Reasons to eat seasonally

Seasonal produce improves your health by eating foods that are going to nourish you i.e – eating watermelon in summer helps keeps us cool whilst rehydrating us.

Buying anything you want from the supermarkets all year around, is a likely sign that the produce has been imported and lacking in nutrients

Learn from Farmers Markets: if it’s not available, chances are its not in season.

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One scoop or two?

Looking for that perfect ice-cream to compliment your hot apple pie? Well look no further, we have discovered a natural ice-cream that seems to have everything going for it.

Nushie's Natural is the perfect non dairy ice-cream; gluten, egg and dairy free, contains no chemicals or artificial additives and no added sugar. Its cholesterol and casein free, low GI, vegan and its certified organic, we have just found our perfect product!

Made from coconut milk and cashew nuts, Nushie's ice-creams are extra smooth and can be found in the following delicious flavours:

Chocolate with organic raw 100% cacao

Royal green tea

Strawberry

Truly decadent tiramisu

Vanilla with organic raw vanilla bean

To find a stockist of this perfect product, visit: www.nushiesnatural.com.au.

Tarian Pantry. Sharing the knowledge.

www.tarianpantry.com.au

Warming pasties

It's getting cold outside and we are looking for foods that keep us warm on the inside and out. Instead of turning on the heaters and using unnecessary electricity, are warming up the old fashioned way; ugg boots, blankets, hot water bottles and piping hot food!

Vegetable pasties are an ideal meal to cook for either lunch or dinner. Served with an organic tomato sauce, pasties can be eaten on the go, eaten hot or cold or eaten in the front of the TV (one of our favourite TV dinners).

Here is our version of the favourite pastie (makes 16 small pasties or 8 large):

Ingredients

1 large potato, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes

1/2 jap pumpkin, cut into 2cm cubs

1 brown onion, peeled and quartered

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into quarters

Handful mixed herbs (parsley, dill, chives)

salt and pepper

4 sheets Borgs puff pastry

Method

Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees. Line two baking trays with grease proof paper and set aside.

Using a blender, add the potato, pumpkin, onion and carrot to the bowl and pulse ingredients until the mixture resembles small cubes (as in picture). Stir through the herbs and salt and pepper and set aside.

Lay the pastry sheets on your workbench and allow to defrost. Using a 11cm round cutter, cut 4 circles into each sheet of pastry. Add 1 tbsp of the vegetable mixture in the centre of the round and fold over to make a half moon shape squeezing the edges closed. Prick with a fork and place on a greased baking tray. Repeat until puff pastry and mixture is all used up.

Brush each top of the pasties with soy milk and bake in the oven until golden brown, around 20 - 30 minutes.

Keep warm this Winter with food!

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Perfect basil pesto

As a vegan, its hard to find a pesto that doesn't contain parmesan. Even as a vegetarian, its hard as most parmesans contain rennet so they are technically not vegetarian. So is there a good pesto out there that vegans and vegetarian's can eat? There sure is.

Although the pesto we are talking about is not one that is purchased from a shop, its one made in your own kitchen preferably using ingredients from your own garden.

Using a food processor, this pesto will be made in, oh around 5 minutes (you couldn't get to the shop and back in that time).

Ingredients

100g fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup raw nuts (pine, cashew or walnuts are good)

2 garlic cloves, peeled

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt to taste

Method

Combine basil, raw nuts and garlic in a food processor and blend until the ingredients start to form a paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Slowly drizzle in a tablespoon or two of oil along with salt and process until smooth and creamy (adding more oil, if needed).

Pesto can be used in pasta's, spread on sourdough bread, used in soups or stirred through risotto's.

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A quince a day

They are all around us, they are everywhere we go! Tis the season for quinces and as a team, we have not experimented much with this pear/apple like fruit, but that was about to change.

Cooking is about being experimental, about learning how to create something new so on our recent visit to the markets, we enquired about quinces and made it home with a few in our basket. Let the experiment being.

Some experiments are a disaster, we have learnt this to be a part of cooking but our baked quince puree proved anything but a disaster. Below is our quince creation that has donned our porridge and muesli each morning and was even baked through muffins. Enjoy.

Baked Quince Puree

Ingredients

400g caster sugar

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

4 quince, peeled and cut into wedges and core removed

1L water

Method

Pre heat oven to 120C.

In a large saucepan, add the sugar, vanilla bean & seeds and over a medium high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring mixture to boil and remove from heat.

In large casserole pot, add the quinces and pour over the sugar syrup. Cover with a lid and bake in oven until deep red in colour, around 4-5 hours.

Allow to cool. Using a hand blender, blend to a puree and refrigerate until ready to use.

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Lemon pistachio cake

This recipe was adapted from a recipe I saw in a magazine last week. The beauty of cooking dairy free is learning to adapt recipes to suit your diet. This cake is beautifully moist and tastes just as good the next day. So simple to make, I suggest stocking up your Tarian Pantry with the necessary ingredients and get baking!

Ingredients

100g unsalted pistachios

220g caster sugar

75g plain flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

250g fine semolina

300ml soymilk

125g vegan margarine melted and cooled

rind of 1 lemon, finely grated

Syrup

220g caster sugar

125ml water

1 cinnamon stick

3 tbsp lemon juice

Method

To make the syrup, combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and slowly bring to a simmer. Add cinnamon stick and then simmer over a medium heat for 8 minutes. Remove from heat and stir through lemon juice. Cool until at room temperature, remove cinnamon stick and set aside.

Pre heat oven to 170 degrees. Lightly grease and line a rectangular cake tin (28cm x 17cm).

Using a blender or food processor, combine pistachios and sugar and blend to a fine powder. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, and then stir in the semolina and pistachio mixture.

Combine the soymilk, melted butter and lemon rind, then slowly add this to the flour mixture, stirring until smooth and well combined.

Pour this mixture into the lined cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Pour over lemon syrup until it has been absorbed. Cut into diamond shapes and serve.

To be lovely and decedent, serve topped with rose petals.

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Vegan pub grub - Fact or Fiction?

Its seem the mere vegan doesn't have to miss out on much these days and this includes pub grub!

We all need a little 'comfort' food especially as we are heading into Winter, comfort foods are what warms us from the inside out. So on our quest to find restaurants, cafes and pubs in Melbourne to satisfy our needs we came across a 'club' that exceeded all expectations - The East Brunswick Club (www.eastbrunswickclub.com).

Located at 280 Lygon Street, East Brunswick 3057 this venue offers just about everything - 2 gig areas, front bar, kitchen, beer garden and as part of their food offering, amazing vegan food. So on a cold winters Saturday night, a group of Tarian followers sat in the front bar, watched AFL and dined on a 'Traditional Vegan Parmagiana' served with all the trimmings - chips & salad.

Lets just say, we were smiling for ear to ear as we have now found our new haunt for the not so traditional pub grub.

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