It’s funny how things happen sometimes. Mr Eat Canberra and I had been talking about eating more vegetarian meals (we have at least one vegetarian day a week) when we were travelling in Canada. A few days later, I was thrilled to receive an email asking me if I would be interested in editing a cookbook. The cookbook was Plant Fuelled Chaos, a vegetarian cookbook by a very talented lady.
Plant Fuelled Chaos is a passion project by Caiti Stevens, a young Canberra creative who has worked hard to turn her dream of creating a cookbook into reality. I was more than happy to help Caiti in her final stages of completing her first self-published cookbook.
This gorgeous book is full of more than 80 easy vegetarian recipes that are fuss-free, healthy and flexible. The pages are brought to life with Caiti’s own art that features throughout the vibrant collection of recipes.
So who is Caiti Stevens?
Caiti Stevens is a designer, a photographer, a cook, an artist, a creative, a vegetarian and a self-published author. She’s also hardworking, a beautiful person and a boxer. She’s a woman of many talents with a desire to create. As if that wasn’t enough, she has recently started Jiu-Jitsu.
One of the things I love about Plant Fuelled Chaos (apart from the beautiful art) is that the recipes are flexible. Caiti encourages you to get creative and change things to suit you. I rarely follow the exact steps in a recipe, or use the exact ingredients. So I love the idea of changing recipes.
I made this Vegetable Spiral that features in Plant Fuelled Chaos to give you a sneak peak of what you can expect. It takes a little time to create the spirals but the end result is worth the effort. I served it with a side salad and it made a delicious and healthy dinner.
Vegetable Spiral
Serves 2-4
Ingredients
1 sheet shortcrust pastry
Blind baking beans
1 cup crème fraiche
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 carrots
1 zucchini
1 eggplant
Cooking oil
What now?
- Preheat a fan-forced oven to 180°C.
2. Line a tart dish with baking paper.
3. Place a sheet of short crust pastry in the tart dish, then place some baking paper on top. Add some blind baking beans. Cook for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and the baking paper and cook for a further 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
4. In a bowl, mix the crème fraiche and Dijon mustard until well combined. Spread the mixture evenly on the cooled pastry.
5. Using a vegetable peeler, slice the zucchini, eggplant and carrots finely to create long thin strips .
6. Spread the crème fraiche mixture onto the tart base. Roll up the vegetable strip and stand it on its edge in the crème fraiche. Repeat with the other peeled pieces until tart is full.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes in the oven or until the vegetables start to crisp.
What I did differently…
I had leftover puff pastry in the freezer from when I recently made homemade sausage rolls. So I used 2 sheets of puff pastry instead of shortcrust pastry. I cut one of the pieces into strips to create a border around the tart.
I used beetroot, sweet potato and butternut pumpkin, as well as carrot, eggplant and zucchini.
I had leftover sour cream in the fridge so I used that instead of crème fraiche. I also added some crushed garlic and parmesan cheese to the sour cream and Dijon mustard mix.
I baked the pastry for 20 minutes, or until it was golden. I then baked it for another 20-25 minutes until the vegetables were cooked.
I used a standard tray that was big enough for the pastry, instead of a tart dish.
When you support a small business, you’re supporting a dream. Plant Fuelled Chaos would make a beautiful gift and it would be a beautiful addition to anyone’s bookshelf. You can preorder Plant Fuelled Chaos by visiting the website and placing your order.
You’re also invited to celebrate the launch of Plant Fuelled Chaos with Caiti. You can find out more on her website.
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This is a sponsored post but all opinions are the author’s own.
Amelia Bidgood
Amelia is the Founder and Editor of Eat Canberra and the Founder and Managing Director of Eat Canberra Food Tours. She's a qualified journalist, presenter, freelance writer and also runs a boutique communications agency working with small business owners on all things social media, content creation and marketing. She's taught cheesemaking classes, judged hospitality and tourism awards, completed the WSET Level 1 Award In Wines, loves to cook and has travelled to 23 countries. She's also passionate about mental health and has recently started studying to become a Counsellor.