Comfort food at its best. When life calls for noodles, this is the recipe you need! This makes a huge serving for one, plenty for two or nibbles for three.

Awesome Vegan Chow Mein with Veges & Tofu

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp rice bran oil (or canola, sunflower etc)
• 1/2 brown onion, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1″ nub ginger, crushed
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced, diagonally
• 1 small head broccoli, chopped into small florets
• handful of mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cup green peas
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2-3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 300g marinated tofu chunks
• 85g dried chow mein noodles

Method:

Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook noodles according to instructions. Cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a frying pan, over medium-high heat, fry the tofu chunks in a little oil. When heated through, cover and set pan aside.

Heat rice bran oil in a wok or large frying pan over high heat for 20 seconds or so. Reduce heat to medium-hot. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for 1 minute – regularly remove the wok from heat for a few seconds, continuing to stir, to prevent garlic from burning if you need to.

Add onion and cook for 4 minutes, stirring regularly. Add carrot and cook for 2 minutes. Add broccoli and cook 3 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms, green peas, soy sauce, dark soy, sesame oil and sweet chilli sauce. Stir well to combine. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring regularly.

Add noodles and gently combine with vegetables until sauce covers everything evenly. Stir through reheated tofu chunks, or serve them on the side.

Serves 1-3.

Image via Pinterest

Tis the season for salads spiked with summer fruit.

SUMMER SALAD WITH MAPLE-SOY LEMON DRESSING

For each serving:

• a handful of mixed lettuce leaves, torn into bite size pieces
• 1/4 cup grated carrot
• 1 tbsp whole almonds (raw or lightly toasted)
• small handful fresh strawberries, sliced
• small handful fresh mint, torn
• 1/4 avocado, diced

To make dressing (makes approx 4 servings – scale up or down as needed):

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• juice of 2 lemons
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp tamari soy sauce

To serve:

Combine lettuce, carrot, almonds, strawberries and mint. Divide into separate bowls. Top with avocado.

Add all dressing ingredients to a lidded jar, shake until well combined. Drizzle over each salad serving.

Image via Pinterest @lissaorelse

]]> https://thekitchenrebellion.com/2015/12/27/summer-salad-with-maple-soy-lemon-dressing/feed/ 0 2747 lissaorelse e1a880988f6c3fb90d7396efa987839e https://thekitchenrebellion.com/2015/08/21/game-changing-sweet-chilli-soy-vegetable-stir-fry-vegan/ https://thekitchenrebellion.com/2015/08/21/game-changing-sweet-chilli-soy-vegetable-stir-fry-vegan/#respond Fri, 21 Aug 2015 01:43:59 +0000 http://thekitchenrebellion.com/?p=2739

Via Pinterest

I love stir fries – they are so quick, easy and awesome – but was getting a little bored of my standard issue sauce, which is tasty but was lacking some kind of stir fry X factor. This was an experiment that became one of those ‘hallelujah’ recipes!

Double the sauce recipe, divide it between two jars and BOOM your next stir fry night is even quicker and easier (and still as awesome! It will keep for around 10 days). Throw some pieces of marinated, fried tofu into the mix as you serve and you are good to go.

GAME CHANGING SWEET CHILLI-SOY VEGETABLE STIR FRY

INGREDIENTS

1 1/3 cups uncooked basmati or jasmine rice

1/3 cup raw cashews

Vegetables –

• 2 x small carrots, sliced into coins
• 1 head broccoli, chopped into bite size florets
• a handful of mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 red capsicum, sliced
• one small onion, chopped (optional)
• 1/2 – 2/3 cup green peas

Sweet chilli-soy stir fry sauce –

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2″ piece ginger, crushed
• 2 tbsp soy sauce (tamari soy if g/free)
• 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 3 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tsp dark soy sauce (exclude for g/free)
• 3 tbsp water

METHOD (MAN)

To make the sauce – Combine all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and whisk to combine. Heat until simmering, then set aside until needed.

Cook rice your preferred way, drain and rinse under cold water until rice is no longer warm. Set aside, covered.

Fry the cashews in a little oil, until they begin to brown. Set aside.

Throwing it all together – Heat a small amount of oil in wok or large frying pan on high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add carrots and broccoli; cook, stirring regularly, for 3 minutes. Add capsicum and mushroom, cooking for 2 mins until capsicum begins to soften. Reduce heat to med-low, add cooked rice, sauce and cashews to vegetable mix. Stir well to combine. Add peas. Cover, reduce heat, and fry for 1-2 more minutes until peas are cooked.

Serves 2-3.

Via Pinterest

Hi everyone. Long time no see! Goddamn.

So… what’s up with the hiatus? The last several months have been a roller coaster but I am back on track and back to Kitchen Rebellion.

Skip the next paragraph if you kinda don’t care and just want to see the new damn recipe, which is fair enough, this being a food blog and not “The Life & Times of Lissa”.

KR had to take a back seat while I did some big time figuring-out. The result? Rather than mourn the fact that, for the time being, my health has taken fashion design off of the table, I have switched my focus to what I can be doing. Which is focusing on collecting amazing vintage wear. My shop is called Black Heart and there will be 50 sweet ass garments from New Zealand, Australia and the USA on the virtual racks from mid-June (launch date TBA). If you are curious, check out the Black Heart Blog: http://www.blackheartblog.com

Alright, that’s the last shop promo I will do on here. Back to the food! My posts for Kitchen Rebellion will be less frequent than pre-hiatus KR, but they will come. I have too many recipes and vegan tidbits that I want to share with you guys to call it quits.

This new one is officially my favourite brownie recipe. It was an experiment that went so, so right. I love it when that happens. So much more satisfying than the imploding cupcake fiasco, or that time I made a tofu marinade that tasted like foot.

A lot the vegan brownie recipes I have tried have cooked up tasty but quite cake-y. Brownie is not cake, people. This here brownie is super moist, chocolate heaven. The recipe is so easy you won’t believe it. Simple ingredients, short prep time, big pay off!

First Prize Vegan Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 2/3 cups raw sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup rice bran oil (use any type of mild oil – canola etc)
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• sea salt (optional)

What to do:

Add sugar to large mixing bowl. Sift remaining dry ingredients into the same bowl, and stir gently to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Add wet to dry, stirring constantly. Mix until well combined.

Bake in a 190 C oven for 45 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Let sit for 30 minutes before turning onto a cooling rack. If you can stand it, keep your hands off the brownies for another hour or so, for the flavours to settle. When completely cooled, dust with icing sugar.

Serves 6ish.

for Vogue Portugal, via Pinterest

1) Easy
2) Fast
3) Versatile
4) Delicious

Hell yes. These quick pita pizzas have been a staple in our house for a long time.

Pitas make great lil pizza bases. Our friend hummus is used here as a pre-base sauce, helping to keep them nice and moist. The yummy, thick base sauce is a ridiculously easy, no chopping required recipe that will make much more than is needed for the several pitas that are called for here. Reserve the rest for any near future pizza making, or lazy pasta emergencies.

Some might raise an eyebrow at the idea of dairy free pesto and those people are missing out. As always, removing the dairy let’s the fresh flavours shine their brightest! There are few things as wonderful as freshly homemade basil pesto, and down here in NZ it is just the right season for picking up luscious, fragrant pots of basil from the local markets and supermarkets.

Ideally, prepare the pesto the night before you use it. Letting it sit for a while will develop the flavour in a wonderful way. To enable easier dolloping and spreading action, sit your pesto at room temperature to let the oil warm a little. If you pre-prep the pizza sauce as well, when it comes to pita pizza making time, they will come together in a flash.

When it comes to toppings, less is more. This is one of the keys to awesome pizza. Piling your toppings on can lead to sogginess and sad pizza times; resist the temptation!

Also, don’t feel beholden to my particular choices – sub. in your favourites, or experiment and try some new combinations that you are curious about.

There are so many other options that you could choose from: fresh tomatoes, pineapple pieces, olives, sundried tomatoes, cooked beans – whole kidney and cannellini beans work well; ditto any kind of refried beans –  mushroom slices, chopped asparagus, garlic cloves, corn kernels, capers, diced avocado, zucchini sticks, thinly sliced roasted potato with fresh rosemary, cashews.

Pita Pizzas with Easy Peasy Pizza Sauce (No Chopping!) and Basic Basil Pesto

Ingredients

4 x small pita breads
hummus
Homemade Pizza Sauce (recipe below)
Fresh Basil Pesto (recipe below)
red onion rings
sliced red capsicum
sliced black olives
fresh black pepper
faux parmesan* (optional)

Easy Peasy Pizza Sauce

1 x 400 g can chopped tomatoes
2 – 3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried sage
1 tsp raw sugar
sea salt (to taste)

Basic Basil Pesto

1 cup fresh  basil (packed)
3 tbsp walnuts
4 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp faux parmesan* OR 1 extra tbsp of walnuts
sea salt (to taste)

What to do

Easy Peasy Pizza Sauce

Gently heat olive oil in a small saucepan, for around 15 seconds over medium-low heat. Add sage and oregano, stirring until herbs begin to sizzle a little.

Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Reduce heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced and thickened, around 25 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Once cooled, blend pizza sauce. Spoon into a lidded jar and set aside until needed. Leftovers keep well, refrigerated, for a week or so.

Basic Basil Pesto

Add all ingredients to food processor and pulse until mixture is combined into a life-giving pesto-y thickness.

Spoon pesto into a small jar with a sealed lid and top with a thin layer of olive oil. Refrigerate for an hour or more to give flavour some time to settle.

Leftovers keep wonderfully for 1 week or so. To keep your pesto top notch, add another thin layer of olive oil after each time you use it

Putting it all together

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Place four pitas on a couple of baking trays or cooling racks. Spread each with a thin layer of hummus, followed by a thicker layer of pizza sauce.

Dollop and gently spread a teaspoon or two of pesto on each half of every pita. Then, add onion and capsicum, and an even scattering of olives. If using faux parmesan, now is the time to sprinkle some on top. Finish with a crack or two of fresh black pepper.

Bake for 10 – 15 minutes, until pizzas are hot and beginning to brown.

Serves 2

* My fellow NZers can grab a delicious vegan parmesan, made by Bellisimo, from Commonsense Organics; it’ll set you back around $5 which is a super sweet deal.

Feature image via my Pinterest

Marion Cotillard (photog. Mario Testino) / via my Pinterest

I feel like legumes deserve an apology from me.

For so long the dodgy, mass produced versions of legume salads that lurk in the corners of supermarket delis, constituted the sum total of my legume-salading experience and it put me off big time. I breezily dismissed them and their ilk as hippie bullshit and went about gnawing on yet another block of cheese.

Sorry, guys. I knew not the ignorance of my bean-denying ways.

It wasn’t until I started experimenting with making beans et. al a feature in my home made salads, and hit on a recipe that I truly love that I saw the light. You really can’t judge something until you have had it fresh. Fresh-as-fuck is always gonna be where the flavour sweet spot is.

Once I hit on a rad recipe, I began experimenting with legume salads more often and came to appreciate the versatility of cannellini beans, navy beans, kidney beans, chickpeas and lentils (etc!) in a way I never had before.

One thing I love about beans in particular is that they are often great flavour absorbers. In this recipe red kidney beans become infused with the juicy tang of citrus, soaking up a cumin-kissed lemon and lime based dressing.

The contrasting texture and satisfying nutty bite of the chickpeas balance the dressing-plumped beans. And finally, fragrant fresh basil lends its sunny flavour to wrap everything up nice and tight (and tasty!).

The yummy spiced citrus dressing might be the real star of the show in this recipe; next time I throw it together, I will make a double batch and use the leftovers to drizzle over salad greens or steamed broccoli. The flavours in the dressing lend themselves really well to a Mexican or Moroccan inspired meal.

As is the case with so many legume based salads, this keeps very well for a few days when refrigerated in a sealed container. It is perfect- for a quick snack or wildly easy lunch.

Kidney Bean and Chickpea Salad with Spiced Citrus Dressing

Ingredients:

1 x 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed thoroughly
1 x 400g can red kidney beans, drain and rinsed thoroughly
handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped finely
handful parsley, chopped finely (optional)
1 – 1 1/2 tsp sea salt (to taste)

Spiced Citrus Dressing

1/4 – 1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp chilli powder
juice of two medium lemons
juice of two limes
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

What to do:

Add dressing ingredients to a lidded jar (or bowl) and shake (or whisk) until very well combined.

Add all ingredients to a large bowl and mix gently until dressing is evenly distributed.

Pour salad into a sealable container and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving. This lets the dressing soak in good and proper.

Serves 4-6.

Truthbomb by Danielle LaPorte / via my Pinterest

This is the second installment in my Learning Curves series. Check out the first post here:

♥ Learning Curve #1: Zero Preparation

Learning Curves: What I Did Wrong and What I Do Now (#2 – VEGETABLE FIASCO)

For years I had the crazy notion that vegetable-heavy dishes needed dairy in them or else they would be dull.

“Cross your fingers and cover it with cheese” was basically my veggie eating strategy. When I found out that my body is super sensitive to casein (one of the proteins in dairy) and starting weaning myself off of The Cheese and transitioning to a largely whole food vegan diet, at first I found it hard to eat a lot more vegetables.

It was not that I didn’t enjoy eating veggies – I have loved them ever since I was a kid!- I just had no real idea what to do with them in my own kitchen to make them exciting every day, without a river of cheese. Ah, the bad old days.

Have you ever gone to the supermarket and bought a whole bunch of fresh vegetables, only to end up having to make a dickhead of yourself by having to bin half of them a week later? Yeah. Me too. It is an embarrassingly wasteful and not at all uncommon state of affairs!

What the hell do I do with vegetables?!

My freshness-denying ritual used to go something like this: open refrigerator door, stare at abundance of incredible produce, throw my good intentions out the window and decide that I have no real idea how to make a mouthwatering, vege-based meal happen without toiling for hours, then bugger off to make something ‘easier’ (transl: something I already know how to do; like toast).

Sound familiar? Then this post is for you! Hopefully it will help ease any vegetable related cooking overwhelm. I’ve divided things into three parts: lunch, dinner and cooking methods.

KR Tip #1:When in doubt: Stir fry.

A whole lotta love

Fast forward a few years, to the present day, and I cannot believe how much amazing food I had been missing out on the whole time. Putting vegetables front and centre forces you to explore, to get creative, to learn a few new tricks. Before you know it you will be eating a more diverse and delicious range of meals, guaranteed.

Embracing vegetables with open arms has made me more excited about cooking than ever. I usually get more than the recommended* 5 servings each day without giving it much thought, which is a far cry from previously. Change happens! Juicing has been a revelation. Getting our hands on a juicer has meant that fast and easy bonus servings of veges, especially carrots and beetroot, are only ever a couple of minutes of chopping away. Once you are on the ball, between cooking and juicing, it is not hard to get 10 servings of vegetables each day if you want to. I can vouch for the fact that this will make you feel AWESOME. A juicer is definitely not essential, but it just makes getting a whole lot of fresh, raw nutrients a lot more convenient.

My main advice with vegetables is keep it simple. Sometimes a recipe might look as though there aren’t enough herbs, spices and other exciting things to make for a tasty result, but suspend your disbelief and you will likely be happily surprised. I was.

With a little groundwork, a whole new world of vege-packed yumminess will open right up.

One of the ways that I make sure that I am eating more than enough vegetables is consistently basing my lunch and dinner around several servings of vegetables. The next sections, Lunch and Dinner, are intended to give you an insight into how I am doin’ it at the moment. If you have an tips, tricks or favourite recipes for getting veggie energy pumping through your veins, do leave a comment or link and let us all know!

Lunch

Lunch is usually a light meal for me. At home in the summer it is often almost effortless: thanks to our rad buttercrunch lettuce patches, I eat a green salad or two almost every day. Mixing through grated beetroot and carrot is my favourite way to amp up the vegetable content of summer salads; they lend a punchy taste and texture and bright bursts of colour. Also, adding grated raw veggies to salad greens is a really easy way to bring some bonus raw food energy into your life.

If you have ever had an inkling to grow your own veges but feel a bit clueless and clumsy when it comes to gardening, consider this a nudge in the ribs. Having your own little lettuce patch means no more half eaten, wilted bags of salad lurking in the back of your fridge (ugh). Scatter seeds in a planter or two in Spring, water them regularly (daily when it is sunny and warm), and by Summer you will be sorted for salads. It rules, it really does.

In colder months, roasted vegetable salads – yes, again with the salads! – are so satisfying, and very simple to prepare: the night before, lightly roast a couple of servings of your favourite vegetables. Potato, sweet potato, carrot, beetroot and pumpkin are all great choices. Let cool, then mix through a handful of roughly chopped fresh herbs (e.g mint, coriander, basil), drizzle with a favourite vinaigrette, add a sprinkle or three of toasted pine nuts and a few cracks of salt. Et Viola!

I would say soup is great for winter lunches, but let’s face it, soup for lunch is fucking boring. You know what’s not boring? EPIC LEFTOVERS. That’s right. Leftovers are king when it comes to low effort lunches, vegan or otherwise. I wish I could tell you that I am one of those people who has been able to leave the house in the morning with an amazing freshly prepared lunch in hand.

Alas, I haven’t cracked that code yet. The type of dishes that are ideal to reheat are often full of vegetables by default: vegan lasagna, vege based curries, vegan stews, oven bakes and pies.

Another easy light lunch fix is the time honored tradition of avocado and sliced tomato on toast. It is a café classic for a reason ♥.

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Dinner

Dinner is where the bulk of my vegetable feasting happens. Just because I know how much you want to hear more about salad, I am going to gently recommend that you get acquainted with one of my all time favourites, the Midweek Meltdown Roasted Pumpkin Chickpea Salad. Cooled, lightly roasted vegetables – especially pumpkin and orange kumara (sweet potato) are a great addition to any salad: legume-based, rice-based, leaf-based. Experiment and discover your own fav combinations.

Roast vegetables also make mouthwatering vegetable bakes; my recipe for this Deluxe Roasted Vegetable Rice Bake with Rich Tomato-Onion Sauce is easier than it might seem at first glance, especially if you have sauce pre-prepped.

Stuffing vegetables with other vegetables is a tasty tradition that you should definitely get on board with. A hollowed out/halved vegetable + rice or legumes + diced vegetables + yummy sauce + herbs & spices = easy meals, happy bellies.

Another great thing about stuffed vegetables is that you can prepare them a day or two in advance of eating them. It is a sweet way to use up any leftover curries or stews that you have in the fridge. Check out my Quinoa Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms, Lentil Stuffed Roasted Red Capsicums, or decadent Gentleman’s Vegan Backed Capsicums.

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Here are five more recipes from the KR archives that showcase the supreme radness of vegetables:

♥ Shish Kebabs feat. Tangerine Baked Tofu with Roasted Capsicum & Pineapple Salsa
♥ Roasted Pumpkin & Balsamic Caramelised Onion Pizza
♥ Asparagus, Snow Pea and Green Bean Three Way
♥ Mini Tortilla Rolls with Roasted Red Capsicum Garlic Sauce
♥ The Whatever Vegan Pita with Tropical Citrus Tofu

KR Tip #2: Sometimes a final lil crack of sea salt is just what is needed to take things from really good to fucking great. My philosophy: eating highly processed foods extremely rarely means that I can get away with a little extra salt here and there.

via Taste.com.au – Cauliflower Steaks with Olive and Herb Salsa

Five 1/2 Simple Vegetable Cooking Methods

Roasting

A few vegetables – other than the ubiquitous potato – that become exponentially more delicious when coated in a little olive oil, sprinkled with salt and roasted until tender:
beetroot (something magic happens to the flavour of beetroot when it is roasted), asparagus (make more than you think you need, those mofos are moreish) and cauliflower (slice a half head widthwise, season a little, roast until tops begins to brown, flip and repeat). Roasted carrot is yuuuumy too, as are roasted green beans. And don’t forget zucchini.

Pan Frying

Quick, easy and awesome. Pan-frying vegetables in a little oil until just tender is the beginning of many a tasty dish. There are myriad options for pan-fried vegetable dishes. I find it to be the most versatile method for vegetables. So many veggies lend themselves well to being thrown into a frying pan with a little oil and some herbs and spices. The amount of one-pan meals you can make is mind-boggling. Instead of struggling with where to start, you will feel spoiled for choice!

Baking

Baking a meal makes your oven do most of the work. This method is full of amazing vege-heavy possibilities. Rice bakes, pasta bakes, lasagna, cannelloni, casseroles. Stick ’em in the oven, walk away and come back later on to a mouthwatering cooked dish. Round out the meal with a light salad or a little steamed or lightly boiled broccoli on the side, and you are ready to eat. As I mentioned above, leftovers of baked dishes are often great for lunches.

Boiling

Boiling begets mashing and mashed root vegetables are freaking awesome. Potato, kumara (that’s sweet potato to everyone outside of NZ ♥), pumpkin and parsnip, mashed with a few nubs of butter and a little creamy soy milk until smooth, are so good. Mashed potatoes et. al tend to get a pretty good wrap, but otherwise the words “boiled vegetables” can strike fear into the hearts of food lovers. The important thing to remember when boiling veges is to use as little water as you can get away with; that way less nutrients will get lost in the fray. Lightly boiled broccoli and green peas, drizzled with a favourite dressing, takes 3 minutes to make and very tasty.

KR Tip #3: Vigilence is key. Overcooking is the enemy of delicious food. Unless you are deliberately in the sauce zone, you want your veges tender. Sometimes the line between tender and mush is quite fine, so keep an eye on what’s cooking. Hitting that sweet spot makes for maximum flavour and preserves all of those nutrients that your body and mind love.

Raw

Regularly eating fresh, uncooked vegetables is one fantastic, instantly-effective thing you can do for your health. I need to do this more often! Last summer was the first time we ever planted and harvested vegetables in our garden and it was so wonderful having fresh lettuce, in particular, on hand. We ate salads every night for a couple of months, picking leaves from the buttercrunch patch around our lil feijoa tree. Another way to benefit from the vitamins and minerals in vegetables is to juice them; in some cases, nutrients are much better absorbed when ingested in their raw state.

Sauce It!

Okay, so ‘sauce’ is not actually a cooking method. BUT making sauce it is a great way to get, for example, tomatoes – try my Chunky Pasta Sauce; it is a tasty, all purpose, rich red sauce that tastes a million times better than a store bought version and, providing you already have olive oil on hand, it is much less expensive too – pumpkin and extra immunity-boosting garlic and fresh herbs into your self. The wild card of vegetable sauces is definitely cauliflower. Cauliflower based sauce: it’s an actual thing. And really, really good. Use fresh cauli, not frozen, for the tastiest results.

* recommended by the NZ Ministry of Health

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Quinoa gets a lot of love from people at lunch and dinner time, but it is also an awesome option for breakfast. It has has so much strong, slow-release energy, and is basically guaranteed not to leave you feeling sluggish.

Sweet deal.

My first time eating quinoa I cooked it myself, and my reaction boiled down to “WTF?!” Oh man; something was NOT right. What went wrong? Turns out that I had made a rookie mistake: I didn’t add enough flavour to the water-based broth that the quinoa was simmering away in.

This made for something bland and beige and blergh. Never again! Now I know that for the tastiest quinoa, the key thing to remember is that it soaks up flavour super well, which is best taken advantage of to get the best deal for our tastebuds and our bellies. You definitely wanna add a few extra flourishes!

Including fruit juice is a perfect way to begin adding those flourishes when cooking sweet quinoa, and that is what helps make the taste pop in this recipe. Juicy navel oranges and crunchy walnuts combine with the special golden, slightly malty sweetness of coconut sugar to simmer into existence a little something that explodes with flavour.

Sweet Orange & Walnut Quinoa with Fruit

Ingredients:

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed well
juice of 2 large navel oranges (around 2/3 cup)
1/2 – 2/3 cup water
2 tbsp coconut sugar*
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp walnut pieces

sliced fruit to serve; strawberries or pears are perfect!

What to do:

Add quinoa, juice and water to small saucepan. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low. Add coconut sugar, walnuts, maple syrup. Simmer for 15 minutes, until liquid is reduced and quinoa cook, adding more water if needed.

Serve with fresh fruit. Add a spoonful of gently heated, cinnamon-spiked coconut cream for extra tastiness.

Serves one (or a lil snack for two).

* you can use pure maple syrup or raw sugar instead of coconut sugar if need be. FYI, I score my coconut sugar from Commonsense Organics; some regular supermarkets around here sell it (e.g Countdown Newtown) but it is cheaper and tastier at Commonsense; worth the trip if you can make it happen, Wellingtonians!

Feature image via my Pinterest

Avocado as dessert? Uhh… what?!

That was my initial reaction when I learned of the whole foods trick of giving chocolate sweet treats an avocado base; no way was that culinary train wreck going to taste fantastic. A couple of months went by, and I moved into might-be-crazy-enough-to-work territory.

And if there is one thing that my vegan home cooking adventures have taught me, it is to never discount food combinations that upon first encounter make you raise an eyebrow.

Time to take this whole ‘avocado sweet treats’ thing for a test drive. With fingers crossed, I gave it a shot. The result? Victory! It totally works – chocolate avocado treats take advantage of the creamy, buttery traits and mild flavour that avocados have to make a super smooth, delicious dessert.

Who needs dairy, right?

Using avocado also harnesses a whole lot of nutritional radness that tend not to be anywhere near traditional dessert recipes. As well as being full of good fat, avocados contain over a dozen vitamins and minerals; for example, they are a good source of B vitamins, which fight disease and infections, as well as folate, which is essential for cell repair.

This is truly a silky, creamy, sweet and wonderfully rich chocolate confection. I solemnly swear that you will not be able to detect the avocado.

Use it as a dip for strawberries, dollop some on top of cake or cupcakes, serve with your favourite dairy free ice cream (mine is Tommy & James’ chocolate flavoured Nice Cream) … or do what I did yesterday afternoon and just eat it by the giant, mouth-watering spoonful.

Decadent Chocolate Crème

Ingredients:

2 ripe avocados (NOT over ripe – no brown bits!)
1/3 – 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder*
1/3 – 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
A nice big pinch of salt

What to do:

Scoop flesh out of avocados.

Add all ingredients to a blender, or use a stick blender and a bowl. Blend until completely smooth.

If needed, stop blending regularly to stir the mixture with a dessert spoon; I had to stop-stir-start a bunch of times since my blender isn’t a fan of super thick concoctions, and I don’t have a handheld blender! Totally worth it, though**.

Leftovers are best gobbled up within 24 hours – otherwise you might get some avo flavour starting to peek through; store in lidded jar in your refrigerator (jam jars are perfect ♥).

Serves 2-4.

* Standard cocoa is fine to use if that’s what you have to hand
** Having said that, I do have a little Vitamix envy right now!

Feature image via my Pinterest

Summer is on its way in my part of the world, and the warmer weather has me craving chilled treats. One of the beautiful, fresh, sunny days we have had recently inspired me to make my first cheesecake of the season.

Mmmm… cheesecake season.

Come time for dessert, I tend to err on the side of chocolate flavour wise. Not that I don’t love fruit-based sweet things. It’s just that I ran the math: chocolaty + creamy = supremely delicious. Fact. And also my instinctual cocoa-brain draws me towards all chocolate everything!

But I live with a superlover of lemony cheesecakes, and reckoned it was about time that I made one with him in mind! That’s how this recipe came about.

Everyone’s favourite creamy-vegan X-factor – soaked cashews – are blended with a handful of simple ingredients to form the smooth, zesty lemon filling. The base is a breeze, a delicious combination of pecan and almonds, sweetened with dates. The vibrant boysenberry sauce pulls it all together. If extra-fanciness is required, arrange fresh berries on top, and drizzle each slice with pure maple syrup before serving.

This baby will keep very well, covered and refrigerated, for around 5 days, and actually gets even tastier as time goes by. If your household is anything like mine, it will be loooong gone before 5 days is up!

Rustic Boysenberry Lemon Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Base

2/3 cup pecans
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/3 cup almond meal (packed)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
a couple of pinches of salt
1/2 cup dates, halved

Filling

1 1/2 cup cashews, soaked for 24 hours
2 tsp vanilla extract
zest of two large lemons
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (around 5 Meyer lemons)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp coconut oil

Sauce

1 x 400g can boysenberries in light syrup
3 tbsp raw sugar

What to do:

Sauce

Add boysenberries and raw sugar to a small saucepan. Bring to simmer, reduce heat to low and cook until mixture is reduced and thickened, around 40 mins. Set aside to cool.

Base

Add pecans, almonds, almond meal, vanilla extract and sea salt to your food processor. Blend until mixture begins to clump together. Add dates, continue blending until well combined. Press evenly into a pie dish. Put it in the freezer while you prepare the filling.

Filling

Add coconut oil to small saucepan, melt on very low heat; immediately set aside to cool.

Add lemon juice, zest, vanilla extract and cashews to blender. Blend until very smooth, then blend again! You want the filling to be completely free of any graininess. Add coconut oil and blend until well combined.

Finishing Up

Pour filling over top of pre-chilled base, spreading gently with the back of a spoon to help an ensure even thickness. Don’t worry if the mixture is not as thick as you might have been expecting.

Place in freezer for 2 hours, until filling is set hard.

Pour boysenberry sauce evenly over top of filling. Viola! Cheesecake mission complete!

Place it back in the freezer and remove 25-ish minutes before serving.

Feature image via Pinterest