Lime Peanut Noodles with Seitan, Kale & Carrots

Another day, another awesome 'under 30min' Vegan Yum Yum recipe to try out. I'm a big fan of noodle recipes but like to eat something different every night so this recipe is great. It's a completely different flavour to our usual stir fry variations or pasta dishes.

We decided to make this at the last minute so we grabbed some Turkish bread and a few dips to serve for our friends while we were cooking. By 'we' I mean Raquel, I just sliced and toasted the Turkish bread, then pigged out on dips while she cooked. We used the Smoked Tofu & Olive dip from our shop and got Hummus, Babaganouj & Beetroot dip from a nearby supermarket.

The recipe we used isn't on the Vegan Yum Yum blog but it's in Lauren Ulm's recipe book (back in store next week) and might be on the iPhone app. It's basically shredded Kale (we used cabbage), grated carrot and sliced Seitan thrown in a wok (or frying pan). Then we stirred in cooked rice noodles and the tangy lime & light peanut sauce which is made from soy sauce/tamari, peanut butter, lime juice, sugar, chilli flakes & ginger powder. It's meant to be topped with crushed cashews but we forgot and mixed them in so it doesn't look quite as pretty.

We loved this recipe and so did our friends but I think next time we'll use tofu or make our own seitan (there's a recipe in the same book) as the premade seitan we stock in store is a flavoured one and didn't quite suit this dish.

Our friends have been going incredibly well with their vegan challenge. They have the Vegan Yum Yum iPhone app and have been txting us photos of cakes they've made from it. They went to our favourite pizza shop Plush Pizza the other night. If you haven't been there you must, it's manditory for everyone doing the challenge, Plush pizza and the East Brunswick Club. Make that Plush Pizza, The East Brunswick and the Morocan Soup Bar. Okay, so I have too many favourite restaurants but if you throw in White Lotus/Enlightened Cuisine then you have a vegan feast for every craving.

Italian Rice & Beans from Vegan Yum Yum

Okay, so this is my first blog and I've never been more aware of how an amazing looking meal can look so crappy through a mobile phone camera. I had to weigh up whether to eat my rice & beans straight away or take a nicer photo. I chose eating. Sorry. I've given a link to the recipe below so you can see some more tempting photos there.

When you work til 7pm everyday, surrounded by food, all you want to do when you knock off is eat as quickly as possible with as little effort as possible. Enter Italian Rice & Beans. We picked this one last night from our new favourite recipe book Vegan Yum Yum by Lauren Ulm. We have heaps of baby spinach in the store that i wanted to use and this recipe also has a few of my favourite ingredients: sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts and balsamic vinegar. Yum.

The recipe book contents indicate which recipes take less than 30 mins and we roughly timed this one as taking less than 20mins if you start frying up the other ingredients when the rice is halfway through cooking. It's so quick and simple. There isn't even any chopping involved if you don't slice the sun dried tomatoes. We'll definitely be whipping this up all the time now.

You can find the recipe on the Author's blog here
http://veganyumyum.com/index.php?s=italian+rice+%26+beans&searchbutton=Go!
We only altered a couple of things. We were out of olive oil so had to use peanut oil and Raquel doesn't really like lemon zest so we added it at the start rather than the end and served it with a sprinkling of lemon juice. Also we don't have a zester or a fine grater so we used the spiky side of our grater that we usually use for fresh ginger. I have no idea what it's called.

Our dinner guests thought is was awesome and couldn't believe how easy it was to make. They had the mistaken impression that vegan recipes are either complicated or bland. We have a lot to teach. So far our new vegans have been finding it pretty easy but since they began reading the ingredient labels on food they've been a bit shocked at what goes into the food they were eating.

We've sold out of the Vegan Yum Yum recipe book at the moment but more is on the way so let us know if you want to order a copy. You can also check out more of Lauren Ulm's amazing recipes on her blog veganyumyum.com or download the free Vegan Yum Yum iPhone application.

15% Discount at the Radical Grocery Store

Anikee is very generously offering a 15% discount to the 30 Day Vegan Easy Challenge Participants for the duration of the Challenge (1-30 November 2009). Simply visit the Radical Grocery Store at 347 Sydney Road, Brunswick and give her your details!

Anikee's 30 Day Vegan Easy Dinner Party

Anikee (who has vegan heaven at her fingertips!) has taken on the challenge of a 30 Day Vegan Easy Dinner Party, offering to cook dinner every night of November for four friends who have signed up for ALV's 30 Day Vegan Easy Challenge. With new products and recipe books arriving in her Radical Grocery Store every week there will be no shortage of new ideas, fun things to try out and exciting recipes to make - so stay tuned for the fun and merriment as Anikee begins her 30 Days of cooking vegan dinner for her friends!