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Welcome to my cooking blog about eating a simple life where I have journaled over 550 easy, delicious and nourishing recipes over the course of 12 years. My collection of weekly fresh recipes are mostly vegetarian (a lot of them gluten free and vegan) and always family friendly!

Fresh New Recipes /

Gluten Free Whole Orange Cake - Cook Republic #glutenfree #foodphotography #healthyrecipe #cake

Gluten Free Whole Orange Cake

There is a very thin line between a perfectly baked whole orange cake and a soggy citrus mess. And there are two very distinct sets of people on both sides of that line. The ones who enjoy a good pudding like cake that can only be scooped up with a dessert fork or those who like a moist cake with a delicate crumb (like me!). Whole orange cakes are usually baked in slabs, because there is no way you could un mould one of these from a bundt pan. Being baked in slabs or shallow rectangular tins also makes a whole orange cake a perfect dessert. You could cut it up in squares or rounds (using cookie cutters), top with ice cream, a sprinkling ... Read More >>
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Vegan Iced Spice Coconut Latte - Cook Republic #vegan #coffee #glutenfree #drink #foodphotography

Iced Spice Coconut Latte

A good iced coffee can be a revelation.  There are so many elements fighting for attention in an iced coffee glass. The coffee, the sweetness, the milk, the flavouring. If one is more overpowering than the others, the balance is thrown off. After experimenting for weeks, I finally created the perfect iced coffee. A vegan beverage, as rich as a decadent dessert but as light as water, as warming as the sunshine streaming through the clouds with bursts of subtle coffee and delicate spices yet refreshing with all the ice. For this recipe, I decided to use the Nespresso Master Origin India coffee. Nespresso recently launched thei... Read More >>
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Vegan Mushroom Pesto Sandwich - Cook Republic #vegan #glutenfree #healthyrecipe

Vegan Mushroom Pesto Sandwich

Mushrooms are a constant fixture in my fridge. I have always loved mushrooms for their umami flavour and their ability to cook instantly. In fact, if mushrooms are super fresh (like at our local markets), I have been known to eat them raw on my way back home from loading my baskets with fresh produce. A fresh raw mushroom is a delightful thing, meaty and crisp and incredibly sweet! Now I buy a few bags of tiny button mushrooms (tiny white ones that I use for instant pickling), larger button mushrooms (slightly bigger white ones that I have used for this recipe), Portobellos (giant Swiss Brown mushrooms that I use for baking and making cur... Read More >>
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4 Ingredient Basic Flapjacks - Cook Republic

4 Ingredient Basic Flapjacks

Last week I was buried under work deadlines, a weekend project and my once-a-year bout of sickness (a nasty cold this time around which was remedied with essential oils, lots of chamomile tea, bowls of hearty turmeric and veg stew and watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix much to my own surprise). A week later, I felt renewed and thankful that my colds are a once a year occurrence and don't create a big fuss. Today, I am back to sharing a brand new recipe. A simple one this time that I bake quite often for the boys after school in that half-hour window when I know they are on their way back. 4-Ingredient Basic Flapjacks that take about 5 minu... Read More >>
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Vegan Miso Glazed Eggplant - Cook Republic #vegan #glutenfree #healthyrecipe #foodphotography

Vegan Miso Glazed Eggplant (Nasu Dengaku)

  Many years ago when we first moved to Australia from Singapore, I was on a Japanese food bender. I trawled every weekend market for the perfect Okonomiyaki and sat at many sushi trains sampling as many Agedashi Tofus, Sashimis, Inari and Nigiris as I could. But I never tried Nasu Dengaku, until one fine day when Hayden Quinn came over to my (then tiny) kitchen for a cooking and filming session. I cannot remember what I cooked, but the memory of Hayden's Miso Glazed Eggplant that he cooked that day is still fresh in my mind.   It was simply the most divine eggplant dish I had ever had and what affected me the most was ... Read More >>
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Gluten Free Lemon And Coconut Cake - Cook Republic

Gluten Free Almond Coconut Cake

A few years ago when I was doing food photography and styling workshops, a gluten free cake I adapted from Belinda Jeffery's Mix & Bake cookbook (one of my favourite baking cookbooks) was a staple at morning tea. A simple almond and coconut cake that I tweaked to be just sweet enough with a generous lashing of lemon. It was so wildly popular at all my workshops that I would get emails requesting the recipe. I always sent everyone a photo of my hand scribbled recipe from my recipe testing diary, hoping they could read what I had written. Over the years, many friends and family scored that phone picture of my hand written recipe and ... Read More >>
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FAST VEGETARIAN DINNERS /

THAI RED CURRY TOFU SOUP W/ SWEET POTATO NOODLES

Creamy Black Lentil Daal

Oven Baked Mushroom Curry

VEGAN RECIPES