Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Vegan MoFo Day 2 - Cooking Frenzy

Day 2 saw us cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Here in Melbourne, it's a public holiday for Melbourne Cup Day racing. We boycott the races in this house, so instead spent part of the day cooking lima beans, baking biscuits and cake and making a yummy dinner.

Almost all of the food (except the cake) came from the cookbook I'm cooking from for the week 'Passion for Pulses' Compiled by Nancy Longnecker.

After soaking 500g of dried lima beans overnight, I cooked them for just over an hour first thing this morning to make sure they'd be ready for dinner. I've never cooked nor eaten (to my knowledge) lima beans before, so was a little apprehensive. More on the lima beans later.

Next I cooked and cooled a small amount of green lentils for the Lentil Cookies (p. 25). I managed to convince Tweenie to do the rest of the cooking for these cookies, which really isn't that hard as she REALLY LOVES to bake!
These turned out quite well. I loved the inclusion of dried apricots, sultanas and sunflower seeds and there is no taste at all of the lentils. These cookies remind me of the recent cookbooks dedicated to hiding healthy vegetables in not-so-healthy foods so kids will eat them! 


Verdict - Really yum! Kids liked them although Tweenie preferred the cake. I'd make them again.

Lentil Cookies from Passion for Pulses compiled by Nancy Longnecker


1/4C dried green lentils (1/2C cooked)
1/2C butter
1/2C packed brown sugar
1/4C vegan sugar
1 egg (we used egg replacer)
1t vanilla
3/4C white or wholemeal flour
1/2t bicarb of soda
1/2C chopped dried apricots
1/2C raisins
1/2C sunflower seeds
1T honey (we used agave)
1t mixed spice (we used cinnamon)

Rinse lentils, put into pot with plenty of water. Bring to boil, them simmer gently for 30 minutes until lentils are tender. Drain and cool.
Cream butter and sugars; add egg (replacer) and vanilla, mixing until fluffy.
Stir in flour, and bicarb; add lentils and remaining ingredients.
Drop by teaspoon onto greased baking tray, press flat with a fork.
Bake 10-12 minutes in 180c oven.

Next I made a Blueberry Breakfast Cake from Fat Free Vegan. It's not a sweet cake, but very nice! No need for my amateur picture, check out the link!

Tonights dinner used 2 different recipes from Passion For Pulses. First was Lima Bean and Potato Casserole (p.33) and second was Himalayan Mung Bean Fritters (MU WO) (p.73). Both of these recipes were great! The kids couldn't stop eating the fritters and YM even went back for seconds of the casserole!

Verdict: I'd DEFINITELY make both of these again. The mung bean fritters were ONLY soaked then pureed mung beans! As odd as the puree seemed and as doubtful as I was that they'd work, they did work and they tasted great dipped into some sweet chilli sauce.

How good does that look!!

Himalayan Mung Bean Fritters (MU WO) from Passion For Pulses

2C mung beans (green gram)
1-2T soy sauce
1t cumin powder
1t salt
oil for frying

Soak mung beans overnight. Drain well. Grind or puree mung beans with soy sauce (worked well in my blender). Add cumin and salt.
Shape into fritters in the palm of your hand (my puree was WAY too sloppy for this so I just dropped spoonfuls into the oil to shallow fry).
Fry until brown, serve with sweet chilli sauce.

Lima Bean and Potato Casserole from Passion For Pulses

2 1/2C (500g) dried lima veans
1T oil
2 large onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2t plain flour
2C vegetable stock
6 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
1/4C tomato paste
1/2t each of basil, thyme and oregano
1t sugar
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped (I NEVER use celery in ANY of my cooking - blerh!)
5 potatoes (400g) sliced 2mm thick
15g butter, melted
1/2t cumin seeds

Soak lima beans for at least 6 hours. Drain. Add to large pot and cover with plenty of water. Bring to the boil for 15 minutes; gently simmer for 1 hour. Drain.
Saute onions and garlic in oil until onions are soft.
Add flour. Stir until combined.
Gradually stir in stock, tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, thyme, oregano, sugar, carrots and celery.
Simmer covered until carrots are tender; stir in lima beans.
Put bean mixture into ovenproof dish. Top with tomato slices, brush with butter and sprinkle with cumin seeds.
Bake uncovered in 180c oven for about 40 minutes or until potato slices are tender and browned.

Enjoy,
Tahn

4 comments:

K said...

lentil cookies sound so interesting.

Johanna GGG said...

lentils in a cookie both horrify and fascinate me - throw in some choc chips and I would probably be convinced!

Jen Treehugger said...

Lentil cookies!!??
AWESOME!
And those fritters look soooo good.
:)

Monique a.k.a. Mo said...

Those fritters look awesome!