RED AND WHITE CAULIFLOWER BAKE

Mike and I have been enjoying the European summer a lot. Things change here and you can really feel that it is a different season. Even though it’s rained for the last week we’ve had some gorgeous and hot weather. Yep hot – go on Aussies, roll your eyes, you know you want to. But it’s gotten up to 36 degrees here and there is no air-conditioning in some places. Not really built for sustained heat so it’s good it doesn’t last long – not like Adelaide. Anyway! We have been enjoying the weather and the sun that lasts forever by having a few dinners outside on the balcony on a Sunday night. Sunday is the day where I try to make meals that require too much work for a week night. I have been known to spend all Sunday in the kitchen. So this dish was perfect for a special Sunday balcony dinner.

This dish is a bit of a marathon to cook as it requires three separate items cooked or prepared and then assembled into a bake. Real Master Chef stuff, but it is so worth the effort. The combination of all the elements goes really well and it is real comfort food. Nice tomato sauce, ‘cheesy’ sauce drenched cauliflower and some herby tofu to go with it. The good thing is that each is pretty easy to make and can be made in advance. This recipe comes from Vegan Yum Yum and I am yet to be disappointed by her recipes, it has quickly become one of my favourites.

The Sauces

Simple Marinara Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp vegan margarine or olive oil
• 2 tsp dried Italian herbs
• 2 to 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 vegetable stock cube or 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1.	Heat margarine or oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the herbs and sauté for a minute or two, being careful not to burn them. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and stock or salt. Simmer until the sauce is the consistency you like, about 10 minutes.

• Since the sauce is going on top of the bake, you might want to cook it a bit longer than you usually would so it is not watery. A thicker sauce works best.

Herbed Tofu Ricotta

Ingredients

• 400g packet of firm tofu, well pressed and crumbled
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast 
• 1 tbsp olive oil (optional)
• fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
• 2 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp water (this helps the tofu set so leave out if using the herbed ricotta for another recipe)

Directions

1.	Mix all the ingredients together.

• This mixture can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator. If making in advance leave the cornstarch and water mixture out until ready to assemble in the bake.

White Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegan margarine
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp mustard
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

Directions

1.

Whisk the margarine in a saucepan over medium-low heat until melted. Add the flour and whisk into a paste. Add the tahini, lemon juice, mustard and nutritional yeast and whisk well. Slowly add the soy milk, whisking well to make a smooth sauce. Add salt and pepper and whisk over medium-high heat until mixture is thickened.

• If you have made this in advance and wish to use it later just reheat before assembly so the cauliflower can get nicely smothered.

The Assembly

Ingredients

• 4 cups cauliflower, chopped small and steamed
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• Simple Marinara Sauce
• Herbed Tofu Ricotta
• White Sauce

Directions

1.	Preheat the oven to 200°C.
2.	Place the tofu ricotta in an oiled 1.5 litre casserole/baking dish – shallow and long works better than deep and narrow. Press it down to make an even layer.
3.	Mix the cauliflower into the white sauce, coating well. Spread it over the tofu in an even layer. Add the Marinara Sauce on top of the cauliflower, top with bread crumbs and bake for 20 to 25 mins until bubbly and brown.
4.	Let it stand for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving so it can set. This is a soft set bake so be gentle when you serve it if you want identifiable layers. This also tastes really good mashed up so don’t be overly concerned if it falls apart as you remove it from the baking dish.

• This dish reheats really, really well and holds together better after reheating.

This recipe comes from:

Vegan Yum Yum: Decadent (But Doable) Animal-Free Recipes for Entertaining and Everyday  

by Lauren Ulm.

Find more delicious recipes at VeganYumYum.

Chocolate Ice-cream and Peanut Butter Criss-Cross Sandwiches

I still don’t know what possessed us to buy an ice-cream maker. We were just sitting there one day discussing something food related and we got on to the topic of ice-cream and how we hadn’t seen any good looking ice-cream in our local grocery shop. To which I said well we could always make our own and within an hour the ice cream maker was purchased on Amazon and heading our way. Since then we have been making ice-cream non stop. Chocolate was the first flavour we made because it was so easy and yet so super tasty. Rich and really chocolaty it was exactly what you want from a chocolate ice-cream. I can’t get over how easy it was and how good it tastes. I would never buy shop bought ice-cream again after this - it’s that good!

We bought an ice-cream maker with a compressor which allows for a more consistent freeze. I read a lot about ice-cream makers on the net and decided that one with a compressor was worth the money. It is more expensive than the ones with the bowls you have to freeze for 24 hours. It requires me to do nothing but chuck in the mixture and that sounds like my kind of electrical appliance. I’m also not that organised to put the bowl in the freezer 24 hours in advance and I have a tiny freezer so real-estate is scarce.

With the new ice-cream out of the maker Mike decided to see how far he could push the indulgence meter by combining the ice-cream and Peanut Butter cookies. It made a very indulgent ice-cream sandwich! And here’s something else I don’t know - why didn’t we buy an ice-cream maker sooner?

Chocolate Ice-cream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (235 ml) soy milk, divided
• 2 Tablespoons (16 grams) arrowroot powder
• 2 cups (470 ml) soy creamer
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) sugar
• 1/4 cup (20 grams) cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup (90 grams) vegan chocolate chips
• 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup (60 ml) soy milk with arrowroot powder, and set aside.
2. Mix creamer, remaining 3/4 cup (175 ml) soy milk, sugar, cocoa powder and chocolate chips in a sauce pan over low heat. Stir frequently until the chips melt. When it starts to boil, remove from heat immediately and add the arrowroot mixture. The liquid should thicken. Next, add vanilla extract.
3. Refrigerate mixture until chilled, approximately 2 to 3 hours. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

I like to stir the ice cream every now and then while it’s cooling in the fridge.

Peanut butter criss-crosses

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup natural smooth peanut butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons light molasses
• 11/4 cups flour
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-2 tbsp non-dairy milk (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly grease two cookie sheets or line with baking paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the shortening, peanut butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This can take up to two minutes with a an electric mixer at medium speed or 4 minutes with a fork. Mix in the vanilla and molasses.
3. Add half the flour along with cornstarch, baking powder and salt, mix well. Add remaining flour and mix. Use your hands at this point to really work the ingredients together. The dough should hold together when squeezed; if it does not, then add a table spoon or two of non-dairy milk until it does.
4. Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls, flattening them a bit with the palms of your hands. The dough may crack on the edges which is fine. Place the dough balls on the prepared sheets/trays and flatten them further with the bottom of a coffee mug. Use the underside of a fork to press cross hatches into the cookies, one horizontal and one vertical.
5. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are very lightly browned. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the sheets for 10 minutes – any less and they might crumble. Use a thin flexible spatula to transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Chocolate Ice-cream recipe comes from: The Vegan Scoop: 150 Recipes for Dairy-Free Ice Cream that Tastes Better Than the "Real" Thing (Paperback) by Wheeler Del Torro Recipe can be found at Food Loves Writing

Peanut Butter Criss-Crosses recipe comes from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Treats by Terry Romero and Isa Chandra Moskowitz