Vegan Rose and Lemon Cupcakes

There's been a few recipes that I've found in the past that will stick with me forever, the fudge recipe from my Nan's 1950's Good Housekeeping book, the brownies from the Hotel Chocolat 101 book and this vegan cake recipe. I found it on The Guardian's readers recipe swap and never looked at another vegan cupcake recipe again. I've made some awful vegan cakes in my time, (the first involved cider vinegar and apple sauce, needless to say, they were gross) but these are truly amazing, soft and spongy with a proper cupcake taste. So this is basically adapted from that recipe and when I say adapted I mean I added a bit of rose and lemon and a bit of vegan frosting. I also brought some kind of fancy duo icing kit from Lakeland so that I could have 2 tone icing, but immediately broke it with my heavy hands so had to improvise.

Makes around 8 cupcakes:

Cakes:

250g vanilla soya yoghurt
80ml sunflower oil
1 tsp lemon extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
150g caster sugar
150g self-raising flour
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp baking powder

Butter cream icing:
200g vegan margarine
400g icing sugar
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp rose extract
1 tsp lemon food colouring
1 tsp pink food colouring

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and fill your cupcake tin with cupcake cases.
2. Whisk together all of the wet ingredients, including the lemon extract then sieve the dry ingredients in to the mixture and whisk it all together until well combined.
3. Spoon mixture in to the cases until they are 3/4 full (any more and it will 'explode' over the sides) and pop in to the oven for 20-25 minutes until lovely and golden brown all over.
4. Remove from the oven, pop on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely before icing them.
5. Cream together the margarine and icing sugar until light and fluffy and then split the mixture between 2 bowls.
6. Add the lemon extract and yellow food colouring in to one bowl and mix well, then add the rose extract and pink food colouring to the other bowl and mix well.
7. Either use a fancy duo piping bag and add each colour to one side and pipe the icing on to the cakes to your hearts content or if you don't have one or broke yours like I did, just stick alternate spoonfuls in to a piping bag and pipe on to the cakes which still gives you pink and yellow swirls.
8. Put in your mouth.

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Edamame Gyoza with Chili and Ginger

Since living with Mr Hef, I've been finding it hard to come up with meal ideas that we will both like. I'm a proper lentil eating hippy vegetarian and he is the meat eating king of beige foods. I've been throwing in a few things that I thought he wouldn't like, such as falafel and greek salad, lentil and sweet potato shepherds pie and the occasional tofu dish and to my absolute surprise he loved it all! There are a few things we both really love though and one of those is sweet potato katsu curry. We usually have it with edamame beans on the side, but this time I thought I'd put them in little parcels of joy.

Ingredients

200g edamame beans (defrosted and shells removed)

3 spring onions trimmed and chopped

1 tsp chopped red chili 

1 tsp grated ginger

10-15 wonton wrappers

1 tbsp vegetable oil 

Soy sauce to serve

1. Stick the beans, onions, chili and ginger in a food processor and give it a good blitz, until its blended together. 

2. Lay out the won top wrappers, take a tea spoon full of the mixture and pop in in to the middle of the wrapper. 

3. Wet your index finger and run it round the outside of the wonton wrapper, then fold in half and pinch the excess pastry (is it called that?) together to seal it. 

4. Once you've made your gyoza, cook straight away by heating the vegetable oil in a frying pan, and quickly frying until brown on both sides. 

5. Pour 100ml of water over the gyoza and cover to steam until the water has evaporated. 

6. Serve nice and hot, with soy sauce for dipping. 

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Chili and Lime Black Bean Burgers

IT'S SUNNY! Well at the time of writing this post it was anyway, who knows about tomorrow. So that means one thing, it's time for a beer and a burger. My main reason for wanting to make this was that I wanted to make a burger with avocado on top. A few weeks ago I couldn't stop eating avocados and just as I thought I'd gotten over it, my manager was also recently struck with this horrible affliction (not really, avocados are great). Seeing her eating them brought back my terrible avocado cravings and I can't stop eating them again. Anyway, I decided on a black bean burger and wanted to bring out the flavours you'd get in a lovely fresh batch of guac, so added lots of lime and chili. It's really tasty, refreshing and not too heavy (I ate a HUGE one) so perfect for the hot weather AND it's vegan... hooray! 

For 2 rather large burgers or 4 smallish ones you'll need:

Olive oil 

1/2 a red onion finely chopped 

1 clove of garlic finely chopped 

1 small red chili finely chopped

1 can of black beans

1/2 a lime 

1 slice of bread 

Salt and pepper

2/4 burger buns

Fresh salsa 

1 avocado sliced 

1. Chuck your onion and garlic in to a frying pan with a little oil and soften on a low heat for around 10 minutes, add the chili and heat through for a further few minutes. 
2. While the onions are softening mush the black beans up with a fork in a large bowl until they're nice an squished. 
3. Pop the slice of bread in to a food processor and turn it in to bread crumbs then add it, along with the onions, chili and garlic to the black beans and mix well. 
4. When the mixture is combined, divide it in to 2 or 4 balls and squish in to patties on a floured surface. 
5. Heat some oil in a frying pan and pop the burgers in, cook on a medium heat until nice and browned on both sides then transfer it to the burger bun. 
6. Top it with fresh salsa and sliced avocado, serve it up with some sweet potato wedges and salad and enjoy!

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Vegan Tales from Gwendoline, Part 4

The last full day of our adventure was a great one. One of the things that attracted us to the cabin was that it had a tin bath, which you could fill with water heated by your very own campfire and enjoy a bath by the stream. Pretty idyllic right? Well I woke up at 7am that day and went to collect some sticks, harvested 60 litres of water from the tap which was connected to a spring up in the mountains, (lovely) filled up the kelly kettle (crazy massive green kettle, used to heat loads of water) and started a fire. That doesn't sound that difficult, but believe me, if there's anything to make you appreciate hot water, it was that. I had to carry the water 10 litres at a time from the tap to the kettle, keep the fire going for around 2 hours (which required a lot of sitting in awkward positions and blowing on the flames until I felt dizzy). But it was totally worth it, the bath by the stream was just amazing! I took all of my Lush goodies and just relaxed. It was also a great day because vegan Emma cooked for me all day long. She made me some kind of delightful vegan yoghurt, granola, yummy fruit thing for breakfast. After the bath, I was pretty tired, so I went back to bed and Emma made me Facon and avocado on toast (we always use Redwoods cheatin rashers, they're the best)

After lunch it was time for a stick collecting ramble for some more firewood. The surroundings literally looked like an enchanted forest. 

Then it was back to the cabin and it was vegan Emma's turn to make dinner. She went for one pot cooking too and made an incredible lentil dhal, which she made by chopping up tomatoes, chili, garlic, onion and carrot and cooking them slowly with red lentils, yellow split peas and water, adding more water when needed.

We sat around the campfire and enjoyed our last meal in the cabin. There really is nothing better than toasting yourself by a fire with the sounds of the stream behind you (until it gets dark and then it's really scary).

It really is the perfect getaway. We had no phones, no internet, no nothing. Just ourselves, the outdoors and around 100 magazines. I can't recommend it enough, it's our second time booking with Canopy and Stars and I love it so much, I've already booked my third for in a months time! If you want to book Gwendoline you can find her here. I'll leave you with a picture of the bath... seriously, does it get better that that!

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Vegan Tales from Gwendoline, Part 3

This part is my favourite part, because 1. I love to cook, 2. I love to be outdoors and 3. I love starting fires (in a non weird way). This meal combined all 3 and the best part is, I got to cook it in my pajamas because I was on holiday. As it was a clear evening and I wanted to use the hungarian cooking pot thingy, I decided to cook this night. It was a super simple dish, to make it just chuck 1 chopped sweet potato, one can of black beans, one chopped onion, some garlic and some chili power in to your pot and cook very slowly for around 2 hours.

Of course, if you're not cooking outside, it would be a lot easier. As you can probably see from the absolute dismay on my face in the next photo, starting a fire is hard.

Once we finally did have it going, we hung the pot over the flames and hoped for the best. Luckily it started to bubble and was finally on its way to cooking. It smelled absolutely amazing mixed with with the smell of the fire and sitting around a campfire watching your dinner cook for 2 hours is a sure fire way of making you really, really hungry.

we served it up with some fresh guacamole (we needed to use up some of the 16 avocados) wild rice, tortilla chips and salad. It's a pretty simple dish, but putting this much love and effort in to a meal really does make it taste 1000 times better.

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Vegan Tales from Gwendoline, Part 2

I've decided to split this day in to 2 posts, because I ate way too much for it to all fit in to one, but holidays are for eating yourself stupid after all. So... After a lovely long nights sleep we woke up and started a fire. On the instructions we were given for the cabin  it said that you could toast bread on the stove. 

Any excuse to start a fire and I'm there! I made some spelt bread at home using this recipe and it turned out okay, but after a few days you could have probably mistaken it for house building materials, so it was best toasted. In hindsight, I may have cut it a bit thick, but it made a good veggie bacon sandwich anyway, even if it did take me over an hour to toast it.

Then it was time to get showered. This is not so simple in the cabin, you're supposed to heat water in a giant kelly kettle, which I discovered the next day takes an actual age. So Emma and I, being the lazy people we are decided to heat a few kettles on the stove and transfer it to the shower. I say shower... it was actually a watering can hoisted in a tree. I was super excited about the shower, so I stood in the stream, Emma helped me hoist the watering can up, tipped it over my head and I had just about enough time to cover my body in shower gel when it ran out. My only option was a dip in the freezing cold stream... the best way to wake yourself up. We then decided to explore our surroundings and went for a ramble up the mountains, we ran around in fields, climbed trees, collected stick for fire and generally rambled around. Upon our return we had left over BBQ for lunch, with avocado on toast (Emma adds Tabasco, she is a genius) and come crisps and hummus. It was perfect for refuelling, and filling us up for a much needed nap.



I don't know if you get this after you nap, but I wake up either really grumpy or really hungry, or both. This day I woke up starving, luckily Emma and I stocked up on fruit from the market and I had my Abel and Cole veg box, so I had a large plate of fruit with some home-made vegan banana bread (recipe here) and was happy again.

After this it was time to prepare dinner, which, as mentioned was so epically long that it requires it's own post. 

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Vegan Tales from Gwendoline, Part 1

You may or may not remember that last year I went on a magical glamping adventure with vegan Emma to a wagon we dubbed 'The Creepy Death Cabin' if you don't remember you can read about it here, here and here. If you do, well then you'll remember that we had the best time ever and cooked loads and loads of yummy vegan food. This year we went to one we dubbed 'Gwendoline' (her actual name is Gwenol) in Wales and cooked even more yummy vegan food whilst also having another amazing adventure. This one was a bit more secluded so we had to plan our food wisely, we took an abundance of fresh fruit and veg and 16 avocados, which we got for £1 (yep really, and we ate every single one as well).

On the first night we wanted something relatively easy and saw that there was a BBQ at the cabin. I don't know if other people do this, or if Emma and I are a bit weird, but we sometimes like to pretend to be husband and wife. So I took on the role of the husband and started the fire (I really enjoy starting fires) while Emma whipped up some vegetable skewers and corn of the cob rubbed with chili and garlic.

I can't claim that I was the best at BBQing as the vegetables were still slighty (really) crunchy, but it was still a lovely meal, served up with some giant cous cous and a yummy salad.

After the BBQ it was pretty much pitch black and time to go to bed. We settled in to the most wondefully warm and cosy bed in our little cabin, blew out our tea lights and had a wonderful sleep, with only the sound of the stream in our heads.

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Refried Bean and Scrambled Tofu Tostada

I didn't get the nickname Fatty Heffa for eating small portions of healthy food. No it came from being an actual Fatty Heffa. I used to run a lot, so eating a massive amount of food didn't feel so bad, but one day I stopped running and didn't start again, due to cold weather/being lazy/any other excuse I could think of. 3 weeks ago I started running again which means I can eat massive meals (horary!) and not feel guilty any more. One of my favourite giant meals is the Breakfast Burrito and seeing as I hadn't had one in ages I decided to treat myself. So I went to the shops and brought all the ingredients that I needed, happy and guilt free. When I actually came to make my burrito, disaster struck, I had accidentally brought some kind of child sized tortillas. There was no way all of my fillings would fit in to such a tiny tortilla, so I was left with only one option, tostada. This meant I could pile all of my tasty toppings nice and high on top of a crispy tortilla, if that isn't the breakfast of kings, I don't know what is. I like to make the salsa, guac and refried beans from scratch, but if you're in a hurry store brought is still yummy.

 

 Per serving:

1 small tortilla

1 small can of refried beans/home made refried beans

A splash of olive oil

100g tofu, drained

1 pinch turmeric 

1 pinch chili powder

A dash of soy sauce 

Raw homemade salsa (store brought is also good)

Raw homemade Guacamole (store brought is also good)

Extra corriander and chopped red chili to stick on top

1. If you're making your refried beans, salsa and guac from scratch, start by doing that and put them to one side. 
2. Splash a bit of olive oil in a pan and turn it on to a medium heat, crumble the tofu in and add the turmeric, chili powder and soy sauce and stir frequently.
3. Spray the tortilla with a bit of oil then season with salt and pepper and pop in to a preheated oven for 5 minutes. 
4. Reheat the refried beans in a sauce pan, then take the tortilla out of the oven, pop the beans on top, then the tofu, and the cover it in guacamole and salsa. 
5. Sprinkle some chopped coriander and red chili on top and enjoy!

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Green Stir Fry With Smoked Tofu

As I mentioned in my last post, I got loads of broccoli in my latest veg box and I also got some chinese leaves. The logical decision was to make a stir fry. Especially as Mr Hef had taken me to Waitrose (it's like ingredient kryptonite in there) and I found some fancy smoked tofu, which I thought would go perfectly. I brought some Vietnamese rice noodles with no instructions on for this (luckily the internet helped me with how to cook them), but fresh will also be good (and quicker) and I used the sauce I always make, but you can use any stir fry sauce. So yeah, super easy, probably healthy, green stir fry!

Serves 2.

For the sauce:

2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp orange juice

For the stir fry:

2 bundles/1 pack of rice noodles
Olive oil
1 pack of smoked tofu chopped in to chunks
1 small head of broccoli, chopped in to little florets
1 head of chinese leaves, sliced into ribbons
1 clove of garlic, minced
A handful of edamame beans

1. Start by soaking the rice noodles in a bowl of warm water for half an hour (if using dried) and make up the sauce by mixing the sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and orange juice together in a small bowl. 
2. Once the noodles are all soaked, pop your tofu in to an oiled pan (I like to use a griddle) and fry gently, turning it over when needed. 
3. While the tofu's frying away, pour a little oil in to a wok/pan and stir fry the broccoli for around 3 minutes. 
4. Add the chinese leaves and garlic and stir fry for a further few minutes, then drain the noodles and add them to the pan along with the edamame beans and stir fry for 2 more minutes.
5. Transfer the stir fry to a bowl and top it with the tofu, then pour your sauce all over and chow down!

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Broccoli and Cashew Soup

I've just started getting a fruit and veg box from Abel and Cole and it is probably the most exciting thing ever. I love vegetables and I love getting post, so getting vegetables delivered to my door is amazing. I've been wanting to sign up for ages, but just couldn't commit, then we got an offer through work and I thought why not! I really enjoy getting a variety of different veg as it's making me cook a lot of different meals. This week I got loads of Broccoli in my box so I decided to make some soup. When I think of Broccoli soup, I immediately think of stilton, but I tried to make Broccoli and stilton soup once upon a time and it was horrendous, it put me off of stilton for about a year. So I decided to go for a vegan option instead, adding the cashews makes it cheesy and creamy as well as a bit more substantial so it makes a great light lunch that will keep you going until the end of the day (I struggle with this, I get extremely hungry by home time and it makes me really angry, ask Mr Hef).

Serves 2:

100g raw cashew nuts
1 large head of broccoli, chopped in to florets
A little olive oil
1 small onion chopped
1 clove of garlic minced
Salt and pepper
500ml vegetable stock (I liked to use the water from the steamer pan, it's all green and lovely from the broccoli)

1. Start by soaking your cashews in water for at least an hour. 
2. Pop the broccoli in to a steamer and steam for around 20-30 minutes or until nice and tender. 
3. When the broccoli is nearing tenderness, cook the onion in a little oil until translucent, then add the garlic a cook for a further few minutes. 
4. Add the broccoli to the pan with the onion and garlic and cook for a few more minutes. 
5. Drain the cashews and pop them in a blender with 100ml of the vegetable stock and blend until smooth. 
6. Add the broccoli, onion and garlic to the blender with the rest of the stock and give it a good old blitz. 
7. Pour it back in to the pan, heat up, serve up (with some lemon if you want) and enjoy!

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Vegan Toad in the Hole

I've wanted to make vegan toad in the hole for ages, but I only really make toad in the hole if Mr Hef is coming round for tea. He's on holiday this week, so I thought why not, I'll cook a gigantic meal all for myself. I've made vegan yorkshires before using this recipe (I used this one because I'm afraid of egg replacers and other such things), so I just adapted it to what I had in my house and added veggie sausages. It couldn't be simpler and it actually came out better than some of the disastrous non-vegan ones I've made (I once made one which was just like a giant cake with sausages inside). Served with creamy mash and peas, this is the best vegan comfort meal I have ever discovered!

Serves 4

8 vegan sausages (I used these ones, just prepare according to the instructions)
A large glug of olive oil
225g plain flour
2 tsp gram flour
1 pint of almond milk
A large pinch of salt

1. Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees, prepare your baking pan (large enough to fit 8 sausages in!) by pouring enough olive oil to cover the bottom in, then pop it in to the oven for 10 minutes. 
2. After 10 minutes, place your sausages in the pan and cook them in the oil for 10 minutes. 
3. Make the batter by sifting together the salt, plain flour and gram flour, then slowly whisk the almond milk in until you have a nice runny mixture with loads of bubbles (I like to use and electric whisk).
4. Remove your pan from the oven, and pour half of your mixture in to the pan, pop back in to the oven for 10 minutes, then pour the other half over the top. Pop back in to the oven for 40-50 minutes, or until it's looking brown and crispy. 
5. Serve up with some yummy mash and veg and enjoy! 

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Hummus, Avocado, Grilled Tomatoes and Pesto on Toast

I love breakfast, especially on days like today where my main concerns are what I'm going to eat and how long I can stay in bed watching TV before I start to feel guilty. Well I decided I wanted avocados on toast and that I could fit in a whole season of The Undateables before it was time to get out of bed and join society. I decided to add hummus, grilled tomatoes and pesto to my toast because I've had something similar in a restaurant before and it was quite simply amazing. I made my own pesto for this because the only one I can find that is vegetarian is super expensive and I'd rather have it without cheese, but store brought would also be yummy.

Serves one: (Mr Hef is on holiday, I'm eating all aloooone)

For the pesto:

3 tbsp chopped cashew nuts
3 handfuls of basil
Lots of olive oil
Salt and Pepper

For the toast:

2 slices of your favourite bread (I chose some kind of spelt, rye hybrid, the fancy name attracted me)
A handful of cherry tomatoes
Some more olive oil
Salt and pepper
half a tub of hummus
1 avocado, peeled and sliced

1. Start by making the pesto, if you have a mini chopper/food processor then chuck it all in there and whizz away, adding olive oil little by little until it has a nice runny consistency. If you broke yours like me or don't have one, crush the nuts in a pestle and mortar, then chop the basil finely and bash it all together with the pestle. Slowly add the olive oil until it has a nice runny consistency then top off with a bit of salt and pepper and pop it to one side. 
2. Slice your tomatoes in half, then place them sliced side up on a baking tray, drizzle with a little olive oil, then cover them with a little salt and pepper. 
3. Place your slices of bread on the same tray, then pop it under the grill on a low heat until the bread is toasted. 
4. Flip the bread over and toast until brown, then transfer it to a plate. Pop the tomatoes back under the grill and whack it up to full heat to give them a good old sizzle while you construct the toast. 
5. Spread as much hummus as you like over the top of your toast, then top with the sliced avocado. 
6. Remove the tomatoes from the grill and place them on top of the avocado. 
7. Dollop some of your pesto on, get back in to bed, put the telly on and enjoy!

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#captureeuphoria Day 6

Today's #captureeuphoria post, for the Ben and Jerry's Instagram competition is about my job, because I'm one of those lucky people who wakes up every morning and wants to go to work (apart from on days off, when I don't ever want to wake up). I work in a Lush shop and it really is the best job ever, I love the girls I work with, I love the company and I love the products. So I'm sharing my favourite bath ballistic/bubble bar cocktail, perfectly named the Mermaids bath. It consists of a big blue bath ballistic  (lemon, sea salt and lavender loveliness) and a sunny side bubble bar (citrusy, shimmery and uplifting). Together they create the most beautiful turquoise, shimmering bath with a wonderful uplifting sent. I could lay there for hours pretending to be a mermaid (especially as I have't had my hair cut in so long, I can make a mermaid like hair bra). If you want to post your euphoric pictures as well check out Ben and Jerry's Instagram website and Facebook.

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Ramen

Do you ever get to that point in the week after Christmas where you couldn't possibly stomach any more Christmas food? No, me either which is why I chased this dish with a slice of Christmas cake, but I did fancy making something different. After having Ramen with my brother a couple of weeks ago I wanted to try and re-create it at home. It's a really simple recipe, the only hard part is trying to get hold of some of the ingredients, luckily I still had some miso paste and wakame in my cupboard from when I made miso soup. So all I needed was tofu, sweet corn and some spring onions. It would be good with shitake mushrooms and topped with a hard boiled egg, but I am afraid of eating both of these things.

Serves 2

100g tofu, drained and pressed
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp sweet chili sauce
1 pack of Clear Spring Miso Bouillon Paste
500 ml boiling water
A handful of wakame seaweed
100g ramen noodles
2 spring onions, chopped
50g sweetcorn
1 tsp sesame seeds

1. Start by chopping your tofu in to small triangles, then mixing the hoisin and sweet chili sauces together. Then pop the tofu in to the sauces and leave to marinate for around 2 hours. 
2. Once the tofu has absorbed all of the flavours, dry fry it (no oil) on a medium heat in a non stick pan until its nice and crispy on the outside, then pop to one side. 
3. Pop your wakame in to a bowl of luke warm water to soak and pop it to one side. 
4. Add the boiling water to a sauce pan, then stir the miso paste in, add the ramen noodles and cook for 3 minutes, then drain the wakame and add it to the miso broth. 
5. Cook for a further minute then transfer it to a bowl, top with your tofu, sweet corn, spring onion (and whatever else you want to add) and enjoy! 

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Saf, Kensington

It was vegan Emma's Birthday a few weeks ago, which is always great because it means I get to go and play with Vegan Emma for a while and it almost always involves good vegan food (like most of our play dates). This year we met up after my training day in London, then went to Saf in Kensington. Emma had a voucher so we could only choose a few things on the menu, but I found it hard to chose out of 3 items, so would have definitely struggled with the full menu. The restaurant is based in Kensington above a Wholefoods (I could spend days in this shop), we rushed there after both being stuck on the same train in different carriages! 

I chose the starter before I went otherwise we would have been there all day! Emma already knew which one I was going to go for, but really, how could I resist raw vegan cheese. The dish sounded amazing, Pesto au Poivre: basil pesto between layers of cashew cheese with a pink peppercorn crust, served with rocket salad, dehydrated raw flax seed crackers and drizzled with a balsamic glaze. It was one of those dishes that tasted as good as it sounded, lovely crunchy flax crackers, with salty cheese and a thick layer of pesto. This was definitely the best cheese substitute I've ever tried and to be honest I would rather eat it over dairy. 

Emma had Dolmades: vine leaves filled with cauliflower rice, pine nuts, cumin, lemon juice and dill served with a vegan yoghurt and cucumber dip. I'm a bit afraid of vine leaves, but tried one anyway for the sake of my blog (and because I couldn't resist). I can confirm that they were also delicious. 

For the main I went for the Asparagus Farinata: slow-roasted asparagus tips in a chickpea farinata crêpe served with lemon- tarragon aioli and house salad. I feel a bit sad with myself for choosing this one because although it was really yummy, Emma and I made something similar not too long ago and I feel like I should have ventured out and had the raw pad thai. This can only be a good thing though, as it means that I will have to go back to try it :)

I loved trying the raw dish at Saf and I'd definitely recommend it for a filling, nutritious meal, you can check out the website here. I had a lovely vegan Emma's birthday (I hope she did too) and we finished the evening off by visiting the roof top film club in Hoxton and watching the Big Lebowski :) 

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Pulled 'Pork' Flatbread

I don't quite know where September went this year, but it seems to be over and that means that Vegan Mofo has started! I not only wanted to blog about vegan food, but also wanted to try to be vegan for the month. I'm sad to tell you that I have already failed. There's a lady (we call her biscuit lady) who always leaves us a packet of biscuits after she shops in Lush. Well, today she came in and left us chocolate biscuits and without even thinking I ate two. I am rubbish. So I decided I should make up for it by making an awesome vegan meal. 

I'd seen vegan pulled pork online and was intrigued by how realistic it looked and how good it sounded. So I popped to my local asian supermarket and brought some jackfruit, it then sat in my cupboard for well over a month until I decided to finally use it. It looks a bit weird, but after you've chopped the solid insidey bit off, it leaves you with a non flavoured stringy 'meat' which you can turn in to pulled pork! I chose the lazy mans route and used ready made BBQ marinade and seasoning, because I feel like being lazy today. It still turned out great, full of flavour and melt in the mouth. Both of my brothers even wanted to eat it which is saying something because they are both massive meat eaters.

Serves 2:

A glug of olive oil
1 small red onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1 tsp BBQ seasoning
Around 500g canned jackfruit in water
250g vegan BBQ marinade
150ml water
2 flatbreads

1. Start by preparing the jackfruit, remove from the can and cut the hard bits off from the inside of the chunks and discard. Then rinse the jackfruit in a sieve under some water and pull the chunks apart with your hands, drain well and leave to one side. 
2. Heat the oil in a sauce pan, then add the onion and fry for around 10 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and fry for a further minute, then tip in the jackfruit and the BBQ seasoning in and fry for another 5 minutes. 
4. Add the BBQ marinade and water and simmer for around 30 minutes stirring occasionally until the jackfruit is lovely and soft. 
5. When it's done, transfer the 'pork' on to your flatbread and fold up, serve it with wedges and vegan slaw (I wanted to make some but Morrisons had run out of carrots!) and enjoy!! 

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Cinnamon Sugar, Banana and Mango Pancakes

This morning I made myself a plan, an actual written out plan of what I should do, because If I didn't I knew I'd just stay in bed watching TV on my laptop and not doing anything all day. My plan was to clean my house, go for a run and something else that I can't remember and quite clearly have not done. I went on a mad cleaning spree last night (who doesn't love falling asleep to the smell of bleach) and I actually got up and went for a run. So I decided I definitely deserved a treat, a pancake shaped treat. I had some amazing mango and cinnamon crepes at Lushfest that I've been craving ever since and vegan banana and oat pancakes keep popping up on Pinterest; so I decided to combine the two together in to some monstrous cinnamony, sugary, bananay, mangoy, oaty pancakes. They tasted so good and I feel like they might be a bit healthier than normal ones (am I kidding myself?) AND best of all, because of the cinnamon they smelled a little bit like CHRISTMAS (which is nearly here you know). I based it on this lovely recipe here, but made a few little changes.

Makes 6 fat pancakes

100g oats
80g whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
350ml Almond milk (vegan Emma's got me addicted)
2 ripe bananas
1 mango sliced in to nice little chunks
4 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Stick all of the ingredients in to a blender (excluding the banana) and give it a good old blitz. 
2. Use one of those cake spatular things to get the mix off to the sides, then add the banana and blend some more. 
3. When it's all lovely and smooth, heat some oil in a frying pan and pour a ladle full in.
4. Cook on one side until it starts to bubble, then flip it over and cook on the other side. 
5. Stack them up and enjoy! They're good on they're own, but even better with maple syrup and berries.

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Fausage Rolls

Do you ever forget things? Things like turning the lights off in your car, taking your money out of the cash point and baking things? Well I obviously do because all of these things have happened to me more than once. I totally forgot about these fake sausage rolls until I was scrolling through my phone pics in a recent moment of boredom/procrastination. You may think this means that they we'rent very nice, since the were so easily forgotten, they really were, I just have the worst memory in the world. I made them for my Nan and Granddads 50th wedding anniversary party, mainly so I could join in on some good old party food eating. I also made them a cake, but I don't really want to focus on that as once again Mike did most of the work while I bossed him around/sprayed everything in my surrounding area gold and threw icing in the bin in a fit of rage (icing cakes is hard).

Ever since I started my love affair with ASDA's Lincolnshire sausage mix, I've been thinking about all of the different ways I could use it. One of them had to be sausage rolls, I can't remember the last time I've eaten one! They are very, very easy, almost too easy, especially if you use pre made pastry. I decided to be a little bit more of a domestic godess and make some rough puff instead, but pre made would be just as good (and if you use jus roll it's vegan too!) The best thing about these (aside from the taste) was the delicious sagey smell coming from the oven. It took me right back to when my dad was teaching me how to make them years and years ago!

For around 20 you'll need;

1 large red onion finely chopped (I blitzed mine in a mini chopper)
1 tbsp Olive oil
4-5 leaves of fresh sage finely chopped
1 packet of ASDA Lincolnshire sausage mix
Salt and pepper
250g Just Roll Puff pastry or homemade rough puff
2 tbsp melted butter or vegan marge

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and line 2 baking trays with grease proof paper.
2. Gently heat the oil in a small frying pan, then add the onion and cook for around 20 minutes until soft. Make sure you heat them gently, no super frying!
3. While they're cooking make the sausage mix according to the directions and leave to stand. 
4. Once the onion is nice and soft add the sage and cook for a few more minutes, then add them to the sausage mixture and combine well. 
5. Roll the pastry out in to a long thin strip, then spoon the sausage mixture on to the pastry towards the right side leaving space to seal it. 
6. Once you have one long sausage running all the way along brush the right side with the melted butter or marge and then fold the left hand side of the pastry over the top. 
7. Brush the remaining butter all over the top of the roll, then slice it in to sausage roll sized slices. 
8. Place them on to the baking trays, giving them room to rise, then pop in to the oven for 25-30 minutes.
9. When they're golden brown, you know they're done. Leave them to cool and then eat! Ta dah!

Here's the cake, (Mr Hef lit the sparklers wrong and ruined the whole party*) Happy Anniversary Nan and Granddad (50 years, that's mental, isn't it?)

*not really.

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Vegan Chili Cheese Fries

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been away house sitting and before that visiting my uni roots in Southampton. If you keep up with my Facebook page (shamless plug there guys) you will have seen that I ate myself in to a near coma with takeaways, cake and nachos from Laura and homemade pizza and beer batter halloumi from Georgie. So upon my return I decided I should probably eat some vegetables and a bit less saturated fat. As I was housesitting, I thought there was no chance of bad food making it's way in to my fridge. Of course it did in the end and I ended up eating beer battered halloumi again (it's just too good) and profiteroles, but I started my week with good intentions!

Sorry for the non DSLR'd picture, I'm house sitting and forgot the charger!

I've already mentioned my love for chili cheese fries, I found them when I was on holiday in America about 9 years ago and I became a full on addict. This was just before I became vegetarian so they were meaty and available everywhere. I loved them so much I even scoured the airport and managed to find some to eat before I went home. I must have become a vegetarian soon after that holiday and decided I could easily vegetarianise them. So since I'm eating less dairy at the moment and was trying to be healthy, I decided to try and veganise them. So I switched my regular chili for bean chili, normal potatoes for sweet ones and cheese for vegan cream cheese. They satisfied my chili cheese fries craving AND I didn't even feel guilty afterwards*!

Serves 2:

2 large sweet potatoes
1 tsp Olive oil + more for the sweet potatoes
1 small red onion finely chopped
1 clove of garlic crushed
1 red pepper chopped
1 tsp mild chili powder
1 can of mixed beans in chili tomato sauce
1 can of chopped tomatoes
As much tofutti cream cheese as you want

1. Start off by preheating the oven to 200 degrees and pop a baking tray with a big glug of oil on in in to the oven.
2. Heat 1tsp of olive oil in a sauce pan then add the chopped onion and the garlic to the oil and sweat on a low heat for around 5 minutes, then add the red pepper and chili powder and cook for a further 10 minutes. 
3. While the onions and peppers are cooking chop the sweet potato in to chip shapes (as chippy as you can, they do come in strange shapes) and place them on to the hot pan with oil on and pop it back in to the oven and leave to cook for around 20-25 minutes
4. Add the beans and chopped tomatoes to the onion and peppers and leave to simmer until the potato wedges are done. 
5. Plate up with chili cheese fries with a layer of sweet potato fries, then some chili and as much tofutti cream cheese as you like and eat!

*until I started eating desert

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Vegan Tales From The Creepy Death Cabin: Part 3

I never wanted to leave the wagon, I could have happily stayed there forever and lived a wonderfully self sustained, eco friendly life, but unfortunately it did have to end. Knowing we were nearing the end of our little holiday we took the boat out, did LOADS of relaxing and of course made use of the pizza oven. I was pretty excited about this and to be honest it was the thing that sealed the deal on booking the cabin for me. So after collecting what seemed like a million sticks of all varieties (choads, spaghetti's and big sticks) I tried to light a fire in the pizza oven. In my head it would work spectacularly well and I would be queen of the pizza oven. 

Vegan pizza

Unfortunately it wasn't that simple... parts of it kept going out, I kept burning my hands and after an hour it still didn't seem that hot. We decided to try it any way (I'm very impatient) and after a while we realised they were cooked, but the vegan cheese wasn't completely melted despite being boiling hot! They we're delicious anyway and I would definitely rate Tofutti mozarella style cheese, it tasted no different to me and was proper nice on top of a pizza. Vegan Emma made an amazing pizza making station and I got a bit over excited, topping mine with everything on the table, asparagus, peppers, onions, artichoke and olives (I even put a token mushroom in the middle).

Vegan Emma's spectacular pizza making station

We covered our bases in pre brought pizza topping (we were away from cooking civilisation after all) and topped them with Tofutti mozzarella style cheese. I feel slightly bad that we've given it the name of Creepy Death Cabin, as it is actually the most wonderful place I've ever been too. I'd highly recommend it if you need a bit of peace and quiet and want to get back to nature, you can find it here.  

Annie (resident dog friend) guarding the pizza oven

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