1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
a 2″ chunk of ginger, finely chopped (half reserved for towards the end of cooking)
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons tumeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup red lentils
1 cup brown lentils
7 cups water

Sauté the onion until soft. Add the garlic and half the ginger and stir for a minute longer, then add the spices and stir for another minute over low heat.

Add the lentils and water and bring to the boil, then simmer for 30-40 minutes. Stir through the rest of the ginger. This is really nice poured on top of baked potatoes and silverbeet.

It’s been a while. A lot has changed but I won’t go into all of that. I do have an oven now though, and a real kitchen bench, but I’ve lost my camera usb cord in this move, so no photos for this one, maybe later.

Tonight I started off making lemon slice, which I modified from this recipe, replacing half the margarine with mashed up banana, the eggs with 2 T ground flaxseeds, 6 T boiling water and 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder. I also got rid of half the sugar, and used only wholemeal flour. It didn’t look as lemony as the one in the picture, but it tasted nice and I’ll make it again.

When I’d put a mixture of 1/4 a cup organic apple puree (sold as a kids snack) and 1/4 cup marg in a mixing bowl, I decided I felt more like chocolate chip biscuits, and began making the recipe from Wild Morsels. I didn’t have any vanilla extract so I decided to try balsamic vinegar in its place, for extra flavour, like in this recipe that I’ve been wanting to make for a while.

So here’s my version of the recipe:
1/4 cup apple puree
1/4 cup vegan margarine
7 T raw sugar (could be cut back to 5 or 6 with good results)
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 T soy milk
2 T good cocoa
1 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb

Cream the marg, apple and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the vinegar and soy milk, then sift in the dry ingredients.

Top some of them with chocolate chips if you want, the sweet william ones work quite well, but tropical source are boycotted in this house, and yours too I hope.

Bake at 150c (fan forced new strange oven) or 175c as the original recipe recommends for the recipe without cocoa for 8-12 minutes.

Cook the onion in a little oil, then add the remaining ingredients, bring to a simmer, and leave for 10 minutes. Then add 1.5 cups pasta.

1 clove garlic, chopped
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1 300g block tempeh, diced
4 tablespoons wholemeal flour
1 tablespoon tamari
1 tablespoon hot english mustard
3/4 cup oat milk

When the other ingredients are simmering, but before the pasta is added, fry the tempeh in a little oil, until golden. Add the mushrooms. When the mushrooms are cooked, sprinkle the flour and mix in, then slowly adding oat milk, like making a roux sauce. Add the tamari and mustard, and keep stirring until thick and bubbly.

When the pasta has been cooking for 5 minutes, add:
3 cups roughly chopped kale
one zucchini, diced

Simmer for another 5 minutes, then add the mushroom mixture, parsley, pepper and vegan buttermilk (made from 1/2 cup oat milk and 1 tablespoon lemon juice).

Potatoes
Kale
Onion
Oat milk
Oil
Salt
Pepper

Dice potatoes into roughly 1cm cubes, boil for 10 minutes, then add kale for 3 minutes, or until tender. Sauté onion, then add the potato, kale, oat milk, salt and pepper.

2 small-medium onions
1 clove garlic
2 cups butternut pumpkin, diced
1 red capsicum
2 tins chickpeas
1 cup broccoli florets
1 cup kale, silverbeet or spinach, chiffonaded
salt, pepper, parsley and apple cider vinegar to taste

Fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil over medium heat until soft, add the pumpkin, capsicum and chickpeas, continue to sauté until the pumpkin is cooked. Add the broccoli and kale. Cook for 3-5 minutes, then adjust seasonings with salt, pepper, parsley and vinegar.

For two serves (4 thin patties)
3/4 cup gluten flour/vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup wholemeal wheat flour
2-4 teaspoons herbs and spices
1/4 cup nutritional yeast/savoury yeast flakes

Mix these together until well-combined.

1/8 cup vegan worcestershire sauce
1/8 cup tamari
a small amount of water, maybe 1/4 cup. It varies depending on how much moisture is in the flour, but it’s better to have less water than too much, more can be added if the kneading is not getting all the flour mixture to stick.

Evenly sprinkle the tamari and worcestershire sauces over the flour mixture, then slowly add water, not moistening all the flour, maybe leaving 1/4 cup to be mixed in with kneading.

Knead by folding over and over for 2-3 minutes, until well mixed in and springy. Leave to sit for 15 minutes, then divide and shape into whatever is being made, in this case, 4 thin patties.

Shallow fry in 1/4-1/2cm oil, pressing the patties down after one side is cooked, to make the edges crispier.

I served this with bbq sauce, tomato, salad mix, sauteed onions, fake bacon, fake cheese and smoked tofu, on an organic sourdough roll.

My other half said it was “feckin’ awesome”.

Friends of the Earth

For $6 between 12 and 4, for lunch is a delicious selection of healthy, organic dishes, including a variety of salads which are mostly vegan. When I went, there was a quinoa, orange and carrot salad which was especially nice. Friends of the Earth is a not for profit organisation doing important work around the world.

http://foe.org.au

312 Smith St, Collingwood
They also serve coffees and cakes from 10-6, along with bulk wholefoods and natural health products.

Also on Smith St is a place where everything is vegan. I walk out of this cafe feeling healthy every time and really wish they had better opening hours. Las Vegan Nirvana make an excellent schnitzel burger with organic salad and mayonnaise. Their tofu and tempeh salad with satay sauce is also very good, as is the chili bean calzone. They make delicious muffins and I really should have tried more from their menu, but the burger keeps bringing me back, probably the best fake meat in Melbourne, it tastes much healthier than the other stuff out there.

Las Vegan Nirvana are open from 11-4 I think, Tuesday to Friday. They are at 22 Smith St, and lunch is usually around $8.50.

On the back wall of Casa Del Gelato is a list of their soy gelato flavours, which are also sweetened with fructose, and definitely ok for vegans!

I tried the pistachio, bacio and chocolate. Nom city!

On this occasion there was only one vegan item on the menu, which consisted of potatoes in a tomato sauce. While it tasted fairly good (the potatoes were delicious, but there was too much crap garlic), It’s really not a nutritious or filling main meal.

To add to the experience, the background music was really loud rap music! Rap is known for being sexist and violent, I don’t think it’s such a great thing to be playing in a place so opposed to these things.

At least the ‘pay what you feel’ system makes it less of a disappointment.