Yesterday was a Kitchen Sunday.  It felt good to have a Kitchen Sunday again after so long away from them. 

I meal planned in the early morning.

I then grocery shopped.

I made gingerbread cookies for morning teas at work this week. 

I made a split green pea soup (2 portions frozen and 2 in the fridge.)

I made yogurt for lunches this week.

I then made dinner following a recipe from an 1984 recipe book called "New Dimensons Recipe Book - A Vegetarian Guide to Health Foods" by Dr David A Phillips.

The recipe I chose was called Protein-Carotene Loaf and it is supposed to be high in Vitamin A.   Every recipe in the book has a small blurb which explains the nutritional value of the recipe as a whole and what certain ingredients add.   Most of the recipes also offer alternatives to change the recipe and serving suggestions.

I called this recipe 'Surprise Carotene-Loaf' because I was entirely surprised by how fantastic it tasted.  It isn't a very cheap recipe because of the addition of pistachios - however, the recipe's nutritional blurb states that pistachios have high levels of Vitamin A which most other nuts don't, hence it's addition here.

The finished 'loaf'.  Still beautifully orange inside but browned ontop.

Of course, true to form I tweaked the recipe.   I substituted bok choy for the silverbeet because a bunch of the latter was going to cost me $6 when a bunch of bok choy was a quarter that price.  I added almond meal - because I had it in the cupboard and it was due to be used up soon.  I substituted parmesan for most of the cheddar the original recipe called for because I only had a teeny bit of cheddar and heaps of parmesan.   So below is my (total guesstimate of some ingredients) rendition of...

Surprise Carotene-Loaf 
(altered from a recipe by Dr David A Philllips in New Dimensions Recipe Book, 1984)

•  10 leaves buk choy
• 500g carrots, grated
• 4 eggs beaten
• 150g pistachio kernels
• 50g almond meal
• 50g grated mozerella cheese
• 100g grated parmesan cheese
• 100g mushrooms - stalks removed
• A 'generous sprinkling' of saltbush herb (an Aussie Native herb) or other herb of choice. 
• 10g sunflower seeds

1) Preheat the oven to 180 deg Celsius.
Trim the white stalks from the buk choy.  Steam leaves until tender then chop finely.
2) Use a food processor or coffee mill to mill the pistachios into a fine meal.
3) Add all ingredients except the sunflower seeds to a bowl.  Mix well.
4) Brush the inside of a loaf pan with vegetable oil.
5) Press the mixture into the loaf pan, ensuring there are no air pockets. 
6) Sprinkle the sunflower seeds across the top of the loaf and press in slightly.   It will look like the picture below!

7) Bake for 45min to 1hr.  (The recipe called for 45min but I found it required another 10min in).

Simply Stock

I haven't bought vegetable stock for a long time now - because I found how easy it was to make my own.  Once I had started using my own home-made stock I found I found the factory-made stocks were too salty for me, even those which were salt-reduced. 

Basic vegetable stock is very easy to make.  To make chicken stock, you just add the bones and leftover meat of one or two chicken carcasses to the pot.   

This is how I make my vegetable stock - but I would also recommend looking at some of the other links about how to make stock for variations or a better proportioned recipe!

Cat's Way-Too-Easy Vegetable Stock

(which is remarkably like every other vegetable stock recipe!)

• - 1 swede, chopped roughly
• - 1 parsnip, chopped roughly
• - 5 small onions, cut into 8ths, skins left on. 
• - 3 celery sticks sliced (including leafy greens)
• - 5 medium carrots sliced
• - 2 bay leaves
• - 1/2 tsp whole peppercorns
• - Water enough to cover (roughly 2.5L)

Put the lot in a large stock pot or saucepan.
Bring to the boil, then reduce to medium heat.  Leave to simmer for roughly 45min.
Strain and keep the liquid.  Dispose of the solids.



Links to other vegetable stock recipes which probably have better proportions!

River Cottage Sous Chef's recipe for stock made on peeling scraps - I may try saving peelings in the freezer to do this next time!

Good Taste magazine recipe for vegetable stock courtesy of taste.com.au

The Kitchen.com has a basic recipe that makes vegetable stock look pretty.  It uses similar ingredients to the one on BBC food.

ABC's The Cook and the Chef shows that stock can be made from less conventional vegetables for an Asian flavour.



So when it's so easy and can use just frozen peeling scraps and stalks why not try making some stock at home sometime?   It can be made in bulk then frozen to be used in soups, risottos and casseroles later.