Sunday, July 29, 2012

Quinoa Croquettes


I've been making these croquettes a lot lately, I never use black eyed beans though, and substitute whatever I have on hand so far I've tried kidney beans, chickpeas and cannelloni beans. They are so versitile too, each time we have served them in a different way, one night we had them with pasta and tomato based sauce and a cheesy sauce, another night with mashed potatoes and gravy and last night we took them to a potluck with a tangy dipping sauce. They freeze really well too. I recommend doubling or tripling this recipe and freezing what you don't need.

Black-eyed Pea and Quinoa Croquettes from vegan with a vengeance

1 1/2 cups cooked black-eyed peas, drained, or 1 can, drained and rinsed

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 cup cooked quinoa, at room temperature

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp paprika

For the bread crumb coating:

1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used gf breadcrumbs)

1/8 tsp sea salt

Few dashes of black pepper

1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

2 tsp olive oil


1.

Preheat the oven to 170°C (350°F) degrees. Mash the black-eyed peas (or whatever beans you subsitute) and combine with the olive oil and soy sauce until just blended. I made it with food processor last night but they become too soft. Add the quinoa and spices and combine the mixture. You should be able to mould them into balls that readily stick together.

2.

In a small bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the breading. Spray a baking pan with a little oil. Form the croquettes into walnut-sized balls. Gently roll the balls between your palms 3-4 times, then flatten out the ends so that the croquettes resemble marshmallows. Coat each ball with the bread crumbs and place on the baking sheet. When all the croquettes have been formed, spray lightly with oil. Bake for 40 minutes, turning once after 20 minutes.

Excuse this slightly blurry pic



Thursday, July 12, 2012

Aussie Vegan Survey

We are trying to get stats on how many vegans in Australia, if you are vegan and in Australia please complete this simple 2 question survey. It will close in a few weeks and will share the results soon after.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/86ZLWGS

Munster Haus - Now Open For Dinner

Life has been crazy lately, just really busy, we actually have lots of things to blog about but need more time. A friend of mine recently alerting me to the fact that Munster Haus is now open for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights. We haven't been since they first opened which we blogged about here because we so rarely go out for lunch and kind of forgot about it.

We went last week and they had plenty of gluten free options and was the perfect quick and quite healthy meal. All of the meals are precooked or salads. You can choose the bowl size and as many options as you can want, the medium bowl ($14) seems to be best for me whereas Toby opts for large ($18).


This one had so many delicious parts including a quinoa salad, sweet chilli type tofu dish, roasted potatoes, fried polenta squares, rice balls and more with two dips on top, a tofu based sauce and another one which I think was chickpea based but was very different to hummous. My fave parts were the roasted potatoes, polenta squares, the chilli tofu and the tofu dip but it was all tasty and great to have so much variation.  

We enjoyed it so much we went back this weekend, with friends of ours who had there first dinner out with their baby.  They also talked to the owner about it being pram accessible and a staff member explained that dinner is fine but lunch tends to be very busy.



They had different meals but also a few of the same dishes, I had the potatoes, chilli tofu and the tofu dip again. Also some brussel sprouts, a chickpea dish, salad, some plain rice, another dip and much more.

Toby is a huge fan too, he tends to choose the high protein dishes and fell in love with a Japanese style broth with tofu and veggies last weekend so much that he tried to recreate it at home with no success.

It will definitely become a regular eat out option.

It has been blogged about by mocchi eats, wheres the beef twice, juganaut, words@random, confessions of a food nazi, Fitzroyalty and the Big V.

Munster Haus
371 St Georges Rd
North Fitzroy
Mon - Thu: 09:00-16:30
Fri - Sat: 09:00-20:00

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sunflower Organics Cafe and Wholefoods Store.

We love Daylesford so was very excited when we received a very generous voucher for accommodation and entry to the Hepburn spring spa. We went last weekend and we had a great week enjoying the usual places like Chocolate Mill and the Himalaya bakery. The spa was excellent and contained something called spa couches which were truly amazing!!!.

We also went to a new vegan cafe called Sunflower Organic Cafe and Wholefoods store which had only been open for a few weeks. We tried to go for dinner one night but discovered it was closed so went back the following morning for breakfast. We had both had the sunflower big breakfast. They made mine gf by replacing tempeh with plain tempeh and choosing potato rosti instead of the toast. It contained baked beans, tempeh, fried tomatoes, spinach, mushroom and the rosti. It was enjoyable, I loved the thinly sliced and fried tempeh but I did add some more tamari to flavour the spinach. Also the rostis were a little undercooked. The service was excellent though and they were so excellent about making things gf. The breakfast is normally served with fried apple which I'm so curious about but they didn't have any that morning.


I couldn't resist trying just a couple of their raw desserts, I had the orange chocolate cake and the lemon ball. Both were sweet and tasty but the orange choc cake was my fave because it was so creamy.

Sunflower Organic Cafe and Wholefoods store
1 Knox Street
Daylesford
5348 3637