Welcome to The Seedling Plant-based Kitchen!

The interest in plant-based eating and a kinder more healthy lifestyle in general has been increasing rapidly. Many of our guests love the way in which we put things together, as well as how we present it, talk about it and live it. So many ask us for recipes and ideas, urge us to put together a recipe book, but the easiest and quickest way to get to everyone right now is to start our own MEATLESS MONDAY drive!

Thank you so much for being here, for being curious and making the effort to see what we’ve been up to. We hope that you will pursue this endeavour with us and that you will be coming along for the ride on a regular basis – every Friday to prepare your Monday’s meal over the weekend.

MORE IMPORTANT:  Please let us know what you think of our work – have you made it? was it easy enough? was it tasty? Feel free to contact us on marian@oldjoes.co.za, and if you are happy with it all please , post some pictures on The Seedling Plant-based Kitchen and tell the world – thank you so much in advance!

If you are going to be cooking with us, please take the time and spend the money on a good digital scale.
You will also need a high-speed blender such as a NutriBullet or Omniblend V or Vitamix.

MACARONI CHEEZE

RECIPE – White Sauce – Cashew & Cauliflower
This is a very flavourful and delicious sauce and packs a real punch when it comes to nutrition. You get the family and friends to eat cashew nuts and cauliflower without them even knowing it!

RECIPE – Cheeze Sauce – Potato & Carrot
This sauce looks and tastes like the real thing. You can even use it as a pizza topping!

RECIPE – Macaroni Cheeze
ONLY ASSEMBLE MACARONI CHEEZE BEFORE YOU WANT TO SERVE, not the day before – your dish will go soggy and stodgy standing for too long before baking and serving it.

MAKING THE SAUCES

This is your weekend’s work in the kitchen – making the sauces, while assembly of the dish is only done on Monday night before serving.

We include the recipes for two sauces. You are welcome to print these as the start to your own MEATLESS MONDAY folder.

Why two sauces?
In the assembly section of this post you will hear what I have to say about that. It’s all about dimension.

We use Ina Paarman’s stocks as a matter of convenience – they are vegan and gluten-free and generally fills the gap when you don’t have time to make your own stocks. Keep in mind, though that these products already contain salt, so be careful when you add additional salt to your sauces.

CHOOSING AND PREPARING YOUR PASTA

SHAPE
Choose a pasta with a small ‘holding’ space – like a shell or a boat-shape. That way your sauces and ingredients are integrated in the pasta and don’t float among the pasta pieces. For this reason I prefer not to use macaroni shapes – they are not flavour friendly and don’t absorb the sauces properly.

TEXTURE
Generally extruded pastas (like most of the dry pastas we buy in the shops) should not a have smooth finish. A rough and slightly whitish floury appearance is far more likely to absorb your sauces beautifully.

AMOUNT
Generally 80-100 g of dry pasta per adult

COOKING
Cook pasta in a lot of rapidly boiling water with NO oil. The oil will prevent your beautiful sauces from being properly absorbed by the pasta.
Add salt to the water – calculate 2.5 ml salt in the boiling water for every 100 g of pasta you cook.

TIMING
When making a dish such as Macaroni Cheeze which will cook further in the oven, boil your pasta for 1 minute less than the shortest time indicated. That means a pasta that says ‘boil 7-8 minutes’ should be cooked for only 6 minutes to prevent overcooking and then rinsed under cold running water to stop the cooking process.

Gluten-free – although not always such good quality as far as ‘pasta’ goes, one can hide that in a recipe such as this Macaroni Cheeze.

ASSEMBLING THE MACARONI CHEEZE

GARNISH & PLATING

Serve the Macaroni Cheeze straight out of the oven.

Garnish with spring onions and heat-robust edible flowers and herbs that won’t change colour on the way to the dining room.

Add a side salad and/or roasted vegetables, a fruity chutney and some chillies in oil for those who like hot!!!