Best Weekend Part 2-Daiya and Roast potluck

Bec and Craig invited a small group of us over for a sunday roast, which kind of turned into a mini potluck. Here is the massive array of roasted vegies that they made:

and nutloaf which doesn't look pretty but really was fantastic:
served with a delicious gravy (I think it was made from this recipe)
Lisa made a yummy stew, which I stupidly didn't eat because I thought it wasn't g/f but which was packed with protein and flavour according to Toby:


Cindy made amazing chocolate berry mousse, you can read about the recipe here.



And Jo made a yummy apple and rhubarb dish.
We took some cider and leftover choc cupcakes:


We were also given some daiya cheese from the very generous Troy and Bec (different vegan Bec) who brought some back from their US trip. Over the last week we haven't managed to try it in several ways. First we made mac and cheese, but used only about half the required amount of cheese. This was creamy and delicious, but we couldn't really pinpoint the daiya flavour, so we sprinkled some more on top.
Then we made a toasted cheese sandwhich. This was perhaps my favourite way to use it. It's been a long time since I had a toasted sandwhich with actual cheese but this felt so close and the texture was spot on.
We did a little experiment with our pizza, with half cheezly and half daiya The daiya is on the left and the cheezly is on the right.. As you can tell the cheezly when grated is larger but the daiya had a stronger flavour and actually melted like cheese.


We added it on top of some lentil bologanise. I had to move it around a little to melt but it finished the dish off nicely.
We also made nachos, now check out how well it stretches:


Also on top of some baked potatoes.
We were super impressed with the daiya particuarly the texture when melted, probably the only complaint was that it wasn't so great raw, it's definitely a cooked cheese in my opinion. The flavour was pretty spot on too. Thanks again Bec and Troy, we really appreciate it!

Masterchef Mini Potluck

We asked Lisa if we could watch the masterchef finale at her house because our reception (even with a digital set-top box) is not reliable. We decided to have a mini potluck, making masterchef inspired recipes.

She made japanese style pumpkin from the asian vegan kitchen cookbook, it was slightly sweet toast pumpkin and so delicious and Toby was jumping up and down in excitement about having a dish he hasn't had since his pre-vegan days. If anyone else has this recipe please share, we would love to re-create it this week.

She also made this Fried tofu with mushroom and ginger broth- which didn't even need veganising. Lisa served it with rice, it was delicious and nourishing.

Peanut oil, for deep frying
200g firm tofu, cut into 3cm dice
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
5cm piece ginger, thinly sliced
1 bird’s eye chilli, whole
8 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 coriander roots, reserve leaves to serve
2 green onions, cut into 5cm pieces
2 tbs soy (she used tamari to make it g/f)
3 tbs Chinese rice wine
6 Szechuan peppercorns
2 star anise
300ml water
2 baby bok choy
Sesame oil

1. Fill a saucepan two thirds full with peanut oil and place over a high heat until hot enough to deep fry. Fry the tofu in batches for 4-6 minutes or until golden. Drain on paper towel.
2. For the broth: combine the garlic, ginger, chilli, mushrooms, coriander root, green onions, soy, rice wine, peppercorns and star anise in a saucepan with the water and bring to a simmer over a medium heat. Allow to simmer for 8-10 minutes, add more water if required.
3. Fill a saucepan a third full of water, bring to the boil over a high heat, place a bamboo steamer over the saucepan, place the bok choy in the steamer and place the lid on, steam for 5-8 minutes or until cooked. Then drizzle with sesame oil.
4. Strain the broth, reserving the mushrooms.
5. To serve, place the bok choy in the centre of a serving bowl, pour over the broth, top with the tofu, mushrooms and coriander leaves to serve. Here is with the rice and pumpkin:

We made this rice pudding with orange jewels, tarragon and puffed rice minus the taragon. The recipe was pretty easy although did require multiple parts. It was easily vegansied too by replacing the milk with soy milk. The vanilla bean really did result in a superior taste and I love the texture and taste of the orange 'jewels'.

260g caster sugar
1 orange, peeled zest, pith removed, julienned, flesh segmented
700ml milk
135g Arborio rice, rinsed and drained
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
tarragon leaves, to serve
1/4 cup puffed rice, toasted

190ml freshly squeezed orange juice, strained
15g caster sugar
1 ½ tsp agar agar powder

Step 1: For the candied orange peel, place 1 cup of the sugar and 1 cup of water in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to medium, add orange peel and simmer gently for 45 minutes until syrupy.
Step 2: For the orange jelly, line a 500ml plastic container with cling film. Add ¼ cup water, orange juice and sugar to a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Sprinkle in agar agar and whisk for about 5 minutes until dissolved. Remove from the heat. Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into the lined container. Refrigerate for about 25 minutes or until set. Invert jelly from container onto a board and cut into 1cm cubes.
Step 3: For the rice pudding, add the milk, rice, vanilla bean and seeds to a non-stick saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 30-35 minutes, or until creamy and the rice is tender, stirring regularly. Add the remaining sugar and stir for about 2 minutes until dissolved.
Step 4: To serve, divide rice pudding between serving bowls. Arrange the jelly jewels on top, along with the orange segments, tarragon leaves, candied orange peel, a spoonful of syrup and some puffed rice. Serve immediately.

Serves 4 (but very small bowls)

Sorry for the bad photos! If you want more vegan masterchef recipes, I've also found this salt and pepper tofu and glutenous rice dumplings with coconut pandan stuffing which look pretty good.

Best Weekend Ever Part I

Last Weekend was totally awesome.

It started on Thursday night. My friend Matt got some last minute free tickets to see LCD Soundsystem and took me with him. I was totally stoked because I wanted to see them but couldn't afford it. We drank Cooper's Lager cans and danced our arses off to Losing My Edge (check out this live video)/Get Innocuous/All My Friends in Festival Hall's Jurassic Park style enclosure:


Friday night, K and I went to Disco Beans again for more vegan gluten-free friendly Japanese Food. There were more choices on the menu than our last two visits. First thing that caught K's eyes was the vegan Double Decker Ice-cream Sundae Parfaits but unfortunately it was not gluten-free.

I picked the gluten-free/vegan version of Shoyu Ramen:

The soup base was authentically light and clear. There were plenty of seaweed, black sesames, snap peas, carrots, spring onions and tofu in the bowl. It tasted quite different from the Shoyu Ramen I had before, probably because they made it gluten-free for K (Shoyu means soy sauce in Japanese) and the noodles were replaced by rice noodles.

K ordered the Tofu Don (vegan and gluten-free):

Both of us loved the in-your-face flavour of the ginger sauce. It went very well with the tofu steak and Sushi rice. K normally would not eat salad greens but she ate lots of it because of the yummy Miso dressing.

Highlight of the dinner was the Strawberry Fields Forever cake (Vegan and gluten-free):

"Strawberry Fields Forever cake" was the best raw vegan cheesecake I've had. It was mainly made of cashews, coconut and strawberries. I loved the contrast of the delicate melt-in-the-mouth refreshing strawberry bits and the rich crumb crust.

Read about our first encounter with Disco Beans.

Disco Beans
238 High St, Northcote
Open Wed-Sun noon-3pm and 5.30-9.30pm

On my walkman:
This is Happening - LCD Soundsystem

Coming next:
Best Weekend Ever Part II - Daiya vegan cheese and Craig's sunday roast.

Baby Shower Cupcakes and Disaster Day

Yesterday was a bit of a disaster day, first I went for a jog (with Lisa) and came home to discover that we did not have any water, which meant nothing to drink and no shower for sweaty me. I wasted a good 45 minutes, talking to the neighbours, calling the water company and just wondering how I was going to manage to get everything done before the 2pm baby shower. It was going to be a rushed as it was, but the lack of water made it worse and I really did feel sweaty, dehydrated and gross. It also made making cupcakes tricky since we really needed to do dishes. Toby suggested that I abandon making them which in hindsight would have been a good idea, except I had stayed up the night before making baby shower decorations: prams and bottles (from a mould from here) which would have been wasted. Somehow though we got them made with lots of swearing, heaps of paper towels and antibacterial hand wipes wasted. It really did make a masterchef pressure test seem easy, they at least have water and clean measuring cups/spoons.

Although we really needed to do dishes to make icing and desperately needed a shower before heading off to the baby shower. I was all packed and ready to go to Cindy and Michael's who kindly said yes to me showering and making the icing there when the water finally come back on. It was only when the icing was done that I tried a cupcake with a bit of icing and discovered that the cupcakes had the bitter after taste of quinoa, which isn't exactly a flavour that I wanted in my cupcakes. I had made the chocolate gluten free cupcakes from vctotw, so not sure what went wrong or if it just that quinoa flour sucks. We also couldn't find a crucial part to my icing gun so couldn't pipe the icing like I normally do.

But it gets worse! I arrived at the baby shower with my pink horrible tasting cupcakes and then realised about 5 minutes into the baby shower that actually my friend was having a boy, not a girl, which meant my cupcakes, 'baby girl' wrapping paper and present were all a little inappropriate. And based on the expressions on saw on people's faces and a few comments I'm pretty sure that I was not alone in my dislike for the taste, they really did suck.

The one pic Toby took as I was running around like crazy trying to head out the door:
The leftovers, a little worse for wear:

Veg Out Time

The other day, I was with K shopping in South Yarra. I felt kind of funny in the Republic of Orange-coloured People but was happy to see an old friend on Chapel street: Veg Out Time.

We both missed the food as we haven't been back since Vegan Fitness Week. We could both enjoy their cheap, fast, yummy, vegan and gluten-free food.

You can get half a plate of brown/white rice with two dishes from the Bain-Marie for $9 or three dishes for $10.

I had Yellow Tofu, Mapo Tofu and stir-fried Chinese greens with garlic. They were all full of flavour and, relatively, healthy. Yellow Tofu is my all time favourite. It is basically a very mild Malaysian style curry with mushroom and tofu. I order it every single time I go there.


K ordered Eggplant Masala and some sort of other curry. I tasted them both and thought they are both yum but a little bit too spicy for me.


Vegan options are clearly marked but you would need to ask them what is gluten-free.

If you don't like Bain-Marie food, you can also order fried noodles/rice dishes from the menu.

Veg Out Time
8/63 Fitzroy St, St Kilda
(03) 9534 0077
Open Daily 12pm-10pm

366 Chapel Street, South Yarra
(03) 9827 7570
Open Daily 11:30am-10pm

On the Stereo:
Good Morning Spider by Sparklehorse

Gluten free lunch options

I thought it might be helpful to share some g/f vegan options for lunch since this was one thing I was a little stuck with in the beginning. Generally we tend to make enough dinner so that we have leftovers for lunch for the following day. But when I have training at work or we eat out for dinner than lunch can be a bit more tricky since I can't just grab a sandwich. Here are a few options that I've come across and tried:

Lazuppa spinach and chickpea soup, it heats up in a can which is handy. All of the Lazuppa soups are g/f and most of the veg options appear to be vegan. This was ok, I like the protein addition of chickpeas, but I added more salt and pepper and served it with flavoured rice cakes. I think without rice cakes I would be left pretty hungry.

Rice spaghetti with tomato and basil sauce. I got this from Absolutely gluten free but they are actually made in Italy. I love this become you can just add hot water (or microwave) but the guy at the shop told me it's better when you add hot water. Also, it comes with a little fork and napkin which is great for training or holidays when you don't have microwave access. The noodles itself are quite nice and the sauce is a typical tomato based sauce, it's not amazing but it's tasty and convenient enough that I don't mind. If teamed with a muesli bar then I'm full.

Pattu Potato and Green Pea Curry with garlic papadums. This curry is way too spicy for me, but I enjoyed the garlic papadums. I know there are many varieties of these ready to serve Indian curries, so if you have tried some that are really mild, especially those with rice please let me know.

Other things that I have taken include rice paper rolls, g/f bread (with toaster bags) so I can make toast with g/f baked beans and rice cakes really are my best friend. I have eaten them with cheezly, aussie-mite, nooch, peanut butter and the flavoured ones just plain for breakfast, lunch and just as snacks.

If you have taken other g/f vegan lunch ideas for work I would love to hear about them.

Lakshmi Vilas Vegetarian Take Away

Several weeks ago, Erin and I embarked on our own little op shop tour, so she could show me her fav op shops near her new workplace, we went to about five large op shops around dandenong and Noble Park. It was a great day, but by about 4pm we had worked up a nice appetitie, so upon her recommendation decided to give Lakshmi Villas a go. It's a small Indian vegetarian cafe on one of the mains streets in Dandenong, not far from Dandenong Savers. Excuse my phone pics.

It has a small bain-maree selection of curries and a small but very affordable menu:

I had the masala dosa, which has become my fav Indian dish since going g/f since it's generally g/f although it's worth double checking since I have found one place that mixes the rice flour with wheat flour. For $7 this one comes with the usual soupy type sauce, a spiced tomato based chutney and typically a coconut based chutney. Since they had ran out of the coconut chutney, she offered me an extra side, and I choose the chickpea curry. The masala dosa itself was superb, crispy, with the right amount of chilli in the spiced potatos although I'm yet to meet a dosa I haven't liked. I could tell though that creamy coconut chutney though would have finished off the dish perfectly. It left me slightly hungry which was good since it was so close to dinner time and I was going out for dinner afterwards. But if I was going there for lunch at a regular time then I might order an extra dish, although Erin has warned against having the masala dosa and the set meal.
Erin chose one of the set menu items which comes with 3 curries, rice and papadums. And being the lovely friend that she is, she allowed me to try each of them. She had a potato curry, which reminded me more of regular roasted potatoes rather than Indian curries but was crunchy and delicious, the same chickpea curry that I had and a nicely spiced dhal.
It reminds me a lot of Ganaesha Villas, just such a shame it's so far away from the Northern suburb where I live, otherwise it really would become a regular place for me. I can't believe that I couldn't find any reference to it in a blogger search, apart from Keira's reference to their coconut chutney.

Lakshmi Vilas
5/31 Pultney St
Dandenong
9793 7726
Tue-Sun 11-8pm.