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 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.
So, as part of setting up our new kitchen I bought a nice combination sandwich press/griller. It makes a good toasted sandwich and I’m very happy with it… but it hasn’t been used as much as I expected because I stumbled upon an even better way to make them using the oven griller.
This recipe for a tuna toasted sandwich is an example of the technique. It can easily be modified for any fillings you like although I recommend keeping the tapenade no matter what else you change!
Ingredients (per sandwich)
- Turkish bread (ideally not the Quality Baker brand – it’s very dense)
- 1/2 small can of lemon-pepper tuna, drained
- About 1/2 tbsp tapenade (recommend Genoese brand)
- About 1tbsp basil pesto (recommend Genoese brand)
- Half a tomato, thinly sliced
- Small amount of grated mozzarella cheese
- Handful of lettuce
Instructions
1. Turn on your oven’s griller (I think this is the broiler in US-speak)
2. Cut the bread into sandwich sized sections
3. Carefully slice the bread to separate the top and bottom
4. Lightly toast the outer sides of the bread (careful, it doesn’t take long)
5. Spread pesto on bottom piece of bread
6. Spread tapenade on the top piece
7. Put the tomatoes on the bottom
8. Spread the tuna on top of the tomato
9. Put the cheese on top of the tapenade
10. Place back under the grill (again, it doesn’t take long)
11. Remove from the grill (to assist you with getting it just right, I carefully cooked the one in the picture one a little bit too much)
12. Put the lettuce on
13. Put the sandwich together and eat
For the past while I’ve been fixated on adding olives, feta and pesto to nearly all my savoury meals. Everything tastes better with olives/feta/pesto right? Well, yes and no. After realizing that my last three meals had included all these ingredients I decided it was time to branch out again.
So, I present to you pizza without the OFP combination.
The base spread is tomato salsa with left over Guacamole, topped with chargrilled capsicum, red onion, chillies, cheddar and mozzarella.
A delicious combo. I didn’t miss OFP one bit.
For general pizza making instruction view:
Broccoli or Mushroom Simple Pizza
For other yummy pizza toppings view:
Zucchini and Onion Pizza.
Potato and Leek Pizza
Here is another lovely recipe I was emailed by Marie (from Traits).
I really enjoyed them as burger patties even though I’m a little uncomfortable with the taste of ginger. It won’t replace my standard comfort burger but it will be a nice change when I feel like going a little more gourmet.
I’ve included Marie’s email text below as I love the way she writes. If you have recipes for me to try email them to me at Kim@WhatKimAte.co.nz.
Pumpkin and Ginger Felafels
“Here is a recipe from Allyson Grofton (food in a minute lady).
We had them just as described but I think would be magic as burger patties! (and can be a change from the regular tofu patty.)
– 250gms firm pumpkin
– 425 gm can cannellini (butter) beans. Drained
– 2 tsp minced fresh garlic
– 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
– 1 tbsp chopped fresh chilli
– 3 cups fresh bread crumbs
– oil for frying
– 200 gm tub hummus
– 1/2 cup yoghurt
– mango salsa ingredients
Mix the hummus and yoghurt together – cover and back to fridge
In a bowl combine all the mango salsa ingredients – cover and back to fridge
Peel & cook pumpkin in a little boiling water, drain and then put back into pan to dry it out – a couple of minutes, just to its not too wet. In a processor (I don’t have one so I used a potato masher) cannellini beans, garlic, ginger, chilli and 1/2 breadcrumbs.
Season with salt and pepper.
Mould into 12 patties (or burger sized patties) and roll in remaining breadcrumbs.
Fry with a little oil until golden and heated through, keep warm while others are being cooked.
Serve as it or with a plain salad or make mega burgers!
Andrew loves this and I’m looking forward to getting out the barbie and making these bad boys in summer. Keep up the great blog!
Marie xx”
The Silver Spoon
provided us with this treasure.
We cooked Spaghetti with Broccoli as the main for our weekly dinner party and it was so, so, good!
Spaghetti with Broccoli
- 500g of broccoli
- 3 tables spoons of olive oil
- 25g of margerine
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup cashews soaked for half an hour then blended
- 350g spaghetti
- 25g vegan parmesan(optional)
- salt and pepper
- Parboil the broccoli in salted water for 10 minutes.
- Heat the oil and butter in frying pan.
- Add the onion and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
- Drain the broccoli, add to the skillet and mix well
- Stir in the cashew cream and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Transfer the mixture to a food processor and process to a puree.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large pan of salted, boiling water until al dente, then drain, toss with broccoli mixture.
- Sprinkle with Parmesan if using and serve.
This is a very quick and tasty light meal. I was worried that the olives would overwhelm the dish so I only put a few in. It ended up working well. It had the tartness of the olives, the saltiness of the feta and the sourness of the lemon dressing. If you don’t like olives I suspect capers would be a nice alternative.
Ingredients
- Scallops
- Feta
- Olives
- Avocado
- Small Spinach Leaves
- Garlic
- Lemon
- Extra Light Olive Oil or Canola Oil
Chop feta, olives, avocado and add to a bowl with the spinach leaves.
Heat the oil in pan to a high temperature. Add garlic and scallops. Don’t cook the scallops too long, as soon as they loose their translucency and turn opaque they’re done. I normally cook until lightly seared on each side, turning once (around 5 mintues cooking).
Once the scallops are cooked place on top of the salad. Quickly add some lemon to the remaining oil and garlic, stir for 20 seconds then remove from heat. Pour a little on to the salad as a dressing.
