Comfort Food

Skillet Gardener's Pie

 I'm studying at the moment which is why I have been a little absent. Geoff has been doing all the cooking and I've been breaking my procrastination up between episodes of the L-word (which I'm about as fond of as Gossip Girl (which, if you did not already know, is a very very bad show) but that ain't stopping me from watching it), posting on Facebook about how angry I am about various things (voting referendum, human rights violations, Geoff breaking my Tupperware can opener etc etc) and pilates.

Right now I'm posting this as a break from climate change study. I smelled Geoff cooking in the kitchen and it reminded me of something I've been wanting to say on my blog for quite a while. It goes something like this: FatFree Vegan Kitchen's Skillet Gardener's Pie is one of the most delicious, comforting foods I've eaten for quite a while and it's super easy to make!

Now, I know it's very lazy of me to just steal someone else's recipe and post about it. Normally, I find a recipe and tweak it to my liking (and convert from those horrid imperial units to nice metric ones) but this recipe was so tasty as it was that there's not much point pretending to change it.

The only variation we did try was to use sweet potato on top instead of normal potato and it worked just as well. The sweet potato, however, is a little thinner so add the milk slowly as you may not need as much.

With sweet potato topping instead of potato.

While we are on the topic of comfort food (and FatFree Vegan Kitchen) I thought I'd also mention Susan V's Herbed Polenta with Beans and Bok Choi recipe. This was the first time I had ever cooked with polenta and was curiously surprised by the way it thickens up in the saucepan (I don't have a pressure cooker so couldn't cook it the way she suggests). It was quite easy to cook although all the stirring certainly gave me a work out. However, I was a little disappointed with its lack of flavour and how heavy it was in the dish. Most of the casual cooks I know love polenta but it just didn't float my boat. The vegetables in the dish too were a little bit of a disappointment (I used balsamic vinegar, since white vinegar seems impossible to get here, and I'm not sure if it was that that caused the unusual, biting taste the vegetables had or if the dish just wasn't to my taste).

Herbed Polenta with Beans and Bok Choi

I still like the idea of the dish, though, and I like that polenta is filling and easy to make so I might try to build on the recipe in the future. Any ideas or other similar recipe suggestion would be most welcomed!

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

While we are on the subject of beetroot I would highly recommend this Can't Be Beet Chocolate Cake. It is super moist and has a delicious earthy chocolate taste. And it's low fat! The Forest in Brisbane used to have a cake that was similar (which was gluten free but not low fat) so it made me a little homesick.

I made it without the sauce simply because it is so delicious I didn't think it needed it. But I'm sure it would taste great with maybe a beetroot glaze or a berry frosting.

EDIT: Since first posting this I've had a lot of people contact me about how weird they think chocolate beetroot cake is. It's very much not weird! If you are in Brisbane you all need to go to The Forest in West End and try some! Or cook this one! It really is just delicious.

Mini Crustless Quiches

A while ago I was talking about quiche. I finally got around to making some from this great recipe on the FatFree Vegan website. They are light and delicious and great for fingerfood or snacks. I'm going to even try adding a crust (maybe brown rice). I've Australian-ised the recipe below.

Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches

olive oil spray
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1/2 cup red capsicum
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 tablespoon minced fresh chives (or spring onions)
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary (or 1/2 tsp. dried, crushed)
black pepper to taste

350g lite firm silken tofu, drained of water
1/4 cup plain soymilk
2 tbsp savoury yeast
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp tahini

1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 190C (375 F). Spray 12 regular-sized muffin cups well with non-stick spray.

Lightly spray a non-stick frying pan with olive oil and sauté the garlic, capsicum and mushrooms over medium heat until the mushrooms just begin to exude their juices. Stir in the chives, rosemary, and freshly ground black pepper, and remove from the heat.

Place remaining ingredients into a food processor or blender. Process until completely smooth and silky. Add the tofu mixture to the vegetables and stir to combine. Spoon equally into the 12 muffin cups: it will fill regular muffin cups about halfway (mine didn't so if you want bigger quiches maybe only fill 11).

Put the muffin pan into the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 180C (350 F). Bake until the tops are golden and a knife inserted into the middle of a quiche comes out clean–about 25-35 minutes depending on your oven and muffin cups (silicone will take longer than metal, so if you’re using a metal pan, check it at 20 minutes). Remove from the oven and allow them to cool for about 10 minutes.

FatFree Vegan Kitchen

This blog was named as it is as a humourous reaction to some jokes about vegans that popped up on The Simpsons over the years. I had, rather incorrectly, assumed that vegans can't really get fat. I carried this incorrect assumption until a couple of weeks ago... when I couldn't do up my favourite jeans.

I'm not sure when it happened but I have an idea it might have had something to do with the delicious vegan restaurants in Seattle and then my discovery that Oreos are vegan. I don't think Masterchef has helped either: the more extravagant the dishes on the television, the harder I tried to replicate vegan versions.

So I decided, with the hour or so I walk the dog every day, that I should perhaps cut down on the decadent vegan chocolate cheesecakes (recipe to come!) or rich, creamy cauliflower tarts (also to come!). Like most of my bright ideas I went to the extreme first: I ate 99.4% fat free 2-minute noodles for lunch and dinner every day. I soon got sick of that (we'll not mention how unhealthy it is). Then I tried steamed vegies and flavoured rice. It was good but once a year is enough for a plate of vegetables. I wanted something delicious and creative!

Then I remembered that I recently cooked some vegan quiches with a recipe from a blog called FatFree Vegan Kitchen. The quiches (recipe and photos soon!) were delicious (although, unfortunately, in the higher fat end) so thought I'd browse through SusanV's blog to find some delicious, fat free, vegan recipes. And I found some great ones I'd love to try!

Asparagus and Mushroom Quiches with a Brown Rice Crust

Red Lentil Sambar

Baked Spinach Kofta

Red Lentil and Rice Patties with Coconut-Mint Sauce

Apple Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes

Chili Mac

Easy Macaroni and Cheeze

Curried Chickpea and Quinoa