Sweet banana kale smoothie

This is a HUGE smoothie. I’ve been having it very regularly in the morning since I’ve been pregnant… followed by more breakfast! If you’re not pregnant, you will probably drink half, or have a few glasses of this throughout the morning.

2 medium to large bananas
3-4 large kale leaves, torn up
10-12 almonds (preferably soaked)
1-2 brazil nuts
1 tbsp goji berries
3 dried figs, chopped
medium to large dash (bloop!) of cold-pressed linseed (flax) oil
2 cups water

Put all the ingredients in the blender & blend until smooth, then drink up & say OMNOMNOM!

Other options:
+ If the smoothie is a bit warm after blending, add up to a cup of ice and blend for another 10 seconds.
+ Add a teaspoon of cinnamon &/or sprinkle some on top.
+ Add a teaspoon of spirulina &/or a teaspoon of dairy-free probiotic powder.
+ Swap linseed oil for chia seeds, which are super-high in omega oils, & – like linseed/flax – are in the correct ratio for absorption. Note that if you let the smoothie sit around before you drink it, the chia will turn the smoothie into a thick pudding texture! & on that note, stay tuned for my chia pudding recipes!

* Note almonds are softer after soaking & blend up more easily, making a smoother milk. Soaked almonds are also sweeter! Ideal soaking time is at least 12 hours, but just a couple hours or overnight will make a big difference. Additionally: when raw seeds – including almonds – are soaked, it begins the sprouting process, during which fats begin to be converted for the growing process into other nutrients, such as protein. I keep a bowl of raw almonds (about a cup or two) soaking in water in my fridge, and I change the water every day or two.

Coming up next: raw carob cookie recipe, raw chia pudding & choc pudding recipes – all super-easy & requiring no cooking!

Today’s big (mostly) raw breakfast

Green Banana-Kale Smoothie

Ingredients
4 bananas, peeled
½ cup kale leaves, torn up
10 raw almonds
2 raw brazil nuts, shelled
2 sweet dried dates, pitted
1 tsp probiotic powder
1 tsp spirulina powder
water as needed

Method
Put everything in a blender with about a cup or two of water. Blend it, blend it good – for two minutes at most. Add more water (if needed) until desired consistency is reached. Pour into glasses. Drink it! Or eat it with a spoon, if it’s very thick. Um. Serves 2.

Along with the smoothie, today’s mostly-raw breakfast included Marmite, sliced tomato, a sprinkle of nutritional yeast flakes & fresh cracked pepper on raw bread, and a pot of Japanese green tea.

Nutrition: details for the whole breakfast
Brazil nuts contain lots of selenium – they’re the best source around. Apparently just 1 nut a day can fix a deficiency within a week! There’s also B-12 in the Marmite & yeast flakes, more B vitamins in the bananas, vitamin C in the tomato, lycopenes, all sorts of crazy nutrients in the spirulina, minerals in the kale… The bread and nuts contain some fat, but that’s mostly made up of essential omega oils. Zinc, potassium, fibre, yadda yadda yadda. Some specific details (approx):

Calories: 447
Carbohydrate: 73.3g
Fat: 16.0g
Protein: 12.7g
Fibre: 10.0g
Calcium: 160.9mg

That’ll do, pig, that’ll do. A pretty good start to the day, and certainly a great energy boost. Coming up next for morning tea: a mandarin! Or two… possibly three… they’re really tasty organic mandarins! And, as a bonus, they’re high in vitamin C and contain a bit of calcium and even some iron. And probably lots of other useful stuff that I can’t think of right now. Fruit is good, ja.

Carob Banana Breakfast Smoothie Treat!

Ingredients
1/4 cup raw almonds
1.5 cups filtered water
a crushed vanilla bean or 1 tsp alcohol-free natural vanilla essence
1 tsp dairy-free pro-biotic powder*
2 ripe or overripe bananas
1 tbsp (or be more generous! yum!) raw carob bean powder
pinch to 1/2 tsp spirulina powder
tiny pinch of sea salt

Method
Add almonds, water, vanilla and pro-biotic powder to blender, blend until smooth (it will be slightly warm by this stage, activating the pro-biotic). Add remaining ingredients, blend until well combined. Serves 2.

Notes
Serve over ice if you’d prefer your drink cooled rather than room temperature-ish, or use refrigerated or frozen bananas.

You can store it in the fridge for a 2-4 days, during which the pro-biotics will flourish.

*Animal-free/dairy-free pro-biotic powders typically contain lactobacillus acidophilus, bifidobacterium lactis, and/or oligofructos. These are fungus-like, unicellular microorganisms, also found in soy yogurt, similar to yeast, from the bacteria kingdom rather than animal. Unlike animals, they don’t have capacity for suffering, thinking, etc, and you’ll be giving the blighters a happy home inside you anyhow! And they will help maintain your gut flora health. The point is: it’s vegan.

Adventures in Juicing

For breakfast I made an interesting juice with my Compact Juicer (great little electric juicer, can munch through anything easily, including wheatgrass).

Ingredients:
1 large carrot
2 small apples, deseeded
2 sticks celery
1 small-ish tomato
1-2 handfuls red (purple) cabbage
small cucumber (5″-ish), peeled
Stirred into the juice just before drinking:
large pinch psyllium husk
large pinch flaxseed (linseed) meal
large pinch spirulina powder

It was tasty. I expected to pull an ick face, and didn’t! I’m getting used to this whole vegetable juice business. Yum! Next time I’ll chuck a small piece of ginger into this mix to spice it up, and possibly a spinach or kale leaf for green goodness.

I’ve also been enjoying loads of pineapple, lemon, and mint juice lately (just as easily done in the blender if you don’t have a juicer, or if you’d like a bit of extra fibre in the juice). Very OMNOMNOM. Get yourself a juicer if you can – juicing is tasty fun! And nothing that comes in a bottle or carton comes close to matching the goodness of fresh juice, either.

This just in…

Leftover masoor tamatar dal on toasted gluten-free bread makes a superb breakfast.

I’ll post further updates on this very important issue as they come to hand.

The proof is in the pictures

There’s nothing like a great whopping pile of vegan stodge. Exhibit A:

Simmer potatoes in water and salt until very tender. Add Nuttelex or Earth Balance or similiar. Pinch of nutmeg. A clove or three of crushed garlic, some mixed dry herbs of your choice, a heaping of nutritional yeast, and mash like you’ve never mashed before. Mash the fork out of those potatoes. You can do it. I believe in you. Then top them with strips of pan-fried marinated tempeh (organic BBQ sauce or Braggs/tamari & garlic is good), drown it all in gravy (homemade miso gravy rocks: mushrooms, low-sodium vegetable stock, miso paste, rosemary, thyme, nutritional yeast & tapioca starch to thicken), and sprinkle with shredded fresh basil. Sprinkle liberally. Do everything liberally. Except in Australia, where you want to do it Laborly or – even better – Greenly. A-hoy-hoy.

Raw pancakes? It’s entirely possible and entirely tasty fresh! Check this action out. Exhibit B:

These are great in the Australian summer – no-cooking-necessary! Mini flax pancakes (flaxmeal, coconut oil, agave, salt and water, rolled into balls then flattened into pancake shapes) topped with carob pudding (food processed carob, avocado, banana, and dates), all topped with grapes, shredded coconut, sliced banana, and chopped macadamia nuts, with a little agave nectar drizzled over & around it all.

The proof is in the tasting, actually. These pictures are a poor substitute, I’m afraid, so you’ll just have to get into the kitchen and cook up some vegan food pr0n yourself. There’s a good lad and/or lass.

Homemade Baked Beans

Guess what? Baked beans are supposed to be baked in an oven, not poured out of a can! It’s true. Who knew? Anyway, here’s my version of homemade baked beans…

Ingredients
4 cups of cooked beans, eg. navy beans or mixed beans
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large onion, diced
Sauce ingredients:
3 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons Braggs (dark soy sauce)
2 teaspoons molasses
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Spices
2 tablespoons mustard powder
2 teaspoons cumin powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180degC (350degF).
2. To a large baking dish (eg. large lasagne glass dish), add sauce ingredients and spices. Stir until combined.
3. Add onion, garlic and beans. Stir until evenly distributed and covered in sauce.
4. Bake uncovered for 50-60 minutes, or until a little bit of a crust forms on top. Serve over toast or however you like your beans!

Serves 6-8.

+ Can be stored in fridge, reheated on stove or in oven, or frozen for later. I make 1-2 batches at once and freeze in individual servings to reheat what I need for breakfasts. It saves lots of time. Although baked beans are especially nice just out of the oven with a bit of a crust on top.
+ Using spring onions or shallots instead of brown/white onion makes a very nice flavour, too!
+ Navy beans are standard baked beans, but a mix of beans can be nice, too.

Fufu! (aka French-style Scrambled Tofu)

This recipe is long overdue… so here goes…

Most scramble recipes use hard tofu. Personally, I think that’s a bit gross and far too dry… I usually use momen tofu, but silken tofu or maybe a soft medium tofu are also fine for this recipe. The softer the tofu, the more careful you have to be not to overcook it, as it will separate if you’re not careful…

These quantities are rough… if it isn’t obvious. A bit of taste-testing as you go couldn’t hurt… and you should always do that. After all, my ingredients may not be sourced from the same places as yours, and might be a little different in taste. Same goes for any and all recipes you use that you haven’t invented yourself!

Fufu! (aka French-style Scrambled Tofu)

Ingredients
vegetable oil (not olive, it’s too bitter for this)
large pinch of turmeric
scant tablespoon Braggs soy sauce (or another gluten-free dark soy sauce or tamari)
scant tablespoon savoury yeast flakes (aka nutritional yeast)
mushrooms, sliced (2-4 buttons)
spinach or chard, chopped (around a large handful)
half a block of momen (silken to medium) tofu (around 375g)
salt and pepper
toast & tomato wedges to serve

Method
1. In a non-stick frying pan, heat up a little oil on high heat. Fry mushrooms until near done, then add spinach, stir until just wilted.
2. Turn down heat to low. Push mushrooms and spinach to the side. Add a splash more oil, and fry the turmeric for a few seconds.

3. Add tofu to pan, breaking it roughly.

Add soy sauce, savory yeast flakes, a little salt and pepper.

Stir until combined.

4. Stir the mushrooms and spinach into the scramble. Stir gently until tofu is heated through. (Do not overcook, or the water will separate from the tofu!).

5. Serve over gluten-free toast, with a side of tomato wedges.

Notes
+ You can do this without the mushrooms and spinach, but they really lift the flavour. Other things I add sometimes include: diced shallots, diced green beans, chopped kale.
+ Some people like adding dried mixed herbs to their scramble… I don’t! Yuck. (I’m a purist about my scramble, can you tell?) Sometimes I add a TINY bit of chopped fresh basil or parsley.
+ This is a good base recipe for scrambled tofu. You could add all sorts of things to it… but I like it nice and simple. I think breakfast should be quick and easy! If you’re going to do a big cooked breakfast, you could do some sides like gluten-free soy sausages, tempeh bacon, cooked tomatoes, avocado, salsa, and cook the spinach and mushrooms separately with garlic.
+ Nutritional/savoury yeast is not the same as other yeasts, like brewers yeast or whatnot. DO NOT REPLACE WITH OTHER YEASTS or it will taste rather awful. Go down to your health food shop and harass them until they give you some. It’s tasty and worth the effort, and you can also make vegan cheese out of it… and I’ll be posting recipes for cheese soon!

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And on another note…

This isn’t organic, sadly, but… check this out:

2.5kg cans of tomato! Big enough for ya? … Yep. It sure is. Methinks these cans will keep me going for a while…

Faux Pho! (aka Vegan Vietnamese Pho Soup)

In Vietnam, people eat pho for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Personally I like to have it for breakfast on Sunday mornings! This is a version that best imitates the veg pho that I had when I was travelling in Vietnam with my partner – it is his recipe. Quantities may be a little rough, so taste-test as you go (as you always should!). Enjoy!

Serves around 4-6, depending on bowl-size/course…

Ingredients
2-4 finely diced chilli peppers (eg. birdseye)
1.5in piece of ginger, thinly sliced
1 sweet onion, chopped or diced
3 Litres of Massel’s Vegetarian Beef-style Stock*
1 cinnamon stick
5 star anise pods
1 finely diced garlic clove
lime, juiced
palm sugar to taste
fresh pepper to taste
bean sprouts, handful or two
rice vermicelli, cooked
1 bunch of coriander leaves, chopped
2 shallots, finely sliced
extra finely diced chilli pepper, optional

How To
+ In a stock pot fry the chilli, ginger and onion, with a little oil, till it is seared and a little crusty, but not burned. Add stock.
+ Crush then add the cinnamon and star anise. Add the garlic.
+ Simmer for 30min. Take off heat. Add lime juice, and a little bit of palm sugar until it is only slightly sour. Cover till served.
+ Get out some soup bowls. Add beansprouts, then hot vermicelli, shallots and coriander, and optionally fresh sliced chilli into each bowl. Pour the hot soup over the veg-noodle mix.
+ Serve. OMNOMNOM.

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*This is a dark vegetable stock. You could also use any other vegetable stock (maybe add a splash of dark soy sauce or Braggs to darken it a bit perhaps? ! probably not necessary). Massel brand stock can be found in any supermarket I’ve been in to in Australia – including Woolies and Coles. The tins of powdered stuff are great quality, but there are also stock cubes and tetra packs of liquid stock available. Massel is the best instant stock around, and it’s all vegan! Hooray!

Gluten-free vegan food pr0n

Fear not, I’m still alive. I’ve just been going through some wisdom teeth hell… but I’ve still been eating and photographing! Here’s a few of the latest pics:

My first ever gluten-free pizza: a success!

Getting our slice on.

Scrambled tofu with spinach and mushroom on toast. Tastiest breakfast in the universe.

Chocolate sugar cookies, made with rice and chickpea flour. An odd texture, but tasty!

A yeast-risen gluten-free loaf that sunk in the middle a bit, but tasted great.

A small yeast-free loaf in a big pan! It split a bit on top.

Mmm, tastyriffic.

Purplish Mini-Pancakes of Doom

I’m sure these brownish-purplish creations aren’t everyone’s idea of sexy food, but I sure like them!

What you need:
generous half cup black rice flour
generous half cup besan (chickpea) flour
heaped tablespoon baking powder
cup of soy or rice milk
splash of sunflower oil + more oil for pan

What you do:
1. Sift together flours and baking powder.
2. Create a well in flours. Pour in milk and splash of oil. Stir everything until combined.
3. Heat up oil in non-stick pan. 1 tablespoon mix = 1 minipancake. Cook on each side, medium heat, for around 2 minutes before flipping. Each pancake should be about 6-10cm across, depending on how thick/thin you want them.
4. Top with tasty sweet treats, like maple syrup and banana, or leftover cherry-apple pie mix! (see photos)

Note: these are sticky little bastards, and need oil and a non-stick surface!
Another note: if you find these too savoury (ie. the slightly stronger flour tastes bother you), you could add some sugar to the mix and/or use some boring brown or white rice flour… maybe a splash of vanilla essence, too..? although I like them simple!

Serves 2 people at breakfast time, about 6-8 teeny pancakes each.