Vegetarian Gourmand

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups bread flour
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 apple, diced
1/4 cup raisins

Using dough mode on the bread machine, I put all the ingredients in with the exception of the raisins and the apple pieces. I added the raisins when the bread machine beeped to signal it was time to add heavy ingredients. After the dough was finished, put the dough on onto a floured surface and kneaded in the apple pieces. However, I would let the bread machine work them into the dough as well, as by this point it seemed difficult to get them completely worked in. I divided the dough into three pieces, rolled each piece into a long thin baguette style piece, then braided all three pieces together. The dough was quite heavy so I allowed it to rise for 2 hours, which I think was necessary as it doubled by more than double its original size.

Once risen, brush an egg wash on the dough, then baked it at 190C for 30 minutes.

1 cup breadcrumbs
3 onions, diced
2 cups nuts/sunflower seeds
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp sage
3 cups mushrooms, diced
2 stalks celery
1 tbsp soy sauce
3/4 – 1 cup veg stock (until moist but not too wet)
2 eggs
1. Saute the onion, mushrooms, celery and garlic until soft.
2. Grind or chop the nuts into fine pieces, depending on desired texture. I ground mine quite fine, however next time I will keep some larger pieces.
3. Add 1tbsp soy sauce to the veg stock
4. Combine all ingredients together in a bowl, mix the two eggs together in a separate bowl, then add to the large bowl.
5. Press the mixture into a loaf pan and cover with tin foil.
6. Bake for 30 minutes covered at 190C, then remove tinfoil for final 20 minutes.

Tomato Gravy:

200g tomato paste
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp butter
1 sweet onion
2 cups water
salt & pepper

1. Sautee the onion in 1tbsp of butter. Once soft, add the tomato paste, sugar, and water.
2. After it all comes together, puree in blender and then return to saucepan. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3.In a small bowl, mix together the flour with a few spoonfulls of the liquid, to ensure the flour properly mixes into the gravy.
4. Add flour to the gravy, bring to a boil, then reduce heat until ready to serve.

Sweet Potato and coconut soup

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion
2 sweet potatoes
2 carrots
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 sachet unsweetened creamed coconut (or 1 can coconut milk, and subtract 1 cup broth)
2 cup vegetable broth
2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp ground allspice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sauté the onions in the olive oil until soft, add garlic and saute for a further minute.
Add the remaining ingredients, stir, and allow to cook over the low for an hour.

As I don’t have a slow cooker, I began this soup in the morning, and kept it on low most of the day, only turning it off when needing to do some errands.

Cornbread

Ingredients:

1/2 onion, diced
1 tbsp butter
1 3/4 cup cornmeal
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 cups milk with 2 tsp lemon juice added to create buttermilk effects

Preheat the oven to 450F/230C

1. Sauté onion in the butter in a large non-stick skillet. Continue over low heat until onions are brown and caramelized
2. In one bowl, mix dry ingredients together, and in another, the wet ingredients.
3. Combine the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir in the onion.
4. Pour the mixture back into the skillet and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. (Pull it out after 15 minutes, give it a shake, and if its no longer jiggling, it should be done).