Vegan Lupini Bean and Brussels Sprouts Slaw

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Hannah

This salad celebrates a great many of my current favourite things.

Favourite things of the edible and savoury variety, that is.

After all, it would be hard to make a salad out of late night gigglefits with my housemate Sarah, hours spent talking and walking in the sun with the amazing Amelia, the heart-soaring card I received from a wonderful London-based reader-friend, or the crazy random happenstance that was seeing every breed of dog my family has ever owned (Airedale Terrier, Weimaraner, Poodle) in the space of an hour on Toronto’s streets.

I can’t eat any of those things.

But I can make a salad out of the following:

Sweet, crispy, in-season, raw Brussels sprouts.

Fresh thyme.

Chili flakes (always).

Zingy lemon juice and peppery olive oil.

Addictive, firm, buttery, umami-y, salty, addictive, did I mention addictive? lupini beans.

Yes indeed. Just a few of my favourite things, tumbled together to create a simple yet vibrant and nourishing lunch (along with a slice or two of pumpernickel bread).

I present to you my zingy vegan Lupini Bean and Brussels Sprouts Slaw.

Enjoy.

Lupini Bean and Brussels Sprouts Slaw

Serves 1
Recipe by me

150g Brussels sprouts, finely shredded
1/2 cup lupini beans, rinsed
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
1 tablespoon fresh lemon or lime juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sugar or maple syrup
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Toss the finely shredded Brussels sprouts and lupini beans together in a bowl.

2. In a little jug, stir together the garlic, thyme, chili flakes, lemon juice, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper. Pour over the sprouts and beans, and toss to combine.

3. Check for seasoning, adding a little more of whatever your heart desires to create the perfect balance of flavour for you. Serve with a slice of pumpernickel bread, a lovely glass of wine, and laughter. Always laughter.

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend and Healthy Vegan Friday.

2011 Christmas Part Two: Christmas Lunch

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Hannah

Thank you for your fantastimical and not-soul-destroying responses to my cavorting video post! Just so you know, my slow-motion moves are available for birthday parties, weddings, anniversary dinners, and work shindigs. My imaginary agent tells me that my imaginary bookings line has been ringing non-stop in an imaginary way, so if you want to hire me in the near future, best get in quick.

Christmas Day this year dawned bright and sunny (no crazy hail storms here!), and I eased myself into the festive spirit with a bowl of coconut chocolate oatmeal for breakfast over an episode of The West Wing. Perfection!

I then made my way over to my parents’ house to join in with the lunch preparations. I mixed dressings, chopped veggies, muddled limes, and checked on the dessert and (new) Christmas-inspired raw vegan truffles I’d whipped up the night before.

Faster than you can sing “Dashing through the bush / In a rusty Holden ute / Kicking up the dust / Esky in the boot”, our Christmas guests arrived and Christmas was truly off and running. After many hugs and much indulging in nibblies of dips, chips, smoked salmon, and cheeses, we opened up our stockings.

Or, for we children (ages 12 to 27 inclusive), our pillowcases. Win (blurrily)!

Behold, our Christmas sides! From front to back: roasted potatoes, carrots, onion, and fennel with rosemary and garlic; beetroot, walnut, and goat’s feta salad; braised red wine cabbage; wild rice and zucchini stuffing; marinated mushroom salad; and sweet potato casserole. There was also turkey, ham, cranberry relish, gravy, and cayenne-spiced toffee pickles, except for that last one being a lie. What isn’t a lie, though, is that our entire spread was gluten-free and almost entirely dairy-free.

For the beetroot, walnut, and goat’s feta salad, roast three beetroots then chop and toss in half of a dressing made with lemon-infused olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Toast around half a cup of walnuts in a pan until fragrant, then break into smaller pieces. Layer lettuce, beetroot, walnuts, and the rest of the dressing in a bowl, and then top with crumbled goat’s feta.

The marinated mushroom salad (also created by yours truly) involved whisking together lemon-infused olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, wholegrain mustard, honey, salt and pepper, and then tossing this through 400g of button mushrooms. Let the mushrooms soak up all the delicious marinade/dressing for a couple of hours, and then toss with fresh peppery baby rocket.

My brother’s contribution was a sweet potato casserole. I’ve always wanted to try this crazypants American sweet potato concoction, but have never quite had the courage on account of the fact that IT’S DESSERT PEOPLE THERE ARE MARSHMALLOWS INVOLVED SERIOUSLY WHAT ON EARTH REALLY?

‘Course, I’m the person who ate 11 desserts in one night earlier this year, so I’m not sure why the casserole phased me so.

Anyway, E.TeacherLord roasted three large sweet potatoes, mashed them with soy milk, Nuttelex, pumpkin pie spice, and egg, then baked it in a hot oven with marshmallows added right at the end.

Girl, get your hair out of your face! Heavens, it’s like I don’t even know how to groom myself properly.

My first casserole bite caused an apoplectic mental fit as my mind tried to understand the attack of sugar. However, half an hour later I was using my fork to scoop the casserole straight from the bowl into my mouth (and being chastised by mum for doing so), so clearly something about the marshmallows appealed to my sugar-lined soul.

Hey look! It’s my brother’s Christmas plate! Wheee!

Hey look! It’s my uncle’s dessert plate! Wheee! This one couldn’t be mine, you see, because I refuse to let Christmas pudding anywhere near my person and instead went for the Raspberry Whip (recipe to come), custard, and berries.

So that was Christmas. And what have we done? Another year over…

Ooops, wrong train of thought. I’m off now to make another batch of my Christmas truffles for a party tonight, but rest assured I’ll be back soon with more Christmas shenanigans involving leaping and moustaches.

Question Time: Have you ever had a marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole? Does it gel with your soul?

Union Square Cafe Nuts, and a Polka Dot Wedding

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Hannah

I’ve been meaning to write this post since March. But how do you put into words something that is so right and yet so beyond your own realm of experience? How do you convey the moment when you realise that it truly is possible for two people to fit together utterly and completely? How do you explain the way you can almost sense the universe sighing blissfully as it watches two of its puzzle pieces find each other and fall into place, side-by-side and interlinked?

I wish I could tuck all of you into bed and read you the fairytale of Emma and Scott, in which a backstage pass at a heavy metal gig led to a whirlwind romance that in turn inspired my darling friend to move across the world, first to an oft snowed-in Scottish resort and then to Belgium, where the dragons of bureaucracy couldn’t defeat a love and a passion that had already conquered more obstacles than many of us have had to face head-on.

But such a fairytale, in all its magical glory, would take far longer to tell than we have time for today. Instead, I’ll show you a little of Emma and Scott’s gorgeous wedding.

Because of the tyranny of distance that comprised so much of Emma and Scott’s early relationship, I was incredibly honoured to be one of the few people in Emma’s life to have met Scott before their wedding day. I still remember (excuse me while my heart yearns) the days I spent in Anvers with Emma and Scott at the beginning of 2009 where, for the first time, I saw how completely two people can love, match, and enhance each other.

I’ve cherished Emma ever since we first became friends in high school. She has that incredible and rare blend of inherently awe-inspiring “cool” and genuine kindness. Plus she’s an often-raw-always-vegan, and so I can count on her to get excited about new raw vegan dessert recipes that I come up with.

Emma and Scott, thank you for your beautiful, purely-you, bright red polka dot, love-filled, laughter-filled, beer-filled, and magic-filled wedding day. Thank you for the wedding celebrations that brought me back into contact with Kate of the Gorgeous Eyes/Beautiful Heart and Peachy Alice, with whom I swapped a hundred thousand notes during French and SOSE classes in high school and who, at your wedding, helped me gain the courage to imagine a different future.

Thank you, Emma, for giving me the opportunity to put on a pretty dress and catch up with other old friends, and to constantly answer people that no, I’m not actually your sister, although that would be awesome.

And thank you for giving me the excuse to make you these addictive Union Square Cafe Nuts for your long, long flight back to Belgium from Canberra, because it makes my heart sing when you smile.

Congratulations on your wedding, Emma and Scott, and for simply being you.

Union Square Cafe Nuts, aka The Most Delicious Of All The Nuts

Recipe found here
Makes 2 1/4 cups

500g mixed unsalted nuts, such as/including cashews, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans and almonds
2 tb chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsps dark muscovado sugar
2 tsps fancy flaked salt, like Maldon or pink Murray River
1 tb butter/Nuttelex, melted

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Spread the nuts out on one or two baking sheets. Toast in the oven until they’re a light golden brown, about ten minutes, stirring halfway through.
In a large bowl, combine the rosemary, cayenne, muscovado sugar, salt and melted butter.
Tip in the toasted nuts and toss thoroughly or, dare I say it, vigourously and delightfully. Singing a made-up song that goes “Nuts, nuts, nuts are delicious, nuts, nuts, I have pet fishes!” is optional but recommended.
If you can, resist eating all of these tasty nuts while still warm, and instead package them up give to beloved friends, so that they have at least one truly-edible thing to snack on during their horrendously long flight back home.

The Philips AirFryer: Testing, Playing, Reviewing

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Hannah

I grew up in a strictly anti-kitchen-gadget household. My mother abhors anything that isn’t the most basic and utilitarian of appliances, and so while my primary school friends had magical objects in their kitchens like waffle makers! popcorn makers! snowcone makers! jaffle makers! fairy floss makers! and so on, I had…

A kettle. Electric beaters. Mum wouldn’t even allow a toaster in our house, so if I ever I wanted a toasted bagel after school, I’d have to get a box of matches from the laundry and sit down for a good fifteen minutes of tedious toasting labour*.

*Complete lie.

I bet you can imagine, then, the utter glee I felt upon being offered a Philips AirFryer to try out and review on this blog. What? my mind whizzed. You mean I get to play with a gadget that reminds me of R2D2 and is best known for its ability to make healthy version of deep fried snacks, which by all means aren’t a necessity in daily life?

I was in. I was so in.

Behold, the Philips AirFryer! The Philips AirFryer was launched on April 1^st, 2011 and is promoted as “a healthy alternative to deep frying”. Its ability to make crispy chips and wedges with only a tablespoon of oil seems to be its primary marketing point. However, the AirFryer is also capable of making deliciously crispy versions of [insert your favourite protein] nuggets, fishcakes, or pastry-fied goodies, can roast capsicums and meatballs, and there’s even a recipe in its accompanying booklet for brownies.

Part of the reason I took so long to post this review is that I really wanted to make the brownies, but I sadly haven’t been able to find a tin small enough yet.

The AirFryer boasts the following:

“Patented Rapid Air Technology”, whereby hot air and a grill element combine to “fry” food.
A temperature control, and a timer that allows you to pre-set times of up to 30 minutes.
An air filter than limits odours (I still remember the time my dad made deep fried chips in the kitchen and the house smelled like oil for days, so I was happy about this.)
A baby llama to help eat your food scraps*.

*Complete lie.

I thought it best to start my testing of the AirFryer with what the AirFryer ostensibly does best: fries. I followed a combination of the recipe booklet’s basic recipe and the tip sheet that also came in the box, and so cut up a few potatoes’ worth of chips before soaking them in cold water for about an hour. I then dried the chips, tossed them with a tablespoon of oil, set the temperature to 180°C and the timer to 20 minutes, and walked away to read a book. Halfway through, I abandoned my book to shake the pan (and, ergo, the chips), but apart from that I didn’t have to stress at all.

Twenty minutes later, I had my chips.

I have to say, I really liked these chips. While they don’t taste quite the same as deep-fried fries, the AirFryer chips replicate the former’s crispy texture admirably. With a bit of salt and a splash of vinegar, I almost felt like I was back in the Woden Plaza food court on a Friday afternoon in Grade 8, eating Kingsley’s chips with friends.

Wait, no. Kingsley’s chips were always soggy. These are better.

I also cooked butternut pumpkin fries using the above method and, while the nature of pumpkin means that they weren’t as crispy as the potato version, they were Superpants Delicious. The photo, however, is not Superpants Good. That’s what you get for not knowing how to build a lightbox, folks!

I branched out from the potatoes section of the AirFryer recipe book in order to make my parents a light lunch upon their return from a three week trip to Japan. Riffing on the AirFryer booklet’s recipe for salmon croquettes, I made gluten-free salmon croquettes.

Gluten-Free Salmon Croquettes

I large tin (425g) of red salmon, drained
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
Many, many grinds of the slightly bizarre “Tom Yum” spice-filled pepper grinder you find in your parents’ cupboard
100g gluten-free rice crumbs (or bread crumbs, if gluten isn’t an issue)
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat the AirFryer to 200°C. With a fork, mash up the salmon and mix with the egg, herbs, and seasoning.
Mix the rice crumbs and oil together, until you get a loose mixture. Shape the salmon mix into 16 small croquettes, and coat them in the crumb mixture.
In batches, put the croquettes in the basket and slide into the AirFryer. Set the timer to 7 minutes, and let it do its thang ’til the croquettes are golden brown.

Although my photography skills were still lacking at this point, I think you can see that these croquettes surpassed my expectations in truly attaining a crispy fried exterior. Well done Mr. AirFryer. Well done indeed. I applaud your ability to make both my parents and me happy.

The last thing I shall show you today is something that is very dear to my heart. Roasted chickpeas.

I do love roasted chickpeas. I do.

For this experiment, I simply drained and rinsed a can of chickpeas, tossed them with some spices (I here used my homemade for-Dirty Rice spice blend) and a little oil, then roasted them for (I think?) 8-10 minutes at 180°C. Loved ‘em.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the Philips AirFryer. I like its dishwasher-safe-ness, although that’s of less benefit at my own place, where there is no dishwasher. The AirFryer is, admittedly, quite pricey at around $300, and so the decision to buy one would depend on your love of fried food, novelty, and baby llamas. I think it would be great for the time-poor among us who sometimes want something crispy and tomato-sauce-dunkable for dinner, but who also want to be able to sit on the couch decompressing while our chips cook.

Oh, and I still want to make the brownies.

I sampled the Philips AirFryer thanks to Philips and Fleishman-Hillard.

What I Learned From Eurovision… and Carrot Salad

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Hannah

Before last night, I had never watched a single skerrick of Eurovision. Even when, years ago, a university lecturer instructed my class to watch it as a corollary to our “Europe in the Modern Era” course, I didn’t bother. I know, I know. I’m such a rebel. It’s a surprise I didn’t enter a downward spiral after that and end up in rehab.

Anyway, when my friend Jeniqua invited me to her house for a Eurovision party, I knew it was going to be an experience. What I didn’t realise, though, was that it was also going to be a steep learning curve.

Ergo, I preset to you:

What I Learned From Eurovision 2011

1. It’s impossible to remember which singers come from which countries when you recognise no one and there are so very, very many bright-swirling-dazzling-sparkling-moving-tizzing-fizzing-popping-shazzling colours in the backdrop of each performance.

2. If you ever get stuck in a box made of glass, place your hand on each side dramatically and the last pane of glass will swiftly shatter before your intense-penetrating-brooding eyes.

3. It feels really embarrassing, deep down inside, to take self-timed photos of yourself in your Eurovision get-up because there’s no one in your house bar a twelve-year-old poodle with no interest in a photography career. It feels even more embarrassing to post the photo on your blog, but you do so because several people asked you to.

4. It’s important to be grateful to friends who loan you dresses, because this means you don’t have to step inside a Supre or an SES.

5. Jeniqua has a Real Wedding Dress procured from eBay in her cupboard. It’s a thing of tacky polyester-beaded-bowed-jewelled monstrous beauty.

6. It is important that, for the rest of your life, you never drink anything that hasn’t first been poured into a plastic coconut.

7. If you take a batch of spiced meringue bites (beat 2 egg whites to soft peaks, gradually add 140g of caster sugar until dissolved and glossy, beat in 1/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp each of ground ginger and cardamom, quenelle onto baking trays and then bake at 120°C for one hour before leaving to cool in oven), don’t forget to put them out at the party. Otherwise you’ll find yourself at home at 11pm eating eight meringues in a row…. dipped into sunflower seed butter.

8. COCONUT EYES ARE WATCHING YOU.

9. The Irish Eurovision competitors were clearly hyped up on goofballs.

10. COCONUT EYES ARE WATCHING YOU.

11. There is obviously a rule that all female Eurovision competitors must have bizarrely long legs.

12. If in doubt, make a French-style Carrot Salad for a Eurovison party. Then take photos of it at night in horrible lighting.

Grated Carrot Salad

Roughly doubled from this Dorie Greenspan recipe

900g carrots, peeled and trimmed
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tb honey (raw Manuka honey, if you’re being fancypants)
100ml apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 bunch parsley, roughly chopped

Grate the carrots in a food processor. This is ridiculously quick and fun to do. WAPOW go the carrots!
Put the mustard, honey, vinegar, and olive oil in a small jug and whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
Toss the parsley through the carrots, then stir through the dressing just before serving. You can also add raisins and walnuts if you want. I didn’t. But you could. I didn’t. But you could.

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