Raw Taco Salad

This one is by Nikki Stokes of Eating Vibrantly. I am hoping to eventually post a photo of my own, but in the meantime here is hers:

Ingredients

Walnut Taco Meat (4 serves)
1 cup (150g) walnuts
½ packed cup (50g) sun-dried tomatoes, soaked 2-8h and drained
½ tsp cumin
¼ tsp garlic powder
⅛-1/4 tsp salt (adjust to taste)
pinch chili (or more if you like it hot)
pinch cayenne pepper

Cashew Sour Cream (12 serves)
1 cup (140g) cashews, soaked 1-2h (soaking optional)
scant ¼ cup (55g) lemon juice
¼ tsp salt
⅓ cup (85g) water
⅔ cup (95g) ice

Salad (1 serve)
2 cups rocket (arugula)
¼ cup Walnut Taco Meat (see above)
½ avocado
1 med tomato
1 tsbp Cashew Sour Cream (see above)
1 tbsp spring onion, sliced

Methods/steps

1) Cover the sun-dried tomatoes in water and leave to soak for 2 to 8 hours. Drain.

2) Process all of the walnut taco meat ingredients in a food processor until well combined, but still chunky.

3) Blend all of the cashew sour cream ingredients in a blender until smooth and creamy.

4) Assemble salad ingredients in a large bowl (one per person),

5) serve and eat.

Indian Potato Soup

This is a recipe from the book "The Classic 1000 Indian Recipes" edited by Wendy Hobson. This book and it's vegetarian recipes are special to me because it was the first book that I ever followed a recipe from, way back when i was around 12 or 13 years old and what introduced me to learning to cook on my own. The recipes are simple but traditional and full of flavour.

This soup is simple in that it only requires a few ingredients and is spiced mainly with cumin, yet it is so addicted and more flavoursome in my opinion than the standard potato soup. I have been making it for years and it never disappoints me.

15ml/1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
pinch of asafoetida (hing)
4 potatoes, diced
1 tomato quartered
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 cups of non-dairy milk

1. Heat the oila nd fry the cumin seeds and asafoetida until the seeds start crackling (I usually just dry roast them until the seeds darken a little)

2. Add the potatoes and tomato, season with salt and pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes.

3. Add the water, bring to the boil and simmer over a medium heat for about 20 minutes. Then puree the soup in a blender or food processor or rub through a sieve. I like to leave some chunky bits of potato for contrast to the smooth texture of the puree.

4. Stir in the milk, return to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes before serving. (I have found with soy milk its best not to return to the boil as the milk can tend to separate instead just warm it up gently.)

Lamingtons

Here is a traditional Aussie treat taken from the Animals Australia website (a great website go and check it out!)

* Please note all measurements are the Australian measurements unlike most of the recipes I post here. This means for example that a tablespoon is 4 teaspoons (instead of 3 tsps for the American system) and there are slight differences between up sizes but I usually don't worry too much about that.

I froze my cake for only about 3 hours and it was good to go.

YOU WILL NEED:

Cake

• 2 cups soy milk
• 2 tsp cider vinegar
• 3 cups plain flour
• 50g cornflour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 cups caster sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 tsp vanilla essence

Icing

• 1 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 6 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Nuttelex (or other dairy-free margarine)
• 1 1/2 tablespoon soy milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• hot water

DIRECTIONS:

• Measure the soy milk into a bowl and whisk in the cider vinegar gently with a balloon whisk or a fork. Then set to one side to curdle.
• Sieve the flour, cornflour, baking powder and bicarb soda into a large bowl. Add the sugar and mix.
• Add the vegetable oil and vanilla extract to the thickened soya milk and whisk to combine.
• Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients and stir gently with a wooden spoon until no lumps remain.
• Lightly grease two baking trays, or cake tins. (You can also use muffin trays). Divide the cake mixture between these two tins/trays and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 30-45 minutes. Check the cake after 30 minutes. The cakes are done when they are risen and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
• Allow the cakes to cool for 15 minutes in their tins before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• When the cakes are completely cool place them in a freezer bag or sealed container and freeze over night.
• Get the cakes out of the freezer and cut them to an appropriate size and shape.
• For the icing, put the icing sugar and cocoa in a bowl. Add the soy milk, vanilla and Nuttelex and one teaspoon of boiling water. Stir well. Keep adding hot water to melt the Nuttelex and give a smooth chocolate paste/icing that is runny enough to drip slowly off a covered cake. Put bowl into a larger bowl 1/3 full of boiling water to keep it soft.
• Fill another bowl with desiccated coconut for coating.
• Dip each cake into the chocolate icing, using 2 forks to turn it. Let the excess drip off and then place it in the coconut bowl. Use 2 more forks to coat the cake in coconut. Allow to set on a wire rack and repeat with the remaining cakes.

Dirty Kale Salad

It has taken me a while to get into eating kale, I know how healthy it is but I just find I can't put too much in the blender before the taste takes over and usually I have a limit to how much I can munch though in a salad...however I love this salad! When I first made it I made a huge bowl with the idea it would last a few meals..and once i started eating it I couldn't stop! The avocado softens the kale wonderfully without any processed oils, and the soy sauce gives a great hearty richness to the salad. You can really play around with this one too.

2 bunches of kale
1 avocado
1/2 a lemon juiced
2 T of Braggs Liquid Aminos (I used soy sauce instead, you may want to use a little less)

Massage all ingredients together for 1-2 min until the avocado is well incoporated. Then top with your choice of nuts and seeds and raisins or sultanas!
I love to toast seasamee seeds, chop up some pecans or wallnuts and chuck in some sultans for a little sweetness! It's so simple but hearty too.


I got the idea from Koya Webb who posted a raw food version on her facebook page (go check her out she is an amazing raw foodist vegan fitness warrior!

Pasta sauce with eggplant, red capsicum & currants

Here is a twist on the usual Italian style pasta sauce, this one has exotic Persian flavours of eggplant, currants and cumin and is from the book "East to live"by Sue Radd and Dr Kenneth Setchell

Serves 4

2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1/2 medium eggplant, cut into strips
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, crushed
500g bottled tomato pasta sauce
1/4 cup currants
pinch of salt, optional
pinch hot paprika, optional
12 pitted kalamata olives
2 tablespoons coriander, finely chopped

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the capsicum until it softens.

2. Add the eggplant strips to the pan and mix with the capsicum. Cover the pan and sauté for about 10 min or until the eggplant strips soften and start turning golden brown.

3. Add the cumin and garlic and fry for 1 min.  Mix in the tomato pasta sauce, currants, pinch of salt, pinch of hot paprika and an extra 1/2 cup of water. Allow the sauce to simmer, half-covered for another 10 minutes, until flavours cook through.

4. Toss in the olives and coriander and serve the sauce piping hot on top of cooked pasta. Both spirali and penne pasta work well.

BBQ Pineapple Pizza

Another delicious recipe from Chloe's Kitchen - Chloe Coscarelli and a great alternative for when you feel like a change from the standard pizza.

1 14 ounce package extra-firm tofu, drained
2 cups bbq sauce (it pays to get a really good quality one, or make your own)
2 large onions, sliced (i used red onions)
pizza dough 1 to 1 1/2 pounds or buy the base
1 cup diced pinapple
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander/cilantro

1. Press the tofu, cut into  cubes and toss with 1 cup bbq sauce. Bake in an oven at 325 degrees for 45 minutes turning a couple of times throughout. (Alternatively, to save time just grill the tofu which should only take about 10-15 min.

2. Turn oven up to 450 degrees F.

3. Saute onions until tender and caramelized about 20 to 30 min. Season generously with salt and black pepper.

4. Spoon remaining 1 cup of bbq sauce onto the pizza and spread, leaving a border along the sides, you may not want to use all the sauce, just enough to coat the dough.
layer the Tofu, caramelized onions, pineapple and cilantro.

5. Bake for about 15 to 20 min, until the crust is slightly browned or golden.

Date and Almond Butter Smoothie

This recipe is from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and has a lovely rich depth of flavour. 
Play around with the ingredients and amounts. I used only 1 tablespoon of almond butter (as that was all I had) and yet found it very strong so 3 T might have been too much (i was using roasted almond butter though which tasted devine). I also used a little less maple syrup so adjust sweetness accordingly. 


2 cups (470ml) non diary milk
1 or 2 ripe bananas, cut into chunks and previously frozen
2 to 3 heaping tablespoons of almond butter (32 to 48 g)
1 tsp cinnamon
3 dates, chopped
1 T pure maple syrup (20 g)
tsp vanilla extract

If you do not have a very strong blender, try soaking the dates first or add the dates and bananas to the blender first and pureee separately before remaining ingredients.
If you have a strong blender such as vitamix then combine all the ingredients and blend until a creamy smoothy.

yields: 2 servings