Vegetarian Gourmand

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).

Sauté onion in butter for 1-2 minutes until soft, add frozen spinach, red pepper, and garlic. Allow to cook until spinach thaws and the pepper begins to soften.

Meanwhile – mix the 5 eggs with the cream, water (to increase fluffiness), basil, salt and pepper.

Once all the onion and red pepper is soft, add egg mixture, give it a quick stir so all the veg isn’t sitting on the bottom (but be sure you don’t scramble your eggs). At this point sprinkle crumbled feta cheese on the top.

Allow to cook until you see the egg starting to become firm on the sides, then remove from the top of the stove and place under the grill in the oven. Cook for a further 3-5 minutes until the eggs are fully cooked and the top starts to slightly brown.