Lemongrass & Sweet Chilli Stir Fry

Serves 4

Cooking time ~ 40 minutes

You will need: Small sauce pan for broth; Medium sauce pan for rice; Wok

Ingredients:

For broth:

1 vegetable stock cube

1.5 cups water

1/8 cup vegetarian "oyster" sause (mushroom sauce - buy at Asian Grocers)

1/4 sweet chilli sauce

1 TBSP sesame oil

Juice of 1 lime

Lemongrass stalk - peeled (5cm piece of large stalk or several smaller ones cut into 5cm lengths)

1 TBSP minced ginger

350g packet plain tofu

For Wok:

1 TBSP sesame oil

1 TBSP minced garlic

3-4 shallots, diced

3-4 cups of vegetable pieces

Optional - fresh coriander

Rice:

2 cups basmati rice (uncooked) + 4 cups water (for cooking via absorption method) or alternatively rice for 4 serves cooked in other style of your choice.

Instructions:

- Dice tofu into 1cm cubes.

- In small saucepan combine stock cube and water and bring to boil to dissolve cube, then add other broth ingredients and mix well, add tofu cubes and simmer for 30 minutes.

- Put rice on to cook.

- Heat Wok and add sesame oil, add garlic and shallots, cook for 1-2 minutes, then scoop tofu pieces out of broth (reserve broth) and brown in pan.

- Add other vegetables and stir fry, when vegetables are still firm but cooked, add broth and stir fry for a further 2-3 minutes.

- Add fresh coriander if using and stir through

- Serve over rice.

Chinese Five Spice Rice

(This isn't actually my picture but for the sake of getting people's taste buds working I had to include one! I will take a photo of the below recipe and replace the photo ASAP!)

Cooking time ~ 40 minutes
Serves ~ 4 serves

This has a lot of ingredients and makes huge serves, but is perfect to keep for leftovers during the week, just reheat in the wok with a tiny amount of hot water stirred through while reheating if it dries out a little too much.

You will need:
1. large Wok with a lid or cover (I use an electric wok) or very large pan with lid.
2. medium saucepan

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups brown rice (brown rice is best for this dish as the nutty flavour is beautiful with the five spice)
• 350g plain tofu - cubed or even crumbled if you prefer (Tempeh can be used too, or leave out tofu altogether is you like))
  
• 3-4 cloves garlic - minced
• 2cm piece ginger - peeled and minced or very finely diced
• 4 shallots (scallions) - cut into 1cm lengths
• 1 cup shredded red cabbage or wombok
• 1 red onion - diced
• 1 small zucchini - diced
• 1 small carrot - diced
• 1/2 small red capsicum - diced
• 1 cup broccoli - in small florets
• 1 cup cauliflower - in small florets
• Sesame or peanut oil
• Light soy sauce
• Rice wine vinegar
• Chinese Five Spice powder
• 270ml tin coconut milk (low fat if you like)
• 1x vegetable stock cube.
• Fresh coriander
  

DIRECTIONS
1. Prepare tofu, garlic, ginger and red onion

2. Put rice on to cook for 20 minutes with 4 cups water and the stock cube.

3. While rice is cooking, in hot wok fry up tofu in 1 tablespoon on the oil (more if your wok is sticky) then when tofu nicely browned add onion, garlic and ginger.

4. Lower heat in wok and chop all veggies.

5. Heat wok to high heat again and add veggies (BUT NOT CABBAGE, add at step 9), stir fry using a little more oil if you need, then de-glaze the wok with a few splashes of the vinegar and soy sauce to lift any stuck bits from the wok. Don't over cook your veggies as they will soften when the rice is added and you don't want them soggy.

6. Give rice a stir and then pour in tin of coconut milk, mix well. Rice should now have been cooking about 20 minutes and be about 3/4 cooked.

7. Add rice and coconut milk mixture to the wok and mix well through the veggie and tofu mix. There should still be enough liquid in the rice to have the rice cook the remainder risotto style. If it's too dry add some hot water.

8. Add soy sauce and Chinese Five Spice to taste, I usually use about 3-4 table spoons soy sauce and 3 tablespoons of Five Spice, but always adjust to taste, as I don't like too much soy sauce, and the stock cube already makes this dish quite salty.

9. Add cabbage now, then cover and let rice finish cooking for 10 minutes approximately. If your rice is cooked and there is still liquid, increase heat and stir for a few minutes to evaporate excess liquid, it should be dryer than risotto, not too soggy, but not dry like fried rice. Garnish with fresh coriander.

Serve in large Asian-style bowls

Tofu Scramble & Tempeh Crumble

Serve on grilled or toasted sourdough

Tempeh Crumble and tomato
Tofu Scramble on Sourdough

Scramble cooking

I really must post my own tofu scrambled recipe, once I get around to actually writing down how I make it!!

But here is a recipe to start from, then it's up to you what you include.....I add savoury yeast flakes, some light soy sauce and tahini or tomato sauce, the tahini gives it a nice creamy taste. Serve on your fave bread, toast or sourdough.

Scramble Tofu according to the PPK

Enchilada Bake....stay tuned for the recipe

The finished product, ready for baking.
Final topping, a blend of home made hummus, avocado, cumin, and turmeric and paprika.
The 3rd and final layer, ready for sauce...
2nd layer
Building the enchilada - 1st layer of tortilla and filling
Enchilada filling cooked in the pan, ready to build the enchilada bake

Vegan Quiches - Sun Dried Tomato and Basil

Ingredients:

1 500g block plain firm tofu
1 cup vegetable stock
1/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup savory yeast flakes
3 stems shallots - diced
4 cloves roasted garlic - crushed and finely chopped
1 cup sun dried tomatoes (the oily type)
1 cup packed fresh basil
2 teaspoons paprika
Fresh black pepper
2 cups soy milk or rice milk
1 packet vegan shortcrust pastry (i.e. using veg oil based pastry, not butter)
Olive oil

Equipment:

large fry pan, preferably cast iron.
1 jumbo muffin tray
1 spray can of olive oil
1 blender
1 large mixing bowl
Oven heated to 180 degrees C

Directions:

In mixing bowl crumble the tofu well, using your hands to squeeze and crumble until no large chunks remain.

Heat olive oil in pan, and add shallots and tofu, cook until the tofu is browning slightly, for approximately 10 minutes. Add the stock to deglaze pan as required while tofu is cooking.

Stir tahini and savoury yeast flakes through tofu, then cook for a further 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and let cool slightly.

In the blender, blend the sun dried tomatoes and basil a little, then add the cooled tofu mix.

Blend into a paste adding soy/rice milk a little at a time.

Shake in paprika and some fresh black pepper to taste.

Spray the muffin tin with the oil then line the muffin tin with a circle of defrosted pastry (use a cup the same size as the base of the muffin holes to cut out the base) then with two strips around the edges, overlapping with the base and with each other.

At the pastry edges press well so that there are no visible joins that can separate.

Fill each pasty cup with the tofu filling and smooth the top.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, then add a slice of tomato to each quiche before baking for a further 10 minutes.

Garnish with a sprig of basil and serve with tomato sauce, a salad or baked veggies and white sauce (recipe below).

Roast Pumpkin Lasagna

Serves - 4
Time - Preparation 30 minutes / Baking 60 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 large pkt lasagna sheets

1 large bottle of plain tomato pasta sauce

1 recipe of Vegan White Sauce
(http://veganmadeeasy.blogspot.com/2010/01/vegan-white-sauce-recipe.html)

4 gloves roasted garlic

1/2 small pumpkin - diced into small cubes and roasted

1 tin of lentils - well drained, or 2 cups fresh cooked lentils.

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves, shredded.

1 350gm block of plain firm tofu

1/3 cup thinly sliced sun dried tomatoes

1/3 cup tahini

1/2 cup savory (nutritional) yeast flakes (plus extra for sprinkling on top before baking)

1 TBS lemon juice

Olive oil

Equipment:

Large mixing bowl, clean tea towel, lasagna baking dish, wooden spoon.

Directions:

1. Cube pumpkin and roast with a spray of olive oil, but only until still firm, don't over cook.

2. Roast whole garlic cloves in the oven, roasting time approximately 10 minutes, while the pumpkin is roasting, then crush with flat blade of knife.

3. Open tofu packet and wrap tofu block in clean tea towel to squeeze the water out of it, then in a large mixing bowl crumble the tofu with your hands until no chunks remain and it has the consistency of ricotta.

4. Mix tahini, yeast flakes, lemon juice and 1 TBS olive oil into tofu, then add sun dried tomatoes, basil leaves and roasted garlic and gently mix through with wooden spoon.

5. Add pumpkin cubes and lentils to tofu mixture then you are ready to build the lasagna.
6. Spray or grease lightly the lasagna dish with olive oil.

7. Build your lasagna - place 1 layer of pasta sheets on base of dish, then a scoop of the pumpkin- tofu mix, then pour over a portion of the tomato pasta sauce, ensure the pasta sheet is well covered with mixture and sauce, but only a thin layer. Repeat until you reach a final layer of pasta sheets on top.

8. Pour your white sauce evenly across the top layer of pasta, and ensure the pasta is well covered in a nice think layer of white sauce. Sprinkle some more yeast flakes on top of white sauce.

9. Bake in oven at 180 degrees for 45-50 minutes, then turn off oven and let sit for another 15 minutes before serving.

Laksa inspired tofu marinade.

Laksa Tofu (right) (and meat-less balls, left)

I love laksa.

I found laksa powder in the Asian grocery and made up this tofu marinade to have an easy laksa fix without the guilt of half a liter of coconut cream that comes with a great laksa.

Serves 2-3 as a side serve of tofu with a wombok salad. Or on jasmine rice with steamed vegies.

Ingredients:

1 x 375g block of plain tofu
1 x 275ml tin of light coconut milk
2-3 tablespoons of laska powder (3 if you like it spicier)
3 - 4 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup hot water

Directions:

Press tofu well in tea towel to squeeze out the water so the tofu absorbs as much marinade flavor as possible. Then cut into 2cm cubes approx.

Prepare marinade by mixing coconut milk, laksa powder, peanut butter and hot water together in a tupperwear container until peanut butter and laksa powder have disolved and combined well. Using boiling water helps disolve the peanut butter.

Place cubed tofu in marinade and coat well, store in fridge over night or for as long as possible prior to cooking.

To cook: (In oven or on stovetop)

Oven bake - Pour marinade and tofu into pyrex baking dish or small lasagna dish and bake in oven at 180 degrees until most of liquid has been reduced, turning tofu occasionally and coating well in marinade. Bake until tofu has firmed and becomes slightly golden and some reduced marinade remains as a sauce.

Stove top - Pour marinade and tofu into large frypan or cast iron frypan and cook uncovered on medium-high, occasianlly stirring, until the marinade has reduced to a thick sauce and tofu has firmed and browned.

Christmas 2009

My family doesn't go overboard at Christmas, we're not very good at over-eating really, and part of the family was doing the big Christmas dinner thing, so it was a light lunch for us yesterday....and we still had leftovers!

So for our vegan lunch we had:

Meat-less Balls with tahini-miso sauce and my favorite marinated tofu, a spicy laksa inspired flavor, with good old potato salad and a wombok and noodle salad with roasted seaseame seeds, and a dressing of sweet chili, soy and sesame. The wine was Sav Blanc and the desert was vegan christmas fruit cake with rum and nutmeg frosting and cherries, mango and pawpaw.

Mango Ginger Tofu

This is the most devine sweet and sour style tofu marinade ever from the Post Punk Kitchen

Mango Ginger Tofu

I served it up on Jasmine rice with lightly steamed baby squash, zucchini, broccoli and carrot with some soy and sesame sauce for the veggies. But as usual, no photos sorry, I'm terrible. I'll have to make it again just to take photos, not least because it is well worth making many times.

Vegan Lasagna......at last

Here is my lasagna recipe, at last. The best bit about this recipe is the awesome white sauce! It has the feel and taste of really naughty white sauce but is very low in fat for such a thing, and it can also be used on potato bake, macaroni, or cauliflower!

I will add recipes for alternative fillings (as I make them!) in future, such as bean and tofu filling and TVP and lentil filling, which are more "mince" like for traditional lasagna lovers.

Ingredients

1 family size packet lasagna pasta sheets (6 serves)
1 medium eggplant - sliced thinly, 3-5mm thin.
1 large red onion - sliced
1 red capsicum - sliced
1 zucchini (or 2 small) - sliced
300 grams plain firm tofu - crumbled well to resemble ricotta cheese
1 jar plain tomato pasta sauce (or your favourite recipe)
2 tins crushed tomatoes (or 4 cups fresh diced roma tomatoes)
1-2 teaspoons minced garlic

(White sauce ingredients)
1 cup nutritional (savoury) yeast flakes
2 cups soy or rice milk
1/4 cup Tahini
1 tablespoon (approx) cornflour

Herbs: fresh or dry basil, oregano, black cracked pepper and sea salt, to taste, be generous with the oregano.
Balsamic vinegar
Spray olive oil

Equipment

1 family size lasagna dish (or will fit into two small pyrex dishes)
1 small saucepan
1 large saucepan
trays for grilling/roasting veggies
mixing bowl

Preparation

Slice eggplant very thinly, lay on paper towel or a tea towel and lightly salt for 10 minutes (lots of water will come out of them, but so will any bitterness, if your eggplant is very fresh this isn't needed)

While eggplant is salted, crumble tofu well between your fingers in a mixing bowl until it looks like ricotta cheese.

Instructions

Heat oven to 180 degrees C.

Grill or roast lightly, eggplant, capsicum and zucchini slices, with a spray of olive oil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar over slices. Put aside when cooked, for when ready to build lasagna.

In a large saucepan cook onion and garlic until onion softens.

Add crumbled tofu and mix well with onion.

Continue to cook tofu mixture for 5 minutes, then add pasta sauce and tinned/fresh tomatoes, and mix well, stirring through herbs, salt and pepper. Turn off heat.

Make white sauce (recipe below).

Build lasagna - starting with a layer of pasta sheets, top with a small amount of tofu and sauce mix and grilled veges, then repeat layers of pasta, tofu mix and vege mix until a final layer of pasta.

Pour white sauce mixture over lasagna and smooth across top, then sprinkle 1/4 cup savoury yeast flakes across the top to give a cheesy appearance.

Bake for 45 minutes.

White Sauce Recipe

Slowly heat 2 cups soy or rice milk until lightly steaming, do not overheat!
Stir in 3/4 cup of nutritional yeast flakes
Stir in 1/4 cup tahini, mixing well.
Slowly add cornflour and mix continually so clumps don't form.

Continue to mix until sauce thickens, about 3-4 minutes. Add more soy milk or cornflour if needed to adjust thickness.

Publication, Whoo!

Great new Australian Website from Action for Animals - TryVeg

http://www.tryveg.net/

And they have kindly published my recipes!

Recipe: Asian-style Soup with Tofu and Udon Noodles

Recipe: Pasta Bake with Cashew Cheez Sauce

Thai-style Curried Tofu

I had some red curry paste to use up, and my family like satay-style tofu stir fry, so today I came up with the following marinade.....

Ingredients:
1 TBS Red curry paste (fish sauce/shrimp paste free!)
1/4 Cup light soy sauce
1 Small tin of low fat coconut milk (165ml)
equal parts water (165ml)
4x shredded Kaffir lime leaves
1 TBS peanut butter
3 TBS satay powder

1 250g block plain firm tofu - cubed

Mix all ingredients well in shallow container and place tofu cubes into marinade. Refrigerate for as long as possible, best if made at lunch or the night before.

To cook:
Heat a mild oil such as Rice Bran Oil in wok. Scoop tofu cubes out of marinade (set aside) and brown well in wok, add veggies such as spring onions, broccoli, wombok or other Asian veggies, mushrooms and zucchini, stir fry for 3-4 minutes, add remaining marinade, heat well then serve over basmati or brown rice.

Satay Tofu

MARINADE:

1 cup Pineapple juice (unsweetened)

2 Cloves Crushed Garlic

3 Tablespoons salt reduced light soy sauce

2 Tablespoons satay powder

Stir marinade ingredients together and coat tofu cubes well, store in fridge overnight or as long as possible.

INGREDIENTS:

Marinade and Tofu from above.

Peanut or rice bran oil

½ cup crunchy peanut butter

1 small onion

1 cup vegetable stock

1 tsp ground cumin

½ cup soy milk or coconut milk

1tsp mild curry powder

½ cup of the tofu marinade

1½ tbs lemon juice

1 carrot, peeled and sliced

1 red capsicum, roughly chopped

1 cup snow peas, trimmed

½ cup broccoli florets

Steamed rice, to serve

METHOD:

Pre-marinate tofu

Heat the oil in a fry pan. Add tofu, reserving half a cup of the marinade, cook until golden brown on both sides. Set aside and cover to keep warm.

Combine peanut butter, onion, stock, cumin, soy milk, curry powder, marinade and lemon juice in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Bring mixture to the boil; reduce heat and simmer, (5-6 minutes).

Whilst sauce is simmering, heat remaining oil in the fry pan. Add carrot, capsicum, snow peas and broccoli, stir-fry (2-3 minutes) until tender.

Return tofu to the fry pan add satay sauce, toss to combine and warm through. Serve immediately over steamed rice.

Tofu 101 - Preparation

Many people have a severe misunderstanding of tofu. No tofu doesn't taste good, out of the packet (unless you buy the Malaysian Satay pre-marinated variety or are my dogs who have a tofu-thing) it's all about what you do with it.

Marinating tofu is a really good place to start, once you've got a marinade you like, you can experiment with different ways of cooking it.

The longer you marinate it for the more flavour it will absorb. So a little pre-planning helps.

In Australian supermarkets it is easy to buy fresh packed plan firm tofu in the refrigeration section, next to those nasty margarine's, cheeses, dips and slimy packets of pig slices.

I like to squeeze my tofu in a few layers of paper towel to get excess water out of it to allow maximum absorption of marinade. Or if you want it extra dry, wrap it in a clean tea towel, then place between 2 plates and plonk a cask of wine (for cooking purposes obviously) on top to squeeze it while you prepare the marinade.

Chop the block into bite size cubes, slices, cutlets or triangles. Then place in a container deep enough or shallow enough depending on the volume of marinade, to have all the tofu covered. Keep it in the fridge until needed.