Baked beans gone wild

Vegan MoFo
Week 1: 1st-6th November 2016 Treat Yourself (and others)!
3rd: Treat yourself… to a break – What’s your “easy cook” meal? That you make when you can’t be bothered to cook much?

*puts loaf of bread on plate*

*slams down tin of beans and peels back lid*

DONE. Gourmet af.

bread loaf and tin of beans

That’s homemade gorram sourdough. If I want to eat half a loaf, I bloody well will. It’s delicious.

At this point in the process of throwing together an easy meal I get to thinking, what if I warmed up the beans and toasted the bread? That shit would be lit.

pot of beans

With the bread in the toaster and the beans warming on the stove, I realise I have some leftover pressure-cooked white beans in the fridge and I add about 1.5 cups worth to the saucepan to extend the baked beans – the sauce to beans ratio is always too damn high – and I’ve just doubled the tin for a few cents. Suck on that, Heinz.

Then I get to thinking, but if I’m having beans, surely I should have some greens as well! Beans and greens all the way, baby. So I pull this out of the fridge…

salad and pickled cabbages

Pairing kim chi with baked beans on toast is a legitimate lifestyle choice. Don’t judge me, Anglophiles.

beans and stuff

See? Look at that. Beautiful. I even went a bit fancy and fried a couple of tofu sausages I bought at the stupormarket. And again –

beans again

Glorious.

food arial view

And a bit of sauerkraut for the kids because that kim chi is peppery.

Sure, you could say a proper easy meal would be just beans on toast and not accompanied by a handful of salad, a scoop of fermented cabbage, and a splatter of balsamic, and a sausage on the side… and maybe you could also say I shouldn’t mix cuisines with quite so much reckless abandon… but you’d be wrong. Sometimes in life you have to take risks. I, too, like to live dangerously. May the force be with you. Live long and prosper. I might have had a strong cup of coffee this morning, who knows.

One starts off preparing a quick-and-easy meal always with the best of intentions, and one always lets things get out of hand… if only a little bit.

Kim chi is life. Peace out.

vegan month of food

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Vegan salads: not all leaves and twigs!

Vegan MoFo
Week 1: 1st-6th November 2016 Treat Yourself (and others)!
November 2nd: How to make friends – What’s your go to “impress me” meal?

Not to go for the obvious choice or anything… well, okay. Captain Obvious: AWAY!

Sorry… Not sorry, because you do win friends with salad, providing it’s not a bowl of sad, limp iceberg lettuce… and Lisa The Vegetarian is as brilliant a Simpsons episode as they come.

I typically use Ani Phyo‘s books for salad recipes because she is legit bawse af when it comes to creating salad recipes… as you’d hope from a raw vegan chef! Although her dessert recipes are also legit af due to her pregan background as a pastry chef… but I digress… because the following two salads are neither Ani Phyo’s recipes or entirely raw. I had a hankering for something a bit heartier – starchier! – today.

I’ve taken this potato and artichoke salad from Leah Leneman’s Vegan Cooking For Everyone to many lunches and it’s always been a hit! Normally I add capers, but today I went with chickpeas and a side of crusty baguette drizzled with garlic-infused extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkled with nooch and salt… mmm, cheesy deliciousness… Oops, I mean Gary deliciousness.

potato artichoke salad on a bed of red oak lettuce

… plus, Vegan Cooking For Everyone was the first vegan cookbook I ever bought so I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for it. #cookbooknerd Years ago I served this salad along with Ykillamoocow No Bull pies to my 86 year old Grandpa for lunch and he loved it!

So that was lunch today, and for dinner I made a salad from Leigh Drew’s Greenilicious that I’ve been planning to take to a mixed vegan/non-vegan potluck at the next opportunity: Char-grilled Zucchini and Basil Salad, with the optional add-in of pan-fried tofu to make the dish heartier.

zucchini-salad

A lovely light dish for a warm Spring evening. So simple!

You might remember Leigh Drew from such social media accounts as @zuckerbaby.1 on Instagram and from such cookbooks as Veganissimo and Wrapped In Pastry… check out her Patreon page for her next cookbook! I had lunch with Leigh recently at Mandala Organic Arts Cafe on the Gold Coast and she is delightful! SUPPORT HER OR ELSE. Hi, sorry. I can’t help it – her recipes are fab.

Leigh was interviewed by Australian musician Christine Anu on ABC Sydney yesterday for World Vegan Day: listen! She’s on within the 1st 20 minutes. (Note: this episode of Evenings expires in 6 days.)

And since I started this post with The Simpsons, I’ll end with it – to complete the circle.

donald-trump-simpsons

… good luck with your presidential election, America. Sheesh.

broccoli2016-300x300-1

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