Chickpea and Cabbage Soup

What do you do with a quarter of a cabbage and not much else? You make soup. Cabbage soup?! Are you serious? Um... Yes, if you use your not-much-else and make it delicious. I just made this up an hour ago and I love it! If you don't like the acidity, maybe you might like to temper it with a little sugar? (pft. just take it.) Ready? Here we go!

If having this as a main, I suggest heavy rye sourdough (maybe with melted parmesan on it if you're not vegan!) to soak up the liquidy goodness.

INGREDIENTS:

• Olive oil
  
• 1 onion (diced)
  
• 3 cloves garlic (diced)
  
• 5 Roma tomatoes (diced)
  
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 lemon (juiced)
• 1/2 cup dried chickpeas (soaked overnight, then boiled until cooked)
• 1/2 cup cooking water from the chickpeas
• 2 cups vegetable stock
  
• 1 - 2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/4 of a cabbage (finely chopped)
• Big double handful of torn fresh basil leaves
• 1 handful of finely chopped fresh parsley
• Cracked black pepper

METHOD:

• Heat a good swig of olive oil in a medium soup pot and fry onion until clear
• Add garlic and bay, fry until fragrant
  
• Add tomatoes and paprika, fry for a minute or two
• Add cooked chickpeas, chickpea water, stock, lemon juice and cabbage - bring to the boil and then reduce to a slow simmer until cabbage is well cooked.
• Take off the heat and stir in torn basil.
• Serves four as an appertiser or two as a main with chopped parsley and pepper on top.

Moong Dal

Just because one's bank account is starving is no reason for you to! Dal is cheap, easy, nourishing, comforting and can even be delicious (particularly left overs on rye sourdough toast the next day). Obviously you can use whatever leafy vegetables you like in this if you do not have cabbage and spinach on hand. Kale would be awesome.

It is important to serve lentils with brown rice so that you get the benefits of complete protein - anyway, brown rice gives a much better texture and flavour to the dish! If brown rice just doesn't look appetising to you, throw a few teaspoons of tumeric into the cooking water to make it more jolly!

INGREDIENTS:

• Rice bran oil or ghee for frying
• 1.25 cups split moong/mung beans (thoroughly washed)
• 2 or 3 fresh green chilies
• 1 cup of tamarind water
• 6 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• Fresh ginger (thumb-length-ish chunk, finely chopped)
• 1 onion (diced)
  
• 2 tsp tumeric powder
• 3 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 3 tsp cumin seeds
• 6 - 10 curry leaves
• Pinch of asafoetida powder
  
• 1 carrot (diced)
• 1 celery stalk (diced)
• 3 cups of wombok or other cabbage (finely sliced)
• Spinach (couple of handfuls of leaves)
• Bunch of coriander leaf/stem (roughly chopped)

METHOD:

1. Head oil/ghee in a pot and fry curry leaves and mustard seeds until they begin to pop.
2. Add cumin seeds and onion, gently frying until clear
3. Add lentils, carrot, celery, ginger, garlic, tumeric, asafoetita, and chili and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
4. Cover with water (let water level sit about an inch above the contents of the pot), bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer.
   
5. Add cabbage about 15 minutes into cooking when dal is half cooked and continue simmering with lid on until dal is mushy and water is mostly absorbed.
6. Turn off heat and stir in tamarind water, spinach and coriander leaves.

This is wonderful served on brown rice with spicy pappadums and a simple raita. Mmmmmm!

Coconut and Banana Biscuits

This is a recipe that I simply MUST share. This one I found somewhere in the internet and wrote down and have used often however I can no longer find where I originally found it. If this is your recipe, let me know! I love it!

These little bickies keep really well and are so satisfying when you just need a little something. No sugar, no flour and completely vegan. Unfortunately they're not gluten-free due to the oats... but some people who are only slightly gluten sensitive can still tolerate oats!  I've tried them with rolled spelt instead of oats and they are delicious too! Healthy AND delicious. What's not to love?

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 large ripe bananas (mashed)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence (if you can try to use real vanilla bean paste for a far superior result!)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 2 cups rolled oats (use rolled spelt if gluten intolerant)
• 2/3 cup almond meal (even better with macadamia and walnut meals)
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut (I've done it with fresh coconut and that is seriously ace!)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• OPTIONAL: 200g dark choc bits (I just rough chop a block of Green and Black's 70 or 80%)

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Combine banana, vanilla, and coconut oil
3. Combine coconut, oats, almond meal, cinnamon, salt and baking powder
4. Stir dry ingredients into wet
5. Fold in chocolate bits
6. Drop a tablespoon or two of mixture in dollops on a lined baking tray and bake for 12-14 minutes.

Yum. Seriously. And this is coming from a woman who isn't fond of the taste of banana at all! ;)