One vegan meal a week challenge... (this is an easy peasy squashy one)

Here's one I made earlier:

My lovely Squash Salad with a Sweet Balsamic Glaze

To serve two you'll need something like:


1 butternut squash
100g baby leaf spinach
6 cherry tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
1 yellow pepper
1 carrot
2 small beetroot
4 spring onions
handful of grapes
1/2 a small tin of sweetcorn

For the dressing:
A generous splash (30-50mls or so - I generally just swirl a bit into the pan) in equal quantities of balsamic vinegar, olive oil and maple syrup/agave nectar/other plant based sweetener

Preheat oven to 200 Deg C, cut squash in half, scoop out the seeds.  Place on oven tray and drizzle with olive oil.  Cook for one hour.  Allow to cool a little.

Make the salad - share the spinach between two plates, chop the cherry tomatoes (I like to do mine in 4 so I get more cherry tomato bits), cucumber, pepper and spring onion.  Grate the carrot and beetroot, sprinkle the sweetcorn and grapes on.

To make the dressing:
Pour your balsamic vinegar, sweetener and olive oil into the pan and heat gently.  Keep stirring and allow to thicken slowly.  You're looking for a still pourable dressing but a little thicker and stickier than it was when you poured it into the pan.  Remove from heat and allow to cool (it'll thicken a little now also so take off heat a bit before you think it's ready - you can always put it back on if need be).

Score lines on your butternut squash so when you scoop the flesh out of the butternut squash skin it comes out in more cube like shapes (or just scoop it if you want more of a rustic look), put on top of the salad and drizzle the dressing over both plates.

Vegan meal a week challenge - Tagliatelle with Pan Fried Pumpkin and Red Pepper Oil

Helloooo!

It is my intention to trial these recipes that I share however this week I'm doing a juicing detox (actually the http://www.worldsbiggestjuicedetox.com/) so am feasting on yummy, life enhancing juices - feeding and cleansing my body at the same time. Having quit caffeine several years ago, been involved in actively reducing sugar to just about zero and largely removed wheat from my diet I've been lucky not to have been experiencing the withdrawal symptoms from these.  However it's worth going through them if you've not reached that point - it rocks to get to the other side!

Today's recipe looks fantastic and is a definite on my list of ones to make once I've juiced and done my raw food challenge (more about that another time). This is from a lovely book (easy vegan; simple recipes for healthy eating) that I picked up at Salts Mill the day after my sister's wedding earlier this year.  It reminds me of my number one favourite ever meal - eaten on a warm evening at a pavement table in Melbourne, Australia. Delicious pumpkin and pasta - and this looks like a great vegan, potentially wheat free alternative - win, win!

You'll need:
1 tblsp light olive oil
1 lb/450g pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped
14oz/400g vegan friendly tagliatelle (or spaghetti - you can make it wheat free too if you use a pasta such as corn and rice spaghetti)
finely grated peel and juice of 1 lemon
a large handful of rocket
a large handful of chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the red pepper oil:
1 small red bell pepper, sliced
6 large chilies
1 small red onion, sliced
 4 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 cup/65ml olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C/Gas 4

Put the red pepper, chilies, onion, garlic, cumin seeds and 2 tblsps of olive oil in a roasting pan.  Cook in the preheated oven for an hour, turning often.  Transfer the contents of the pan to a food processor while still hot.  Add the remaining oil and whizz until smooth.  Let cool, then pour the mixture into a clean and dry screwtop jar.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet/frying pan set over high and add the pumpkin.  Cook for 10 minutes, turning often, until each piece is golden brown all over.  Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the package instructions and drain well.  Put it in a large bowl and add 2-3 tblsps of the red pepper oil.  Add the cooked pumpkin, lemon peel and juice, rocket and parsley and toss to combine.  Season with the salt and pepper and serve immediately.


The remaining red pepper oil will keep for a week when stored in an airtight jar in the fridge.  It can be used as a dip for baked potato wedges ot the enrich tomato based sauces and soups (or really whatever you'd like to eat it with!)

Let me know how you get on...

Our halloween Warlock's Wife pumpkin (probably not the most tasty type for this dish though - steer towards less stringy pumpkins or butternut squash for a yummy result)

Take a walk on the wild side

Rosy cheeked, relaxed, happy girls after a lovely afternoon at Forest School.  Got me thinking about re-grounding, re-connecting to the deeper being/entity/source of all things/energy.  Call it what you will, for me there's an amazing energy out there and being inside just seems to cut me off from it.  Being immersed in woodland, with a fire burning, leaves underfoot - I feel reconnected.

I ran last night too - my first barefoot run for ages and it was wonderful. Felt amazing to be able to get out (combination of reasons why not - holidays, not wanting to ask for help (I MUST learn my lessons on this one - working on it!), bad weather and busy with work) and just made me realise how good for me running barefoot is. Again.  There is something much purer, lighter, boundier about it - I love it!

(Sure I must just mention not to run barefoot without building up gradually - I spend most of my time when I'm in the house barefoot and in summer walk outside a lot shoe-less so doing a quick 2 mile run felt fine.  Do build up slowly though as you're using muscles you don't usually when running in regular training shoes.  There's lots of info and advice out there to assist with this.)

Time to swim now - here comes a mile in the pool (will be missing the great outdoors... visualising mountains and maybe Canada's glorious Lake Louise's turquoise splendour - although not it's glacial temperature).

Happy grounding people.

One vegan meal a week: Vegetable Biryani

From the fabulous Forks over Knives Cookbook

Serves 4 to 6

Rice:
2 cups brown basmati rice
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cardamon
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
salt to taste

Veg:
1 medium onion, peeled, diced
2 stalks broccoli, cut into florets
1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets
2 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp whole cumin seeds, toasted
2 tsp grated ginger
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
salt to taste

To make the rice - bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan.  Add the rice and bring the pot back to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat to medium and cook the rice, covered for 40 minutes.  Stir in the tumeric, cumin, coriander, cardamon and cinnamon.  Season with salt if like and cook for another 5 minutes or so, or until the rice is tender.

For the veg - place the onion in a large saucepan and saute over medium heat for 8 minutes.  Add water 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time to keep the onions from sticking to the pan.  Add the broccoli, cauliflower and carrots to the pan and cook until the vegetables are tender - about 8 to 10 minutes.  Add the garlic, coriander, cumin and ginger, mix well and cook for another 5 minutes.  Add the cooked rice, raisins and almonds.  Season with salt if needed and mix well.

As always if there's an ingredient you particularly don't like - omit or replace with one that you do!

Enjoy!!

I didn't know that! Biryani originated in what is now Iran.

My little heart is singing.... Launching my 'One Vegan Dish A Week' challenge...

It seems that my excitement about food is not just affecting me - recently I've had a couple of requests for recipes... and the latest one - to send a friend one vegan recipe a week to try. 

I'm so aware I'm merely at the very beginning of my journey into vegan eating so I could be barking up entirely the wrong tree. However, it makes my heart sing and so far all my best decisions in life have made me bubble with joy and excitement (including some of the harder, less popular ones).  I know the feeling by now (and I love it!).  I've lots to learn and am looking forward to learning it.

Since I've had a few requests I'll aim to pop a vegan recipe on here each week - feel free to leave feedback and thoughts... and happy, cruelty free, life enhancing cooking!

Looking forward to a brilliant future of tasty treats (I've just discovered raw kale chips. Oh my word. I intended taking them to a party last night and they didn't make it out of the door!), feeling great and knowing that no animals have been harmed in the making of my every meal.

Going nuts for milk

I'm so very pleased with myself for managing to make milk. Well I did a great job years ago but turns out I still have a brilliant ability. Slightly different process - OK no comparison - radically different process but milk nontheless. 

It was really on the back of a not so successful (aren't all the best discoveries?) attempt - this time at a vegan like nutella.  Turns out I wasn't so good at almond nutella although it did grow on me a bit.  Now almond milk? A different story. I am GOOD!

The recipe was from How it all Vegan, a vegan cookbook and is as follows:

60g almonds
475ml water
2 pitted (I used Medjool) dates

Blend the raw almonds until they become a coarse powder - add water and dates and blend again. Strain any lumps and chill.

They recommend for cereal and porridge.  I used on my homemade granola and really enjoyed - little miss not so much her porridge with it although yours truly tasted it and found it delicious.

Coconut milk still to be trialled but again from the same book:

250ml boiling water
40g desiccated coconut.

In a blender or processor puree the water and coconut until well incorporated.  Strain out coconut bits and chill.

With big thanks to everyone who kept telling me almond milk was tasty - so glad I checked it out for myself. Easy to make and without all the additives from the supermarket versions.

Continuing on plant based journies...

Intruiged by Scott Jurek (ultra marathon runner) and his adventure into a vegan, plant based diet; inspired by Brendon Brazier (multiple Ironman Triathlete) and generally curious, I've been continuing my tentative steps into the world of vegan foods and plant based diets.

If you're anything like me then the negatives of why not to eat meat might not interest you. They didn't me. At all. I could still rationalise that I'd evolved to eat meat, it was OK if it was well kept/had a happy life/organic/free range and whilst I knew things weren't all that great it was sort of easy to switch off to the images and points of view.

What I found more difficult, even impossible it would seem, to ignore were the health benefits.  Scott (Jurek as mentioned above) talks in his great book 'Eat and Run' about how he recovers better, trains better and feels more well than he ever has before.  Brendon Brazier. Ironman. Not sure what else is needed to say there! The phenomenal distances involved and amazing feats in completing just one of the three parts of the Ironman Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run) are inspiring in themselves. And then to discover he feels fantastic, and discovered eating a plant based diet whilst working out what suited him best for training.  And still follows it.  Good enough for great athletes, surely it makes sense for the everyday person such as myself?

It's been much easier than I thought although am still making the transition and do have some products I'm using up such as pesto that are not entirely plant based (or go out for dinner and don't stick with it yet or sneak a bit of baking for school that I've been using butter in) but generally would have to say that I'm largely following my heart, moving closer towards 100% plant based eating.  I am feeling good, looking OK (although my daughter tells me I look like a circus performer with my braided hair) and have lots of energy to be a mum, study, work and play at training for my first triathlon. Happy days!