I wasn’t going to blog about this, because I made it partly from a pre-packaged kit, which I don’t usually buy.

But it was so delicious that I just had to share it with the blogosphere. Next time I’m going to use more homemade ingredients to make it, instead of the kit.

This dish layers tortillas with a mildly spicy tomato/veggie mince filling… kind of like a Mexican lasagne.

The kit, made by Discovery, was packaged as an Enchilada Kit, and contained eight corn/wheat tortillas, a couple of packets of enchilada sauce, and a sachet of taco seasoning mix.

When I finally pulled it out of the cupboard to use it, I realised it was eight months out of date. I thought for sure the tortillas would have gone off, but they looked and smelled fine (albeit a little dry). Must be some industrial-strength preservative in those puppies! The seasoning mix was likewise fine. However, the enchilada sauce was a write-off. It was packaged in plastic pouches, and smelled very strongly of plastic.

But I was able to use the tortillas and seasoning mix, along with a package of veggie mince and some salsa, to make a scrumptious tortilla bake that had both Mr Thrifty and I smacking our lips.

To make the filling, I first sauteed a large onion and a sweet bell pepper in a bit of vegetable oil until soft, then added a minced clove of garlic and cooked for an additional minute or two. Then I added a 300g (10 oz) package of veggie mince (I prefer Redwood veggie mince) and the sachet of seasoning and mixed well. Next I added a 400g (14 oz) tin of tomatoes and half a tin of water, then cooked the mixture for about 10-15 minutes.

I cut four of the tortillas in half, and the other four into quarters. I then put a bit of the filling into the bottom of a greased lasagne pan (mine measures 24cm (9-1/2″) square and 6cm (2-1/2″) deep). Next I put a layer of tortillas (two halves and two quarters), then a quarter of the remaining filling, and repeated three more times until all the filling was used. (When layered like this, there will be two quarter tortilla pieces extra; I used one of these extra pieces on the second last layer of tortillas, and one on the last layer.) Then I moistened both sides of the last tortilla halves and quarters with a bit of salsa and laid them on top. And lastly, I topped it with a bit of Mozzarella Cheezly. I baked it at 200C (400F) for about 40 minutes.

The tomatillo sauce was made from tomatillos that we grew at our allotment. I will definitely be growing a lot more tomatillos next year, as they are fast-growing, very hardy and don’t get blight in wet summers the way tomatoes do. Best of all, they make a delicious tangy salsa. I used a variation of this recipe, omitted the chiles and fresh coriander (cilantro), grilled the onion, reduced the salt and, after pureeing, added some chunks of ripe avocado.

Next time, I will make this dish with homemade tortillas (probably using this recipe), homemade taco seasoning mix, and possibly with homemade nacho cheeze sauce instead of Cheezly.

Enjoy!

Yesterday being Sunday, we had a roast dinner (not that we have one every Sunday, but yesterday we did).

Instead of serving a faux meaty thing to go with all the veggies, I decided to try a nut roast. Cashew nut roast from Rose Elliot’s Vegetarian Christmas, to be precise.

It was awesome, really really delicious, with a perfectly moist yet firm texture. This would be so good for Thanksgiving (and what a coincidence… American Thanksgiving is right around the corner) or Christmas or really anytime you are hankering for a roast dinner and don’t want to do the whole fake turkey thing.

We served it with rosemary roasted potatoes, agave-mustard roasted parsnips & carrots, peas and gravy.

Note when you are assembling the roast that it looks like there is no way that it will fit into a 1-pound loaf tin, but it does (just) if you pack it in. The stuffing was a bit crumbly, so next time I’ll probably moisten it with some vegetable stock. I might further tinker with the recipe as it is quite high in fat, probably by adding some mushrooms for moisture and reducing the margarine. But it is delicious just the way it is.

Cashew nut roast with herb stuffing

For the roast:

1. Prepare a 450g/1lb loaf pan. Put a long strip of baking paper across the bottom and up the two narrow sides, then use some of the margarine to grease the pan and paper well.

2. Melt most of the remaining margarine in a medium-sized saucepan, add the onion and fry for about 10 minutes until tender but not browned. Add the garlic cloves and continue to cook for one minute. Remove from the heat.

3. Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

4. Grind the cashew nuts in a food processor until they look like breadcrumbs, then remove to a large mixing bowl. Process the bread into crumbs in the food processor and add to the bowl.

5. Add the onion/garlic, bouillon, nutritional yeast and seasonings to the crumb/cashew mixture and combine well.

6. Prepare the herb stuffing (see below).

7. Put half the cashew mixture into the prepared pan, top with all of the herb stuffing and pack down. Then spoon the rest of the nut mixture on top. Dot with the remaining margarine. Stand the pan in another pan to catch any margarine which may ooze out, then bake for about 30 minutes or until firm and lightly browned. Cover the roast with foil if it gets too brown before then.

8. Cool for a minute or two in the pan, then slip a knife around the sides, turn the nut roast out and strip off the paper.

For the herb stuffing:

Peel & grate the onion. Place it in a bowl and add the margarine and seasonings. Add the breadcrumbs and mix it together well.

Makes six servings.

Meet our newest family member, the lovely Lola.

She was abandoned on the doorstep of a cat rehoming centre, and being black, elderly, arthritic and deaf, had little chance of adoption. Which is why we adopted her.

She is the sweetest soul, very gentle and loving. She loves kisses and cuddles and catnip. Lola has a very loud meow, as she cannot hear herself talking.

Both Mr Thrifty and I are totally in love with her.

Last night my father-in-law came over for an evening meal, and I decided to make curry.

Feeling bored with my usual repertoire of Indian food, I made some different things, all of which were extremely tasty and went over a treat.

On the menu was matar mushroom (mushroom & peas curry), rajma chawal (kidney bean curry), aloo dum (potato curry) and simla mirch bharata (bell peppers with garlic curry). Also rice, papadums, and store-bought samosas and pakoras.

The mushroom/pea, kidney bean and potato curries were all from a fab site I just discovered, Manjula’s kitchen. Not only does the website have full detailed recipes, but also video tutorials of “Auntie” Manjula demonstrating exactly how to make each dish. I know I will be visiting this site regularly.

The bell pepper curry was from one of my Indian vegetarian cookery books whose name escapes me at the moment.

A very successful meal and one which we be having again tomorrow as there were lots of leftovers. Thank you, Auntie Manjula!

Weekends are my time to make big breakfasts (as in… more than just toast and coffee), and this past weekend I whipped up a batch of delectable coconut orange pancakes.

This is another tester recipe for Tay and her blog Vegan in the Sun. These were so tender and delicious I am still thinking about them days later. We ate them topped with margarine, maple syrup and freshly shredded coconut.

Although I can’t share the pancake recipe with you, I can share with you…

How to open a coconut

1. Drill three holes in the three “eyes” of the coconut, through to the inside cavity.

2. Place drilled coconut upside down over a measuring cup to drain the coconut water. (Don’t throw this coconut water away… drink it, it’s yummy and nutritious.)

3. After coconut water has drained, wrap coconut in a towel and put it on a hard surface such as a garage floor.

4. Whack the coconut a couple of times with a mallet. The force of the mallet will separate the coconut flesh from the hard shell. You may have to give it another whack or two if there are still some bigger pieces with the shell not yet detached.

5. Using a sharp paring knife or a vegetable peeler, remove the brown skin that is remaining on the coconut flesh. Rinse pieces with water to remove any bits of detritus.

6. Coconut can now be shredded (food processor makes this easy).

So maybe it is a bit of a cheek calling lowly ramen soup — that staple of skint students worldwide — deluxe. But this is a really quick and easy meal to make.

So easy it doesn’t even need much of a recipe.

Thinly slice a few small mushrooms. Peel a small carrot and cut thinly on the diagonal. Shred a few cabbage leaves. Locate some kind of protein: tofu, seitan, vegan sausage, etc. I used veggie mutton from the freezer, about 80g (3 ounces).

Then bring 650ml (2-2/3 cups) of water to the boil. Add half the packet of seasoning mix from a package of ramen noodles*, plus two teaspoons of veggie bouillon powder. Add half the block of noodles, and the cabbage, mushrooms and carrots. Simmer for three to four minutes, until noodles are tender and vegetables are crisp-tender. While it’s cooking, thinly slice a spring onion (green onion/scallion) or some chives, and pick a few coriander (cilantro) leaves from the pot on the windowsill.

Pour soup into big bowls and garnish with spring onions & coriander leaves. This makes one ginormous serving, or two servings if you are having something else (like a salad) with it.

* Be sure the ramen noodles you buy are vegetarian… we use Jade brand (curry flavoured) from Aldi, which are marked “Suitable for Vegetarians”.

I made these burgers a few days ago, and they were delicious. Crumbly and mushy are the two biggest problems with veggie burgers, and these were neither.

These burgers held together fine in the pan. The texture wasn’t mushy (as bean burgers often are), but they were a bit soft, so I will be tweaking the recipe next time to add some firmness, perhaps with masa harina, or possibly substituting oatmeal for the stale bread crumbs.

The recipe is based on one from The New Vegetarian Grill and can be viewed here.

I served them with fresh salsa, whose Spanish name, pico de gallo, means rooster’s beak. The salsa is also excellent with corn tortilla chips. Be sure to use very tasty, ripe tomatoes.

Pico de gallo (fresh salsa)

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

These vegan accras (Bajan fishcakes) are tasty little fritters seasoned with the flavour of the sea. It is another tester recipe for Taymer and her fab blog Vegan in the Sun. You can read more interesting stuff about accras here on Tay’s blog.

We served these little morsels of faux fishy goodness with cheesy potatoes (using cheese sauce from Tay’s Bajan macaroni pie, which I also recently blogged about), vegan prawns, on-the-vine tomatoes and beetroot. Eclectic choice of foods, yes, but also very delicious!

A little side note about “fishy” flavours: I used to equate a fishy taste with fish, until I had sushi for the first time and realised that fish don’t taste of fish, they taste of seaweed. A “fishy” taste is actually a seaweed taste… a taste of the sea. So if anyone gives you the old “if you are veggie why do you want to eat something that tastes of fish”, you can tell them you like the taste of seaweed!

My usual way of making tofu burgers is to pan-fry, then marinate and grill, a slab of tofu, as with Teriyaki tofu burgers.

Another way to make tofu burgers is to mash the tofu with other ingredients, then form into burgers. I’ve tried this type of recipe before, and although the resulting burgers have been tasty, they’ve fallen apart in the pan. No way could you grill or barbecue them.

Although some people like to add gluten to soft burgers to firm them up, I have to admit that I am not enamoured of burgers using gluten as a binding agent. I’ve tried several recipes which use that technique, and the burgers always seem dry and just somehow not very appealing.

However, I have now discovered the secret to tofu burgers that are firm enough to grill or barbecue. Thanks to Sunset magazine for creating this recipe. The only modification I did was to use a homemade vegan substitute for the egg.

You must use a food processor to blend the ingredients into a homogenous sort of dough. (Don’t try a blender; it won’t work.) This dough, which looks far too soft to make burgers, never mind firm burgers, magically firms up when gently pan-fried. After which the burgers can be a) eaten; b) grilled; c) barbecued; or d) breaded and re-fried. I’ve only tried a) myself.

These tofu burgers could be made gluten-free by using gluten-free breadcrumbs.

The original recipe didn’t say to grind the cashews and sunflower seeds before adding to the other ingredients, but I did this anyway. I’ll try it their way next time.

A note on substitutions: if you are going to use a different mixture of nuts/seeds, you may need to adjust the recipe. I tried a variation using all cashews, instead of half cashews and half sunflower seeds, and the mixture was a softer and needed more breadcrumbs to make it firm enough to handle.

About the egg substitute: I came up with a vegan egg substitute that uses gram flour (aka chickpea flour, besan) plus a little arrowroot, mixed with water. It works a treat in this recipe: when cooked, the besan and arrowroot bind the other ingredients together. If you’re not familiar with using besan in recipes, be aware that it has a bit of a odd taste when raw (which disappears when cooking). Keep that in mind if you are tasting the uncooked dough.

Grillable tofu burgers

1. Make the egg substitute: Whisk together the besan and arrowroot. Add two tablespoons of water and whisk until smooth. Add the additional tablespoon of water and whisk again.

2. Combine all ingredients, except oil, in a food processor until smooth. The dough will form into a ball. It will look and feel too soft to make burgers, but do not despair, as it firms up a lot when cooked.

3. Heat up a heavy cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat. Add a bit of olive oil and spread it around the pan. You can now either form the mixture into burgers with your hands (lightly oil your hands to keep the mixture from sticking), or simply plop dollops of the mixture into the frying pan and shape into burgers in the pan. Make three or four burgers depending on how big you want them.

4. Cook, turning once, until lightly browned on both sides and firm to the touch, 10 to 12 minutes total.

Can be served as is, grilled or barbecued.

Makes three or four burgers.