Meatless Monday - veggie flatbread pizza

I used to be such a deep-dish girl. I don't know what happened, but over time the chewy crust appealed less and less and I was a newly-converted thin and crispy girl. I never went so far that I'd just use flatbread, I liked a bit more substance in my bases.

Well, not any more.

I usually make my own pizza dough, and it is incredibly chewy and delightful. One day I was lazy and put everything on to a pita bread and found out what I'd been missing all these years. It isn't soggy and floppy at all! It really lets the toppings shine and I'd like to take this moment to apologise to flabread pizzas that I never trusted them. I was wrong.

I've written the toppings I had on mine, but go nuts! put anything you like on! including nuts!

Ingredients
1-2 flatbreads per person
your choice of pizza sauce (I just used plain tomato paste on this)
1 squirt each Gourmet Garden garlic and basil, swirled into sauce
thinly-sliced mushroom and zucchini
diced capsicum, onion and tomato
lots of cheese. lots.

Directions.

1. Assemble.

2. Bake.

3. Wish you'd bought pineapple because you really want it on your pizza.



Linky bitz...


♥ The linky will be up at 9am every Monday morning, and will stay up until the following Sunday. It doesn't matter if you eat your meal on a day other than Monday - it's just an easy day to create the link!



♥ Grab the Meatless Monday button above and put it in your post, and even on your sidebar if you're feeling generous.



♥ Visit at least one other blogger and leave some love. This is so much more cool if we're in it together!



Where it says "Name", you might like to add the name of your dish instead or as well.

Meatless Monday: A cheat's recipe for Italian suppli

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I'm never going to win awards for authentic cooking. I made minestrone once because I watched Jersey Shore.

I am sure I'd love arancini, but I can't be bothered making the risotto that goes inside it. I don't even make the sugo sauce that goes inside these delightful little balls of cheesy goodness. Maybe one day I will, but given I'm not entirely certain I can type the rest of this post without falling asleep, I'm cutting corners just about everywhere. And I'm willing to bet that a lot of you are too.

I don't even use mozzarella. *gasp*!

Honestly, I shouldn't be allowed near a kitchen, let alone in one. The good news is that these taste really good. Given I've never had a real suppli, I don't know the difference and ignorance is bliss. So are crumbed and fried things, even though I'm told they're BAD FOR YOU.

You can bake them. That's ok. Less work than standing over a giant frying pan. Less chance of soaking up all that oil.

I didn't and I won't and I couldn't and I shan't, but I probably will one day. Tired, and all that.

Ingredients
4 cups cooked white rice
1 jar pasta sauce
1 egg
reasonably large cubes of tasty cheese
egg and breadcrumbs, to coat
oil, for frying. Or not if you're baking.

Directions:

1. While rice is almost cold, stir through the pasta sauce and egg.

2. Grab little handfuls of rice and push a cube of cheese into each. Fold up around the cheese until you have a little oval.

3. Dip in egg and breadcrumbs. Repeat until there is no more rice.

4. Shallow-fry until golden brown and cheese is melted inside. Sprinkle generously with salt.

Linky bitz...
♥ The linky will be up at 9am every Monday morning, and will stay up until the following Sunday. It doesn't matter if you eat your meal on a day other than Monday - it's just an easy day to create the link!

♥ Grab the Meatless Monday button above and put it in your post, and even on your sidebar if you're feeling generous.

♥ Visit at least one other blogger and leave some love. This is so much more cool if we're in it together!

Where it says "Name", you might like to add the name of your dish instead or as well.

Roasted mushrooms with mustard cream sauce

I may or may not have said it before, but what in the hell was I thinking, hating mushrooms?

Lost my goddamn mind.

Recently I had a burger with grilled portobellas as the "meat" and I just about cried eating it, they were so good. Slightly overcooked and charred on the edges, which made them chewy and delightful and packed with flavour. Oh my.

I like making big fat roasted mushrooms to have with the sauces I used to love with steaks. Why be sad and mourn the sauce (which, let's face it, I thought was the best part anyway), when I could still have them, only with something else?

My favourite is a quick, home-made diane sauce that I think breaks every rule in the book, but oh my lord it is delicious. Much like this mustardy one even though it didn't have any brandy or anything that probably would have launched it into the stratosphere of deliciousness.

Don't ask me what I'll eat with mushroom sauce. I'm still thinking. Schnitzel, maybe?

I was absolutely starving the other day and kept seeing recipes for mushroom risotto, and mushroom soup and mushroom gorgeousness in a thousand other forms, so I went home and threw this lot into the oven. You're going to need 2-3 per person. We served it with mashed potato and a sauteed mix of spinach, broccoli and garlic.

Sauce serves 4.

Ingredients:
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
150 ml cream
salt and white pepper

Directions

1. Gently saute the garlic and mustard in a little butter in a frying pan.

2. Add cream and turn up the heat. Allow to boil, reduce and thicken for a little while until your desired consistency.

3. Season to taste.

4. Cry. It's ok. I understand, it's really, really good.

Crumbed Eggplant with Chilli Tomato Jam and Bakers Delight Chia Bread

Ah chia. You and I meet again.

I've just spent the last 10 minutes searching YouTube for the clip I will forever think of every time I hear the word. Sadly it must be such a random part of the Wayne's World movie that nobody's put it up for my enjoyment! Anyway, Benjamin Kane is flicking through the TV channels, and after the clapping lamp ad, he flicks to this:



So I'm constantly singing in my head "clap on, clap off, the clapper! ch-ch-ch-chia!" And it will not go away.

'90s movie obsessions aside, the kind people over at Baker's Delight sent me some of their new chia bread to try recently, and once I stopped singing the song and explaining to the courier why he was delivering bread to me, I ripped a piece out and buttered it. Forget about the fact I actually had to cook with it

Bakers Delight has the BEST white sliced.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of chia - as I mention in this post where I make banana chia muffins. Sadly, I'd have to sell Veggie Baby in order to fund one banana these days so I've had to use different ingredients in them.

With the suggestion that I might like to make an Australian recipe from the bread, I immediately had two ideas:

Little Aussie kid toast rusks! A smidgen of Vegemite, a sprinkle of cheese on the wholemeal chia bread, and into a low oven until they're hard. NOM. 

And the rest of the bread I left out overnight (covered) until it dried, then whizzed them in the food processor to make breadcrumbs. I then egged and crumbed eggplant slices and baked them at 180C for about 20-30 minutes until crispy on the outside and cooked through. then I smothered them in homemade chilli-tomato jam.

I normally add spices and things to my breadcrumbs, but I left these plain so as not to compete with the jam. To be honest, the breadcrumbs didn't really need it. I especially like the extra crunch from the chia seeds, that pop a little when you bite into them. Delicious and healthy... oh chia is there anything you can't do?

Thanks to Baker's Delight, I'm giving away three prize packs that include a packet of chia seeds, a $5 voucher to try their bread, and a medium-sized chia-branded singlet. Just leave a comment below and tell me what Aussie recipe would you have made? 

The giveaway is open to Australian residents only, and will end at 5pm on Tuesday October 18. Random.org will be used to choose three winners, who will be notified by email, so make sure I can contact you somehow!

And for those playing along at home:

b  Chilli-Tomato Jam    b

Ingredients
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1cm fresh ginger, grated
1 red chili, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Saute the onion, garlic and ginger over low-medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the chili and saute 1 minute.

3. Add tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper and bring to the boil.

4. Reduce heat and let simmer about 20-30 minutes, long enough to get thick and jammy. Oh man, it's good!

You can read more about the history of the chia seed, the Kimberley region in which it is grown, and chia farming here.

Disclosure: I was given two loaves of bread to try and the giveaway stuff for you guyses. That's all, folks!

Roast Pumpkin and Haloumi Salad with Honey-Lemon Dressing.

Once upon a time I was the editor of a small newspaper in a small town. The small town had several cafes, but I frequented just one - the one that had a roast pumpkin and haloumi salad on its extensive menu. I never once deviated from this choice in all the times I went there - which is incredibly strange, as I love to try new things. I just couldn't stray. If I was to meet someone for lunch, it was to this cafe I'd go, and to my beloved haloumi I would remain loyal.

One particular day, I was racing to get the paper finished by my 1pm deadline. Deadline days didn't usually leave me much time to eat, save whatever snacks I had stashed in a drawer, or whatever lunch I brought from home, microwaved in fits and starts, and mouthfuls eaten sporadically between work. It usually went cold and I would sadly poke at it at about 1.02pm. This day though was hectic. I drank about nineteen cups of tea and tried to forget I was hungry. As soon as that deadline hit, and I saw the last page disappear into the printing ether, I raced out the door and flew down the street in record time. Which hard to do in small towns. People want to stop you and chat. Particularly when you're the editor of the very popular (and slightly controversial) paper. I am sure I may have made a few more enemies that day, but I didn't care, all I wanted was the pumpkin and haloumi salad, and ain't nothing was going to stand in my way.

I don't even remember eating it. But I've no doubt it was good.

As is this one - the salty crispness of the haloumi pairs so well with the smooth, sweet pumpkin and the lemon dressing really adds another dimension of deliciousness. Very easy to throw together, and you can add whatever you fancy to flesh it out - this recipe should just be a guide.

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped pumpkin

Several handfuls lettuce

1 can lentils, rinsed and drained well

2 ripe tomatoes (cherry tomatoes would be even better), quartered

2 packets haloumi, sliced

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon olive oil

Directions:

1. Roast the pumpkin and tomatoes in a 220C oven 15-20 minutes until soft and just starting to brown, turning once. I dusted mine with cinnamon, chili and sea salt.

2. Arrange the lettuce, lentils, tomatoes and/or whatever else you're using on plates.

3. Mix the lemon juice, honey and olive oil.

4. Fry the haloumi over medium-high heat until browned on both sides, a couple of minutes.

5. Top the salad with haloumi and dressing.

I only had sad little iceberg lettuce today (thanks so much, Brisbane floods/Queensland cyclone!) but I would totally recommend a nicer lettuce.