My latest challenge has to been to develop a good vegan pizza – without the use of vegan cheese. Obviously it wasn’t going to be cheesy but I wanted it to have a combination of flavours and textures that satisfied my pizza appetite.
At the same time, I also want to document the cast-iron skillet + grill (US: broiler) technique I use to cook pizza these days.
Ingredients
Makes 3 medium pizzas, serves 3-4.
You will need a cast-iron skillet and a grill (US: broiler).
Cashew sauce
- 0.5 cup raw cashews
- 0.25 cup water (approx)
- 1 tbsp olive oil (approx)
- 1 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 0.5 tsp garlic powder (optional)
Pizza base
- 2 teaspoons dried yeast
- 180ml warm water
- 315g strong flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 tbsp olive oil
Pizza
- 3-6 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 tbsp extra light olive oil
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- fresh (or dried) rosemary
- 2 cups diced roasted potatoes (about 3 good sized potatoes)
- 1 leek – sliced
Method
The general order of things is:
- Much earlier – make pizza dough and leave to rise
- Earlier – roast potatoes
- Make cashew sauce
- Prep other ingredients
- Make pizza
- Eat pizza
Cashew sauce
- Combine ingredients and blend.
The texture should be spreadable, add more extra virgin olive oil if required.
Pizza base
- Mix yeast into warm water and leave 10 minutes to develop. It should froth up a bit. If it doesnt, either the water is too hot or the yeast is dead, try again.
- Sift flour and salt into a large bowl.
- Make a well, pour in yeast mixture and olive oil.
- Mix to combine.
- Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until it’s all the same consistency and springs back when pressed.
- Apply a fine coat of olive oil, put back in the bowl and cover. Leave in a warm place until it has risen to at least twice the original size.
Pizza
Get everything ready first.
- Take a third of the dough and roll out to the size of your skillet.
- Heat the skillet to medium-hot and the grill to medium.
- Put 1 tbsp of extra-light olive oil into the skillet.
- Put the rolled out dough into the skillet.
- Coat with about 2 tablespoons of the cashew cream and 1-2 tablespoons tomato paste (to taste).
- Sprinkle leeks, roast potatoes, rosemary and salt.
- Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the top.
- Put the skillet under the grill.
- Leave under the grill until it looks cooked (some slight blackening is expected).
- Return the skillet to the burner and cook until the base is done (it should be nicely browned).
- Remove, slice and serve.
This recipe is a minor variation on this one.
It is surprisingly delicious.
Ingredients (makes 10-12 large muffins)
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- ⅔ cup of brown sugar
- a pinch of baking soda
- 2 tsp of baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- ½ cup of olive oil
- 1 cup of orange juice
- 2 Tbsp of orange zest
- 1 cup of dark chocolate chips (compound works fine)
Muffin tin and, ideally, paper muffin cases.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
- In a bowl put the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, orange zest and chocolate chips. Mix it all until well combined.
- In another recipient put the orange juice together with the olive oil.
- Prepare the muffin tins/cases.
- Mix the oil and juice with the dry ingredients only as much as necessary to mix and pour/spoon into the cases.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until colored.
Inspired by this recipe for Vegetables Manchurian, I made a type of cabbage hash that worked very well in a burger.
Ingredients (makes 4 burgers)
- 1 cup cabbage, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup grated carrot
- 1/4 cup green beans, finely chopped
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- 2-3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed ginger
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped lemongrass
- 2 tablespoons soy milk
- Cooking oil
Method
- Mix all ingredients (except for oil) in a bowl.
- Heat oil in pan
- Add mixture to pan and press out for even coverage
- Cook for a while
- Section into quarters and flip
- Serve straight into burger buns with the usual accoutrements
We made this recipe from http://bitofthegoodstuff.com/ today. We’ve been trying different recipes each year and now we’ve found the one! (the recipe below includes our changes -more spice and more sultantas – but you can see the original at http://bitofthegoodstuff.com/2013/03/hot-cross-buns-dairy-free-egg-free-vegan/ )
Hands on time: 30 minutes Resting time: 1¾ hours
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes 15 medium or 12 large buns
Ingredients
Dough
– 250ml / 9 oz / 1 cup fortified soya milk (or other non dairy milk)
– 1 tsp fast action / easy bake yeast
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 2 tbsp neutral flavoured vegetable oil, such as rapeseed (canola)
– 500g / 17½ oz / 3½ cups plain (all purpose) flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 6 tsp mixed spice
– 200g / 7 oz / 1 packed cup sultanas or raisins
– 100g / 3½ oz / ½ cup Italian mixed peel
– Finely grated zest of 1 organic/unwaxed orange
-85ml / 3 fl oz / ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice (or other fruit juice)
Crosses
– 3 tbsp plain (all purpose) flour
– 2 tbsp water
Glaze
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice (or other fruit juice)
Method
Gently heat the milk until it is lukewarm. Remove from the heat and whisk in the yeast and sugar. After a couple of minutes the yeast will start to froth.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, spices. Stir in the sultanas, citrus peel and orange zest. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and stir in the oil, yeast milk mixture, and orange juice. Bring together the ingredients using your hands. The dough should be soft and sticky. Depending on the type of flour used, you may need to add a little more liquid.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes or so, until the dough is smooth. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel or oiled cling film (plastic wrap) and leave in a warm place for an hour or so until it has doubled in size. If your house is cool (like ours), cover with oiled foil and place in the oven at 40C / 100F for an hour.
When the dough has risen, knead for a further 10 minutes then divide into 12 or 15 equal size balls. To ensure that the buns are exactly the same size and bake evenly, I weigh the dough. My dough tends to weigh about 1.125kg, so I tear off 75g for medium size buns. Roll the dough into smooth balls and evenly space out on a large baking tray (28 x 40cm / 10 x 15”) lined with non stick baking paper. Cover with the damp tea towel, oiled cling film (plastic wrap) or foil and leave in a warm place for 45 minutes or so, until they have risen.
Heat the oven to 210C (190C fan) / 410F.
To make the crosses, mix 3 tbsp plain (all purpose) flour with 2 tbsp water to form a thick paste. Spoon into an icing bag with a thin nozzle (or a plastic freezer bag and snip the corner). Slowly pipe along each row of buns, then repeat in the other direction.
Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes on the middle shelf, until golden brown.
To make the glaze, gently boil the sugar and fruit juice in a small pan for about 5 minutes until it starts to thicken into a syrup. Brush over the buns while they’re still hot. Allow to set before serving. These buns are most delicious served warm or toasted.
The buns will last 2-3 days in an airtight container. They also freeze well. I tend to slice them in half before I freeze them so that they can be toasted without the need to defrost first.
This is a really simple vegetarian chilli that we make quite a bit. It is tasty with nachos, on rice, with baked potatoes, etc, etc.
It also freezes really well so we always have a few bags in the freezer ready for “Oh dear, what shall I cook?” dinners.
Think of this as a base and, if you follow these rough proportions, you can make all sorts of changes. Switch out one or more cans of kidney beans for black beans, add mushrooms or capsicum alongside the onions, do your own spicing, etc, etc.
Ingredients
- Tablespoon of frying oil (canola, light olive oil, etc)
- 2 onions (roughly chopped)
- 2 cans kidney beans in brine (drained)
- 2 cans chopped tomatoes in juice
- 1 packet el paso chilli spice mix
- 250gm frozen chuckwagon corn (mix of corn, peas, capsicum, etc)
I often double or triple this in a large stockpot.
Method
- Chop the onions and fry at medium heat until somewhat cooked/translucent.
- Drain the kidney beans and add.
- Add the tomatoes (don’t drain them).
- Add the spice mix.
- Bring to a simmer and keep it that way for 30 minutes.
- Add the frozen veges and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
- Done!
From Healthy Food Guide March 2013.
Ingredients
- 1-2 eggplants sliced
- olive oil
- 1 red onion, finely sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 400g can chopped tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato pesto
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 red chilli, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons fresh basil
Method
- Preheat oven to 190c. Arrange eggplant slices on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Spray/paint with olive oil. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large non-stick pan and cook onion and garlic until softened.
- Add tomatoes, pesto, sugar and chilli. Simmer for about 4 minutes until sauce has reduced. Add most of the basil. Season to taste.
- Place half of eggplant slices in lightly greased baking dish. Spoon over half of the sauce. Repeat layers.
- Bake for 15 minutes and serve garnished with remainder of the fresh basil.
Kim Edit: I quite like adding roasted asparagus, roasted mushroom, 2 tablespoons of cut up sundried tomato and 2 tablespoons of marinated artichoke. Yum.
This is a straight cut’n’paste of the delicious tabouli recipe from here (well, with half as much pepper). I make it quite a lot and got tired of searching for it each time.
- 2 cups bulgur or cracked wheat
- 2 cups very hot water
- 1 cucumber, chopped
- 2 small tomatoes, chopped
- 1 bunch green onions, (8) sliced
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup fresh chopped mint, to taste
- 2 cups fresh chopped parsley
- 1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
Dressing
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
- 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Method
- Soak the cracked wheat in the hot water until the water is absorbed, about 30 minutes. When it’s ready, drain any excess water, if necessary, and squeeze dry.
- Meantime, prepare the vegetables for the salad and mix the dressing ingredients together. Set aside.
- Stir the prepared bulghur, other salad ingredients, and dressing together in a medium bowl.
- Serve chilled or at room temperature. Makes about 8 cups, 12 to 16 servings.
Really yummy soup given to me by my workmate June and posted for Orson :-)
3 Tbls Olive Oil
1 Medium Onion
3 Cloves Garlic, chopped
Half tsp Fresh Ginger – Grated
1 *Fresh Chilli- Chopped
Half Tsp Ground Cumin
4 Kumara (sweet potatoes), peeled and sliced
4 cups water or vegetable stock
1 Tbls Peanut Butter
Extra water if needed
Salt and Pepper
Put oil in heavy pot and add the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, cumin and kumara. Sauté over a medium heat until lightly cooked. Cover with the stock or water and simmer until the kumara is mushy. Add the peanut butter and using a wand, processor or blender, puree until very smooth. If the soup is to thick, add more water or stock to make a smooth soupy consistency. Season with salt and pepper, reheat and serve.
This soup freezes well. So if you make too much, put the remainder in a container and freeze for later use.
*If you are unable to get fresh chillies, dried chillies can be used, as can chilli powder. Try adding a little at first as the chilli is meant to give the soup a “bite” and should not overpower the Kumara.
