Vego & Loven It – an Adelaide institution.

Date day!

Adelaide is full of cute, quirky, little cafe’s – the thing is that you just have to know where to find them!

Vego & Loven It; “Vego’s” to the locals, is one of those very places. Although being placed on one of the busiest streets in Adelaide – it is hidden away up a tiny staircase. The only sign of life up there (which to be honest is pretty hard to read anyway) is a cracked mosaic sign!

But once you find this place… once you try it’s delectable goods… you are a lover for LIFE! For life, I tells ya. The decor inside this tiny cafe is a mash up of kitsch, old hollywood, hippie, hoarded cluttered goodness! This little gem is one of the things I’ll miss the most when I leave Adelaide.

I can never go past their vegie burgers, but they sell salads and soups as well, which look equally as amazing. A full burger costs $11 (I think?) or you can order a half size for $7.5.

BLOODY BARGAIN.

A warning to you: don’t eat at all before heading there (or expect to be able to function afterwards!) – these burgers are MASSIVE and will fill you up for the rest of your day. Amazing value and so so delicious. I’m pretty certain all burgers are also vegan – but I’ve never asked. They make everything in house and all ingredients are always fresh.

This time around I ordered the Curry N Lovin It burger and Muffin ordered the Mexican Burger (he loves/misses his Canadian nacho fix).

His is a soft vegie pattie, tomato, lettuce (and I’m not sure what else) on a dark rye bun, covered – AND I MEAN COVERED in a “cheese sauce” and then swirls of chilli sauce, served with a jymungo side of corn chips.

Mine is a more solid chickpea pattie, cucumber, carrot, avocado, tomato, sprouts, lettuce, brinjal pickle and mango chutney served on a dark rye bun. It is spicy and delicious, the contrast of the pickle and the chutney make me wanna just eat more and more and more!

cross section!

We manage to finished them (well Muffin left a bit of bread! Shock horror!) and then we stumbled to a park bench in the sunshine to digest and discuss the nap we would have when we got home! Hahaha.

Adelaide – I love you.

Vego’s – you’re partly the reason why!

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Sunshine muffins and brekky of champions (fat ones)

My mojo is back! I quit a sad-making job and am about to start a new one (hopefully happy-making).

The first thing I made from my newly arrived Veganomicon were the Carrot Pineapple Sunshine Muffins. I made them for my fabio (daddy-o) who is on a liver cleansing diet. He’s not eating dairy and he is a lover of all things muffin so these were great. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup brown sugar but i left it out and they were still sweet enough. I think the pineapple brings a lot of sweetness to the tasty muffin table. I also used egg replacer instead of flaxseed and I left out the raisins – why? because they are disgusting.

(EDIT: i had to edit this recipe after originally posting as i’d copied and pasted from another blog – laziness – and it was actually wrong! dang it.)

1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt
1/2 plain or vanilla soy milk
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, well drained (use canned only; reserve juice)
1/3 cup pineapple juice, reserved from crushed canned pineapple
1/2 cup finely shredded carrot
1 heaping teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour, or a combination of both
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 180C and lightly grease a non-sticknon-stick 12 cup muffin tin.

In a large bowl, whisk together the soy yogurt, soy milk, and ground flaxseed. Whisk in the canola oil and maple syrup. Squeeze the crushed pineapple to remove as much excess juice as possible and add to the bowl, along with the reserved pineapple juice, carrot, orange zest, and raisins, and thoroughly mix. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt. Stir only just enough to moisten the dry ingredients. Bake for 24-26 minutes.

Makes about 12.

We had this delicious breakfast one day this week.

By the time I came around to cooking it it was actually about 3pm… so more like an early dinner really. I love a good giant brekky. Fried capsicum, onion, zucchini, tomato, rosemary-mushrooms with baked beans, avocado, vegetarian sausage, rocket and turkish bread! SO HUGE.This is the kind of meal you take a nap from afterwards. hahaha.

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ode to a blender.

WHAT A BLENDER.

my oh my. I mean it. And I used to work at Boost Juice… I know my blenders!!

Fo serious though. This thing is like a maniac. It has 5 settings as well as an ice setting and it massacred (in a pleasant way) the entire smoothie in about 30 seconds. and no bits! NO BITS AT ALL. This was a strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and banana smoothie – and nooooooo bitsssss. Insanity!

I think i’m in love.

That is all.

And now, I compose a haiku:

gazing at flowers

brightly scented berry fruit

my shiny blender

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PIE.

Winter is here. The heater is on. I have the flu and I love pie. I am yet to master an amazing pie and so I settle (and by settle, i don’t mean settle at all) for a home-made pie from Swedish Tarts. This place is such a little gem. So cute and the cakes all look delicious. Their pancakes are pretty effing amazing too.You can even buy a bowl of latte or hot chocolate. REALLY. It arrives in a big bowl and you sit all cosy and slurp it up. The pies go for $5 each but are a hearty meal, and definitely worth it. The bonus is that you can buy them cold or get them to heat it up for you. So i buy them cold and throw them in a 180C oven for half an hour and they are crisp, moist and amaaaaazzziiinnngggg.

So far I have eaten the mushroom and leek, lentil and sweet potato and pumpkin and feta.

My sister favours the mushroom and leek one, I think thats because it tastes like the mushroom and leek thing mum has always cooked. But I am a lover of the lentil and sweet potato. It has a slight curry taste and is so yummy and rich and hearty and just plain good. I imagine the pastry is extremely unhealthy for you because the smell of butter wofts through the house when I am heating them up.

Anywho. Amazing. Best pies i’ve ever eaten.

pumpkin and feta

ohh steamy

leek and mushroom + lentil and sweet potato

hearty and YUM.

lentil and sweet potato – a very cute ‘V’

Swedish Tarts
40 Semaphore Rd
Semaphore
5019

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Vegetarian Delight.

Muffin and I went to Vegetarian Delight for dinner.

welcome says little buddha man!

everyone loves a good napkin lotus flower.

crispy fried dumplings – means deep fried. not too good, just full of mock chicken and quite bland. hot and sour sauce however – win!

Hot and sour soup. Muffin’s ultimate favourite. I loved it and put it in my top 3 h+ss experiences at least! Muffin felt otherwise but still enjoyed it. He has high standards 😀

Bbq pork. Weird. Apparently this tastes nothing like bbq pork at all. It was ultra sweet but kinda fell apart in your mouth which was pleasant. A little too much in one serve though.

Asian greens. Who doesn’t love them? Bring out the best in every meal! Although I did forget that it’s a buddhist restaurant and is thus served with ginger and not garlic. Garlic trumps ginger in my opinion. Still, fresh and delish.

We also had salt and pepper tofu which i forgot to photograph. Gasp! It was pretty nice, not the best I’ve ever had. Very salty and yet not a spot of pepper…. strange.

All in all, I like the place and am willing to give it another go. Maybe we didn’t choose the greatest things on the menu? Maybe I just don’t want to give up on a vegetarian chinese restaurant… we’ll never know…

Vegetarian Delight
462 Port Rd
West Hindmarsh
5007
(08) 8340 8488

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Laksa and soy bean Extravaganza.

Yesterday I went to the Adelaide Central Market with my mumma. It is the biggest under-cover market in the southern hemisphere and I am proud to call it my own. (ALL MINE – muhahaha) Nuff on that, we had lunch at Laksa House which is in a little asian food court off china town.

busy busy busy.

It pretty much has the most amazing laksa in the world. or perhaps just Adelaide. Anywhoo. They are lovely there and they even have a cute little sign that warns you that the laksa will contain shrimp and chicken stock unless you ask otherwise. So I got the vegetarian laksa (the only veggie option – but hey, it’s good!) and mumma got the combination one. The small size is $7 and the large is $9(i think). THELARGEISABSOLUTELYMASSIVE. I accidentally bought it once and I think I ate about 1/4 of it and felt distraught at my wasted-ness. The laksa is definitely delish there and is always ready in less than 5 minutes. By that I mean about 3. At most.

For dinner tonight I had 4 types of soy bean! What a versatile ingredient it seems to be 😀 and what a grand vegetarian I am! hahaha. I made miso soup and had a fry up of tofu, tempeh, soybeans and vegies. Nice and pretty simple.

I ate miso soup for a good few months in Canada before I remembered it had bonito flakes in it. Geeeeeeeeeee wizzzzzz, was I upset. So this one (bonito-free!) was just miso paste mixed with water and some nori.

Soy Bean Extravaganza*:

3 oyster mushroom, sliced

1 swiss mushroom, sliced

1/2 onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 birdseye chilli, finely sliced

1 baby eggplant, sliced (homegrown)

1/4 zucchini, sliced

1 slice tempeh

1 slice firm tofu

1 cup soy beans (we buy them frozen)

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sriracha

1 teaspoon dumpling vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

s+p

Method: wok fry:

Fry mushrooms separately until browned and delicious (otherwise they overcook with everything else) Remove from pan and put aside.

Fry onion, garlic, chilli, eggplant, zucchini, tempeh and tofu with some olive oil for a couple of minutes. When pan is hot, throw in frozen soy beans and fry for another 5-10 minutes – or until completely cooked through. Add mushies back and heat through.

Turn off heat and add soy, sriracha, vinegar, sesame oil.

Serve with steamed rice, crispy fried shallots, toasted sesame seeds and miso soup!

* This makes enough for 2… possibly 3. I don’t know how to cook for 1. Coming from a family of 5, it is not in my vocabulary.

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Farmers’ Market and the best strawberry experience in the history of the universe. just sayin’.

Last weekend we ventured to the Willunga Farmers’ Market. I have no idea why I’ve never been here before – becauseIlovelovelove farmers’ markets! We arrived a little late so some things were beginning to shut down. Nonetheless, it was full of delicious things. Namely, strawberries.

Strawberries from Hillside Farm, McLaren Flat

Man oh man, these babies were quite seriously the best strawberries I have ever eaten. I bought a jymungo punnet for $6 and we quite quickly sat at a table and devoured all but 3. Even muffin indulged and I had to take a photo because he never ever like strawberries and I always try to force him to eat them! hahaha.

The market had everything from baked goods to coffee to fresh fruit and veg to delicious flavoured honey (cinnamon was the best!) to organic meats to olive oil to cheese to flowers! and I’m sure more.

Warrakilla fine foods; chutneys and sauces.

saltsaltsalt.

delightful.

tiny cucumber relish we bought! $2!

yarnbomb!

The vibe there was quite nice, and there was a nice little shady area where you could sit and indulge in some of the little cafe’s dotted about. There were also adorable little shoe-less hippie kiddies running about.. and lets be honest, who doesn’t love that!? Tres cute.

The market – Quite lovely, I say.

Willunga Farmers’ Market
30 High St
Willunga
SA
5172
(08) 8556 4297

….really good.

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