Vegan Chinese Soup

I've been trying to eat more vegetarian and vegan food for a few reasons; health, sustainability and cost. Plus it's a challenge to create something new and I'd just bought some black fungus. The problem I have is that I often struggle to feel full if I don't have any meat. I assume this is because of a lack of protein so I attempted to put together something filling, healthy and of course tasty! This is my first attempt and I'm making it up as I go along so I'm open to suggestions and this post is subject to improvement.

Recipe: Vegan Chinese Soup
Special Needs Categories: vegan with GF & FF options
Special Needs Translated: no meat or animal products

Ingredients:

• Onions (obviously avoid for fructose free - celery substitute)
• Firm tofu (check ingredients, particularly if flavoured)
• Dried shittake mushrooms
• Black Fungus
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Carrot
• Zucchini (some fructose intolerant people avoid this)
• Stock (obviously choose fit for purpose, 7's for FF GF & vegan)
• Soy sauce (pick a GF one if needed)
• Chinese five spice (check ingredients)
• rice wine
• ginger
• garlic
• chilli
• sesame oil
• noodles (again choose fit for purpose, check particularly for wheat, milk or egg content)
• fried onions & kecap manis (sweet soy) for seasoning (if you can eat them, GF & FF warning)

Method

Start by re-hydrating and marinating. Put black fungus and shittake's into separate bowls and cover with boiling water (not the black fungus expands a lot), they need to soak for 20-30 min.

For the marinade combine; soy sauce, ginger, tamarind paste, rice wine, Chinese 5 spice, few drops of sesame oil, some olive oil, chilli in a bowl with a little water to fill it out. Add a little crushed stock cube if you need more flavour. Cut the tofu into bite sized pieces and put in a bowl to marinade. I only marinaded for about 30 min which didn't impart a lot of flavour but I had also intended to fry the tofu before starting the soup till I decided I couldn't be bothered, will see if it adds more flavour next time.

Next fry up the onion (or celery) in a wok or saucepan, when it softens a little then add garlic. Fry a little longer and add stock.

Next slice the black fungus and add them, the shittake's and a little of their water to the wok/saucepan. I like to cook these a little longer than the rest of the of the veggies.

After a few minutes add your veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, zucchini) and the tofu (make sure you save the marinade).

Now all the main ingredients are in it's time to work on the flavour. First added some of the tofu marinade to get things started as it has most of the flavours you want. Then adjust with; rice wine (sharpness & tang), soy sauce (salt & flavour boost), Chinese 5 spice (complex spices), ginger (sharpness & base spice), chilli (heat & flavour), stock cubes (overall flavour), garlic (flavour boost). Then cook till veggies are ready.

While all this is going on prepare your noodles in another saucepan. Cook them for the amount to time recommended on the packet then drain and add them to your serving bowl. When the soup is ready you pour it over the time. Season with fried onions and kecap manis if like them.

Further thoughts:

• Maybe fry the tofu with the onion to see if it helps hold the flavour and add texture.

Fructose Friendly Gado-gado

This one is always popular, healthy and works well for large groups since everything is cooked separately and combined at the end.  Having the sauce over the top of steamed potatos and a salad was shown to me by a Tasmanian friend's dutch mother who lived in Indonesia for many years, she didn't give up her sauce secrets but I reckon this one is pretty good!

Recipe: Fructose Friendly Gado-gado (peanut sauce)
Special Needs Categories: gluten free, fructose free, (vegan variation possible)
Special Needs Translated: no gluten, no onion, (no fish or egg)

Sauce ingredients:

• peanut butter (I like crunchy) (check if gluten free)
• gluten free soy sauce
• chili
• garlic
• fish sauce (don't use for vegetarian/vegan)
• chinese five spice (Check if gluten free)
• coriander (dried)
• water

Method:
Really simple, combine all ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat.  I usually microwave the peanut butter to soften it a little and help get it out of the jar, then heat it a little on it's own before adding other ingredients.  When you add the water it usually doesn't look like it will mix in but just keep stirring.  Add the water till you get your desired consistency.  Make sure there's plenty of flavour in there as this is what really makes the dish.  (If I wasn't making this fructose friendly I'd have onion in the sauce too, semi-fine chopped and fried a little before you add the other ingredients.)

now the rest of the dish...

Ingredients:

• steamed rice
• steamed potato (& sweet potato if you like)
• chinese cabbage
• cucumber
• bean sprouts
• snow peas
• other assorted salad ingredients
• hard boiled egg (not for vegan dish)
• fresh coriander

 simply combine on a plate (rice then potato then salad with eggs on the side) and pour over the gado-gado sauce!  You can make a salad with the fresh ingredients or just allow people to pick and choose.

Tasty Baked Zucchini's (Gluten Free)

I don't really like zucchini's, and I know a few ppl in the same boat so I thought I'd attempt a recipe that makes them taste good.  So, here's a gluten free, fructose free, vegetarian recipe (with vegan variations) that's cheap, quick, easy to prepare and even I think is really yummy.

Recipe: Baked Zucchini
Special Needs Categories: gluten free, fructose free, vegetarian (vegan variation possible)
Special Needs Translated: no gluten, no onion, no meat (no cheese for vegan)

A non-fructose friendly version before
the cheese was added.

Ingredients:

• zucchini's (biggish ones, room enough to stuff & be a meal but if too big they don't taste good)
• celery
• corn (take off the cob)
• grated sweet potato
• tomato
• garlic
• herbs of your choice (I think I had basil & oregano)
• salt & pepper
• grated cheese

Method:
Split your zucchini's in half, length-ways and scoop out the seeds to create a hollow down the middle.  Take some of these insides and fry them off with the chopped celery, corn, sweet potato, tomato, garlic, herbes and salt & pepper.  Once the veggies have started to soften place the cut zucchini's onto a baking try and spoon the mixture into hollow.  Cover the tray with foil and cook in the oven for ~30 min at 180 deg C.
Once the zucchini's have softened remove the foil, cover with grated cheese (or not for vegan version), place back in the oven and increase the temperature for ~220 deg C for 5 min till the cheese is melted and starting to brown.
Serve on a bed of steamed rice, polenta, potatos (or couscous for non GF version).

Filling variations:

• Onion instead of celery (not fructose free)
• Parmesan cheese stirred through the filling mixture
• Top the zucchini with prosciutto (not vegetarian)
• anything else you want to throw in the filling!

The end product, YUM!  (Again, this is the non-fructose friendly version)

Notes: Often I struggle to get baking trays properly clean (particularly muffin tins), often there's a bit of a residue left behind.  While I think it's just an oil residue, when I'm cooking for someone who is is very gluten sensitive/allergic I'll line the tray with tin foil just to be safe.

'What's in the fridge' eggy rice

I've been experimenting with some different ways to cooking rice recently after my girlfriend cooked a tasty risotto in the oven in a casserole dish, I'd only every used a saucepan or frypan and had to stir the whole time. Anyway been trying out doing some hybrid steamed rice risotto which have worked pretty well but I had an egg left in the fridge so I thought I'd try and asian inspired variation.

Dish: Eggy rice dish
Special need categories: Gluten free
Special needs translated: No gluten, check all packageing, have included notes for the important ingredients.

• long grain rice (I used basmati)
• an egg
• stock, vegetable or chicken (check it is gluten free, use Massel 7's for fructose free)
• onion (don't use or substitute for celery for fructose free)
• chinese five spice (check it's gluten free)
• sweet potato finely chopped
• potato finely chopped
• carrot finely chopped
• soy sauce (check it's gluten free)
• tinned tuna (mine was flavoured with lemongrass and wasabi)

Method

Ok so the basic theory is, fry the onion, steam the rice, steam the potato and add the egg at the end.

So, start by frying the onions in a bit of oil, add some garlic if you like.  Once softened add the rice and water till it's twice the depth of the rice, put in some stock (was using powdered), give a quick stir and bring to the boil (adding boiling water will make this happen faster).  Then put a tight lid on, set the stove to lowest heat and set a timer for about 8 min.  The rice will take 20 min to cook, I guessed the potato would take just over 10.

After 8 min throw in the potato and sweet potato, put the lid back on and set the timer for another 12 min.
Once cooked lightly mix the egg, soy and some chinese five spice in a bowl, add the rice and stir through till the rice if fully coated, the hot rice will cook the egg.  The add the carrot and tuna and serve (mix through if you like).

As the title suggest, this is what was in my fridge/pantry, any other veggies could be added or subtracted, for the cooked veggies it's a matter of guess work as to how long they will take to steam.  Some other ingredients to try could be snow peas, beans, chicken, capsicum.

Warm veggie salad

Needed a quick meal and was craving veggies so this is what I came up with. I know my mother has made a broccoli and cauliflower salad but I really don't recall what's in it. Anyway here's mine...

Dish: Warm veggie salad
Special need categories: Gluten free, low fructose
Special needs translated: Gluten free, no onion

Ingredients:

• broccoli
• cauliflower
• green beans
• Gluten free pasta (I used shells)
• pesto (Note: Check ingredients)
• wholegrain mustard (Note: Check ingredients)
• rice wine vinegar
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Method:

Start by putting the pasta on to cook. Then cut veggies into bite sized pieces and start them steaming. Now for the dressing. Add remaining ingredients into a small bowl and mix well, add some water if you want the dressing to be a little weaker.

When cooked tip veggies and drained pasta into a serving bowl and add dressing. Done.

The pasta helps turn this into a meal but I've also made it without before.

Yummy quick GF quiche

So I'm sitting at work on Thursday morning wondering what savoury, GF, low fructose dish I could take to a picnic that night when I have 1 hour to prepare it. My brain eventually got onto pasty (coz I had some in the freezer) and then I eventually thought of quiche, that's a picnic food! So I did a few quick web searches and got a feel for the general method/cook time and wend shopping for the remaining ingredients. On arriving home I went into a mad rush trying to prepare the quiche (having never made one before) and a loaf of gf bread in 65 min and this is what I came up with, even if it took me 75 min . . .

Dish: Yummy quick quiche
Special need categories: Gluten free, low fructose
Special needs translated: Gluten free, no onion

Ingredients:

• gluten free pastry (I had a rough cut puff pastry)
• eggs 4-5
• milk 1-2 cups
• bacon (check it's gluten free)
• celery
• mushrooms
• tomato
• grated tasty cheese
• frozen spinach
• parsley
• oregano
• garlic
• salt & pepper

Method:

Start by pre-heating the oven to around 190 deg C. Then lightly oil your baking dish and lay the pasty inside. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for about 10 min.

While the crust is being pre-bake, cut up your solid ingredients and fry the bacon, celery and mushroom a pan, add the defrosted spinach, parsley and tomato to the pan right at the end to combine and heat through a little.

Whisk the eggs and mile together in a bowl and add the salt and pepper and oregano (this could have been added to the fry pan instead).

Next to assemble. Empty the pan into the baked crust, sprinkle some cheese over the top and then simply pure the egg mixture on top into the crust. I found I didn't quite have enough so whisked another egg (5th) with some soy milk (was all I had) to top it up.

Now I started baking without foil over the top and added it later but the other way around is probably a better idea. So, cover with foil and place in the oven. Bake for approx. 25 min, then remove foil and continue for another 10-20 min.

Now remember these are best guesses (as all my cooking is), I was fiddling with the temperature and time to try and speed things up a little and then left it covered in the heavy dish while in transit to try and continue the cooking a little more. Anyway, in the end, there was a small section very slightly under done but it was more than edible and tasted fantastic. It's also worth nothing that I ended up with a fairly deep quiche (fried up too many yummy fillings) and this would have affected the cooking time too.

Anyway in the end I headed out the door 10 min late with a quiche and a fresh baked loaf of GF bread, not a bad effort I think. Stay tuned for a quick review of the bread mix I used too!

Lamb marinade - GF

One fine day we were planning a family BBQ at the holiday house when we suddenly realised, that there weren't enough chops and sausages for everyone! :s Then I remember I had a boned half leg of lamb and got to work.

Dish: Lamb marinade
Special need categories: gluten free, low fructose
Special needs translated: no gluten, no onion

Ingredients:

• Lamb (I had a boned half leg)
• Lemon juice & zest
• Rosemary
• Lemon thyme
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Water
• Salt
• Pepper

Method:
Combine all ingredients in bowl and add the lamb (or add to the lamb). Now to get your hands dirty. Massage the marinade into the meat and make sure the lamb is well covered, including non-liquid pieces. Allow the meat to marinade for at least an hour, longer would be better.

The water is basically used as a filler to allow the marinade to cover the lamb a littler better however most of the liquid came from the lemon juice. Before I marinaded the lamb I made a few extra cuts to allow it to sit flat on the BBQ because that's how we were cooking it. This marinade could be used for roasts or lamb fillets or chops.

Don't forget that you can put your cooked meat back in the marinade or use it as a dressing but only if it has been cooked. This could be either with the meat (i.e. roasted) or separately (i.e. in microwave or saucepan).

Gluten Free Cornish -almost- pasty

So I want to try making something using gluten free pastry, since I like pasties I thought I'd give it a go, while we didn't end up with pasties it was still a yummy lunch.

Dish: Gluten free pastry with filling 'thing'

Special need categories: gluten free, lowish fructose

Special needs translated: no gluten, minimal onion (only in stock)

Pastry:

• Orgrans Gluten Free pastry mix (mixed up as short crust pastry)

Filling:

• Celery
  
• Potato
• Butternut pumpkin
• Sweet potato
• Corn cut off the cob
• Zucchini
  
• Carrot
• Turnip
• Veal steaks
• Beef stock (dry/powdered) [contain onion]
• Garlic
  
• Oregano
• Rosemary
• Salt & pepper
• Butter

Method

In theory all the fillings get chopped up, mixed together, placed on the pastry with a dob of butter and then wrapped up. However it didn't take us long to realised that pasties weren't going to work with the pastry we had (let me know if you have any tricks for good GF pastry, this was my first time working with pastry of any sort).

So we changed plans to make a slice with a top and bottom layer of pastry. Apparently the filling for Cornish pasties isn't usually cooked before it goes in the pastry but because we now had a bigger dish we thought it would be a good idea to pre-cook it (plus we were getting hungry!). The pre-cooking was done in the microwave in a pyrex dish, it wasn't fully cooked but the meat was starting to brown and the hard vegies just starting to soften.
A baking dish was sprayed with oil, a bottom layer of pastry added, the filling and then a top layer. It was cooked for about 45 min. The end result was a little messy to serve and eat but really really yummy.
We served it with a really tasty chutney I found at the supermarket called 'Outback Tomato Chutney' made by Outback Spirit, they seemed to have a few gluten free products and are an Australian owned family company that is partnering with Indigenous food suppliers. I'll definitely be on the look out for what else they've got.
Oh and thanks to mum and Jo for joining me in this little experiment :)

Burritos for small group

Dish: Burritos
Special need categories: low fructose, vegetarian, gluten free
Special needs translated: no meat, no onion, no wheat, no gluten, minimal garlic

Sauce/filling:

• tinned chopped tomatoes
• potato
• sweet potato
• butternut
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• garlic (small amount)
• celery
• corn
• tinned 4 bean mix
• zucchini
• olive oil
• cumin
• chili & paprika mix
• chili
• sugar
• rice wine vinegar
• salt & pepper

Topping:

• tomato
• cucumber
• lettuce
• avocado
• grated cheese
• pickles
• ricotta
• taco sauce (not fructose free)

Wraps:

• white corn wraps
• flour wraps (not fructose or gluten free)

Method

I tried substituting the celery for the onion so I fried it off in olive oil with a little garlic before adding the tinned tomatoes. The potatoes, sweet potato and butternut were chopped, steamed and added to the sauce. The broccoli and cauliflower were also steamed before being added. I used corn that I had cut off the cob because it was on special but tinned corn could also be used. All other ingredients were either directly into the sauce. Remember to make sure everything is chopped relatively small so it cooks through faster and fits into the wrap easily. Note that I've indicated a couple of ingredients that do not cater to all requirements but they are options or alternatives.

Notes

• Don't use tobasco sauce, it contains wheat.
• All taco sauces I could find contained onion and/or wheat.
• Check the ingredients on your spices, sometimes they contain wheat.