If there was ever an excuse to make oat milk, this is it. These cookies are pretty amazing: I’ve had four or five since I made them yesterday. #noselfcontrol
Classic Tomato Soup
I’m so into soups right now. Butternut soup, mixed veg soup, lentil soup, tomato soup… They’re easy, pretty quick, and they warm your soul.
Mixed Seed Crackers
When it comes to crackers and other carriers for avo or hummus, there are options in the supermarkets, but they’re often either not vegan-friendly, or very processed, or very expensive. So in that context, these seed crackers are a blessing: they’re really (really!) easy to make, very nutritious (high protein, good fats—but go easy on them), and easily adaptable to use different seeds and spices.
Piña Colada Smoothie
Smoothies have become a regular feature in my daily meals when the weather’s warmer, I like making one in the late morning (I’m a coffee-no-breakfast kind of person). I always keep frozen banana chunks in my freezer, and often other fruit, too. When pineapples are in season, I’ll buy a couple, chop one up and freeze it for smoothies. The rest are all easily available pantry items that keep for months.
Avocado Spinach Pasta
I had some beautifully ripe avocados on hand, some Swiss chard sitting in the fridge from a week ago (but still fresh because I had the foresight to de-stem, clean and pack them into airtight bags!) and some limes. Obviously, the answer was creamy avocado spinach pasta!
Beasting Cake
This cake has been a feature at pretty much every one of my birthdays: it’s a recipe that my mom got from Mrs Lillie, my godmother’s grandmother who used to live on a farm near Groblersdal. I’ve always loved this cake: my mom makes a vegan version for me pretty much every year (except now I like making it too!).
Red Lentil Curry
I grew up eating black lentils all the time, but I only really discovered red lentils as an adult. And I love them. They’re beautiful, nutritious, easy to cook, and cheap. While most legumes (especially beans) are best soaked overnight before cooking, these guys don’t need any of that forethought that organised people have. Especially split red lentils (same thing, but each bean is in two halves): their cooking time is way shorter than whole red lentils. It’s a wonderful thing for busy (or lazy) people.
Homemade Soy Yoghurt
Yoghurt wasn’t something I missed that much when I stopped eating dairy: I had enjoyed it, but it definitely wasn’t a daily feature. As a result, I never made much of an effort to recreate the yoghurt experience—that is until recently, when I found vegan yoghurt in the supermarket and realised I could make my own using the store-bought one as a starter. Before then, to make strictly-vegan yoghurt, I’d have had to find a probiotic supplement—and honestly, since I don’t use probiotics, they’re expensive, and I don’t desperately need yoghurt in my life, I couldn’t be bothered.
Vegan Blueberry Yoghurt Muffins
I’ve been getting into a rhythm of making my own homemade soy yoghurt every other week or so, which my flatmate and I have been absolutely loving. And then the other day I remembered that as a child, I used to help my mom bake muffins with buttermilk or yoghurt (dairy of course, since I barely knew what vegan meant then). So, since I had a full two litres of soy yoghurt on hand, I figured I’d try my hand at some blueberry yoghurt muffins. These are a bit indulgent, with both sugar and oil, so maybe keep these as a weekend treat! I made a batch and froze most of them to limit the temptation!