Category: Sides

1 cup polenta
3.5 cups veggie stock
2 tbsp butter – I use nuttelex
2 heaped tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp freshly cracked pepper
2 tsp dried mixed herbs
1 sprig rosemary

1. Pour stock in to a pot and bring to the boil.

2. Slowly pour in the polenta while stirring with wooden spoon.

3. Reduce heat to medium and continue stirring until polenta starts to thicken.

4. Turn off heat. Add butter, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and herbs and stir until butter melted.

5. Pour in to a Pyrex or glass dish of your choosing. Square and rectangle are the best shapes so you can cut chip shapes, triangles etc.

6. Let cool and refrigerate until set. You’ll want a couple of hours at least. I usually make this at night and let sit in the fridge overnight.

7. Once chilled, turn out on to a chopping board and cut in to your desired shapes.

8. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat with some oil and the sprig of rosemary. Cook polenta until grill marks appear. Turn and cook on other side. Serve as a snack or a side immediately or you can keep warm in the oven on a low heat.

3 cups grated carrot
1/2 cup diced tomato
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 birds eye chilli, finely diced
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
small handful of peanuts, dry fried and roughly chopped

1. In a jar, combine lime juice, chilli, fish sauce and sugar. Put lid on, shake and set aside. You want the sugar to dissolve.

2. Just before serving, grate carrot in to a serving bowl. Add diced tomatoes.

3. Pour over dressing and stir.

4. Top with peanuts and serve

Notes
This is a great fridge emptying salad as you can use any raw veggies you like. Chuck some finely sliced cabbage or snow peas in and add coriander and/or mint. Still delicious if not more so!

1 head broccoli, florets broken off and stem sliced
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce

1. Cook broccoli on grill pan or in sandwich press or in a regular pan with a small amount of oil.

2. In a dry pan over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds until they start to brown. Don’t walk away from this pan because as soon as the sesame seeds start to brown, its a small space of time before they become burnt.

3. Pour the toasted sesame seeds in to a mortar and pestle, add the sugar and soy and grind.

4. Put both broccoli and sesame paste in to a bowl and toss to combine. Serve making sure you use a rubber spatula to get all the sesame goodness out of the bowl and on to the broccoli. It’s too good to waste.

Notes

– Can be serve hot, room temp or cold. Good all the time!

NOODLES
1/2 cup mung bean flour
1/2 cup water
2 cups water

DRESSING
2 tbsp peanuts, toasted and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 teaspoons sugar
4 teaspoons soy sauce
3 teaspoons chingkiang vinegar
1 teaspoon chilli oil
1 teaspoon sichuan oil

To make the noodles:

1. In a bowl, whisk together the mung bean flour and 1/4 cup of water.

2. In a pot, bring the remaining two cups of water to the boil.

3. Once boiled, give the mung bean mix another good stir as the starch will want to settle to the bottom of the bowl. Pour in to the boiling water while constantly stirring. Continue to stir until the liquid goes from white to translucent and then for a couple of extra minutes.

4. Turn off the heat and pour in to a Pyrex dish. Cool overnight or at least for a few hours until set.

5. Once chilled, turn out on to a chopping board and either slice to desired length/thickness or use a noodle slicer to make noodles.

To make the dressing:

1. Toast the peanuts in a dry pan until browned and set aside.

2. In the same pan, heat the sesame oil and heat the garlic slices over medium-low heat until softened.

3. In a jar, combine the garlic, sugar, soy sauce, chinkiang vinegar, chilli oil and Sichuan oil.

To serve:

1. Place the cold noodles into your serving dish.

2. Give the dressing a stir or a shake and pour over the noodles. Top with peanuts.

NB: you can use a box grater to make the noodles too. I bought a noodle slicer but tend to opt for just slicing the noodles with a knife instead.

300g mushrooms of your choosing
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced

1. Combine above and marinate sliced mushrooms overnight.

2. BBQ mushrooms, spooning over remaining marinade once finished.

1 eggplant
1 tablespoon miso
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 tablespoon water
1.5 tablespoons maple syrup
1.5 tablespoons soy sauce

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

2. Slice eggplant lengthways in to roughly 3cm thick slices.

3. Score a crosshatch in each slice and steam until soft.

4. While steaming, blend remaining ingredients together.

5. Place steamed eggplant slices on a baking tray and spoon sauce on top.

6. Cook in oven until the top starts to brown.

7. Serve with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

75 grams butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp za’atar
450 grams self raising flour
Big pinch of salt
300ml milk

1. melt butter in a small pan and add garlic. Cook until garlic starts to brown and take off the heat immediately.

2. Combine self raising flour, salt and milk in a bowl until a dough has formed and then knead on a floured surface for a couple of minutes.

3. Cut the dough in to 4-6 chunks and flatten each one out with your hands until it is about 5mm thick.

4. Heat a small amount of oil in a pan until it is hot and fry each flatbread until browned on each side. This will take 1-2 minutes each side.

5. Spoon garlic butter over the top, sprinkle with za’atar and serve!