Sesame Balls and Dipping Sauce

These are for using up leftovers.

To feed a family – 2 adults, 2 kids- you’ll need.

Roughly
1/2 cup of cooked pulses (probably white beans of some sort)
1/2 cup cooked rice
1/2 onion
1/2 cup vegetable (yup that vague- carrot or courgette are good)
1/4 cup uncooked polenta
1/2 cup sesame seeds
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

You could also add:
Red chilli
Lemongrass
Corriander

Blend everything except the sesame seeds together into something the texture of Humous. Add extra polenta if it’s really sloppy.

Using one hand for wet (the mixture) and one for dry (the seeds) make little balls and roll them in sesame seeds. This is messy.

Bake at 150c for an hour and then allow to cool.

Then either fry in a generous amount of oil or spray with oil and bake for 20 minutes.

Make dipping sauces to your taste- the kids have plain soy sauce, we have sirracha, sweet chilli sauce and this:

2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon tahini
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 inch lemongrass
1 red chilli
Small handful corriander
1 clove garlic
All blended up.

Something Fishy

These were inspired by Fat Free Vegan’s Crab Cakes. Many thanks.

These are also based on my crabby cakes with roasty sauce. Apologies for the photo, I didn’t know they’d be so yummy…

For the Fishy Cakes

Two serve two hungry vegans with salad as a main course, or four-six delicate appetites for a starter.

1 20oz, 500g tin of young green jackfruit in water, drained
100g dried haricot beans, soaked over night, boiled for 45 minutes and drained
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 pinch wakame flakes
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped
Handful of corriander
Juice of one lime
1 tablespoon Thai green curry paste
1 large chilli
Oil to fry

Method
Put the haricot beans, lime juice, paste, garlic, chilli lemongrass and wakame into your food processor and whizz till it has the consistency of rather dry hummus.

Add the jackfruit and whizz again until the jackfruit is shredded but not a paste. The mixture should look slightly disturbingly crab-like. Those little bits are jackfruit, not tiny bones.

Remove from the blender and shape into about 6/7 cakes.

Bake these on a non-stick mat for about an hour at 150c. You can skip this stage but it makes them hold together much better.

Refrigerate them until needed, then fry on both sides until nice and brown.

Thai-style Slaw
A simplified version of this recipe, using the ingredients I have.
1/2 cabbage, shredded
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
Handful of chopped roasted peanuts

Dressing- blend
1 teaspoon peanut butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice or distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 small apple
Handful sugarsnap peas, finely chopped
1 tablespoon sirracha

Um… Mix it all up. Give it a couple if hours in the fridge, and then half an hour to warm up a bit.