Original subtitles

Well, there's a bit of a trend at the moment of plant-based eating.

But you know what? I prefer the term 'plant-rich'.

Ooh. Yeah.

And that's because, when we look at the scientific research,

what is abundantly clear

is that, whether you eat animal products or not,

what's really important is that we all eat loads of whole-plant foods.

So, that's what we're gonna do today, aren't we, Tim?

I'm very impressed. I can't argue with that.

Well, I will be making a ratatouille burger that's fully plant-based.

Shock-horror. It's not like me...

Nice. ..but it's gonna be great.

You're versatile.

You're a versatile man catering for all dietary requirements.

And I'm gonna do a plant-rich meal

because I'm going to do a mushroom stroganoff.

But I am gonna use some yoghurt

into my sauce,

but the meal is rich in highly nutrient-dense plant foods.

And, most importantly, this is gonna be super tasty.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYS)

Mushroom stroganoff.

Yes! Well, this is just such a great way

to hero the mushrooms as part of a dish

because they've got that meaty flavour, don't they, Tim?

I love it.

I'm just looking under the kale and I can't see any beef.

(LAUGHS) There is no beef...

OK. ..going in this recipe.

Alright. Just mushrooms.

But look at this gorgeous selection.

So, if you can start slicing some for me...

Sure. ..that would be great.

So, I'm going to use a gorgeous medley of mushrooms.

Now, if you've only got one type of mushroom or you've got a favourite,

then go for it.

But I'm gonna use a combination of these gorgeous portobellos,

the chestnuts, some normal, regular, common button mushrooms

and some shiitake 'cause they've got a gorgeous meaty flavour...

Yeah, those are... ..and some very unique compounds.

(SNIFFS) They're amazing. They're medicinal.

Yeah. I love it!

I'm just gonna get my pan nice and hot.

Extra-virgin olive oil

goes into the pan.

And then saute my onions.

How many dishes do we start like this?

Every good dish starts with fried onions, I reckon.

So often this is how we go, isn't it?

I'm gonna throw in some thyme.

OK. There you go!

In go our mushrooms into the pan.

And it may seem like a lot of mushrooms,

but they will cook down, won't they?

They do. Exactly.

Mushrooms have got quite a lot of water in them,

so, once you start cooking them,

they will start cooking down and some of that water will evaporate.

Do you want me to fan you here?

What are... What are... What do... (LAUGHS)

What do we call this? I don't see this very often in my kitchen.

Well, do you know what?

To be honest, you don't see it very often in mine either.

But the trick with kale is, one, you've got to remove this, the stalk.

Lots of people think they've got to slice that up and it's good for you.

Just pull it off.

It's bitter. It's tough to eat.

You know, it's not really enjoyable.

And then the trick is...

I prefer my kale cooked rather than raw.

If you're gonna have it raw, you've got to massage it with oil.

OK. Really try and help break down.

This is a tough vegetable.

It's actually, rather than thinking of it as a leafy green,

it's a cruciferous vegetable,

so, think of it in the same family

as brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower.

So, I'd like you to finely shred it.

I got ya. And that IS gonna go into our dish,

but I think it's best cooked.

And that's how you're gonna help break down that kale,

makes it much easier to digest,

and you get all of the goodness out of the vegetable.

Now I'm gonna add in my tomato paste into the side,

give that a little cook and then it's going to mix in.

It's really important to cook off your tomato paste first

to get that raw flavour out of it.

It's gonna give a really lovely flavour to this.

And I'm also going to add some Dijon mustard.

Delicious.

Actually, Tim, you could be making me up some stock,

please, into that. Ooh, can do.

That would be great.

And some tamari I'm going to use

instead of adding salt.

So, I'm not adding additional salt when I use tamari.

That's kind of like a soy sauce.

Gives a nice flavour, but it is very salty,

so, make sure you're not adding extra salt.

I think one will probably be enough in there, Tim.

One little...

..packet.

Perfect. And I am ready for that stock.

Thank you very much. There you go.

Lovely.

Pour in some stock.

Now, what is interesting about this

is that, when you boil mushrooms in a liquid like this,

it actually helps to break down the mushroom cell walls,

and that releases not just the anti-oxidants

but also some of that very mushroomy flavour.

And that's why mushrooms work so well in a sauce...

Yes. ..or in a dish like this.

So, we're just gonna boil that down.

And then I want the sauce to be nice and thick,

so, I am gonna add a little cornflour.

Make it into a paste first.

So, for people who need low or no gluten,

this is actually a gluten-free dish. Yeah.

And I'm gonna pop in my cornflour.

And I'm going to add in my nicely finely shredded kale.

Give it all a good stir.

A little bit more stock.

Yeah, that's thickening up really, really well.

Now, I want to serve this...

You know, 'cause it's me, I like some greens on the side.

So, I am going to add some broccoli too.

Perhaps you could cut that into some little florets for me, Tim.

Sure.

And we're gonna bring our water up to the boil.

Now you can cook...

This is another of my questions I'm always asked -

is it OK to cook your vegies in the microwave?

Ah. Yes is the answer.

Yes, it is.

So, you best preserve the nutrients in vegies

either by stir-frying, by steaming, by doing it in the microwave.

The worst way to cook these kind of vegies is to boil them.

Fine if you're having a soup

and you're gonna be eating all of that liquid,

but otherwise you're getting

some of the water-soluble nutrients going into the water

and then they're going down the drain.

So, best to do anything that doesn't involve

throwing away the water that you're cooking the vegies in.

So, our broccoli will just go into our steamer.

OK, I think we're ready for you to cook our rice.

So, I'm using that microwaveable rice.

Yeah! Do you use this at home, Tim?

I do. I've got a toddler at home.

I don't have time to cook rice sometimes.

Like, this is a great cheat.

Instant rice in a hurry.

I think I can handle this.

Thank you.

(BOTH LAUGH)

Highly technical part of the cooking.

It is convenient.

I think they're fantastic to have in your pantry.

When you are cooking wholegrain rice,

look, it takes a lot longer than white rice, right?

We can have a little bit of a clean-up.

Perhaps you could do me some parsley just to pop on the top.

I'll chop you some parsley. And if you pass me the yoghurt.

That is the last part. Ooh. There we go.

So, I'm turning off the heat

and then I'm gonna add half a cup or so of yoghurt to my pan.

That's a great little tip

to use the Greek yoghurt instead of a thickened cream.

Yeah! A bit healthier.

And it's just a delicious flavour.

This is smelling amazing. The rice is ready. I'll grab that.

We're ready to plate up.

So, I've got my broccoli.

And don't overcook your cruciferous vegetables in particular.

No! Oh!

That is how you get those horrible sulphurous kind of flavours.

You really want it to be still a little bit al dente.

OK. So, here's our brown rice.

Rice in a hurry.

Rice in a hurry it is. (LAUGHS)

Oh, look how deliciously creamy our mushrooms are.

I love that. A vegetarian plant-rich stroganoff.

Yum.

With some gorgeous greens on the side.

Gorgeous.

There we go.

A little bit of parsley to finish.

Fit for a king, don't you think? I think so.

Plant-rich eating doesn't need to be difficult.

It's so easy and it's so delicious.

You just give it some love and think about what you can do.

So, we've got the really meaty mushrooms -

you'll never miss the beef in your stroganoff -

served with wholegrain rice, some greens on the side.

Dinner's ready in a flash.

Now, it's not often, Jo that I cook plant-based recipes,

but I'm excited today.

I'm cooking plant-based ratatouille-style burgers.

What do you reckon? I like it.

Yeah. I'm intrigued.

You're intrigued by the plethora of amazing ingredients in front of us?

Well, I've got to say, this is a colourful, wonderful line-up.

I'm liking it.

Could I please have a knife?

Of course. Let's get cracking.

First we've got these beautiful vegetables -

capsicum, zucchini, eggplant

and mushrooms.

That's where my idea for the ratatouille style comes from.

Would you be able to slice the eggplant and the mushrooms for me?

Of course. That would be fantastic.

I'm going to slice some capsicum

just into biggish sort of chunks,

and we're gonna grill these vegies off together

to get them nice and charred.

And I'm excited, Jo. We've got these smoked cauliflower burgers.

Ooh. Interesting. Have a smell.

(SNIFFS) Oh, they do... I can smell the smoky flavour.

So, they're going to go in our burgers as well. It's gonna be great.

Well, do you know what, Tim? I do think in recent years

the whole plant-based-burger thing

has come such a huge way. It has.

From the early ones that were a bit rubbish,

we just used to get the old, you know, odd vegie burger.

Yeah. Now there's such an array

of different products on the market,

it's kind of making it a whole lot easier.

We are very spoilt, and I think it's...

This is going in here? Yeah, everything in together.

I like that.

And I love my meat, but if you chose to be a plant-based eater,

the options are endless nowadays.

It's fantastic. For sure.

We've got actual, you know,

made from whole-plant-food-type burgers.

We've got burgers that are made...

Very clever. The science is incredible.

The burgers that are made in the lab from plant-based ingredients.

So, these are ingredients extracted from plants

and then reconstituted to make up something that looks,

tastes and, you know, feels like meat.

They blow me away, those ones. Yeah.

And then coming your way very soon, or coming our way, will be

the lab-created meat,

which is actually made from muscle cells from animals.

The science blows my mind.

Much cleverer scientists than me.

But anyway... (LAUGHS)

..the idea is there's certainly plenty of options available.

OK, so, I've just given them a good hit with olive oil, salt and pepper,

and then they can go...

I'm just going to throw them all in.

We want to just... Perfect.

..get them into our couple of skillet pans here.

And we're just going to cook these for a few minutes until they get

some good colour on them

and they're starting to soften. And this would be great to do in the barbecue, right, Tim?

Oh. Standing out the back with my barbecue and a beer.

I'd be in heaven. A happy man. Happy man.

Well, no, I always think I've got to remind people of that.

You know, we so often put our burgers and sausages

onto the barbecue,

but put your vegies onto the barbecue too.

Absolutely.

I think it's great because you get that really

smoky flavour from the barbecue. Yeah. Yeah.

And we're gonna try and replicate that with our griddle pans today.

So, they will just need a few minutes.

While our vegies are charring away..

Do you want one of them? Oh, thank you.

Always come in handy. Don't want you to burn your fingers.

Would I be able to have a teaspoon or a little spoon?

Here I've got - I'm really excited about this -

some harissa paste. Nice.

Add a little bite, bit of zing to our burgers.

And then some vegan mayo.

So, what I want to do is just combine

the vegan mayo

and the harissa paste together

just to make a little harissa mayo to go on our burgers.

I like it.

So, a great little condiment. Could go on anything.

So, our vegies are gonna need a few more minutes,

I'll get the patties on

and then we'll build some ratatouille burgers.

Alright, Jo, vegies are done.

Have a look at those.

Yum. How good.

Buns are done. Burgers are done.

Let's build. We're ready to go.

Let's build some burgers.

Alright. There we go.

Would you be able to put just

a good spoonful of the harissa mayo

just on the bottom? Bottom? OK.

Nice and generous. And some on the top as well.

OK. That'd be great.

This is a good idea!

Yeah! I like the harissa mayo.

And then just some rocket,

or arugula if you're playing overseas,

onto our burgers.

A nice pile of that.

I love rocket. It gives you a nice peppery kick.

I do too,

but I do like to find baby rocket.

If it's, you know, a bit tougher,

make sure you pull off the stalks,

or there a bit, you know...

Gets caught in your throat, I find.

(BOTH LAUGH)

Fantastic. Nobody wants to choke on their burger!

No.

And on with our smoked cauliflower burgers.

And this is a vegan cheese.

Yeah.

How good has vegan cheese become?

It's come a long way in the last few years.

For sure. Very clever.

There we go.

And now we get some of our beautiful grilled vegies.

So, some eggplant.

Nice.

Just share the love between the burgers.

Pile them up.

Some capsicum.

You're always creating food that's gonna be really hard for me to eat,

isn't it? (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) Yeah, I'm...

Stack as much on there as we possibly can.

I'm starting to realise that.

A little bit of zucchini just... And you know what?

I would serve all those extra vegies on the side

just to nibble away at at the same time.

You could. Yeah, definitely. We don't want to waste any of these.

And then some of these gorgeous mushrooms.

Ah! Yum, yum.

We'll try and...

I'm making it work.

The leaning tower of ratatouille.

OK.

You can bang on the lids.

OK.

Nice and colourful plant-based ratatouille burgers.

You won't even miss the meat.

Oh, I think that looks... That's just a work of art.

It looks beautiful.

Let's slice it open and have a look.

Well, I am intrigued

to know what that smoky cauliflower burger is like.

Look at all those beautiful layers.

You've got that smoked cauliflower patty,

all those beautiful grilled vegies,

harissa mayo.

Yum, yum.

Alright. Should we have a little... Looks beautiful.

Are we gonna have a taste? You're just gonna go in?

I am. I'm going in. Let's do it.

(LAUGHS)

Mmm.

Oh, wow.

Ooh. That is so good.

Spicy. It's spicy.

I didn't... Well, maybe... That's the harissa. Of course.

Mm. The harissa gives the spice,

but that smokiness of the burger is really coming through.

Well, you know, Tim, you've sort of surprised me a little bit today.

I mean, this could be a Good Chef recipe.

(LAUGHS) This is kind of healthy, isn't it?

Maybe you're rubbing off on me, Jo.

Well, you know, I like to think I'm having some influence.

I mean, I would have used a wholegrain bun,

but all those vegies in there,

the smoked cauliflower burger, you know,

getting some leafy greens in.

Top marks, Tim. Top marks.

Ratatouille burgers.

Try this one for your next meat-free dinner.

These are a great little wholesome snack hack.

They're tahini, honey and corn thin bite

using Corn Thins, tahini, honey,

vanilla, hemp seeds and sunflower seeds as well.

We generally have many packets of Corn Thins on hand in our pantry,

so, I know I can always whip these together.

They're a little bit of a lazy-parenting snack hack,

so, a good little tip there.

Just makes you feel like you know you've done something from scratch

but with a little bit of help

from something that's already made for you.

First, you'll just want to be crushing your Corn Thins into a bowl.

I love Corn Thins. They're a great snack option or lunch

and provide a really great alternative

to something like a white bread.

They're lovely and high in fibre,

they taste delicious and they're made with whole foods.

So, this one in particular is corn

with some additional wholegrain ingredients.

So, they're all crushed.

You can see they're just right so that they'll spread beautifully

with the honey, tahini and vanilla,

which is what we're going to put together

for our next step in our little snack here.

So, we're going to add

a couple of tablespoons of honey

to a microwave-proof jug.

But of course you could do this on the stove top as well.

It really doesn't need much time at all,

so, if you are doing it on the stove top,

be sure not to turn away

because the purpose of these is that they come together quickly

and, therefore, these ingredients will melt together quickly too.

Then we'll add in our tahini.

I love tahini.

I love the sesame flavour.

Sesames are particularly rich in calcium,

so, if you're feeding these to your kid,

know that you're getting good sources of calcium

into their snack.

And some vanilla in there as well.

Give it a little mix

and then pop it into the microwave for about 30 seconds.

So, the tahini, honey and vanilla

has been in the microwave.

You can see that's really loosened it up considerably.

And it only took 30 seconds.

Alright, let's get them in.

I do love this snack.

I can whip it up, you know, within minutes

using really easy and wholesome ingredients on hand.

I can get it in the freezer before the kids get home from school.

If I'm in a rush, we'll pack it into their lunch box too

knowing that it's a great snack at mid-morning for them.

It's got lots of great energy in there, good sources of calcium,

good sources of fibre,

and it tastes scrumptious.

The ingredients have come together beautifully.

Now, I'm gonna get this straight in here into our lined tin,

and we'll just moisten our fingers a little bit

because that's gonna help to press it out.

So, a little bit of water on your fingers

as you press the ingredients out in the tin.

So, whilst it's great to use your hands and press things in,

one of my other little hacks

is to actually have a bit of extra baking paper on the edge

and bring the baking paper over the top

and use it so you can get a little bit more force

to press things in

because we want them to bind.

If you leave the ingredients splaying out too far to the edge

and the tin's a little bit bigger

than your ingredient mix,

then it probably won't hold and bind together.

So, I use the baking paper to press it down.

You could also use a spatula over the top and give a bit more force.

But that's sort of how we want it.

Then I'm gonna get my seeds over the top.

So, I'm popping in some hemp seeds today.

I love hemp seeds.

They're actually a really kind of

neutral, subtle flavour,

but they add in beautiful quality nutrition.

So, we've got some hemp seeds on the top.

And sunflower seeds. Old faithful.

A lot of kids love sunflower seeds.

They're a really cool one to get on the top as well.

You could mix them in with the mix if you want to hide them.

I know some kids will look at some foods and get a bit of a shock

if they haven't eaten those ingredients before,

but, again, it's also nice to showcase how they can have

something tasty

and have lots of different

wholefood ingredients too.

So, that's all pressed in. It's lovely and firm.

The ingredients are holding well.

Now it's time to pop it in the freezer.

These were set in the freezer for a few hours.

Now it's time to try them out.

Now, I'll be honest, I grew up and I loved

those sesame seed snaps,

my mum would buy them for me for afternoon tea,

and this is my healthier take

on those same flavours

with that snap consistency too.

So, we'll slice them up.

Again, make them as big or as small as you like.

If you have littler people and you just want them to have little bites,

then that's perfect.

I'm gonna go for a bit more of a bar with mine

so that they can become a little bit more of a heartier snack.

And they're ready to eat.

You can see all the delicious Corn Thins in there.

There's the hemp seeds.

The sunflower seeds.

Got the beautiful flavour of the tahini

with the honey

and the vanilla.

Absolutely delicious.

Mmm.

So good.

Captions by Red Bee Media