vegan apple pie

Okay, okay, okay, so my craving for apple pie was not entirely quenched by the tea that I came up with the other day. It kept coming to mind that I just wanted to enjoy a real, warm apple pie - and I finally gave in.

Joel hovered the whole time that I was making this. I've never seen him so interested in something that I am making. He would just wonder into the kitchen, sip on his beer and say 'mmm I love pie'.

The smell that filled the house was this warm, caramely rich and deep appley cinnamon smell that made it hard not to dig in as soon as the pie came out of the oven.

To top off this evening, a book that I have been eyeing off for over a year now has finally been released. I have it downloaded on the kindle app on my ipad ready to go.

So, I am going to love and leave you as I have a date with a book and some pie.

Ingredients

(makes 6-8 slices)

Pastry

2 c white spelt flour

1 tblsp fine sugar

3 tblsp non-dairy butter

45 ml iced water

Filling

4 apple (skin on), cored and sliced 1cm

1/4 c currants

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tblsp water

Pastry

In a medium sized bowl combine flour, sugar and salt.

Rub butter into flour until it resembles fine bread crumbs.

Create a well in the middle and slowly add water, cutting it in with 2 forks. 

Add enough water for the pastry to come together without being sticky.

Roll into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut 1/4 of the pastry out and place back in the refrigerator.

Roll out the 3/4 of the pastry between two baking paper sheets.

Remove one side of the paper and invert into baking dish, press down and slowly remove the top sheet.

Trim off excess pastry and use to fill in any gaps.

Using a fork, poke holes in the pastry and place in oven for 20 minutes until golden.

Remove and cool.

Filling

While the pastry is in the refrigerator cooling, start the filling.

Combine all ingredients in a medium sized pot and heat on medium for 20 or so minutes until apples are softened.

Remove from heat and cool.

Assembly

Fill the pastry dish with apples.

Then, roll out the final 1/4 of pastry and cut into 2cm strips.

Lay each strip down diagonal, about 3cm apart down the length of the dish.

Repeat in the opposite direction.

Return to oven to bake for a further 20 minutes until golden.

herbed chickpea salad

Absolutely love chickpeas and it has been too long between friends.

Like, seriously, way too long. I even expressed to Joel how excited I was to be having chickpeas for dinner. He sarcastically responded by saying, ‘that’s great honey’.

As you may have read in the last post, we did a whole lot of gardening on the weekend and I had to harvest all my herbs. I don’t really like using up all my crops as I feel safer with still some sitting there. It’s like, but what if I want some fresh mint later in the week? What will I do then! I even get a little precious and won’t use as much as I like, just so there is always something filling the pots. It makes me feel wealthy in a very green way.

Anyways, with the massive influx of herbs in my kitchen, I have been throwing them into everything. Handfuls of mint in some mineral water, chives in my cabbage wraps for lunch, parsley on EVERYTHING.

Chickpeas are so tasty and make an awesome protein packed ‘throw together’ salad-like meal. And best of all, they are inexpensive. Joel and I lived off legumes when we travelled Europe. They were the most filling, affordable meal addition for us vegetarians/pescatarians, on a very tight budget. 30 Euro cents (40c in Aus) would get you a 500g jar of pre-prepared beans, peas, lentils etc and would easily stretch 2 meals each.

You can get super creative with chickpea salads. I’ve just thrown in whatever I felt like when digging through the refrigerator, but any fresh vegetables will work.

Ingredients

(makes 4 serves)

1 ½ c dried chickpeas, soaked for 6-8 hours (or 2 drained and rinsed tins)

1 spanish red onion, finely diced

1 cucumber, diced

½ c of complimentary fresh herbs (mint, chives, parsley etc)

½ lime juice

salt and pepper to taste

If you are using dried chickpeas, place them in a pot of water and bring to the boil.

Simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Drain and set aside to cool.

Add all ingredients in a medium bowl and toss well to combine.

Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes - 1 hour for flavours to infuse.

Serve and enjoy.

vegan curried 'egg' salad cups

I love a good curried egg salad. It reminds me of staying at my Grandma’s house when we were younger ‘kidlets’ . My Grandparents are/were mad water skiers and we would spend hours on end out on their ski boat in the summertime. My attempts of water skiing were never a great success. You see, I wouldn't let go of the rope when I fell and would be dragged under the water to the point of nearly drowning. This made me develop a bit of a phobia. So, I spent most of the time clinging for my life on the donut and cruising on the kneeboard.

Grandma would always make up a massive eski full of sandwiches and come lunchtime we were always famished. With my brother and sister we would sit with our feet in the water enjoying a super satisfying lunch of curried egg sandwiches.

As well as the lunches on the boat, during the school term when we would stay with our Grandparents, Grandma would always be up first thing in the morning making our lunches. Adding lots of homemade goodies like biscuits, fruit cake, Grandad’s dehydrated bananas and of course homemade bread with fresh curried egg and lettuce. There’s nothing better than meals full of nostalgia so that’s what this one is.

Although veganised and totally adapted from the original, it still takes me back to the summer days on the ski boat as the texture and flavours are still all there.

Ingredients

(serves 2)

300g organic firm tofu (homemade or otherwise)

2-3 tsp mild/stong curry powder

1 tsp hemp seed oil (or oil of choosing – olive also works great)

1 tblsp nutritional yeast flakes

pinch of salt and pepper

iceberg lettuce leaves

snow pea sprouts (optional)

Crumble the tofu into a small bowl, using fingers.

Stir in all other ingredients until well combined.

Lay out a lettuce cup and fill with curried ‘egg’ and sprouts (as much or as little as you like).

Roll and munch down straight away.

If you want to make it a take-away option, pack the lettuce cups and curried egg in a separate containers and make the rolls later - perfect for a picnic.