Category Archives: Vegan

Vegan

Mushroom Shroganoff.

Ingredients

1 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
a yellow pepper, diced
400g mushrooms, sliced (*I used 1/2 white & 1/2 Chestnut)
1 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp mixed spice
400ml tin of coconut milk (*I drained the fluid and used approx. 300ml of solid)

Notes

This is lovely with a mix of white and brown mushrooms too. Serve with boiled rice, salad tossed in vinaigrette and garlic bread (made with vegan marg or olive oil). Yum!

Method

Gently fry the onion, garlic and yellow pepper in the olive oil for a couple of mins until starting to soften.

Add the mushrooms, turn the heat up and cook until starting to brown.

Add the rest of the ingredients, stir well, season to taste and reduce the heat so that it bubbles gently for 15 to 30 mins, stirring occasionally. (The sauce should reduce and thicken to a lovely creamy consistency.)

That's it!

Vegan

Bakewell Tart

Ingredients: (26cm x 19cm tray)

For the Pastry

(if you don't want pastry sides, reduce by 1/3)
300g plain flour
pinch of salt
150g vegan margarine (pure Soya)
3 tablespoons cold water

For the Sponge

170g of self-raising flour
170g of ground almonds
170g of caster sugar (or coconut sugar)
Half a teaspoon of baking powder
One teaspoon of almond extract
150ml of Coconut oil
170ml of water

Also, strawberry or cherry jam, icing sugar and flaked almonds to decorate.

Note:  If using coconut sugar, the sponge will be dark brown.

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
    Rub the margarine into the flour until it looks like fine breadcrumbs, then add a little cold water until it comes together as a dough, or use a food processor.
    Roll out to about a 3mm thickness, then line a tart tin with it.
    Prick with a fork to stop air bubbles from forming, line with foil and add baking beans, then blind bake for 10 minutes.
  2. Spread a generous layer of jam over the pastry.
  3. Mix the dry ingredients for the sponge together, then add the wet ingredients to it; it should be quite runny. Pour it into the pastry case, sprinkle over the flaked almonds and bake for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 160 degrees Celsius and bake for a further 45-55 minutes.
  4. Leave to cool, then shake some icing sugar over the top!

IMG_20150321_150736

IMG_20150321_161217

Vegan

Chocolate Cherry Porter Bread

Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8-10

INGREDIENTS

For the Bread
  • 2 cups (350g) SR flour
  • ¾ cup (70g) sugar
  • ½ cup (50g) cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp. baking powder (if using plain flour)
  • ½ tsp. baking soda (if using plain flour)
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 12Oz (350ml) Porter Beer (Sainsburys TTD)
  • ¼ cup (60g) Vegan Margarine, melted (Pure Soy)
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 2 cups (250g) fresh cherries, pitted and coarsely chopped
For the Chocolate Glaze
  • ½ cup (100g) Vegan Chocolate
  • ½ tbsp. Vegan Margarine (Pure Soy)

INSTRUCTIONS

Make the Bread
  1. Preheat oven to 180C.
  2. Grease or spray a 2lb loaf tin (unless it's nonstck)
  3. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  4. Add porter, margarine and vanilla. Stir just until blended.
  5. Fold in cherries.
  6. Pour into loaf pan.
  7. Bake 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Make the Glaze
  1. Melt chocolate chips on stove top or by microwaving in 30 second increments.
  2. Add margarine and stir until melted and blended.
Finish
  1. Allow loaf to cool and then remove from pan.
  2. Drizzle with glaze.

IMG_20150207_181145

Verdict

Unfortunately this turned out very bland.  The texture was OK, just not much taste.  I'll tweak this until I get it right, then I'll update.

Vegan

Winter Stew

Prep Time: 30 mins (always takes me 2+ hours)
Cooking Time: 1.5 Hours
Oven Temp.: 200C (gas 6)
Servers: 4-6
Calories: 392

Main Ingredients:

2-3 tablespoons of Vegetable oil ( I used coconut oil)
1 Large chopped onion.
5-6 Root vegetables (bite size chunks)
2 Leeks, halved, washed and sliced.
3 Potatoes (bite size chunks)
1 tablespoon of Plain white flour. (or 2)
1.2 litres of Veg stock. (I used 2 litres)
1 tablespoon of Tomato purée (or 2)
0.25 teaspoon of Celery seeds.

Dumplings:

25g of Soya margarine. (I used melted Coconut oil)
175g of Self raising flour.
1 teaspoon of Mixed Herbs
1 tablespoon of Vegetable oil (if using margarine)
A few grinds of Salt and Pepper.
8 tablespoons of Water

Method (Dumplings):

If you're using margarine, rub it into the flour. Add the herbs, Salt and Pepper to the flour and mix well.  Mix the oil and water together and slowly add to the flour to form a soft dough.

Method (Main):

Heat a little of the oil in a pan, and fry the onion quickly until golden brown.  Transfer to an ovenproof casserole dish.   Adding a little more oil as necessary, brown the vegetables in batches transfer to the casserole dish.  Add a little more oil to the pan, stir in the flour and cook over a steady heat, stirring until the flour is browned.  Pour in the stock and bring to the boil, stirring until the stock has thickened.  Add the tomato purée, celery seeds, salt and pepper, then pour over the vegetables.  Cover the casserole and cook in a preheated over for 50 minutes.  Meanwhile, make the dumplings.
When the casserole has cooked 50 minutes, remove the lid and add the dumplins.  Replace the lid and put back into the oven for a further 20-30 minutes.  The dumplings will rise to the top and swell to double their size.

IMG_20150118_184736

Vegan

Roasted Sweet Potato & Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 Large Sweet Potato (diced)
1/2 Large Butternut Squash (diced)
~50ml Coconut Oil
1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Mace
A generous grind of pepper
500ml Vegetable Stock

Method:

Pre-heat the over to 180C
Peel and dice the Sweet Potato & Butternut Squash.
Melt the coconut oil (approx 20 secs in the microwave)
Coat the cubes with the oil, stick them in a baking tray and bake for approx. 40 mins until tender.
Put them in a blender, add the other ingredients and OBLITERATE!

I used 1 whole Sweet Potato & 1 whole Butternut Squash and froze half.

IMG_20140413_173813

Result:

A Very thick, filling, mind blowing tasty bowl of soup.

IMG_20140413_183107

Vegan

Power Shake

Makes approx. 1l

Ingredients:

600ml of a dairy alternative drink
1-2 Bananas (frozen) chunks
1 tablespoon Crunchy Peanut Butter (or make it healthier by using peanut powder)
30g Soy Protein Isolate
1 teaspoon Maca powder (amazon)

Method:

Bang everything in the blender and blend until smooth (approx 1 min).  The consistency should resemble a thick smoothie. 2 Bananas gives a thicker shake :)

For extra nutritional punch, add a handful of Kale

I have this before a weight lifting session or Tai Chi/Dook Sau and it gives me quite the energy boost :)

power

Vegan

Vegan Chocolate Cake

For the cake

190g SR flour
225g sugar
50g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
240ml warm water (you may substitute this for coffee if you want a deeper taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
80ml vegetable/Coconut oil
1 teaspoon white or apple cider vinegar

For the glaze

115g sugar
4 Tablespoons margarine or vegan butter substitute
2 Tablespoons soy milk
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1) Prepare the Cake

Preheat oven to 350F (177C). In an 8 x 8 inch square pan, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt with a fork. Add the water or coffee, vanilla extract, vegetable oil and vinegar. Mix the ingredients together. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack.

2) Prepare the Glaze

In a small saucepan bring the sugar, margarine, soy milk and cocoa powder to a boil, stirring frequently. Simmer for 2 minutes, remove from heat and stir an additional 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract.

3) Glaze the Cake

Pour the glaze onto cake and let it cool for one hour. This recipe makes 1, 8 x 8 inch square Vegan Chocolate Cake.
IMG_20140208_192022
Ok it doesn't rise much, but seriously... it's goooooood!
Unfortunately, the photo doesn't do it justice. :(
Note:  I find if you have a tin where the side comes off, if you pour the frosting on top while the cake is still in the tin and then leave it in the fridge over night.  The frosting becomes a viscous fudge of awesomeness!
IMG_20140209_125235
Vegan

Peanut Butter Brownies

Ingredients:

  • 225g crunchy peanut butter
  • 200g bar dark chocolate, broken into pieces
  • 280g soft light brown sugar
  • 3 egg replacer
  • 100g self-raising flour

Method:

  1. Set aside 50g each of the peanut butter and chocolate.
  2. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 20cm square baking tin with baking parchment.
  3. Gently melt remaining peanut butter, chocolate and all the sugar in a pan, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has just about melted.
  4. Turn off heat and use a wooden spoon to beat in the eggs one by one.
  5. Stir in the flour and scrape into the tin.
  6. Melt reserved peanut butter in the microwave on High for 45 secs, or in a pan, until runny, then drizzle over the brownie.
  7. Bake for 30-35 mins until it has a crust, but the middle still seems slightly uncooked.
  8. Melt reserved chocolate, drizzle over the brownie, then cool in the tin before cutting into squares.

Notes:

Apparently this makes 16 squares!!  :)

Allow to go completely cold before cutting.

I doubled the ingredients for the picture below.. ;)

IMG_0003

Vegan

Almond Biscuits

Makes 20

175 g (6 oz) Self Raising Flour
A pinch of salt
75 g (3 oz) caster sugar (coconut sugar also works well)
50 g (2 oz) ground almonds
100 g (4 oz) Soy Spread
No more than 1/2 teaspoon of almond essence
Blanched almonds (decoration)

NOTE: If you use coconut oil, you're in for a challenge. The dough will be crumbly and will just ooze oil :(

  1. Heat oven to 170ºC, 338ºF, Gas Mark 4. Grease two baking trays (baking parchment works better).
  2. Mix together the dry ingredients, rub in the margarine and essence.
  3. Bring together using your hands.
  4. Roll out thinly and cut into rounds.
  5. Place half a blanched almond on each.
  6. Place on a baking tray (leave an inch between) and bake for 10 minutes.
  7. You can sprinkle a little caster sugar over them fresh out of the oven to make them a little sweeter.
Vegan

Amazing Vegan Pecan Pie

Filling
8 oz (240g) raw sugar
8 oz (240g) brown sugar
2oz (60g) Plain flour
8 tablespoons nondairy milk (I use soy unsweetened)
2 egg substitutes (I use Orgran)
8 oz (240g) vegan butter, melted (Pure Soy Spread)
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
16 oz (480g) pecans

Pastry
16 oz (480g) plain flour
pinch of salt
8 oz (240g) vegan margarine
4 tablespoons cold water

Preparation method (pastry)
Place the salt and flour into the processor.
Add the margarine when the processor is on a low speed, in small pieces.
Keep the processor on medium and add the water. Increase the processor gradually until all the ingredients combine.
Stop when the pastry forms a ball.
Knead lightly to form a ball. Cover in clingfilm and refridgerate until needed.

Non processor method
Place the flour and salt in a bowl.
Add the margarine and rub in lightly with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Sprinkle over the water and mix, using a round-bladed knife, until the mixture begins to bind together and form a dough.
Knead together very lightly and use as required.

Prick the pastry base several times with a fork, line with foil and fill with baking beans, rice or dried pulses. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and beans and bake for another 6 minutes until golden.

For me, the pastry shrank ~1cm from the edge of the flan dish.

Preparation method (filling)
Mix all the ingredients together lightly with a whisk just to break up any lumps and pour into the pastry case.  Add a few halves on top towards the end of the cooking (last 5 mins).  Me being a bloke, just chucked them all in :)


1. Preheat oven to 375F/190C. Mix ingredients. They come out watery.
2. Pour into the pie shell. Place on a cookie sheet and put into the oven for 20 minutes.
3. Reduce oven temperature to 275F/135C. Bake for 20 minutes or longer.
4. Check, centre should be slightly soft, but if it seems too watery, bake for 20 more minutes.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 40-60 minutes

Notes:
I used a 10" Pyrex flan dish which was a little too large.
I found that greasing maybe unnecessary for the tins.

IMG_20141217_183439