Curried Mushrooms and Chickpeas

2 large onions chopped
1 1/2 Tbs cumin seeds
1 1/2 pounds mushrooms sliced
2 cans crushed tomatoes
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp ginger

Heat 1/2 cup water in a large pot and add the onions.
Cook until soft (about 5 minutes)
Add cumin seeds and mushrooms
Cook over medium head until mushrooms are light brown (approx 10 minutes).
Add tomatoes, chick peas and spices
Cook 30 minutes or longer until mushrooms are tender and flavours are well blended

I added some spinach to this as well - at the end so it remained bright green and colourful.

1/2 tsp of cayenne made it quite hot - you may wish to reduce this.

If too hot try adding lemon or lime juice and serve with a side of
banana sambal (sliced bananas, shredded coconut & lemon juice)

This recipe from "Fat Free and Easy" by Jennifer Raymond

Confetti Salads

The idea is simple: pulse vegetables, fruits, and nuts/seeds together for a few seconds in a food processor. The softer fruits, like oranges, lemons, or pears, dissolve into the mix making a built-in dressing!

a few big handfuls of bagged coleslaw mix (shredded green and red cabbage and carrots),
a handful of raisins,
one apple peeled and chopped,
one orange peeled and segmented,
a handful of raw slivered almonds,
a handful of raw sunflower seeds,
1/4 lemon peeled,
a big splash of Flavoured vinegar - I used some raspberry vinegar I had in the fridge (you can leave this out if you don't have it). Pulse for just a few seconds to get to a coleslaw consistency.

Serve the  Confetti on a bed of romaine (Cos lettuce) and cucumber slices with a sprinkle of chickpeas.
Mmmm this was good - This one came from http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.co.nz/

Just google confetti salads for lots of other ideas.

Tofu-Spinach Lasagne

10-oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed
450 g soft tofu
450 g firm tofu
1 Tbsp. sugar
75 ml soya milk
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
3 tsp. fresh basil, minced
2 tsp. salt
600 ml passata (tomato sauce)
225 g lasagne sheets

 Cook the lasagna noodles according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Squeeze the spinach as dry as possible and set aside.
• Place the tofu, sugar, soy milk, garlic powder, lemon juice, basil, and salt in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Stir in the spinach.
• Cover the bottom of a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking dish with a thin layer of tomato sauce, then a layer of noodles (use about one-third of the noodles). Follow with half of the tofu filling. Continue in the same order, using half of the remaining tomato sauce and noodles and all of the remaining tofu filling. End with the remaining noodles, covered by the remaining tomato sauce. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.


Excuse the old units here. This recipe is from Peta.org.
I used a jar of tomato and basil pasta sauce.
It is huge - you may want to halve it.
I have seen versions of this done in a slow cooker without precooking the lasagne noodles also.

By the way - it was divine!!

This recipe was from www.peta.org - they have quite a few vege recipes.

Baked Lentils and Rice Casserole

Ingredients

• • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 cup uncooked brown rice
  • 1 cup dried lentils
  • 1 (14 oz) can crushed or diced tomatoes, with juice
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 4 cups vegetable broth

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Instructions

• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine ingredients in large, deep baking dish (I used my giant Pyrex bowl) and stir gently.
  3. Bake covered for 90 minutes-2 hrs, until rice is soft and liquid is absorbed.
  4. Stir every 30 minutes during baking to prevent sticking.

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This is from Juliana Hever's "The complete Idiot's guide to plant based nutrition"

Preparation is about 5 minutes.

Warm comforting and filling, serve with some greens or a salad.

You can substitute the dried herbs with fresh but use a tablespoon of each.

Curried Cabbage Stir Fry

INGREDIENTS

1	large onion sliced
2	cloves garlic chopped or
	crushed
2	tbs water for saute - more if needed
1	T crushed ginger
1	t mild curry powder
1	t cumin seed
1	t mustard seed
3	c sliced red cabbage
1	c frozen peas
1	red capsicum
1/2	c almonds roughly chopped

INSTRUCTIONS

1.	In a wok or pan sauté the onion, oil, garlic and ginger until clear.
2.	Add spices and stir in quickly.
3.	Add cabbage and cook for around 5 minutes or until cabbage is soft.
4.	Stir in the remaining ingredients and let peas warm up.
5.	Note: Cabbage reduces down with cooking so you will need a bigger pan or
6.	wok than you might think.

This came from the "Revive" cookbook - not sure if it was volume 1 or 2.
I have removed the oil.
Revive is a great vege cafe in Auckland

Autumn Simmered Butternut Squash with Lentils and Savory Fruit

quick and easy one pot comfort food

Yield: 4

Active Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

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Ingredients

• • 1 large butternut squash
  • 1/2 medium yellow onion (thin slices)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
  • 2 1/2 cups of low-sodium vegetable broth or water
  • 1/2 cup red lentils rinsed
  • handful fresh thyme (chopped)
  • 1 medium apple (chopped)

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Instructions

• 1. Peel squash and cut into 1 inch chunks. Spray one heavy bottomed pay with cooking spray and heat on high. When hot add squash, onion and half of the cumin. When squash starts sticking add 1/2 cup of broth and simmer for 5 minutes with lid on. Add lentils, thyme, apple and remaining broth. Replace lid and simmer for 15 minutes. Enjoy! Delicious served with brown rice.

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Notes

thought the cumin could be a bit overwhelming, 

half recipe was fine for 3 people and used 2 tsp of cumin. 

we served with mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts

instead of spraying with oil - saute the pumpkin in water or stock

This recipe came from "The Spectrum" by Dean Ornish 

Anas Vegetable Combo - colourful & delicious

Ingredients

• • 1 large onion, chopped
  • (1 cup) vegetable broth, water, or wine
  • 4 ribs celery, chopped (1 cup)
  • 4 carrots, chopped
  • 1 * 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1 * 16-ounce package frozen peas, thawed under running water

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Instructions

• 1. In a nonstick saucepan, stir-fry onion in broth, water, or wine, until softened, then add celery and carrots. Blend peas in a food processor until smooth. Add chickpeas and blended pea mixture to onions. Stir, heat, and serve over brown rice or eat just plain.
  2. Served with chopped tomato and sprinkling of mustard sprouts.

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Notes

This recipe is from "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Caldwell Esseltsyn

This is so yummy I have made it several times.

Note: If almost any recipe needs thickening, blended frozen peas will do the trick. 

They are a magic ingredient!

Smokey Tofu Stir-fry

This I made up as I went along and it was lovely. The smoked tofu was the inspiration, the veges were what I had in the fridge.

1/2 200 g block smoked tofu
1 clove garlic
2 cm root ginger
1 small onion
broccoli  (at least 1 cup)
1 courgette roughly chopped
Piquillo peppers - 3-4
mushrooms 1cup
tomatoes - 1
smoked paprika
Spike seasoning to taste
Braggs seasoning to taste
freshly ground black pepper
water and wine for stirfrying

Stir fry chopped onion in water +/- white wine until clear, add chopped garlic and ginger, add other chopped veges except tomatoes & stirfry until tender adding small amounts of water or wine to stop it sticking, cube the tofu and add. Add tomatoes last. Then add paprika and seasoning,  add a little wine at the end to help create the sauce and cook for a few more minutes.
Serve over brown rice.

This stirfry tastes quite different to an Asian style one.