When? April 28, 2008
La Dolce Vegan was one of the first vegan cook-books I bought. I found it in Hodges Figes an immediately picked it up. There are some mixed reviews on amazon but I’d say it’s a good buy for anyone new to veganism and a pleasant read. Sarah Kramer has included some neat cooking tips and a crafty section at the end, and the book is packed with extra comments for a more personal touch.
The Peach Crumbcake is I guess what we’d call a Peach Crumble. Remember those Apple Crumbles that the sold in the school canteen. Usually soggy and full of bitter apples and a couple of canteen lady hairs. *Gah* Luckily, the only thing that Kramers Crumbcake has in common is the crumblyness. My very critical of new things boyfriend tested the cake for me and said that it is better than any of the pies his granny has ever made for him. I’m pretty sure that if something competes with grannys cooking it has to be good.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups Flour
- 1 1/2 cups Sugar
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 cup Vegan Margarine
- 3/4 cup Soya Milk
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Egg replacer to equal 2 Eggs
- I used 2 teaspoons of “No Egg
- 1 1/2 cups Peaches, finely chopped
- I used canned peaches, this meant the mix had more liquid and took slightly longer to firm up in the oven
- 1 tbsp Sugar
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F (Gas mark 4). Lightly grease an 8-inch cake pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the margarine and combine with your hands (I love this part, it’s really satisfying ^_^), until it resembles a coarse meal. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture for later.
Add the soya milk, egg replacer, vanilla, and peaches to the remaining dough and stir until “just mixed”. (I actually replaced some of the milk with the juices from the peaches can and left out the vanilla). Spoon into the cake pan and spread the reserved mixture evenly over top of cake. Sprinkle top with 1 tbsp of sugar and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Category: baking, book, dessert, ommnomnom | Leave a Comment
When? April 23, 2008
I love paprikash, but have never managed to keep my sauce creamy when using tofu. It tends to scramble slightly. This recipe was a bit of an experiment, you know when you don’t know what to make from the odds and ends in your press, but want to try and be healthy.
Ingredients:
- 1 large Onion sliced
- 2 cloves of crushed Garlic
- Cup of frozen Cauliflower
- Small tin of Sweet-Corn
- Tin/Cup of Chickpea
- 1/2 cup Flour
- 1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast
- 1 1/2 cups Water
- 2 1/2 teaspoons Paprika
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- Pepper to taste
Directions:
In a large pot heat your oil and cook the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent. While these are cooking, use a second pot to mix the nutritional yeast, flour, paprika and water. Turn on the heat and keep mixing until the sauce starts to thicken. When this happens pour over your onions.
Add cauliflower, chick-peas, sweet-corn, salt and pepper and mix well.
Turn down the heat to a simmer (I use about Gas mark 3) and leave to cook for 20 - 25 minutes stirring occasionally.Add more pepper to taste and serve. I added some vegan mozzarella on top and a good grating of pepper.
Category: ommnomnom | 2 Comments
When? April 21, 2008
I can’t believe I haven’t posted about this recipe yet. This is a stable in our house, eaten at least once a week. My boyfriend would have this every second day if he was allowed! Unfortunately, the only vegetables that we use in this recipe are onions and jalapeños. It is however a great source of protein and tastes fantastic. *yum*
VegWeb.com was a life saver when we first went vegan and were recipe book-less. It’s a great source of recipes and tips for cooking. These cheesy bean and cheese enchalidas are one of their top 10 recipes, with over 80,000 views and 125 reviews. There are tonnes of photos sent in by the users. I have ctrl+c and ctrl+v the instructions from the site and take no responsibility for it’s AWESOMNESS. Make this, you defiantly won’t regret it. 5 ommnomnom *s
Ingredients:
- 1/2c flour
- 1/2c nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- 4 tablespoon margarine
- Or soya butter
- 10 tortillas
- The Old el Passo Salsa Tortillas are perfect for this
- 2 small cans enchilada sauce
- I use the 10 minute enchilada sauce from AllRecipies.com
- 3 cans beans (white kidney, pinto, black), drained
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 1 can olives, chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, 1/2 cup salsa (optional)
- Tried this once, don’t bother adding these now
Directions:
In medium-large saucepan, combine flour, nutritional yeast, salt and garlic powder. Add water and mix thoroughly. Heat on medium heat until bubbling and thick. Remove from heat and add mustard and margarine. Set aside 1/2 cup of cheese sauce in separate container. Add onion, beans, olives, cilantro and salsa to sauce. Mix it up.
Pour a 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Place a tortilla in pan and cover in enchilada sauce. Spoon in filling. Roll and push to one end of pan. Continue until all tortillas filled. Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce on top and then spread reserved cheese sauce on as last step. Bake at 350 until brown, 30-45 minutes.
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 45 min
When? April 20, 2008
I love pie, pastry pie, puff pie, crumbly pie. Yum. There are three parts to this pie recipe, the base, a layer of creamy filling and the vegetables. There is something that feels so good about eating roasted vegetables, it seems to bring out all of their individual flavors so well. This makes a hearty 6 servings in a casserole dish.
For the base:
- 1 and a half cups of whole wheat flour
- Quarter cup of nice olive oil
- A few tablespoons of soya milk
- Salt and pepper to season
Filling:
- Half a cup of tofu
- 2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard
- 3 tablespoons Nutritional Yeast Flakes
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- Salt and pepper to season
- 2 tablespoons soya milk
Top:
- 2 large tomatoes
- 2 peppers
- 2 onions
- 1 courgette
- 6 large mushrooms
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon celery seed
- 1 teaspoon rosemary
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 tablespoon nice olive oil
Directions:
- Roughly chop up the vegetables
- Mix with the herbs and oil in a container suitable for the oven
- Roast for an hour on a very low heat (About gas mark 3)
In the mean time, make your base:
- In a large bowl, add the flour to oil with your hands until crumbly in texture
- Add the soya milk bit by bit until the mixture is damp
- Pat into the bottom of the casserole dish
- Put this into the oven after 20 minutes. Increase the temperature to 5 and put the vegetables on the bottom shelf.
Next make your filling:
- Blend the lot
- You may wish to add more soya milk to ensure a creamy texture
- After another 20 minutes, add a thin layer of this filling to the crust
Cook for another 20 minutes, then add the layer of veg
Serve with potatoes or salad.
Category: baking, mains, recipe | Leave a Comment
When? April 20, 2008
Reeses cups used to be one of my favourite sweets before I went vegan. At first I used to have cravings for milk chocolate products like Toffy Crisps and Starbars, and other such tasty badness.
Now that I have gotten over my addictions to those things, I usually crave something savory instead, or satiate my need for sweet things with home-made buns. But I still oogle the Reeses cups in the shops, so I had to try and make something similar. There are dozens of recipes on the internet, so I just took the basic ingredients available to me and tasted as I went along. I don’t recommend this method to you although. I felt quite ill after consuming far too much cooking chocolate, sugar and peanut butter! Anyways, on to the recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 bar dark cooking chocolate
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1/2 cup sifted icing sugar
- 4 teaspoons soya butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
Directions:
Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl over a pot of boiling water
Meanwhile, mix the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. It should form a stiff texture that is mailable with your hands, and doesn’t leave them sticky.
I recently bought some silicone bun cases in Dunnes Stores. They’re a great product, suitable for the oven, microwave and freezer.
- Line these with a teaspoon or two of the melted chocolate
- Roll a ball of the peanut butter mix in your hand, and smooth it out into a cylindrical shape that will fit into your case
- Pop it into the case, and top with more melted chocolate.
- Put into the freezer until nice and hard
- Serve with a cup of tea, you’ll need it to wash down the chocolaty peanuty goodness
Category: dessert, ommnomnom, recipe, snacks | Leave a Comment
When? April 15, 2008
see more crazy cat pics
Category: cats | 2 Comments
When? April 15, 2008
Firstly, I have to admit that I’ve never made a falafel in my life. These falafels were made form a box. You know the “just add water” types. However, they were amazing and quite cheap, about three quid in the the Asian Market on Drury St.. They bake in the oven for about 10 minutes either side. I would like to try and make these from scratch, if anyone has any good recipes let me know.
I put them in a wrap with some lettuce, hummus, vegan mayonnaise (That is available in the Tescos “free from” section), and some bean sprouts and shoots.
On the side, is a tossed salad with more sprouts and shoots and a spicy salad dressing. This was a bit of an experiment. Usually I make my dressings using mustard, but we accidentally bought mustard with honey, and that definatly wasn’t going on my salad.
Ingredients:
- About 4 rough tablespoons of nice olive oil. You know when you let the oil keep pouring as you measure out the next spoon
- To two tablespoons white wine vinegar
- A teaspoon of cayenne
- Teaspoon of celery seeds
- Which have been used to mild anxiety and agitation, loss of appetite, fatigue and coughs
- Teaspoon lemon juice
I threw the whole lot of this into a jar and shook. This was so tasty that we’ve had it twice since. Drizzled on salad, it’s in small enough doses that I can handle the spiciness.
The mushrooms are classic garlic mushrooms. I use about a clove and a half of garlic for each mushroom, blended with a large teaspoon of soya butter and the stalks of the mushrooms. These are baked for 20 minutes or so, but sometimes I like to bake them for an hour until the mushrooms are a tasty garlic mess.
Edit: Tuesday 15th 20:30 vegan.com has blogged about my falafel photo. They say I had my first pita and falafel sandwich shortly after I began transitioning to a vegetarian diet, and my first thought was, “Wow, this tastes so much better than hamburger!” and boy is that so true. A falafel with tasty sauce is so much more satisfying that any of the hamburgers I’ve had in the past. nomnom
When? April 11, 2008
One of my long time friends is having a birthday meal next weekend. A few weeks ago I promised him some special cupcakes as a birthday present. Special because they are going to be vegan Jager Bomb cupcakes ^_^ I did some googling to see if it could be done, and so far one person, over at ecupcake.blogspot has tried. They looked like they held up alright in the oven, so tonight I had a test run to make some vegan jager bomb cupcakes.
I’m not going to post the recipe this time around. I am going to tweak the recipe next weekend and I want to see which batch turns out better.
In essence, the bun is died with liquorice and ruby red food coloring gel, and I used a mix of soya milk, rapseed oil and red bull as the wet ingredients with colored butter-cream red bull icing and gooey jager innards. I haven’t been able to eat a whole one yet as they are fantastically rich! However, according to my boyfriend, who is pretty critical of new foods, they taste great. Like a tasty sweet and mild jager bomb. You can taste both the red bull and the jager. The one thing that I find quite odd is the smell, usually fresh cupcakes are sweet and enticing, not alcoholic and enticing. I can’t wait for round two!
Category: alcohol, baking, dessert, recipe | 4 Comments
When? April 11, 2008
One of my favourite left-overs is boiled spuds. Growing up I picked up a few spud habits from people around me that have stuck. For one, soup and spuds. Thick vegetable soup with a dollop of mashed potato (cold) is fantastic.
Another favourite was boiled spuds in a bowl with a good layer of milk and absolutely tonnes of pepper. I picked that one up for my granny, who rarely ate sweets unless there were visitors, but loved to pick out her peppery spuds. Since going on the soya milk, I haven’t quite enjoyed this as much. I have yet to get the taste for soya milk on it’s own, but now I’ve got something new: Spuds with soya butter and tonnes of pepper.
Awesome, in particular because the soya butter was bought at tesco! Up until a few months ago, all of the olive oil of other non-dairy spreads contained buttermilk, and thus were not vegan. This meant that we had to buy our soya spread in a health food store at about twice the cost. Now tesco sells Pure, regular and organic dairy free soya spread, and it’s fantastic. Quite creamy and salty, which is the perfect combination for a tasty vegan snack. Developed for the lactose intolerant, but enjoyed by vegans 
According to the website the Pure brand was developed for people with food sensitivities in mind, particularly those who have an allergy or intolerance to dairy. It’s free from:
- Dairy
- Artificial colourings & preservatives
- Added flavourings
- Gluten
- Hydrogenated oils
- GM ingredients
When? April 9, 2008
Here’s another recipe inspired by my nutritional kick. Quinoa and lentils with any sort of vegetables and a good lashing of stock makes a super comforting food to curl up with but can also be a great source of protein and vitamins. There is a similar recipe over at eatpeacepleaserecipes.blogspot.com, but they have made theirs quite spicy. My spicy threshold is pretty low, and I try to avoid it as it gives me itchy ears!
For this one, I really wanted to sneak in some of vegetables that are good for you but a lot of people hate, in particular my boyfriend. I used celery, cauliflower, and even carrots, probably three of the vegetables that he dislikes the most, but the stew went down a treat!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup quinoa rinsed
- Quinoa is a great complete food. It has a very high protein content, a balanced set of amino acids, good source of fiber and iron and phosphorus and magnesium as well as being gluten free
- 1 cup red lentils
- Like I said in my Sweet and Spicy Lentils, these guys taste great and are a good source of protein and dietary fiber
- 1 large onion chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic crushed
- 2 celery stalks chopped
- Good if you are interested in weight loss because it is a negative calorie vegetable. It is high in dietary fiber, vitamin A, C, K, Potassium, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Magnesium and Phosphorus
- 1 cup frozen baby carrots
- 1 cup frozen cauliflower
- Has a high nutrient density. It is low in fat and high in fiber and vitamin C. There are claims that it improves liver function as well as slow or prevent cancerous tumors in the breast and prostate.
- 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
- Good for the heart and high in antioxidants.
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon rosemary
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1 teaspoon fennel
Directions:
- Heat the oil in a fairly large pot
- When hot, add the onions and cook until translucent then add the garlic
- Add the rest of the vegetables, the tomato, and spices and give a good stir until everything is coated
- Add the stock, lentils and quinoa and stir
- Cover and simmer until the lentils are soft
- You may need to add more water as the stock is absorbed
- Once soft, blend to the consistency you prefer. I like to blend the whole lot, but you can do half and half if you like a chunky stew
- Serve with a large slice of bread and soya butter
