Recipes

Firstly, you can use any mushroom for this, even a flat mushroom if you want to balance the polenta precariously on top of it. This recipe looks very impressive on the plate, and the roasted mushrooms go delicious and juicy. I've put instructions for cooking polenta, but you should probably follow the ones on the packet you bought. I make this without oil, if you want to add oil, I don't see anyway I can stop you, without you at least.

This is the simplest pasta sauce to make ever, yes the preparation time really is 5 minutes and it is pretty incredible. Roasting everything gives it a natural sweetness that means you don't miss the sugar which is in almost all classic pasta sauce recipes. This version also avoids the oil as well. I love it over gnocchi, or some polenta and mushrooms. Rich and versatile, with plenty of garlic.

I was showing the Blues Brothers to some friends, so I wanted to think about some classical soul food to go with it. Collard Greens looked healthy and easy to make oil-free. A quick search online said to use kale as a substitute for collard greens, so here you are. I used Tuscan kale but any kale or leaf with a bit of chew in it should work.

Dal with rice is almost the staple Indian traditional dish. Sometimes served as a soup, sometimes as a dish, this thicker version is a meal in itself. Dalicious!

Delightful and healthy dish. Was a very popular dish at the vegan restaurant we once owned, where it was served with a delicious dollop of vegan mock sour creme on top.

This is a great cake, that's easy to make, tasty and pretty healthy

These delightful Italian bread pasties are equally fantastic for lunches, picnics, or hot out of the oven for tea.

Tempeh (or Tempe) is an Indonesian food, made from soy beans that we should all probably be eating more of. Cooked in a satay sauce, this dish is as tasty as it is healthy.

An Italian rice dish, this is perfect for a cold winters night

Vegetable pies are all fantastic, this has to be one of the best, its certainly one of my favourite dishes ever. If you make one, make sure you invite me around!

I adore roasted beetroot and potato, so this is a variation of your standard potato salad with both of those things in it.

I was thinking about how I hadn't had one of my favourite salad's in many years one night when planning a dinner on the weekend. I took the next day off from work and lo and behold I happened to switch the telly on during a cooking show in which they were making the sort of bean salad I was thinking of. I've made a few changes but I still call it Geoff's Bean Salad.

I like substantial salads, and I love roast vegetables. So here are the two combined.

This is a combination of a couple of recipes I found on the web. I made it for Christmas day, and it worked really well. The lentils in this recipe are assumed to be precooked.

Who doesn't love a good minestrone, apparently also called Italian wedding soup! This is one of my staples, and after you make it will hopefully become one of yours. This vegan one pot soup is simple, healthy, delicious and can be made oil free. The whole secret of a good tomato soup is simmering, tomatoes just love a good simmering. The vegetables listed are my base but they are rarely the only ones which go in, tonight I added thinly sliced red cabbage, the last one had celery and yellow squashes in. With the beans/lentils, add what you like, you can get great dried italian bean mixes (though soak overnight), I get a nice mix of Puy lentils and freekeh I add and it doesn't need pre-soaking. What isn't optional though is to serve with some good lightly toasted bread, and olive bread is going to be particularly good. A dollop of pesto on top as you serve the soup is also great.

I love roast vegetables. I don't mean any kind of subtle love one would usually reserve for inanimate objects, I mean of the sort that had Romeo drink poison when he thought that Juliet was dead. So here is another salad with it in them.

Who doesn't like lasagne? Ahh those wonderful Italians, who knows what they ate before love apples were bought back from the new world. This one is very similar to ones I grew up eating, so it is very non vegan friendly. It's also relatively easy, and makes enough so that some can be frozen for future meals. You will need a baking tray to put the lasagne in, and a large pot to cook the sauce

I used to make sausage rolls with a Sanitarium product made specifically for the purpose. Anyway they cleverly put eggs in it because they thought there weren't enough chickens in the world living lives of complete misery, so I couldn't eat it any more. Well compliments of another Sanitarium product Redi-burger, I now have a recipe thats about ten times better than the old one.

A great variation on lasagne, works pretty much every time so long as you get a decent bit of pumpkin. Note you can skip the bechamel and just use vegan cheese, which means you'll be eating a little quicker but I think the bechamel makes it better.

This is a delicious light recipe, and if asparagus really is an aphrodisiac, could help you in the loving department as well. Don't just save them for valentine's day though :)

I love savoury vegan muffins, so here is a modified recipe I found online (https://livelearnloveeat.com/tag/vegan-pizza-muffin-recipe/). I've added some more vegetables.

This is a pretty great lasagne. The veggies are lovely and the topping which is based on this one https://plantbasedfamilydownunder.com/2013/12/09/creamy-white-sauce/ really makes it. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and remember to soak the cashews for a couple of hours beforehand.