze of lemon.

Make sure the eggplant and zucchini are sliced thinly, you'll use the eggplant in place of pasta. On each layer of eggplant, add the toffuti mix first, spinach and then marinara sauce. I've topped mine with a melty vegan cheese.

Bake for about 30 minutes at 180 celsius.

Chia Pudding

You're probably tired of seeing this one, but I'm going to post it anyway. This is one of those treats that tastes awesome but doesn't make you feel terrible. It makes you feel so good in fact, that I think it's a perfect breakfast. The other plus is that you can make this in two minutes.

What you need:

1/4 cup chia seeds
1 cup reduced fat coconut milk
1 teaspoon maple syrup (or more if you like it super sweet)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

All you have to do is mix all of the ingredients together and leave it to set overnight in refrigerator.

As a breakfast

I like to add nut muesli, goji berries, passionfruit or bananas.

As a dessert

I blend together some peanut butter and dates and add it to the pudding the next day. 

Lentil & Quinoa Salad with Tahini Dressing

For the salad

• Cherry tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Spanish Onion
• Celery
• Corn 
• Quinoa (I've used mixed grain)
• 1 can of brown lentils

For the dressing

• 2 tablespoons tahini paste
• juice of half a medium sized lemon
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon savoury yeast flakes
• salt & pepper

Tips: I usually add a little water to the dressing as tahini is so thick. Tahini is a great source of omega-3!

Vegan Mud Cake with Coconut Ganache

I recently attempted a mud cake for the first time, and while it turned out pretty awesome, I think it could have been a little muddier! I've added more chocolate to the recipe, let me know how it turns out for you. This is a dairy free vegan mud cake with coconut chocolate ganache

Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour
• 3/4 cup of cacao
• 2 tspn baking soda (bicarbonate)
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 1/2 tspn sea salt
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee
• 1 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 1 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cup sunflower oil
• 2 tspn vanilla essence
• 200gram vegan dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180 degrees (celsius).
Combine all dry ingredients together except sugar, making sure you sift well. I never do this properly, and always regret it. 
Mix wet ingredients including sugar in a separate bowl, and whisk together.
You need to slowly add the flour mixture into the wet mixture by pouring it slowly into a well and mixing out all of the lumps.
Bake for about 40 minutes, until the cake springs back lightly when you touch it.

For the ganache you will need 2/3 cup coconut milk and 250 grams of vegan dark chocolate.
First up you will need to put the coconut milk in refrigerator over night to separate the cream from the water. You can scoop the cream out once its cold enough, this is what you will use for the ganache. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Turn the stove off once the water is fully boiled so that you dont burn the chocolate. Add the chocolate milk once all chocolate is melted. Let it sit for a while to set slightly before frosting the cake - don't refrigerate, as coconut oil will solidify and set on top of the chocolate. 

Dijon Chickpea Salad

Hi all,

This is a good one for lazy week nights when you're trying to fight the urge to order take out or make 2 minute noodles! Canned chickpeas are a staple in our house for these such occasions.

Assemble the salad however you like, mine includes:

(serves 2)

1 can of chickpeas
Spanish onion
Cherry tomatoes
1 corn, boiled
1/2 cucumber
2 stalks celery
Handful of toasted pine nuts

The dressing is pretty simple -
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (I sometimes use lime, depending on whether we have fruit on the trees)
Sea salt & pepper

Quinoa Salad with Balsamic Mustard Dressing

For the dressing:

• a tablespoon seeded mustard
• 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Boil some quinoa, and add it to whatever salad ingredients take your fancy. As long as you have spanish onion and avocado in there, anything tastes good. 

Japanese Soba Noodles & Marinated Portobello Mushroom

Japanese Soba Noodles & Marinated Portobello Mushroom

If you were ever wondering if portobello mushrooms worked with Japanese food, the answer is yes... kind of. Tonight I had free reign in the kitchen as my mushroom hating girlfriend wasn't home. This resulted in the following:

Snow pea salad:

About 6 snow peas, cut into matchsticks

1 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoons Sake

2 tablespoons Mirin (sweet rice wine) or sweet sherry

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

Let the snowpeas marinade in this sauce for a while while you do everything else.

Roasted Portobello:

1 portobello mushroom

3 tablespoons Sake

2 tablespoons Mirin (sweet rice wine) or sweet sherry

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon of sugar

Bake the portobello at 180 degrees for around 20 minutes, or until it's cooked.

Soba Noodles:

Take about a handful of green tea soba noodles and add them to a pot of boiling water for no longer than 5 minutes, the noodles I used were really thin so I didn't want them to over cook. You want them just undercooked enough.
For the sauce, I simply made another batch of the snow pea dressing (above) and added:

• 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar.
• Half teaspoon of grated ginger
• Clove of crushed garlic
• 1/4 cup cooked edamame beans (shelled)

Once the noodles are done, drain the water, add the sauce and stir through until its heated. To serve I added shallots and roasted sesame seeds.

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All that follows here will show you the explorative cooking of a twenty-something clumsy vegan, wine enthusiast, cat lady and camping fanatic.
Here you are most likely to find recipes of tasty vegan food, accompanied with bad iPhone photography.