1 tsp dairy free probiotic or 6 capsules, emptied in to a bowl
1 litre bonsoy
Combine the two together.
Pour in to yoghurt maker and make according to manufacturers instructions.
Flavour with whatever you like. Berries, maple syrup, fruit, muesli OR use it in a savoury dish.
1/4 cup vegetable oil
10 cloves garlic
1/4 cup sesame oil
1 tsp sea salt
300g plain flour
pinch of salt
160ml water
half a bunch of spring onions (approx. 5)
olive oil
30ml soy sauce
30ml chinkiang vinegar
1 tsp mirin
1 birdseye chilli, finely sliced
To make black garlic oil: heat vegetable oil and garlic in small pot, stirring, until garlic literally turns black. Turn off heat and add sesame oil and salt. Let cool then blend on high and set aside.
Combine flour, water and salt and knead until smooth. You can do this by hand. I used my kitchen aid with the dough hook attachment.
Set aside in an oiled, covered bowl while you prepare the rest.
Combine soy sauce, chinkiang vinegar, mirin and chilli in a saucer to serve as dipping sauce
Divide dough into about eight pieces. Roll each piece out to about half a cm thickness. Roll up as though you’re making sushi then coil into a snail shell shape. Roll out again. Top with finely sliced shallots and roll up again, first like a sushi roll and again, coiled in to a snail shell shape. Set aside while you do the rest.
When you’re ready to serve, roll each snail dough out as thin as possible (this will be the thickness of your sliced shallots), heat oil in a pan over high heat and cook each one until golden. Drain on paper towel. Once all are cooked, season with salt, drizzle with garlic oil and serve with dipping sauce.
Notes
You can find chinkiang vinegar in the supermarket. It’s delicious. Once you have it at home you’ll find lots of uses for it.
Thanks to Lara for the recipe request!
1 cup almond meal
6 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
Combine all and sprinkle liberally on everything!
BASE
170 grams butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
LEMON CURD
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 cup sugar
250 ml lemon juice
1/2 cups butter
4 tbsp corn flour
1/3 cup soy milk
To make pastry base:
Mix the butter and sugar together until they are just combined. Add the vanilla.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix until the dough starts to come together. Press the dough into a 25cm tart pan. Chill until firm. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 175 C.
Place a sheet of baking paper on the pastry. Fill with baking beans or rice. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the baking paper and beans, prick the tart all over with the tines of a fork, and bake again for 20 to 25 minutes, until lightly browned. Allow to cool to room temperature.
To make lemon curd:
Dissolve the corn flour in 2 tbsp water. Keep aside.
In a small pan, heat lemon zest, sugar , juice and butter. Bring to a boil and boil while stirring for 4-5 minutes.
Mix in the dissolved cornflour and simmer for 3-4 minutes until it starts to thicken.
Take off heat and allow to cool.
Once pastry is room temperature and curd has cooled, pour curd into pastry and keep in fridge until chilled.
Sift icing sugar on top of the tart just before serving.
200g pasta
8 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1/2 cup olive oil
2 fresh birds eye chillis, finely sliced
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
salt and pepper
1 lemon
almond parmesan, to serve
Have all your items prepped, ready to go as this is a quick recipe once you start.
Get a pot of salted water on to a rolling boil and add pasta. Cook according to packet. Usually 8-10 minutes.
While your pasta is cooking, heat oil in pan with sliced garlic.
As soon as the garlic starts to turn golden brown add the chilli.
Season with salt and pepper and add parsley. Turn off heat.
Add strained pasta and a ladle or two of pasta water.
Add lemon juice and serve immediately. Top with almond parmesan.
Notes
You can easily scale this recipe. 100g pasta, 4 garlic cloves, 1 birds eye chilli, 1/2 lemon and 1/2 bunch parsley per person.
Serves 4
3 potatoes, cubed
1/4 jap pumpkin, cubed
~200g broccoli, chopped
1 tin coconut cream
2 jalapenos, roughly chopped
2 birds eye chillis, diced
2 bunches coriander, washed and chopped. Roots and all. Save a few leaves for a garnish.
1 tsp salt
1 tsp keffir lime leaves
1 lime
5 garlic cloves
3cm ginger, chopped
4 lemongrass stalks, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp fish sauce
1.5 tsp sugar
rice of your choosing
Cook the pumpkin and potato in salted boiling water, strain and bake in oven with oil and salt until crispy. Set aside.
Cook rice according to packet instructions.
In blender: 1/4 tin coconut cream, jalapenos, birds eye chillis, coriander, salt, keffir lime leaves, rind of lime, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and red onion. Blend on high.
Heat in pan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until reduced.
Reduce heat and add sugar, remaining coconut cream, fish sauce.
Add potato, pumpkin, broccoli and cook until broccoli is cooked to your liking. Serve with rice, a squeeze of lime and a few coriander leaves.
Notes:
This recipe is a great way to use up veggies. I’ve listed potato, pumpkin and broccoli here but you can use pretty much whatever you have available.
Make sure you wash your coriander. There’s always some dirt in and around the roots and if you don’t get rid of it, your meal will taste gritty.
I say cook the broccoli to your liking as this varies a lot. I’ll happily eat it raw while others like it cooked to death. Half way between is the safest bet if you’re cooking for friends.
MANDARIN SORBET
1kg mandarins, peeled
180g caster sugar
200ml water
1tbsp glucose
CHOCOLATE
180g 70% cacao chocolate
1 tsp mandarin peel, finely grated
1/4 cup coconut cream
a pinch of sea salt
To make the sorbet: Blitz the mandarin in a blender and strain through a fine sieve in to a tupperware container.
Heat the caster sugar and water over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Take off heat and stir through glucose. Add to mandarin juice.
Cool in fridge overnight.
Put in ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions. Set aside in freezer.
To make the chocolate: melt all ingredients in double boiler. whip until slightly thickened/paler. Set aside in fridge.
To serve: Bring chocolate mix to room temperature. Serve one (ore more) scoop of mandarin sorbet, scoop chocolate with a melon baller and add to bowl. Top chocolate with a small amount of sea salt.
You can make this recipe a day ahead
GINGER CAKE
175g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
100g nuttelex
70ml golden syrup
125g dark brown sugar
2 flax eggs (2tbsp flax meal and 5tbsp hot water combined and set aside for five minutes)
125ml soy milk
2 tsp candied ginger, minced
POACHED PEAR
750ml sugar syrup (equal parts caster sugar and boiling water)
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp allspice
150ml ginger wine
250ml brandy
4 beurre bosc pears
YOGHURT ICE CREAM
350ml soy milk
150g caster sugar
100g glucose
500g yoghurt – I make my own (recipe coming). If you don’t, you need to make sure it’s not too sweet otherwise, just cut down on the added sugar.
25ml lime juice
To make the yoghurt ice cream, bring the milk, sugar and glucose to simmering point in saucepan. Stir until sugar dissolved. Set aside. Once cooled, add yoghurt and lime. Pour in ice cream maker and churn according to instructions.
To make the spiced ginger pears, bring all ingredients except the pears to the boil in a saucepan. Simmer for 15 minutes. Peel, quarter and core the pears. Neatly add to liquid so they are all submerged, cover with lid and simmer for 30 minutes or until soft. Remove pears and reduce liquid by about half. Pour through a sieve into container with pears and set aside until serving.
To make the ginger cake, preheat oven to 160 C. Grease and line a 20 x 20cm cake tin or pyrex. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger in a bowl.
Combine flax eggs, milk and candied ginger in a bowl. Melt the butter, golden syrup and brown sugar in a saucepan then add to milk mixture. Stir into flour mix. Pour the batter into your prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
To serve, cut the cake in to rectangles, Reheat the pears in their syrup gently. Top the cake piece with pears and their syrup. Add a scoop or two of ice cream and serve immediately.
Lunch Wrap with all the trimmings!
4 wraps of your choosing.
1/2 jap pumpkin chopped into similar sized squares
oil
salt and pepper
1/4 purple cabbage, finely sliced
1/2 cup mayonnaise (I use Veganaise brand)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper
1 finely sliced red onion
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 red birds eye chillis
4 garlic cloves
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp coriander seeds
1 bunch coriander, chopped
juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 Packet Lamyong brand Salted Crispy Chicken. Use whatever you like but my favourite is Lamyong brand. Find it at your Asian grocer.
1/4 cup butter
3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice and rind from that lemon
Make roast pumpkin by preheating the oven to 180 C. Put chopped pumpkin on baking tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle oil on top and season with salt and pepper. Cook, turning occasionally until browned and crunchy. Set aside.
Make coleslaw by combining mayo, lemon juice, dijon, vinegar and salt and pepper. Once combined, add finely sliced cabbage and set aside
Make pickled onions by combining all ingredients and setting aside. Ready after about 10 minutes but will last for around a week.
Make zhug by blitzing all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Set aside
Make tehina by stirring all ingredients together until smooth. You can make the consistency thinner by adding more water if you like.
Make chicken by combining butter, oil, dijon, thyme and lemon in a small saucepan until butter is melted and all is combined. Cook chicken on BBQ and baste liberally with the sauce. Set aside.
Plate up in the following order: wrap, coleslaw, chicken, pickled onions, pumpkin, zhug, tehina, salt and pepper.
Eat and be full.
BASE
250g digestive biscuits
125g vegan butter
CHEESECAKE
1.5 cups cashews
¼ cup lemon juice
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
½ cup coconut cream
1/3 cup maple syrup
LEMON SYRUP
rind and juice from 2 lemons
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup water
For the base: Crush biscuits and put in bowl.
Add butter. Combine using your fingertips to evenly mix the butter through the biscuit crumbs and press in to base of a baking paper lined cake tin.
Pop in to the freezer while you continue
Put all the cheesecake ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth.
Pour on top of base. Tap on bench to even out and return to flat surface in freezer.
For the lemon syrup: put lemon rind, sugar and water in small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolved.
Add lemon juice and cook, stirring until reduced to a syrupy consistency.
Allow to cool and store in fridge.
Remove the cheesecake from the freezer about 15 minutes before you want to serve it. Cut slices of the cheesecake and drizzle the lemon syrup on top just before serving.
