Sultry Carrot, Lentil and Aubergine soup

Why sultry? It has an unexpected twist- a quarter teaspoon of star anise and pink and white peppercorns that don't announce themselves, but gives this soup an air of mystery and depth.

I've written this recipe up for the thermomix since that's what I used to make it, but it's easy to do this with a frying pan, a pot and a hand blender, just leave it with some texture!

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots, chopped
• Half an onion, chopped
• One clove garlic
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes
• Half cup pink/red lentils, washed
• Half a cup chopped baby aubergines
• 2 small potato diced (or one larger one)
• 300 ml boiled water or same amount of vegetable stock
• Vegetable stock cube
• Quarter teaspoon star anise, powdered
• A couple twists of mixed peppercorns (pink, black, white)
• Quarter teaspoon (hot) smoked paprika - don't worry, it won't be a hot soup!

Sauté the onions and garlic at 100c for 2 mins at speed spoon. Then add the chopped carrots and chopped aubergines and cook again at same temperature and speed for another 2 minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients and cook at 100c for 20 minutes (speed spoon). When time is up, blend at speed 4 for 20-30 seconds. This gives is a slightly chunky texture and you can still see flecks of aubergines.

Sea Maiden Salad: Raw Vegan 'Seafoody' Sea Vegetable Salad

I've started Kriss Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet, and am on day 4 of the 21 Day Cleanse, which is a low glycemic, no refined carbs, no sugars, no meat, no coffee or black tea, no junk, all vegan, high raw, low inflammation diet. It sounds hard-core, but I've been eating vegan at least twice a week and can't eat dairy and seafood anyway, and most importantly of all- I keep hearing people rave about how their assorted ailments improved on this diet. It's worth a shot!

So far, I'm loving it!
This Salad is so good! I had to write it down now before I forget what when into it. It started of as leftover lemon-kale salad which I added wakame to and then thought I'd make taste a bit more 'seafoody' with chlorella powder.

Ingredients:

• Half a cup chopped kale, stems and hard spines removed.
• Raisins, rinsed and soaked in hot water for 10-15 minutes, then drained
• Juice of half a lemon
• Salt, to taste
• 1 tablespoon Arame, soaked in a little warm water (this will expand)
• 2 tablespoons broken off bits of Wakame (mine were in long strands) soaked in warm water for 10-15 minutes
• Half an avocado, chopped
• 1 teaspoon chorella powder
• 1 tablespoons sprouted sunflower seeds (optional, but I love the slightly nutty creamy taste these add)
• olive oil or flax seed oil, to dress

Toss the Kale with the lemon juice and salt and leave to wilt a little while the seaweeds are soaking, then add the raisins, seaweeds, sprouted sunflower seeds (if using) avocado and chlorella. Toss to coat the leaves with the chorella powder - this is where a lot of the seafood taste comes from, along with the sea weeds. Taste, and add a little more salt and oil if you like. The avocado gives the salad creaminess and texture and the raisins add sweetness to offset the kales bitterness. If you don't have or don't like raisins you can add some sugar but I'm avoiding sugar for my 21 Day Cleanse so raisins it is for me. 

Sweet Moorish Pilaf

This is an easily convertible recipe from veggie to non-veggie depending on your mood or diet preferences. I try and make sure I have at least two meat free days a week so I like the option of beefing up the protein content with nuts for meat free days, or chicken for meat days. You could go all out and add both if you like, but I usually try and not over-use nuts in case I become sensitised to that too, so I probably won't be doing that too often.

This recipe is taken from the lovely book Quiet Food, which generously considers it's contents copyright free.

Ingredients:

• 250 ml white rice
• 25 ml butter replacement or olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 600 ml vegetable stock
• 1 star anise (whole)
• 5ml tumeric
• 250 ml peas, fresh or frozen
• 125 ml chopped dried apricots (or peaches)
• 125 ml chopped dates
• 15 ml lemon juice
• 5 ml sugar
• 30 ml chopped fresh mint
• (optional) cashews or toasted almonds
• (optional) 2 chicken breasts, sliced thin
• salt, to taste

Method:

1. Gently sauté the onion in the butter until soft
2. If using chicken, fry gently until brown and set chicken aside
3. Add the crushed garlic and cook for another two minutes while stirring
4. Add the rice, stock, dates, apricots, turmeric and star anise (add chicken back back to pan now, if using)
5. Simmer for 10 minutes until almost dry
6. add the peas and steam until there is no more stock in the bottom of the saucepan
7. garnish with mint and serve

Chickpeas also work well in the vegetarian version of this recipe to add texture alongside the nuts.

Gluten and Soy Free alternative to A1 Sauce

Sunday is more like a Day of Prep in this house :-/. However, I remind myself that getting stuff ready on a relaxed Sunday is better than than doing them when I really need them in the middle of the week. When I'm invariably starving, sleepy and cranky. So since once of this weeks recipe's calls for A1 sauce and I can't find out without soy sauce in it I hit up google for the following recipe, which I've adapted based on what I have in my fridge and to exclude soy. Clue: I'm out of O.J.

This recipe looks really far off the linked recipe, but this is because I'm creating a soy-less alternative to soy sauce at the same time. 

"Almost A1 Sauce" Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons cranberry suace
• 1/2 cup raisens. Rinsed very well 3 times. 
• 2 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons heinze ketchup
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon tamarind paste (this gives it that slightly sour taste)

Soy alternative Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons molasses
• 1 cube beef stock (shitake stock would also work well
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 clove crushed garlic
• 5 drops ume plum seasoning
• 100ml hot water

Method:
Add  all ingredients above into a sauce pan and simmer gently for 5 minutes. When time is up allow to cool, then blend, then pour into jars. Of course if you have a thermomix, you can heat and blend it up while it's still hot.