In an effort to try and eat more organic food in 2016, I recently bought myself a mushroom-growing kit, out of curiosity as I saw a friend having it in her kitchen (my lettuce died, so I'm starting over with something more achievable). The instructions were simple enough, and within a week of spraying the provided wood dust with water I got myself enough oyster mushrooms to harvest! They were clean white and plump and smelled deliciously musty, begging to be eaten. It almost made me forget my sad attempt to grow my own salad leaves.

Cleaning them up was no fuss, and I had them in omelettes, soupy noodles and my personal favourite, as a crunchy topping for an almost-vegan pizza. This ‘pizza’ recipe isn’t exactly recipe but more of an assembly job, since all the veg are roasted in the oven and everything else is pretty basic. I’ve tried a few different combos, but this one is my favourite as the oyster mushrooms are crunchy and not overcooked so you get to enjoy their freshness, and the roasted cauliflower is a nice texture, with creamy avocado and nutty hummus to compliment. Not to mention it takes literally 10 mins to prep (the rest is oven time), so it’s officially my new favourite Meat Free Monday dinner menu.

This recipe makes 2 mini ‘pizzas’.

Here’s what you need:
Flatbread (available at most grocery stores)
Oyster mushrooms
Breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 floret of cauliflower, stemmed
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 avocado
Hummus
Cherry tomatoes (optional)

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Season breadcrumbs with salt and pepper.
3. Crack an egg. Now dip the oyster mushroom in egg, then the breadcrumbs and then line them up on the tray.
4. Toss the cauliflower in salt, pepper, cayenne and olive oil. Line them up in the baking tray.
5. Roast the mushrooms and cauliflower in the oven for 15 mins. Then remove the mushrooms, and continue roasting the cauliflower for another 10 mins.
6. Heat your flatbread in the oven for around 3 mins. When heated, spread a seriously generous amount of hummus on top it.
7. Assemble the cauliflower, crunchy mushrooms, avocados (scooped out or diced) and halved cherry tomatoes on the pizza if using.
8. Squeeze some lemon over and drizzle some olive oil to finish.
9. Eat while watching Friends.

Note:      a.) The best bits of the roasted cauliflower are the disintegrated, slightly burned ones.
               b.) Don’t buy hummus at the conventional grocery store because they are always so expensive.                         Try the ones in middle-eastern grocers. They’re cheaper and tastes much better.

One day I decided to try a recipe from Deliciously Ella (www.deliciouslyella.com) for a sweet potato bake. I like trying new things especially for Meat Free Mondays, as vegetarian meals can get pretty repetitive sometimes. What resulted was an immediate addiction to baked sweet potatoes, and I ended up having this meal four times that week, meat free day or no meat free day.

What’s great about this is that, a) it takes minimal effort, which makes it great for weekday dinners b) you can stuff the baked sweet potato any way you want. But this recipe is pretty much my preference when it comes to combo – creamy hummus, crunchy roasted cauliflower and delicious sautéed mushrooms. What a plate of goodness.

This serves 2.

Here’s what you need:
2 medium/large sweet potatoes
Hummus (at grocery stores in the ‘spreads’ section, or any nearby Middle Eastern restaurants)
½ floret of cauliflower
100 gm field mushrooms, or any mushrooms you fancy
1 clove garlic
Chili flakes
¼ lemon

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius.
2. Place the sweet potatoes right on the rack (or on baking tray), and bake for 1 hour.
3. Cut the cauliflower into small bite sized florets, dress them in some salt, pepper, olive oil and cayenne pepper powder (cayenne is optional)
4. Roast the cauliflower for 30 mins in the same oven as the sweet potatoes.
5. To sautee the mushrooms, cut them however you like, and sautee with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and chili flakes for 4-5 minutes.
6. Assemble: Take the potatoes out, cut them in half. Spread with a lot of hummus on the insides, and stuff with cauliflower and mushrooms.
7. Best served warm on a rainy night.