Vegan Beef Wellington with Mushroom Pate

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”]I’ve been struggling with finding a name for this recipe all day. The recipe is loosely based on a beef wellington, using a mushroom pate and mushroom filling, but the addition of brown rice and vegetables to the mixture makes it similar to a vegetable pie, either way it’s really good, I’m especially happy with the mushroom pate. (And a special thanks to all my lovely peeps who contributed to get me my sparkly new blender for my birthday! Lots of love to you all, and Happy Birthday to me!).

Vegan Beef Wellington with Mushroom Pate

Ingredients:

1 tbs non dairy margarine
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium leek, chopped
5 cups button mushrooms, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 cup small brocolli florets
4 sheets vegan puff pastry
4 tbs wholegrain mustard
1/2 cup brown rice
1 vegetable stock cube
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
1 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Method:

1. Heat half your margarine a fry pan over medium heat, add 1/2 your leek, 2 cups of chopped 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.

3. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Cook your brown rice according to packet instructions, dissolving one vegetable stock cube into the water while cooking. In the same fry pan as you used for the mushroom mixture, heat the rest of your margarine over medium heat, add garlic and leek, cook for 2 minutes. Add the wine and simmer for 2 minutes. Add your mushrooms and simmer for 5 minutes. Add your zucchini and broccoli and cook, stirring occasionally for approximately 7 – 10 minutes (depending on how soft you like your vegetables), then remove from the heat until your brown rice is ready.

4. In a large bowl mix your vegetable mixture with the brown rice. Add your parsley and mix it through.

5. In the middle of each sheet of pastry spread 1 tbs of mustard, 2 tbs of the mushroom pate and 1/4 of the vegetable mixture, top with another tbs of the pate and fold the pastry to make a pie, the edges of the pastry should stick with some pressure but, a little water or soy milk will work as well. Put each pie on a non stick baking tray, poke some steam holes in them and bake for 35 minutes.

Serve with a garden salad or mashed potato or eat it on its own. Either way it’s yum!

NOTE: I put 1 tbs ground chia seeds into the mushroom pate as well but this is an optional ingredient.

Also, for the record, I have discovered that it is impossible to take photos of pate that don’t look unappetising, which is why there are none of them here. It’s just one of those things that tastes great and looks gross. So, you’ll just have to take my word for it that there is pate in the pies okay? 🙂

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Mushroom, Pumpkin & Sage Risotto

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] While risotto seems like a lot of work with all the stirring required, it’s actually quite a fast meal that doesn’t require a lot of preparation, and best of all, there is only one pot to clean once you’re finished eating. I personally find risotto quite heavy and that is one of the reasons I like to add tomatoes during the last stages of cooking, I find that they lighten up the dish a little. If you wanted to make the meal without the tomatoes it would work equally well. Enjoy!

Mushroom, Pumpkin & Sage Risotto

Ingredients

1 tbs non dairy butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 clove garlic minced
1 medium leek, chopped
2 cups button mushrooms, chopped
1 1/2 cups pumpkin, chopped (approx 1.5cm cubes)
3/4 cup zucchini, chopped
3/4 cup cherry tomatoes, chopped
3 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh sage
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Melt your butter in a heavy based medium saucepan over medium heat. Add your garlic and leek, cook for 2 minutes. Add the wine and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the pumpkin, mushrooms, zucchini, vegetable stock, rice and some freshly ground black pepper.

2. Stir the mixture constantly, until the rice has completely absorbed the stock, this will take approximately 20 minutes. Test the rice at this stage, it will largely depend on the water content of your vegetables whether the rice is completely done, if it is still a bit cruchy, add another 1/2 cup of water or stock to the mixture and continue stirring until the liquid has been absorbed.

3. Stir in your tomatoes and fresh sage and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add extra salt and pepper if required. Serve the risotto, garnished with the chopped walnuts.

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Vegan Lentil & Vegetable Pie

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] With the temperature dropping so radically here in the last few days (farewell Summer! We will miss you!) I thought today would be a good day for a nice Wintery Vegetable Pie. I cheated a little by using puff pastry from the freezer instead of making it from scratch but I wanted to take photos of the pie before I lost the light. You could make your own pastry if you wanted though! As for the pie mixture, I personally like my veggies nice and firm but if you want them more mushy and pie-ish you might want to cook the pie for an hour or so, instead of my 45 minutes.

Vegan Lentil & Vegetable Pie

Ingredients:

2 1/2 sheets puff pastry
2 tbs non dairy butter
2 tbs plain flour
2.5 cups water
2 vegetable stock cubes
1 leek, finely chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1.5 cubes
2 cups button mushrooms, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 head of brocolli, chopped into small florets
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 can lentils
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
1/2 tbs dried marjoram
Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Bring a medium saucepan filled with water to the boil. Add the potatoes and boil them for 1o minutes, drain the water from the saucepan and put the potatoes aside. NOTE: They do not need to be totally cooked through at this point.

2. Melt the butter in a large frypan on medium heat. Add the leek and cook for 2 minutes, or until leek is softened and partly translucent, add the flour and stir well so that the flour and butter form a thick sauce. Cook for 2 minutes and then add the water and stock cubes. At this stage the mixture will start to look like a gravy.

3. Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Add the brocolli, carrots, zucchini and frozen peas, cook for a further 2 minutes. Make sure the vegetables are coated and remove from the heat.

4. In a large mixing bowl mix the vegetable mixture and the potatoes together. Add the lentils, basil and marjoram and mix thoroughly, add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Line your pie tin with puff pastry (I needed 1 1/2 sheets to do this but you may only need one depending on the depth of your tin, fill with your mixture, top with the other puff pastry sheet. Poke some holes in the top, decorate with any left over pieces of pastry and put in the oven for 45 minutes. Serve immediately.

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Vegan Lentil and Barley Soup

[tweetmeme source="VeganChickie"]My love affair with my slow cooker continues! Today’s recipe: Lentil and Barley Soup! Jam packed with veggies and lovely and spicy, this one is definitely going to become one of my stand by recipes, especially once winter comes. Serve with some crusty bread rolls.

Lentil and Barley Soup in the Slow Cooker

Ingredients:

1 tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbs minced ginger
1 small red chili finely chopped
1 leek, chopped
2 zucchini, chopped
3 ribs of celery, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 cup brown lentils
2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1cm cubes
5 cups water
1 cup vegetable stock
2 tbs tomato paste
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Turn the slow cooker to high, add the oil, garlic, chili and leek, cook for 10 minutes with the lid on.

2. Turn the slow cooker on low and add the rest of your ingredients, stir well and cover. Cook on medium for 8 hours.

3. Remove the bay leaf and cinnamon stick. Serve!

Garnish with fresh coriander or parsley! YUM!

Note: The longer you leave this recipe, the more stew-like it becomes. The first night we ate it as a clear soup as pictured and reheated it the following night as a stew – delicious!

Vegan Lasagne

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”]This is another one of those dishes that is SUPER yummy but somehow looks kinda yuk when you take photos of it, but I promise you, it’s very delicious! And quiet easy too despite all the different pans you will use!

Vegan Lasagne

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large can of chopped tomatoes
2 vegetable stock cubes
1 clove garlic minced
1 small red chili chopped finely
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 large red capsicum
10 button mushrooms sliced finely
1 large eggplant sliced finely
2 large zucchini sliced finely
2 fresh tomatoes sliced finely
3 layers of lasagne sheets
Salt and Pepper to taste
Fresh herbs (Basil & Thyme)

Method:

1. Quarter and deseed the capsicum and place it skin side up on a non stick baking tray. Place in the oven on high until skin blisters and blackens – about 20 minutes. Remove and discard the blackened skin and slice capsicum into thin strips. Reduce oven head to 180 degrees.

2. While the capsicum is roasting, make your tomato sauce: in a medium sized pan, on low heat, heat 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, add garlic, browning for 30 seconds before adding the tinned tomatoes, chilli, stock cubes and fresh herbs. Leave the pan on low heat, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

3. While the tomato sauce is cooking, in a small fry pan and using the rest of the olive oil in batches, brown 8 of your mushrooms, the eggplant and the zucchini. Set vegetables aside.

4. In a baking dish, place half a cup of your tomato sauce mixture and then place one layer of lasagne sheets on top. top with 1 third of each of the capsicum, mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini, fresh tomatoes and then 1 third of the remaining tomato sauce. Repeat until all your ingredients are used up. Top with the remaining uncooked mushrooms.

5. Bake, covered, in the oven at 180 degrees for 50 minutes, and then uncovered for a further 10.

Vegan Minestrone (slow-cooker)

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”]Well after the success of slow-cooker week I think I’m going to declare next week slow-cooker week too. All of these recipes were so easy and SO cheap as well, which is good because the foodie car needs new tires!

All-Day Minestone:
(Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion leek, minced
1 celery rib, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 medium sized zucchini or yellow summer squash – diced
6 cups vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup raw ditalini or other small soup pasta
1/4 cup pesto

Method:
1. Pour the oil in the bottom of the slow-cooker. Add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic. Cover and cook on high while you assemble the remaining ingredients.

2. After they’ve been prepped, add the green beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, zucchini and stock. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook on LOW for for 7 to 8 hours.

3. About an hour before you’re ready to serve, add the raw pasta to the slow cooker and cover.

4. Just before serving, stir in the pesto.

NOTE: you can use cooked pasta if you prefer instead of raw, just add it to the soup when you add the pesto.
The omnivore of the household sprinkles grated parmesan cheese on top for extra delish.

Ratatouille with Potato Gratin (vegan)

Oh happy day! Friday is here! There was once a time – believe it or not – that dear chef and I would spend a Friday slugging down a bottle of vodka and partying the night away, these days our pleasures are much more modest (and require a lot less recovery time). Tonight’s pleasure: Vegan Ratatouille with Potato Gratin, another bare-chested chef creation.

Ingredients:

For the Potato Gratin:
6 sebago potatoes
1 thyme sprig
750ml soy milk
1/2 cup linseed (ground)
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Pepper

For the Ratatouille
1 leek
2 red capsicum
2 plum tomatoes
2 zucchini
2 lebanese eggplant
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 cup tomato paste

Method:

Potato Gratin: Peel, wash and thinly slice the potatoes.

put them in a bowl and pour 500ml of the soy milk, cover the potatoes in the milk, add chopped thyme, salt and pepper.

Toss the potatoes so that they have an even covering of ingredients. Spray a small ovenproof pan with cooking spray, then layer the potatoes covering the bottom of the tin completely, continue this process until all the potatoes are used.

Sprinkle half of the ground linseed over the top of the potatoes, pour the rest of the milk over the top and then sprinkle the rest of the linseed over the mix. Cover and bake in moderate oven until cooked through (about 1 hour).

Ratatouille: Slice the leek and capsicum and place in the bottom of a baking dish.

Add crushed garlic and miss through. Thinly slice your tomatoes, zucchini and lebanese eggplant.

Layer the tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant in lines over the leek/capsicum mix. Starting in one corner of the pan, place a slice of tomato, then zucchini, then eggplant and repeat in rows over the vegetables until the whole pan is covered.

Top the pan with tomato paste and bake in the oven for approximately 45 minutes.

Serve on its own or with a fresh garden salad to lighten it up a little. Enjoy!