Zucchini, corn and rice patties

 

Zucchini, corn and rice patties

 

I have not been posting regularly because I keep taking food photos with my iPhone and the end up looking like the above! It’s not exactly what I would like to be presenting on this blog…however, today the desire to get back into sharing recipes took over my concerns around photo presentation. Sometimes I find we are in such a hurry to EAT that I don’t take proper time to photograph. But that’s life, isn’t it!

 

I really, really enjoy these rice balls (or “patties”). The variations are , of course, endless. But I’ll share with you what I did, and you can work from there.

 

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked brown rice

1/2 cup corn kernels

1 zucchini, grated

1 leek, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 T tapioca flour (or besan) to bind

1/2 tsp spices and herbs – I used thyme, onion powder and sweet paprika.

Salt and pepper for seasoning

 

Saute the leek, adding in the garlic and vegetables until soft. Stir in cooked brown rice, spices and flour to bind.

You may find use in adding 1/2 -1 Tblspn of water to assist with binding, however, I found that the zucchini provided enough moisture. You can play around with how much flour/water ratio you need to bind yours effectively.

Squeeze into balls of your desired choice and fry them on a reasonably hot heat until brown.

 

These are lovely just simply served with a fresh green salad xx

 

Brown rice and mushroom balls

 

Brown rice and mushroom balls

 

I apologise for the iPhone, dimly lit photo. My lovely cousin was running in the Commonwealth Games (and came 3rd!) and I was super distracted by getting our little food party out in front of the TV in time to watch her run. So the photos fell to the bottom of the priority pile.
As it turns out, while Jess was running, we were munching down a delicious feast of new creations. These are brown rice balls with mushroom and natural peanut butter. You can mix these up as much as you like – the possibilities are endless, but thees are delicious as is.  Enjoy!

 

2 cups brown rice (cooked).

1 brown onion, diced

5 mushrooms, diced finely

1-2 Tblspn natural peanut butter

1 Tblspn tamari (GF soy sauce)

2 Tblspn tapioca flour

1 clove garlic, diced

1 shake of dried chilli flakes

1/2 tsp salt

 

Fry onion and garlic together with the mushrooms until reduced and cooked well. Add in tamari, chilli and peanut butter with seasoning. Add in rice, turn off the heat, and stir through tapioca flour (to help bind).

Roll into balls. Heat a small saucepan with enough coconut oil to either deep fry, or shallow fry 1/2 of the ball. When oil is very hot, place 4 balls in at a time for a minute or so each side, then turn over to cook the other side. Allow balls to drain on paper towel.

 

Serve with peanut dipping sauce.

Spiced buckwheat and sweet potato herbed salad

 

Spiced buckwheat, sweet potato and beetroot salad

My sincere apologies for my extended absence from blogger land! I’ve missed you! It all began with a missing camera cord followed by a missing SD card… but that’s another story.

Today I bring to you a gem inspired by Gina, an amazing woman who catered for 25 of us at a non violent communication retreat in Byron recently. From Gina, I not only was reintroduced to the delightful dill but was introduced to whole buckwheat salads. Wow. Where have I been? Buckwheat is not wheat. It is gluten free and a whole food. It is not quite as protein rich as quinoa but nevertheless, an awesome food! And since Dave can’t do quinoa, stand by for more buckwheat in the future :). It is slightly nutty and holds it’s shape beautifully. And it does not go gluggy like rice can.

Because I’m out of practice I paid very little attention to quantities for this salad but you will get the idea. Make it to suit yourself. If my mother is reading this, for example, the cumin will be given a wide miss.

 

2 cups of whole buckwheat (cooked according to instructions. I, however, boiled mine in a spice mix of cumin, turmeric and ginger powder to give it a light spicing as well as a golden colour)

1 sweet potato, peeled, cubed and roasted

1 beetroot, peeled, cubed and roasted

1 spanish onion, peeled, cubed and roasted

Once these ingredients have cooled, toss together with:

cherry tomatoes, halved

brocollini, roughly chopped

Add 1/2 cup chopped fresh dill and 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves.

Season with salt and pepper and toss either juice of 1 lemon or equivalent vinegar through the salad.

 

NB I think this would be sensational with the tomatoes lightly roasted, and adding in fresh baby spinach leaves. You could also whip up a dressing that includes garlic, mustard, lemon juice and oil if that suits (especially if you leave out the cumin and spices, it will require more flavour).

 

Enjoy!

 

Plant based non ‘sausage’ rolls

My boys really seem to adore anything that is wrapped in pastry! Before we made the plant-based move, my eldest would have had homemade sausage rolls that were preservative and MSG free. I doubt either of them have ever had a bought one, and they certainly haven’t even had a homemade one in a long time.

So I was interested to stumble across this recipe. It actually does work! I discarded it at first because who would want a tofu-nut roll with oats? But the more I thought about it, the more potential I could see. This is a great option for kids’ parties I think where children are ‘used’ to eating sausage rolls and you can provide them with a much healthier, plant based option and they probably won’t know the difference. I am totally blown away by how good these little rolls (we’re calling them “little rolls”) taste! Despite the fact that we are not into faux-meats, these seriously pass for meat…with the added bonus of the fact that you actually know what you’re eating :). Bring on a kiddy party! Or just make them as a move to healthier eating for quick lunches etc. Whatever your goal, these are seriously delicious and they don’t taste like tofu, nuts OR oats. I promise!

I got this recipe straight from Where’s the Beef? No changes, I know, it’s amazing! I thought I better learn how to do it before changing the recipe at all. Already though I am thinking next time I would like to add in some more nutritional value: brown lentils or chickpeas and grated carrot and nutritional yeast flakes too. You’ll hear about it when I do!

For those who are gluten free, this recipe is not. But I’ll write the substitutes there to help along your way if you’re going to give it a go! Enjoy!

125g pecans
1/2 cup breadcrumbs           (or for gluten free, use crispy corn crumbs, I think Orgrans produce them.)
1 onion
300g pkt silken tofu               (try where possible to get non GMO)
1 cup rolled oats                       (for gluten free, sub 1 cup cooked quinoa)
1 stock cube                                (I forgot this, and they are still delicious)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons soy sauce (you can use less – the end result will be less salty and brown, and therefore less resemble a ‘real’ sausage roll)
ground pepper, to taste
3-4 frozen puff pastry sheets
water or non dairy milk for brushing pastry
sesame seeds

My preferred way of prepping this filling makes maximum use of my food processor. If you don’t have one, chopping and mashing will do the job just fine. Start by processing the pecans until they’re thoroughly chopped, but not all gone to powder. Tip them into a large mixing bowl, then toss in the bread crumbs. Chop the onion into 8 chunks and process them briefly until they’ve a ‘finely chopped’ kinda texture. Add them to the mixing bowl, and finally whizz up the tofu until it’s a smooth mush. Add it to the mixing bowl, as well as the rest of the filling ingredients: rolled oats, a crumbled-up stock cube, garlic powder, soy sauce and pepper. Stir everything together well.

Now preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and lightly grease a baking tray. Thaw out your puff pastry, and slice each sheet in half so that it makes two rectangles. Spoon the filling down the centre third of each pastry rectangle; lightly brush another third with water or milk and then roll the pastry, starting from the empty third and tucking it into the brushed third. Slice the roll into halves, thirds or quarters as you wish and place them on the baking tray. Make a couple more diagonal cuts in the top of the roll, brush the top with more water/milk and sprinkle over some sesame seeds. Repeat with the remaining filling and pastry. Bake the rolls for about 20 minutes, until they’re golden brown and flaky.

Healthy peanut noodle salad

Healthy peanut noodle salad

SUCH a lovely, light healthy lunch. Or a main meal for dinner. Given that I have a love-hate relationship with lunchtimes, this one works well for me. It is quick, easy and healthy. And anything that has a peanuts/satay feel to it is a win for me. If you can’t do peanuts, you could always substitute in another nut butter and I’m sure it would be just as delicious.

There are so many substitute options to this salad it’s ridiculous so make it your own! You could make it with pasta noodles if you prefer or soba noodles. But here is what I did:

Ingredients:

Rice vermicelli noodles, soaked in boiling water and drained

Broccoli

Carrot, finely sliced

Celery, finely sliced

Cucumber, sliced using a peeler to make slithers

Spanish onion, finely sliced

cashews

Handfuls of chopped fresh mint, coriander and spring onions.

Toss the noodles, salad ingredients and herbs together with the following sauce:

*NB. The water content in the sauce is important to keep, as tossing the sauce through the noodles will prevent them from sticking together.

Peanut sauce:

1 spanish (purple/sweet) onion, finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon minced ginger (or ground)
3 T peanut butter (100% peanuts. You could easily just process peanuts until smooth as an alternative)
2 T  soy sauce
2 T rice bran or coconut oil
1 tsp rice syrup
1 tsp sesame oil
juice of 1 lime

Whisk together.

Mayonnaise (the plant based way) and a waldorf(ish) salad

Mayonnaise – the plant based way

Unbelievable but true. Here is a delicious vegan mayonnaise. I’ve researched this, I promise. And the best recipe yet goes to Veggieful: very impressive. And here’s my version of their version! It really is STUNNING.  And even if you are not vegan, you will love this healthy tasty mayonnaise. (I promise there is nothing about it that tastes soy or tofu ish!).

300g silken tofu (use organic so it’s non GMO)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tspns rice syrup
1 diced garlic clove
3 tspns dijon mustard
1 Tblspn  oil
1 Tblspn apple cider vinegar

Squeeze of lemon.

Add all ingredients into a blender and blend away. Refrigerate for a couple of hours so that it thickens up a little.

Seriously. This is so yummy I kept eating it off the spoon before it even made it to the fridge!

I actually wasn’t sure what to do with mayonnaise. Hmmm….

So I made a waldorf(ish) salad.

Iceberg lettuce

Green apple, chopped

cucumber, chopped

snow peas, chopped

Avocado slices on top

and….it’s supposed to be walnuts (but I didn’t have any so I used almonds and cashews)

Toss it with the mayonnaise – delicious lunch!

Summer rolls

Can I call these Vietnamese summer rolls given that I’m not Vietnamese and they probaably don’t have any Vietnamese ingredients in them? Perhaps just “Summer rolls” will do. Although I *adore* Vietnamese food.

I’ve come to admit lately that I really don’t love rice paper rolls. I would never buy them in a shop and I rarely LOVE them at home and I’ve just worked out why. I don’t like rice noodles (vermicelli) taking up the place of yummy fresh food. So I gave these a go and oh my goodness, I’m cured. They are delicious! You can use whatever you like in them really but my advice would be to leave out the vermicelli and stick with salad ingredients. You’ll be amazed.

1 carrot, grated (into slithers  with a peeler)

Lettuce leaves or baby spinach leaves

Cucumber, finely sliced into sticks

1 avocado, sliced

Bean shoots

Fresh chopped coriander and mint leaves

Rice paper (Packet)

I find the easiest way to do these is to wet a tea towel and lay it on the bench to work on. Pour some hot water into a large plate/tray and soak the rice paper until soft, then pull it out carefully and lay it on the wet towel.

Add your fillings (Always looks nice and green if you lay the spinach/lettuce leaves down first) and wrap the fillings up.

I made a little dippy dressing (Not true to Vietnamese flavours but yummy nonetheless):

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

1 T soy sauce (NB Use Tamari for gluten free 😉 )

1 T vinegar of choice

1 small piece chopped sweet onion

top up with water to distill.
Really, really refreshing and light and delicious.

A cheater’s crepe

Never home maker has a pretty brilliant idea. Except in a much more eloquent title, they are called “banana faux crepes” 🙂

Mountain bread wraps are at the centre of this one (well, that’s what I have used). Partly because they have no preservatives etc in them and partly because you can choose what style suits you. I used the rice wraps today, though they do have a small amount of gluten in them. What I needed was a super fast lunch idea and something that felt homely and comforting. Yesterday’s efforts was defrosting some of my Rustic tomato soup which was sensational and healthy. Today….

This is not ‘un’healthy. But eating a salad would be better, let’s face it. Or tomato soup. Regardless…brilliant idea for a quick breakfast or lunch, or I’m thinking even for lunchbox treats.

Basically make a milkshake, dip the mountain bread into it, and fry it as if it is a crepe. And add your filling 🙂 How easy is that!’

1 banana, mashed

1/2 cup non dairy milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

cinnamon

cloves (whatever you like)

1 T chia seeds (I forgot these and mine still worked)

Blend together and dip the flat bread in before frying.

I added  a banana on top of the crepe whilst cooking and rolled it up so the banana heated whilst the crepe crisped. That was delicious!

You could add finely diced apple and cloves or mango and coconut – or pear and cardamon? Yum yum yum. How easy.

Family snack plate with Popcorn Tofu and Broccoli pesto

Family snack plate

This was our picnic tea outside. In a nutshell:

Cut up veg, salad and fruit

Broccoli and lemon pesto

Besan (chick pea) flat bread – super easy but we found it slightly oily. (I think I should have heated the oil before pouring in the batter. Next time I would also add cumin to the mix to give it some zing. But it was pretty good with pesto on top).

Popcorn Tofu (not chicken) – the boys loved this. I don’t love tofu, but the coating was yum and they liked it a lot.

And in the little tub is some chilli sauce, as our eldest loves dipping things in chilli sauce!

The thing I love about these sort of dinners is how ‘normal’ it becomes for the kids to snack on veggie. Our eldest even started getting into the cauliflower which he normally doesn’t eat. And we played the game of throwing cherry tomatoes up into the air and catching it with our mouths – they loved it and had to go pick some more cherry tomatoes to keep on playing! Snack plate picnics are great for this sort of thing 🙂

The 2 min lunch

When you’re used to eating ham and cheese sandwiches and the lunch time clock is ticking, it is SO hard to know what to do. A number of blog readers have fed back their thanks – purely because the ideas are helpful. We can all do a healthy job and enjoy it, but often the stimulus is missing. Hopefully this one helps for when you need lunch that is fast and fuss-free.

Lucky for us, we are growing the most magnificent yellow tomatoes in our veggie patch. They are so sweet, Dave has been eating them like you would other fruits.

Anyhoww…what you will need is:

Organic brown rice crackers,

avocado

sliced tomato (of any description)

snow peas, thinly sliced.
I also seasoned them and drizzled balsamic on top.

A light, tasty, healthy lunch that will give a slow energy release for the afternoon.

Rice salad avocado boats with almond orange dressing

Hmm. What a name. I couldn’t think of what else to describe them as 🙂

This is a really light, simple and healthy meal. Brown rice salad on it’s own can be yummy but doesn’t rock my world usually. But mixed in an almond, ginger and orange dressing and served in an avocado – now that is quite yummy! The creaminess of the avocado is delicious with the salad and tangy dressing.

Rice salad

2 cups of cooked brown rice

1 chopped red capsicum

1 purple onion, diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1/4 cup currants

1/4 cup pepitas

1/2 diced orange (flesh)

Mix together and add Almond, ginger and orange dressing and stir through.

Halve an avocado and peel off the skin. You may need to scoop a little more of the avocado out of the middle to make way for the rice salad – but it’s easy to add more rice salad to your plate later if required! Top with coriander to serve.

Purple lunch smoothie

Another “What do I do for lunch?” day. This is lunch:

Apart from the divine colour 🙂 this really tastes delicious. And it doesn’t even contain blueberries for the purple colour!

2 handfuls of kale                                                                                                                                          

2 handfuls of broccoli florets

1 cup left over fruit salad (use WHATEVER. I had grapes, watermelon and rockmelon)

2 T crushed pineapple (again, use fresh, or nothing at all if that’s where your fridge is at)

1/2 cup of frozen raspberries

1/2 cup plain soy yoghurt (see note below)

2 handfuls pepitas

2 T protein powder

1/2 cup oat milk (or almond)

Blend with some ice and enjoy the beauty of nutrition without having to cook!

* A note on soy yoghurt. Yoghurt is not an ideal product when vegan. Soy yoghurt is obviously vegan friendly but it comes with other pitfalls. We use this one.

As you can see it has sugar in it which is the less-than-ideal. But on the upside it is Non-GMO (There’s no way we would buy a GM soy product!) and there are no artificial colours (another big problem with yoghurts!).

This company also make fruit flavours which is what we give the kids and they are artificial colour-free. They are the only company we have found that makes soy yoghurt without colours so yay for them! There is a lot of conversation about how good soy is for people anyhow. I am comfortable with it in moderation as long as it is Non GMO and artificial colour free.

Rice paper rolls with spicy nut sauce

Sometimes I have made the mistake of buying rice paper rolls, and it *almost* always turns me off them completely. Who wants a rice paper roll full of rice noodles, a  bit of lettuce, a mint leaf if you’re lucky, and no flavour?

Yesterday we had a picnic in the park for my youngest’s 3rd birthday. And this is what we came up with:

I got my inspiration from this Basil blog here but have altered the recipe. Still, worth a read!

My husband dutifully julienned the carrot, cucumber, celery  and capsicum. He finely chopped the wombok cabbage, spring onion and we had some bean shoots and basil leaves.

Fresh, colourful, nutrient-rich foods with a tiny bit of rice noodles added into the mix. I also made a healthy nut-paste to drizzle inside it for some extra flavour. You can find that below.

 

Spicy Nut Sauce:

1/2 spanish (purple) onion, finely diced

1 clove garlic

1/4 tspn dried chilli flakes (vary according to taste)

2 T nut butter (we used an almond, cashew and brazil nut spread from the health food shop. You could use peanut butter which is slightly less healthy but also yum 🙂 )

1 T Tomato paste

1/2 cup water

1 T Dark soy sauce

2 T dark agave nectar

2 T rice bran oil

seasoning with salt

 

Saute the garlic, onion and chilli before adding the rest of the ingredients. Once it is warmed, and mixed, then take it off the heat and let it cool before adding to your rice paper rolls. You may need to adjust the agave/salt content depending on what nut spread you use. It will need less if you use peanut butter. But just alter it to the degree that it tastes agreeable to you!

These rice paper rolls really are delicious…and so light and healthy! Hope you enjoy. If you have never made them before, buy rice paper roll papers in the Asian section of the supermarket and vermicelli noodles and follow their instructions on the packet. And fill the rice papers with goodies before wrapping them up! It can be time consuming to wrap a lot of them (as I discovered yesterday!) but they really are worth it!

 

 

 

“I can’t believe it’s not bread!”

Gluten free, vegan bread. Sounds insane, right? I can’t believe I made my first bread loaf and it actually was a WIN!

Having said that, I have sooo many types of flour to play with that I’m looking forward to trying other types as well! But incase you are on a google hunt for vegan gluten free herb bread (like I was) – here is a beautiful simple, light and tasty recipe. I was so sure it was going to be a flop but instead, I’ve eaten so much of it I had to lay down! lol!

Firstly let me say, if you are looking for tips on how to bake with gluten free flours there are a couple of brilliant bloggers who do it well. Gluten free goddess has some great explanations and options on how to blend flours.

Gluten free girl has a brilliant explanation, video, and summary of substitute flours and what they do.

Now, onto the recipe. I got it from Hope’s Kitchen but added herbs:

*Make sure dry ingredients are at room temperature before starting

3 c GF Flour Mix – I used a mix of Tapioca, potato starch and Sorghum. Just buy a mix if you are not up to making your own!
2 t xanthan gum (or guar gum)
1/2  t sea salt
3 T sugar
1 t dry yeast

2 t coconut oil (melt before measuring)  

1 1/2 c + 2 T warm water                                                                                                                                                                                     

*Add in dried herbs to the dry mix. I used thyme and oregano. Rosemary would be great too, fresh, if you have it!

1. Grease and dust with GF flour an 8×4 loaf pan.  Heat oven to 100 degrees Celsius.
2. Combine GF Flour Mix, xanthan gum, salt, sugar, and dry yeast in a medium sized bowl and whisk together. Set aside.
3.  In mixing bowl, combine the coconut oil and warm water together and then add the dry ingredients. Mix on high for 2 minutes, this activates the yeast. It should resemble a thicker cake batter.
4.  Pour batter into prepared pan and cover with a tea towel.  Turn OFF the oven and set the covered bread in the warm oven to rise. Carefully shut the oven door.
5. The bread will take about 30 min. to rise to just below the top of the pan.  Take the bread out carefully and set aside. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
6.  Place bread in preheated oven and bake 45-55 minutes.  After the first 10-15 minutes, tent tinfoil over the bread for the remainder of the baking time to prevent the crust from darkening too much.
7. Test the bread with a toothpick. After you’ve removed the bread from the oven, immediately rub the top with dairy free marg (or t try a little melted coconut or olive oil). Remove loaf from the pan to a wire rack to cool.
8.  Let cool completely before cutting.   This makes a big difference on how well it will slice and stay together.

Quick fried rice

Fried rice is not something I thought would feature on this blog – But I was reflecting today how some days it is just enormously hard to feed yourself! I guess this is why so many drive past fast food places – because it’s just ‘easy’.

Today I got back from swimming lessons with my youngest, made  him a sandwich, and almost decided not to eat anything myself because I couldn’t be bothered making myself another salad! Then I struck gold: cold rice in the fridge!

It took under ten minutes: chop some veggies, cold rice, garlic, chilli and soy sauce in a fry pan. Done 🙂