The Little Vegan

Savannah // Brisbane “We must learn empathy. We must learn to see into the eyes of an animal and feel that their life has value, because they are alive” - Earthlings, 2005 "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food" - Hippocrates, ~400BC Currently: studying Nutrition Science at Queensland University of Technology. I hope you enjoy my blog. For the Animals For the Planet For your Health

[thelittlevegan]

Healthy & Delicious Bean Nachos

Kidney beans fried in tomato paste, cayenne pepper, cumin, and smoked paprika

Corn, tomato, coriander, and lime salsa

Lime, coriander and tahini sauce

Guacamole with lime and coriander

Smokey tomato chili relish

Top with melted daiya, cheezly, cashew cream or another plant-based cheese or sour cream alternative if you so desire.

[thelittlevegan]

Delicious Raw Salad with Falafel and Tahini

Yumi's Falafel

Avocado

Beetroot

Baby Spinach

Rocket/Arugula

Broccoli

Coriander or other fresh herb

Lime juice

Capsicum

Tahini & Sweet Chili Sauce (optional)

Simply warm falafels (homemade or store bought). I don't have a microwave so I warm them under the grill until just slightly crunchy on the outside and soft and warm on the inside.

Serve atop your raw salad, with a drizzle of tahini and sweet chili sauce.

If you eat enough of the beetroot, watch for the magical purple pee that follows!

[thelittlevegan]

Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals

Empathy, cooperation, fairness and reciprocity -- caring about the well-being of others seems like a very human trait. But Frans de Waal shares some surprising videos of behavioral tests, on primates and other mammals, that show how many of these moral traits all of us share.

[thelittlevegan]

Shortcut Vegan Phở

1 tbsp. fresh ginger, grated or sliced in matchsticks

1 tbsp. fresh or paste lemongrass (optional)

1 carrot, sliced (optional)

1 brown onion, sliced

1-2 tsp. Chinese Five Spice powder

1 tbsp. fresh coriander (including stem and root)

chili to taste

5 cups water

1 tbsp. tamari or soy sauce

2 heaped tsp. Massel's Beef Stock powder

2 fistfuls banh pho rice noodles

assorted vegetables: eg. bok choy, choy sum, swiss brown mushroom, wombok cabbage, broccoli, spring onion, leek

fried tofu (optional)

fresh herbs - mint, coriander, thai basil

bean sprouts

fresh lime

sriracha or other chilli sauce

Fry the onion, ginger, and lemongrass in a small amount of vegetable oil in a medium size pot.

Add Chinese Five Spice and stir until fragrant.

Poor in water, coriander, tamari, carrot and stock powder. Stir and check for flavour.

Cook with lid on low medium for 20-25 minutes.

Remove lid and stir through rice noodles.

When noodles are cooked, remove from heat.

Stir through vegetables and leave to sit until wilted and warmed through. Squeeze in juice from half a lime.

Serve hot with fried tofu, fresh herbs, bean sprouts, fresh chili, sriracha and extra lime.

Traditionally pho broth takes hours to prepare, and requires cinnamon bark, star anise, cloves, coriander seeds, etc. Using the Chinese Five Spice powder which contains most of these spices already ground gives you a replicate flavour without the wastage of discarding all the spices once the broth is infused.

[thelittlevegan]

Chickpea & Tomato Curry

chickpeas

white beans (optional)

tofu (optional)

onion

tinned tomato

cherry tomato

zuchinni

baby kale

continental parsley

cayenne pepper

curry powder

cumin powder

cracked black pepper

If using tofu, lightly fry it first in a small amount of oil.

Then add the onion, zuchinni, fresh tomato and spices. Fry until fragrant and translucent. 

Then stir through the washed and drained chickpeas and/or white beans, as well as the tinned tomato. 

Simmer on low for 10 - 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir through kale until wilted.

Serve with brown rice and fresh parsley.

This meal is super simple, super cheap, super tasty, and full of super helpful nutrients like protein, iron, and calcium. You can change around the specific veggies - eggplant and cauliflower would also work really well for instance - but keep the tomato, chickpea and spices base.

[thelittlevegan]

Roast Eggplant with Rosemary

Brown Rice & Quinoa

Rosemary Potatoes

Tomato & Parsley

Parsley, Lime & Tahini Dressing

[thelittlevegan]

Tibetan Kitchen

261 Petrie Tce, Spring Hill

07 3367 0955 

Dahl Baht Takari $16.90

The Dahl Baht comes with yoghurt on the menu, but just ask for it without yoghurt for a delicious plant based feast of dahl, veggie curry, chili chutney, and fried spinach.

[thelittlevegan]

Sesame Ginger Stir Fry

Crispy tofu

Broccoli

Baby kale

Capsicum

Onion

Fresh ginger

Tamari

Sesame oil

Lemon

Served with organic brown rice & quinoa.

[thelittlevegan]

Queenie's Traditional Teahouse

1279 Sandgate Road, Nundah

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

[phone]

Spiced Pumpkin Pie

French Earl Grey Tea

This pie was divine. A really smooth, creamy filling and a deliciously crunchy, sweet and thick crust. 10/10, the best pumpkin pie I've ever had the pleasure of consuming.

Queenie's also has a whole new certified organic vegan and vegetarian menu to compliment their regular omnivore menu. They also have gluten free options. I didn't check out the whole menu this time but the vegan options include quinoa salad, moroccan cashew and beetroot salad, vegetable pie, and several vegan dessert items. With wonderful staff and service it's definitely worth the trip to Nundah.

[thelittlevegan]

"Chicken" & Corn Noodle Soup

Disclaimer: This soup is insanely delicious and you will want to eat it every day. I suspect this recipe would also be pretty kid friendly. The zucchini and onion pretty much disintegrate into nothing but soupy goodness, as would squash and other similar veggies.

(Serves 2-3)

small qty olive oil for frying

pinch salt* (optional)

1 medium size red onion, sliced thinly

1 medium size zucchini, diced

Corn kernels from 1 large corn cob, keeping the cob

1 kipfler potato, cut into small to medium chunks (optional)

Fresh ginger to taste, 2-3 slices

1 small garlic clove, roughly diced

5-7 cups water

2-3 heaped tsp Massels' Chicken Style stock, or other plant based chicken flavoured stock

1 small handful soba noodles

~ 100g tofu, cut in medium size strips

Fresh flat leaf parsley or other herb to garnish & counter saltiness if desired

*If you don't already consume large quantities of salt in your diet, i.e. if you don't eat processed foods very often, using iodized table salt is a good, reliable source of iodine. Iodine can be somewhat hard to obtain in general but especially so in a plant-based diet.

Saute onion, garlic, ginger and zucchini (in a small amount of olive or canola oil) in a medium size saucepan until fragrant, translucent and just beginning to brown. You can add a small pinch of salt to help this process.

Add water, stock powder, potato, corn kernels and corn cob. You may need to break the corn cob in half in order to fit it in your pan.

Simmer soup on a low medium heat for 30 minutes with the lid on.

After 30 minutes, remove lid and add the soba noodles. You can snap the bundle in half to make for shorter, easier noodle consumption!

Note: cooking the noodles in the soup does mean they will take up some of the liquid from the soup, so it is important not to get your noodles to soup ratio right!

Simmer for 4 minutes.

Either while the soup or the noodles are cooking, prepare your fried tofu. Simply fry strips until lightly crispy and browned.

When all ingredients are cooked, tip the fried tofu into the noodle soup mixture.

Stir soup, and serve warm.

[thelittlevegan]

Probably my favourite brand of vegan ice cream.

Pity it's so ridiculously expensive.

Available from Green Edge in a range of flavours for about $12 I think.

[thelittlevegan]

Ginger Fried Tofu with Tamari Soy Sauce

Baby Kale

Avocado

Raw Broccoli

Cos Lettuce

Fresh Sliced Strawberries

Lime & Olive Oil (Optional) Dressing

[thelittlevegan]

Lentil Shepherd's Pie

1 tin brown lentils

1 stick celery, diced

1 carrot, diced

1/2 cup peas

1 small onion, diced

1/2 zuchinni (optional)

1-2 cups shredded kale (optional)

400-500g jar tomato pasta sauce

2-3 tsp curry powder

~3-4 large potatoes, peeled and evenly chopped

1 tbsp nuttelex or other dairy free margarine

1 medium sprig rosemary

(Serves 2-3)

Boil or steam potatoes until soft (about 20-25 mins).

Drain and mash potatoes with nuttelex. Stir through rosemary leaves keeping some aside for a garnish. Set aside mashed potato.

Heat some oil in a saucepan and saute onion, carrot, celery and zucchini until onion is translucent (1-2 mins).

Add curry powder and saute for a further minute.

Stir through lentils and pasta sauce, and cook for 5 minutes stirring occasionally. You want just enough pasta sauce to coat everything but not so much that your pie is overly runny.

Reduce heat to low and stir through peas and kale. Remove from heat as soon as the kale ribbons are wilted.

Using a small casserole dish or something similar - I used a small rectangular baking tray - layer first the lentil mixture and then the mashed potato. Brush a little extra nuttelex across the top of the potato layer and garnish with extra rosemary.

Bake at 180 C for 45 minutes. For an extra crispy top crust, cook under the grill on medium high for a further 5 or so minutes.

Serve with tomato sauce!

[thelittlevegan]

I was just wondering if you have any suggestions as to vitamins (Brands and kinds) /super foods that should be in the bare bones of a vegan diet thank you

This will be a long post, apologies in advance…

The only supplement I’d specifically recommend is B12, and that is only if you actually have low/deficient levels highlighted in a blood test. B12 is extremely important and this is the only micronutrient that you can’t easily access in a whole-foods vegan diet. Plenty of non-veggos are B12 deficient though, so it’s not like it’s a vegan specific issue. Personally, I have been vegetarian for nearly 7 years and vegan for 3 of those and my B12 levels are so far fine. As long as you get a blood test once a year I wouldn’t stress too much. B12 is not easily absorbed this way, so injections or sublingual (under the tongue) dissolvable tablets can be the best way to go.

The same goes for iron or any other essential nutrient - if you are clinically deficient or have critically low stores, absolutely use a supplement till your levels are restored. At the same time however you should 100% be learning how to get the nutrients the way nature designed for us to do so, from the food you eat. Considering how much we still don’t know about the way nutrients work in our body, or the way different nutrients work together, it’s important to take a whole foods approach to nutrition and not focus on vitamins and minerals in isolation. 

What I mean is that it’s more important to eat an orange which contains vitamin C but also fibre, folate, thiamin, carbohydrates, and thousands of compounds we haven’t even identified yet (literally, one of my lecturers pointed out that oranges contain over 20,000 different substances and currently we can only identify a tiny portion of them) than to eat a poor quality diet but take a vitamin C tablet. 

This whole foods approach to nutrition is the latest, most up-to-date recommendation from the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Their website http://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/ is insanely useful. You can download the most current Guidelines booklet from here, and although it’s obviously not specifically for vegans or vegetarians, there is a lot of useful information in there for us as well as reassurance that a whole-foods plant based diet is perfectly healthy at all stages of life.

Essentially if you eat a variety of delicious whole grains, pulses, beans, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruit, and minimal to no processed crappy, fatty, sugary, salty junk food you are generally going to be getting all the nutrients you need to make your body very happy, healthy and chronic disease resistant. Variety means eating from all these food groups and aiming for a variety of colours - different colours come from different vitamins and minerals.

TLDR: Seriously, my strongest advice would be to stress less about specific vitamins and think more about eating a variety of whole (unprocessed) foods. x

[thelittlevegan]

Dear Little Vegan, Is bread a vegan foodstuff? How can you be sure eggs haven't been used as ingredients? PS: Love your work. Your cooking looks delish!

It sure is, or at least traditionally should be. Plenty of bread comes with an ingredients label, and many bakeries have lists of the ingredients for all their products. Either Brumby's or Baker's Delight (can't remember which) even have a specific 'vegan' list on their tills (for staff reference) and on their website. Otherwise you can just ask the staff to find out for you... If you don't really trust them to check properly, it sucks to have to play the allergy card but that way you know they'll take you more seriously. Milk is also more commonly used in the more processed breads especially, and a lot of turkish bread contains yoghurt. 

PS: Thank you! x

[thelittlevegan]

Easy Peasy Winter Comfort Food

Steamed Broccoli, Rocket and Cherry Tomatoes

Smashed Red Potatoes with 'Butter' and Rosemary

Fried Swiss Brown Mushrooms with Garlic and Rosemary

[thelittlevegan]

Scrambled Tofu with Kale

Tofu 

Kale

Chili

Parsley

Tomato

Capsicum

Red Onion

Cumin, Turmeric & Paprika

Vegetable Stock Powder

Made by my lovely housemate Stephanie.