recipes – Vegans.UK

Spaghetti Bolognese

February 13, 2017 by Tofu Temptress 2 Comments

So, one of the easiest and most filling recipes I do is also one of the most flexible. I’ve written a basic recipe here, but you can experiment with different vegetables, or put in cooked lentils instead of soy mince, whatever you like. I hope it goes without saying that the level of seasoning and garlic are merely to my taste, so adjust those as you see fit too. This recipe feeds two hungry people, or more if you throw in a bit of bruschetta to start or something.

I find red onions more flavourful than white ones.

Ingredients

One small red onion

Soy mince is easy to get hold of in supermarkets.

3 cloves of garlic

One can of chopped tomatoes

1 cup soy mince

1 cup frozen mixed veg

Half a can of kidney beans

2 teaspoons oregano

2 teaspoons basil

Half a tablespoon of hot sauce

Tablespoon of ketchup

200g Spaghetti

Here’s how I do it:

Put a pan of water on to boil for the spaghetti and while that’s heating up, prepare your ingredients.

Chop your onion into half moons and mince the garlic. Pop them into a frying pan with a few splashes of water and heat them gently.

Once your water’s boiling, put in the spaghetti and cook for ten minutes or whatever the package instructions say.

Empty the can of tomatoes into the frying pan and add the mince and frozen veg. Give it a good stir.

Cooking the veg and mince only takes a few minutes.

While that’s bubbling away, drain and wash your kidney beans using a sieve or colander and add them to the pan after a few minutes.

Add your oregano, basil, hot sauce and ketchup and stir again, making sure everything’s mixed well.

Pop the cooked spaghetti into warmed bowls.

Simmer away until your spaghetti is cooked. Drain the spaghetti and make sure it’s dried off before adding to warmed bowls.

Your bolognaise should be cooked by now, so spoon it over the top of the spaghetti.

Serve with cracked pepper and maybe a grating of vegan cheese. Enjoy!

Unusual Vegan Ingredients – Nutritional Yeast

November 4, 2016 by Tofu Temptress 1 Comment

Many people see going vegan as giving up certain foods. While that may be strictly true in that animal products of any kind are most definitely off the table, other foods sneak their way into your diet and you’re all the richer for it. What do I mean? Well, there are many foods I eat now that I wouldn’t have eaten before I became vegan. The only reason for this was that I simply didn’t think about eating creatively. Even as a vegetarian, which I’ve been for most of my life, I didn’t consider the wide spectrum of food available to me. It’s funny, even going veggie aged twelve, people asked me (as indeed they do now) ‘What do you eat?’ as though all they do all day is stuff meat into their faces. Come to think of it, maybe that’s not so far fetched…Anyway, what I’m saying is that far from sacrificing flavour for your principles or health, as a vegan you tend to discover a whole new range of tastes that more than make up for any you’ve had to give up.

If you’ve even flicked through a vegan cookbook you may have thought to yourself, what on earth do these people use as ingredients – weirdos. Well, although I’m discovering new food all the time, I’d like to give you a rundown of some unusual vegan ingredients that you may not have heard of, as well as more familiar ones that we vegans use in non-traditional ways.

I’m going to kick off with Nutritional Yeast, or nooch for short. It’s a savoury, almost cheesy tasting non-active yeast that comes in the form of flakes and you can buy it at your local health food store or online. You can use it for all sorts of things, but I like to sprinkle it onto a pasta dish for some extra B12 (some nooch is fortified with it) or spin it into a homemade salad dressing to round out the flavour. There are various recipes for blending nooch with flour, water, mustard and cashews or suchlike to make cheese-style sauces.

This is one of the best from vegan chef Isa Chandra Moscowitz. I also love the one from her cookery book Appetite for Reduction, although she has several others on her website, check them out. I also love to stir nutritional yeast into a risotto at the end instead of parmesan (although vegan parmesan is coming on in leaps and bounds.) See my recipe here. So really, it’s a flexible ingredient that’s great when you’re after that cheesy taste. A little goes a long way, so my advice is to buy yourself a tub and search around for some fun recipes or simply experiment yourself.

Happy Herbivore Light and Lean by Lindsay S. Nixon

July 25, 2016 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

The Happy Herbivore website has long been a great source of recipes and the cookbook of the same name was a best seller. This book, as the title suggests, is geared towards those of us who’d like to lose a bit of weight. There are all kinds of recipes in here and one thing they all have in common is the ingredients lists are pretty short. I find that a huge advantage, especially when trying to throw something together quickly. Although an American book, most ingredients are easy to come by here in the UK and cup measurers are available in all the big supermarkets, so that shouldn’t be a problem either.

As well as recipes, this book also includes a small section at the back that’s devoted to exercise. I have to be honest that this isn’t why I bought the book but there are common sense moves in there for everyone, like the plank and squats. However, I defy anyone to do more than five burpees in a row without getting seriously grumpy. Pick and choose what suits and you could end up more toned than you were before.

Ok, onto the food. Now, there are a few dishes in here that have made it onto my RRR (regular recipe rotation). My favourite of these is probably the Skinny Mac ‘n’ cheese. It uses canned pumpkin and you can make the sauce and then sub in whatever vegetables you want. It’s all totally flexible and tastes really quite indulgent despite the lack of fat and calories.

Skinny Mac'n'cheese — Skinny Mac’n’cheese

Another regular of mine is the Meatloaf Bites. They’re little burger-type things that you can do in a muffin tray and are ideal for stuffing into a wrap or having hot with veg. It calls for Italian seasoning, and I find a combination of dried basil, oregano, rosemary and sage works a treat. It also gives me an excuse to make proper use of my spice rack.

The Ruby Chocolate Muffins are a great little cake to make, if you fancy something sweet but healthy. The rubies are cranberries which look attractive and taste great.

There are lots of innovative recipes in here, not least the Chocolate Surprise Frosting which has sweet potato as its main ingredient – I kid you not! I honestly used this on the chocolate cake recipe from this book, served it to friends without telling them and they yummed it up. They truly had no idea they were eating vegetables! One for the children maybe?

This book is great for lunch ideas, light meals of all kinds from pasta to burgers to pancakes, desserts and there’s even a section on drinks. There are also loads of useful little recipes for sauces and dips that can be used in all different ways to make mealtimes tasty but healthier. The author has even included her own personal story to help inspire you and she certainly seems to be thriving on this no oil, whole food, plant based diet.

Recommended.

Buy it here.

Scones

September 9, 2015 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

However you pronounce them (scowns, sconns, scoons…) these little pieces of baking magic are ever popular on the afternoon tea scene. Whether you put jam on them (as I like to) or vegan cream, olive spread, or a mixture of these, there’s something comforting about tucking into a home baked scone.

These are plain, wholemeal ones, but feel free to experiment. You can use white flour, add sultanas or chopped dates to the mixture or even try some vegan cheese in there, saving a little to sprinkle on top.

This is the basic recipe and the one thing to remember is not to roll the dough too thin. I’ll admit I went a shade on the thin side for these, so was just over the bakers’ dozen, but don’t do as I do, do as I say…

Makes 12 (if you do it properly…)

Ingredients

Soy cream is easy to get in the supermarket

115g Vitalite or other vegan buttery spread

115g Caster Sugar (unrefined if you can get it)

665g Plain wholemeal flour

35g Baking powder

(120g of dried fruit, if you’re going down that route)

250ml soy cream

150ml almond or other non-dairy milk plus a wee bit extra for brushing

Try to find unrefined caster sugar if you can

Here’s how I do it:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees or Gas mark 4 (you might want it between 150 and 160 if you have a fan oven)

Cream the Vitalite and caster sugar together until they’re totally blended and have a light consistency.

Rub in the wholemeal flour and baking powder with your hands till it looks like breadcrumbs.

(If you’re adding dried fruit or whatever, do it at this stage.)

Mix the milk and cream together in a little measuring jug and pour it into the mixture a bit at a time, working it slowly into a nice, soft dough.

If the dough isn’t coming together as you’d like, just pop in some milk, a few drops at a time, to get all the crumbs to come together.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and roll it out till it’s 2cm in thickness. (Remember what I said, don’t go too thin or you’ll end up with biscuits. 2cm is about the width of two of your fingers together, although of course it depends what size your hands are…)

Cut out twelve, or at the most thirteen scones with a 6cm pastry cutter and place them carefully on a large baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Bear in mind that they will grow slightly, so be sure to give a good centimetre or so between them.

Brush the tops with a little almond (or whatever) milk and then let them rest for ten minutes before popping them in the oven.

Bake for 14-17 minutes, until they’re slightly browned on top.

Pop them onto a cooling rack and then serve with your preferred choice of preserve.

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