One minute Sun-dried tomato sauce.

I personally detest sun-dried tomatoes, they are woody, chewy and sometimes have a weird musty, old sock kind of taste.  Semi sun-dried or oven-dried tomatoes, however, are sweet, flavourful and juicy.  What a disastrous confusion for the poor semi sun-dried tomato, which rates, in my opinion, among the tastiest of tasty vegan antipasti.

This is so simple and delicious, 

If you are feeling lazy, just take a pack of semi sun-dried, oven dried or slow roasted tomatoes in oil, blend the contents, adding garlic, salt, pepper, fresh herbs and lemon juice to taste.  Of course, one could use home made oven dried tomatoes if desired.



It is best to get the tomatoes which are already soaking in oil, although if you would like to drain them and add an oil of your choice feel free, most are in sunflower oil, which is not as flavourful as a good extra virgin olive oil.



This sauce can be used cold as a fabulous dip, as a butter substitute in sandwiches, as a sauce for pasta, or even as a tasty salad dressing. Yum Yum.

Very Easy Vegan Thai Curry

So many delicious, experimental recipes have been lost to the annals of my poor memory, so, in the spirit of archiving, and of course in case I forget what went in to it; this curry was so tasty, it should be preserved for posterity.

6 cloves garlic
3 inch piece fresh ginger
50g fresh basil
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Small piece galangal root
pinch cumin seeds
1 can coconut milk
juice of 1 lime
2 spring onions
1 tsp ground coriander
pinch cinnamon 
pinch chilli powder
generous pinch salt
2 red and 1 green chilli peppers
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp honey/sugar (vegan sugar if desired)


Blend all the above ingredients with a hand blender, in a casserole dish, until as smooth as possible, add some of the stock if this helps.


1 litre vegetable stock
1 sweet potato
1 small can water chestnuts
1/2 red bell pepper
2 pak choi
Thai ribbon rice noodles

Chop the vegetables in to whatever sizes you prefer, add the sweet potato and water chestnuts to the pan and add the remaining stock to cover.

Cook at 200 degrees C for 45-60 minutes until the sweet potato is tender, add the red pepper, pak choi and noodles and cook for a further 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven, stir through more fresh basil and extra lime juice if desired.

Being vegan can be difficult, antisocial, sometimes even antagonistic.  Feeding other people vegan food can be just as difficult; a feat sometimes full of rejection and ridicule.  This blog is the record of how I reconciled my love of cooking delicious, (mostly) healthy food, with my desire to eat vegan, and how I have found convincing others of the merits of this food easier than I had ever imagined.   The secret vegan is my sneaky, underhanded way of melting the meat-eating hearts of the people around me, and a record of my discovery of the true joy of vegan cooking.