Strawberry Sorbet!

You must all prepare this, you will be shocked by the smooth consistency of this sorbet! And all without an ice-cream machine!

(Sorry about the photo...I was blinded by the sun - and yes, I take all my photos on the same table..haha!)


Ingredients:

- 2 ripe bananas
- a punnet of strawberries
- Agave: about half a small cup?
- either juice (apple or grape), or rice milk

Peel the bananas, wrap them up in glad wrap and place in the freezer. Wash the strawberries, take the green part off and freeze them as well (place them in a plastic tupplewear container).

After about 3 hours, the fruits will be frozen: cup up the banana into chunks and place in a food processor. Start off with a just a bit of banana and a bit of strawberries....they're frozen so you don't want to destroy your food processor or its blade. Add the juice/rice milk straight away, and start blending. As you see that it gains a smooth cremy consistency, slowly add the fruit that was left out, as well as the Agave.

Isn't it amazing? Mine has quite a fizzy flavor...I think it's the strawberries that did it. You can add or diminish Agave quantities depending on how sweet you like it....but don't ruin it with sugar!


Serving Suggestions: if you're preparing it for friends, try and prepare it almost on the spot - I've placed mine in the freezer, but I'm pretty sure it will turn into a frozen block of sorbet. So better to prepare and consume immediately! (or place it in the fridge if it's going to be consumed within a short time after preparation).

Frozen Avocado Cake

What a find! I was browsing through the net for some raw recipes, and this is what I tumbled on. It's really easy to make, and the taste is not bad either!

Ingredients:

- 1 ripe avocado
- 1/4 cup of coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon of lime juice
- 1 tablespoon of Agave

Crust: 1 part nuts, 1 part dates.

Firstly place the pitted dates and whatever nuts you like into the food-processor, to get them nicely chopped. Then place the lot into a plastic container (you're going to have to put it in the freezer, so avoid glass). Press it down evenly with a spoon.

Process the avocado with the rest of the ingredients until all the avocado has "creamyfied", and then put it on top of the "crust" part. Place a lid on the plastic tin (I used a plastic lunch-box, or tupplewear, as snobby people like to call it), and place in the freezer.

It will take a few hours to freeze: when it's ready you can pull it out and tip it over (like I've done in the photo above)....looks prettier with the crust on top - the eye plays it's part!

Stuffed Zucchini Planets with Polenta Chunks and Vegetarian Ragù

I found these funky round zucchini vegetables at the supermarket, and thought they'd be perfect for stuffing! Also because they're slighty "sturdier" then regular zucchini, so if you like the taste of crunchy vegetable, this is the option for you! I also had some left-over polenta in the fridge, which I cut up into cubes and lightly stir-fried with some fresh herbs and a little bit of fresh tomato. Aaand, something I haven't had since...gosh, so long ago I can't even remember. I think it was in Australia, so we're looking at 12 years ago: textured soya flakes in a spicy tomato sauce. Delicious!

Stuffed Round Zucchini:
(quantities obviously vary depending on how many you need to make: the stuffing ingredients were enough for 3).

- round zucchini/courgettes
- half a red capsicum/pepper
- half a medium-sized aubergine/eggplant
- why do all the ingredients have two names?
- fresh coriander
- a chunk of fresh ginger
- olive oil
- your favorite spices (I used salt, chilli powder, coriander powder, and turmeric)

Cut the "top" off of the zucchinis (you can keep them for decoration, like little hats). Use a spoon to scoop out the inside. You can either chop it all up, capsicum and aubergine included, or use the grating option thingy on your blender: it's faster.
Stir-fry the lot with your spices and herbs - the zucchini will let out a lot of water, so wait til it's absorbed, and then use a spoon to place the concoction back into the zucchini. Add some olive oil on top, and cook it in the oven! How long for? Well, it really depends on how cooked you like your zucchini. I think I had mine in for about 20-30 minutes, and they were still quite crunchy, which is fine for me because I like the taste of raw vegetables. If you cook them longer they will probably become softer (probably better for kids with aversion to anything that tastes healthy, as well as adults who have been conditioned by the bad culinary habits of modern-day society).

Polenta Chunks:
Prepare the polenta by following the instructions on the packet. Now, that was easy. If you're a first-timer in polenta preparing, be aware: there are two types: the sloooow type, which involves you standing there for an hour mixing uninterruptedly - reminds me of my childhood....don't mean it to sound like child labor...well, it was. But I remember it being sold to me as "Come on, help aunty in the kitchen!". Or the fast type, which magically only needs about 10 minutes cooking, and it's done. You decide how much of a martyr you want to be.
Once cooked, place in an oven dish, or something that has edges around it: the polenta will go hard, and you can then cut it into cubes (note: another delicious recipe involves grilling it! Yummy!).
Lightly stir-fry the cubes with some herbs: sage and rosemary (I also had a spoonful of left-over vegetables from the zucchini stuffing: left it in to give it some color). Add some salt and whatever spices you like.

Vegetarian Ragù
I woozed up three ripe tomatoes (sorry, "woozed" is the word I've always used...quite onomatopeic, but probably not a word) - so what I mean is: place three tomatoes in a food processor, and...woozz them up. Place in a pan, add the dry soya flakes (about a cup), and let it cook in the tomato sauce for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce has dried up a bit. Add salt and any other herbs or spices you like (I made mine quite spicy, which went quite well with the zucchini), as well as fresh ginger to give it the extra spicy edge.

Love the spicy edge.

Banana and Coconut "Ice-cream"

Wonderful results in the lab today! I bet this "ice-cream" would taste great with a nice slice of vegan chocolate cake!

I got the idea for this creation from another recipe that uses frozen bananas as a base - and you can pretty much add anything you like to that!

Ingredients:

- two bananas

- a small cup of coconut flakes or powder

- 10 almonds

- 1/2 cup of rice milk (soya or almond milk would be fine too - make the recipe gluten-free)

Peel the two bananas and wrap them in plastic wrap, and place in the freezer for about 3 hours. Place the coconut directly into the small food processor, with the almonds and the rice milk - the rice milk should just cover the almonds, if not add a little more. You will notice that after about 10 minutes, the coconut will have absorbed all of the milk, so you can add a little more just to keep the almonds soaking. Woozz it all up after about 3 hours (leave it in the fridge).

Once the bananas have frozen, cut them up and place them in a normal food processor, together with the rest of the ingredients....and wooooozzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Ready! I had a taste of mine just a few minutes ago, and was very impressed. I've placed it in a plastic box back in the freezer to see what sort of consistency it will gain. And now I can't wait to try it with a whole load of other fruits and nuts! I'm sure a cashew version (without the coconut) would taste great, as well a chocolate one, strawberry....it reminds me of these super-drinks they make in South America, especially Brasil. It could also work with avocado, as well as quinoa, which would make it a really nutritious cold dessert -- particularly good for fussy children and conservative men.

Quinoa on a bed of Mung Bean Cream and Asparagus in Pesto Sauce

This is a lovely summer dish, light and very nutritious! Remember that the mung beans need to soak a night before cooking them.

Cook the quinoa with a pinch of salt. Once it's absorbed all the water and you've turned the gas off, stir a bit of olive oil in with it.

Mung Bean Cream

Ingredients:

- mung beans: you'll have to decide the quantity yourselves because I didn't even look how much I poured in: cook them until they are soft and all the water has been absorbed (don't cook them in too much water, because it's a pity to have to throw out all the "good stuff").

- 6cm piece of leek

- olive oil

- salt

- chilli powder

- 1 tsp of ginger powder

- 1 tsp of turmeric powder

- 2 tsp of fennel powder

- 1 big sage leaf

- a handful of fresh coriander leaves

- a bit of water

Stir fry the leek in the olive oil until it's soft, and add the big sage leaf in as well (you can leave it whole). Add the mung beans and a bit of water - here's the thing: you don't want to add too much water because we're not making mung bean soup. If the consistency is too dense, you're always in time to add more water. I started off with too much water, and it then meant me standing there for ages waiting for it to absorb....Add the spices, and then woozz it up with a food processor (the hand-held ones...no harm if you don't have one...well, just use what you've got). Once it's cooled down a bit and you're close to serving time, add the handful of fresh coriander leaves and woozz the whole thing up again. Voilà! Add some fresh olive oil and you are done!

Asparagus in Pesto Sauce:

Cut the asparagus stems into rounds, and then steam: don't overcook! It's nice to keep them a little crunchy.

Prepare the Pesto Sauce using fresh basil, olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a few pine nuts: woozz up the ingredients in a little food processor.

Mix the asparagus and pesto together.

Display the dish beautifully, as though you were serving a king, and bon appetit!

Sesame and Gour Balls

Ingredients:

- sesame seeds (toast them a little)
- gour (Jaggery gour: unrefined cane sugar)

Mix the two together into balls...could I be any more concise?

No, I couldn't: an extra note: Jaggery gour can be found in Indian shops.

Pumpkin and Chocolate Cake (Vegan)

This cake is even more of a fluke than the apple one, and the result even better.

Ingredients:

- 300 g of pumpkin

- 1 cup of flour

- half a cup of Manitoba flour

- 3/4 cup of cane sugar

- pinch of salt

- 2 teaspoons of cremor tartaro (or yeast equivalent)

- a sprinkle of cinnamon

- a tablespoon of maize oil

- half a cup of rice milk (more or less....I may have added more: as we say in italian "ad occhio" - you will have to judge for yourself whether it needs a bit more milk if the mixture is too thick).

- dark chocolate

Boil the pumpkin and then mash it with a fork, and let it cool. Preheat oven to 180 C. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (passing them first through a sieve): flour, sugar, salt, cremor tartaro, cinnamon. Once the pumpkin has cooled, add the maize oil, and then add to the dry mixture. Also add the dark chocolate, which you will have cut up (the amount is up to you - depends how chocolaty you want it!) The pumpkin will mix with the flour - then start adding the rice milk and keep mixing with a wooden spoon. Add rice milk until the consistency is smooth (not too runny, but not stodgy either).

Place in an oiled tray and bake in oven for about 45 minutes (check with a knife or toothpick before pulling out). It will acquire a lovely toasty color on top...and the chocolate will melt inside...need I say more? Let it cool and then ENJOY!