When? June 24, 2008
Banana is a wonderful egg replacement. Every time I bake relying on oil and rising agents it scares me a little, especially as I still do a lot of guess work when it comes to the length of time that something takes to cook. This means there is an inevitable point where I have to open the over door and take a peak, or poke a knife in. All the while losing precious heat and rise. This is probably the first muffin recipe where I have just pulled together the bits and bobs in the kitchen to create something. Something easy as well, as I only used one bowl for mixing (usually I make a terrible mess ^_^)!
Ingredients:
- 2 large ripe bananas
The best bananas to use are those that have gone completely black on the outside but are still nice and yellow inside with no visible bruising. - 1 cup loosely chopped dried apricots
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 cup rapeseed oil
- 1/4 cup soy milk
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Directions:
Make sure to heat up your oven to gas mark 4 and put some muffin cases in tins first. Mash up the bananas in a large bowl. Once mashed, move to the sides so there is a hold in the center. Toss in some apple cider vinegar and the soy milk. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix well. Then sift in the dry, and add the apricots. Mix until “just done”. Fill the cases just over half way an put in the oven for about 25 minutes. Make sure that you poke the muffins with a knife at the 25 min mark to see if it comes out clean. If not, give them a few minutes longer.
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
