I ate all the pies.

This is a little something I guess I kinda made up, it's cheap, filling and satisfies even the most die hard meat eater. Be aware that this is quite a high calorie dish, so I will always eat it after a huge session at the gym or after kickboxing training. If you are after something a little more high protein, tofu or seitan is easily addable.

Shepherds Pie

Serves up to 6

Ingredients:

Pastry
2 cups flour
6 Tbsp margarine
1 cup cold water
1 tsp salt

Kumara Mash
1-2 large kumara peeled and diced
1 Tbsp margarine
1/4 cup rice/soy milk

Pie Filling
1-2 bags frozen watties stir fry vegies (depending on how hungus you are)
1 Tbsp oil
1 -2 cloves of garlic crushed
2 Tbsp soy sauce
fresh herbs
2 cups vege stock
1/4 cup flour

Method

Put on a pot of water to boil and pre heat the oven to 180 C. I then start by making the pastry. Put the flour and margarine in a mixing bowl and rub them together until the mix resembles the texture of breadcrumbs. Slowly add water and mix until the dough becomes elastic-y. Knead for 5 minutes and wrap in glad wrap and chuck it in the fridge.

Put the diced kumara in the now boiling water with a pinch of salt.

Next, get out a wok or deep pan and heat the oil. Fry the garlic in the oil and herbs. Add the frozen vegies and stir fry for about 10 minutes. Once the vegies are crisp, pour in the stock, soy sauce and flour and stir until lump free. Simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and place in a lined baking tin.

The kumara should be soft by now, drain and mash together with the margarine, milk and salt and pepper.

Pour the vegies into the pastry and then smear the mashed kumara over the top with a fork. Put it in the oven for around 40 minutes until the pastry is golden and the kumara browned.

Light Autumn lunch.

We went to the market for veggies today and got D some fish for lunch - not vegan, but it inspired me to try something a little different with tofu. This is really simple and is great for those wonderful warm spring / autumn days. Sumac crust tofu
serves 2 big - 4 light

1 pack firm tofu (the stuff I got from the market had 4 4inch square tofu blocks and I used 2.)
1/4 cup flour ( cornmeal can be used)
1/4 cup sumac (dried red berries ground into the nommiest powder)
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch ground pepper (I used white)
Olive oil.

Mix the dry stuff together and put on to a plate.
cut / break your tofu into nice portion sized bits, mine was already segmented so used the natural breaks.

place tofu onto the sumac mix and leave each side to soak up the yummy sumac goodness.

turn on your stove, heat your pan quite hot (have stove on highest setting and a cast iron frypan is best). Add splash of oil, heat the oil, drop temperature to midrange.
then place in the tofu. leave to sizzle for about 2 - 3 minutes, then turn over.
Drop temp to 20% and leave gently heating through for about 5 - 10 minutes.

I served this with a salad of rocquette / aragula, lettuce, tomato (all from my garden), capsicums / bell peppers and half a jalapeño chilli. Dressing was garlic mustard based vinaigrette. Fresh baked bread topped it all off. To make it look pretty, I cut the tofu on an angle and out the slices prettily on the plate.

Would go great with a glass of vegan rose wine, if being fancy.

A Good Winter Feed

After spending all weekend moving, I finally have all my affairs in order, and so here is the first recipe.

Spicy Crumbed Seitan
serves 4

So on a nooch trip to Commonsense Organics I came across my first packaged seitan, it was a dream come true. No longer would I have to slave over a seitanic recipe just to get a protein hit! With winter fast encompassing, I was inspired to make something that warmed the belly.

Ingrediants

1 package prepared seitan
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup rice/soy milk
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp vindaloo/hot curry powder
1 Tbsp dried coriander
2 Tbsp oil

Method

In a large bowl, mix together breadcrumbs, vindaloo/curry powder and coriander. Also pour the rice/soy milk into a deep bowl for dipping.

Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat.

Cut the seitan into 4 equal peices. One by one, coat the seitan in flour, then dip it in the rice/soy milk and cover all sides in the breadcrumb mixture.

Put all pieces in the now hot oil and fry each side until brown.

I served this with mashed potatos, fresh corn, beans and broccoli.

Gardens and stuff.

I'm getting quite excited as the shortest day is about 9 weeks away.

What makes that day so exciting?? I can plant garlic.
not just a couple of cloves, but as many as I can get my little fingers onto and into the ground.

little baby post, but it's the anticipation that's so good.
Also going to plant potatoes into the clay patch out the back to break up the soil. Spuds are fantastic for that.

Hello!

Welcome to The Vegan's Are Coming! We are Bai and Shirley, two vegans who love our fitness, food and gardens. This will serve as our little bloggy about trying to live as sustainably as possible through our diet and backyards, as well as keeping our bodies in a healthiest state as possible. Being vegan, this can be perceived as very hard, and we are here to say "No! I can consume as much, if not more protein/nutrients/calcium/insert various other misconceptions about our diet than your average Omni, and have the same energy output to boot".

Once we get this cranking, you'll find recipes that range from low calorie, high protein meals to sweet tooth placaters. We'll have little tips about growing inexpensive and essential veggies and legumes, as well as feeding your garden in a natural way. We'll also talk about vegan fitness, and how easy it is to get a high performance rate out of a vegan diet.

xxx Bai & Shurl