Vegetarian Frugal Housewife

“Plants are the young of the world, vessels of health and vigor…”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Poet and Essayist

While Serge and I were out strolling through the English hillsides the other day, we came across a clump of young nettle leaves and I suddenly had the crazy idea to be all old-fashioned and throw something fresh and wild in my next soup.

My sweetheart was kind enough to don some suede gloves and pick a bunch for me, which we stored in the fridge once we got home (again using suede gloves.)

Though these prickly little plants get a bad name because of their sharp, stingy nature, they are actually quite useful and healthy. These little plants inspired me to lovingly sing the praises of nettles, in a previous post.

So, the next soup that I made was a simple leek and potato soup with a bit of onion and chives and, of course, nettle! It came out so good I thought that I’d document it here for you.

This soup’s goodness comes not just from flavour, but from it’s combining the antibiotic properties of leeks, the filling starchiness of potatoes and the high vitamin content of the nettles. So, this is a great immune booster for getting over a cold more quickly, and it is yummy too! You can’t ask for more than that.

Goodness Gracious Green Soup
Makes: 6-8 bowls
Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking Time: 1-2 hours

Ingredients:
8 leeks, washed and chopped
4 medium potatoes, cubed
1 large onion, diced
1 sandwich baggie full, or 2 cups, of nettle
1 teaspoon mixed Italian herbs
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1 tbsp of chives
pinch of garlic salt
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Wash and chop leeks, using only the white portion and a small bit of the light green part.

2. Peel, wash and cube the potatoes.

3. Using rubber kitchen gloves (or tinfoil over your hands) rinse the nettles.

4. Fill a large saucepan half way with water.

5. Add the leeks and potatoes.

6. Bring to a boil then add the nettles and herbs/spices.

7. Let simmer on low for 1 hour. Salt as needed.

8. Using a blender, puree the soup until smooth. (Be sure to temper the glass by heating it up slowly, so as not to break your blender pitcher.)

9. Serve with a nice hearty bread or some barley/couscous/rice on the side.

It may sound funny, but having done a degree in history and having been a museum geek, in costume, for a good portion of my life, I am very into categorizing things into historical epochs. This blog is named after a Victorian cookbook, but this soup is what I call a “very medieval soup.” So get out your sword, loosen your corsets and dig into this groovy green soup!

If you enjoyed this post, perhaps you'd like to buy me some tofu or make a tip jar donation.

“Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher

Okay, a weird name for a vegetarian casserole, I admit, but so tasty!

The name comes from the fact that the recipe that I tweaked had already been named “Dragon’s Pie” by someone else and also that the name of the restaurant which I first ate this at was the Hundred Monkeys.

So simple, a bit weird, but worth raving about! Dragon and Monkey Pie is completely vegan.

This is a vegan and very healthy answer to Shepard’s Pie, and the flavor is very satisfying, with lots of different tastes and textures.

I’m off to Paris for my birthday so I say: Bon Appetit!

Dragon and Monkey Pie
Makes: 6-8 servings
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Ingredients:
*large casserole dish (ie. 9″x13″)
1.5 cups lentils
4 medium-large tomatoes, diced
1 head of broccoli, cut into pieces
2 carrots, sliced thin
1/2 large onion, diced
1 large (or 2 medium) parsnips
small butternut squash, cubed
4 large potatoes
3 medium-large sweet potatoes
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
2-3 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 teaspoon basil
salt & pepper to taste
4 tbspn water



Directions:

1. Soak lentils for 30-40 minutes, then drain.

2. Boil and mash the potatoes and sweet potatoes together.

3. Par-boil the parsnips, carrots and squash cubes for 6-8 minutes, then drain.

4. Preheat oven to 350°f (175°c.)

5. Cover the base of the casserole dish with spaghetti sauce.

6. Add an even covering of soaked lentils.

7. Make the next layer one of diced tomatoes, and sprinkle evenly with the water.

8. Now add a layer of small broccoli pieces and diced onions.

9. Layer evenly with the carrots, parsnips and squash.

10. Sprinkle on garlic, basil and salt & pepper.

11. Finish with a thick layer of sweet potato/potato mixture.

12. Cover with foil and bake at 350°f (175°c) for an hour to hour and fifteen minutes.

This is a very hearty meal so there’s no need to serve it with any extras, but a salad is always a nice appetizer!

If you enjoyed this post, perhaps you'd like to buy me some tofu or make a tip jar donation.

“Everyone eats and drinks, but few appreciate taste.”
~ Confucius, Chinese Philosopher (551-479 BC)

First things first, this product is only available in Europe, to the best of my knowledge. It is a soya version of pudding (a.k.a. Custard.)

Provamel Soya Dessert is vegan and organic. It’s made by the same folks who make Alpro Soy Milk.

From the company website:

Description:
A delicious dairy free chocolate flavoured dessert made with a blend of water and soya beans with added calcium and vitamins.

Ingredients:
Water, Raw cane sugar, Hulled soya beans (6%), Modified tapioca starch, Chocolate (1.8%), Cocoa powder (1.6%), Tri-calcium phosphate, Thickener: Carrageenan, Sea salt, Natural flavouring, Vitamins: Riboflavin and B12.

Nutritional values: per 100g/100ml
energy value 88Kcal / 371KJ
protein 3g
carbohydrate 13.6g
of which
sugars 10.8g
lactose 0g
fat 2.3g
of which
saturated 0.8g
mono unsaturated 0.6g
poly unsaturated 0.9g
of which
omega 6 0.82g
omega 3 0.1g
cholesterol 0mg
fibre 1.2g
sodium 0.05g
calcium 120mg
vitamins
vitamin B2 0.24mg
vitamin B12 0.15µg

*My Review:

The appearance is the first thing that you notice. It looks like those little pudding cups that you can buy in multi-packs at the supermarket.

I put it in the fridge and let it get nice and cold before trying it, as they sell it out on th warm market shelves. (At least at my local whole food retailer.)

When you open it, which can be difficult if you get a very well-glued pull-top, you may need to mix it up a bit to get the creamy texture, as mine were a bit lumpy upon opening.

I tried the chocolate, as that was always my favorite flavour of instant pudding. I must say that I was impressed to no end with the similarity of this healthy product to my over-processed, chemicalized pudding of yesteryear. So yummy!

I have since sampled the vanilla flavour, and sadly it does not compare. The soy-ness of it is underwhelming. But the chocolate is tops!

They have other flavours as well, mocha and toffee I believe.

What must be said is that I gave up dairy because of the excess of unhealthy mucous that it caused when I ate it. Provamel’s Soya Dessert causes the same effect for me, probably due to the thickeners more than anything else, but may not for you.

My final vote: Good product for chocolate pudding lovers. Great healthy alternative for kids lunch boxes. Avoid if you have sinus reactions to dairy, food thickeners or soy products.

I give it a 3.5 on a scale of 5. Try it out and decide for yourself.

“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.”
~ Arnold Henry Glasow, American Thinker & Humorist

I did it! I did it! Check it out…a successfully turned sock heel. No tears. No tragedies. No runs. Just a heel…simple.

I have finally made a sock that is shaped like a foot! Imagine that? Lil’ ole me? How cool!

I told the harrowing tale of my lack of sock-making prowess in a previous post. After nine tries with several different techniques, patterns and yarns, I have achieved sockdom! Yay for me! Two pairs complete now.

Anyone who doesn’t knit is probably thinking, “Okay, so this chick is crazy.” But anyone who does knit and has tried to graduate from flatness (ie. blankets and scarves) to shapeliness (ie. sweaters, teddy bears, gloves and socks) can probably grasp my joy.

Making a thing rounded, and knitting so that it turns corners etc., is essentially easy. But if you’ve never done it before you don’t KNOW that.

The directions for heel turning, and necks and armholes and other such things, seem counter-intuitive to the first-timer. Hence the problem. You don’t want to do exactly what the directions say, you want to interpret them, through the mind if a flat-knitter.

All I can say is: “Don’t interpret, just do!”

Once I figured that out, it actually worked! Imagine that? Directions that work? LOL.

Now that I have done it a couple of times I feel really confident about sock-making. There is no longer anything about socks that I am unable to do, but I must admit that I don’t particularly enjoy the picking up stitches after you’ve turned the heel. I can do it though, just not as enjoyable as, say, doing the toe.

I promise that once you’ve turned ONE heel (or maybe TWO,) you will have it mastered. :-)

So here is to self-striping yarns, yummy dye lots, squishy alpaca, shiny silk, curly mohair and, oh yeah, Happy Knitting!

By the way, you can find me on Ravelry as owlsocks. ;-)

“Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night.”
~ Steve Almond, American Fiction Writer

This is the mother of all cakes, made for my favorite season, Autumn. And for me the best spiritual harvest of the year is in the cool and leaf-strewn time between my two favorite holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. :-)

As for the cake itself, I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of this gooey monstrosity of a tasty sweet treat!

Anyone who knows of my cake baking/decorating exploits of the past knows that I have tried several times to master the tall, round and flat cake of picture books and cooking magazines, but to no avail.

Well, this is it! Rich, fruity, spicy, sweet and perfectly shaped! I think I’m in love.

The secret to that perfect depth and shape is in ditching your regular baking pans for a good old-fashioned saucepan instead. ;-)

Sadly, it’s perfection brought such tears to my eyes, and it’s smell such grumbles to nearby bellies, that photos were inadvertently missed out. :-(

I’ll make this one again next year, for Thanksgiving, and get some good snaps then.

This cake has all of the leading ladies of yummy and some quite tasty co-stars as well. So be decadent, get into the harvest-time spirit, and use up some of those pumpkins and apples from your autumn garden-picking adventures!

Harvest Haul Cake
Makes: 10 (or more) servings
Prep Time: 20-30 minutes
Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients:
*large stainless or non-stick saucepan

Cake Base
2 cups apples, sliced and peeled
.5 cup sugar
1 tbs flour
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbs butter or margarine
1 tbs water
1 tbs lemon juice

Cake Batter
1 cup pumpkin puree
1.5 cup brown sugar
2.25 cups white flour
1 tbs corn starch
.25 cup soy milk
.5 cup buttermilk***
.75 cup butter or margarine
2-3 large eggs
3 tbs olive oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp nutmeg
.5 teaspoon allspice
.25 tsp powdered ginger
.12 tsp ground cloves

Optional:
.5 cup ground walnuts
1 cup dried raisins or cranberries

Directions: (for base)

1. Melt butter over medium-low heat in the saucepan.

2. Add sugar, water, cinnamon and flour, mixing until it is lump-free.

3. Continue cooking on low until it becomes quite thick and caramel in colour.

4. Place apples in mixture, let sit over heat for just a minute.

5. Remove from heat, arrange evenly in the bottom of the pan and set aside.

Directions: (for cake batter)

1. Preheat oven to 350°f (175°c.)

2. Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

3. Slowly spoon batter into the saucepan, over top of apple base.

4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until cooked all the way through.

5. Let sit for up to an hour before cutting, this helps to keep it cooking evenly while cooling.

*6. You can sprinkle the top with powdered sugar as a decoration if you’d like.

This may sound a bit like a simple apple upside-down cake, but it is so much more! This is a very rich and flavorful cake that is nearly a meal in itself! Great for big family get-togethers.

If you enjoyed this post, perhaps you'd like to buy me some tofu or make a tip jar donation.