Grilled Peach Salad with Avocado Vinaigrette and Croutons.

Hello hello, long time no speak. I'd tell you a long and convoluted story about where the heck I've been but to keep things simple, I've been off travelling, working and trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to be an adult.

Anyways. Here is where I would rather be because 'here' means food and food makes me happy. In amongst all that travel and work and adulting, I truthfully haven't had all that much time for food, which is a great sadness and I will confess, has not been great for my waistline! I do however have a newfound appreciation for how tricky it can be to balance all of life's competing priorities AND keep things healthy in the food department, having learnt that it is oh so much more convenient to reach for a packet or a box when time is in short supply. I know I'm a little premature in this, but my new resolution from here out is to reach a little less for those packets and boxes and instead get back to eating more fresh, wholesome and homemade food.

Which brings me to this salad. I've said it before and I'll say it again, and again and again. I'm not much one for salads. They're boring. They don't always taste very nice and they're not exactly typically the meal that will get you all excited for your lunch or dinner. BUT. Salads can be fun, if you think outside the box a little and add some unconventional ingredients in, which is exactly what happened here. I put bread, as in actual chunks of real bread, into the salad. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but it was a stroke of genius. We love bread! Long live the carbs. I also put grilled peach in the salad, which was also genius - the wedges of peach are juicy, they're sweet and they go oh so well with the zesty rocket (arugula for all you Americans!) and the creamy avocado. All in all, this isn't a regular salad. It's a cool salad and you should definitely make it for you next lunch! I can also envision it going down so well on a Christmas table, at a dinner party, or simply in a giant bowl as you sit on your lounge in your pajamas, ergo, perfect for every occasion!

Ingredients;

The Salad
3 generous handfuls rocket (arugula)
2 spring onions, finely diced
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
2 peaches, cut into wedges approx. 2cm thick
4 thick slices sourdough bread
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

1. Preheat a grill pan to high heat (you can use a regular fry pan if you don't have a grill one, however you'll lose the lovely charring on the peaches). Add in a splash of oil, and then place your peach wedges in, allowing them to grill for approx. 4 minutes before flipping to grill the opposite side.
2. Meanwhile, break the sourdough bread into bite sized chunks. Place the bread chunks on an oven tray and drizzle with some olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Grill in the oven for a few minutes, until they're lightly browned and deliciously crispy.
3. To assemble your salad, place the rocket, spring onion, fresh basil, cherry tomatoes and red onion in a large bowl and toss through to combine. Add your grilled peach to the salad, along with your homemade croutons. Serve the avocado vinaigrette drizzled over the top (recipe and instructions just below). Enjoy! Do try not to eat all the croutons before they make it in the salad!

The Avocado Vinaigarette
1 avocado, halved and pitted
Handful fresh basil leaves
Pinch chilli flakes
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Salt
Pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients for the vinaigrette in a blender (salt and pepper to your personal preference). Blend until smooth, adding a dash of water if you find it difficult to get things blending well.

Roast Potato and Broccoli Soup with Crispy Salt and Pepper Tofu.

I love broccoli. Like, I get that it's a bit of a controversial vegetable and I'm sure there's a decent number of you who read the title of this recipe and went 'nope nope NOPE' but guess what? That's your loss because broccoli is, objectively speaking, the tastiest and this soup is a testament to that!

Two days ago in Australia, it was summer. Today, we live in the depths of the Siberian winter. Very fun, thank you weather overlords. Anyways. The flow on effect of that wild weather change is that soup is back in season, which I guess is a pretty big positive to take out of the situation because soup is quite yum. I'm a long time fan of a very classic pumpkin soup, however I though this winter I should branch out and make some new types of soup. So, with that in mind, I thought I'd kick things off with a homage to my favourite vegetable - broccoli!

This soup is super easy to make - you only need one oven tray and a blender. Basically you roast everything which will make your house smell absolutely fantastic, and then you blend it (sans tofu) and voila! You're done! It's also LOADED with vegetables, which is amazing because eating your veggies is cool. Fact.

Now, moving on, we need to talk about the crispy salt and pepper tofu. This stuff is THE BUSINESS. Get round it my friends, cause this tofu will change your life! At the last minute before I put it in the oven it occurred to me that panko breadcrumbs would probably make the tofu crispier and therefore tastier and HOT DIDDLY DAMN that was an EPIPHANY! Life changing, I'm telling you! It took all my self restraint to not eat it all straight off the oven tray! But, that restraint was well worth it because on top of the soup, the tofu is, shockingly, even better! So crispy. SO GOOD! Make it now, put it on your soup, change your life. Easy peasy!

Ingredients;

1 large potato, cut into cubes
1 leek, washed and cut into discs approx. 2cm thick
1 brown onion, roughly diced
Salt
Pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large head broccoli
10 - 15 leaves fresh sage

450gm firm tofu
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp cornflower
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp panko breadcrumbs

2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 cup spinach

1. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Take a large oven tray and line it with baking paper/parchment. Put the diced potato, leek and onion on the tray, then season with salt and pepper to taste and olive oil. Mix everything through to make sure it's all got some olive oil on it for optimum oven roasting, then put that tray in the oven for 30 minutes.
3. Roughly chop the broccoli into florets. I also use the stalk, which I dice into cubes approx. 2cm square.
4. After 30 minutes, remove the tray from the oven and add the broccoli to the tray, mixing everything through together. Place back in the oven for a further 30 minutes.
5. While the vegetables are roasting, prepare the tofu. You will need to remove it from the packaging and pat it dry with some absorbent paper/paper towel. Then cut it into bit size cubes and put it in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper, then add in the cornflower. Mix the tofu around to make sure the pieces are coated in the cornflower, then add in the olive oil. Mix through again, and then add the panko breadcrumbs, giving the tofu one final mix through.
6. When the veggies are roasted, remove them from the oven and transfer them into a large blender.
7. Spread the tofu cubes out on the same baking tray that you roasted the vegetables on, then place in the oven (at the same temperature) and bake for 30 minutes.
8. Take the blender with the veggies in it and add the vegetable stock in. Blend on high speed for several minutes until the mixture is completely smooth and creamy. Add in the chilli flakes and the spinach, blend again for several minutes more.
9. When the soup is blended and the tofu is cooked, serve up a bowl topped with the crispy salt and pepper tofu. I like to add a sprinkle of chilli flakes and cracked black pepper too, but that's entirely optional! Enjoy!!!

Sesame Crusted Veggie Gyozas.

I've recently been to Japan which was very fun and very exciting. The purpose of my trip was to go snowboarding and quite frankly, I had the time of my life. I haven't been snowboarding for very long, so I'm still a bit of a noob, but I genuinely think it is the most fun thing someone could do with their time and I now like to spend all my time and money that I can on heading to the mountains and getting better at riding. This is a somewhat tricky thing to do in Australia because while we do have mountains that get snow in the winter, our snow season is notoriously fickle so there's no guarantee you'll have good riding conditions. We also don't have very many snow resorts, nor do I, like most Aussies, live particularly close to any of those resorts, which basically lots of Australians, myself now included, like to take off overseas chasing the snow. Hence the trip to Japan.

While snow was the purpose of my trip to Japan, the food also deserves a very honourable mention. Weirdly I have very little exposure to Japanese food, so I kinda didn't know what to expect. In actual fact, I had been warned that as a vegan, navigating the food scene in Japan would supposedly be very difficult. While I definitely had to do my research, I was very pleasantly surprised by how much Japanese food I could eat and also how damn tasty it was!!! We're talking ramen, soba noodles, udon noodle soup, some more ramen, and even some okonomiyaki (a kind of savoury pancake) that my lovely friend made especially for me because typically they're not vegan. Long story short, I ate well while I was in Japan and I came home feeling very inspired by Japanese cuisine!

While I didn't actually eat any of these in Japan, gyozas are a traditional Japanese dumplings and they are the bomb.com. I have experimented with a similar recipe before, my Tofu, Water Chestnut and Thai Basil Potstickers, (which are also delicious - would recommend making) but these particular dumplings are particularly special courtesy of the sesame crusted bottoms on each dumpling. When cooked, the sesame seeds go super crunchy and add in the most delightful flavour to the veggie gyozas. Honestly, I'm going to sesame coat all things that go in the frypan in my kitchen now because major yum!

Ingredients;
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 cup red cabbage, finely sliced
1/2 cup wombok (Chinese cabbage), finely sliced
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
30 gow gee dumpling wrappers*
1/4 cup sesame seeds
Sesame seed oil

The Dipping Sauce
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce

1. Take a large frypan over medium/high heat and add some sesame seed oil to it. Add in the diced onion, celery plus the minced garlic and ginger, stirring well. Cook for a few minutes until the onion starts to lightly brown.
2. Add in the grated carrot, plus the finely sliced cabbage and wombok. Mix through well, then place a lid over the pan for a couple of minutes.
3. Add in the soy sauce and the chilli flakes, again mixing everything through well. Allow to cook for a few minutes more then remove from the heat and allow to cool.
4. To make the gyozas, spoon 1 tsp (approx.) of the veggie mixture into the centre of each dumpling wrapper. Brush water around the edge of half the wrapper (I just use my finger dipped into a small bowl of water to do this). Fold the wrapper in half, then pinch the edges together to seal. For added pizzaz, when pressing the edges together slightly gather one side of the wrapper to create a small pleat of fold in the dumpling. Repeat the process with all the remaining wrappers.
5. Add the sesame seeds to a shallow bowl. After you've used all your filling and made all the gyozas, take them one at a time and brush a little bit of water on the bottom. Then press the bottom of each gyoza in the sesame seeds to coat the bottom of the gyoza.
6. Add some sesame seed oil to a clean frypan over medium/high heat (make sure the frypan has a matching lid - this is SUPER important because you need to cook and then steam them in the one pan). Add each gyoza to the pan and allow to cook till the bottoms are browned and the sesame seeds are golden and crunchy - this should take a few minutes. Add 1/4 cup water to the pan and immediately cover with the lid, allowing the gyozas to cook for a further 5 minutes.
7. To make your dipping sauce, mix together the hoisin and soy in a small bowl.
8. Serve the gyozas immediately after they've cooked. I like to add a sprinkling of finely diced spring onions and coriander over the top but that's just me being extra and is entirely optional! Enjoy!!

*You can buy gow gee dumpling wrappers from most supermarkets (I got mine in the fridge section of my local Woolworths), or alternatively most Asian grocers should also have them

Quick and Easy Vegan Pho.

This recipe has been a LONG time coming. Apologies for the unjustifiably long delay (I've been working on it since 2014!), but on the bright side, I'm happy to share that the end result of all that time recipe testing is this super quick, super easy and SUPER delicious pho! They say good things come to those who wait, and in this instance, hot damn does that saying ring true!

Despite still not being entirely certain how to pronounce the name of this dish (is it "fuh" or is it "fo"???!), it is nonetheless one of my favourite foods ever! I first discovered the wonders of pho when on a trip to southern Vietnam in 2014 and I very quickly fell in love. The sad news though, is that typically pho is made using a bone broth which is clearly very not vegan friendly and also kind gross. Anyways. I returned home and set out to make a veggie loaded vegan version of this wonderful Vietnamese noodle soup dish and five short years later, I'm happy to finally deliver the goods.

The secret to a good pho is a good broth, and the secret to a good broth is good spices. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the two stars of the show are star anise and cinnamon, both of which give this broth a really intense depth of flavour and quite frankly, make the dish. I've never used star anise for anything else in the kitchen and truthfully I'm not entirely sure what what one do with it aside from make pho broth but the good news is that it is widely available (I got some from one of the main supermarket's here in Australia for just a few dollars) - a big plus because normally quirky spices like that are hard to source and ludicrously expense.

Aside from being vegetable based, this pho differs from the traditional ones in that the broth will not take you hours to make and brew. In actual fact, I've been making this pho for the last week every second day (I'm obsessed with it) and while I've never timed myself, I guesstimate that it takes me about 30 minutes from start to finish!

Before leaving you with the recipe, one final word of advice - use fresh herbs VERY generously to top off your pho. As with most things I eat, I use a ridiculous amount of herbs which isn't always to everyone's liking, but trust me, on this pho, ALL OF THE HERBS.

Ingredients;
(serves 3-4)

2 onions, chopped into slices approx. 1cm thick
Sesame seed oil
2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
8 cups water + 2 vegetable stock cubes (or alternatively 2 litres veggie stock)
2 tbsp gluten free soy sauce/tamari

1 200gm packet rice noodles
1 head broccoli, cut into bite size florets

450gm firm tofu, roughly crumbled
Sesame seed oil
2 tbsp gluten free soy sauce/tamari
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
Pinch dried chilli flakes
Cracked black pepper (to taste)

Bean shoots
Vietnamese basil
Coriander
Mint

*for reference, I've divided the ingredients above into the separate elements of the dish and usually I will cook them all concurrently*

1. In a large pot over high heat (make sure it's big enough to hold 2 litres of water minimum), add a splash of sesame seed oil, then add in the onion. Cook the onion for a few minutes until it starts to lightly brown.
2. Add in the spices to your pot (cinnamon, star anise, chilli flakes, garlic and ginger) and mix around the pot with the onions for a minute or so (the smell at this stage will be magnificent, appreciate it!).
3. Turn the heat down to medium/low, then add in the water and stock cubes (or veggie stock, depending on which you're using) and soy sauce/tamari, stir and place the lid on to allow that to cook a little.
4. Place a fry pan over medium/high heat. Add in the sesame seed oil, crumbled tofu, soy sauce/tamari, hoisin, chilli flakes and pepper, then stir well. Keep stirring this every few minutes - you'll know the tofu is cooked when it starts to brown, which should take 10 minutes or so.
5. By this stage the broth should be simmering - add in the broccoli florets and rice noodles, stir through and place the lid back on. Keep an eye on this pot, stirring occasionally until your noodles are cooked which may vary depending on the thickness of the noodles you use, but typically takes a few minutes.
6. When the noodles and the tofu are both cooked, remove from the heat. Take some bowls (would suggest a relatively deep one) and pour/scoop some noodles, broth and broccoli in each. Add some of the tofu on top, along with a generous handful of bean shoots and some fresh Vietnamese basil, coriander and mint leaves and voila, you have yourself the most delicious bowl of pho ever! HAPPY DAYS!

The Very Not Boring Salad.

As the title of this recipe might suggest, this salad is not boring. Nay. It is, dare I say it, a FUN salad. Reality is, salads are not normally fun, which is a great sadness because salads are (generally speaking), pretty healthy and healthy is fun and cool and in the pursuit of healthy, salads typically play a somewhat important role. Salads are a straight up FANTASTIC way to pack your diet with lots of fresh vegetables, and this particular salad does exactly that and some. It's filled with fresh herbs, lots of fresh greens, some zesty citrus and the star of the show - crispy oven baked chickpeas, perfectly seasoned and ideal for upping your salad game!!!

Make it for your next work lunch, take it to a dinner party, eat it for dinner on a warm summer's evening - whatever way you choose to have this salad I can guarantee you that it'll change your mind about 'boring salads' forever!

Ingredients;
1 large handful baby spinach
1 large handful rocket/arugula
1 avocado
Handful roughly chopped coriander
Handful roughly chopped parsley
1 blood orange OR pink grapefruit
3 shallots, finely sliced
2 tbsp hemp seeds
425gm chickpeas
3 tsp Pickld spicy coriander blend
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
Cracked black pepper

1. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Spread the chickpeas out on a towel and dry them completely. Place them on a lined baking tray and sprinkle with the Pickld spicy coriander blend, minced garlic and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Mix everything around well on the baking tray, making sure that all your chickpeas are well and proper coated.
3. Place the seasoned chickpeas in the oven and cook for 20 minutes. At that point, remove them from the oven, mix them around and place back in for a further 10 minutes until they're golden and crispy. Remove them and allow to cool.
4. While your chickpeas are doing their thing in the oven, take a large bowl and add to it the spinach, rocket and herbs. Halve, peel and remove the seed from your avocado, then slice into thin strips. Add the avo to the bowl along with the shallots, then mix things through well.
5. Peel your orange/grapefruit and split it into segments, then add those to the bowl as well. Add in the hemp seeds along with the now cooked and crispy chickpeas, then gently toss everything through together.
6. To serve, drizzle over the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil and a generous helping of cracked black pepper. For serving purposes I also like to add some extra hemp seeds at the end too! Enjoy!

This post was created in collaboration with Pickld using the spiced seasoning blends, however my opinions, words and recipe are, as always, proudly my own!

Tofu, Water Chestnut and Thai Basil Potstickers.

Hello hello and welcome to confession time. Today I'd like to own up to a big addiction I've developed in recent months - dumplings.

I'm completely and entirely obsessed with dumplings. I literally cannot stop eating them, like they're just so damn tasty! I could literally eat mountains of them, continuously, for the rest of my life. This addiction definitely came at me from left field - I spent years and years under the false belief that I did not even like dumplings, let alone go weak at the knees at the very thought of them! I honestly don't know where, or how, that false belief came from but for the record, I do not dislike dumplings in the slightest, rather quite the opposite!

However, not all dumplings are created equal. Nay, see the preeminent dumpling variety is a 'potsticker' which is basically a fun way of saying a dumpling that is both fried AND steamed, ergo giving you, the dumpling enthusiast, the best of both worlds, just like Hannah Montana always wanted us to have. To cook a potsticker, you put a little oil in a frypan, cook the dumpling on the bottom only until it'd delightfully golden brown and then you put some water in the frypan, whack a lid on and steam them for a few minutes. The end result is a thing of such great deliciousness, such complete dumpling perfection, that you, like me, will probably lose your mind.

While you can buy pre-made dumplings aplenty from the grocery store, please take it from me, a devoted connoisseur of dumplings, that it is well worth the little bit of extra effort to make them at home. Dumpling wrappers, once a thing exclusively available at your local hole in the wall Asian grocer, are increasingly available in mainstream supermarkets, making it all the more doable to become a dumpling chef in the confines of your own kitchen. You might think dumpling making is a bit tricky, but let me assure you it's shockingly easy and that you too can become a dumpling making maestro just like me (yes this title is self-bestowed, and yes I wear it with great pride anyway).  The possibilities for dumpling fillings are almost endless, but I, being the tofu fanatic I am, could not walk past making tofu dumplings. I added in some of my favourite Asian flavours, principally Thai basil, chilli and coriander, along with some finely diced water chestnuts for some extra crunch and all round pizzaz and HOT DAMN did I end up with a culinary creation straight from the heavens above. These potstickers are hands down my favourite savoury recipe I have ever made (big call!) and basically ya'll need them in your life, though more so your mouth, as a matter of great urgency!

Ingredients;
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 generous handful coriander, finely chopped
1 generous handful Thai basil, finely chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced chilli
250gm firm tofu
100gm water chestnuts, finely diced*
2 tbsp hoisin sauce**
2 tbsp reduced salt soy sauce or tamari sauce
30 dumpling wrappers***
Sesame seed oil

The Dipping Sauce
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp dried chilli flakes

1. Remove your tofu from the packaging. You need to remove some of the moisture from the tofu - to do this I like to take 2 bread boards and place some paper towel/absorbent paper on top of one. I then finely crumble the tofu with my hands and spread it over the top of that paper towel. I add another layer of paper towel on top, followed by the second bread board and then a hefty stack of law textbooks (the only thing they've ever been useful for is as a tofu press to be entirely honest!). I leave this setup for approx. 10 mins while I prep the other ingredients.
2. While that's going on, take a mixing bowl and add your finely diced onion, water chestnuts, garlic, chilli and finely chopped coriander and Thai basil to it. Mix everything through well.
3. Add your finely crumbled and water drained tofu to the bowl with the other ingredients, again mixing things through till everything is well combined.
4. Add in the hoisin and soy sauces, mixing again then set aside covered in the fridge for at least an hour to marinate.  
5. To assemble the dumplings, spoon 1 tbsp of filling onto each wrapper. Brush water around the edge of half the wrapper (I just dip my fingers in a small bowl of water and do this with clean hands, though you could use a brush if you're fancy). Fold the wrapper in half, pinching the edges together to seal. For added pizzaz, when pressing the edges together you can slightly gather some of the wrapper on one side, creating small pleats or folds in the dumpling. This will make you look like a Dumpling Master, however is really purely an aesthetic thing I like to do to make myself feel clever, therefore doing so is entirely optional. Repeat the process with all the remaining wrappers.
6. Heat some sesame seed oil in a large frying pan (one that has a matching lid - this is VERY important!) that's on medium/high heat. Add in the potstickers and cook them till the bottoms, and just the bottoms, are golden brown - this should take just a few minutes. Add 1/4 cup water to the pan and immediately cover with the lid, allowing them to steam cook for a further 4-5 minutes. 
7. To make the dipping sauce, simply mix the ingredients for that together in a small bowl. Serve your potstickers along with the bomb diggity dipping sauce and then proceed to eat all 30 potstickers in one sitting because I'd like to see you try exercise even an ounce of self restraint around these DELICIOUS morsels of complete yum! *salivates*

*you can get water chestnuts in the canned vegetable isle of most supermarkets
**not all hoisin sauces are vegan friendly, so be sure to read the label before buying! Authentic ones should be free of animal products
***you can buy dumpling wrappers from most supermarkets (I got mine in the fridge section of my local Woolworths), or alternatively most Asian grocers should also have them

Broccoli, Bean and Snowpea Salad with Caramelised Pear and Feta.

It's only the very start of October but because I'm deep in the throws of procrastinating, I'm already thinking ahead to Christmas, specifically the food for the Christmas table. I'm the only vegan in my family, which generally means that we don't do a giant special meal just for me, rather we make lots of different plates of food, kind of like side dishes, but also hearty and wholesome enough to be meals in their own right, and I make a mixed plate from those. I quite like this approach because inevitably it means lots of variety for me and I also really like that it means the vegan 'side dishes' are plates that everyone shares, which keeps the social aspect of the Christmas table alive and well. It's not a whole heap of fun to be the singular person eating the weird, different dish, so the fact that I can make plates of food that everyone has some of is something that personally makes me really happy!

Taking this approach typically leaves me responsible for salads, because I think everyone kind of just assumes that vegans eat lots of vegetables (which is true, when we're being good healthy vegans). I do enjoy salads, but only when they're not boring. Ain't no body got time for some semi-wilted lettuce and a few quartered tomatoes round here. Instead I'm all about flavourful salads full of contrasting tastes. I typically like putting unconventional things in my salads, partly because it's just kind of inherently fun to stretch the boundaries, but also putting fun things in salads makes the salad itself more fun and we love a fun salad!!! 

Using fruit is one of my favourite approaches, which is precisely what I've done here. I wanted to make a 'salad' with mixed green vegetables - specifically broccoli, beans and snowpeas, for no other reason than it seemed like a cool idea. Alone, those three vegetables are very average, so it was obviously necessary to spice things up a bit! I wanted to add some sweetness in, which pear alone would do but to make things extra special I roasted it in a light coating of brown sugar. I then added in some pecans for texture, but the star of the show here is definitely the crumbled vegan feta. It's a new product available at my local supermarket here in Aus and quite frankly, it's the real deal and absolutely takes this salad from slightly above average to EXCEPTIONAL. A very quick and easy drizzle of balsamic vinegar and low and behold, we have ourselves a fun, vegetable filled salad that's perfect for any occasion, including the Christmas lunch table!! 

Ingredients;

1 head broccoli, cut into bit-size florets

2 handfuls green beans, the ends cut off

1 handful snowpeas, ends cut off

1 pear

2 tbsp brown sugar

Drizzle olive oil (x2)

1/2 cup pecan nuts 

100gm vegan feta cheese (I used Bio Cheese Feta available at Woolworths supermarkets across Aus)

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 

1. Preheat an oven to 180 degrees Celsius (fan-forced). 

2. Take the pear and cut it into thin wedges. The easiest way to do this is to halve it, repeat and keep repeating until you have a collection of wedges that are about 1cm wide.

3. In a small bowl, combine the pear wedges with 1tbsp brown sugar and a light drizzle of olive oil. Mix through well so that all the pear pieces are coated well. 

4. Place the pear wedges on a lined baking tray, then cook them in the oven for approx. 15 mins. They should be lightly golden and the ends may just start to brown a little deeper. Keep an eye on them though - depending on how thick you cut them they may cook a little faster!

5. While the pear is cooking, place the pecan nuts in the same spare bowl you used previously along with 1 tbsp brown sugar and a light drizzle of olive oil. Mix through well, and just as you did with the pear wedges, place the pecans on a lined baking tray.

6. When the pears have cooked, remove them from the oven and place to one side to allow to cool. Place the pecans in the oven, and cook just as you did with the pears, for approx. 10 mins. The easiest way to judge whether the nuts are lightly roasted enough is smell - if you open the oven and it smells delicious and nutty, then they'll be done! When cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool. 

7. Bring a large pot of water to the boil.

8. When the water has boiled, put your broccoli florets, beans and snowpeas in and cook them all together for approx. 4-5 minutes. I prefer some crunch in my vegetables, so I drain them when they're just shy of being fully cooked, though this is just personal preference!

9. When cooked, drain and rinse the vegetables.

10. Place your cooked veggies in a large bowl along with the wedges of cooked pear. Roughly chop the cooked pecans and add those in too. Crumble some of your vegan feta in then mix through well. Add in the balsamic, again mix through well and then serve! 

Rocket Toppa.

I grew up in a small town in regional Australia that has a very large Italian population. Aside from fostering an environment wherein we all, Italians and non-Italians alike, love to gesture enthusiastically with our hands when we talk, this large Italian population bestowed upon we townsfolk a great and mighty gift; Italian cuisine.

Sure, you can pretty much get 'Italian food' anywhere and everywhere these days, but let me tell you, there's Italian food and then there's actually good Italian food. I myself am a big fan of the latter, and courtesy of my upbringing in this delightfully Italian influenced little town, I have exceptionally high standards when it comes to that good Italian food. The Italian food in my hometown is mindblowingly good. Even today, generations after many of the first Italian migrants moved to the town, you can still find restaurants serving nonna's traditional lasagne recipe and my god is that one heck of a flipping lasagne!

There are lots of Italian restaurants in this mini-Italy hometown of mine, all of which are exceptional, however for reasons largely unclear to me, my family (N.B. my dad) have always had our favourite. And at the favourite restaurant there is a family favourite dish humbly known as the 'rocket toppa.' It's a very simple dish, which is probably what makes it so great and I'm yet to ever eat at this restaurant and not have a rocket toppa. Traditionally it comes with proscuitto (a kind of Italian ham that's thinly sliced), which is obviously not very vegan friendly, but I'm pleased to report that the humble rocket toppa still tastes absolutely spectacular without. For my interpretation, I added in some semi sundried tomatoes in the place of the traditional proscuitto in order to keep an additional level of flavour within the pizza as a whole.

My biggest tip for this dish is to get a good quality pizza base, also known as a 'toppa' because it plays a starring role in the dish. Add in some fresh rocket (arugula for all the Americans out there!) and some vegan parmesan and you friends, have a recipe for a damn tasty time!!

Ingredients;
1 large pizza base
8 large tomatoes, chopped into quarters
2 tsp raw sugar
Pinch salt
Cracked black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

1 cup (approx.) semi sun-dried tomatoes (I use oil free ones from the same isle in the supermarket as the canned veg)
1 handful fresh basil, roughly chopped

2 cups fresh rocket (arugula)
2 tbsp vegan parmesan (I use 'Green Vie' available at The Cruelty Free Store in Aus)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 red onion, very finely sliced into half-moons

1. Preheat an oven to 180 degrees fan-forced.
2. Take a lined baking tray and place your quartered tomatoes on it. Sprinkle over the raw sugar along with some salt and pepper, then a generous amount of olive oil. Mix the tomatoes around well then bake for approx. 30 mins.
3. When your tomatoes are roasted, remove them from the oven (leave the oven on though!) and transfer them into a fine sieve/colander. Place a bowl underneath then use a fork to mash the tomatoes, leaving a delicious paste in the bowl below.
4. Take a large pizza base and place it on an oven tray. Use a spoon to spread your homemade tomato paste generously over the base. Finely slice the sun-dried tomatoes and then sprinkle them, along with the finely sliced basil, over the pizza base.
5. Place the pizza in the oven to cook for approx. 10 mins. The base should start to go crispy, but make sure you remove the pizza before the tomatoes on top start to burn!
6. While the pizza is cooking, take a large bowl and combine the fresh rocket, vegan parmesan, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and finely sliced red onion. Mix them through together until well combined.
7. When your pizza is cooked, remove from the oven, cut into pieces and then serve each piece topped with a generous handful of the rocket mixture (plus some extra parmesan if you're cheeky)! Enjoy!!

This dish was inspired by a dish of the same name available at La Scala Restaurant in Griffith, NSW. If you're ever in town, I'd recommend trying it! The restaurant will make it vegan upon request (make sure to tell them you want both the proscuitto and cheese removed). Alternatively just make my version, because truthfully I think it's possibly even better than the one that inspired it!!

Vietnamese Mango Summer Salad.

Since first visiting Vietnam back in 2014, I've found myself falling more and more in love with Vietnamese cuisine. I've always been partial to Asian-inspired food, though as the years have gone on I've found myself drawn more towards fresh herbs, vegetable-based dishes, light yet intense flavours and rice noodles. Vietnamese cuisine is strongly based around all these things, and for that reason it has very quickly become my favourite.

In other news, as the seasons change in Australia and we roll around into yet another long, hot summer, I'm finding myself (yet again) deeply in love with mango. In Australia we're exceptionally blessed to have a good supply of locally grown, sweet, fresh mangoes all summer long and oh my do I like to make good use of that fact! I very much enjoy a juicy fresh mango on its own, but mango is also surprisingly adaptable to being added to lots of other dishes. I thought I'd experiment a little and combine my love of Vietnamese cuisine and mangoes, and this Vietnamese Mango Summer Salad was the result.

It's an incredibly light, fresh, wholesome and deliciously tasty salad and one that is definitely going to be on repeat in my kitchen this summer!

Ingredients; 
125gm vermicelli rice noodles, cooked as per packet instructions
1/4 head wombok/Chinese cabbage (approx. 4 cups), roughly chopped
2 large handfuls bean shoots
1 cucumber, sliced thinly
3 shallots/spring onions, chopped
Handful Vietnamese basil
Handful fresh coriander
Handful fresh mint
Flesh from 1 mango*
Marinated tofu (optional, amount variable)

Dressing
Zest and juice of 1 lime
4 tbsp tamari/soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame seed oil
Pinch sesame seeds
Pinch dried chilli flakes

1. Cook the tofu in a pan as you would usually/as per packet instructions.
2. In a large bowl, toss the roughly chopped wombok, cucumber slices, bean shoots, shallots and the herbs (Vietnamese basil, coriander and mint) in a large bowl. (Depending on the size of the herb leaves, I might roughly tear them into smaller pieces before tossing!).
3. Add in the cooked vermicelli noodles, sliced mango and cooked tofu, then toss through again.
4. In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients. Mix them together well then add onto the bowl of salad. Again, toss everything thoroughly then serve! Enjoy!

*to get the flesh from my mango, I cut the 'cheeks' of the mango away from the seed, then use a large spoon to scoop the flesh out of the cheeks in one piece. I then slice the flesh into strips and save the seed part to be eaten later!

Pear and Strawberry Summer Salad.

Fact #1; it is not currently summer in Australia, rather it is July, and therefore the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere.

Fact #2; I do not care for the realities of the seasons, and I will make myself a summer salad whenever I so happen to feel like it.

And that friends, is precisely how this particular salad came to be. Right now, I'm 'enjoying' the freezing cold surrounds of Canberra in the depths of winter, very much wishing I was sunning myself on the beaches of Europe like three-quarters of my more fortunate friends seem to be doing. Not me though - I'm working away (making cash monies) in Canberra, being a hermit and watching Netflix. Despite that physical reality though, I've been busy transporting myself to more exotic locations culinarily, experimenting with new flavours, inspired by the things I'm missing most about the warmer weather and foreign adventures. Conveniently, the strawberries in Australia right now also taste spectacular, and being one of my very favourite things about the European summer, I decided to use them to create what I feel, is the flavour of summer in salad form.

Most importantly, this salad is super quick and super easy to put together, which also reminds me of summer because usually in the warmer months I like to spend the absolute minimum amount of time indoors prepping food and maximum time outdoors absorbing all of the sun and basking in the warmth. (Can you tell I miss actual warmth? No? Well I do. Very much so.)

Ingredients;
1 large head fresh green lettuce
1 cucumber
1 pear
1 red onion
1/2 avocado
2 generous handfuls fresh strawberries
4 spring onions/shallots
Handful fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup lightly roasted pine nuts
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1. Finely slice the cucumber, pear, spring onions and red onion into thin strips. For the cucumber, doing this diagonally works best!
2. Take a large bowl, roughly tear the lettuce leaves up and chuck them in. Add in the finely sliced pear, onion, spring onion and cucumber. Roughly chop the parsley leaves and add them in too, along with the pine nuts.
3. Slice the strawberries and avocado up (for the strawberries, any way works, I like them done in thin slices personally, though quartered also works, and for the avocado, thin slices work best) and add those in too. Mix everything through.
4. Finally, drizzle with balsamic and a teensy-bit of olive oil. Enjoy!