Vegan in the city to vegan in Nepal!

In the not too distant future I'm heading off an an adventure to pursue my dream of volunteering at the grassroots level in a developing country. First steps Himalaya, is a wonderful organisation that's based in Nelson NZ/ Sindhupalchok District of rural Nepal. They are passionate about early childhood development and provide education programs for families and set up early childhood development projects across the Sindhupalchok region.

As a vegan one of my initial thoughts about going to live in this region was, what will I be able to eat?!! I was literally ecstatic when Fionna told me that Nepal is a vegans paradise! I can not wait to learn some new Nepali vegan recipes! I'm told some of the food we'll be eating includes rotis ( flat breads), black dal, channa masala ( chick peas) and Leela's famous spinach curry! So I'll be sure to try and get on here and add the recipies for these tasty dishes, so you can all enjoy them!

Furthermore FIonna told me that Nepali people follow a largely vegetarian diet and what they eat is largely dependent on what they can grow as well as the caste they belong to. For example many chettri families are not allowed to eat eggs but eat mutton! Rai families are amongst the few that eat pork. Day to day they eat dal- bat- tarkari- Dal, rice and vegetable curry. I'm going to love the change from living amongst a dominant meat eating culture in New Zealand to largely vegetarian Nepal!

If any of you are keen to help out this wonderful organisation they are always looking for people to sponsor fruit at their centres. For $25 a month you might like to pay for the fruit for all of the kids ( once a week) at one of their centres. They also run treks through Nepal and even have a 14 day great adventure program if you too want to help and enjoy fantastic vegan food at the same time!

Please check out their website and contact Fionna or Durga at http://firststepshimalaya.org/

Chai Latte Cupcakes

I thought this would be a fantastic cupcake flavor a while ago when I started drinking soy chai lattes a bit more regularly. After a major cake disaster last week I almost gave up baking altogether (completely irrational I know), but I'm glad I didn't because i must say, these cupcakes are my favorites!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
1/4 cup ground linseed
1 cup raw sugar
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Chai Latte:
1 1/2 cups of brown rice milk (soy would work good too)
2 chai tea bags
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 mashed banana (add at the end)

So first of all heat milk and two tea bags in a small pot on the stove on a low heat. Stir regularly for about 10 mins or until the tea bags steep and the chai spices can be tasted in the milk.

In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together and set aside. Once the chai latte is cooked add the cider vinegar and then pour slowly into the dry ingredients and gently stir. Add the mashed banana and mix all ingredients until well combined. Pour mixture into 6 large tins or 12 smaller tins and bake in the oven for about 20-25mins at 180. Oh and remember to lightly spray the tins so they don't stick!

Feel free to add frosting if you wish, I thought they were fabulous without it!

Pumpkin and Mushroom Pangrattato

I found this recipe today in the Otago Daily Times and was very excited to see it happened to be a vegan recipe! When I was in Nelson two weeks ago Dad and Sally gave me a "Plankville" Pumpkin to bring back home with me, it was a huge Pumpkin that's fed lots of people and that we still have left in the frifge. So this is a fantastic Autumn dish we didn't have any fresh herbs so used all dried herbs, Reuben cooked it and did a great job!

Ingredients:
Olive Oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic (or however much you want)
1/4 pumpkin -chopped into small cubes
200g mushrooms cut in half or finely chopped
2 bayleaves
a few sprigs of thyme (or teaspoon dried)
1 cup vegetable stock (or red wine, or chopped tomatoes)
salt and pepper
Pangrattato:
2 slices stale bread (we used a hunk of turkish bread)
2 cloves garlic
1 chilli (fresh or dried) finely chopped
grated zest of an orange
handful of parsley (or tsp dried parsley)

Heat olive oil in a large pot then add onion and garlic and cook slowly. Lower heat and add chopped pumpkin and mushrooms. Stir to coat with oil, then add wine or stock and herbs. Allow to simmer for 20 mins r so until pumpkin is cooked.

Meanwhile make the pangrattato. Tear the bread and put ina blender/foodprocessor. Blitz until it forms rough crumbs. Add other ingredients and blitz until it is all chopped. Heat a little oil in a frying pan tip in the breadcrumb mix and stir until it is starting to turn golden brown and crisp. When vegetables are cooked, sprinkle the breadcrumb topping over. We also added chopped almonds and cashews which was good too!

PLEASE say NO to Factory Farming New Zealand!

I'd like to bring your attention to a really important issue happening right now here in NZ.

Battery hen farming in NZ is cruel and unneccessary. Cages have been banned in several countries throughout the world however NAWAC has recommended that existing cages are replaced with new cages that offer no real animal welfare improvements.

You can HELP by going to www.nocages.org.nz and sign the petition protesting the use of battrry cages in NZ.

You can also help provide moral support to the wonderful man living in a cage outside of Dunedin (the city i live in) - see person in a cage on fwww.facebook.com

If you want to make a financial donation www.safe.org.nz can use any help possible fundraising for their TVcommercisls and excellent work they do for animals!

Thank you!

Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes!

I made these incredible cupcakes for Reuby in celebration our 5 year anniversary! After we ran out of the yummy chocolate Banana cupcakes I made a few weeks ago he asked me one night where the cupcakes were, we'd had heaps of them (mini ones) in the pantry and he seemed quite distraught that they were all gone and I had no time to make any more! So I handed in my second assignment of the semester (not sure if i mentioned im studying a post grad diploma in Development studies - hope to work for Oxfam or the UN one day), last night it took a few weeks of late nights and long weekends in the library... I got super excited last night when I submitted the essay cause I could finally bake again without feeling guilty about having an assignment to do! I found some cheap end of season strawberries at the University market today so decided to try and make strawberry chocolate cupcakes and they turned out better that I could ever have imagined!

Dry Ingredients:

3 cups wholemeal flour

2 cups raw sugar

2/3cup cocoa

1 tsp salt

2tsp baking soda

Wet ingredients:

400ml coconut cream (1 tin)

2 mashed bananas

4 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tsp instant coffee disolved in 2 tsp hot water

3 tsp vanilla esssence

Frosting:

1/2 kremalta (non-hydrogenated coconut oil)

1 Tbsp vegan margarine (i use olivani)

Icing sugar

3 tsp vanilla essence

Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl then in a separate bowl mix all wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together. If it's a bit dry just add a little bit of water. Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes at 200 degrees.

For the frosting i mixed kremalta and olivani together, I did this by hand using a fork and potato masher but if you have a mixer use that you'll save heaps of time! Then mix in icing sugar until it's light and fluffy. Once the cupcakes are cooked and completely cold pipe frosting on top and then add freshly chopped strawberries. Otherwise if you have decent tops on them cut them off and smooth some frosting over the bottom half then pile strawberries on top and replace the lid, garnish with a little extra frosting a strawberry piece and I used melted dark chocolate too.

Enjoy!

Homemade Vegan Cheese

So we are having pizza for dinner tonight and we don't have any soy cheese in the fridge so I decided to try and make my own! I consulted a few different vegan cheese recipes on the web as well as my pantry and this is what I came up with...

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Tbsp almond butter

1/2 Tbsp cashew butter

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 dsp crushed garlic

1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

pepper and salt

Mix the ingredients well and then spread on a lightly greased oven tray and bake for about 30mins (15mins each side) at 100 degrees. Alternatively you could use a dehydrator for raw vegan cheese. Or you could enjoy it as a cheesy spread uncooked and undehydrated.

Orange, Chocolate Cup Cakes..

Today I felt like making some pretty cupcakes with lovely looking frosting. I've never experimented with vegan butter cream either, but finally decided to take the plunge! I'm happy I did, so here you go, vegan orange chocolate cup cakes!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 2/3 cup water

1/3 cup oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup whittakers dark chocolate chips/chunks

orange zest from one orange

juice from two oranges

Ok so first you need to mix all the dry ingredients together, then in a separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients and then combine slowly and add the chocolate chunks last. Put mixutre into cup cake papers or tins and bake for appoximately 15 mins.

Butter Cream Frosting:

1 Tbsp vegetable shortening

3 Tbsp vegan margarine

2 cps icing sugar

2 freshly squeezed oranges (the juice)

1/4 block melted dark chocolate

orange zest to decorate

Mix shortening and margarine until well combined, light and fluffy. If you don't have an electric mixer just use a whisk and or fork - that's what I did. Sure your arm get's sore but it works the same! Then mix in icing sugar a little at a time and lastly melted dark chocolate. I sprinkled vegan cocoa on top and used orange zest to decorate.

Baked Eggplant Stacks

Reuby and I have new flatmates and they cook interesting and different things to what we normally cook, so last night they were eating this amazing looking eggplant thing, and that inspired me too create my own amazing looking eggplant thing. So I consulted a few other blogs and then got some ideas and voila here's what I did:

Ingredients:

1 big fat eggplant
2 big red juicy looking capsicums
4 plump yummy smelling red tomatoes
a handful of spinnace
1 shiny red onion
a dessert spoon of garlic
1 cube of oxo vegetable stock
a little bit of water

Ok so first I cut two red capsicums into four quarters and placed on a greased oven tray, then Cut an eggplant in half length ways then cut each half in half again length ways. Then cut four tomatoes in halves and place all of the vegetables onto a greased oven tray and bake in the oven for about 45 mins or so - just check regularly to check their progress. In the mean time, finely chop a red onion, put in a small saucepan and gently fry with some garlic (I use alot so just whatever you're comfortable with), then add some herbs i used oregano and basil and a handful of spinnach. Boil water and crush up a cube of oxo stock and then add a tiny bit of water (maybe 2-3 Tbps) and mix it so it's quite thick and then mix into the onion mixture.

Once all the baked vegetables are cooked - peel the skin off the capsicums and tomatoes and then arrange all of the vegetables ontop of each other in a stack. I put some yummy onion sauce in the middle of each layer and put some capsicum and tomato in each layer.

Chocolate raisin fudge, with hot raspberry sauce and vanilla soy ice cream!

The other day I decided to invent some vegan fudge, I'd been thinking alot about this amazing chocolate biscuit fudge my Mum used to make when we were little. I remember smashing biscuits for what seemed like an eternity, and then we'd press the mixture into a tin and have to wait for hours for it to set in the fridge. Well it seemed like hours but it probably wasn't. So anyway, from memory I thought I'd try and replicate and veganise it.

Fudge ingredients:

1 packet of budget vanilla round biscuits

1 cup of coconut

1 cup of raisins

1/4 cup of cocoa

1 cup olivio margarine

1/3rd block whittakers 72% dark chocolate

First you need to crush the biscuits until they are fine and crumbly. Then melt the margarine and chocolate together in a double boiler on the stove. While this is melting, mix the coconut, raisins and cocoa into the biscuit mixture. Once the margarine and chocolate mixture has melted together pour into the biscuit mixture and stir until well combined. Then press into a fudge tin and refrigerate.

Raspberry sauce ingredients:

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 Tbsp of cornflour (but only if you want really thick sauce - I wasn't happy with how thick it was so would have preferred a runny sauce)

Mash the raspberries with a fork and then add the suagar and heat slowly on the stove until it melts and becomes a nice thin consistency. Now you can either add the cornflour for a thick sauce or leave it out for a runny sauce.

Then melt 1/4 block of whittakers dark chocolate in a double boiler. Crumble the fudge or slice it into whatever shape you please and place on top of or under a spoonful of "dairy, wheat and gluten free" vanilla ice cream. It's in a blue 1 ltr pottle in New World supermarkets, or any other soy alternative you like. Pour the raspberry sauce around the edge and the melted chocolate on top.

Voila, a decadent vegan dessert to please anyone!

Vegan Lemon Curd

Ok so about a month back I got a craving for vegan lemon curd cupcakes, I searched the internet far and wide and couldn't find any cupcake recipes. So what's a girl to do, I invented my own, however I was too excited at the time and forgot to write down my recipe! So if anyone out there has their own cupcake recipe please feel free to direct me there or post it here as a comment. In the mean time I do have the lemon curd recipe, it was super easy and sooooo tasty but a little scary to see how much sugar goes into it. So lemon curd is definitley those once in a blue moon treats, although I know there are much worse things out there!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of lemon juice
2 1/2 cups raw sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
4 Tbsp of coconut cream
6 Tbsps of cornflour dissolved in 6 Tbsps of cold water
4 Tbsps of margarine

Simmer the lemon juice, sugar, and salt stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved. Then add the corn starch mixture and the coconut cream and stir until it's combined with the lemon mixture.

Continue to stir constantly and the mixture will start to thicken, then add the margarine and cook for a little longer as it dissolves into the mixture. Once this has happened you need to let the mixture cool completly, then put it in the refrigerator.

Enjoy spread on vegan scones or lemon cupcakes or perhaps lemon poppy seed cake!

Double Chocolate Raspberry Cup Cakes

So this weekend we've had three different groups of visitors come to stay and visit. First was my good friend Laura and her boyfriend Andy, then we had Amy and Brad who came down to escape the Christchurch earthquake, then two lovely couch surfers from Austria and Germany. Andrea had been through her first and hopefully last earthquake and was very happy to escape the constant rumbling and earth moving. So what better thing to do than bake some yummy comfort food for my visitors who'd been through so much over the past week! Chocolate of course is a girls best friend and raspberries complement it so well, so I came up with Double Chocolate and Raspberry Cup Cakes!

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups wholemeal flour
1/3 cup vegan cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 - 2 cups coconut cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup roughly chopped 72% Whittakers dark chocolate
a handful of fresh or frozen raspberries (for each cupcake)

In a large bowl whisk together all of the dry ingredients (excluding chocolate for now), and make a well in the centre. In a separate bowl mix the coconut cream until it's smooth and all lumps have disappeared. Then add the vanilla to the cream and pour into the dry mixture. Mix wet and dry until it's a smooth consistency then add the roughly chopped chocolate and mix again.

Grease cupcake/muffin tins (small or large) with margarine or spray with oil then spoon mixture in to just below the rim (they don't rise too much). Then place the raspberries on top and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes for small cup cakes or about 30minutes for large muffins. Let the muffins cool for a bit in the tins then put them on a cooling rack. The raspberries sunk in quite far so I put some more on top for some extra colour and taste!

Bon Appetit!!

Black bean and Lentil Pot Pies!

This tasty pie was invented due to a number of things that happened. One was that Reuben decided to make vege burgers using black beans in chilli sauce instead of regular beans as we'd run out. Now it may sound good and certainly did taste great however they looked horrible! Some people wouldn't think so, but when he put the pot in my face to show me I thought it was something that had gone very very bad in the fridge, not to put you off or anything! It did smell good!

So we made the patties and they tasted fantastic but we both found it hard actually seeing them on our fork going into our mouths (looked a lot like mince to me). So anyway, I met up with my good friend Emily for lunch on Friday and we went to Modaks which is a local Dunedin cafe that has several vegan options. I ordered a lentil pie and that gave me the idea to use Reubens horrible looking but great tasting burger mixture in a pie! Sorry for the long drawn out explanation but here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

puff pastry (New way vegetarian society approved)

1 onion chopped finely

1 tin black beans in chilli sauce

1 tin of four bean mix

1 finely chopped courgette (or grated - we don't have a grater at the moment hence why it was chopped)

3 mushrooms finely chopped

salt n pepper

squirt of tomato sauce

3 Tbsps cornflour

So you first need to drain the four bean mix then add the black beans in chili sauce (delmaine brand in NZ) - don't drain the black beans as you'll get rid of the sauce (I did this once silly me). Mash the beans together using a fork or potato masher, or even a food processor. Then mix in the finely chopped onion and remaining ingredients. Our mixture was also quite runny which isn't ideal for patties and which is why it worked perfectly in a pie. I used large muffin tins, greased them with olive oil and cut the pastry sheets into four small squares. Place each square into the tins (once they've thawed so they don't break). Then spoon the mixture into the pastry cases. You can leave them open or use an additional pastry sheet and cut small squares to fit on top. Bake in the oven until the pastry is golden brown!

Pina Colada inspired cake

Ok so I modified this recipe slightly from the "100 best vegan recipes" book my wonderful friend Sarah gave me. It's originally called a tropical coconut cake, however there is no coconut in the recipe. They also use canned mandarins which I just find soooo strange so substituted that for pineapple. I simply added a cup of coconut and also used wholemeal and raw ingredients instead of refined ones! The end result is a refreshing and moist cake, perfect if you're inclined towards tropical flavors.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour

1 cup dried coconut

2 tsps baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup raw sugar

1/3 cup oil

1 cup milk (i used rice milk)

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 tsp cider vinegar

1 medium sized can of crushed pineapple (can also use pieces)

Glaze:

2 Tbsp coconut cream

1/2 - 1 cup icing sugar

So all you need to do is heat the oven to 175 degrees and grease a baking tin. Then mix all dry ingredients (EXCEPT sugar) in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the sugar and oil together then add the remaining wet ingredients and mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients then add in the pineapple and mix. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for approximately 30 - 25 mins.

You can make a glaze with coconut cream and icing sugar, make sure it's quite thick so it doesn't seep into the cake. It also looks nice if you sprinkle some coconut on top and even arrange some fresh pineapple on top as well!

Wendels Vege Burgers

I learnt this recipe from my friend Wendel and it's been modified many times, but is an excellent recipe for Summer BBQ's. This is another one of those flexible recipes where you can add almost any vegetables but this is how we regularly cook it:

Ingredients:
1-2 tins kidney beans ( or four bean mix/chickpeas mashed well)
1 onion very finely chopped
garlic cloves
1 small tin tomato paste
1 courgette grated
1 carrot grated
Italian herbs
salt and pepper
paprika
2-3 Tbsp cornflour
lemon juice

First you need to drain wash and then mash all of the beans. You really can use kidney beans, chick peas, four bean mix etc. We often use a mixture of all to change it slightly. Once the beans are mashed up well then add the finely chopped onion, garlic cloves, salt n pepper, herbs and spices. Mix everything together then add the courgette and carrot and mix again.

The mixture will be dry and crumbly, add the tomato paste and or sweet chili sauce or any tomato sauce, or pasta sauce or a combination. Mix it together again and the mixture should be wetter and sticky, add cornflour which binds it all together. I often grill these in the oven, Reuben likes to fry them in oil, and they also work well on the BBQ. When grilling in the oven it's important to lightly grease an oven tray, then spread mixture into patties and cook for approximately 10 - 15mins on each side.

Serve with salad or in bread with salad, they're lovely with chutney and hummus. Also, you can use any vegetables in this recipe, as long as they're finely chopped or grated so feel free to experiment. I've used grated raw beetroot in the past, as well as pumpkin and kumara etc.

Eggplant Lasagna

This is good when eggplants are in season and cheap!

Ingredients:
1-2 eggplants
1 jar of dolmios red wine sauce
1 tin lite coconut cream
1-2 red onions
1-2 courgettes
1 red capsicum
1 green capsicum
lasagne sheets
vegan cheese (optional)
olive oil

Saute red onion then add eggplant, diced into small cubes or larger chunks. Add the dolmios sauce and coconut cream and cook until eggplant is soft but firm. Add all remaining ingredients (except lasagna sheets and vegan cheese) and cook for a five to ten minutes.

Remove from the heat and place half of the mixture in the bottom of an oven dish. Cover in one layer of lasagna sheets and then place the remaining eggplant sauce mixture on top. Grate vegan cheese on top or leave it as it is and bake in the oven for 20 mins or so until the pasta sheets are cooked through.

Mexican Bean Soup

This is Reuben's specialty, he always cooks this so well!

Ingredients:
1 onion finely chopped
4-6 cups vegetable stock
1 can chopped tomatoes
1-2 cans of kidney beans or four bean mix or 1 of each
salt n pepper
italian herbs
1 tsp chilli (crushed or finely chopped)
1 courgette cubed
1 carrot cubed
1 red/green capsicum
1/2 cup of pasta
3-4 mushrooms
vegan pesto (optional)


Finely chop the onion and saute in olive oil, then add the all of the vegetable stock and canned tomatoes. Add the vegetables and heat to boil (stirring frequently) then reduce the temperature to medium. Stir regularly, add the beans, pasta next and cook for 10 mins, then add mushrooms and remaining ingredients and cook for another 5 mins or until pasta is al dente.

Summer Rissotto

Believe it or not but I only learnt to make rissotto last spring, and it's a good thing I did because it's fast becoming my new fave food! You can pretty much put anything in it and i intend to try various vegetables throughout the year - rissotto for every season. Plus some good vegetable stock and white wine makes for a very tasty meal! Sorry this post doesn't have a picture so you'll have to leave it to the imagination, but I can assure you it looked/tasted amazing! Oh and I used proper rissotto rice (arborio) but it can also be made with brown rice it just tastes longer - but its a healthier option and also a slightly different flavour.

Ingredients:
2 cups arborio rice
1 cup white wine
7 cups vegetable stock
1 red onion
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup fresh chopped green beans
1 lemon (grate the lemon zest then squeeze the juice)
salt n pepper
olive oil

First finely chop the red onion and sautee for a few mins in the olive oil, then add the rice and stir fry for a few mins till the edges turn white. Add 1/2 a cup of wine and stir constantly until it's absorbed then add the remaining wine and continue stirring until it's absorbed.

Continue to add 1/2 cup of stock at a time stirring until it's absorbed for about 20 minutes. Then add the vegetables and more stock and continue until the rice is soft and cooked. Add the lemon zest and juice and salt n pepper and stir well then serve!