Photoless Phood Post

I've been making some nice stuff recently, but my camera has taken to being a hater of batteries, and so I haven't had any photos to post. But then I thought, bugger it, put up some recipes anyway!!

There are a couple of things that I made of which I am extremely proud:

Portabella mushroom burgers with onion jam and spicy sweet potato chunks
Ridiculously tasty salad Jamie Oliver Stylee
Vegan gyoza

None of which will have accompanying photos, but there you go...


Portabella Mushroom Burgers

Stupidly simple, and awesomely tasty. The ingredients below are to serve two hungry folks.

Ingredients

2 portabella mushrooms
Braggs/soy sauce/tamari to taste
olive oil
salad fixings
flaxseed dressing
buns
onion jam (recipe to follow)
sweet potato chunks (recipe to follow)

Method

Clean, and if you're feeling naughty, peel your mushrooms. Then cover in marinade. The Braggs bottle I have has a spray nozzle, which is perfect for this! But if you don't have spray capabilities, just pour your desired amount of Braggs/soy sauce/tamari into a bowl, and use a pastry brush. Completely coat the mushrooms in Braggs/soy sauce/tamari, and leave to marinate for about an hour, turning occasionally. Preheat your oven to about 150 degrees celcius.

Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan over a fairly hot heat, and sear the mushrooms on both sides until starting to go golden. Put the mushrooms, and any juices in the pan, into a baking dish, and place in the oven for as long as it takes you to make the onion jam and sweet potato chunks!!

Split the buns, smear one side with fresh avocado. Put the cooked mushroom on this side, and smother with onion jam. Put your salad fixings on the other side of the bun, and drizzle over the flaxseed dressing. Serve with sweet potato chunks on the side. Prepare not to move for quite a while after eating!!

Onion Jam

Ingredients

about 4 medium sized onions, thinly sliced into half rings
vinegar (I use organic apple cider vinegar)
olive oil
sweet chilli sauce (optional)
vegan worchestshire sauce (optional)
juices from baking mushrooms

Method

In the same frying pan as above, heat some more olive oil over a medium heat. Put the onions in, and cook until softening and beginning to brown. Splash in some vinegar, and continue to cook until the liquid has evaporated. Splash in some worchestshire sauce (if using), and cook until the liquid has evaporated. Splash in vinegar at least a couple more times, and allow to cook off. You can also throw in a dash of sweet chilli sauce to up the sweetness and spiciness of the jam.

As the onions begin to disintergrate, and resemble chunky marmalade, take the mushrooms out of the oven, and pour any juices from the baking tray into the onions. This way, you don't waste any of the mushroomy goodness, and you get an additional great flavour into the onion jam!!

Once the onions are soft and gooey and shiny, take them off the heat.

Sweet Potato Chunks

These are kinda crispy outside, and soft and squishy inside - pretty much baked sweet potatoes, but with some fun flavouring!!

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato
seasoning salt to taste
1 teaspoon ground chilli or cayenne pepper
1 - 2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 - 2 teaspoons ground coriander
olive oil

Method

Mix the seasoning salt and spices together well.

Chop the sweet potato into 5cm long by 1.5 cm square chunks, and in a baking dish, toss with the seasoning mix - you may not use all of it, so build up to coat the chunks. Drizzle olive oil to coat the chunks (some of the seasoning mix will drip off at this point, but they're getting cooked in it, so...), toss, and put into your preheated oven. Cook for about half an hour, turning occasionally, until crispy on the outside and cooked through.

Enjoy your burger goodness with a friend!! Remember to have a big glass of water or fresh juice with this meal - you will get thirsty!!