"We can choose to eat a variety of plants that provide interesting meals and sustain our health. We can choose to minimise animal suffering to a level that works for our circumstances, whether that’s a few vege meals a week, a commitment to vegetarianism or veganism, or something in between."
Being mindful about where your food comes from, how its produced and how it gets to us is something anyone can do.
"Variety is everything for most of us, eating more vege more often will only be positive."
Hamilton-based Bremner began website "Quite Good Food" when she had a young family and wanted to share the recipes she had developed over years of travel and experimenting in the kitchen.
She has been a vegetarian since she was a teenager. She found meal times became complicated so decided to cook for herself, from scratch. Through this she discovered her love of cooking.
"My simple thought process was that if we don’t need to take life to eat well, then why would we?"
While her thoughts and feelings about animal products have evolved to become more nuanced, she is aware having the freedom to choose what she eats is a privilege she does not take for granted.
"I firmly believe no-one should be made to feel guilty or ‘less than’ for their food choices, nor do we need to pick a label and measure our success against it. We all need to eat."
There has never been a sense of missing out in her household.
"I’ve spent many hours trying this and tinkering with that, coming up with meals that will both be loved and make them feel loved."
Her recipes are 100% plant-based, so contain no meat, dairy or eggs, and many are gluten-free.
"I’m all about flavour, so there is no restriction on fats or sugar, though I do tend towards unrefined sugar alternatives and use them where possible."
They include a wide range of produce, legumes, grains, tofu, tempeh, seeds, nuts and spices.
"I’m a spice fiend, and chilli of various kinds make a regular appearance."
Bremner also includes handy advice on pantry and fridge essentials and equipment.
The book
Simply Veg by Amber Bremner
$49.99, Upstart Press
Sri Lankan spiced buttercup and leek gratin
This is an unashamed mash-up of cultures using a traditional gratin method of baking a hearty vegetable in cream until bubbling and golden but throwing in some Sri Lankan-inspired spices to keep this interesting. And interesting it is!
The Sri Lankan spice mix I’m using includes sweet spices like cinnamon and cardamom, which beautifully complement sweet buttercup pumpkin and are right at home with coconut cream.
The only heat in this dish is from ginger and black peppercorns, so while heavily spiced, it’s a comfortable meal for people who don’t have much tolerance for heat (feel free to add a sliced red or green chilli if you like it hot).
Think of this as a mild baked curry, delicious served with rice, and perhaps another curry or dahl on the side if you’re feeding a crowd.
Serves 8
Ingredients
½ cup desiccated coconut
2 Tbsp coconut oil
1 leek, thinly sliced
¼ cup Sri Lankan spice mix
¼ cup fresh curry leaves
1 Tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 tsp crushed or finely grated garlic
(4-5 cloves)
1 tsp salt
1 x 400 ml can coconut cream
½ cup vegetable stock
1 buttercup pumpkin (also known as kabocha squash)
Sri Lankan spice mix
4 Tbsp coriander seeds
2 Tbsp cumin seeds
2 Tbsp black peppercorns
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp cardamom seeds (from
15-20 green cardamom pods)
½ tsp whole cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
Method
Start by preparing the spice mix. Toast all the spices except the cinnamon by stirring in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, until the spices start to darken a little, toast and become aromatic. Keep an eye on them to ensure they don’t burn. Remove from heat and tip spices on to a plate to cool. Once the spices are cool, use a spice grinder (a coffee grinder works well) or mortar and pestle to grind the spices into a powder. Add the cinnamon, stir to combine, then store in an airtight container. This makes enough for two meals.
Preheat oven to 200ºC fan bake (or 220ºC conventional oven).
Toast the desiccated coconut by stirring in a dry frying pan over medium heat for a few minutes until golden. Remove from heat and tip on to a plate to cool.
Using the same frying pan, heat coconut oil over medium heat. Add the sliced leek and cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes until softened but not browned. Add the spice mix, curry leaves, ginger, garlic and salt, and cook for another few minutes until fragrant. Add the coconut cream, vegetable stock and half of the desiccated coconut, and stir to combine. Remove from heat.
Remove the seeds and skin from the buttercup pumpkin and thinly slice. Layer half of the sliced pumpkin in a large casserole dish and pour over half the leek mixture, spread it evenly and give the dish a bit of a jiggle to make sure the coconut cream gets down between the layers. Repeat with the rest of the pumpkin and leek mixture.
Cover (with aluminium foil if your dish doesn’t have a lid), bake for 30 minutes, then remove the cover and scatter the remaining desiccated coconut over the top.
Bake for another 10-15 minutes, until the pumpkin is tender and the sauce is bubbling and caramelised around the edges. Allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Lime and vanilla vegan cheesecake
This delicious dessert pleases my soul and is one of my most popular recipes of all time.
Unlike many vegan cheesecakes that heavily rely on cashews, this uses economical soft tofu as the base of the filling, balanced with a small amount of cashews and coconut oil for richness, vanilla and maple syrup for sweetness, and lime for some welcome tang.
The overall result is light and dreamy, and thoroughly delicious. I prefer to make this with a whole foods nut and seed base, but my children prefer a biscuit crumb base so I’ve included both options.
Serves 8-10
Ingredients
Nut and seed base
1 cup dates, roughly chopped
⅓ cup sunflower seeds
⅓ cup pumpkin seeds
⅓ cup almonds
2 Tbsp melted coconut oil
Biscuit crumb base
250g store-bought plain biscuits (gluten-free if required)
120g/½ cup melted coconut oil
Filling
½ cup raw cashews
500g soft tofu, drained
⅓ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla paste or natural vanilla extract
½ cup melted coconut oil
Method
Soak raw cashews (for the filling) in cold water for at least four hours (or overnight), or do a fast soak in very hot water for half an hour if time is of the essence.
For the nut and seed base, put all crust ingredients into a food processor and blitz until you have a small crumb.
For the biscuit crumb base, blitz the biscuits in a food processor until they are fine, then pulse them with the coconut oil until they are well combined.
Tip your base mixture into a tin (I use a 20cm pie tin with a removable base). Use your hands and the back of a spoon to press the base mixture firmly and evenly into the bottom and sides. Put it in the fridge or freezer for a while to firm up.
To make the filling, drain and rinse cashews and pop them into a blender with all the filling ingredients except the coconut oil. Blend until perfectly smooth, then pour in the coconut oil while the blender is running. You’ll now have a thick and creamy but pourable filling mixture.
Pour the filling into your pre-prepared crust and evenly spread and smooth it with a spatula. Work quickly, as the chilled crust will start setting the filling mixture immediately.
For the best texture, pop the cheesecake in the fridge overnight, but if you’re in a rush, you might get away with 24 hours for it to set. The minimum setting time will depend on the size and depth of your tin and the temperature of your fridge.
Serve straight from (or recently from) the fridge. Both the crust and filling will soften at room temperature. This is delicious plain, or you can decorate it with the fruit of your choice.
Patatas bravas tray bake
I first enjoyed patatas bravas (literal translation: fierce potatoes) as a young adult in a small tapas restaurant. I was taken with the bold and fiery flavours, tender fried potato, intense tomatoes, garlic, smoke, spice, lashings of olive oil, and aioli alongside for good measure.
I’ve since mastered making it for myself, but my original method involves a fair bit of standing at the stove, which means I don’t make it often enough.
This version has all the same flavours, butter beans for protein, and most of the work happens in the oven.
I urge you to use the full amount of olive oil, as it’s an essential part of the flavour and texture here. A floury/starchy potato variety such as Agria is ideal.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1.5kg potatoes (5-6 large potatoes)
½ cup extra virgin olive oil,
1 red onion, finely chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
2 x 400g cans diced tomatoes
1 x 400g can butter beans (lima beans), drained and rinsed
½ cup water
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sherry vinegar or balsamic vinegar
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp fennel seeds
¼ tsp cayenne pepper (reduce to a pinch for milder heat)
To serve
Small handful of finely chopped parsley
Garlic aioli
Sourdough or good quality bread (gluten-free if required)
Method
Preheat oven to 230ºC fan bake (or 250ºC conventional oven).
Peel potatoes and cut into 3 cm chunks. Par cook in salted, boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain and allow to steam dry for a few minutes.
Put a deep baking dish in the oven and add ¼ cup olive oil. Give it a minute to get hot, then carefully add the potatoes. Turn them to coat them in the hot oil and season with a sprinkle of salt. Cook for 20 minutes until they are starting to become golden and crisp around the edges.
Meanwhile, add 2 Tbsp olive oil to a frying pan, along with the chopped onion and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes, until tender and golden. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour the sauce over the potatoes (don’t mix with the potatoes), and give it all a good drizzle of olive oil before returning to the oven for another 10-15 minutes. The goal is a tray of roasty, toasty potatoes with a thick, jammy sauce that’s a bit charred and caramelised in places.
Scatter with chopped parsley and serve with garlic aioli and good bread on the side.
