Vegetables and vegetarian dishes
Recipes
Vegan Chocolate Cake
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 cup sugar (use ½ or ¾ a cup if you do not have a sweet tooth)
- 2 TB cocoa
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
Sift altogether and add:
- 1 TB vinegar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 6 TB oil
- 1 cup water
- Whisk the wet ingredients together then mix with the dry ingredients.
- Do not over mix or beat, just quickly fold the ingredients together until combined.
- Pour into a greased or lined cake tin. Or spoon into paper patty cases to make cup cakes.
- Bake at 350F for 45 minutes (for the cup cakes, bake for about 15 minutes.)
- To ice, mix icing sugar, 1 Tb cocoa, 4 Tbs. vegan margarine (eg Olivani) and a drop or two of hot water. Spread over the cake and decorate with strawberries.
Tomato lentil soup
- 2 small onions, sliced in rings
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 TB vegetable oil
- 1 large courgette, diced
- 1 vege stock cube
- 1 400gm tin tomatoes
- 5-7 cups water
- 2 TB tomato paste
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- ¾ cup split red lentils
- saute onion in the oil over a medium heat. Let soften but do not brown.
- add garlic and let cook a further minute before adding the courgette.
- Fry for 5 mins, stirring then add all other ingredients
- add water, stir, and let simmer until lentils are just cooked (about 20 minutes)
- pour into bowls
- serve with garlic bread
- NB use less water to make a sauce. Use as a pizza sauce, or serve on pasta or with rice.
Banana caramel sauce
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup peanut butter
- 1 large ripe banana, mashed
- melt the maple syrup and peanut butter together over a low heat
- stir occasionally to make a sauce
- remove from the heat
- add the banana
- blend to make a smooth sauce
- serve immediately over ice cream or cake
Spinach & Potato Frittata
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 6 small potatoes
- 1 cup torn spinach (or silver beet leaves)
- 1 medium sliced onion
- 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
- 6 eggs
- 1/3 cup milk
- cup grated tasty cheese
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Peel & cube potatoes
- Heat oil in medium sized skillet (or heavy frypan)
- Cook potatoes in covered frypan over medium heat for about 10 mins until tender but not mushy. Add greens, onions, garlic and S & P. cook for another couple of minutes or until greens are softened
- In separate bowl whisk up eggs and milk and add to frypan. Sprinkle with grated cheese and reduce heat to low. Cook for approx 5 mins or until eggs are firm. Leave to set for a couple of minutes once off the heat and then slice and EAT.
Cheesy French Toast
Want to feed? And quickly? Go no further …
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 cup grated cheese
- Some chopped chives if you’ve got them
- 1 french stick / baguette
- Whisk eggs &milk
- Mix in cheese & chives
- Slice up bread & dip in mixture
- Heat frypan & melt knob of butter
- Cook gently until golden brown
- Serve with other savoury goodies - ham, bacon, chutney, tomatoes - whatever takes y’fancy!
Spicy Chilli Bean Soup
It’s getting cold. This soup is hot and will definitely give you a bit of internal combustion for a few hours.
- Large carton of REAL beef stock
- 1 large onion
- 1/4 pumpkin
- 2 kumara/sweet potato
- 3 large carrots
- 1 large potato
- 1 tin hot or medium chilli beans - it’s up to you
- 1/2 pkt frozen spinach (this is much easier than messing about with fresh stuff)
- Peel and chop or cube all the veggies (not the spinach)
- Put in large saucepan with some oil and gently fry for about 5 mins
- Add all the stock
- Bring to boil and simmer (covered) until veggies soft - takes about 30 mins
- Add the tin of chilli beans and spinach and heat until the spinach separates
- Chuck in a pile of finely chopped parsley and you have got yourself one mighty fine pan of soup
Guacamole (easy-as to make)
If you’re not sure what Guacamole looks like, check out the Martian Food picture:
It costs a lot to buy ready-made but is incredibly cheap to make especially if avocados are in season and you can use this stuff to go on top of nachos, to bung into rolls and sandwiches, or just as a dip with ordinary chips. Plus avocados are VERY HEALTHY for you!
If you haven’t come across an avocado before they look like this:
And just in case you’ve never used fresh garlic before see below, left:
- 3-4 ripe avocados (how can you tell if they’re ripe? They should be soft when squeezed - uh, gently! - with dark green skins - don’t go for the brown skinned ones because they’re too ripe
- 1 tsp minced garlic out of the jar (or l fresh clove crushed & chopped)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (from a lemon)
2 tbsp chopped chives (or finely chopped onion)
- 1 tomato - chopped
- salt to taste
- Cut avocados in half and scoop out flesh, leaving skins & pip behind
- Mash avocado until smooth (a few lumps don’t matter & a potato masher works just great)
- Mix in garlic, lemon juice, chives & tomato and mix gently
- Add salt if required & chill for 30 mins
Warning!! Guacamole turns brown pretty quickly so you need to make & eat. Some people say that putting chopped tomatoes over the top stops it from browning but we’ve never tested this. Maybe someone can let us know if it works.
Veggie Soup
Got a pumpkin that’s going hairy in the fridge? Don’t biff it out - make it into some good grub soup that’s easy-as. Peel & chop the following veggies into cubes (the smaller the cube the quicker the cooking time)
- At least 1/2 a pumpkin - minus any hairy bits
- Couple of kumara
- 2 large carrots
- 1 onion
- 1 ordinary potato
- 500 ml chicken stock (either the real stuff or else from stock cubes)
- Plus any left over veggies that may be lurking in your fridge
- Put veggies into a large roasting dish and sprinkle generously with olive oil, salt & pepper and a handful of chopped fresh herbs if around (basil’s always good)
- Roast on moderate heat (180’ish) for about an hour or until soft. Shake & turn occasionally and if getting too dry add some of the stock
- For the last 20 minutes add any other left other veggies that won’t take so long too cook e.g. broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, cauliflower
- When all the veggies are soft & mushy remove from oven and put into kitchen whiz with some of the stock and blend. Warning - you may have to do this in two or three batches otherwise the mixture will overflow! If too thick for your liking, add more stock.
- Reheat in saucepan with a splash of cream or milk.
- Serve with hunks of your favourite bread
This freezes real well and can come straight from the freezer to the microwave. It’ll save you a fortune in ‘Soups To Go’ and if you really want to get serious - double the ingredients and make oodles of the stuff!
Zesty Couscous
Couscous is very cheap, filling and has been known to prevent penniless students from starving to death. It can be kinda dry … but it’s fast to cook and FILLING & if you’ve got enough dosh you can always tart it up with some chicken or fish or bacon … or whatever you’ve got left over in the fridge or pantry.
- 200g couscous
- 2tblsp olive oil
- About 350 ml of boiling water
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1 chopped onion
- l each - green & red pepper/chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled, squashed and chopped
- salt & pepper
- Put couscous in large saucepan and over with boiling water. Leave to stand for several minutes
- Heat oil in large frypan and cook onion and garlic until soft
- Add peppers, couscous, peas & corn and mix well.
- Cook gently for about 5 mins, stirring occasionally. Season to taste and dribble over a bit more oil and mix if too dry
Deluxe Macaroni Cheese
- 3 cups grated cheese
- 2 cups dried macaroni
- 1 1/2 cups grated swiss cheese (or mozzarella for some fun)
- 1 cup cream
- 40 gms butter
- 2 eggs
Cook macaroni as instructed on packet (add a splash of cooking oil to stop glugging together) & drain & put to one side
- Heat oven to about 180
- Mix 3/4 of the tasty cheese and all of the swiss cheese with beaten eggs & cream
- Mix macaroni & cheesy mixture together. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake in middle of oven for about 10-15 mins until golden brown
- Serve with salad
Above recipe serves 4 regular. If you’ve got leftovers it freezes real well - much cheaper than buying pre-packaged stuff and much more NUTRITIOUS with no additives.
Home-made Best-ever Spag Sauce: Dead Easy!!!
What you'll need:
- 1 large onion
- 1 tin of chopped tomatoes in juice
- 3 tblsp butter (more if needed)
- 2 cloves garlic
- salt & pepper
- Lots of chopped parsley
How to make it:
- Peel & chop onion
- Peel & pulverise garlic
- Melt butter and add onion & garlic
- Cook over low heat until soft
- Add tin toms & simmer gently until mixture
thickens a bit
- Bung in whizz and blend until smooth
- Add chopped parsley last
- Cook spaghetti as directed
- Re-heat sauce and pour over spag
- Sprinkle with loads of grated cheese or
Parmesan & VOILA!!!