Living below the line - vegan style

I signed up to "live below the line" to fundraised for Oxfam. This commits me to living on $2.25 per day for 5 days (spending on my food & drink).
you can follow my progress on
www.livebelowtheline.com/me/suigeneris

I am convinced that I can do this and in a healthy and nutritious way - eating healthy is not necessarily expensive. Here is a photo of the food I bought to live on for the next 5 days - cost me $10.58 at pak n save.

Dirty Mashed Potatoes

Inspired by the tales of vegan dirty rice from a friend

Potatoes cooked (in their skins) and mashed
Add 1 tsp of tahini and sufficiant plant milk to get the right consistency
Sauté onions & mushrooms and stir through
Defrost frozen peas & corn & stir through
Add a couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast
Season generously with fresh ground pepper
Lightly season with salt (truffle salt is awesome if you can get it)

Serve with a side of your favourite greens or a green salad.
A dollop of salsa on the top wouldn't go amiss either

Tuscan rice stuffed pita bread

Somewhat concerned about the flatulence associated with beans, I decided to avoid them for dinner on the opening night of our small play. Inspired but the "shrapnel rice" recipe from the "Prevent & Reverse Heart disease cookbook" (& the contents of my fridge & pantry) this is what I came up with:

Brown rice cooked ( I cooked 1 cup of rice & used approx half for this recipe)
1/2 onion slowly caramelised in a hot pain with minimal water.
Soak 1 Tbs porcini mushrooms in boiling water and add to the onions cook 1-2 more minutes, add soaking water if more moisture needed  Add Tuscan seasoning to taste.
Grate 1 carrot & 1 courgette. (Used about half)
Handful of chopped black olives
Handful of capers
1-2 tbs chopped sundried tomatoes
1-2 tbs chopped walnuts
1 tsp chopped jalapeños
Stir all of the above into the cooked rice

I used some to stuff a toasted soy & linseed pita bread. Yum. Then I had some in a wholemeal tortilla which I first spread with hummus and topped with mixed greens. Also yum.

GOLDEN GRAVY

This is wonderful served over stuffing and mashed potatoes.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Servings: Makes about 2 cups

¼ cup brown rice flour (I used wholemeal flour)

1½ cups vegetable broth/stock

½ cup water

2 tablespoons tahini

3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Continue to whisk until mixture boils and is

smooth and thick. Season with freshly ground black pepper.


I had this over garlic mashed potatoes and a walnut & chickpea loaf with steamed brussel sprouts on the side. Comfort food for winter!


this was from https://www.drmcdougall.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/Advanced_Study_Weekend_Recipes_2-14.pdf


I went to their amazing Advanced Study Weekend in Santa Rosa - inspiring speakers and fabulous food and this pdf is the recipes of what we had that weekend - all healthy, all vege, wonderful flavours & colours and the tables were groaning with this wonderful food.

White Bean & Kale Soup

4 cups vegetable stock
4 cloves garlic minced
1/2 medium onion chopped
4 cups chopped kale (I used 1 bunch of cavalo nero)
2 cans cannellini beans
1 can chopped tomatoes in juice
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp sage
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 cup chopped parsley (I used some dry - didn't have fresh on hand)
black pepper to taste


Heat 2 tbs vege stock in a large pot & sauté the garlic & onion until soft. Add Kale 3 cups of vege stock, 1 can beans, tomatoes, herbs & stock. simmer 5 minutes


In a blender or food processor blend the remaining stock & 1 can beans until smooth


Stir into soup and simmer 30 minutes.


adapted from Joel Fuhrman's book "The end of Dieting: How to live for life"


I am continuing my winter mission to try as many different soup recipes as possible - this was yummy.

Colourful pasta puttanesca

I have to confess I cheated and used a packet of Puttanesca sauce but here is a link to a recipe I have not tried just to give you the idea
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishentreerecipes/r/Pastaputtanesca.htm


I had picked up some wonderful purple carrots from the supermarket and had some broccoli that needed using


2-3 handfuls of wholegrain penne pasta - boiled according to directions
1 head of broccoli chopped and steamed
1 purple carrot julienned and steamed with the broccoli
(I steamed these over the pasta and the pasta water started to turn purple)
several cherry tomatoes
nutritional yeast
salt & pepper to taste


Heat the puttanesca sauce and stir through the cooked pasta, top with the steamed veges, scatter through some cherry tomatoes and season with nutritional yeast, salt & pepper.


Really quick meal, wonderful punchy flavour, fabulous colours!

Corn Chowder

I so love soup in the winter! Inspired by some recipes using pureed cauliflower to make things creamy I decided to create a simple plant-strong low fat Corn Chowder - served it to my non-vege son and he loved it


1 onion (peeled and diced)
1-2 tsp of curry powder (to taste)
2-3 large potatoes (peeled and chopped)
1-2 cups of frozen sweet corn
1-2 cups vegetable stock


1/2 cauliflower (steamed until tender)
1/4 to 1/2 cup plant milk of choice (I used soymilk)
Nutritional Yeast
Salt & pepper to taste




Sauté onion in a small amount of water, add curry powder and stir for 30 seconds,  add potatoes, corn and stock, bring to boil and simmer for approximately 30 minutes.


Put steamed cauliflower into the blender and puree. Add just enough plant milk to get it to the consistency of very thick cream.


Add to the soup, then season with nutritional yeast, salt & pepper.


How could something that tasted this good and creamy be sooo healthy?????