Seitan and Strawberries

I made some seitan using the recipe from VWAV. Then wondering what I would do with it I flicked to the next page of the book and saw Jerk Seitan. I didn’t really know what it was supposed to taste like as it’s flavoured with lime, allspice, nutmeg and soy sauce among other things which sounded a strange mix to me, but it turned out really nice. Very tasty, but not the greatest dish lookswise.
Then with the rest of the seitan (I only made half a batch) I decided to make “meatballs”. I didn’t bother with a recipe, just mixed the ground seitan with breadcrumbs, onion, garlic, herbs and a “flax egg” to bind it together. Then I baked them in the oven and then served them with whole wheat pasta and tomato sauce. They turned out a little soft, next time I will need more breadcrumbs or something.
Now, for my new favourite thing in the world! Strawberries and balsamic vinegar! I adapted this from a Jamie Oliver recipe and it is so so so delicious! You can serve them with vegan yogurt or ice cream. I tried with vanilla soy yogurt and lime soy yogurt, both were super yummy, but they are also gorgeous all on their own.

Balsamic Strawberries (Serves 2-4)

1lb strawberries
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2-3 basil leaves, chopped

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Cover and let sit for at least half an hour at room temperature. Do not let sit for more than 2 hours. Serve and enjoy.

More Soup, Biscuits, Stir Fry and Another Eggless Omelette

Even though it’s like the middle of summer here I am still making soup with winter squash... This is Butternut Tomato Soup from How It All Vegan. It’s got a pretty mild taste as the only things flavouring it apart from the veggies are ginger and garlic. It was a nice change from my usual lentil soup.
I made US style biscuits for the first time a few weeks ago and I have started making them quite frequently. They are a bit like savoury scones and are great to have with soup. Plus they only take half an hour (at most) to make. The ones pictured are Fancy Biscuits (with dill and spring onions) from How It All Vegan, but I have also made the regular ones and they are yummy too.
I made another “omelette”, this time with mushrooms, Italian mixed herbs and nutritional yeast added. And again I didn’t add the oil from the original recipe (from VWaV). It was definitely more flavourful than the last one, but also a little flatter because it didn’t have the potatoes and onions to bulk it up. I think I’d like to try again with different veggies. So many variations I could try...

And finally this is a stir fry that I threw together one night for me when Wee G was working late. I wanted to try using up some of my pomegranate molasses that I bought ages ago for making BBQ Pomegranate Tofu so I added it to this stir fry along with soy sauce, garlic and some other stuff that I can’t remember because I didn’t write it down...ooops! I wish I had written it down as it was really nice... I guess I will just have to experiment to see if I can make it again!

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

I saw these Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies from VWAV on Midwest Vegan’s blog the other day and when I had a craving for something chocolatey I thought I would try them out. They taste a bit more like brownies than cookies and that leads to comparisons with Dreena’s utterly gorgeous fudgy brownies from Vive Le Vegan! And nothing that is remotely brownie-like will ever be as truly scrumptious as Dreena’s brownies!
Wee G was also disappointed. When he saw the he exclaimed that they looked like chocolate Jammie Dodgers! Yeah, but they don’t taste like them, sorry...

Eggless Omelette

I was never really in to eggs before I was vegan so they are not something I miss. But I wanted to try this Spanish Revolutionary Omelette with Saffron and Red Pepper-Almond Sauce from VWAV out of curiosity and because I love tofu.

In the recipe you are supposed to oven cook potatoes and onion in ¼ cup oil before putting them in the omelette, but I didn’t like the idea of all that oil, so I boiled my potatoes and cooked my onion with a little spray oil. Then you are supposed to add more oil to the tofu mixture and I forgot…oops! So my version is a lot less fattening which I am happy about, however I think the oil does help with the flavor and my omelette was a little bland. I did also half the salt in the recipe, but I always do that because I don’t like salty things. I don’t think it would pass for a “real” omelette, but I didn’t want it to taste like that anyway.

The sauce is really yummy and I did put a lot on my omelette to flavor it up a bit. It was sweet from the red peppers and sugar, while lemon juice added a little zing.
I ate some the next day and I definitely think the flavour had improved and I think that the saffron seemed more prominent. While I don’t think my omelette turned out great this time, I would like to make it again and add some extra veggies and spices/herbs.

Sultana Scones

I can’t remember what we were watching on tv recently, but we saw someone eating scones and Wee G bemoaned the fact that he had not eaten scones in ages. So I set about finding a recipe. Unfortunately I didn’t think to look at Vegan With A Vengeance like Brooke did when making her lovely scones the other day. I found a recipe here and changed it slightly to use oil instead of margarine and I also used half whole-wheat pastry flour. They came out nice, but I would have liked them a little lighter. With enough jam slathered on they were pretty decent! These should be served with a wee cup of tea for best results :)

Chickpea Broccoli Casserole

Chickpeas and broccoli are two of my favourite things . So put them together in the same dish and it’s sure to be a winner, right? Well, kind of :) I’ve flicked through Vegan With A Vengeance so many times and paused at this recipe and then decided that I’ll make it another day and moved on. I keep getting put off by the blurb before the recipe where Isa admits “it is a little bland”. Hmmm, that’s not really enticing me. Anyway, I saw it on Eat'n Veg'n and Don't Get Mad Get Vegan recently and it got mixed reviews so I thought I should just finally try it for myself.
When it came out of the oven it wasn’t the most appealing dish. I served it over quinoa with some greens in Mustard Tahini Sesame Sauce which I’m not sure was the best combination. When I put it in front of Wee G I was not greeted with a joyful face. It seemed kind of dry and stodgy, but I forgot to set the timer when I put it in the oven so I think it might have been a little overcooked. The first few bites I wasn’t too sure, but by the end of it I thought it was pretty yummy!! I suppose it’s the taste that matters so I will be making it again, and trying not to overcook it this time :)

Mini Pizza Party

The pizzas were dinky and the guest list small (me and Wee G) so it was about the most mini pizza party you could have! This one had mushroom, onion and pineapple.
This was tomato and basil.
And this is more of a garlic bread than a pizza. I just squished a couple of cloves of garlic and mixed them with a bit of chopped parsley and basil and a sprinkling of dried oregano. Then I mixed in some olive oil and spread it over the dough.

The pizza dough and sauce were from Vegan With A Vengeance. I did change the pizza dough recipe a little by using half whole wheat pastry flour and half white flour. The crust turned out nice, but it did have a bit of a flaky pastry texture to it. I guess that was the whole wheat pastry flour! Next time I will just stick with the white flour. If you are going to eat pizza I guess you just have to admit that it’s not the healthiest thing in the world and not bother trying to make it healthier or you will sacrifice some of the taste. At least it didn’t have fatty cheese all over it!

I think the garlic bread was my favourite, followed by the tomato/basil. The mushroom onion and pineapple one just needed a bit more topping, but I hadn’t wanted to overload it.

And we did have some salad with the pizzas...

In case you are wondering we ate all three pizzas and all the salad. It’s definitely the year of the pig in this house :)