Gluten Free Crackers
How is everyone? I am on my way to Canberra to visit my brother, niece and nephew and am curious to know how it will be to see all the fire damage as I travel down south. My heart is with all of you who may be affected by these fires here in Australia. It is also with all of you who may be struggling right now. I hope my newsletter and recipe brings a bit of light relief if that is possible.
Warrigal Greens and Sunflower Seed Hummus
It’s week three of my blog schedule and I am enjoying having a theme to go with each week. This week is seasonal produce. I’m excited as this is a seasonal vegetable that is native to both Australia and New Zealand. It can also be found in South American countries. It’s a hardy plant that likes sandy and marshy conditions to grow. It grows wild in many people’s gardens without them even knowing.
To Dress or Not to Dress? (That is the Question)
Do you always dress your salads or is salad dressing not so important to you? I grew up with either having vinegar or mayonnaise on my salads. Sometimes I was able to eat a salad without any dressings. These days I couldn’t possibly eat a salad without a dressing. With so many delicious dressing around these days it almost feels a crime not to add one and the beauty is we can make them all ourselves. No need to buy a shop bought dressing ever again. You can make a dressing and store it in a glass jar or bottle for a week. I have quite a few salad dressings here and many can double up as dressings for steamed veg. Hope you enjoy some of them. Let me know which ones you end up making and if you post them on Instagram or Facebook can I please ask you to #veetsvegancookingschool as I would love to see your creations. Have fun dressing your salads this week.
What to Cook for the Kids When They Decide to Become Vegan
I was asked some weeks back for ideas on what to cook for children/teenagers once they decide they want to become vegan. I don’t think there is one easy answer to this as it really does depend on what the individual child/teenager likes to eat but that is actually a good place to start. You will know what your child/teenager likes to eat and from that there are two paths you can take.
Gluten Free Pizza Anyone?
If you have coeliac disease or gluten intolerance you will understand the relief you feel when you don't have to ask if something is gluten free. It is the same for all sorts of other dietary requirements including being vegan. I was at a vegan picnic recently and there were a lot of children. One of the children asked if the food was vegan then they realised they were at a vegan picnic and didn't need to worry. Watching them help themselves knowing they could eat everything was an awesome experience.
A Vegan Gluten Free Plum Cake (something that all your guests can eat!!)
As much as I would rather share a savoury recipe with you this week I feel it is high time I share a sweet treat with you. As many of you know I don't really have a sweet tooth so when I found out I was going to a vegan picnic I thought woo hoo I can develop a new recipe to share with you all and not have to even taste it. I tried it out at the picnic and everyone loved it. Served it with sunflower cream which was exceptionally good. Hope you enjoy this cake. Right now plums are still in season but you can use any fruit really, you could put blueberries through it, or put peaches on top or pears or apples. Although I have the best ever apple cake recipe in my cook book so maybe save your apples for that recipe.
Creamy Malai Kofta (with sunflower seed sauce)
Last week the graduating chefs of 2016 came together for a two day refresher course. On the first day we made all things Indian and one of the many dishes we made was Malai Kofta which are vegetable balls served with a creamy sauce. It is a simple recipe which you can easily make nut free by using sunflower seeds instead of cashews. This is the third and final recipe in my series of blogs on nut free recipes. I hope you enjoy this wonderful Indian meal.
Nut free recipes for those that are allergic or sensitive to nuts
Life often presents challenges and in the end it always becomes something positive. The last retreat I catered on there was someone who was allergic to a lot of nuts. Not just allergic but anaphylactic allergic so I was on super alert for cross contamination. I realised that a few of my dishes were all the more special due to using cashews in them and wanted to find a way to replicate these for this lovely retreat guest.
Home Made Granola is the Best (a recipe with a difference)
What is your favourite cuisine? What type of food do you often crave? What style of food could you not live without? When people ask me what my favourite food is I find it hard to just pick one but the first one on the list will always be Indian. It is the food that I could never imagine going without. I would certainly feel that something big in my life was missing if I could never eat Indian again. I love curries, dhal, rice dishes and the chutneys and raitas and simple Indian side salads, svaadisht (hindi for tasty).
Salad Remnoise with Sunflower Seed Dip
Where I live it is starting to warm up and I love this time of the year. It is warm enough to eat salads every meal of every day which brings me great joy as salad is my favourite food. What I especially love during spring is salad with some cooked components and some raw ingredients too. As I sat writing this blog last Thursday I thought I would embark on sharing a vegan Nicoise recipe or a vegan version of a Caesar Salad recipe and started to write my shopping list when I thought hey hold it lets go see what is in my fridges (I have three for the business) and low and behold I found enough veggies to create a taste sensation.
