Mushroom Pâté

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] I made this pâté as part of the Vegan Beef Wellington recipe I made a couple of weeks ago but I liked the pâté so much that I thought I would post it as a separate entry, it’s such a fast and easy recipe and it’s definitely delicious enough to deserve it’s own post. Also it will be much easier for me to find this way! Apologies in advance for the dodgy photo, I know it doesn’t look appetising, but pâté is just one of those things that looks kinda gross, you’ll have to take my word for it that it’s delicious.

Mushroom Pâté

Ingredients:

1 tbs non dairy margarine
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 small leek, chopped
2 cups button mushrooms, chopped
2 tsp tamari
1 tbs vegan mayonnaise
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup soft silken tofu
1/2 cup walnuts
1 tsp dried thyme

Method:

1. Heat half your margarine a fry pan over medium heat, add your leek, mushrooms, tamari and the thyme. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until mushrooms are cooked.

2. Place the mushroom mixture into your blender, add mayonnaise, breadcrumbs, tofu and walnuts and blend until smooth. Place in a small bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

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Peanut-crusted Thai Tofu with Cucumber Salad

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] Bare-chested chef – who is not so bare-chested these days since we moved to chilly New Zealand – has guest starred in the Vegan Chickie kitchen tonight and come up with this beauty of a recipe. It was a huge hit, the spicy peanut crust on the tofu was delicious and a great match with the crunchy salad and beautiful salad dressing. All in all an excellent dish, I can’t wait to try it again! For the health conscious amongst us, the step where you brown the tofu in a frying pan can be skipped. Recipe below serves 4.

Peanut-crusted Thai Tofu with Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

2 pkg tofu, pressed
1 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
1/4 cup red curry paste
1/2 teaspoon tamari
4 tbs sweet chili sauce
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 cup fresh coriander, coarsely chopped
1 cucumber, sliced
2 cups bean sprouts
1/3 cup fresh mint, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, sliced
2 dried shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup water
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbs canola oil (for the dressing)
Jasmine rice, prepared as per packet directions
Peanuts & fresh coriander to garnish

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Firstly in a blender or food processor, grind your shiitake mushrooms to powder then, in small saucepan combine the ground mushroom with a 1/4 cup of water, bring the mixture to the boil, stirring occasionally and then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

2. In a blender process the peanuts, curry paste, 1 tbs of sweet chili sauce, tamari, coconut milk and half the coriander until combined.

3. Slice each tofu block into two slabs (as pictured below), heat 1 tbs of oil in a fry pan and fry the tofu for approximately 5 minutes – until it is browned, then flip and brown the other side. Place the tofu on an oven tray, spread the peanut mixture on each piece, roast uncovered for about 20 minutes.

4. While the chicken is cooking, cook your rice as per the directions on the packet and prepare your salad and salad dressing.

5. In a large bowl, combine cucumber, carrot, sprouts, mint and remaining coriander. In a screw-top jar combine the mushroom mixture, lime juice, sesame oil, 3 tbs sweet chili sauce and remaining canola oil, shake well to combine and then pour over your salad, toss well.

6. Remove the tofu from the oven, slice into 1 cm strips. Serve with salad & jasmine rice, garnish with coriander and peanuts.

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Carrie’s Carrot Cupcakes

[tweetmeme source="VeganChickie"]I’m happy to welcome my friend Carrie as our guest blogger this week, who is here to share her carrot cupcake recipe with us. Carrot cake is my absolutely favourite cake so I’m really looking forward to giving this recipe a try. Thanks for sharing this with us Carrie!

Vegan Carrot Cupcakes

½ cup (115g) Nuttelex
1 cup soft brown sugar
¼ cup apple sauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ cup soy milk
1 cup carrots, finely grated
1 ¼ cup plain flour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and flour a muffin tray or line muffin tray with cupcake papers.

Cream nuttelex and brown sugar until smooth and creamy. Add apple sauce, vanilla extract, salt, baking powder, spices and soy milk and carrot and mix together well. Add plain flour and stir until combined.

Spoon batter into muffin tray and bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until cooked through. Cool completely before icing.

Vegan Cream Cheese Icing

¼ cup Nuttelex
¼ cup Tofutti
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
lemon juice to taste

Cream together margarine and cream cheese. Add the icing sugar in 2 batches. Mix until smooth and creamy, then add the lemon juice.

Vegan Nut Roast

[tweetmeme source="VeganChickie"]This was my first attempt at a nut roast, before today I hadn’t even eaten one before but decided that I would give it a go for Christmas. I served it with mashed potatoes, glazed carrots with sesame seeds, fresh bread rolls and home made stuffing (recipe to come). Luckily I loved it, because I’m going to be eating it the leftovers for a whole week! I really need to get a smaller loaf tin! It was considerably more crumbly than I expected, but delicious all the same!

Vegan Nut Roast:

Ingredients:
1 tbs olive oil
1 carrot finely chopped
1 leek finely chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 small red chili finely chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 vegetable stock cube
1/2 cup non diary butter melted
200g cashews finely ground
100g walnuts chopped roughly
100g pinenuts
400g firm tofu chopped into 1/2 centimeter cubes
100g button mushrooms chopped finely
1 can brown lentils drained
2 tbs fresh basil chopped finely
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
2 tbs tomato paste
Orgran egg replacer (equiv 3 eggs)
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1.Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Heat the oil in a medium pan on medium heat, add the leeks, garlic, chili and carrots and cook for 5 minutes to soften the vegetables, add the wine, vegetable stock and additional stock cube and simmer for a further 10 minutes.

3. In a large bowl combine nuts, mushrooms, tofu, lentils and herbs. Mix thoroughly. Add the wet ingredients (melted butter, egg replacer mix and tomato paste) and mix well to combine. Finally add the garlic and leek mixture from the pan and mix it all through so that your ingredients are evenly mixed through.

4. Pour the mixture into a loaf tin lined with baking paper and bake the roast for 40 minutes. Depending on the size of your pan it may take longer to cook. It is done when a knife to the centre of the roast comes out clean. Leave it to stand for 10 minutes before upending onto a plate to serve.

Vegan Chocolate Tart

[tweetmeme source="VeganChickie"]This tart was so easy to make that I kind of feel like it was cheating to call it home made. We served it with chocolate soy ice cream, but if that is too much chocolate for you (no such thing!) then it would be great with a vanilla ice cream or coconut cream whipped cream instead.

NOTE: Your chocolate mixture may differ than the pictures below, don’t panic! I used firm tofu for this recipe but you can use silken with no issues, I prefer the firm but silken is also delicious and has a much more smooth moussey type consistency).

Vegan Chocolate Pie

Ingredients:
3 packets of oreos
1/2 cup non dairy butter (melted)
500 g firm tofu
500 g non dairy choc chips
1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or 2 teaspoons extract)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Blend the Oreos until they are just crumbs (you can do this with or without the Oreo filling, I did it with, if you are removing the filling you might want to add more butter). Combine crumbs with melted butter and line a pie tin with the crumbs to form a pie crust. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes and then remove and allow to cool completely.

2. Blend your tofu and vanilla until creamy.

3. In a medium pan, on low heat, melt your chocolate chips. Add the melted chocolate to the tofu mixture and blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into the (cool) pie crust, spread evenly and put it in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours before serving.

It’s so good, but very rich! I sprinkled the top with crushed fruit tingles, but that was just to make it pretty, and didn’t actually have a function!

Enjoy!

Vegan Pad Thai

This recipe is a nice fast one for a lazy night in when you aren’t up for cooking a feast. (or when you are already worn out from cooking cupcakes all afternoon!)

Brooklyn Pad Thai
(Vegan with a Vengeance)

Ingredients:
450g rice noodles

For the sauce:
6 tablespoons tamari
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons tomato puree
2 tablespoons chilli sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons tamarind concentrate or lime juice

For the pad Thai:
6 tablespoons ground nut oil (we just used vegetable oil)
450g tofu drained and pressed and cut into small triangles
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon lemongrass, finely chopped
125 g bean sprouts
8 spring onions. sliced
2 small dried red chillies, crumbled
50g chopped roasted peanuts
4 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
Lime wedges for serving.

Method:
Prepare the rice noodles according to the directions on the packet.

Mix together the ingredients for the sauce.
Preheat a large nonstick frypan or wok over moderate-high heat, then quickly add the tofu. Stir fry for for 4 – 5 minutes, until the tofu is crisp on the outside. Remove from pan and set aside.

Pour 2 tablespoons more of the oil into the pan, add the garlic and lemongrass, stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the sauce and when it starts to bubble, add the noodles. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, then add the tofu, bean sprouts, spring onions, chillies, and peanuts. Stir for 30 more seconds.

Transfer to two serving plates and garnish with coriander and lime wedges.

Ginger-Scented Vegetable Pot Stickers (vegan)

This is another of my favourite recipes, it is pretty well known that I am a bit of a dumpling fiend, I just can’t get enough of the stuff! My love of all things dumpling suffered in our move to Sydney; we are yet to find a dumpling house quite like the Camy Shanghai Dumpling house in Melbourne but in the meantime we have these delicious little pot stickers to keep me satisfied. The recipe comes from Vegan Planet, and calls for pre-made wonton or dumpling wrappers, but I have included the ingredients etc to make your own because that is how we do it. It’s pretty easy, and doesn’t add much more time to the recipe, just make sure you make the dough first and then wrap it and leave it to sit while you process the rest of your ingredients (or grate them on the microplane like we do) otherwise your timing will get confused.. anyway, without any further ado…

Ginger-Scented Vegetable Pot Stickers
(Vegan Planet)

Ingredients:

For the dumpling dough:
2 cups plain flour
1 cup boiling water

For the pot stickers:
1 cup minced wombok
1 cup drained and crumbled extra firm tofu
1/4 cup finely shredded carrots
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon tamari or other soy sauce
1 cup water

Method:

For the dough: In a bowl combine the flour and boiling water, stir with chopsticks until lumps appear.

Knead the dough for approximately ten minutes (you may need to wait for a while for the dough to be cool enough to knead) then wrap in cling wrap and set aside for 30 mins to an hour.

After an hour, roll the dough out on a floured surface and using cookie cutters cut out dumpling wrappers.

For the pot stickers: In a food processor, combine the wombok, tofu, carrots, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, cornstarch, salt and pepper. Process until well combined.

Place 1 wonton wrapper on a work surface and spoon 1 tablespoon of the filling mixture on the lower third of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper over the filling to form a semicircle. Moisten the edge of the wrapper with water to seal. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.

Heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil in a large nonstick pan over medium high heat (wait until the oil is HOT!) Place the dumplings in the pan and cook until golden, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the tamari and the water, cover, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes.

Uncover and cook until the water evaporates, 2 to 3 minutes.

Serve hot, with dumpling sauce (preferably the spicy kind!)

NB: You might need to do that last step in two batches depending on the size of your pan.

Tofu Bobotie

Tonight’s dinner was Vegetarian Tofu Bobotie with Millet. We got the recipe out of Sunday’s at Moosewood Restaurant. Normally Moosewood is such a great book but I must say that I wasn’t very impressed with this one at all. There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with it, there just wasn’t anything fabulous about it either. So, instead of sharing a recipe, tonight I am going to pop up a few photos and leave it at that.

Naked in Newtown – Breakfast the vegan way.

This morning darling chef and I headed out to try a newly discovered vegan cafe in Newtown. I heard about it on the Happy Cow website (link to the right) which is where I get most of my vegetarian/vegan restaurant suggestions from. Anyway, we are pretty familiar with the Newtown area so we didn’t have a problem finding the place, although the signage left a little to be desired. The biggest sign out front was for ‘Basil’ which is a pizza place. From what I can tell, the cafe is a coffee place combined with a vegan breakfast cafe in the mornings and early afternoons and then a pizza place at night. Seeing the meat-lovers pizza advertised in the same shop where we were eating from an all vegan menu was a little odd but I guess it works for them!

It’s only a small place and there was only 1 other table taken in the place, but it was almost at the 1pm cutoff for breakfast so that could explain the lull. We were seated and given a paper menu with 6 vegan dishes listed, including a ‘morning after fry up’ with vegan sausages and bacon & ‘organic pancakes’ – buckwheat pancakes with fruit and maple syrup. The waitress came by and asked what we would like to drink, Chef ordered a latte – no problem – and I ordered a peppermint tea. It wasn’t on the menu (I didn’t think to look) but instead of asking me to choose something else, the waitress told me she would organise it before running out the front door of the cafe and going upstairs to her flat where she raided her own personal stash of organic peppermint tea! How about that for fabulous service!

Meals ranged from $7 – $16. We both ordered the “Big Aussie Vegan Feast” which came with fried, smoked tofu, hash browns, tomato, organic baked beans, mushrooms, spinach and organic sourdough toast. The meal came out quickly and everything was fabulous, a pet hate of mine is soggy hash browns but these were lovely and crispy! The sourdough was fabulous and seedy – and served with nuttlex – the beans were delicious and the tofu was wonderfully smoky. We will definitely be back to this great little place! Next time I’ll be ordering the scrambled tofu!

And, best of all it is even right across the road from the Vegan’s Choice grocery so we were able to dash in on our way home and stock up on vegan chocolate for our baking day tomorrow!