Mini Savoury Vegan Cheese and Marmite Palmiers

• Ingredients
  • 1 sheet vegan puff pastry (11 x 9 inches – I use Jus Rol)
  • 30 grams (1/2 cup) nutritional yeast
  • 10 millilitres (1 teaspoon) fresh lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons yeast extract (e.g. Natex, Marmite, etc…)
  • Packed 1/2 cup melty style cheddar Sheese

• Directions/Method
  1. Mash the nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and yeast extract together in a small bowl. Lay the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface and spread the paste over the dough as close to the edges as possible. Make sure you work with the dough straight out of the fridge so it’s as cold as possible. Sprinkle the grated Sheese evenly over the pastry.
  2. Slowly and tightly roll one of the long edges into the centre of the pastry. Do the same on the other side. If the dough isn’t staying together in the middle, brush a little bit of non dairy milk along the edges of the rolls and push them gently together. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
  3. Preheat the oven to 200 Celcius (400 F).
  4. Slice the dough into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces and cook on a cookie sheet or baking tray for 8-10 minutes. Turn the palmiers over and bake for a further 8-10 minutes, or until golden.
  5. Eat hot or cold!

Thai Creamy Lemongrass Nibbles

• Ingredients
  • 2 tbsp vegan cream cheese
  • approx 80-100g puff pastry block or approx 12 square inches rolled pastry
  • 2 stalks fresh lemongrass (dry outer layers remove), finely chopped
  • 2 kaffir lime leaves, (soaked in warm water for 20 minutes if they came dried)
  • 1 tsp palm or brown sugar
  • 2 tsp toasted shredded coconut
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
  • at least 1 tsp fresh coriander (cilantro to Americans), chopped
  • at least 1 tsp fresh mint, chopped
  • ½ tsp soy sauce
  • ¼ tsp lime juice
  • finely diced red chili, to taste

• Directions/Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (400F) and lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with baking paper.
  2. Slice the kaffir lime leaves into thin slivers, stack, and dice as fine as possible. To toast coconut, heat a pan to medium and dry fry the shredded meat until it’s lightly browned. The same process goes for the sesame seeds. Thoroughly mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl, simple as that, and set aside.
  3. If your puff pastry isn’t already pre-rolled, roll out into a ¼ inch sheet. For a fancier look, use cutters or a pastry knife to cut the dough into 2.75 inch squares, and then trim about ¼ inch of dough to line the outside of each square (or use pre made vol au vent cases). Otherwise, just plonk a tablespoon and a bit of filling in the centre of each square.
  4. Brush the still exposed pastry with some soy milk for crisp browning (optional), and bake for between 12-15 minutes until lightly browned.
  5. Serve hot or cold.

Spinach and Courgette Filo Pastry Cups

• Spinach Tartlet Ingredients
  • 1 tsp olive oil + 2 tbsp olive oil and/or vegan butter
  • 6 sheets filo pastry
  • 1/2 medium onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 100-150g spinach
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2-3 tbsp cashews, ground to small chunks
  • 1/2 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp dried dill

• Courgette (Zucchini) Tartlet Ingredients
  • 1 small(ish) courgette/zucchini, thinly sliced
  • 1-2 tsp oil, to fry
  • 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 small tomatoes, thinly sliced
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1-2 tbsp freshly chopped basil

• Directions/Method
  1. Preheat oven to about 190 degrees C and lightly grease some cupcake tins.
  2. In a large saucepan, fry the onion and garlic in the 1 tsp oil. After a few minutes add a handful of spinach and mix to coat in the oil. Allow it to cook down and then add another handful. Continue until all of the spinach is cooked down, and they strain away any major liquid quantities. In a medium bowl mix the spinach with all remaining ingredients except the the 2 tbsp oil.
  3. Moving on to the ingredients for the courgette filling, Add the oil o a pan and fry the courgette with the garlic for a few minutes until just soft. Turn the heat off and add salt and basil.
  4. To prepare the pastry, first cut the 6 sheets in half across the shortest length. Stack one on top of the other and make two cuts across the longest length, dissecting the pile into thirds. Stack these and make a cut down the middle and you’ll end up with loads of rectangular pieces of pastry.
  5. Heat the remaining oil or margarine (note that you may need more) so it thins out. Brush a filo square lightly and place another directly on top. Brush again. Place another piece at a 90 degree angle on top. Brush with oil and place another one top. Layer two final pieces at a 45 degree angle, oil on each one.
  6. Gentle press the filo piles into the cupcake tin holes, ensuring you get the dough into the corners as much as possible.
  7. Distribute the spinach filling evenly among half of the tartlets, adding some breadcrumbs and/or non-dairy cheese on top if desired. For the zucchini cups, simply alternate layers of a few slices of zucchini/courgette and a slices of tomato in the remaining pastry cups.
  8. Bake for between 12-15 minutes, or until the pastry is lightly browned. For a crispier bottom, bake the pastry first before adding the filling.
  9. Serve with a nice salad or roast potatoes.

Mushroom and Ale Pie

• Ingredients
  • Oil, to fry
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 220g-280g (3-4 cups) diced mushrooms
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 475ml (2 cups) vegan ale + 2 tbsp extra (30ml)
  • 1.5 tbsp cornflour
  • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tsp Natex or other yeast extract
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 30g mixed dried mushrooms
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 350g puff pastry
  • Soy milk, for brushing pastry

• Directions/Method
  1. Preheat your oven for 180° C (just over 350° F).
  2. Fry the onion in a bit of oil for about five minutes, until they begin to brown. Add the fresh mushrooms, garlic, thyme, and coriander, stirring to ensure the mushrooms are coated with the oil. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the mushrooms have softened and cooked down a bit.
  3. Add the 475 ml ale, vinegar, soy sauce, Natex, nutritional yeast, dried mushrooms, salt, and bay leaf. Mix thoroughly, and leave to simmer over a medium heat for 10-15 minutes.
  4. Mix the cornflour with the remaining 2 tbsp of ale to a slurry, and slowly pour into the mushroom gravy whilst stirring. The sauce should thicken quite quickly. When it does, remove from the heat and set aside.
  5. Meanwhile, prepare the puff pastry. I used a solid 350g block and rolled it to fit, but feel free to use a pre rolled sheet (and you don’t have to use as much, either. I just like loads of pastry). Place the cooked mushroom mix into a roughtly 7 x 10 inch (18 x 25 cm) oven dish and cover with the pastry so the edges just overlap.
  6. Brush the pastry with a bit of soy milk and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the pastry turns a crispy golden colour.
  7. Serve hot with your vegetarian Sunday roast, kids!

Summer Tomato and Avocado Tart

• Ingredients
  • 2 avocados, sliced lengthways to 1/4 inch
  • 1/2 tbsp lemon or lime juice
  • 400g cherry or baby plum tomatoes, sliced 1/4 to 1/2 inch, stem to base.
  • 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (notice a theme here?)
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • Approx 350g puff pastry
  • A few basil leaves to garnish (optional)

• Directions/Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 200° C (400° F) and roll the pastry to a thin sheet on a baking tray.
  2. In one bowl, combine the sliced avocados with the citrus juice (it will keep the avocado from browning). If you’re worried about accidentally mashing the avocado slices, just use your fingers to lightly rub the juice on all surfaces.
  3. Combine the oil, garlic, and oregano in a medium bowl. Add the tomatoes and stir to coat with the oil mixture.
  4. Place the tomato halves on the pastry in a single layer. If they don’t cover the whole pastry, that’s okay! Bake for 10 minutes before removing and quickly placing the sliced avocado on top. Return to the oven and bake for a further 8-10 minutes, until the pastry is lightly and uniformly browned. Remove and serve warm.

Savoury Sweet Potato Pies

• Ingredients
  • About 250g sweet potato, peeled and sliced
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • a block of puff pastry
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 1 stick celery, diced
  • a few sprigs of fresh thyme and 15-20 fresh sage leaves (or a mix of the two dried, about 3/4 tsp)
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 tbsp flour
  • Approx 1/4 cup (60ml) soy milk
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 50g vegan cheddar

• Directions/Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 200° C (400° F).
  2. Steam the sweet potato for 8-10 minutes, or until well done (you should be able to put a knife through with no resistance).
  3. Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large saucepan. Slowly fry the onion and celery for 15 minutes, with a lid on, until lightly browned (a little burnt is okay). You may want to stir once or twice in the process. Add the garlic and herbs and cook for a further minutes before mixing in the vinegar.
  4. Once the vinegar has cooked down and the mixture is nearing dry again (a minute or two), add the flour and stir until evenly distrubuted through the pan. Slowly whisk in the soy milk until the flour is dissolved and the sauce thickens. Add the mustard and cheese, stirring to mix to a thick sauce. Turn off the heat and set aside.
  5. Roll your puff pastry to very thinly, perhaps 2-3mm, and cut several 5-6 inch rounds out. The recipe makes five or 6 pies, so start with ten rounds of pastry.
  6. To assemble, you can either mash the sweet potato and simply layer a few small pieces in the centre of a piece of pastry. Top with 2 tablespoons or so of the onion sauce. Brush the edges of the pastry with water and place a second round on top, pressing the sides down to seal. Flatten the pie slightly with the palm of your hand and press the edges with a fork.
  7. Place the pies, once assembled, on a lightly greased baking sheet, brushing with a bit of extra soy milk. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the pies are well browned with minimal burn.

Broccoli Potsticker Dumplings

• Ingredients
  • 10 gyoza dumpling wrappers
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp sri racha
  • 1/2 tsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp corn starch
  • 80g (1 cup) finely chopped broccoli
  • 1/2 tbsp groundnut (peanut) oil plus 1 tbsp extra
  • 1.5-2 tsp minced ginger
  • 1 cloved minced garlic
  • 3 finely diced spring onions (white and light green parts only). About 1/4 cup.
  • 2 tbsp (25g) okara (use firm tofu, crumbled, if you don’t have okara)
  • About 1/3 C water (80ml)
  • salt, to taste

• Directions/Method
  1. Mix the soy sauce, sri racha, brown sugar, corn starch, and salt together and set aside.
  2. Heat 1/2 tbsp of oil over medium high heat and fry the broccoli for a few minutes, until it begins to brown. Turn the heat down and add the ginger, garlic and spring onions. Fry 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Add the okara/tofu, along with the soy sauce mixture (stir it up first). The mixture will thicken at this point. Remove and set aside to cool a bit.
  3. Once the potsticker filling is cooled, fill each dumpling wrapper with 1.5-2 tsp of filling, placing the filling in the centre and folding the pastry over into a half moon shape. Gently but firmly pleat the edges (if they aren’t sticking, simply brush some water around them).
  4. Heat the other 1 tbsp of oil in a 9 or 10 inch skillet to a medium-high heat, swirling the oil to coat the pan. Place the dumplings, pleated side up, in the hot oil for about a minute or until the bottoms brown. Add the water and quickly cover the pan, leaving the dumplings to steam until all of the water is gone (about 3-5 minutes).
  5. Serve hot, with soy sauce or your favourite Asian condiment.

Vegan Breakfast Samosas

• Ingredients
  • 10 samosa pastry wrappers
  • flour/water paste to bind samosas
  • 4 slices facon (vegan bacon), diced
  • 100g mushrooms, diced
  • 80g medium soft tofu
  • 1 small onion, finely diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/4 tsp black salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground coriander
  • Peanut/groundnut oil, to deep fry

• Directions/Method
  1. Add a splash of oil to a large wok or frying pan and cook the mushrooms and onion over a medium high heat for a minute or so. Add the facon and crumble the tofu into the pan. Continue to fry for four or 5 minutes, or until the mixture begins to look dry and slightly browning. Mix in the coriander, salt, and garlic, cooking for a further 30 seconds. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for 15 or 20 minutes.
  2. Heat a few inches of oil in a wok or deep fryer to a medium heat.
  3. Make your samosas by placing about 1-2 tablespoons of filling in the corner of each strip of pastry, with the basic gist being to roll the pastry into a triangle.
  4. You can fry a few samosas at a time, but don’t overload the pan (nothing should be on top of anything else). Fry until golden brown and crispy (this shouldn’t take very long at all). Drain the best you can and, if possible, place on a mesh or tempura rack while making the other breakfast samosas. You can use paper towels too, but the samosas may not retain their crispness so much.
  5. Eat hot or cold, with your favourite sauces (a mix of ketchup and mayo is good, as is salsa) or plain.

Mini Plum Pie Recipe

• Ingredients
  • 1 recipe vegan shortcrust pastry
  • 225g (1 C) plum purée
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 4 tbsp cornflour (corn starch) plus 3 tbsp cold water

• Directions/Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 175 C.
  2. On a slightly floured surface roll the pastry to about 1/8 of an inch thick. Use a two inch round pastry or cookie cutter to cut out rounds and fit these into the 12 cups of a mini muffin tin. Make sure to push into the sides as much as possible. Prick the bottoms 3 or 4 times with a fork and cover with cling film. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, to make plum purée, simply cook plums (you can even include the pits) in a saucepan until soft and runny. Sieve skins and pits out by using a mesh strainer. In a saucepan over medium heat, mix the plum purée, sugar and spices for about 5 minutes, or until sugar is dissolved.
  4. Mix the cornstarch and water in a separate container and while continuously whisking the plum mixture, slowly add the cornstarch liquid. Continue to whisk until quite stiff and set aside to cool for around 15-20 minutes. You can bake the pastry cases during this time.
  5. Cut enough 1×3 inch strips of parchment wax paper for each pie, and place in each pastry case (the length makes it easy to pull them off once they come out of the oven) and fill with enough dried beans or ceramic baking beans to come to the top of the case. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
  6. Remove the paper and beans and bake again for a further 10 minutes, or until the pastry is just beginning to brown lightly around the edges. This blind baking step is important, so as much a pain as it seems it’s really not that bad. Set aside on a cooling rack for half an hour.
  7. Pipe or spoon into pastry cases and sprinkle with icing sugar just before serving if desired (it looks pretty).

Vegan Scottish Shortbread

• Ingredients
  • 50g (1/4 C) vegan butter alternative
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 90g (1/3 C) all-purpose flour

• Directions/Method
  1. Pulse sugar and flour in a food processor for one minute before adding cold margarine/butter. Pulse until mixed completely (another minute or so).
  2. Roll into approx 10 heaped teaspoon balls and with a lightly oiled cookie press, press each to about 1/8th-1/4th inch thickness. If you don’t have cool cookie presses, just use a slightly oiled bottom of a glass.
  3. Bake on a lightly greased cookie sheet at 175 C for about 10 minutes (perhaps a little shorter if the cookies are on the thin side), or until cookies just begin to brown (they look prettier with no colour, but I like the taste of them slightly browned around the edges)!
  4. Cool on a wire rack or just eat them straight out of the oven. Whatever.

Vegan Shortcrust Recipe

• Ingredients
  • 205g (1.5 C) all-purpose pastry flour
  • 4 tsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 105g (1/2 C) cold vegan margarine
  • 2-3 tbsp ice water

• Directions/Method
  1. Pulse the dry ingredients in a food procesor for a minute to mix and then add the margarine (I use Pure) and continue to pulse until the mixture resembles large crumbs.
  2. Slowly add the ice water until the dough just comes together. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for a minimum of one hour before use.

Aubergine and Hot Hummus Pastry Rolls (Vegan)

• Ingredients
  • 1 medium or large aubergine (eggplant)
  • Olive oil
  • 3 sheets of 500mm x 240mm filo pastry
  • 1 tbsp olive oil + 1 tbsp margarine
  • Hummus
  • A few pinches of advieh (optional)
  • Salt, to taste

• Directions/Method
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 225 degrees celcius.
  2. Cut the aubergine lengthways into thin 1/4 inch to 1/3 inch slices before brushing with a little olive oil on both sides. Place on a tray in the oven for ten minutes before flipping and cooking a further 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn the heat down to 175 degrees C.
  3. Melt the 1 tablespoon of oil and the margarine together.
  4. Cut the pastry sheets vertically into 250mm x 240mm pieces, keeping unused sheets covered while you work (to prevent drying out).
  5. To make rolls, brush a sheet of filo with the oil mixture and place one or two slices of aubergine in the centre as shown below. Add a tablespoon or so of hummus per piece of aubergine, plus salt and advieh (if using). Fold the sides of the pastry over and brush again. Starting at the end with the most filling, roll the concoction up, continuing to ensure it’s brushed with oil (especially at the end, so it will stick).
  6. Lightly brush the rolls with more oil and bake for about 35 minutes or until golden and crispy. Serve warm or cold with a tahini or vegan yoghurt sauce over couscous.

Sesame-Ginger Spring Asparagus en Croute

• Ingredients
  • 2 sheets of 500mm x 240mm filo pastry
  • 1 Tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp agave nectar
  • 1 clove garlic, finely minced
  • 1.5 tbsp olive oil or melted butter/vegan spread
  • A few slices of sushi ginger, sliced finely
  • 6 Spears of green asparagus
  • Salt, to taste

• Directions/Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.
  2. Mix the sesame oil, vinegar, agave nectar, and garlic in a bowl large enough to accomodate the asparagus. Coat the vegetables all over and leave to marinate while you prepare the pastry.
  3. Cut the pastry horizontally into thirds and brush with a good helping of the melted butter/oil. Roll one piece of asparagus into about 1/3 of the pastry before adding a few grains of salt, a few slivers of ginger, and a drop or ten of the leftover marinade. Continue to roll the pastry, ensuring it’s well brushed with butter. Once completely rolled, coat one final time with butter and place on an oven tray. Repeat process with remaining spears.
  4. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until crispy and lightly browned.
  5. Drizzle any leftover marinade over the ends to serve, or leave on the side as an optional extra into which the spears can be dipped.