Showing posts with label party food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label party food. Show all posts

Monday, 30 March 2015

Tamari Roasted Nuts & Seeds

Tamari Roasted Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds


I've been making variations of these for quite awhile now, sometimes just seeds, sometimes with just nuts and the recipe is easily adaptable - you can add further herbs and spices to suit your tastes or mood. When I fancy them a bit spicier I'll add some sriracha to the tamari, and wasabi is a nice addition too; most often however, I just use tamari. What I love about this recipe is it is so quick - tasty, crisp and healthy snacks in less than 20 minutes - and with no added oil! 


Tamari Roasted Almonds & Cashews

They are easily one of my favourite snacks, perfect with a cold beer or chilled glass of white wine and the seeds are awesome sprinkled on a salad! Actually, the seeds here remind me almost exactly of Munchy Seeds which I used to be quite addicted to back in the UK; I never see them here in Ireland but that doesn't matter now as I can make my own! I usually just stick with my favourite seeds here - pumpkin and sunflower if I am making them as a snack but if I am going to sprinkle them on a salad I'll usually add some sesame seeds as well. 

The nuts are just great as a snack, a perfect salty beer accompaniment ;-) We all know that toasted nuts are great in a stir fry and I highly recommend adding these instead for even more flavour. I made a broccoli and rice stir fry the other day and added a handful of tamari roasted cashews to it. Amazing!

Tamari Roasted Macadamia Nuts - vegan and gluten-free recipe with no added oil.
June update! I am now equally addicted to tamari roasted macadamia nuts - they are amazing!


~ Recipe Notes ~

• Only use shelled, unsalted and unroasted seeds and nuts here. For the almonds I used ones with the skins on.
• Oven times will vary so do keep an eye on yours as they roast. Everyone's oven is different and what works for mine might be too little of time of too much for yours. Just dry roast first until they start to lightly brown then roast with the tamari until they are dry. Especially keep an eye on the seeds as they can burn in the blink of an eye!
• Both keep quite well in an air tight container, if the nuts get a little sticky just give the container a shake and they are fine :-)
• As mentioned above, for a spicy version add some srirachi to the tamari. How much is honestly up to you, I'm pretty light weight when it comes to sriracha and add 1/4 tsp - 1/2 tsp depending on my mood but if you're addicted to the stuff, you'll know how much you can take!
• Experiment with the recipe! All sorts of herbs and spices can be added here, have fun :-)


Tamari Roasted Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds

Tamari Roasted Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds:

50g pumpkin seeds (1/3 cup)
50g sunflower seeds (1/3 cup)
1 Tbsp tamari (or soy sauce)
•optional - 2 Tbsp sesame seeds 

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F. Mix the pumpkin and sunflower seeds together (don't add the sesame seeds yet if using) then spread out on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 7 minutes, shaking the pan once or twice to ensure even roasting. The pumpkin seeds should be starting to pop and the sunflower seeds should just be starting to get lightly golden brown.

Remove from the oven and tip all the seeds into a bowl, add the sesame seeds now if using. Add the tamari which should sizzle and toss with a couple of spoons until well coated. Return the seeds to the baking sheet and spread them out as best you can. Pop it back in the oven for 2 minutes, remove and give them a stir then return to the oven for another 2 minutes. You'll know they are done as they will be dry and golden brown and able to move freely when you shake the pan.

Line a wire cooling rack with some baking paper and tip the seeds onto it to cool and crisp up.

Tamari Roasted Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds

♥


Tamari Roasted Almonds & Cashews

Tamari Roasted Almonds and Cashews:

75g almonds (½ cup)
75g cashews (½ cup)
1 Tbsp tamari

Preheat the oven to 190C / 375F. Spread the nuts out on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for about 7 minutes, shaking the pan once for even roasting. They should just start to be turning lightly golden brown. Remove and tip them into a bowl and add the tamari, it should sizzle for a bit then take a couple of spoons and mix the nuts well with the tamari until they are well coated. Transfer them back to the baking sheet and spread them out. Pop them back in the oven and roast for a further 2 minutes. Remove and give them a stir then return to the oven for a further 2-3 minutes. You want them dry looking, they shouldn't look wet any more and you should be able to shake the pan and they move around. Transfer to a wire rack lined with baking paper to cool and crisp up. Note - they will be soft at this stage but do crisp up upon cooling.

Tamari Roasted Almonds & Cashews

♥

Tamari Roasted Macadamia Nuts - vegan and gluten-free recipe with no added oil.

Tamari Roasted Macadamia Nuts:

125g macadamia nuts (that's between ¾ cup and 1 cup)
2 tsp tamari

Preheat the oven to 190C / 375F. Spread the nuts out on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 6 minutes shaking the pan a couple of times. Tip the nuts into a bowl and add the tamari, mix with a couple of spoons until the nuts are well coated. Tip them back onto the baking sheet and spread them out. Pop them back in the oven for 3 minutes then remove and stir them about. Roast for a further 3 minutes or until they are dry and deeply golden. They should move about when you shake the pan. Transfer to a wire rack lined with baking paper to cool and crisp up. Store in an airtight container.

Tamari Roasted Macadamia Nuts - vegan and gluten-free recipe with no added oil.

♥

Nutritional Information: all per 100g

Tamari Roasted Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds:
Calories: 533
Protein: 24.8g
Fat: 43.1g
Sat Fat: 7.2g
Fibre: 8.7g
Carbs: 17.9g
Sugar: 0.3g
Sodium: 839.4mg

Tamari Roasted Almonds and Cashews:
Calories: 579
Protein: 20.2g
Fat: 48.6g
Sat Fat: 6.1g
Fibre: 7.7g
Carbs: 27.2
Sugar: 5.9g
Sodium: 1185mg

Tamari Roasted Macadamia Nuts:
Calories: 724
Protein: 8.9g
Fat: 75.8g
Sat Fat: 12.1g
Fibre: 8.7g
Carbs: 14.4g
Sugar: 4.7g
Sodium: 537mg


Other Great Beer Snacks!

Chilli and Rosemary
Socca
Warm Spinach and Artichoke
Dip with Blue Corn Chips


Friday, 6 March 2015

Miso-Ginger Glazed Roasted Carrot and Toasted Sesame Sushi

Miso-Ginger Glazed Roasted Carrot and Toasted Sesame Sushi - vegan and gluten-free recipe

I really love sushi, it's one of those foods I don't eat often but find I just get a massive craving for at times. Like intense craving, worse than chocolate! Usually I just make my standard sushi - the Avocado, Carrot and Lime Maki Rolls - as I love them and when that craving hits I certainly do not want to risk experimenting with a new recipe! But then I saw this Rick Stein recipe on BBC Good Food for Grilled Miso Salmon and was very intrigued by the glaze he put on the salmon. Brown rice miso, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and smoked paprika - I never would have thought of putting balsamic vinegar and paprika in a Japanese inspired dish and had to try this right away. Initially I was going to just swap the salmon with tofu - the obvious vegan substitution, but it eventual ended up as this....Miso-ginger glazed roasted carrot and toasted sesame sushi. Ah, the complexities of recipe development!
Miso-Ginger Glazed Roasted Carrot and Toasted Sesame Sushi - vegan and gluten-free recipe
It turned out incredible! I really love these, that glaze is amazing, the balsamic and smoked paprika just work so well (and for the record it would make an awesome glaze for grilled tofu!) I made a couple little changes however. I added some ginger as it goes great with carrot and sushi and a teaspoon of Sweet Freedom syrup (vegan honey) but you can use agave or any other type of sweetener, I felt it helped balance the tartness of the vinegar. The carrot is roasted so they are nice and tender and then I added some toasted sesame seeds because they're awesome. Since the filling here has so much flavour you almost don't even need a dip with these but I just can't have sushi rolls without one. I kept it traditional with just some wasabi and soy sauce, I prepare the wasabi then whisk it into the soy sauce. Probably not traditional but I like an even flavour of wasabi. Some toasted sesame oil would work well in the dip as well.

Please note: I have tagged this recipe as gluten-free as all the products I used were gluten-free but please check your product ingredient lists to be sure :-)
Miso-Ginger Glazed Roasted Carrot and Toasted Sesame Sushi - vegan and gluten-free recipe
Miso-Ginger Glazed Roasted Carrot & Toasted Sesame Sushi

Yields about 12 sushi rolls

For the Miso-Ginger Glazed Roasted Carrots:

1 large carrot sliced into matchstick sizes (not too thin though)
½ tsp peanut oil
½ tsp finely grated ginger
2 tsp brown rice miso paste
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp soy sauce (use tamari for gluten-free)
1 tsp Sweet Freedom syrup or other vegan syrup sweetener
¼ tsp smoked paprika

For the Sushi Rice:

125g sushi rice
250ml water
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 Tbsp mirin
1 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 sheets toasted nori 
4 tsp sesame seeds
• Wasabi and Soy Sauce to serve

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Toss the carrots with the peanut oil and place in a roasting tin. 
Roast for 10 minutes, tossing once. They should be slightly softer now. I pre-roast them a bit before adding the glaze so that the glaze doesn't burn.
Whisk together the miso, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, syrup, smoked paprika and ginger. 
Add the glaze to the carrots, mixing well. 
Pop it back in the oven and roast for another 10 minutes or until glazed and the carrots are tender. Transfer the carrots to a plate to let cool.

Toast the seeds:
Place the seeds in a dry frying pan and gently toast until lightly golden.


Transfer to a plate and allow to cool.










Make the rice:

Note: this may sound like a cop out but I suggest you follow the instructions on cooking the rice on your package of sushi rice. Reason being every pack I have bought has had different instructions and I have found that even different hobs yield different results. I used to add much less water than this on my old hob but my new one is a lot stronger, even on the lowest setting and found I needed to add more water. So I'm afraid it's a case of finding which rice works with your hob and pan to get perfect sushi rice. This is what I do however....


Place the rice and water in a saucepan and put lid on. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 15 minutes, do not lift lid. Whisk together the rice vinegar, mirin, sugar and salt until all dissolved. Tip rice into a large bowl and pour the dressing over then use a rubber spatula and fold the dressing in until rice is room temperature and texture changes to thick and sticky, be gentle as you don't want to crush the grains.

Place the nori onto a bamboo sushi rolling mat, shiny side down. Keep a bowl of cold water mixed with some rice vinegar nearby. Wet your hands in this. Place half the rice onto the mat leaving about an inch bare at the other end. 
Gently pat down with damp hands until evenly spread out then sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds and lay the carrots out in the bottom 3rd closest to you.
♥
Miso-Ginger Glazed Roasted Carrot and Toasted Sesame Sushi - vegan and gluten-free recipe
Lightly dampen the edge of the nori that has no rice on it then roll up using the bamboo mat. Repeat with the other sheet of nori then slice and serve with soy sauce and wasabi.
Miso-Ginger Glazed Roasted Carrot and Toasted Sesame Sushi - vegan and gluten-free recipe

♥

Nutritional Information: per roll (1 out of 12) dip excluded.

Calories: 51
Protein: 1.2g
Fat: 0.3g
Sat Fat: 0
Carbs: 11g
Sugar: 1.6g
Fibre: 0.7g
Sodium: 199mg

You Might Also Like:
Avocado and Carrot
Maki Rolls
Vietnamese Mushroom Balls
with Apricot-Ginger Dip



Friday, 21 March 2014

Spaghetti and Meatball Cake

Vegan Spaghetti and Meatball Cake

Hello again!! I know, it's been ages...it started off with me just taking a break from blogging and ended up with me having a myriad of health issues - not all of which lupus related. Basically, January and February in particularly were the worst ever and again I apologise to all who tried to get in touch with me during that time but hopefully you can understand. I'm still not 100% - still a lot of tests and investigations to do and I'm still not sure I'm back to blogging for good but I thought I should touch base at least, especially with such a fun post as this one!

It was my son's 12th birthday recently and those of you who have been following the blog for awhile know that I like to make him a novelty cake or at least a special cake of some description. There has been the Veggie Burger Cake, Minecraft Cake, 10 Layer Chocolate Orange Cake and the Double Chocolate Mousse Layer Cake.

Vegan Spaghetti and Meatball Cake

I've seen these spaghetti and meatball cakes around and thought they just looked so fantastic and really, they are so simple! Just cake, piped buttercream frosting, some chocolate Kahlua cake balls and raspberry coulis for a tomato sauce. What I really love about them is that they don't call for any fondant frosting. Fondant is wonderful for creating really creative and accurate looking cakes but lets face it, the stuff tastes gross. When we were eating the Minecraft Cake we flicked off all the tiles :-) This is just all luscious vanilla buttercream frosting - yay! I should also add that although it looks like it's covered in a shed load of frosting, it's really not:
Slice of Vegan Spaghetti and Meatball Cake

Taste wise, this cake is amazing, that combo of deep chocolate cake, fluffy vanilla buttercream and punchy raspberry coulis is just gorgeous! This is definitely a cake I would make again, even just plain and without the novelty factor ;-) 

Now, I'm afraid that I was still in a "not blogging" zone when I made this so failed to get any how to pictures. Sorry. But it's really such an easy cake you shouldn't need any. I'll post the recipes I used for the cake and frosting but really you can use any chocolate cake and vanilla frosting recipe here :-)

Spaghetti and Meatball Cake

For the Chocolate Cake(s):
• 375g plain flour
• 300g caster sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 60g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 160ml vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 480ml cold water
optional - a few drops of vegan friendly red food colouring added to the water.

First a word on the bowl I baked this in. I thought this would look most effective baked right into a pasta bowl and thankfully my Denby dishes are oven safe. I have even baked a cake in these before as it's the bowl I used to make the burger top on the Veggie Burger Cake! It's 8.5" wide at the top and 1.5" deep (5.5" wide at the base). If you don't have an oven safe pasta bowl a pie dish would work as it has slanted sides, if not, others have just made this in an 8" cake pan - just have a google search to see.

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F. Grease and flour the pasta bowl AND an 8" cake pan. (One cake will be your spaghetti and meatball cake, the other you will use to make the meatballs.) 

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk together all the liquid ingredients in a separate bowl. I did add a few drops of red colour here as I thought it would help make the cake balls look a little more "meaty" but it's entirely optional.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the liquid, whisk until it all just comes together and there is no more flour showing. Pour into the pasta bowl almost full - about 3/4 then pour the rest into the 8" cake pan. Pop into the preheated oven and bake for about 30 - 45 minutes. I found that the 8" cake was ready after about 30 minutes but the pasta bowl cake took about 45 minutes. Just keep checking with a toothpick - it should come out clean with no batter stuck to it.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool - leave them in the bowl and tin.

For the Meatballs:
• the 8" cake you baked earlier
• about 2 tsp Kahlua (you can also use apple juice)
• you will also need a food processor

Crumble half of the cake baked into the 8" cake pan into a food processor and process until it's fine crumbs. Sprinkle on the Kahlua and process again. Test the mixture by pressing some between your fingers, if it sticks together it's ready, if not, sprinkle a bit more Kahlua on and process again.

Tip the mixture into a bowl and squish and roll into meatballs, whatever size you like, and set them aside on a plate. How many you like is up to you - lots of little meatballs or just a few large ones, either would look good.

Crumble the other half of the cake into the food processor and also process into fine crumbs. Tip this into a shallow bowl.

Take a cake ball and dampen it with water, now roll it into the cake crumbs so that they stick to the cake ball. It's the crumbs that make it look more like meat in texture. Plus, the chocolate cake mixture goes almost black when rolled into balls and the crumb coating is a better colouring. Once they are all made just set aside and make the frosting. Note: there will be leftover cake crumbs.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
• 185g vegan butter
• 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 2 Tbsp dairy free milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract, the regular dark brown vanilla helps the pasta colouring here. Don't use a clear vanilla extract.
• a few drops vegan yellow food colouring, preferably a paste

Place the butter in a large bowl and soften, add some of the icing sugar and mix well. Add the vanilla and mix well then the rest of the icing sugar with the milk when needed until you have a thick and creamy frosting. Now add a tiny amount of yellow food colouring, I used a paste as I prefer how they don't upset the consistency of the frosting. Just make sure you add a tiny bit at a time as you don't need much. Actually, depending on how yellow your vegan butter is, you may not need any. Just go by how "pasta-ey" the frosting is looking.

Note: you won't need all the frosting but it's best to have more, particularly if you do want to pile it on, then you won't run out and be left with trying to get the colour the same in the next batch.

Buttercream recipe source: foodequalshappyme.com.

Assembly:
• raspberry coulis*
• vegan white chocolate or fine desiccated coconut

First, frost the top of the cake with a thin layer of the buttercream.

Place the meatballs on top of the cake using toothpicks to hold them into place. I placed the toothpick where I wanted a meatball, then skewered the meatball on top.

Spoon the frosting into a large piping bag fitted with a small rope tip (whatever size looks like spaghetti to you) and pipe all over the cake and around the meatballs until there are no gaps anywhere and it looks like a big bowl of spaghetti :-)

Now place the cake in the fridge - this is important to keep the frosting firm - you don't want it getting soft and losing it's shape. Also make sure you don't have anything smelly like open onions in your fridge as the cake will absorb the flavours!

Vegan Spaghetti and Meatball Cake

Just before serving, spoon over some raspberry coulis, especially over the meatballs and around the top of the cake then grate some vegan white chocolate over top to look like parmesan cheese. If you can't find this some fine desiccated coconut would work too.
Tip: refrigerate the white chocolate before hand to make it easier to grate.

* For the raspberry coulis, I actually decided I had enough to do on my son's birthday as I was also making several pizza's by scratch  SO I cheated and bought a store made raspberry coulis. I am so glad I did though as it was absolutely gorgeous!! For those of you in the UK and Ireland it was Tesco's Finest Raspberry Sauce and I just ran it through a fine sieve to get rid of the seeds, then added a tiny bit of vegan red food colour paste to deepen the colour a bit (but that's really not essential). My only qualm with it is that it was quite thin in texture, it would have looked better if the sauce was thicker as most of mine trickled down below the "spaghetti". That being said, it tasted so good I didn't mind!

•To make your own, this recipe for raspberry coulis looks very good: http://foodequalshappyme.com/2013/08/11/spaghetti-meatballs-cake/ This is also where I got the buttercream recipe from, I wanted to make sure it was a frosting recipe that would be firm enough to hold it's shape as "spaghetti" and yet be soft enough to pipe with such a small tip.




♥

You Might Also Like:

Veggie Burger Cake
Minecraft Cake


Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Minecraft Cake!

Minecraft Cake

Just a bit of a fun post for you today! It was my son's 11th birthday yesterday and like most boys his age he is mad about minecraft. I thought about making him a themed birthday cake and had a search online and was just floored when I saw this one, looking just like the grass blocks in minecraft with around 1300 hand cut squares of fondant!

Minecraft Cake

I really didn't think I would be able to make this as I've only once worked with fondant before, on the Veggie Burger Cake and let's face it, that was just cutting out rudimentary shapes and laying them down on the cake - nothing difficult. I felt this would be out of my cake decorating ability but the cake's designer, Ann Reardon of "How to Cook That" provides a fantastic video on her site on how to do it so I got brave and decided to have a go!

Minecraft Cake

Overall I was so pleased at how this turned out! Sure, mine is a little more wonky than the more "professional" ones out there, lol, but all those little imperfections do not matter when viewing this cake from a bit of a distance. That's when it looks proper pixelated and is most effective. According to my son I got it "spot on perfect" so that's all that matters to me!

I kept the whole cake a secret from him, working away on it upstairs in the guest room where our old dining room table is set up. When I finally showed it to him he was simply gobsmacked and just LOVED it - well worth the hours of decorating!



No instructions for this one as all you need to know on how to make it is on Ann's website, including a step by step video....bless her!! ♥

Vegan Notes: For the chocolate cake and frosting I used both recipes from my Quadruple Layer Chocolate Cake, halving the cake recipe and baking it in a 6" square cake tin, then repeating that 3 times. I also doubled the amount of frosting to ensure I had enough and it was a good call!

The fondant and food colours where simply purchased from a sugarcraft shop. I made sure everything I bought was labelled suitable for vegetarians as that's always a good start in ensuring colours will be vegan (not a guarantee, just a good start!) then I checked that they would be suitable for vegans by researching all the ingredients online. I'm basically now an expert in e-numbers, ha! 

Altogether this was so much fun to do, and I feel a little more confident in working with fondant now. Finn was simply overjoyed with it and it tasted fantastic! It will definitely go down as a cake he'll never forget :-)



♥


You Might Also Like:

Veggie Burger Cake
Chocolate Mint Triangular
Prism Cake

Friday, 5 October 2012

Sun-Dried Tomato and White Bean Spread with Black Olive Rye Bread

Sun-Dried Tomato and White Bean Spread with Black Olive Rye Bread.

This is a lovely spread, or dip, perfect in sandwiches and oh so easy to make! As much as it looks like a houmous it isn't really, there's no tahini or any other nut or seed paste here and I've used cannellini beans as they give a smoother texture than chick peas would, especially without the tahini. For the sun-dried tomato element I have used a store bought tube of sun-dried tomato puree that I use quite often. It's not pure sun-dried tomato but rather has 65% sun-dried tomatoes, sunflower oil, olive oil, capers, hot chillies, oregano, garlic, salt and wine vinegar. (If you live in the UK or Ireland it's Epicure Sun-Dried Tomato Puree.) This doesn't make this recipe product specific however, you could easily just use straight sun-dried tomato puree and maybe adjust the seasoning as you see fit, but I'm sure it'll be just as yummy! I further add some chopped sun-dried tomatoes (the type packed in oil) to add some texture.


Sun-Dried Tomato and White Bean Spread with Black Olive Rye Bread.

For me, this spread was just calling out for some olive bread. I thought I had a recipe for an "Olive Boule" in one of my Canadian Living Holiday Special Magazines and sure enough it was there! I was so happy to see it was a rye based olive bread as well as I was thinking rye flour would be perfect here. It's a slightly longer process bread in that you make a sponge first, let that sit overnight, then make the bread but is really worth it. The flavour and texture in this bread is so good and just goes beautifully with the sun-dried tomato spread.
Sun-Dried Tomato and White Bean Spread with Black Olive Rye Bread.

Sun-Dried Tomato and White Bean Spread

1 x 400g can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 Tbsp sun-dried tomato puree - see note above.
about 2 Tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil.
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 + 1/8 tsp salt*
2 Tbsp water

Place the beans, puree, garlic, salt, lemon juice and oil in a food processor and process until smooth. Stop and scrape down the sides then add the water and process again until really smooth. Add the chopped sun-dried tomatoes and pulse until mixed in. Transfer to a serving dish and refrigerate.

* I would start with 1/8 tsp of salt and add to taste from there as different brands of puree and beans will have different salt levels. I use unsalted beans packed just in water for reference.


♥


Sun-Dried Tomato and White Bean Spread with Black Olive Rye Bread.


Black Olive Rye Bread

I followed the Black Olive Boule Recipe on the Canadian Living website with the following notes:

♥ I used strong white bread flour instead of all-purpose.
♥ I used quick rise yeast.
♥ I used olives packed in brine as I couldn't find oil packed but I lightly brushed some olive oil over the dough ball once the olives are kneaded in so that the ones on top wouldn't dry out.
♥ I only cooked mine for 30 minutes BUT this was a mistake, as you might be able to see in the photo there my middle could have done with longer. Maybe 40 - 45 minutes but I still think 55 minutes would be a bit too long.
♥ Instead of spritzing the inside of the oven with water I placed a tray of water in the bottom of my oven and I did end up with a lovely crisp and chewy crust.
♥ I brushed some vegan butter all over the hot crust when I took it out of the oven. It gives a lovely gloss and great flavour :-)


Sun-Dried Tomato and White Bean Spread with Black Olive Rye Bread.



You Might Also Like:

Zesty Cannellini Bean and
Cashew Houmous

Walnut Bread
♥

Friday, 21 September 2012

Avocado, Lime and Carrot Maki Rolls

Vegan Maki Sushi Rolls

Now, you'll have to forgive me here as this is NOT a new recipe. It's already on the blog back in 2008 but was hidden away in a post titled "Anniversary Dinner" with a rather terrible photo! As this is one of our favourite recipes I felt it needed it's own post and a photographic makeover :-) 

These are just standard vegan maki rolls but I love the addition of fresh lime juice with the avocado and the sprinkling of black sesame seeds. These would be a good starting point if you are new to making sushi as they really are very easy with pretty standard flavours. That being said, I've never ventured from making anything other than these as we love them so much!

Avocado, Lime and Carrot Maki Rolls

Makes 12 or 16 rolls in total.

125g dry weight sushi rice (must be labeled sushi rice - no other)
180ml water
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 Tbsp mirin
1 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 sheets nori 
1/2 avocado, sliced and generously tossed in fresh lime juice.
carrot sticks
black sesame seeds
♥
Wasabi and Soy Sauce to serve (and pickled ginger if you like).

First, you may want to just follow the instructions for cooking the rice on your packet of sushi rice. I think every pack I have bought has had different instructions! These are simply the instructions for the pack I buy most often. Place the rice and water in a saucepan and put lid on. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 15 minutes, do not lift lid. Whisk together the rice vinegar, mirin, sugar and salt until all dissolved. Tip rice into a large bowl and pour the dressing over then use a rubber spatula and fold the dressing in until rice is room temperature and texture changes to thick and sticky, be gentle as you don't want to crush the grains.

Place the nori onto a bamboo sushi rolling mat, shiny side down. Keep a bowl of cold water mixed with some rice vinegar nearby. Wet your hands in this. Place half the rice onto the mat leaving about and inch and a half bare at the other end. Press down with damp hands until evenly spread out then gently press down all over till nice and even then sprinkle with the black sesame seeds. 
Lay down the avocado and carrot sticks a little off centre. 
Using the mat, roll up, holding down fairly firmly, when you get to the end, wet the bare part of the nori with the vinegar water and finish rolling. Unroll the bamboo mat, transfer the 'log' to a cutting board and using a sharp, serrated knife that you've dipped in the vinegar water cut into 6 even pieces (or 8 for smaller maki).

Repeat with the other sheet of nori and leftover rice. Serve with wasabi and soy sauce.
Vegan Maki Sushi Rolls

♥


Nutritional Information: based on 6 rolls, no dips.

Calories: 315
Fat: 7.1g
Sat Fat: 0.9g
Protein: 6.1g
Fibre: 4.6g
Carbs: 58.6g
Sugar: 3.7g
Sodium: 638mg

You Might Also Like:

Summer Rolls
Mini Wonton Rolls



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