Nut Roast Wellington
What an exciting week I have had. It was my birthday last week and I had a fabulous lunchtime gathering of women friends. We even had a dance, which was an extra special treat, and the big news from last week was... I launched my first ever on line cooking course: Cooking at Home with Veet
Pea and Zucchini Soup
It’s a very breezy cool day where I live today so this week’s recipe is very fitting. I also think this soup would go well as a spring or early autumn soup. It’s book review week this week. I have this lovely book at home, once again not vegan but definitely vegetarian and the recipes are so easily adaptable when you know how (that’s one of the many things I teach in the 3 day course - how to adapt regular recipes and make them vegan). The book on review this month is At Home in the Wholefood Kitchen by Amy Chaplin. It has lots of lovely tips and some great information. Well worth borrowing it from your local library.
Winter Health Boosting Salad with Sage and Oregano
After the naughty but decadent recipe I shared with you last week I thought a healthy recipe was in store for this week. It’s week one in my schedule of blog posts which means book review week and while this warm winter salad doesn’t feature in any particular book (my own creation) I feel I was inspired by Hetty Mckinnon’s book Family. It is not a vegan cook book but well worth a mention.
Creamy Mushroom and Silverbeet Buckwheat Crepe (yes they are gluten free too)
Having recently made banana pancakes on the last two retreats I catered on and then again on the weekend during the vegan foundation course, I deemed it necessary to turn the pancake recipe into a savoury crepe recipe. You can fill the crepe with whatever you like but I do feel this mushroom, silverbeet and cashew cream filling is really worth a try.
Silverbeet recipes that will have your whole body feeling grateful
A few weeks ago I came home from catering for the Body Mind Life retreat with 4 bunches of silverbeet we didn’t use and all I craved to eat that week was with silverbeet so I was a very happy camper. I am sharing two of the recipes I made that week with you now. Silverbeet is also known as chard and you can get Rainbow Chard too. As a child it was the only form of leafy greens that I ate as it was the only type that grew up in the Northern Territory. We called it spinach and thrived on it. It was a big treat when mum came home with a bunch of silverbeet. We ate the white stalks and all!
What Oil Do You Cook With? Here’s My Take on Oils
What is the low down on oils. This is a hard one. I personally don’t fry much with oil. My preferred choice of using oil is splashing organic olive oil into a pasta sauce or running it through my lunch time salad. As a caterer though I am asked to shallow fry corn fritters and burgers for lunch and I looked at the high heat point of oils and thought that rice bran was the best to use however I struggled to find organic rice bran oil and then found out how destructive that crop is to the environment. Nut oils like Macadamia and almond were the next best but many people suffer from nut allergies so not an option for me. Avocado oil also has a high smoke point but so far the budget for retreats doesn’t quite stretch to frying with avocado oil.
Everyone Loves A Good Curry (well I do anyway and this is a fantastic curry recipe)
I realized when writing the title of this blog post that it’s probably not true that everyone loves a good curry. I know a few people who actually don’t like curry and may possibly go through their whole lives not enjoying curry. I figured those people won’t read this blog post anyway and the ones who do love a good curry will be delighted and read on to get yet another curry recipe. At the moment the dish I want to eat the most is steamed veg and rice with tahini sauce. I can go seven nights eating that and then wham the curry cravings hit big time. So here is my latest curry recipe.
My fave soup at the moment- sunchoke and silverbeet
These little beauties go by the name of earth apple, sunchoke, Jerusalem artichoke just to name a few. They are tasty indeed, it is hard for me to get any of them in the soup pot because they taste great raw and I am known for my picking. They are a winter root veggie that are packed with vitamin C, A and E aswell as having a good source of minerals including our all time favourite, iron. Blended together with silverbeet and thickened with tofu makes for a very interesting flavour indeed.
Eggplant and broccoli curry in a hurry (easy ways to make nice thick curry gravy without all the preservatives)
Did any of you reading this blog grow up with a tin of Keen's curry powder in the cupboard? I did, My mum used to have a few tins on the go at once and would add a spoonful to various dishes. As a child I always wondered what the powder was and where it originally came from but never thought to ask her. In adult years I thought maybe it was ground curry leaves and then could be a more tumeric version of garam masala (a spice blend popular in Indian Cuisine) but in recent years found out it was a combination of wonderful spices quite different to garam masala. I found a recipe similar to the one below in a newly purchased cook book. I love it and most importantly it is simple to make. My handy advice is to make up a big batch so you can do as my mum did and add it to lots of dishes.
