Sunday brunch

Here's a nutrient-packed brunch recipe for you. It comes from an Iphone app - '21-day Vegan Kickstart'. The app is basically a meal plan designed to help people transition to a vegan diet. It's got some good ideas & a few interesting recipes - so, even if you've been vegan for a long time like me, it can help you get back into healthy eating habits.Spinach and Mushroom Frittata

• 1/2 cup water (I used 1 TBS olive oil instead)
  
• 1 onion, diced
  
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
  
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
  
• 2 tsp dry basil
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
  
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  
• 1/4 tsp celery seeds (I didn't have any, so just left them out)
  
• 1 package frozen spinach, thawed (I used half a bunch of fresh spinach)
  
• 1 package silken tofu (about 300g)
  
• 2 TBS dry couscous
  
• 1/4 cup soy milk
  
• 1 tomato, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees & grease a 9 inch pie dish. Heat the water or oil in a large frypan over medium heat. Add the onion & garlic & cook until soft, about 5mins.

Add mushrooms, basil, salt, pepper, nutmeg & seeds. Cook, stirring often, until mushrooms are soft, about 5mins. Stir in spinach & cook, stirring often, until mix is very dry. Remove from heat.

In a food processor or blender, process tofu until very smooth. Add to spinach mix, along with couscous & soy milk. Stir well.

Pour the mix into the dish & arrange the tomato slices around the outside edge. Bake 25mins, remove from oven and let stand 10mins before serving.

The frittata was tasty, but there are a couple of things I will change next time:

• Adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of Nutritional Yeast - for flavour & colour.
  
• I didn't let the spinach mix dry out enough - meaning the final product was a bit watery.
  
• Using half silken & half firm tofu (or firm tofu mixed with soy milk) - to help the frittata firm up a bit - it didn't come out of the dish neatly.

Overall, this was a satisfying meal - it would be great with some potatoes or avocado or maybe even a salad on the side. For me, there's a bit too much prep involved for a lazy Sunday morning - but if you have someone to share the workload with, you'll be enjoying your brunch before you know it :-)

The other positive? It's healthy, probably much healthier than Chelsey's pancakes, which I had for breakfast yesterday. They were delicious though :-)