I’ve been the last two weeks pretty much playing non-stop with my new Vitamix, a gadget for which I’ve long yearned and have finally acquired. One of the biggest pros about the machine, from these peepers at least, is its ability to quickly and easily make nut butters. With great masses of peanut, cashew, and almond butters stacking up in my limited kitchen space, however, I needed something to actually do with it all.

Vaguely reminiscent of the popular Indian sweet Badam Pak, this vegan fudge uses an almond butter base for both texture and flavour. Almond butter is a smooth and creamy paste with a mild enough flavour to take on the stronger essences of coffee and chocolate, thus making the perfect foundation for a flavoured non-dairy fudge.

Vegan fudge recipe notes

Getting the consistency of the sugar syrup right is fairly important, but the worst that will happen if you don’t is your fudge won’t be as solid. You’ve got a couple of options at this point, the easiest being to roll tablespoonfuls into balls (which you can then coat with sugar, chopped nuts, or paperclips. Except possibly not the latter).

The second option is to remove some of the moisture by cooking the mixture further. If you opt for this choice, make sure the heat isn’t too high and that you stir constantly.

In my dairy days I would fry a soft cheese such a brie or camembert in a similar manner, and it was a real treat. This isn’t a firm replacement for the latter concept, but it’s still tasty and it looks fancy (so it’s a good dish to impress).

Recipe Notes

An easy starter, yes, but one which takes some planning ahead. You’ll need to start with a batch of vegan labneh, so it’s best to plan for this salad with a day or so worth of notice. You can make the dressing in advance, too. Add some pizazz by throwing in some thyme or other herbs if you’d like, to the dressing I mean, but for this I personally prefer an extremely basic, tangy vinaigrette. Raspberries and vinegar, with sugar to adjust the tartness.

Don’t skimp on the mint and basil chiffonade, either. And if you can’t pronounce that word, let alone be arsed to do it, just chop stuff up small and you’ll be good to go.

Labneh, or strained yoghurt cheese, is a traditional Middle Eastern condiment used to prepare a number of both sweet and savoury foods. Also eaten on its own or with bread, this easy to make cheese is achieved by leaving full fat yogurt to hang in a muslin or cheesecloth sack for several hours or overnight. In my pre-vegan days, this was a favourite addition to one of my favourite meals: a gigantic mezze spread.

Ah, but how to achieve labneh without dairy?

I knew I could do this, somehow, even if not an exact replication, but how?

Miyoko Schinner’s Vegan Yoghurt

I didn’t want to simply strain soy yogurt for two major reasons: plain soy yogurt is too sweet (and is much more akin to flavourless American style “Greek” yogurts, in my opinion, than the real thing), and it’s usually far too thin.

It was this video, a cooking tutorial by Miyoko Schinner, that inspired my own endeavour. The addition of cashews thickens the yoghurt and the minimal use of store sweetened soygurts allows the bacterial to multiply and coagulate to milk sans all the other crap. It’s a fuller soy yoghurt that can be strained easily.

Recipe notes and applications

Please note that all of my suggestions and yield sizes are based on the use of homemade soy milk. That’s not to say you can’t make it with store bought milk, but if you try it I suggest buying the one with the most basic of ingredient lists. No sweeteners or artificial flavourings, por favor.

In the process of straining, you can add salt if you’d like. I usually add it after, but that’s usually out of forgetfulness rather than by preference of method. A splash of lemon juice added post-production will also add an extra tang that’s a bit more reminiscent of the original dish this is trying to mimic.

As far as other flavours go, be creative! You can add all sorts of goodies, even mixes of other non dairy cheeses, to create delicious spreads and cheeseballs. One of my favourite ways to eat this, as directed below, is with some garlic and lemon, topped with quality extra virgin olive oil and za’atar.

Stay tuned for more recipes in which to use this strained yoghurt!

Recipe Notes

I’ve included a diagram of how to cut the filo pastry, but don’t get too bent out of shape on perfection here. So long as you cover some filo with fat and bake it, you’ll end up with something edible!

You can fill these tartlets with all sorts of goodies, and they can be served either as Hors d’œuvres or as part of a main. I love them with some marrowfat peas and new potatoes!

Originally published August 30, 2006. Recipe updated to be vegan.

Unsure whether these should be called vegan au gratin potatoes or scalloped potatoes, I hit the googlenets to get down and dirty with some serious research to ascertain the difference between au gratin and scalloped. All the Yahoo! Answers responses and Wikipedia entries in the world would not prepare me for the number of serious queries about boxed and freeze dried potatoes out there.

Yes, millions of answers out there, laying latent in the hope that a functional half-wit will click through. It breaks my heart to realise what people consider to be food and that half an hour is considered an unreasonable amount of time for meal preparation. Okay, shutting up. I’ll judge the world more later.

Digging around surfaced the general concensus that the difference is vaguely semantic but commonly acknowledged as follows: potatoes au gratin are generally layered with cheese, topped with breadcrumbs, and oven-baked to obtain a crispy top layer. Scalloped potatoes, on the other hand, are cooked in a milk based white sauce.

So what happens if you combine the methods? Do I have vegan au gratin potatoes or vegan scalloped potatoes here?

Recipe Notes

Whether you call it a gratin or scalloped potatoes, this veganised version relies on a slightly atypical cooking method. Calling all folk who want a 30 minute scalloped potato dish: using the hob speeds the potato cooking up marginally and a final few minutes under the grill melts the cheese topping.

If your soy milk and yogurt mixture doesn’t cover all of the potatoes completely, don’t fret. The lid on the pan will help uncovered potatoes to steam, and if you use a good waxy new potato then they’ll cook fairly quickly anyway. If, after simmering for the instructed 15 minutes, your potatoes aren’t close to being done then try adding some more soy milk and yogurt and continue cooking for a little longer.

For the cheese topping, I used a mixture of Daiya cheddar style shreds, smoked Sheese, and grated toffuti mozzarella, but feel free to use whichever vegan cheese you prefer. Come to think of it, any creamy sauce would most likely work as well.

Mushroom and ale pie, ale and mushroom pie. Doesn’t it sound so, I don’t know, rustic? I mean I know I’ve been living in the UK for nine years now, but I still have these overstated fantasies of provincial England. You know, homemade bread, pie, jam tarts. Romantic, overstated and embellished non-existant England. Unless you live in my head, in which case all English people are buddies with rainbow coloured ponies who have hearts for eyes and frolic under always blue skies and sunshine day in and day out whilst I bake. PIES.

Yeah, I know, that sunshine and blue skies thing sort of takes it over the top. And everybody knows ponies only come in a maximum of five colours so Roy G. Biv just isn’t possible in this scenario.

Recipe notes

This vegetarian mushroom and ale pie recipe makes enough to serve four, provided you’ve got some veggies on the side. Think typical here: peas (mushy or not) and potatoes. My preference? Roasted spuds and minted peas, topped with either a mushroom or red wine gravy. I love me a heap of puff pastry with a Sunday roast, the way the gravy soggifies (yes, that’s not officially a word*) part of the pastry while the rest stays cripsy and golden.

*in my head, anyway. I spend a lot of time there. Can you tell?

Reason number one, however, has nothing to do with perceived value in a brand; it’s all about flavour and control, consistency and general all-around mind-blowing awesomeness. Yes, because homemade tofu kicks the arse of anything you’ll purchase off the shelf.

Tofu used to disgust me. Then something happened to change my mind: I went to China. Cliché or not, my venture into bean curd as a food occured at at Gong de Lin restaurant in Beijing, and it’s one of my most treasured memories to date. But here’s a tip, folks: if you don’t know how to use chopsticks, I highly recommend you don’t begin your education with a steaming pot silken tofu. My wrists swollen and aggrieved by what I’d put them through, I still went on to try every tofu dish I could find, and returned home determined to devour as much bean curd as I could find.

Alas, I was disappointed. Nothing was the same as the tofu in Asia. One more trip to the Southeast a year or two later saw me return home once more with a new goal in mind. I would make my own tofu, and experiment ’til blue in the face to obtain a good, firm tofu that didn’t taste like the culinary equivalent of meh. Here’s one of my basic tofu recipes, using a Soy Quick, for a good, solid firm cake.

The tofu making arsenal

Tofu is really easy to make. Granted the supplies you need look like a lot, but I’d be willing to bet you have most of what you need already. The two things you’re not likely to have are a tofu mould/press and coagulant, perhaps soybeans too.

• Dried soy beans can be purchased pretty easily these days. I buy in bulk, up to 25 kilograms at a time, and store them in a supersized tupperware box under the sofa.
• A blender or soy milk maker is necessary to make the soy milk, which you need prior to curdling it to obtain the curds for tofu. I use a Soy Quick machine, but a blender should work fine too as the process is essentially one of blending soaked beans with hot water and straining to acquire soymilk.
• Straining tools are hence useful, since it helps you skim loose bits of soy pulp out of the milk and aids in separating the curds from the whey in the final stages.
• A large pot with a lid doubles as a receptacle for the fresh soy milk as well as a holding pen for the curdled milk before it’s strained.
• Some sort of coagulant, such as nigari or gypsum (calcium sulfate), is a must to turn your milk into curd.
• Plenty of thin muslin fabric or thick cheesecloth will help form the tofu as well as allow liquid to escape while holding the curds inside.
• A tofu mould lets you press the curd, once drained from the whey, into what you’d recognise as tofu. This is one piece of kit you probably don’t have and won’t find easily, but you can ghetto craft it out of old tupperware (drill some holes), find a cheap plastic one online, or go all out and find a nice wooden crafted one (my dad made mine because he’s awesome). You could even use a colander lined with muslin (you just don’t have a uniform block of tofu is all). Needless to say, you have many options.

Making the Fresh Soy Milk

Soak about 350g of soy beans (that’s 4 of the cups Soy Quick provides worth of dried beans) overnight. When you’re ready to make your soy milk, drain the water and rinse the beans. The soaked and drained weight of the beans will be in the 875g ball park.

Place 220 grams (approximately 25%) of the soya beans into the basket of your Soy Quick machine and fill the jug to somewhere close to the higher mark (about 1.5 litres of water). Run the machine on a single cycle, remove the basket, discard the pulp, and add another 220g soy beans to the basket. Run the machine again with these beans in the original batch of soy milk.

You’ll notice a layer of foam and random pulp on the milk when it’s done, which you can strain away if you want a smoother tofu.

So once the second cycle is finished, skim the foam away from the top of the milk, but don’t worry too much about getting everything out (you could be there for days). You just want to move the majority of the visible stuff away.

Keep it warm, buddy!

Pour the first batch of milk into a large dutch oven or pot and place a lid on to keep the heat in.

Repeat the soy milk making process above with the remaining two lots of soy beans to make a second batch of milk.

Coagulate that soy milk, kiddo!

Mix 3 teaspoons of flaked nigari with 200ml of boiling water, and set aside.

Once the second batch of soy milk is made, skim it and pour it into the pot too. The soy milk needs to be pretty hot here, so just to be on the safe side pop the hob on for a few minutes to get some heat through the fresh milk. Just be sure to stir the whole time.

When the milk comes close to a boil, remove from the heat and stir it very rapidly so you get something like a whirlpool effect going on in there.

Remove the spoon with which you’re stirring and slowly pour the nigari mixture across the spinning milk. Pop the lid back on and leave it for about ten minutes.

When you remove the lid, you should see something like this. Basically, any liquid left should be clear, a yellowish green colour. That’s the whey, and the white stuff is what’s going to become your tofu very soon. If any liquid is still cloudy, try mixing the pot’s contents a bit by shaking it about (though try avoiding my trick of just dumping it all over the stovetop). If that isn’t enough, add a little more coagulant and leave for another few minutes with the lid on.

Give yourself some space for error here. It takes a bit of experimentation to find what works best for you. Sometimes I mix nigari with gypsum to coagulate, and other times I use just gypsum. There are endless combinations to achieve a consistency you like best. Worst case scenario: you waste a little soy milk because it hasn’t all coagulated, or you over-coagulate the milk and end up with smaller curds and less yield. Not the end of the world.

Other coagulants include sea water, lemon juice, liquid nigari, and vinegar. My recommendation is to use nigari and/or gypsum (calcium sulfate) to make your own tofu. Lemon juice and vinegar won’t yield as much and the flavour won’t be quite the same. I order nigari online, and I’ve found gypsum in kitchen shops (in the beer making section).

Straining a-whey (har har)

Wow, that was bad.

At this point it’s best to move everything you’re about to do close to the sink, just for convenience.

I’ve found the easiest way to separate the soy curds and whey is with your basic mesh strainer and a tea cup. Pop the mesh into the pot, and use the cup to collect and discard the liquid.

You should be able to remove the majority of the whey with this method, but a little will still remain. That’s okay.

Alternatively, you can line a colander with your muslin or cheesecloth and strain the whole lot by pouring it in there. I personally just find my method quicker and easier.

Moulding the soy curd into tofu

Place your tofu mould into the sink and line it with muslin. Spoon the curds in (I use a smaller straining spoon to do this in order to drain away any remaining whey). You can just dump the whole lot in if you’re not a slob like me who’s likely to chuck the whole thing over the side of the sink.

Put the lid on/in the box and press with your desired weight. It won’t come as a surprise to most folks that the harder you press the tofu, the more firm it will be. If you want a really soft tofu, use little weight and little time.

To make a very firm tofu, I usually press the bean curd in the box for twenty minutes or so with a cutting board and a pot of water on top. Then I wrap the cake in a tea towel and further press it for at least ten minutes. Again, this will take some experimenting to achieve what’s the perfect consistency and texture to you for your chosen use of the end product.

Fresh homemade tofu

And there is is, folks! It seems more complicated than it is, but it’s really fast, economical, and easy. If you don’t have a Soya Milk maker, don’t fret. A blender and hot water is an acceptable alternative!

Refrigerate the tofu to store (it’ll keep on its own for a few days, but you can stick it in some liquid too). Be sure to try some while it’s still warm and freshly made though, because that’s when it’s at its best and I think you’ll certainly be able to taste a big difference. I know I can.

If you’re really interested in making your own soy products, I highly recommend purchasing a copy of The Big Book of Tofu, by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi. It’s how I got started making my own tofu, and it’s full of interesting and useful facts about our friend the soy bean.

My partner hates tomatoes, despite my argument that they’re different in the summer. I go on about it a lot, I know, but I always hated them too. I mean hated them with a passion unless they were boiled and blended into a smooth sauce. It was Britain that changed my attitude. While I still don’t love them raw as much as I’d love to love a raw tomato, one of the greatest culinary treats to me has become lightly roasted baby plum toms.

Crap, I had a point to all of this.

I was never a fan of broad beans until recent years. Known as fava beans in the US, I don’t remember ever knowingly consuming one (though I can’t quite believe I’d never had them before). Anyhow, I’d certainly never consumed a fresh broad bean. Here in the UK they’re all over the greengrocers’ shelves right now, and I’m learning to enjoy them in a multitude of ways: fried, boiled, and only ever with mild flavours to accompany this bean.

Oh, the point: my partner the tomato hater thoroughly enjoyed this pasta salad so, you know, you should give a try too if you self-label as anti-tomato.

Recipe Notes

As with many of my recipes, there’s room here for more or less of most ingredients. Love the tomatoes? Throw some more in the oven! Can’t get enough of the sweet basil taste? Chuck in another tablespoon. I’m sure this would also be good with some lightly roasted nuts (like cashews or smoked almonds)!

I mentioned in the directions you could pound the garlic, oil, and lemon juice with a pestle and mortar for a more raw garlic taste, but I’d be weary of serving this to any guests you don’t know well unless you leave it overnight to chill in strength a bit. Raw garlic can be quite overpowering!

It never ceases to amaze me how few okara recipes there are available. That was a bit of an overstatement, but I mean I always just see things like “oh, I throw it in muffins” rather than concrete recipes. There are a few good recipes out there, like Fat Free Vegan’s “Crab” Cakes and the repository at Ellen’s Kitchen, but in general the pickings are slim.

So here’s a dead simple recipe with tasty results, a thick burger made from okara. I really want to get some more okara recipes out there since it’s such a nutritious thing to waste (for those who make their own soy milk, you can probably relate with the guilt felt when throwing yet another batch in the bin). If you have any suggestions, please, by all means share them!

Recipe Notes

These okara burgers are more like the beefier of the frozen veggie dealios you pick up at your supermarket. No vegetables here, I’m afraid (but technically wine contains fruit, so it totally counts as healthy). Experiment with the spices all you want, but I recommend sticking with the yeast extract because it really imparts a beefy flavour. Finally, for a less firm burger try using a little more liquid in the mix.

For years I’ve read about this seasonal goodie, the edible flower of the summer squash which we know as courgette (or zucchini, depending on where you’re from). It’s a vegetable which takes over supermarket shelves in late summer, but sadly the blossoms rarely come attached to their counterpart. For the first time in, well, ever, I found some at a farm shop last weekend. My initial reaction was to greedily purchase the entire basket, but I settled with a mere half dozen.

I should have gone with the whole basket.

Recipe notes

What to do? Make stuffed courgette flowers? Yes. Deep fried in beer batter? Most definitely.

For the beer batter I used a moderately light lager, Becks if I remember correctly. I’d stick with light, even so much as something like Corona. If you don’t consume alcohol, try soda water instead.

And yes, I realise Daiya cheese isn’t available here in the UK. I hoard it like my mother hoards cereal on sale (sorry mom, it was the best analogy I could think of), using it sparingly for a treat (I go to the US a couple of times a year). Try any melty vegan cheese here, a cheddar or mozzarella style preferably, and it’ll be good.

Apple sauce is one of those things, much like peanut butter, that doesn’t seem to have entered into the British repetoire of foods until recently. Even still I face raised eyebrows and averted eyes when I mention my love of apple sauce. “You… you eat it plain?” they say, like it’s a crime. Yes, yes, yes, and so should you! I figured with traditional Pimm’s, probably the nation’s second drink (next to tea, naturally), maybe someone would give it a go. This is an easy recipe, perfect for a warm summer’s evening, an easy vegan applesauce with strawberries and spices.

Recipe Notes

A few weeks ago, I picked up some Saigon cinnamon and have since been keen to try it out. It’s the strongest and sweetest cinnamon you can buy, so a little goes a long way. You may have correctly deduced this means to use more cinnamon if you’ve only got the standard variety on hand, but I highly recommend seeking the Vietnamese stuff out.

Popular in the U.K., Pimm’s is a gin-based alcoholic drink with spicy citrus undertones, often consumed with fizzy lemonade mixed with fruits and mint. Here it’s used as the main base in cooking down the apples, and complements the final flavour well. If you don’t have any Pimm’s on hand, try a mix of gin and orange juice, or wholly the latter. You may want to cut down on sugar if you use all juice.

If you want a real treat, layer strawberry apple sauce with vanilla soy yoghurt, topped with ginger cookie crumbs!

When it comes to snacks and dinner party appetisers, sometimes the simplest things are best; this gourmet vegan cheese ball (hey, it looks gourmet, even if it’s easy) is no exception. I feel like I’ve said that about something else recently. I get paranoid about repeating myself too much. Four gold stars to the person who can find where I’ve already said that. Metaphorical stars. Invisible ones. Use your imagination, okay?

You remember those containers of plastic cheese (yes, the adjective “plastic” refers to the cheese as well as its receptacle) your mother would pick up from Sam’s Club or Costco, or whatever your local cash and carry megagluttony store might have been? Specifically, do you remember the port wine ones? Yeah, that stuff was pretty much one of the best tasting things ever. I mean, I don’t even know how I didn’t have a heart attack at age 11 based on how much of that I consumed.

Recipe Notes

Okay, so point being this non-dairy cheese ball is reminiscent of the port wine spread. I used sherry here, but feel free to use a port wine too for a stronger flavour (but don’t expect that red and orange streaked nonsense without astronomical rations of dye).

This makes a great vegan cheese pasta sauce too! Just mix it with a bit of margarine and/or pseudo cream cheese to bulk it up and add an extra creamy texture (if that’s your thing). Perfect with a side of garlic bread, but then again what isn’t?

There is nothing better than a British tomato in season. That is, until I consume the next batch of national seasonal illustriousness, in which case that will likely be the best thing ever. What can I say? I’m fickle.

Have I mentioned 10,001 times yet how much I love this time of year for seasonal produce?

But there’s one unfortunate aspect of life in the UK (and I mean aside from that harebrained pile of nonsense that is the study guide to becoming a UK citizen), and that’s the distinct lack of one of my other favourite provisions: the velvety avocado. Oh you can get them here, sure, but to find the perfectly ripened fruit is rare. I’ll stand in the produce aisles poking and prodding each specimen of each variety, closely inspecting the stem, often leaving empty handed. Every once in awhile, however, I’ll find a gem.

A sweet and tangy tomato pairs well with the lovely avocado, so give this puff pastry tart a try! It’s certainly the right time of year to be enjoying this sort of thing, even if the weather has been crap. Just throw a salad alongside and call it summer. That’ll make it so, right?

Is it wrong of me to compose two posts in a row which use potatoes as the principle constituent of the dish in question? It’s the Jersey Royal season, so it’s hard for me to not eat them constantly. Embrace seasonality and fill your belly with as many of these velvety spuds as you can, I tell you!

You know those indecisive days, the ones where you crave a selection of foods for dinner? Yesterday was one of those days. A bag of creamy jerseys sat on my countertop and sacks of leafy spinach were hidden away in my fridge, plus I was determined to use some of the Daiya I smuggled back from the states. Oh, and there had to be cumin involved, but curry wasn’t going to fit the bill. I quite fancied some corn too.

I had to let my itch for ice cream go. No one’s that good.

Recipe Notes

Perfect if you’re having guests around, try making these in individual oven proof dishes to maintain the layers when serving. If you can find some then I recommend topping them with a mix of Daiya cheeses, not just for visual effect, but for taste. Sadly Daiya isn’t yet available in the UK, but any meltable mozzarella substitute should work. I imagine a mix of that and the orange tofutti slices, despite sounding a bit naff, would be pretty awesome (they taste somewhat similar to the Daiya cheddar style shreds and melt well).

Anyhow, if you’re looking for recipes with new potatoes and spinach, you’re in the right place.

Okay, so it’s just potato salad for eff’s sake. Does the world need yet another potato salad recipe, dairy free or not?

This is where I come up with a tremendously prodigious response along the lines of “OMFG one potato salad to rule them all, with stars, hearts, lots of exclamation points and stuff! YEAH!”

No.

It’s just potato salad, but it’s really good, and vegan yoghurt makes a way better sour cream substitue than any commercially available substitute I’ve tried. Give it a try. In fact, I need to make some more since the dude out there ate it all.

Recipe Notes

Branston pickle, for those who’ve never heard of it, is a sweet and tangy pickled relish containing a whole melody of uniformly diced veggies (which you can’t pick out individually). A brand suffering from low-key genericide, Branston Pickle is often used to refer to any sort of sweet brown pickle relish, and any such variety will do for the purpose of this recipe. If you don’t have any approximation then don’t stress because it’ll still taste good; you could even try dicing up some jarred pickles instead.

This vegan potato salad recipe makes a fair amount of dressing (hey, I like creamy stuff), so consider cutting back on some of the yoghurt if that’s going to be an issue for your digestive bits. That’s also why I gave a range in the quantity of potatoes to use, if you must know.

Strawberries are one of the many foods which are only worth my while fresh when they’re in season and local. Call me a snob, but these a fruit that do not ripen properly when picked early; this means those which come from a distance rarely make the cut when it comes to flavour. I’ll take a local British strawberry any day, even if it means the supplies are limited to just a couple of months of the year. These cookies were made from some of my first strawberry purchases of the season.

I often like to over-complicate my food. When it comes to strawberries, however, I’m firmly of the opinion that some things deserve to be simple. These strawberry and chocolate cookies are far from complicated and are dead easy. Try serving them with a dollop of soy whipped cream!

You know how much of a sucker I am for any food that’s even remotely arabic. I mean, come on, how could you go wrong with a cuisine which can use so few ingredients, often the same ones again and again, to achieve such a bountiful display of flavour and general awesomeness? If you’re in any way as big a fan as I am then I have a feeling you’ll enjoy this vegan spinach börek recipe.

A term to cover multiple definitions

The concept of börek is more a method than a dish in itself as there are tens of ways you can prepare these pastries. Originally Turkish, it’s a dish now popular all over the Middle East and also in Eastern Europe. The most basic components of börek are simple: pastry, filled and baked or fried. Wrapped, rolled, or layered, this classic concept covers a broad range of recipes. The recipe below is based on the idea of sigara börek, or cigar filo pastries.

Recipe Notes

This doesn’t have to be a precise recipe. Use chard (silverbeet) if you want, or vary the quantities. Add nuts or TVP. Go crazy! Culinary crazy, not tinfoil hat crazy; ice-cream and string do not make good börek filling.

These spinach cigar börek pastries are meant as a main meal, so they’re bulky and dinner plate friendly. If you’re looking for a party treat, use more pastry (in smaller pieces) and less spinach to create smaller cigars. The bonus of serving these as a main meal is there’s no harm done if they explode a bit and the spinach oozes out of the filo.

If you want to bulk the meal up a bit, serve the sigara börek on a bed of steamed couscous or a freshly made toubouleh salad.

A popular topic amongst families of mixed dietery needs is the highly esteemed Sunday lunch. For many families in Britain, this is the most dependable meal of the week, a beacon at the end of the tunnel of Monday to Friday madness. It’s a time for the family to sit down together, to enjoy a meal, to warm up on a freezing spring Sunday (since apparently it’s winter here in Southeast England).

Ah, but what if nan’s just taken on vegetarianism or your daughter’s vegan boyfriend is coming around to disrupt your valued family time enjoy a meal? There’s always the reliable Fry’s chicken burgers (these do go well with roast spuds, I must admit) or Redwoods roasts, but if you’re looking for something that’s les prep-prepared then there are still options.

Recipe Notes

I personally love a pastry based component of a roast, the way the top stays lovely and crisp while the bottom soaks in the gravy and goes slightly soggy. Gross? Not at all; a good gravy should flavour everything on that heaped Sunday plate!

These pies are delicate but wholesome and filling, with a creamy centre containing the considerably underestimated (at least in the UK) sweet potato. They’re also good cold, so make a good addition to any picnic. Likewise, these pies are an ideal part of any underachiever’s breakfast (hello? Open fridge. Shove something in face. The end).

Try making a great big pie or swapping ingredients around. This is more of a suggestion of method rather than content, though I’m of the opinion that this filling is good as it is. Obviously. Plus it doesn’t require any special pans to achieve a clever pie shaped pie.

It’s hard to avoid beginning too many posts with “I love <insert name of recipe I’m blogging about here>…” because, well, why would I cook stuff I don’t like and then tell you to eat it? The thing is, I really, really love noodles. Noodles are not only my homeboy, but they are also a biological requirement for my diet. That is, if I don’t have them often, I will cry. Udon, a thick wheat noodle popular in Japan, are one of my favourite types, and they go perfectly with a simple vegan dashi broth like in the recipe below.

Recipe Notes

Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about an udon noodle recipe. This is similar in basic ingredients, but packs a little more flavour in with the additional vegetables and toasted sesame seeds.

If you don’t have toasted sesame seeds and don’t know how to make them, it’s easy! Just heat a large pan over medium heat and dry fry sesame seeds for a few minutes, shaking the pan often to ensure they toast evenly.

I sure do use the word “awesome” a lot, don’t I?

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

This month marks the release of Terry Hope Romero’s much anticipated Viva Vegan! I am just dying for this book. An American expat misses Latin American food more than, well, more than a great analogy I can’t think of (suggestions are welcome). The thought of getting my grubby mits on what rumour is saying is quite the fabulous book has left me desperate for something South of the border in flavour, and these vegan taquitos are the result.

I’ve been sitting on this for a week or two, but seeing as it’s the 5th of May it seems an appropriate time to share.

It’s good. Really good. I ate them for breakfast the day I made them.

Mexican Food in the UK

Londoners searching for corn tortillas (and other goodies like corn husks) should look no further than the Cool Chile Company for authentic Mexican ingredients. And no, those Old El Paso yellow things don’t count.

Taquito making, by picture

Softening the corn tortillas

Wrapping and pinning the tortillas

Frying the taquitos

I would lie if I said I didn’t eat much pasta. Whether it’s in the form of noodles, gyoza, or macaroni, I’m a sucker for boiled pieces of dough. At least I try to maintain variety (were it up to my partner, we’d eat pasta every night of the week).

One of the family staples during my time at university (an era which is sadly retreating further and further into the past) was a tomato and mascarpone cheese pasta bake, a straight-out-of-the-jar meal which satisfied two teenage boys and had the additional benefit of taking minimal effort to prepare. These were in the days before I got really into cooking (thank goodness I didn’t continue on to grad school, right?)

Needless to say, I don’t consume that sauce now I’m vegan, but it’s still possibly to obtain a creamy texture and taste without dairy, butternut squash being a fine ingredient to accomplish such a consistency.

Plus I just needed to use up some leftover butternut squash.

Very simple to make and tasty to eat, this recipe for marsh samphire is perfect for a warm spring or summer evening.

A brief look at samphire

This is a plant of which I’d not heard until very recently. Having never seen it for sale before, I quickly forgot about the existance of this somewhat rare plant, but upon spotting it at London’s Borough Market a couple of weeks ago I quickly grabbed a few handfuls.

Marsh samphire, also known sometimes as glasswort or sea asparagus, is a plant which thrives in saline environments (a halophyte, if you’re into that sort of knowledge). The cactus-like plant can be found along salty marshes and coastal areas in Britain and the USA, and is worth seeking out if you can.

Recipe notes

Astute readers of this blog will have likely noted minimal quantities of salt in the majority of my recipes. When I prepared this marsh samphire dish, I omitted all but a small pinch of salt because samphire is naturally salty. Hence, if you cook with it, I recommend erring on the side of less salt until you first try the end result.

The recipe below prepares enough for two, but as more of a light meal than a substantial plateful. If you want to bulk it up then I suggest upping the quinoa and samphire quantities, and adding a bit more lemon and dill.

This is a simple and wholesome banana cookie bar, a perfect on the go morning snack (as much as I hate the concept of food on the go). These dairy free banana bars are thin and light, with minimal fat (especially if you avoid the peanut butter icing) and have a texture which is chewy but still fairly light.

A sideline: Bananas were always one of those fruits which were very neutral in my mind; a take them or leave them sort of attitude prevailed. That is, until I visited Southeast Asia for the first time. This had two opposing effects on me: I realised how divine a banana could be and I came to understand I’d never again appreciate a banana at home the way I could in a native environment. So I pretty much gave up eating bananas, saving them for cooking and the occasional smoothie.

Nothing beats the nutty, creamy taste of a ripe avocado, and this oven baked avocado recipe really shows off the characteristics of the decadent fruit. The avocado is baked lightly and served warm with a tangy tomato sauce and sweet cashew coulis, the entire stack resting on a bed of lightly fried vegetables.

This baked avocado recipe was inspired by one served at London’s 222 Veggie Vegan restaurant. Similar but not quite the same, I promise this avocado recipe won’t disappoint.

If you’re a bit weary of baking avocado, just go ahead and give it a try. It sounds odd, but the only difference is the fruit is a) warmer and b) creamier. The former adjective, I realise, would appear to be a given seeing as this is a baked avocado recipe, but sometimes common sense comes at a premium. I may be talking about myself.

Layering the avostack

Avostack. What an excellent word.

Look, you’re not going to screw up how it tastes so long as you have the four basic components: the tomato sauce, the baked avocado slices, the fried vegetables, and the cream sauce. Still, think of it in terms of two basic chunks of layering. First the fried julienned vegetables go down with a bit of yoghurt sauce and basil.

After that you simply want to layer the avocado slices with tomato sauce and top with a bit of both sauces and the remaining basil. Really, I promise, this baked avocado recipe looks a whole lot fancier than it actually is to put together.

As a vegetarian I used to make a similar dish using a soft brie or camembert and, as with most things, I refuse to let my change in diet limit my food opportunities. This is one of my alternative solutions to the dairy version, a healthier and happier vegan non-dairy cheese. And it involves deep frying, which means it must be good. Okay, so mostly healthy (frying really isn’t that bad for you so long as you use decent oil and don’t overheat it. I tell myself this).

Recipe Notes

My recommendation is to serve this simply on a bed of rocket (arugula) leaves with a dollop of blackcurrant or lingonberry (yes, I’ve been to Ikea recently) jam. Cranberry works too. Pretty much any leafy greens will complement this vegan side and it makes a lovely light lunch on a spring afternoon.

If you want a more tart flavour in this vegan cream cheese recipe, try adding some vegan yoghurt or lemon juice and upping the nut content to compensate for the additional moisture.

Recipe Notes

I’m a big fan of getting creative in the kitchen, whether it’s with a recipe of my own or an already composed winner from a favourite cook book. The same rule applies to this bonbon recipe, so I encourage you to use your imagination with these cute cookies, to go crazy with colour combinations, fillings, and toppings. Dried fruits, candied ginger, chocolate chunks, anything you think would make an agreeable centre. And who said there was anything wrong with an electric blue cookie with hot pink icing? Topped with almond slivers and chocolate chips?

Achieve a marbled effect with the dough by waiting until everything is mixed before adding the colouring, mixing it in last until your dough acquires the desire look. Heck, why not try multiple colours?

Yes, these cookies would be great for children. This I know, because I am one. A children, that is. Not a cookie.

Sesame and miso get along famously, complementing each other in a way that makes a perfect base for soups, stir fry sauces, and salad dressings. This basic miso salad dressing recipe uses tahini for thickness and creaminess, but a nice sesame oil is just as delicious. The best part? It’s probably the easiest salad dressing you’ll ever have to make.

And this stuff really does go well with the ol’ stir fry. Today’s lunch involved broccoli and red onion stir fried in groundnut oil with some garlic, a splash of soy and chili sauces, a few tablespoons of coconut milk, and a splodge of this dressing. But miso enthusiasts, beware: the high heat will kill off all the healthful bacteria in that soy paste.

I’ve been meaning to make an Italian vegetarian meatball alternative for ages, but life caught up with me and time took me past my kitchen at light speed. Exhausted, walking barefoot through 8 feet of snow, uphill both ways to school, I’ve managed to get this done once and for all. Sigh of relief ensues. Feelings of self-pity evaporate.

Translation: I had to go out of town on a last minute emergency and I’m back home in my own kitchen now.

Recipe notes

This veggie meatball uses nutritious okara, the soy pulp left over in the soy milk making process, but feel free to use a pressed extra firm tofu if you don’t have okara on hand.

The recipe for these meatless balls is for a basic Italian style, but get playful with the herbs and spices to obtain the flavour you crave. If you like your food salty, add some more in the dry mix (I always go light on salt).

Pizza, pizza, pizza! A few weekends ago I invited my in laws over for lunch, determined to feed them something they’d never otherwise eat. I realise it seems crazy to think there are people in this world who don’t consume pizza on at least a semi-regular basis, but there you go.

The more time I spend in a kitchen, the more confident I get serving first time experiments to guests (I’ll let you know about the upcoming disaster regarding this scenario, because I’ve surely jinxed myself now). This, a thin crust pizza without a tomato in sight, was luckily a real hit.

Fry’s chicken burgers sliced, plus a creamy blue sheese base, sprinkled with a handful of walnuts, makes for a father in law who pretty much leaves no leftovers behind. Is there no better feeling in the world than a certified omnivore boldly enjoying your weeegan food so much?

I’m still ironing out some wrinkles in the recipe, but it’s essentially a thinner version of my blue cheese spread (only made with a yoghurt and cashew base with extra herbs and spices added) on this beer pizza crust base.

Oh, and it’s worth mentioning the rate at which aforementioned father in law downed the homemade vegan cookies and cream ice cream we had for afters. The speed at which he consumed it was approaching that of light.

Basic, filling, awesome and, well, awesome, everyone needs a basic recipe for miso soup. This vegan version swaps the traditional bonito dashi for a shiitake broth alternative, with the added bonus of soft tofu clumps stirred in (think extra soft eggy flavoured spaetzel in soup). If you’d rather, omit the tofu cream and simply add a few cubes of bean curd. Feel free to throw some big, thick udon noodles in there too!

For years I had no idea what a pot sticker dumpling was, assuming it was some sort of hip kids’ terminology for the reefer. Hell, it wasn’t until I found myself in Beijing one autumn day that I was made aware of the existence of a non British style dumpling or gyoza. In fact, I’d go as far as saying those few days in China’s capital city were the basis of what blossomed into a love affair with my disaster area laboratory kitchen.

This vegan potsticker filling is both simple and delicious, meat free and an ideal party food. The ingredients can be easily juggled to suit your own tastes (don’t like broccoli? Try celery and carrot).

As a child I was often exposed to the horror that is microwaved “baked” potatoes, a travesty which, in my opinion, is one to compete with that of the most audacious crimes in this world (like using apostrophe’s incorrectly- hello mister greengrocer). Har har.

It wasn’t until I moved to Britain that I realised it was possible to achieve restaurant style potatoes at home, baked spuds with crispy skins and a smooth and creamy centre. Microwaves may save time, but they make a potato taste like… err a microwaved potato to be precise. I’m a snob. I also don’t own a microwave.

So anyway, as a child I also loved to consume boxed twice baked potatoes. Layer the fact that I didn’t know real baked potatoes were possible on top of this tragic aspect of my youth and it makes sense why I didn’t realise until recent years that not only could you make your own oven baked potato, but that it’s also possible to make homemade twice baked potatoes! Life is miraculous and, yes, I’m American.

Recipe Notes

If you’re looking for an easy comfort food then twice baked potatoes should be an obvious maybe on your list of potential meals. Try this vegan version served with a nice salad or on their own (my general rule is one whole baked potato is an adequate meal). The yoghurt adds a creamy richness to the potatoes while the miso and sherry impart a very mild Eastern influence. Should you omit the latter ingredients, some extra salt may be worth chucking in (and maybe some extra yoghurt too).

Don’t feel limited to the ingredients I’ve chosen for this recipe. Try vegan yoghurt and fresh chives (for a mock sour cream and chives flavour), or your favourite fake cheddar with facon bits.

But how do you get creaminess without the cream?

You’d be surprised what cashews can do, baby! This isn’t an original concept as many a dairy free souls have discovered the value of nuts as an ice cream base, but I’m all about spreading the love. This is a great vegan ice cream to fool dairy fans, and it’s divine with a dollop of peanut butter on top.

Psst, if you’re curious about the stuff that looks like marshmallow fluff stuff, that’s Bryanna Clark Grogan’s marshie fluff (thanks, Bryanna). Talk about fun to make. Talk about sugar high. Talk about… well, I think vegans could talk about marshmallow fluff quite a lot, come to think of it.

Recipe Notes

Okay, so I’ve got one of those annoying frozen drink blenders and the base is pretty much permanently sealed on. This means there’s always a whole load of liquid I can’t get out, especially if it’s a thick blend like this is. Here’s a tip: reserve 60ml (1/4 cup) of the soy milk and after you’ve poured the ice cream base out, chuck the remaining liquid in and swish around to help get the rest of the mix out.

Oh, and if you’ve got a blender which errs on the side of shite and you hate lumpy bits then you can strain the base to filter out any potential cashew hanger-onners.

One of my favourite meals, this delightfully rich stew combines two middle eastern staples to create a mouthwatering stew of aubergine (eggplant) and chickpeas. A full-bodied tomato sauce complemented by tangy pomegranate molasses, zesty lemon and the indespensable garlic (and ingredient of which, in my opinion, you can never have too much), is what makes this dish so unique. It’s simple to make, delicious to eat, and filling to boot!

The Captain (my partner’s newly chosen nickname, a preference over being called “dad” in relation to our four legged children) isn’t so keen on this dish, but I think that’s because I’m really only 50% devoted to him. The other half of my love is pretty much wholly directed toward chickpeas and I think el capitán is just a little jealous and defensive is all.

But honestly, isn’t there room for both a man and a legume in a woman’s life? Sheesh.

Enjoy your weekend!

It’s time for a killer vegan breakfast treat.

I’ve been feeling a bit of a cold the past week, not to mention the fact that I’ve hit the inevitable monthly mark on the calendar where my stomach views the world as an all you can eat pig out. These things combined are treacherous (ask my partner, whose finger I nearly bit off on Saturday whilst trying to devour food between his fingers) because they both make me feel the need to eat. Okay, not just eat, but eat a whole lot of everything. Specifically this is a time when I crave a good vegan breakfast, but I also had some samosa skins I needed to use.

And I mean, come on, who hates a fry up? And who hates deep fried? Now imagine combining the two. For realz. Vegan breakfast in a deep fried parcel!

I’ve taken all the best bits of a vegan fry up (my favourite parts of a vegan breakfast anyway): mushrooms, scrambled tofu and facon, and mashed them together into a filling for a samosa. If you have different breakfast favourites, by all means use them instead. Vegan sausages crumbled, tempeh, spinach, you name it and I bet it’d be kick-arse in these samosas. The samosa skins in this recipe were bought, but you can also make your own samosa pastry if buying them pre-packaged isn’t an option.

Mushrooms are a vegetable I never enjoyed until I was an adult. In fact it wasn’t until a few years of my partner obsessing over them that I decided they may be worth trying. Now I’m truly converted and, while they aren’t in my top ten, I won’t ever turn my nose up at the thought of a mushroom centric meal.

A few weeks ago we had a meal out and he had the vegan mushroom soup, a deliciously creamy blend of rich mushrooms with a genuinely creamy texture. This is my take on the concept, and I’m pretty sure I can promise it’ll win the heart of any mushroom lover.

Perfect for party snacks and easy enough for even the most unskilled amateur kitchenista, these vegan crackers are perfect with drinks and light food. Guests will be impressed you made crackers from scratch (hey, you don’t have to tell them the ridiculous simplicity factor). Try sprinkling with toasted sesame seeds for added flair.

I made a variation of these for a vegan cheese and wine party I attended a few weeks ago (along with this blue cheese dip, both of which seemed to go down fairly well.

I generally place the okara in muslin and press as much liquid out as possible before storing the pulp in the refrigerator, sealed. I’ve never had any issues cooking with okara based on this initial prep, but I realise it’s difficult to follow a recipe when the liquid content of your okara may be slightly different than mine.

For that reason, I’ve decided to begin using dried okara in any recipes I write; below is the method for drying.

How to dry okara

1. Preheat your oven to around 100 C (210 F). The exact temperature isn’t important; you just want a low heat.
2. Place a mesh colander over a large bowl and line the colander with thin muslin. If you’re not worried about saving the soy milk you squeeze out then you can eliminate the use of the bowl (but it’s good to save for cooking).
3. Place your okara in the muslin, bundling the fabric up around the pulp. Squeeze as hard as is humanly possible in order to extract as much liquid is possible.
4. Turn the now somewhat dried pulp out into an oven pan and spread as thinly and evenly as you can. Place in the oven, mixing every 15-20 minutes until the okara has dried out. This could take an hour or 4 hours depending on how much okara is on your baking sheet. For this reason I recommend re-reading the bit about spreading as thinly as possible. Use a second tray if need be.
5. Once it’s dry, remove the okara from the oven and allow to cool. Place the crumbs in a blender or food processor to break up and store in an air tight container.

It’s oyster, not meat!

Anyone who knows me can attest to my obsession with Southeast Asia, my own personal respite from the never-warm-enough climate of Greatish Britain. I’ve yet to visit the country as a practising vegan, but even the vegetarian diet seemed tricky during my travels. Very little dairy is used, so it wasn’t so much the typical “is there rennet in the cheese” issue as it was the argument that fish is not, in fact, vegetarian (which reminds me, there’s a word for that: pescetarian. Yes, that’s right. Vegetarians don’t eat fish).

I could only take so many arguments regarding the “fact” that oysters don’t count as meat, so I’d settle for simple pasta to avoid conflict and chance. My most recent visit, however, introduced me to some vegetarian-friendly establishments I’d yet to try previously. Thus began my love affair with the region’s cuisine, my constant attempt to get it right in my own kitchen. And honestly, making vegan Thai food isn’t difficult at all.

A sexist meal?

You wouldn’t be the first to question the title of this Thai dish, pondering the whereabouts of its female counterpart. “Down with this patriarchal snack,” you might say, but the seemingly most frequently told story speaks quite loudly for feminism (albeit slightly on the passive aggressive side if you ask me, which you probably didn’t). It goes something like this: A mother is disgusted with her son in law’s arsey behaviour and serves him these eggs as a metaphorical representation of what’s going to happen to his man vegetables if he doesn’t snap to it.

And with that, here’s the recipe.

I’m on a constant quest to find things to do with leftover okara as it’s something in which I’m usually swimming (so if you live near Crawley and ever want some, just give a shout). Here’s an easy and tasty recipe using okara for a vegan style omelette, a filling way to start off any day! Or end it. I’m all about the midnight snacks, you know.

Recipe Notes

I use okara which is left as a byproduct of making soy milk in my Soy Quick maker. First I allow the okara to cool and then I bundle it in thin muslin and squeeze and much milk out as possible, leaving me with a clump of broken down soybeans which is still just wet enough to stick together. I’m telling you this just so you have an idea of the liquid content of the okara before you set out making this yummy vegan omelette!

Try any filling ingredients that take your fancy, but the cheez and onion is a good combination. If you’ve got a cast iron skillet, I high recommend cooking the onions on that for nom factor.

Half of my recent batch of this vegan macaroni dish got packaged up and sent to a friend who’s recently moved on campus to do her PhD. The other half was devoured by my hubs and I for lunch one afternoon. Thumbs up all around and it catered to my craving for broccoli cheese sauce, so next time this sauce is going on some jacket spuds. Nom nom nom.

Recipe Notes

I’m of the opinion that the best milk to use in a vegan cheese recipe that calls for a creamy sauce is a very thick soy milk (none of this watery vanilla flavoured nonsense), but I’ve used oat milk successfully too.

If you like your broccoli to be soft, I suggest steaming it for a few minutes first. I like it to be a bit crunchy though, so I just chop it up and bung it in as it is.

I’m a sucker for salads. It’s a genetic flaw, or I think my husband would see it as a flaw anyway (“there’s a piece of green stuff on my plate”), one which has been passed down from mother to daughter. My cravings come in waves, where one month I’m satiated by heavy stews and steaming piles of potatoes and the next all I crave are light bites and simple salads. Clearly the latter is suggestive of the basis of my current diet.

Last weekend I went to a vegan cheese and wine party in Brighton, hosted by the author behind Vegan in Brighton and this vegan cheese dip was one of my contributions. Slated by my mind as a fairly plain dish, the aforementioned blogger requested the recipe to pass on to her wedding caterers. Flattered beyond all means of course, I can’t take all the credit as the end result wouldn’t be what it is without the lovely folk at Bute Island Foods (i.e. the makers of the vegan blue cheese in the recipe).

Recipe Notes

In the recipe I call for the use of vegan cream cheese. I used Tofutti brand cream cheese but have heard from others that it’s not as easy to find where they are in the UK (I know it’s easily available in the US). First check your local Holland and Barratt but if that fails you can sub another cream cheese. One brand I’d not recommend, however, is the Pure brand cream cheese because it tastes like nasty things. Bute Island also makes a vegan cream cheese.

Oh, and I swear the company’s reformed their blue sheese recipe. If you tried it a couple of years ago and weren’t so impressed I’d recommend giving it another go. It really does mimic a mild blue cheese flavour.

Some days I wake up, look out the window, and know before I even set foot out of the bedroom it’s going to be one of those kind of days. Those kind. You know exactly what I mean.

What inevitably follows is a morning of attempted work, one which can be more appropriately summarised as moping. By the time lunch rolls around I give up; all the desire in the world won’t make this British winter metamorphose into a Thai autumn. The best I can do at this point is scoff something warming, something comforting. From then on in my day I can look forward to an afternoon which will, at the very least, progress from the aforementioned mope-fest into slightly more upbeat brooding.

Sike. I’m a happy bunny after I eat awesomeness.

Recipe Notes

What can I say about this? It’s ridiculous easy and tantalisingly good (well I think so anyway). If you’re making this in the summer and are using succulent in-season tomatoes, you could perhaps get away with losing the sugar (especially if using a Roma-esque variety).

This is perfect with or without pasta. Without pasta it’s a nice snack; with it’s a filling meal.

Crown prince squash comes highly recommended from this messy amateur cook. It’s a tough one to peel, however, so roasting is an ideal way to enjoy this delectable winter vegetable.

Recipe Notes

This is a very rich and dense squash, one of the best I’ve tasted, and it makes for a lovely soup. Its density, however, means you may have to add more liqiud than you would normally to a squash based soup. In this recipe I’ve suggested 2-3 cups, but that will still leave you with a very thick end result. If you prefer a more liquefied soup, consider adding more water or stock.

A lot of people don’t understand how it’s the case that eggs were and are still my greatest craving during the process of giving up all animal products. Cheese? No, not really (and believe you me I was the biggest cheese fan on this dear planet). The flavour and texture I miss are bog standard hard boiled eggs, the main ingredient in the favourite finger food that is the deviled egg.

At family gatherings I would, as a child, scarf the deviled eggs like they were my only sustenance in weeks. It’s a party snack I’ve always loved, but in adulthood my increasingly underachieving social life has prevented me from an encounter. Only last week did I suddenly recall this food memory, and behold the result.

Recipe Notes

I used a batch of fresh, firm nigari tofu which I made myself, but firm-ish bean curd should do. As far as quantities are concerned, the ingredients and amounts listed below are to be viewed as more of a suggestion. Maybe you don’t have that much tofu or you want smaller pieces, or perhaps you just want to eat a chunk of curd with a squirt of the deviled filling.

Make a huge tray for vegan party food!

When I discussed making anatomically correct cookies last week, anise cutouts were truly the base of the inspiration. Another annual mother-daughter(s) event, decorating these cookies was one of the highlights of my year and, despite no longer celebrating Christmas, I cannot help but continue this seasonal tradition on my own. Unfortunately with age the patience to make body part cookies has worn ever so slightly thin. Must regress again to childhood.

Recipe Notes

Based on a classic family recipe, everyone in mine seems to have a preference for how these cookies are made. Some like them burnt, some don’t like sugar sprinkles and others express size preferences. Here are a few tips to get what you want out of your cookie:

• To obtain a crisp and slightly burnt cookie roll the dough out very thinly and/or use smaller cookie cutters and/or increase baking time by a minute or three.
• If you prefer a softer end result, don’t go thinner than 1/8 inch and err on the side lesser cooking.
• To piss off your uncle, put a tonne of coloured sugar on as decoration. Of course I don’t know this out of experience or anything.
• For evenness in cooking, try to make sure all the cookies in the oven at one time are of uniform size and thickness.

Recipe Notes

The concept for these mini tarts is one which lends itself to a variety of fillings, so if you’ve got oodles of frozen fruit from the summer and autumn in your freezer like I do, then go crazy!

If you’d rather make slightly large snack pies, simply use a normal sized cupcake or muffin tin and make slightly larger pastry circles with which to fill them. If you’re feeling extra decadent, try topping these large tarts with Angel Food’s vegan merginue cookies. Similarly, you can upside to a full scale 9 inch pie.

I have a lot of sickly sweet memories from childhood, ones which, when recalled in my mind, are glamour shot affected images complete with a cheesy vignette frame. Baking Christmas cookies with my mother can’t be excluded from these precious recollections of my childhood, despite the fact that the older I got the fainter the sugary vignette effect became. That is, my cookies began to resemble male anatomy as opposed to cheerful holiday snowmen and stars.

But one thing remained the same: the terra cotta cookie presses which had a pre-design in mind. No willies would come out of these all too cute shapes, which ranged from kittens and owls to snowflakes and holly. When I was visiting my parents earlier this month I went shopping in the basement and rediscovered these lovelies and, with my mother’s permission, relocated them to England.

Recipe Notes

If you don’t have any cookie stamps, never fear! You can roll and cut these into rounds or squares if you prefer, or even use a proper shortcake mould.

You can get creative with flavours too. For instance if you’d like to add a seasonal touch, throw in some cinnamon and mixed spice with the dry mix and substitute brown sugar.

I’ve been really into pies and tarts lately (my mother-in-law gave me boat loads of frozen fruit), and the perfect pie has to have an even more perfect crust. After experimenting with a few different methods, this is the recipe on which I’ve settled.

On the day I first made this, my husband arrived home for lunch to my question: would he eat a sandwich if I made it? I informed him it would be good but that I didn’t want to say what it was until he took a bite. I wanted to know if he’d be able to guess what I was mimicking without me having to say.

And upon that bite he was as impressed as I, asking “where’s my other sandwich?”

Picnic fodder, baby!

Recipe Notes

Welcome to the world of not too many ingredients. For that reason, I take the opinion that there’s not so much room to take away with this vegan egg mayo. The turmeric adds colour, the black salt an eggy flavour, the mustard a bit of a tang (okay if you must you could probably live without this ingredient). The tofu subs for the egg and the vegan mayo plays its usual role. By the way, I use Plamil vegan mayonnaise. It’s the best, at least here in the UK.

By all means, add things, just like I added chopped up dill pickle (about a tablespoon).

This tofu egg salad recipe makes only enough for a single sandwich, so get out your maths brain to calculate just how much you’ll need.

I was just finishing a batch of this as P, the husband, came in the door for lunch. “It’s good,” I said, “but it’s not going to interest you because it’s salad dressing.”

“I like salad dressing. I just don’t like the salad,” was his reply.

Before you go judging him for being saladist, you must understand the English concept of salad has come leaps and bounds in the past 8-10 years. This is not as complimentary a statement as it seems. Instead of quizzical looks from restaurant staff and the concept of salad as a piece of lettuce with a slice of tomato and cucumber, a decorative side to your main meal, you might now get 3 pieces of lettuce and perhaps even some oil and vinegar. If you’re lucky, an onion and a slice of pepper or two might be thrown in.

This is not as salad-friendly a country as the United States.

Recipe Notes

This is reminiscent of a thick creamy Italian dressing, the sort made with hard fat cheese (think Olive Garden), only there’s no cheese and it’s completely cruelty free.

It can be consumed straight away, but like with many dressings and sauces the flavour develops if left for a little while before use. It’s tasty on pasta dishes, too!

I used okara in this because I like the added grainy texture, but that’s not an obligatory ingredient. In fact it’s a perfectly good dressing without any of the cheesy components either, but it does add a nice bonus if you can include them. If you don’t use okara, you can leave the tablespoon of water out if you’d like. Nobody will suffer either way, I promise.

Finally, I apologise for my vagueness in how much this recipe makes. What I got out of it was around 110ml, but I also lost a whole lot to the counter, floor, and my body due to unexpected flinging issues. Thus I suspect it’s possible to produce more if you can manage to keep it all in one place.

Which I am not. I just like egg(less)nog.

And coffee.

Recipe Notes

Depending on the desired consistency of the end result, you can use between 1/4 and 1/3 a cup of water. Obviously the former will produce a thicker syrup and, in my case, so will the latter. This is because I would have spilled all of the extra water down myself.

If you feel the need, you can strain the spices, but I personally like the texture.

Not a coffee fan? Don’t worry; this recipe is good for lots of other things too. Have a few suggestions:

• Pancake syrup
• Hot cocoa enhancer
• Top your favourite ice-cream(less)
• With hot rum (okay I’m making this up, but it does sound good
• Flavour cakes
• An easy gift in a pretty bottle!

Cannellini beans are a Tuscan white kidney bean, smooth and nutty in taste, also known as fazolia beans. Perfect for a cold summer salad, comforting as a relaxing winter warmer, this simple vegan recipe is suitable year-round.

Sweet white miso paste adds a creamy texture and combined with white wine creates a hearty salty-sweet flavour which is sure to go down well with just about anyone (anyone who isn’t a crazy cretin anyway).

Recipe Notes

The use of rosemary isn’t set in stone. Think bold herbs which roast well- rosemary, thyme, sage, and the like. The incorporation of a bay leaf into the cooking process may also yield good results!

Serve either as a side, with salad, or on toast (this is a great alternative beans on toast recipe, seriously). Come to think of it, eat it however you bloody well like.

I’m an autumn moper. There, I said it. This is the time of year where I have to face the fact that it’s getting too dark too quickly. It’s the time of year where I have to come to terms with the fact that my feet will be frozen for the next six or seven months. But then I suddenly look up and face a mindboggling array of various squash and pumpkin -esque shapes, and remind myself that there are some positives about this time of year, too.

Pumpkin, or “punkin” as my mother so adorably calls it, is a delicious vegetable which is overshadowed by pre-processing and all too often goes to waste. As an American I only ever knew pumpkin to be one of two things: something edible out of a can or something carved for Halloween. How tragic is that? My recollection of pumpkin was either from a factory or a vision of perfectly good food gone to waste (!!!), so I’ve been making an effort over the past couple of years to, you know, actually cook with the real live vegetable. Since it’s food and all.

Recipe Notes

If you’ve never cooked with pumpkin before, this is it. Seriously, this is it. It’s one of the most delicious things I’ve had in a long while, and I’m so happy there were enough left to freeze for one or two more meals.

Don’t listen to anyone who tried to tell you that making your own pumpkin purée is difficult or “not worth it.” Dude, really, all you do is cut the thing into a few wedges and stick it in the oven. You don’t even need to purée it properly for this recipe (a light mashing will do). Anyone who tells you this process is hard is either a canned pumpkin lobbyist or a terrorist, clearly.

I suspect not many people make their own soymilk and tofu, and I’ve never really seen it marketed widely in food retail, so I know okara seems an inconvenient ingredient. If you can’t get ahold of it, don’t worry. I use okara because it’s coming out my ears and because I like the slightly grainy texture (reminiscent of store-bought ricotta), but you should be able to use a crumbled extra firm tofu with no problem.

I used a small amount of vegan mozzarella cheese in this recipe, but if you don’t have that on hand then feel free to use a basic cheddar substitute or simply omit the ingredient altogether. The ravioli will survive and you’ll still enjoy your dinner.

The sauce, if you could call it that, I used was a simple hazelnut and garlic mix in vegan butter and extra virgin olive oil. You could also try lightly frying some whole sage leaves in garlic and oil/non-dairy butter also. I would advise against a sauce which is too heavy with flavour because the flavour of the ravioli is so good on its own. Try not to top it with anything too overpowering.

Chili is just one of those foods which is, you know, well it’s just one of those foods. It’s always there, in the back of my mind, waiting for the weather to change or for leftovers to need using. It’s a meal I don’t exactly crave, yet it needs to be had on a somewhat regular basis during the cooler months. Everyone has their own recipe and no one (save my mother in law) is opposed to a steaming bowl of chili. It’s delicious fresh and only gets better over time.

So it’s my turn to share my own version, my own secret ingredients to make the perfect chili to soothe you on those cold winter nights.

It helps that it’s also ridiculously easy to make.

Recipe Notes

Regarding my use of espresso and chocolate, note that the measurements are vague. You could add up to a tablespoon of espresso and up to the same of cocoa, though I would advise not getting too liberal. Also know that when I say espresso I mean a finely ground dark roast coffee, so anything from a Turkish to espresso grind will be appropriate.

If you’re using fresh tomatoes, something I rarely use in chili because tomatoes aren’t in season during the months in which I enjoy this dish, you could might get away with omitting the sugar.

Chili is a dish which, no matter who’s cooking it, how many times they’ve made it, and how confident a cook they are, should be tasted constantly throughout the cooking process. This opinion stems from more than an excuse to snack before dinner hits the table; a good chili holds a bold and robust flavour and a pinch of chili or a dash more salt can make or break a good turn out. That’s what I think anyway. Experiment until you find your own perfect spice blend!

The last time I visited my family in the U.S. my mother passed along an old German baking manual and I recently got around to taking a look at its inspiring if somewhat dated recipes. A German book printed in the early 1970s at a guess, there’s no such thing as a vegan recipe in its contents. It’s a good thing veganising most (imagine me sighing in memory of macarons) cookies is pretty straightforward!

When I bake cookies, I have all sorts of good intentions. I tell myself things like “just have 2 or 3 a day and they will last” or “maybe if you only make a dozen you’ll be more likely to savour them so they last until the weekend.” Sometimes I even tell myself I should save some for my hard-working husband.

I generally eat all the cookies by myself, quickly. Paul, if he’s lucky, might manage to scavenge a couple.

Recipe Notes

Raise your hand if you’ve already thought, “but wait a minutes! Those aren’t black and white cookies!” What you might traditionally think of as black and white cookies are coated with split black and white fondant frosting, apparently quite a favourite in New York. These cookies, however, resemble a shortbread with a mild cocoa rum twist.

I use a couple of teaspoons of rum in the recipe. Its impact on the overall flavour isn’t huge, but it does add a mellow extra something. If you don’t have any though, I don’t think the world will end if you leave it out.

Get creative with the dough! You’ve got two different colours on your hands, so twist and twirl it to your heart’s content and make some cool designs! The easiest is to make two small balls of dough and press together. Other options include mixing the dough together a bit so you get a swirled effect. You can also roll the dough into thin snakes for spiral effects.

German cookies tend to use far less sugar than American and British counterparts. This of course means they are less sweet, but it doesn’t mean they’re less good! Besides, it means it’s more acceptable that I eat virtually the entire batch by myself.

Right?

Like most other veggie lovers in this dear world, I am capable of consuming hummus at a rate to surpass even your granny’s incessant tirades about kids today.

Okay, I know, I know. As if the four billion alternative preparations out there aren’t enough, this is just what the world needs: another hummus recipe. Variation upon variation of this chickpea paste exists, but this one contains delicious caramelised onion as an added ingredient. Make this by the truckload and share it with everyone you know; even the aforementioned grandma will be impressed.

Recipe Notes

The reason onions caramelise is because they contain some sugar. Perhaps this is a common sense fact, but for most people sugar isn’t what comes to mind when they think of an onion. Try to use onion with a fairly high sugar content, like sweet onions or vidalia, but the standard yellow variety works too. If you’re using a really strong onion, feel free to add a bit of sugar a few minutes into the cooking process in order to aid in caramelisation.

I always use dried chickpeas and soak them overnight, but that’s not to say you can’t cheat and use a can of ‘em. But if you’ve never followed the soaking method I suggest you try it because, in my opinion anyway, it produces a superior taste. It really doesn’t take much extra time (especially if you have a pressure cooker), and it’s also a lot cheaper than buying tins! If you’re using chickpeas from a can then you may not need to add any extra salt to the recipe (depending on whether the beans are in brine), so just be mindful of what’s in the tin.

I’d planned on posting this recipe anyway, but Michelle over at My Zoetrope has named ginger and lemon as this week’s vegan mofo iron chef challenge. Call it a cop out entry (really, this is a stupidly easy thing to make), but you’ll be grateful once you try it. So simple it’s hardly worth posting yet so good it’s worth sharing, this incredibly simple tea consists of just a few key ingredients and is the perfect wintertime drink.

I discovered this simple tea a couple of weeks ago in Rishikesh, a city in Northern India famous for yoga and hippies. A young man at our hotel restaurant pushed it on me, claiming it would cure my cough. While we insisted the lifetime of my cough goes back to 1990 or so, he continued to proclaim the tea’s natural cough-curing qualities.  Finally I took him up on his offer, and now I’m hooked.

The cough remains.

Recipe Notes

The local recipes used honey, but any sweetener will do. I’ve tried it with sugar and agave both, and it’s just fab either way! I’ve also sampled this drink both with and without the addition of a tea bag and both are acceptable. In fact the only reason I’m talking so much about the tea is because it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever voluntarily consumed anything with a breakfast tea involved. Yes, I think I have conquered my English tea phobia. Miracles do happen.

Of course the quantities I suggest are based purely on my personal tastes. I love lemon and like a bit of a bite, so you may want to cut back on the citrus if you want a lighter flavour.

Inspired by a cute little Japanese snackhouse in Brighton called Pompoko, the idea for these easy veggie treats are completely down to a menu suggestion by Vegan in Brighton.

Maki doesn’t refer to a dish’s content but rather to the method of rolling, hence yubamaki is a yuba roll. Wait, but what’s a yuba!? While you may believe it sounds disctinctly like a Star Wars character, be relieved to know it’s nothing more than soya milk skin. Similar to the skin you find on top of boiled milk, yuba is the soya equivalent; it’s delicately removed from the top of hot soya milk and enjoyed in a variety of different dishes.

So yuba maki. Think spring rolls, only made with soy milk skin.

Recipe Notes

As an experiment, I used two different types of bean curd skin: fresh and dried. Both were delicious, but my suggestion is not to use the frozen variety unless you plan on serving these straight away. Both varieties are best if served immediately after coming out of the the oil, but those using the fresh skin re-heat better in the oven later (they tend remain very crisp without burning). Just for reference, the image at the beginning of the post uses the fresh and the image below uses the frozen variety.

This is less of a recipe than a suggestion. Only you know your favourite vegetables, so go crazy with your favourites. My choice was simple, and I recommend retaining that simplicity, with spring onions, carrots, and ginger as the base flavour. I also added some miso paste for more depth.

Variations: Vegan Pizzas are nothing to frown upon

A lot of people tend to frown upon the concept of a pizza without real cheese, but remember the most important part of a pizza is never the topping. If you have a good crust and a good sauce, you can only move forward.

For a quality pizza make sure you’re using some seriously high quality tomatoes. In fact, a marinara pizza with nothing more than a superb tomato base with some garlic and olive oil is a good place for any pizza fan to start.

Once you realise how amazing a pizza can be with so little on top, you’ll understand why it’s perfectly possible to have a delicious vegan pizza. Cheese is only one of 12,733,028 possible pizza toppings, so really it’s a bit limiting to insist on the same thing over and over. Try something new!

The trick to any pizza, beyond the sauce, is to choose simple toppings. Avoid the heaps and heaps of veggies and instead opt for just two or 3. Try things you’d never consider on pizza. Courgette/zucchini, for instance, is a fantastic pizza topping. How about thinly sliced aubergine/eggplant with a few drops of liquid smoke? Corn and pepper? Why not? You could also try thinking way outside the box and try a mashed potato and sausage pizza.

I like to add vegan cheeses to pizzas, but again that’s not always necessary. If you’ve got that base right, the possibilities are endless, and suddenly the cheese (whether dairy or vegan) becomes a possibility rather than a necessity.

What are your favourite vegan pizza toppings?

Who doesn’t love pizza? Since adopting a more vegan-friendly lifestyle, I’ve been experimenting a lot with pizzas. Fairly straightforward and 100% delicious, the standard tomato based pie is where we all start, but a childhood memory suddenly struck as I prepared to make yet another round of dough.

My best friend from my youth, Lynn, had a mother by whom I always felt incredibly spoiled when it came to food. She didn’t seem to have qualms about prices for meals and would take me to places I otherwise wouldn’t have thought to visit. One such meal was at a local bar/restaurant close to my US home, and that was when I was introduced to the concept of a white pizza. I just had to try to veganise it.

Recipe Notes

I got the idea of a beer based pizza crust from Cute and Delicious, only I used a modified version of a Linda Majzlik recipe instead. The beer adds quite a unique flavour to the dough and I’d highly recommend giving it a try, but feel free to use your own favourite pizza crust.

You’ll notice a slightly rotund crust in the above imagine. That’s because I had a go at a mushroom and cheddar Scheese stuffed crust. This is of course optional, but it’s fun to play around with!

This pizza may be vegan, but it’s seriously rich. I could barely finish 3 slices, and the same goes for my husband. I had to wait at least 7 minutes before eating the entire rest of the pizza.

I once battled meal worms and moths in my kitchen for well over a year. In the end I threw away many grocery bags full of food, much as I hated to do so. My cupboards, from that point on, became storage receptacles for storage receptacles. Tupperware-style containers were the solution, and any remaining foods with eggs were contained in air tight plastic, making it easy for me to eliminate any further pests without them contaminating more food stuffs.

The point I’m getting at is I have a lot of plastic tubs. A whole lot. So many, in fact, that there’s just not room. This means that when a certain grain is running low, I try to use it up in order to make space for another which is waiting for its new sealed home. I discovered the chana dal in the way back of the stack, and decided it was time to make space for some Israeli couscous, so this recipe was hence born. So as promised, here’s a recipe for chana dal cutlets!

Recipe Notes

Burgers versus cutlets? I intended this recipe to be for cutlets, but as an experiment I tried burgers as well. My preference is still for the latter, but that’s just me. The cutlets are good served with a nice rice dish, like a veggie biryani or pilau.

Don’t use hot broth and don’t over knead the dough. Both of these things will change the texture of the dough, specifically interacting with the gluten to create a more stringy and chewy texture. Of course if you want it to be chewier then knead for longer, but the hot water will make the dough tough from the start.

By the way, a pressure cooker is great for dals!

Here’s the problem: I love baking

Why is that a problem, you say?

Baking, despite what people think, is not easy. I gawp at those who claim to be incapable of cooking yet can create never-fail cakes, cookies with perfectly moist centres and crisp edges, breads which were exquisitely crafted. I try to craft my own baking recipes but success is intermittant. Yes, baking is a science I’m afraid, and I’m still learning. Alas here is a recipe that worked, and worked well to boot.

Let’s not mention the excessive sugar content in most baked goods, an ingredient for which my brain and heart cry out. The chompers and my dentist, however, are in cahoots and believe it’s better to stick to other munchables.

A garden overflow

I’m late on this post, I know. The summer months leave gardeners awash with heaps of this delicious vegetable, and by the end of these days everyone’s desperate to finish the crop and move on. Courgette bread (that’s zucchini bread to Americans) is a perfect way to use some of the overflow, and it’s an easy bread which most everyone enjoys. Using about 1 courgette (zucchini) per loaf, you could easily bake a dozen on a lazy Sunday and hand them out at the office on Monday morning! These zucchini bread loaves are also ideal for those summer bake sales.

Recipe Notes

Something I’ve noticed since moving to the UK eight and a half years ago is the difference in cake consistency, and it became clear the reason American cakes just taste so much better is because of their use of ridiculous amounts of oil in recipes. Great for taste, but not so great for the gut, I opted to replace some of the oil content here with apple sauce. This makes a good substitution for oil, but I’m afraid some is still necessary to keep that moist texture (don’t worry, this zucchini bread recipe still yields a loaf which has the soft, almost gooey, texture you’d associate with zucchini bread).

The banana and arrowroot work as a non-egg binder, and work really well flavour-wise in here. The use of banana also, coupled with the apple sauce, merits using a little less sugar overall. If you browse a lot of other recipes you’ll see this one uses, on average, 25% less processed sugar.

I went crazy at Wing Yip a few weeks ago, and completely forgot until now that I’d picked up a packet of abura age, a Japanese method of deep frying tofu to create puffy pouches of yumminess. In my recent vegan attempts, I’ve also gone a bit crazy purchasing mock cheese products, and as a result have quite possibly paid the wages of the entire Cheezly company in the weeks since.

Recipe Notes

Age is not particularly difficult to make, and I have done so in the past (it’s been years), but it’s very cheap and easy to obtain at an Oriental-Asian supermarket. Look for it in rectangular form for this recipe. If you want to make your own, then search the Googlenets and you’ll find plenty of advice on the subject.

The sauce combination is one I’ve played around with as a base for curry sauces. The combination of garlic, chili, coriander, turmeric, salt, sugar, and tomato has a lovely summer vibe and a refreshing flavour which isn’t too far beyond that of your standard quality tomato-based sauce. My choice for using it over another sauce in this recipe is because I wanted it to be the prominent flavour, with the cheese as an undertone. You can then guess I didn’t add a great deal of the latter, but that was my choice; feel free to stuff these suckers full to bursting point with your own favourite sauce and vegan cheese!

I’ve tried this with a selection of different Cheezly cheeses, with my preference being the Greek Style chunks sliced up.

The portion I made is tiny, a snack sized portion, but could easily be expanded to make an excellent addition to any hors d’oeuvre platter. These would also make awesome vegan picnic treats!

Oh, and what you see in the picture alongside are mild wasabi cashews.

Raise your hand if you’re familiar with, whether as something you’ve said or heard, a variant of “…but doesn’t it all taste the same? I could never give up meat because I like flavour.”

Whether you’re an omnivore cooking for a vegan, a long-time veggie, or somewhere in between, here are a few ingredients see as key in adding that extra little bit of oomph to a dish.

A splash of this and a pinch of that

1. Anywhere you need that little bit of extra depth, whether in gravy, pies, stews, wherever, then Marmite is your friend. Obviously you realise it’s a must-have staple for anything revolving around your typical Sunday roast. The GVC loves Marmite and wants you to love it too, so check out their “tips to help any nervous Marmite virgins earn their brown wings.” Vegemite is another option, but not my personal preference.
2. I dismissed soy sauce for many years because I hadn’t had anything other than cheap darkened soy juice. Find yourself a quality soy sauce. In fact, find yourself many. There’s light soy sauce and dark soy sauce (milder but richer in colour), tamari, and a number of other options. Vegetables and stocks will come to life with a generous splash.
3. Nutritional yeast, also know as “nooch” in some circles, is a staple in any vegan’s store cupboard. It’s a deactivated yeast with a nutty flavour which complements salads, potatoes, sauces and dressings, stir-fries, and more.
4. Dark Miso pastes are another excellent method of adding a deep and rich flavour to a dish. Light miso is good too, but the sugar content is higher so be careful when using to “beef” up a meal!
5. A personal favourite is red wine vinegar, a condiment I use in gravy for a roast dinner. A little bit goes a long way and it adds a full and zingy taste to stocks and pies.
6. That said, I suppose it’s a little unfair to discount the all important red wine and white wine, both capable of lifting any dish from the depths of dullness to the height of flavour. If you’re cooking for a vegan or vegetarian, make sure they’re suitable though because lots of alcohol isn’t.
7. Dried shiitake mushrooms make a fabulous addition to any stock. Seriously. If these aren’t in your storecupboard, get yourself to an Asian Oriental (and yes I’ve been informed this isn’t a politically correct term in the US, but “Asian” here refers to a different part of the world. I use the term purely as a regional reference) grocer and get some.
8. The darkest of dark chocolate has the capability of adding some serious depth to a dish. Sound odd? It’s been used in Central and South American cooking for many many years.

What do you think?

What staple flavour enhancers do you use? If you had to re-write my list, what would you leave out? Include?

Okay, okay, so my main point of this post is to encourage everyone (omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans alike) to purchase Isa Chandra Moscowicz’s latest book, Vegan Brunch. It just happens this very simple but also delicious recipe for a fruity chocolate smoothie goes great with brunch.

See the muffin in the smoothie picture? That’s a blueberry ginger spelt muffin from the book, and it’s good too. They aren’t too sweet like muffins often are, and the texture is both gooey and nutty with a sweet grainy mouthfeel (what a word, what a word…). Key ingredients include blueberries and crystalised ginger (though I’ll admit I added a bunch of powdered as an alternative). It’s a good one for anyone who likes some sugar in the morning but not in epic proportions.

More Vegan Brunch Recipe Photos

…but if you do want some seriously sweet heaven in the A.M. hours then the banana flapjacks (a form of pancake in the US as opposed to the rolled oat bar in the UK) are the treat for you. Served here with some non dairy butter and fresh blueberries, these babies are pretty fab.

And here we have the Vegan Vidalia (sweet) Onion Quiche, a tofu dish for even the most devout of quiche fans.

I’m pretty sure if this was thrown in with a random pool of food pictures, “this looks vegan” isn’t the first thing a random browser would think. Probably two of the greatest recipes in the collection (based on the fact that I’ve cooked maybe ten), the vegan omelette and the vegan sausages are pure genius.

Does the omelette pretend to be an egg? No, not really. It’s heavier and smoother, but the general taste isn’t that far off. Methinks this will be the foundation for some amazing vegan “egg” dishes in future. I’ve already got my imagination cells set on a few, so watch this space.

Do the “sausages” pretend to be sausages? Well, this one can be argued. Sausages come in a variety of shapes and textures, with a gazillion recipes for herb and spice mixes to flavour. In fact, it seems most of the flavour of sausage tends to come from what’s included with the meat as opposed to the meat itself. With that thought in mind it’s really the texture you’re after, and gluten is the vegetarian/vegan answer. Shown above are the cherry sage sausages from Vegan Brunch, in which a main ingredient is gluten flour (and almond okara- my own addition). I’m already planning a Cumberland version!

Oh, and the smoothie recipe.

Everyone has something without which they simply cannot function. Everyone’s got a food obsession, a weakness. The chosen treat of many readers is likely a dish that’s been bastardised from the Italians (in the form of chemically enhaced dough slathered with the lowest quality ingredients imaginable and finally topped with a fatty, oily sediment which one might loosely call “mozzarella”). Or burgers. Or cardboard sandwiches.

Mine is bastardised Arabic food, just in case I haven’t mentioned that already ten billion times. Chickpeas are my BFF. Aubergine (that’s eggplant to you) is my homeboy. I want to marry a pomegranite. My closet lover is a spice shelf stacked with goodies like sumac and cinnamon. You get the idea. I live for this stuff.

I just returned home from a two week surprise visit to see my family in Maryland, 3500 miles on the other side of the Atlantic (it’s a good setup, really), and through that whole time the only Middle Eastern fayre to end up in my stomach tubes was some babaganouj from Whole Foods. By the time my plane landed at Gatwick my body was ready to shrivel up and die.

But you know how it is when you’ve been away: you return home to a ghetto-stocked fridge full of half-eaten leftovers. Thankfully one of those was a tub of hummus I’d made before I left. My husband had already been instructed to greet me with an aubergine, and the freezer held a few old sheets of Phyllo pastry which called out to be defrosted. Provided below is the resulting tale.

Recipe Notes and howto

I know people get frustrated with recipes which don’t include exact amounts and I know I should take better care to measure so I can pass things on properly. But here’s the thing: I suck. Oh, and another thing: your worst case scenario is going to be gooey pastry and aubergine. It’s still going to taste good if you’re into these sorts of flavours.

I used Iranian Advieh in the mix, but consider this optional (here’s a recipe for advieh if you want to try it yourself). I personally like the warmth induced by the cinnamon and hummus combination, but my husband was slightly more skeptical.

If you’re not sure about my instructions below, or are confused, I’ve included some pictures of whole who wrapping up process.

Quinoa is seriously under-valued by so many, and it’s a real shame because it’s a truly divine grain. Fortunately it’s seen for its value in its land of origin, the South American Andes region, where it has been cultivated for some 6,000 years.

Technically a seed rather than a grain, this star food is one of the most complete proteins out there, containing all the amino acids about which those uneducated doctors-cum-[wannabe] nutritionists chide veggies (I’ve been vegetarian for 17 years and I’m still waiting to be hospitalised for malnutrition, as promised by so many).

Recipe Notes

In my pictures you’ll notice I used this recipe as a stuffing for baked peppers. While this was good I suggest using this as a side dish instead. The reason lies with the dill, a mild herb with a flavour easily lost with too much heat. If you intend to oven-bake this quinoa recipe then I suggest serving it with some fresh dill after the baking process is complete.

Why Arabic inspired? The Arabic world’s contribution to the food fusion scene is one which has offered uncomplicated yet inspired results. One reason I adore this region’s food is because its cuisine uses simplicity and general know-how to engineer heaven on a plate. Combine this with a little creativity and your imagination can stretch the basics for miles and miles. For instance pine nuts, dill, and Middle Eastern spices combined with a seed of the gods, an Incan grain fit for kings.

As with many (most?) of my recipes, the ingredient quantities can take some guesswork in measurements, and most certainly have room for experimentation.

Perfect to serve with some new potatoes doused in olive oil or butter, this quinoa is also filling on its own (though you may want to increase the recipe a bit).

Without a doubt I am a summer-loving individual. I loathe the achy cold and bloom into a somewhat pleasant human being when the sun’s shining and, most important, the season’s offerings come to fruit. Jersey Royals, spinach, broad beans, the beginnings of tomatoes, asparagus, and more. Food-wise this is my favourite time of year to be alive, and feeling alive is just what I need after a long and dark English winter.

As a child my parents grew asparagus and like my own personal marmite advertising campaign, I recall going through very defined and specific periods of loving and hating it. I think my body has always craved greens but perhaps my mind was not in tune enough to accept that fact! I can say without a doubt that now, like marmite, I have come around to love this green shoot.

Recipe Notes

These are great hot, but equally good cold, and can be served either on their own or with a nice grain. The first time I made them I prepared a version of Susan’s Spring Green Quinoa (without as many veg and with a wine base) and it was a great combination. I have no doubt these these babies would make for some awesome picnic fodder.

The sushi ginger is optional, really, but it’s well worth adding a few slivers as it really complements the sesame and vinegar combination. No agave nectar? Just add a pinch of fine sugar instead.

I know my last recipe was also soup, so apologies for the repetition. I cannot hide my love for this simple yet filling and wholesome method of eating veggies. There are so many possibilities, and crafting soup recipes is an all star method for learning herb and spice pairings. Plus home made soups are a great way to be made aware of how crazily salty commercial and even some restaurant preparations can be.

I am an avid fan of dill, a herb that I think is quite under-rated in that it seems almost exclusively paired with fish in the eyes of many. An old-fashioned idea at best I think, for dill is quite versatile if you are willing to experiment (try it in a dish heavily influenced by ginger).

Recipe Notes

People argue about the inclusion of sugar in tomato-based sauces and dishes, many claiming it’s a useless waste and others swearing by its ability to enhance the tomato flavour. Me? I’m somewhere in the middle and I believe the use of sugar (or in this case agave nectar) has to be considered with each tomato. If they are overly acidic from a tin, the sugar really helps to balance the flavour, and a pinch goes a long way to enhance what should already be a naturally sweet fruit. Finding the perfect balance of salt and sugar will make for a glorious sauce.

I used beer in the recipe because I like the deep yeasty flavour (my excuse for “it was right next to the hob so I figured I’d bung it in”), but a white wine or a low-salt vegetable stock would also suffice.

The use of herbs is something, in my opinion, with which a cook can always play around. I’ve used basil, oregano, and marjoram in the recipe, but any mix of italian herbs would I’m sure produce an acceptable end result.

Note in the recipe I added the dill both in the blending process and before serving. This is because the flavour of dill has a habit of being quickly lost in heat (unless used in larger quantities), so it’s important to add it close to the end so the flavour remains present.

The cream I used was Alpro single cream, but any will do. This isn’t a necessary ingredient, but makes for a smoother soup on the table.

Aubergine is an incredibly under-rated vegetable. Ridiculously so, in my opinion! I have mentioned before how it took time for me to love it beyond its use one or two well known dishes, but now I proudly call it one of my favourite vegetables.

This is a suprisingly versatile vegetable once you develop a positive relationship with it, but I had not yet used it in soup. Why not?! Exactly. Why not? No better time than the present to try, right?

A thick and rich soup, deep in flavour, this aubergine based soup is sure to convert a few people to the purple side. Give it a try because it’s nothing like what you’d expect! The subtle smoked flavour combined with juicy acidic tomatoes and tangy pomegranate molasses is a combination to make my mouth water simply thinking about it.

Recipe Notes

First and foremost, quantity is really just a suggestion with this recipe. If you have a little less aubergine/eggplant, that’s okay too. No yogurt? It doesn’t have to have that. The pomegranate molasses, however, is a worthwhile purchase; you will find yourself using it frequently after you try it once!

Fresh tomatoes are of course an option, but in the off season I opt for something in a tin. Fresh tomatoes which aren’t local, full of in-season juicy goodness, well they’re just crap. Most stuff in the UK right now is imported from Holland and can be likened to a crusty sponge with a mild tomato flavour. If, however, you find yourself with some tomato gems I’ll bet roasting them before adding to the soup would create a divine result…

If you have a flame thrower (okay, a gas stove or Crème Brûlée torch) you can roast your aubergine by charring them with flame. Alternatively they can be charred under a hot grill (for a really smoky flavour). David Lebovitz uses a combination of methods in his baba ganoush recipe, one which sounds like it would provide a great taste. If the oven is your only method and the end result isn’t smoky enough, consider adding a few drops of liquid smoke to the soup during the blending process.

In my Riverford box last week came a treat of which I had not yet heard, let alone tried: wild garlic leaves. Unsure of how to use this potently tasteful leaf, I took to the interwebs. Should I use it to add delicate flavour to a risotto, to steam-wrap a veggie protein, to garnish a salad? How about pesto! Alas, it seems that was not a unique idea as many a foodie presented a recipe.

“But they aren’t vegan and I can do something different,” said I. Thus I gave myself the task of creating a tasty vegan version.

Recipe Notes

Pesto generally contains a hard fat cheese like parmesan or pecorino (which are not vegetarian- you need to find a specially made hard fat veggie cheese like Twineham Grange). As this is a vegan recipe, I used a mixture of nuts as replacement. If you don’t have the exact mixture I chose, feel free to experiment with what’s in your store cupboard!

I generally start the process by chopping the leaves up finely first and slowly adding more to the mortar as the leaves are pounded down. This is because my pestle and mortar is quite small and if I do it any other way then bit spill over the side, furthering my already terrible reputation as a messy cook. If you have a great big pestle and mortar then this won’t be a big issue, or if you don’t want to bother with it then a food processor works too. I personally like to take my anger out on things with this particular kitchen instrument, but that’s just me.

Oh, and don’t fear if you’re using almonds which still have skins. The easiest way to de-skin almonds is to simply place them in boiling water for a few minutes. After you drain them you’ll see the almonds pop easily out of their skin. Be careful not to shoot them across the kitchen, however, a warning I must impart based on personal experience.

Kohl rabi is a member of the brassica family, a group which includes broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and more. Roughly translated from german as “cabbage turnip,” this is a pretty accurate description for this sputnik shaped vegetable. I only discovered it a year or two ago when it was included in a veg box I ordered, and I’ve really grown to enjoy it. Some vegetables are just so much better raw!

Recipe Notes

I go back and forth between using cider vinegar and white wine vinegar in this salad recipe. I think cider vinegar provides a slightly stronger taste, but both are good. Rice vinegar is also an option.

If you’re not keen on the peanuts, try mixing some peanut butter in with the dressing instead. A similar flavour but with a different texture, this is equally good. I know a lot of peanut butter fans who aren’t keen on peanuts (I used to be one of them).

Be careful with the garlic if you’re planning to serve this immediately; I’m as big a fan as the next guy but fresh garlic can be a bit much for some people. This is less a worry if you use a pestle and mortar to grind everything together because you won’t have any lumps of hot garlic to sneak out and bite your mouthly innards.

As with many of my recipes, the ingredient proportions are more of a suggestion. You should taste as you go to decide what you do and don’t like and what flavours you want to stand out or blend in (soy sauce vs vinegar vs sesame oil, ginger vs garlic, etc…). Add more carrot, add celery, add whatever you think works (then report back and let me know how it went)!

Ratatouille, aside from being a pain in the arse to type, is one of my favourite comfort foods. I have a series of different methods for cooking this French inspired dish, depending on how I’m feeling and what flavours I’m craving. Regardless of the method, this dish includes some of my favourite vegetables… and since I’m a fan of roasted tomatoes, a roasted version is particularly appealing.

A stew of sorts, generally containing aubergine (eggplant), courgette (zuchinni), peppers, onion, and garlic, the “proper” method of ratatouille preparation is often debated. My view? Cook stuff and make it taste good. Who cares how you reach the end result, so long as the end result doesn’t burn holes through your intestinal tract?

Anyway, that’s why you have someone else taste your experiments first.

Recipe Notes

This particular incarnation of my oven roasted version of ratatouille failed to include garlic. More to the point, garlic failed to appear in my kitchen in order to be included. It is a rare event indeed when the garlic is out. Alas, I managed to found a single clove and cooked it in some oil to put on the pasta before serving with the veggies. Normally I would roast a whole head or two with this.

Speaking of which, a good way to serve this is with pasta, but it can of course be eaten on its own as well. Keep in mind this is enough for a couple of very hungry individuals if you also include pasta.

I roasted this at a fairly low temperature for a fairly long time. Feel free to experiment with those times. Perhaps turn up the heat and reduce the time. Maybe you prefer some burnt aspects to your veg (hey, don’t laugh- I love burnt aubergine). If you reduce the time, it might be an idea to also reduce the size of your vegetable pieces before popping in the oven.

Over the years I’ve tried several varieties of vegan ice cream and while not completely unimpressed, I was, well, not that impressed. The first commercial product I tried was perhaps 12 years ago, and it tasted like sugar flavoured straw soaked in rain water drained from the gutter of a halted urban development project which eventually became no more than a bird toilet.

Enter Booja-Booja, an English company known for its production of organic vegan chocolate truffles. On my bulk Bonsoy run one Saturday (have you tried the stuff? It’s to die for), I saw tucked in the freezer of my favourite organic shop a new gem: Pompompous Maple Pecan “Stuff in a Tub.”

I had to try it.

This so-called “stuff” immediately rivalled recipes of my good friends Ben and Jerry in flavour, if not in texture as well. I was gob smacked. How could this be?

“May contain nuts”

The culprit behind my new discovery which brought me so much joy? Cashews. Vegan, organic, delicious ice cream based on cashews.

I never knew I liked cashews so much, and I have since extended their use across many other aspects of my cooking. I tried cashew based ice cream recipes from books and from the interwebs, and with some success made made some ice creams fairly close to that of my beloved Booja-Booja.

But I wanted to experiment with my own methods based on what I already knew about making ice cream, what I’d tried and liked, and concepts about which I’d read somewhere once upon a time. This is my result, and really it’s pretty good.

Will I make it again? Most certainly. Will I likely experiment some more with the ingredients? Definitely. This is a work in progress, only one where the first attempt came out damned good.

Recipe Notes

A lot of people ask why I used vodka in my ice cream recipes as most ice cream doesn’t contain vodka. The only reason I use it, aside of course from hoping to take advantage of those I feed, is because alcohol doesn’t freeze. This is a useful trick for anyone with a home freezer which doesn’t circulate air well. Is your ice cream so solid upon removal from your freezer that you have to leave it to thaw before a spoon can touch it? Easy solution: add some alcohol to the mix.

I used granoVita CremoVita as part of the cream base in this recipe. While I usually like to provide generalised products for ingredients, this one fell into the mix simply because I spotted it on the shelf and had to try it. I’m sure you could use any other soy-based sweet whipping cream alternative.

The sorbet vs sherbet argument came to me when I was preparing this recipe. Sorbet is, or at least should be, vegan by nature. Sherbet, on the other hand, has dairy components (though clearly not as much as ice cream). The texture of sherbet isn’t quite as smooth as that of ice cream and is generally lighter in texture, an apt description of my final result. For that reason it became more of a sherbet than an ice cream in my mind. My recipe is “creamy,” but less rich. It’s good. I think so anyway.

And now on to the good stuff…

I currently have a refrigerator overflowing with so many glorious root vegetables and soup is one of my favourite ways to use them when I find myself in this state. Plus after a long day soup is both an easy and nutritious meal which can be prepared easily while planning a holiday on the phone with my mother.

People underestimate soup. Too many people think of it as a tinned (canned) emergency food, the sort of thing you plop into the microwave and give your kids as an easy afterschool snack or chuck into food drive boxes at the supermarket. This is soup that’s often heavy in salt, sugar, and who knows what other preservatives and colourings. Not that I’m completely against this (confession time: tinned tomato soup + grilled cheese (non-dairy of course) is a junk snack craving I get about once a year that must be filled).

What I’m saying is I don’t really get the idea of tinned soup for ease of preparation, because there aren’t many things you can do in the kitchen easier than making soup from fresh ingredients. Sure you have to wait a little while longer past the simple process of using a tin opener and pressing some buttons on the microwave, but it’s worth it in the end. I promise.

Did I mention we got rid of our microwave?

Recipe notes

This is, like most soups, a recipe easily prepared by even the greatest kitchen novice. I usually use my pressure cooker for soups, but if you don’t have one that’s okay too; it will just take a bit longer to prepare. If you aren’t using a pressure cooker simply follow the same instructions, only in a large pot, cooking the vegetables until tender.

Wow am I tired. The busy doesn’t ever seem to end, and I know I’m not the only one who feel that way. Days fly by, work never seems to end, and suddenly it’s time to cook a meal. The last thing you want is something that will stretch your brainwaves too far or take half the evening, but at the same time you don’t want junk food. Enter stir-fries.

Sometimes as a teenager my family would eat stir-fry for dinner. Frozen vegetables and tofu. Just about the only frozen vegetables I can bring myself to eat now are peas and ice cream (yes, I just said that). I didn’t realise the difference a fresh vegetable could make, and it took me many years before I’d set foot near a stir-fried meal again.

Recipe notes

This one is very simple, quick to prepare (my problem is sucking at writing cooking directions, but don’t let the wordiness fool you into think it’s tricky), and incredibly yummy. My husband is nost a fan of broccoli and he inhaled it (“it has to either be raw or barely cooked and hot,” he says). Other vegetables would suit this dish also- think mushrooms, flat beans, maybe not ice cream.

Give yourself about 30 minutes to prepare, but you could cut that down to ten if you eliminate the roasted sweet potato and go for noodles instead of rice.

A quick kibbeh primer

A dish which comes in countless varieties across many countries, this Arab inspired snack is generally made up of different combinations of fine burghul (bulgur wheat), spices, and high quality minced meat. These ingredients are pounded by use of pestle and mortar until a thick paste forms, and from the paste the kibbeh are formed. Kibbeh can come in many shapes and sizes but the iconic image of this popular regional dish is in the shape of a torpedo.

Because the meat often used is lamb, I opted for tempeh as a base (meat eaters have said to me before they have found tempeh to be the best vegetarian or vegan substitute for lamb). There are a few major differences between a traditional kibbeh of this style and my own. First the bullet shaped kibbeh would traditionally be fried (or perhaps grilled) but I opted for a baked version. Second, it’s considered an art to be able to form the toredo shape and I realise this is a skill I do not yet posess. I can barely tie my shoelaces so cut me some slack. Finally, the ball shaped kibbeh is generally stuffed and mine is not. Perhaps I will move onto that concept during the next round.

Recipe notes and adjustments

While traditionally pounded by hand, I find a food processor works wonders. This amazing kitchen tool will save you hours of labour with this particular recipe.

I’m very happy with this recipe as it stands, but I used a different brand of tempeh than the brand which inspired the idea for the recipe. The tempeh I normally buy contains a great deal more moisture than that used in this kibbeh recipe, which is why I have added water as a possible ingredient depending on what tempeh you may have. Next time I would like to try the dish with my preferred tempeh brand because I think the kibbeh could do with something a little more binding (while this recipe works, the final product is a little more crumbly than I’d like). Perhaps egg or an egg substitute would be the answer, or maybe even mashed potato?

I paired this particular recipe with browned onions fried and coated with a healthy dollop of pomegranate molasses. It’s also very good on a salad with a simple lemon and olive oil dressing (try a mix of greens with mint, parsley, and onion and top with a healthy sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper).

For the love of cashews!

Cashews, oh cashews. I have never liked a nut so much, and this is coming from someone with a family full of nutters. If one more meat-eater says “oh but what do you eat?! It must be horrible to eat the same thing every day,” then I’m… well I’m going to laugh to myself and continue reserving my pity for them. I would say I’d invite them over for dinner, but the people who say things like that are generally not the receptive type (and even if you do feed them something yummy they promptly forget and ask the same round of questions the next time you see them).

</end rant>

Wait, if you do invite people like this around, a vegan lasagna is still a good meal to serve.

The additional smoky flavour…

My husband said to me “you’re not going to like this, but do you know what this tastes a little like?”

But he was eating the lasagne by this point and had said it was good, so I figured it couldn’t be that bad.

“Smoked salmon, a little.”

So the taste of salmon is apparently more tolerable than the smell, which hubby knows is a sure fire way to keep me out of a property for at least the several hours it takes for the smell to go away. That is perhaps the reason he began the conversation with the foreboding “you’re not going to like this, but…”

Hey, I can live with that so long as it doesn’t smell like salmon (even before I became veg at the age of 12 I was never a seafood person. Don’t tell me it’s because I never had good seafood; I’m from Maryland).

Recipe notes

Okay, so cashews. The “cheese” component of this lasagna is made with these delicious nuts. The trick is to soak them in hot water for a little bit so they are soft enough to blend into a smooth sauce. You could even plop them in some water or soymilk and leave them overnight for the same effect. In the recipe I suggested adding 1/4 tsp salt to the mix, but for those who like salt (I use a minimal amount) then you may wish to add more. My husband suggested a little more salt may help to replace that lost in not using cheese and salted butter in the recipe. Further, you may wish to blend the smoked tofu in with the cashews if you prefer that to crumbles of tofu in the layers.

The smoky tofu adds a unique flavour to the dish, but it is not a compulsory ingredient. If you do use it, however, you can use any brand or type (it doesn’t need to be home made from SoyQuick soya milk as in my recipe).

I used a 26cm x 18cm Le Creuset dish for the recipe, but anything in that region will do (that’s about 10 by 7 inches). If you want to double the recipe then go for the standard 9 x 13 inch sort of size (measurements need not be exact).

I have no excuse for how long it’s been since I’ve posted a new recipe. I have no excuse for how long it’s been since I’ve developed many new goodies. Okay, I have a little excuse and that’s to do with a combination of the election and Christmas. As some of you know, despite living in the UK, I am an American ex-pat and the election is/was important to me on a number of levels. Primarily I wanted to see my guy win for all sorts of reasons, but I also deal with a lot of election-related merchandise and my energy just had to be focused on that all month. The story with Christmas is similar; as with anything in retail December is a very important month so I needed to be prepared. Unfortunately this site has been neglected as a result of those factors.

I can assure you I will have plenty of other excuses later on, like how miserable and depressing it is that the sun starts going down at 3:30pm and how terrible the light is for photography once the natural light has dipped away. And that I haven’t seen a proper summer in Britain for nearly three years. On the plus side I am hoping to buy a better camera soon! The bottom line is I need some inspiration right now and good tools always help (and would have been handy shooting the roasted tomatoes – my current camera sucks fruitcake).

On to the hummus

Back to business, I have to say I have always claimed to hate tomatoes. This doesn’t count for the cooked variety but rather for anything that’s less than pulverised and heated beyond the consistency and flavour of the original raw thing. This is a viewpoint that changed marginally when I discovered roasted tomatoes, and I highly suggest to anyone who hates tomatoes to give this method a go because it will give you a whole new perspective (at least it did for me).

My local supermarket had about 76,152 kilos of tomatoes discounted one evening so I of course purchased them all. Part of them went into this recipe (because I also had 82,137 chickpeas). The rest just went straight into my belly.

The flavour, in my opinion, is best within just a few hours of preparation, but it will last for quite awhile in the fridge. It’s awesome on sandwiches with a little basil added and of course makes a fabulous dip for pitta bread.

Raw or fried, the carrot is a versatile beast. It forms the base of our vegetable stocks and complements many a Sunday lunch, boiled with peas or roasted with a glaze of delicious olive oil. Yes, the carrot forms a major part of our diet, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

I’d just bought some smokey chipotle chili powder at Borough Market and I had some carrots in desperate need of use. Faced with both the guilt of letting perfectly good vegetables go to waste and the desire to try out my new purchase, I combined the two in this oven roasted recipe.

One of the best ways to cook carrots, in my opinion, is rolled up in foil with a bunch of agave or brown sugar with a vegan butter substitute, and simply baked. Sweet and spicy similarly sounded like a good combination, one that would work well with the already sweet flavour carrots naturally provide, so I decided to go with an agave nectar based marinade.

I baked the carrots in a lattice for aesthetic reasons, but I’m not going to go into that here. The flavour is the same if you bung them in foil and the lattice is a pain in the arse (a pretty pain in the arse, but a pain nevertheless). If you do want to get fancy and you don’t bake in foil, however, you’ll need to reduce the cooking time (especially if you slice the carrots as thin as in the picture above).

The ingredients provided below are more of a suggestion than a recipe. I admittedly didn’t measure, so if your oven goes into meltdown then… well, anyway.

It’s not all in a name, not here at least

“Chicken Ball” sounds very unappetising, a name more capable of winning a playground name calling contest than impressing dinner guests*. I am undecided regarding which scenario fits the name better:

Scenario 1:

“What’s for dinner tonight?”

“Chicken Balls”

Scenario 2:

“Oi, Chicken Ball, gimme your lunch money!”

What do you think?

Recipe notes

I created this recipe as a very basic and mildly flavoured staple to which other flavours can be added to suit a dish. That’s right, you can buff it up with all your favourite flavours. It’s not intended to be hugely flavourful because flavours will be added to suit the dish. Here are a few suggestions:

• Using it in a curry? Try adding some cumin or garam masala and a little extra salt.
• Want a chicken-meatball pasta dish? Try adding some more rosemary and perhaps other herbs to the mix. Maybe some celery salt, too?
• How about a spicy chili or stew? Add some cayenne pepper or go all out with some smoky chipotle!
• Change the texture by adding more vital wheat gluten. I have made the recipe both like below and with more gluten. Both are good, but added gluten yields a more solid result with a chewier texture.

Update 15 September 2008: I used these in this Rajasthani Kadhi Recipe along with a few handfuls of spinach. Highly recommended! Yum-tastic!

*luckily those include only my cats and hubby.

The following “recipe” is an idea that came to fruition in less than two weeks, nothing short of miraculous for me. I genereally opt for la-la land, an imaginary place where my creations are wholly unique, often produced, and loved by all. They just never enter the realm of reality.

Speaking of which, reality sort of sucks. I work long hours, sometimes 12 hour days, and find myself uninspired to cook and mainly just ready for bed. I need to create a cooking schedule for myself so I know to make time ahead of time. I need a stunt double, only one who limits themselves on the stunts and excels in the kitchen. I mean we have limited space you know.

Comfort food without the guilt, on a pizza

I’m not a super health nut. I eat my fair share of fat and sugar. I don’t feel guilty about this.

This recipe was conceived of before I became vegan, in the final year where I was slowly realising cheese shouldn’t play such a primary role in my meals. I was keeping my animal fats to a minimum. Cancer, diabetes, and heart disease run in my family so while I still consumed dairy, I was still careful.

The idea of a full-fat cheese pizza even then made my stomach feel week, making pizza a once-in-a-blue-moon treat because I knew it would only leave me feeling weighed down for the rest of the day. But then I started thinking “ah, but why should a pizza be tomatoes and cheese?!” And this sos and mash pizza was born out of these thoughts.

A great way to deal with leftovers

I don’t know about you, but root vegetables always seem to accumulate in my pile of stuff to use up. They sit around in quantities not quite large enough to feed two people, so they continue to sit around a little longer. Then there’s the packages of things, like veggie sausages, that come in three or five (yes, I cheated and got these at the store. Usually I like to make my own), so there’s always one or two left over.

Never mind. This vegan sos and mash “pizza” is a great way to use up any leftover root veg. Boil ‘em and mash ‘em and there’s your base for a unique pizza.

The components of a sos and mash pizza

There’s no need for a recipe for this. If you need a recipe, find your favourite pizza recipe and use it as a guide! There are 3 basic components to this pizza:

• Pizza base, bought or home-made
• A thick gravy (think the consistency of a tomato sauce for pizza)
• Mashed potato (give it some flavour by mashing it with some soy milk plus garlic, chives, butter, and/or other favourite mash ingredients…)
• Veg sausages, sliced and lightly fried

I’m confident you can work out how to put it together, but just for reference the stack goes base + gravy + mash + sausage. Bake following the directions for your pizza base.

I know this isn’t particularly exciting, but it’s a fun and unique take on the traditional British sausage and mash dinner. It’s fun to eat, filling, and very tasty. I definitely plan to make this again, but next time I might add a little sweet potato to the mix!

I have recently developed an obsession with tempeh. My husband really likes it too, not that he complains a great deal about anything else I make (but I do aim to please, mostly, depending on the time of the month and whether or not you spoke to me before 10am that morning).

This recipe features one of my staple favourites when I’m craving a unique flavour: pomegranate molasses. Combined with some lemon and vinegar, along with a dash of sugar, it makes for an awesome taste.

Recipe Notes

The recipe provided below is for the tempeh only, but it’s served with roasted butternut squash on a bed of bulghur wheat (cooked in a simple tomato based sauce with a pinch of cumin). The sauce is simply yoghurt and garlic, a favourite of both mine and my husband’s (he has a name, you know. It’s Paul). The measurements of ingredients I’ve listed do not need to be accurate, so if you love more of one thing than another then go for it (be sure to report back and let me know how it worked out for you).

Hey Brits, it really is summertime. That’s code for salad season!

Despite what you may think when you look out the window, or when you go out for a stroll in your mac, it is technically the summer. The weather, at least in the Southeast of England, has been so humid and muggy that the last thing I’ve wanted was a hot meal. As a result a lot of cooler soups and grains have been set on my dining table in recent weeks. I think for my husband that has not been easy because despite him feeling the same about the weather, he’s got that British thing going on where it can be tricky to bend expectations of how a dish should be. Soup should be hot, for instance (nevermind the fact that this statement is simply not true)!

But we are all creatures of habit and that has to be respected (and by “respected” I mean I don’t expect you to change your views, but I will still make fun of you for a long time). I compromised with a meal that was half cold and half hot. If you serve your veggies straight-from-the-oven and are worried about wilting the greens, simply serve next to instead of on the leaves.

The hubby is not a salad person unless “it is covered in dressing.” I always mean to ask him about this because, so far as I’m aware, salad is generally eaten with a dressing of some form. Perhaps he is referring to the sad and lone clumps of wilted lettuce often placed on the side of pub meal dishes? At any rate he ate this salad (and I would even go as far as guessing he enjoyed it, though he may claim otherwise).

Seriously, don’t make cool recipe ideas suck!

The idea for this came from a thought tucked away in the back of my limited grey bits for a few months. I visited a restaurant in Maryland that served a roasted vegetable salad that was mediocre at best, the sort of dish that made me say “but this has so much potential! Why did you make it suck!?” I knew I could do better and, to be honest, I did.

The salad dressing recipe provided is a very tangy and tart one, so if that’s a little much for you then by all means sweeten the dressing a little more. By all means, use your own dressing (I highly recommend a vinaigrette of some sort for this dish). The choice of veggies also isn’t set in stone; I bet some butternut squash or sweet potato would be a yummy addition! Experiment with your favourites and let me know how it goes. Be sure to try the roasted tomatoes though, even if you’re not a fan of tomatoes. I personally despise raw tomatoes, but the taste and texture when roasted is mouthwateringly good. Try throwing a teaspoon of sugar in with the roast tomato mix if you feel so inclined! It turns what is already a treat into a caramelised heaven. Spread it on bread, use it as the base for a dip, throw in a risotto… once you try roasted tomatoes you’ll want to use them in every dish you cook.

Aubergine is an unfortunate vegetable in many ways; it features a gorgeous and deep purple colour that cooks into a dull grey lump, it can be spongy, it can be unpleasant. But I realised it didn’t have to be yuck and that it simply had to be cooked right. I practised a multitude of different recipes and techniques and realised if cooked through well enough, aubergine is still a delightful vegetable whether deep fried, stewed, or burnt to a crisp in the oven. I was back on track in engaging a positive relationship with this purple veggie.

Then I discovered Baba Ganoush and I fell extra in love. Whenever someone tells me they dislike aubergine I always challenge their statement with this delicious, smoky, Arabic spread. Rarely do they claim to dislike aubergine after that.

Generally I would serve it with pitta bread or with a mezze meal. It is not something that often yields leftovers and it goes quickly. For some reason, however, my last attempt left a few tablespoons behind. Not one to throw food away unless it’s fuzzy, this instead became a base for toasted cheese a day or two after.

Er, so what’s the point of this post?

I simply that I want the world to love aubergine. I want everyone who has never had Baba Ganoush, especially those of you who claim to hate eggplant/aubergine, to either make or find some of this delectable dip. Eat it with bread, with vegetables, with couscous, with bulghur wheat, with salad, or as a spread! My point is this: it’s awesome. Seriously, go. Find some. Eat. Report back.

Baba Ganoush Recipes

Another fabulous way to enjoy this delicious dip is toasted or grilled on bread with your favourite non-dairy cheese.

Here are a few great recipes for Baba Ganoush to get you started!

• Baba Ganoush Recipe
• Baba Ganoush Vegetable Plate

I like cookies. A lot. I mean, seriously, a whole lot. Remember how, as a child, you would say how much you loved something and someone would say “why don’t you marry it then”? Well, I would marry cookies.

Aside from glancing at a few favourite recipes to remind myself of basic baking necessities (like flour – yeah, I’m dingy), my number one method of recipe concocting came into play here. It’s a deep and distant family secret, but I shall share anyway:

Gotta use stuff up.

Browsing through the fridge I encountered many a green vegetable on its last leg, but in the end decided on an already-open bag of dried cranberries and a container of oatmeal that hasn’t been touched in weeks (come on, a cranberry oatmeal cookie versus kale and courgette cookies… what would you choose).

Recipe Notes

In case anyone’s curious as to why someone would only want to make less than a dozen cookies, it’s because I’m a sugar fiend. These aren’t the sweetest of sweet when it comes to cookies, but I will still devour them Cookie Monster style.

If you’re not keen on dried cranberries, feel free to try any other dried fruit. Nuts would also be good, and the addition of chocolate chips ups the luxurious factor (because, come on, sadly no one sees oatmeal as luxurious these days. A real shame).

These vegan treats are almost like mini cakes, and are a lovely afternoon snack with a cup of your favourite hot bevvie!

An interesting concoction for bean curd lovers at least, this bastardised form of nigari tofu came to me after a discussion with someone about Vietnamese food. Vietnam is the only Southeast Asian country that uses dill (in fact, the Vietnamese use more fresh herbs than any of the others), and this is due to the past French influences (they are also the only country who can bake decent bread, a fact for which I also thank the French).

While not really a Vietnamese style dish in any way, I made the decision to create a tofu packed with this fragrant herb, with a little bit of tomato paste and ginger to accompany.

The end result, which quite clearly included a very stained piece of muslin (it washed out), was pretty impressive. I left the tofu for a couple of days so the flavour of the herbs would fully infuse, and then cut it into pieces and served it immediately after a quick fry. This would be a really cool hors d’oeuvre (think toothpicks and pretty serving trays, baby)!

There really isn’t a proper recipe for this bean curd, I’m sorry to say, but we’re looking at a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste, and inch or so of grated ginger, and at least 1/4 cup of fresh chopped dill. This is for a firmly-pressed block of tofu made with 1 litre of fresh soy milk.

I popped into my favourite Asian shop in town bought approximately 15,000 tonnes of fresh herbs last weekend and with some mint still to use up, I decided a pasta and pea combination was in order. I did not, however, wish to have the mint completely overpower the dish, hence an addition of basil and rocket (arugula). The lemon juice and red wine vinegar add a nice tartness to the overall flavour, also mellowing the mint a tad bit.

It’s hard to fail with pasta

“It’s good, but pasta and peas…?” my husband mused as we both excitedly tried to stuff our tortiglioni pasta with as many peas as would fit. Thus two things dawned on me, the first being that outside of Italy I think everything assumes a pasta dish should always involved tomatoes. The second realisation to hit me was that yes, this is dish just begs for both adults and children to play with their food.

I can think of worse things than kids fighting over who can fit the most peas in a piece of pasta and eat it before the other.

This refreshing and healthy vegan pasta dish serves two as a hot main, but I would seriously consider it as a side salad-y type thing for a picnic basket!

Hmm, that doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? Here’s the thing: I got a mandolin slicer, I had a huge bag of carrots, and I wanted to play. Enough said.

To make the pinwheel carrot shape, just score down 4 sides of each carrot and cut a small sliver out before slicing the carrots as usual. If you don’t have a mandolin, feel free to cut with a plain ol’ knife!

This doesn’t really merit a recipe as such because it’s so easy. The carrots (2) are raw, tossed in a dressing of garlic (mucho, mucho!), a pinch of fenugreek powder, and and a pinch of cumin. I simply fried the dressing ingredients in a little bit of olive oil before tossing in the carrots. It’s very yummy. Very, very yummy. And so easy!

And boy is this a short entry. Enjoy your carrots (a vegetable that is usually so much better raw than cooked).

Recipe Notes

Saag Paneer is one of my all-time favourite Indian dishes, and it’s one which is easily adapted to a vegan diet by simply substituting a good quality tofu for the paneer. The tofu was made using a SoyQuick soy milk maker. The recipe for the garam masala blend is similar to this tofu recipe (but halved); Make the tofu as usual, but add 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala and 1/8 teaspoon salt to the curd instead of the other ingredients before pressing. If you don’t make your own tofu, don’t worry; feel free to use something store bought (just add some garam masala to the curry toward the end of cooking).

This is a very easy vegan recipe that I’d recommend to anyone. You can use your favourite spinach curry recipe (goodness knows there are billions, if not trillions). If you would like a little added richness then add a few tablespoons of vegan cream and some rich vegan butter (e.g. Vitalite).

Despite the fact that my Soyquick caught fire a few weeks ago (!!), I have not had any more problems and have got back to fulfilling my regular fresh tofu cravings.

Once you have your tofu, this recipe is both easy, tasty, and nutritious. The key, like with many things I cook, is heaps of ginger and boat-loads of garlic. I am perfectly happy to give up the concept of friendship and company if it means I can ingest copious amounts of garlic. I will never have to fear vampires.

The base is a simple vegan-friendly dashi, made with dried shiitake mushrooms. As I didn’t use the soaked mushrooms with the tofu recipe, I saved them and sliced them over a simple salad of edamame, broad beans, carrot, garlic, and ginger.

There is no need to be precise with ingredients for this recipe because it’s so simple and can be dealt with via constant taste-tests throughout the creation process (broth not salty enough? Throw in some more soy sauce). Be creative and experiment! I’m sure this would also be lovely with some freshly sliced spring onions on top.

This noodle recipe, as with most of its kind, is all about the broth. It needs to be good awesome. Luckily that’s a task simply achieved in this case, with only a few basic ingredients. Dried shiitake mushrooms are the key ingredient, and if you don’t already use these I would highly recommend them as a basic kitchen staple ingredient. They are incredibly versatile and will add pizazz to any broth or soup, with the added plus of a brilliant flavour and texture.

I love my home made tofu; I obsess over it and would eventually like to consider marrying my Soyquick. I love trying different combinations of flavours in my tofu, but those flavours are always things I add after the coagulation process. That is I wait until the curds are separated from the whey and I then mix any additional ingredients into the curd. I have no idea how you are supposed to go about the process of flavouring bean curd. Is there a way you’re supposed to do it? I fear die-hard tofu fans would shout “yes! yes! There is a way! It’s called no extra flavour!”

Please don’t get me wrong because I love my tofu in all different shapes, sizes, and flavours. I adore it plain with a splash of tamari. I savour it smoked and served alongside a Sunday roast. I enjoy it heavily loaded with herbs and eaten raw as a picnic snack. But what I love the most is experimenting with soy in order to find new and also yum-tastic bean curd combinations.

…so I got the bright idea to add the flavours to the soy milk before adding the coagulant to curdle the milk. I feared it might not work, a worry which took me fast down the road to anxiety city. Why so nervous? Simple. I had only soaked one lot of soy beans, so if this experiment were to go belly up then that would have meant no tofu for me! A serious tragedy, I can assure you.

I didn’t attempt anything exciting. I simply added a stock cube and a tablespoon or so of liquid smoke flavouring to the water to make a very light broth. In that water I ground the beans (using the Soyquick machine) and immediately added nigari as a coagulant once the process was finished. I simply pressed the curds in my tofu press after that, and voila! Tofu!

The result? Very good. The flavour was subtle: a sweet and smoky bean curd fit for a king (though not a lion king, perhaps, for the cats didn’t seem too keen).

What’s this okara stuff?

Okara is the soy pulp you are left with in the process of making soy milk. To make soy milk, soaked soy beans are ground with water. The water then filters out to make the “milk” and the pulp left in the mesh or strainer. Essentially, okara is what you are left with after the milk is made.

I’ve had my Soyquick for a few months now, and while I love it to bits I have been feeling a little guilty throwing all of the okara out time and time again. Waste not, want not and all that. I started thinking, “what can I do with this stuff?”

So for anyone looking for Soyquick recipes, specifically for an okara recipe, this vegetarian meat loaf is both easy and tasty (and gives you a great way to use what you might otherwise toss in the bin).

With my Abel and Cole deliveries I receive a weekly newsletter (available online), each containing a few simple recipes. I was grateful for the newsletter that came with my first box because they sent me fennel and, believe it or not, I’d never tried this vegetable before. Anyhow, the newsletter contained a recipe for orange-fennel salsa, which is for the most part what my recipe is based on (I have only adjusted some ingredient uses and quantities).

When people heard I had never consumed fennel (aside from the seeds in little bowls by the door at Indian restaurants), they have been astounded.

“But you love liquorice!” they would say. “How can you not have tried fennel?!”

The truth is, I have been told many times I should try it, but neither my husband nor his kids are keen on it so I figured it wouldn’t be worth bringing home. I must remind myself of a couple of things, the first being that what I just mentioned is a very poor excuse for not trying new things myself. The second is that they will try anything once, and I’ve managed to get all of them to eat foods they would never have considered otherwise (which is not surprising as their general view of eating a vegetable is boiled and served with one of two condiments: salt and/or butter).

There’s also a third reason, that being if I’m going to bust my arse in the kitchen then everyone will bloody well eat what I put on their plates. This too is something I think they mostly understand.

But do not worry, for there is hope with this recipe for die-hard fennel haters. If the flavour is too overpowering for you, leave this salsa to sit for a few hours. The flavour will mellow substantially, to the point where the potent aniseseed flavour of the fennel is brought down to a very mild level. On the other hand, if you love this flavour, serve the salsa as fresh as possible.

I was on a flight once, one where I’d requested a vegan meal. They served me my inedible “meal” (which, naturally, consisted of lettuce and rice since that’s all vegans eat), accompanied by a vegan brownie.

“Right, okay, I’ll give this a go,” I thought, and it was good. I’d even go as far as to say it was great. The texture was all smooshy and moist, and I was left wanting more. Please do not get me wrong because I am in no way complimenting airline food. I am merely using this one instance to illustrate what got me interested in the concept of vegan baking.

I tried a few other vegan baked goods after that, from cookies to cupcakes, and I was never dissapointed with any of them. So I was browsing the good old internets the other day because work just wasn’t going to happen, and I suddenly thought “hey! why don’t I try baking some vegan cupcakes or muffins or whatever the correct British term is for cakes in little cases!” Plus I was pretty anxious to try out my new silicone muffin mould thingies since they are pretty and stuff.

Recipe Notes

I found a recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for chocolate cupcakes and decided to make a few changes to achieve one of my favourite flavour combination discoveries of last year: chocolate and chili. Please forgive any inconsistencies as this truly is my first attempt at vegan baking, if you don’t count bread.

Also, cat hair bakes well. Yes, born to be vegan.

This is another dish from Southeast Asia that I recently learned often contains that fantasic Southeast Asian vegetarian-pisser-offer: fish sauce. It was after my second trip to Vietnam that I realised this dish (which I ordered every day) most likely contained fish sauce. It’s something to which I hadn’t given any thought, but there’s no point in worrying about the past. Rather, I had my own go at something basic and simple, and this was the result.

Recipe Notes

This super-easy vegetarian recipe only takes ten or 15 minutes, if that, and makes a healthy and yummy snack or main meal accompaniment. You could serve it as a main meal, but it would be suggested to increase the quantities a bit, naturally.

The mandatory inclusion of seafood-related treats such as fish sauce, oyster sauce, and shrimp paste often make eating in Southeast Asia a little difficult for a veggie (to say the least). And it’s not something worth trying to trick yourself into believing you can get around, either. Here is an example conversation a vegetarian might have with restaurant waitstaff:

“…but I’m vegetarian. I can’t have oyster sauce.”

“…it’s not meat, it’s oyster sauce! It’s vegetarian!”

and so forth. You learn to simply find vegetarian establishments, basically, and there are a fair few in the major cities. The word “vegetarian” seems to have annexed so many different meanings that it’s hard to know what’s up from down, so I don’t take anyone’s word for it anymore when I’m in this region.

Instead I just feel sorry for myself while on holiday, and save up all my annoyances to come home and make veggie versions of the dishes I gave a miss while away. Next time I won’t be so defeatist about it.

Using my recipe for Turkish style tofu, plus some traditional Sunday Roast ingredients, here’s a very easy and basic vegetarian Sunday roast with a little bit of added Middle Eastern flavour.

While argan oil may lose some flavour when heated to high temperatures, it was my choice of oil for making the roast potatoes for this roast. In future I would probably not use argan oil again for a roast, for a couple of different reasons: it’s expensive, and while it does add some flavour it’s not terrible noticeable unless you know what you’re tasting for.

The roasted tofu was simple as can be. Cut the block into two, coat it with some oil, and stick it in the oven with the potatoes. Same amount of time (ish). Just keep an eye on it to be sure it isn’t a charcoal colour. You know, to a char.

The peas and carrots? Also simple. For each cup or two of veg, add tablespoon of dill (I used dried), some mint, a clove of garlic, and 1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Fry the ingredients up in a bit of olive oil (or butter) for a minute and then add them to the already-cooked peas and carrots.

Last, but certainly not least (as it’s a roast staple) we have the gravy. Again, this one was dead easy! I just used a basic stock, thickened with corn flour, with a couple of tablespoons of pomegranate molasses and a third of a cup or so of orange juice also added. Add a splash of white wine for a little extra depth, if desired.

…so with just a little bit of extra effort, but certainly not a lot, I managed a new take on the concept of the traditional Sunday roast. Maybe these types of flavours aren’t to your liking, but regardless of that it’s proof that it is possible to vary on tradition when it comes to food.

Allow me to stereotype for a short while, because it’s fun, and because I’m an arse.

Dear Britain,

You must begin to understand that it’s almost always possible to play with food concepts, perhaps even with an end result which will make the dish taste better (or at the very least, different) than before. Please don’t be boring. Please try something new. Please experiment.

The Sunday roast is a fabulous concept, one which traditionally involves not only food but also the coming together of family for that especially prepared weekly meal. I must admit that it took me a long time to come to terms with such a relatively flavourless meal. Salt and pepper constitute seasonings, there’s enough oil to sustain all of Japan’s tempura-making for a day, and it’s just not exciting.

But that’s the thing: it’s not meant to be exciting, and now I understand that. It’s a predictable comfort food which pleases a nation, a meal everyone loves and to which all look forward. That, however, doesn’t mean you can’t try a few new takes on the concept, does it?

So I’ve decided to experiment with that quintessential British meal, the Sunday roast, to experiment with possibilities in preparing this classic Sunday meal. What herbs and spices can be added for a new taste? Can the containing foods, which are generally limited to roast potatoes, a protein, and one or two other veg (plus gravy), be dolled up to represent a fusion between Great Britain and distant cuisines? And if these things are done, would you still call it a roast?

There’s a great store in Brighton called Infinity Foods (well, they’re great when they have things in stock, anyway) and I used to buy really firm and flavour-packed tofu from them whenever I was in town. They were packed with herbs and spices that made these blocks of bean curd into ideal picnic basket additions, lunchtime snacks, or sneaky delights on that midnight fridge run. That, combined with the fact that it’s nearly impossible to find decent, fresh tofu around here, is what eventually lead to the idea of purchasing a Soyquick machine and a tofu kit.

The Turkish tofu flavours

So here’s one of the experiments, a Turkish style tofu, made with aromatic cumin, garlic, and zesty Za’atar (a vibrant mix of spices that is also great with nothing more than olive oil and a nice bread). The tofu is made by a standard method of straining and pressing the bean curd, only the spice mixture is added before pressing.

Fresh bean curd

Bean curd mixed with Turkish spices

I realise not everyone makes their tofu in the same manner. Some of you probably make your soy milk from scratch and others are probably picking their jaw up off the filthy floor due to the fact that I am undoubtedly not doing this “right.” (I am open to suggestions, seriously). But the end result was delicious, and that’s what I’m all about!

I used this particular batch in a Middle Eastern inspired Sunday roast.

But I love Cavolo Nero, and as it’s one of the few seasonal vegetables available only in the growing season here in the UK, it’s one thing that keeps winter bright for me. It charms me year after year; I forget by the time summer comes that it exists and just when I’m starting to feel I’ll never last the winter, it appears on the supermarket shelves.

Also known as Tuscan kale, black kale, black cabbage, and dinosaur kale, cavolo nero is a popular Italian vegetable and is a quite versatile one at that. The thing I really love about kale generally is the texture. I love that there’s a green you can boil, fry, or bake, and after all that it still has a chewable texture and doesn’t go slimey.

What do you do with it, you ask? Well, this is one food that I like pretty simple, fried up with a bit of garlic and shallot, with some added vinegar.

Anyway, back to that magic ingredient. We all have at least one or two of them, most likely more. What do I mean by this? I’m talking about those few necessities with which we couldn’t do without in our cooking. It doesn’t have to be something that we use every day, but something that is considered an important base ingredient in our kitchens. For me there are several such all purpose ingredients, ranging from spinach (my favourite green vegetable) to couscous and other grains.

But here’s one that really works across the board. It’s a very simple recipe that anyone could make up from vegan cupboard staples, and it makes an excellent addition to any broth.

Recipe Notes

Now I get how boring this one sounds. Really. Trust me, though; it may be basic, but basic can be good. Here are a few ideas for this simple condiment:

• Dip for grilled cheese
• Salad dressing
• As part of base broth for miso soup
• As part of base broth for any stew
• Add a dash of sesame oil for an Eastern flavour!
• Marinade for tofu
• Great for noodle dishes (try a soba dish with some fresh onions and pepper
• Turns any lame stir-fry into a treat

• Take messy notes, as mentioned above, while making the meal.
• Eat dinner and forget about recipe notes for a week or ten.
• Remember recipe and hunt for it so I can make a blog post.
• Angrily blame husband for misplacing my recipe, because I certainly couldn’t have done that myself.
• Find recipe somewhere I obviously hid it and sheepishly apoligise to husband.
• Glare at recipe with confusion. Cry a little. Tell myself “I will take better notes next time.”
• Amidst the bad handwriting and orange food stains, try to make sense of what’s on that scrap of paper.
• If successful in previous step, post recipe on blog.

I mention those steps because to my shock, when I went back into the kitchen to find this recipe, it was both legible and clean (by “clean” I mean “only has a few orange food stains.”).

When my youngest step-son requested a Mexican meal for his birthday dinner, I decided to experiment with some old favourites. I urge everyone to understand that “Mexican” to an average American pretty much entails any recipe involving cheese and a tortilla, so I hardly consider my style to be authentic in any way. Like I tell the boys: were I cooking true Mexican food for them, they wouldn’t be able to cope with the heat. Hence I’ll just stick with the good fall back of “Southwestern style” cooking, as I think that’s probably a more appropriate title for the type of food I would generally categorise as “Mexican.”

Along with enchiladas (“my favourite thing you do,” as said by my eldest step-son), I decided to make some accompanying sides. Rather than the mild, flavourless store-bought salsas, I decided to experiment with my own tomato-based goodness. I made this the day before, so it had a good 24 hours to sit and let the flavours infuse. On the day it was a hit, and I’ll certainly be making it to accompany future “Mexican” meals.

Risotto afficionados, it seems, are very precice and, for lack of better word, anal, about their creations. I’m pretty sure I break many rules in the book here, like not mixing the butter with the rice before serving. In most risottos, I would, but I don’t initially mix the butter in this recipe because it sits so well with the lemon and the asparagus; lemon and butter are an excellent combination for asparagus generally so why not let them be as one? If the timing is right, you’ll end up with a nice puddle of lemon and butter sitting on top of the rice, the asparagus happily soaking in this simple sauce.

So my mom bought me a pressure cooker while I was in the states. It’s not a kitchen appliance I’d ever used, nor is it one I’d ever given much thought to owning. But then, when my mother handed me this monstrous thing to go into my already crammed suitcase, I remembered some dish my parents used to make when I was little. This was of course when I still ate meat, but it was at the time of my favourite meals. All I remembered was that it involved pork, potatoes, and carrots. When I mentioned this to my mother, she said that it was something she had in fact done in the pressure cooker. Awesome, because I loved those potatoes and carrots! I graciously and greedily packed my new toy away in my evil basement den (i.e. my mom’s work room in downstairs).

And now I’m experimenting with it. I tried a recipe a few months ago (I can’t remember exactly where from, sadly) that involved covering a saucepan with damp wax paper and a lid so to better steam the soup ingredients inside. Well what better way to keep the steam in the cooking container than with a pressure cooker?

Had I more time, I’d have used my own pre-made vegetable stock. I just used up the last frozen batch last night, so that’s on this week’s to-do list!

Homemade stocks are also a great way to use up those vegetables that have been sitting in the fridge for a little too long. You know the ones I mean. I’m talking about the veggies that are a little past their peak, but not quite funky.

“And lemon,” I replied. “Don’t forget the lemon. Why?”

He laughed again and explained to me that a character on The Fast Show often referenced cheesy peas, citing them frequently in various situations (“You like Cheese!? You like Peas!? Then you’ll love Cheesy-Peas!!”)

I punched him in the face and told him to eat his vegetables.

Well, I told him to eat his vegetables anyway.

Sage is one of my favourite herbs. It’s beautiful to look at on my windowsill (and believe me, it’s plentiful; my awesome mother-in-law buys me loads!) and it’s fantastic to eat. One of the best ways to enjoy it, in my opinion, is simply fried in a little margarine or oil until it’s just nice and crispy. Here I’ve just made a simply gnocchi recipe (you can use your own if you’d like) with a simple crispy sage vegan butter sauce. I served it with roasted baby plum tomatoes (I actually meant to include them in the salad before the main, but completely forgot… luckily they went well with the gnocchi) which are of course optional.

I’ll be honest with you; Gnocchi is not yet a mastered skill of mine. That’s why I say you can of course use your own recipe. This tastes good, but to any gnocchi snobs out there I’m sure it’s not considered gnocchi-tastic! I’d be happy at any rate to toss out the whole lot and just munch on the crispy sage… mmm…

I’m constantly trying to come up with recipe ideas which incorporate tofu, but the problem with a lot of tofu recipes is they use tofu as a secondary ingredient. I want ways to eat this glorious food and enjoy it in its own simplicity because, and I think people fail to realise this, a nice fresh tofu tastes good. This tofu teriyaki recipe is a great way to enjoy bean curd on it’s own, with a minimal list of ingredients and time necessary to prepare.

“Little wha??” you say? Soldiers, marmite men, same thing. I call them marmite men just to be difficult (and by that I mean to annoy my husband, an effect with seems to have worn off over time. Damn…)

You see, overcoming marmite was one of my greatest and most proud achievements in the journey to integration into British life. Now it’s one of the things I miss most when I’m away (I often travel with a mini-container because it’s one of the greatest comfort foods to me when I’m back in the states).

Since moving to this country, so many doors have opened to me in terms of food. Typical English fayre may not be the most exciting of things, but there’s a great selection of fresh fruit and veg here (at prices much cheaper than in the US), and the influences from the rest of of the world seem to create an exciting rush of culinary delight. I think the main thing is that in supermarkets here, there are mainly food aisles with a couple of junk food aisles in between; in the US there are mainly junk food aisles with a couple of frozen vegetables in between.

*Ahem* and yes, I am the queen of generalisations…

Other discoveries? Crusty bread, fresh spinach (or fresh veg generally… I always only had frozen!), wine, a paradise of vegetarian food selections, roast potatoes, etc…

Now if only I could get past the instant gag effect brought on by breakfast tea…

We really liked this recipe, but my husband was a little concerned that the flavours perhaps clashed a little. I thought the mild sweetness (I added perhaps a bit too much chestnut puree in my original recipe, which I cut down here) of the polenta went well with the tart taste of the tomatoes and vinegar.

I am fast developing an obsession for roasted tomatoes and probably eat them a few times a week at this point in time. I guess I’m making up for all the years of not eating tomatoes (I hate them raw, and never thought to eat them this way).

I discovered the flavour of pomegranate molasses at a Syrian restaurant in Yerevan, Armenia. My taste buds had never experienced anything like it before and I was instantly in love with what I would soon learn to be a food product to consume my life. I am referring to the hunt I went on after returning home. What was this stuff and where could I find it? Eventually I found a bottle in Sainsbury’s (and have since found it in a few other places in London) and went home to try to re-create the masterpiece of a meal I’d had in this Syrian cafe on the streets of Yerevan.

If you’ve never experienced the sweet-tart taste of pomegranate molasses, I suggest you hunt a bottle down. I would probably have to say that in 2006 it was my food discovery of the year!

This treat is fabulous served with fresh bread, like Syrian onion bread, pitta or lavash as part of a great mezze spread.

I recently discovered Edamame (by “recently” I mean within the last 6 months) when walking through London’s Victoria mainline station toward the tube station. England, unlike the U.S., is not generally a land of free samples, so imagine my delight when a young woman shoved a free sample of frozen Birds Eye brand Edamame in my hand (complete with complimentary freezer bag!). I brought the little packet home, shoved it in the freezer, and promptly forgot it was there until a couple of months later.

Then along came one of those nights where my imagination just couldn’t come up with any clever dinner ideas, and at the same time I didn’t feel like doing much at all. That’s when I remembered the soy beans in my freezer and decided to check out some recipe ideas quickly online. In the end I ended up serving them with fried sage leaves and garlic and both my husband and I were impressed with the results. The texture of the beans are lovely and they taste nice, too.

Since then I have cooked them up with margarine (try Vitalite) and garlic (yum!) but wanted to have them as a side to a Japanese-style noodle dinner. That’s where this simple but delicious recipe comes from (and yes, I know it’s not very original… but who cares about originality so long as it tastes good?!)

This one’s dead easy, folks, and tastes great to boot! This miso soup recipe will serve two comfortably as an appetiser, but if you want to make a main meal out of it then you may want to double the recipe.

This is a veganised version of a recipe from Claudia Roden’s Arabesque, one of my favourite cookbooks, full of delicious recipes which are both simple and easily veganised.

People ask me why I want books with so many non-veggie recipes inside and my response is that it simply inspires more creativity in the kitchen! What can I use to replace the chicken? Can I find a gluten-based substitute for the pork? What mock-meat products on the market might make a good replacement?

I love the additional of baked tofu steaks. I’ve included two possible marinades from which to choose, but be creative with these!

…and even if you are fussy about your stench, set aside your stink-paranoia to try this delicious and incredibly simple dish! I first tried this dish in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, in a cozy Syrian restaurant. The great thing about this recipe is that it’s really tough to mess up, and is equally tough to make a mess while making it!

This vegan version uses lemon juice to add that tangy punch missing from most dairy-free yoghurts.

This tasty Syrian bread is easy to make and tastes delicious if eaten straight out of the belly of your oven. The onion topping is optional, of course, but it adds a slight extra flavour and it looks really, really pretty. This recipe makes 8 round breads, and takes around two hours total to make.

These breads are great on their own (my husband and I are fresh bread fiends), or to accompany almost any meal (think soups and stews).

From the World Encyclopedia of Bread and Breadmaking