Homemade Vegan Rocket Pesto

This little jar of heaven is a must to keep in the fridge a) because you can smear it on your sandwiches and vegie burgers and b) if you stir it through some hot pasta it makes a seriously sensational and super quick dinner or lunch.

Ingredients

200g fresh rocket

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 red chilli (most seeds removed)

Juice of 1 lemon

70g pine nuts (1 pkt)

To Make: 

1. Put the rocket and olive oil in a food processor and process until smooth.

2. Add the garlic, chilli, pine nuts and lemon juice and process again until all ingredients are finely blended and it looks nice and pasty.

3. Use immediately or store for up to 2 weeks in a jar or sealed container in your fridge.

Makes 1-3 jars (depending on the size of your jars). Makes nice gifts too :)

Try our Rocket Pesto Fettuccine with Tomato, Olives and Artichoke Hearts. 

Vegan Spinach, Walnut and Sumac "Sausage Rolls"

These are absurdly simply and make a tasty snack food or if you serve them with a nice salad on the side it's dinner for four. Although they are so damn tasty that you might just want to make that dinner for two so you get to have seconds :)

Ingredients:

1 onion, finely diced

Olive oil, for frying

3 vegetarian sausages, chopped up

1 generous teaspoon sumac

7-8 big spinach (silverbeet) leaves

Salt and cracked pepper to taste

1/3 cup walnuts

2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry, thawed

Soy milk, for brushing

Sesame seeds

To Make:

1. Preheat oven to a moderate 180 degrees C.

2. Add a splash of olive oil to a saucepan or frypan (preferably non stick because you'll need less oil) and heat. Add the diced onions and sauté until completely cooked.

3. Add the chopped vegie sausages and cook, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.

4. Wash and remove the thick white stems from the spinach and chop finely. Add to a saucepan with 1/3 cup water and cook, covered, on a low heat until the spinach is completely wilted (takes 5-10mins). Drain spinach in a strainer (but don't squeeze as it will mush up your spinach).

5. Break the walnuts up with your hands. In a bowl combine the onion and sausage mix, spinach, sumac and salt and cracked pepper to taste. Mix well to combine.

6. Cut each of the pastry sheets in half. Add 1/4 of the mix to the centre of each pastry strip and fold the edges over the top of it to make a large sausage roll (will be bigger than the kind of sausage rolls you buy at bakeries!). Place each sausage roll with the fold side down on a tray lined with baking paper.

7. Brush the top of each roll with soy milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 20 minutes, or until nice and golden on top (you will probably want to turn the tray around about 10-15mins in to make sure that all4 rolls cook evenly).

8. Devour!

Makes 4 sausage rolls.

Vegan Pumpkin, Maple and Walnut Scones

If only Autumn was edible...wait, it is edible! In the form of these delicious nutty, pumpkiny, maple syrupy scones. To make the most of these scones, serve them warm with vegan margarine and a generous drizzle of maple syrup. Better yet, mix it up a little and serve some with K-bobo’s homemade tangelo and goji berry jam (as in the picture above)!

Note: these scones don’t rise as much as others, so don’t worry if they aren’t as tall as usual.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups of wholemeal flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder
3/4 cup of soy milk (or any milk you like!)
1/4 cup of ricebran oil
1/3 cup of grated pumpkin
2 Tbsp of maple syrup
1/3 cup of finely chopped walnut(or pecans)
Nuts for garnishing (we used almonds)

How to Make:
1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celcius.

2. In a large bowl, combine the milk, oil, maple syrup and pumpkin.
3. Add all dry ingredients (other than your garnishing nuts!) and mix with a butterknife until well combined.
4. Dust your scone making surface (e.g bench, chopping board, a large book you never really liked...) with a generous amount of flour.
5. Place the scone dough on the floured surface and knead gently for about a minute.
6. Flatten the dough and cut out circles (or any shape) with either a cutter or a glass, and adorn with nuts.
7. Place your freshly cut scones on a tray lined with baking paper and bake for 15-17mins.
8. Serve warm with vegan margarine, jam and maple syrup.

Makes 10-12 scones.

Spicy Rice with Pumpkin, Broccoli and Fresh Peas

The chilli in this might not be to the taste of everyone but if you like things milder just add less or no chilli and you'll find it is still very delicious.

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced finely

2 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed

1.5 litres vegetable stock

250g pumpkin, cut into small cubes

3 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1 1/2 tsp ground Peri Peri (or if you don't have Peri Peri substitute Cayenne Pepper or chilli powder)

1 thing (someone tell me what the measure word for broccoli is??) broccoli, cut into florets

2 cups basmati rice, uncooked

1 tin diced tomatoes

1 cup fresh peas

1 tbsp soy sauce

To Make:

1. Heat a drizzle of oil or 2-3 tbsp water in a wok or large non-stick saucepan (I say nonstick because rice is VERY prone to stick to the bottom and if you don't use nonstick I predict you will be going at your saucepan with some serious steel wool at the end of this cooking process). Add the onion and garlic and sauté til transparent. 

2. Add 2 cups of the vegie stock and the pumpkin and simmer until the pumpkin is soft, about 15 minutes (you may need to cover it). 

3. Then add the rest of the stock, the spices, the tinned tomatoes, the broccoli and the rice. Stir well and bring to a simmer.

4. Simmer, mixing VERY often until the rice has absorbed all the liquid, probably about 15 mins again. At this point test the rice to see if it is cooked. If not, add a couple of more cups of water and simmer again until all the liquid is absorbed. Keep doing this until the rice is cooked.

5. About 5 minutes before the rice is finished cooking add the fresh peas.

6. Once you have got the rice cooked to the right consistency turn off the heat a stir through the soy sauce. Serve immediately (if you leave it for a while you'll end up with a large rice cake stuck in your saucepan, however, if you do this then just add another half a cup of hot stock just before serving and mix well to loosen it up a bit.).

Serves 4 easily.