Apple Cashew Curry With Coconut Rice

This is one of my favourite dishes... vegan friendly too!

Ingredients
1 cup jasmine rice
1 can coconut milk
3 fresh lime slices
cilantro
cashews
broccoli
1/2 can baby corn
1 granny smith apple sliced
olive oil
2 tablespoons red curry paste
cumin
salt
garlic powder
onion powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh chopped ginger

1. Cook the rice with half water and half coconut milk.

2. Heat olive oil in frying pan. Add cashews, broccoli, apple slices, and corn.

3. Slowly stir in remaining coconut milk. Add ginger, red curry paste, brown sugar, cilantro and squeeze 2 of the lime wedges in. Add cumin, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder to taste. You might even want to add more curry paste depending on how strong you like it!

4. Let simmer until flavours are well blended. Serve rice separate from curry and topped with a cilantro twig and lime slice!

Harvest Curry - Vegan Friendly!

This warm and spicy curry is the perfect meal for those particularly grey days. Incorporating harvest vegetables makes this not only delicious, but cheap too. Did I mention it's vegan friendly as well!?

Ingredients
acorn squash
butternut squash
pumpkin
yam
lentils
curry paste
cumin/tumeric/salt
almond/soy milk
olive oil
ginger

1. Chop the squash, pumpkin, and yams into bit sized pieces. Heat some olive oil in a pan with some diced ginger and add the chopped veggies. Fry for several minutes until the veggies are well cooked and soft.

2. Add almond milk (I don't use measurements when cooking certain meals, I tend to go by taste and also by amount of people I'm cooking for. Just use your best judgement and taste as you go along!)

3. Stir in a couple spoonfuls of curry paste. I like my curry extra spicy so you may not use as much as I would. Just add it slowly and keep tasting. I also add extra cumin/tumeric powder and a pinch of salt!

4. Once the curry is well mixed with the veggies and almond milk, stir in the the lentils. Let simmer until flavours have blended well and the curry has thickened up.

autumn apple dishes

So other than pumpkin, apples are my second favourite thing to eat during the fall. Here are a few of my favourite autumn-inspired apple dishes!



Traditional Apple Pie

3 apples, thinly sliced
brown sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg
ginger
allspice
molasses
margarine
granola
pie crust (recipe can be found here )

1. Make the pie crust and let sit in the fridge while preparing the filling.

1. In a large pot, cook the sliced apples, brown sugar, spices, and molasses under medium heat until everything is melted, mixed together, and the apples are soft and brown.

2. Pour mixture into the pie crust. In a separate bowl mix some margarine, brown sugar, and granola. Sprinkle mixture over pie until evenly covered. Bake in oven at 350 until golden brown.


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Apple Curry

1 large granny smith apple, thinly sliced
can of coconut milk
1 lime
tumeric
cumin
curry powder
1 onion
1 tbsp olive oil
2 spoonfuls brown sugar
salt
slivered almonds
any thick noodle of your choice

1. In a large pan, fry the onions in the oil until brown. Add brown sugar and continue to cook until sugar is melted.

2. Slowly stir in coconut milk. Once completely incorporated, add the cumin, tumeric, salt, and curry powder.

3. Add sliced apples and almonds. Let simmer for 10 minutes or so.

4. Boil some noodles, and once cooked, drain them and add the curry sauce.


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Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes
**disclaimer** yes, I realize honey isn't vegan, but I also realize that not all of my readers are vegan! The original recipe includes honey, but I have also included a vegan alternative :)

1 apple, cut into small cubes
1 large sweet potato, cut into medium cubes
honey (or any sweet vegan alternative, like agave nectar or similar syrupy sweetener)
1 tbsp brown sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg
allspice
mixed nuts (walnuts, almonds, and cashews are the best)

1. Mix the apple, sweet potato, honey/vegan alternative, spices and brown sugar.

2. Pour mixture into a deep casserole dish.

3. Bake in the oven at 425 for 20 minutes until the sweet potato is soft and brown.

peanut butter caramel cupcakes

This is my modified version of "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World's" peanut butter cupcakes. These are super delicious but very, very rich and filling. One cupcake is more than enough!



ingredients
3/4 cup soy milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons vegan caramel sauce
crushed peanuts for garnish

icing:
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup margarine
3 1/2 cups icing sugar
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
2 tbsp almond/soy milk
1/3 cup vegan caramel sauce
1 tablespoon peanut butter

instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tray with paper liners. mix the soy milk with the apple vinegar and set aside to curdle.

2. In a large bowl, cream the peanut butter, oil, sugar, molasses, caramel sauce, soy milk, and vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder/soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until well combined.

4. fill the cupcake liners and bake for 20-26 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean!

5. mix the shortening and margarine together until nice and fluffy. Add sugar, keep beating. Add the caramel and peanut butter. Keep beating. Add soy/almond milk and beat for about 5 more minutes until you achieve the consistency you want.

6. Once the cupcakes are cooled, pipe a nice swirl of icing on top. Sprinkle some crushed peanuts on top and enjoy!

Tofu Nuggets With Fries & Black Bean Gravy

I decided to create my own, somewhat healthy, vegan version of chicken nuggets and fries with gravy. I think the black bean gravy is my new favourite thing to eat right now. So tasty!



Ingredients

tofu nuggets
pressed tofu
bread crumbs
margarine
bragg/maggi seasoning
salt and pepper
vegetable stock
onion powder
chopped parsely

seasoned fries
potatoes (1 per person)
seasoned salt
cracked pepper
cooking oil

black bean gravy
half can black beans
2 cups vegetable stock
bragg/maggi seasoning
corn starch
salt and pepper
onion powder

How to Prepare Tofu Nuggets:
1. Cut the tofu into medium sized squares. Mix the maggi or bragg, salt and pepper, vegetable stock, parsley and onion powder in a bowl. Place the tofu in the mixture and let soak for at least two hours.

2. Once the tofu is marinated, dip each piece into a bowl of bread crumbs with salt and pepper. Cook them on a pan with margarine on medium heat until each side is golden brown.




How To Prepare Seasoned Fries:
1. Wash and cut potatoes into long, thin, fry-shaped pieces. Lightly sprinkle with seasoned salt and pepper.

2. Coat a baking pan with cooking oil. Place the fries on evenly and bake in the oven at 350 degrees. Flip and/or shake fries every five minutes or so and cook until golden brown.




How To Prepare Black Bean Gravy
1. Cook vegetable stock, bragg seasoning, onion powder, and salt and pepper in a saucepan under medium heat.

2. Blend the vegetable stock mixture and the black beans in a blender until well mixed and smooth.

3. Place mixture back in saucepan and simmer under medium-low heat. Add cornstarch if necessary to achieve the consistency you want.

Pesto & Artichoke Pasta

Here is the pasta version of the pesto pizza I posted in my previous post. I created this using the leftovers and some extra ingredients. Needless to say, it turned out quite delicious! I could have sworn I could almost taste parmesan cheese in it.

Ingredients
Pesto (click here for recipe)
1/2 cup soy milk
2 tbsp melted margarine
pasta noodles
salt and pepper
1 clove garlic
artichokes
tofu "chicken" pieces

Basically mix the soy milk, margarine, salt, pepper, garlic and pesto together in a saucepan until well heated/mixed. Pour over boiled pasta noodles. Add artichokes and tofu chicken. Voila!

Pesto Pizza

I've been craving pizza lately, so I decided to attempt to make my own vegan version. I was nervous at first because I was completely experimenting with something I've never really tried before, but it actually turned out to be really yummy!

ingredients
1 cup fresh basil leaves
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup & a tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tbsp pine nuts
thin pita shells
artichoke hearts
asparagus
tofu "chicken" slices
bragg seasoning
cumin
tumeric
brown sugar
1 cup chopped spinach

1. To make the pesto sauce, simply throw the basil leaves, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and pine nuts into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth and creamy.

2. Cook the "chicken" lightly in a frying pan with the bragg seasoning, cumin, tumeric and brown sugar.

3. Spread the pesto sauce evenly over the pita shells. Add the "chicken", asparagus, and artichoke. Sprinkle the spinach on top as if it were cheese.

4. Bake in the oven at 350 until the pita's are crispy and brown, around ten minutes.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients
2/3 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup soft tofu
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 heaping cup grated carrots
1/4 cup walnuts (leave some for decorating)
sprinkle of coconut

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a small baking pan with shortening or margarine. In a mixing bowl, add sugar, oil, tofu and vanilla. Then add dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Stir in carrots and walnuts. Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Decorate with icing, coconut, and walnuts.

Icing Recipe
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup shortening
2.5 cups icing sugar
1.5 teaspoons vanilla

Cream together margarine and shortening until soft and fluffy. Add vanilla. Slowly add icing sugar while continuing to whip the icing.

Strawberry and Cream Cupcakes

I am horrible at keeping up with a blog, sorry for not posting in ages. Things have settled down though, I'm moved in and have a steady job. I have a ton of recipes and photos to post in the next week.

I altered a recipe from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for my 20th birthday last week. I used the basic vanilla cupcake recipe with their buttercream icing recipe and added strawberry jam to the icing, as well as a spoonful of jam in the center of the cupcake batter. They were delicious! I received a lot of compliments on them and my roommates couldn't believe they were vegan.

I know these aren't the best quality photos, but I had to take them quickly and my basement room is very dark.






Recipe can be found here.

Vegan Cookies & Pomegranate Raspberry Iced Tea

For lunch yesterday I decided to try to make the healthy, gluten-free vegan cookies featured on 101cookbooks.com and add my own little twist. The original recipe can be found here and the following recipe below is my own, altered version of these seriously delicious cookies.



Gluten-Free Vegan Cookies

3 large mashed bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 cup olive oil
2 cups rolled oats (gluten free oats for those who are gluten-intolerant)
2/3 cup almond meal or ground almonds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. To make almond meal you can grind the almonds yourself. Simply grind them in a food processor or in a coffee grinder until they have the texture of sand like the image below.



3. In a large bowl, combine the bananas, vanilla, oil, brown sugar and peanut butter. In another bowl, mix together the oats, almond meal, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, stirring well. Once mixed, add in the chocolate chips.

4. Drop medium sized dollops of dough onto a greased baking sheet.

5. Bake for about 13-15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.



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White Pomegranate Raspberry Iced-Tea

1 pomegranate raspberry tea bag
1 white tea bag
ice cubes
chilled jug of water
lemon syrup
honey
2 orange slices

1. Fill a jug with water and chill in the fridge beforehand.

2. Boil some hot water and steep both tea bags for a good 10 to 15 minutes or until the tea is very strong.



3. Add the hot tea to the chilled water jug and also add some ice cubes. Add in a couple of squirts of lemon syrup and 2 tablespoons or so of honey. Stir well. Squeeze one orange slice into the iced tea and save the other one for garnish.

Vegan Pot Pies

I've been spending a lot of time outside lately, enjoying the nice weather and sunshine. I even spotted a few small budding flowers yesterday! However, it is still freezing up here in British Columbia so nothing is more suited than a cup of tea and a homemade pot-pie after a cold day out.

Pie Crust:
2 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 pinches of salt
pinch of sugar
1 cup margarine
glass of cold water
pie tins

Pie Filling
1 cup soy milk
1 cup water
1 large potato
assorted veggies (I used peas, carrots, yellow and green beans)
1/2 tablespoon Maggi
pinch of pepper
Vegetable stock
cornstarch (for thickening)

**note: I made these pies to freeze them for later, so I didn't cook them. If you wish to eat the pies right away however, preheat oven at step four and cook for about 20 minutes or until the top crust is golden brown**

1. Mix the flour, salt, sugar and margarine together until it looks like small pea-sized lumps.

2. Knead together and slowly add a little drizzle of cold water. Keep kneading/adding water until the dough becomes a soft, but moist ball of dough.

3. Chill the dough for about 20 minutes. While the dough is in the fridge you can prepare the filling.

4. In a saucepan, heat up soy milk and water over medium heat. Cut up a potato into small squares and add it to the mixture. Slowly add in a spoonful of Veggie stock. Keep in mind that the amount of veggie stock depends on how salty/strong you want your pies to be. I made mine quite strong and used about 2 heaping spoonfuls.

5. Once the mixture is lightly boiling, add the rest of the vegetables, pepper and the maggi. Turn down the heat and add a spoonful of cornstarch to a spoonful of water in a separate glass, mix well, then pour into the vegetable mix to help the "gravy" thicken up.

6. Once the dough is chilled, roll it out on a floured surface and use a glass to cut out circle shapes.

7. Press the circles into the bottom of the pie tins. Press smaller lumps of dough around the edges until the trays are completely covered in a thin layer of dough.

8. Pour in the prepared veggie filling.



9. With the remaining dough, Roll out and cut into circles, place carefully on top of pies and press the edged together. Don't forget to poke with a fork!



10. Since I froze my pies for later use, I didn't cook them. Instead I wrapped them up individually with wrap and put them in the freezer. If you want to eat them right away, put them in the oven for about 20 minutes at 450 degrees or until golden brown.

Vegan Mini Apple Pies

For Valentines day I made my boyfriend some mini pies, which I sent through the mail because he lives in another town. Even if you are not long distance I highly suggest mailing them anyways! Nothing is more sweet than opening your mail to find a mini pie in-between your bills.



These are super easy to make, delicious and only require a few ingredients. Plus, they are vegan-friendly!

Pie Crust
1 1/4 cup flour
pinch of salt
tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup margarine
glass of cold water
pie tins

Pie Filling
3 apples
2/3 cup brown sugar
spoonful of cinnamon
teaspoon of nutmeg
teaspoon of ginger
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

1. Mix the flour, salt, sugar and margarine together until it looks like small pea-sized lumps.

2. Knead together and slowly add a little drizzle of cold water. Keep kneading/adding water until the dough becomes a soft, but moist ball of dough like the image below.



3. Chill the dough for about 20 minutes. While the dough is in the fridge you can prepare the filling. Wash and slice some apples into small pieces. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.



4. Put the apples in a pot with the brown sugar and spices. Cook until the sugar and spices melt. Mix the cornstarch with a tiny bit of water and add that to the pot to help the filling thicken. Continue cooking until the apples become soft and the liquid becomes thicker and more like a syrup.



5. Once the dough is chilled, roll it out on a floured surface and use a glass to cut out circle shapes.



6. Press the circles into the bottom of the pie tins. Press smaller lumps of dough around the edges until the trays are covered like the image below.



7. Cut the remaining dough into long thin strips for the top crust. Once you have filled the trays with the pie filling, lay the strips of dough on top, crisscrossing.



8. Brush the tops with some melted margarine and sprinkle with brown sugar before placing in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.



If you wish to mail these pies to a special someone, wrap the pie carefully in wax paper. Place it in a box that is only slightly bigger than the pie itself and stuff the remaining space full of tissues, that way the pie won't move around inside the container and squish. Make sure to write "fragile" on the box too!