Veganuary: Vegan Thai Red Curry

Vegan 100 Everyday Recipes from The Works

The Meat Eater had no idea what to make on Sundays during Veganuary. His usual Sunday meals are omelette and chips or burger and chips or hot dog and chips. Obviously omelettes are out (no way would he make one or eat one made from chickpea flour) and although we had Tesco Meat-Free Hot Dogs in the freezer, when I looked at the label, I saw they contained egg. Bah.

I pointed towards the bookcase full of cookbooks but he still looked blankly at me, so I flicked through my copy of Vegan – 100 Everyday Recipes (that, according to the sticker that was still on it before I peeled it off to take a photo, I bought from The Works for £1.99) and found a recipe for Thai red curry. ‘You like Thai red curry,’ I said. ‘Hmm,’ he said, and grabbed the book from me, looked at the recipe and decided it didn’t look too scary.

The original recipe said to use asparagus but although I’ve almost got used to eating strawberries in the winter, I draw the line at eating asparagus in January. That’s just wrong.

I didn’t stand over The Meat Eater while he made this, only answering the odd question shouted from the kitchen, such as ‘what can I use instead of groundnut oil? and ‘Where’s the rice and do we have white rice, not that brown rubbish?’, so I’ll post the recipe as I imagine he made it. As mentioned above, I bought Vegan – 100 Everyday Recipes for £1.99 from The Works – it was a year or so ago so I don’t know if they still have it, but they always have lots of vegetarian and vegan books for sale, so it’s worth going into your local branch, if you have one.

Vegan Red Thai Curry Recipe

Vegan Thai red curry

Vegan Thai Red Curry
 
Prep time
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Adapted from Vegan - 100 Everyday Recipes. Published by www.parragon.com/lovefood
Author:
Recipe type: Thai
Cuisine: Vegan
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 2 tbsp peanut oil
  • 2 onions, thinly sliced
  • 100g mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 pack mange tout/baby sweetcorn
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 2 tbsp vegan Thai red curry paste
  • 1 head Chinese leaves, shredded
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a wok and add the onions and mushrooms and stir-fry for about three minutes.
  2. Add the mange tout, baby sweetcorn, coconut milk and curry paste and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.
  3. Add the Chinese leaves and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until the Chinese leaves have wilted.
  4. Serve with boiled rice.

 

Veganuary Day 10 – Lunch
Vegan salad wrap
Vegan salad wrap

Sometimes the simple things are best, and that was certainly the case for this wrap. I didn’t have any tofu or other protein to add to it, but this spinach, spring onions, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, hummus and vegan mayo wrap didn’t need it.

Snacks
Wheat Crunchies are vegan
Wheat Crunchies are vegan, hurrah

Next time someone says to you BUT WHAT ABOUT BACON? shove a packet of Wheat Crunchies in their stupid face.

 

 

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Vegan Tofush / Tofish & Chips Recipe

Vegan tofush and chips and tartar sauce

First, I need to share with you the vegan tofush and chips (also known as tofish) I made last night – it was so amazing (even if I do say so myself). As Friday night is chippy night and I usually have battered halloumi, I thought, as it’s Veganuary, I’d just have chips but then I thought why don’t I try and recreate the tofush from the Coach & Horses in Soho and have that with chips from the chippy? If you haven’t a clue what I’m on about and haven’t heard of the Coach & Horses in Soho or their famous tofush and chips, you can read my review of London’s first vegetarian pub here.

This tofush isn’t for the squeamish – the use of nori (sheets of dried seaweed) gives it a distinct fishy flavour so, if you don’t like the taste of fish, leave the nori out. But if you want an authentic fish-in-batter taste, leave it in and tell yourself it tastes of the sea.

Just in case making tofush wasn’t proof enough of my genius, I further excelled myself and made my own vegan tartar sauce by mixing together some vegan mayonnaise and pickle relish.

You may be wondering how I managed to go to the chip shop and make tofush at the same time. Even I’m not that much of a genius and I made the tofush while The Meat Eater was at the chippy, keeping it warm in the oven until he got back.

I’ll share the recipe for the vegan tofush below but I’ll just give a quick run through of what else I ate on Veganuary Day 8.

Breakfast

Yes, it’s the same as I’ve had for the last week – a spinach, apple, clementine and chia seeds Nutriblast. I’ve bought some raspberries now so I’ll be having a different breakfast Nutriblast soon. Get me and my impulsiveness.

Lunch

banana, kiwi fruit, strawberry, blueberry and soya milk Nutriblast

A gloriously healthy lunch, knowing dinner was going to be a full-on pig-out. This Nutriblast contains banana, kiwi fruit, strawberries, blueberries and soya milk.

Snacks

As usual, I spent some of the day drinking hot chocolate and eating Oat Flips and Oreos.

Recipe: Vegan Tofush 

vegan tofush

4.7 from 3 reviews
Vegan Tofush
 
Prep time
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Inspired by the tofush and chips at Norman's Coach & Horses, Soho, London
Author:
Recipe type: Tofu
Cuisine: Vegan
Serves: 1-2
Ingredients
For the tofu
  • ½ block firm tofu, pressed and sliced in half
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • salt
  • ½ sheet nori, cut into two (so you have two strips of nori)
For the batter
  • 30ml water
  • 30ml soya milk
  • 60g plain flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • salt and pepper

    Oil for deep-frying
Instructions
  1. Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice and salt in a bowl/tupperware dish and marinade the tofu in it for a few hours (or minutes if you forget to do it earlier).
  2. Whisk together the ingredients for the batter in a bowl.
  3. Heat the oil for deep-frying (test it's hot enough by dropping a bit of batter into it - if it sizzles, it's ready).
  4. Meanwhile, wrap the strips of nori around the tofu and secure it with a toothpick or two (just remember to remove them after frying!)
  5. Dredge the nori-wrapped tofu in the batter and deep-fry for two to three minutes, until golden.




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One Week Into Veganuary!

Vegan stir-fry with spring rolls and wontons

Veganuary banner

I’m a week into my first Veganuary, so how do I feel? Have I missed eggs and dairy? Have I lost any weight? The answers to these questions are:

  • no different;
  • no;
  • and no.

Was I expecting to feel any different or to miss eggs and dairy or to lose weight? The answers to these questions are:

  • maybe;
  • maybe; and
  • hell, yeah.

In relation to the ‘hell, yeah’, with regard to my weight – I wasn’t expecting a vegan diet to help me lose weight, especially when my diet over the last week has consisted of tacos, pizza, pie and mash, potato wedges, Oreos, Oat Flips, crisps and chocolate but, considering I haven’t had any alcohol this year yet and it’s Janathon, I thought I might have lost a pound or so but, alas, I started January weighing 10st 4¼ and that’s exactly what I weighed this morning.

I can honestly say I haven’t missed eggs or dairy (I don’t consume much of either anyway), but as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I haven’t got any plans to eat out and that’s when I’ll struggle, especially if I’m out with a group I go walking with as it’s rare enough finding something vegetarian on the menu in the pubs we go to after – if I asked for something vegan, the owners would probably kick me out the door and bolt it behind me.

The only difference having a vegan diet has made to a normal week is checking labels for milk and eggs, and remembering not to buy any Quorn products (yes, I know there are a couple of vegan Quorn products in the UK now, but I haven’t found them yet). There’s been no hunger, disruption, inconvenience or side effects – all is good!

So, here’s what I ate on Veganuary Day 7:

Breakfast

Spinach, clementine, apple and coconut water Nutriblast
Spinach, clementine, apple and coconut water Nutriblast

Yep, my usual Nutriblast. I’ve taken to drinking my morning blasts in the front room, reading my Kindle, with my cat on my lap. Not a bad start to the day.

Lunch

Vegan salad sandwich in a Warburtons Thin
Salad sandwich in a Warburtons Thin

I couldn’t decide what to have for lunch. I didn’t fancy a Nutriblast and I was saving the tofu for a stir-fry, so I ended up having a salad sandwich containing spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, olives and home made hummus in a Warburtons Sandwich Thin (please forgive the nasty 70s-inspired photo).

Dinner

Vegan stir-fry with spring rolls and wontons
Vegan stir-fry with spring rolls and wontons

Despite saving the tofu for the stir-fry, I got caught up writing yesterday’s post, so The Meat Eater said he’d cook dinner but didn’t know what to do with the tofu, so that got left out. Still, this stir-fry with mushrooms, mange tout, baby sweetcorn, red peppers and beansprouts was seriously filling. The vegetables were fried in peanut oil for a few minutes, then two sachets of Blue Dragon Spicy Szechuan Tomato Stir-Fry Sauce was added. Accompanying the stir-fry were rice noodles – instead of the usual egg ones I buy – and Tesco Mini Vegetable Spring Rolls and Tesco Sweet & Sour Vegetable Wontons (and I wonder why I don’t lose weight).

Snacks

Vegan hot chocolate and Oreos
Vegan hot chocolate and Oreos

After falling over on the way to the gym, I went home and sulked and drank hot chocolate and ate Oreos (okay, so *this* is why I don’t lose any weight).

So, that’s week one of Veganuary done – if you’re also taking part, please leave me a comment and let me know how you’re getting on – I’d love to hear from you.

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Veganuary 2016 – Day 6

Veganuary banner

Veganuary Day 6 and I haven’t leapt face-first with my mouth open into the cheese counter at Tesco because of any overwhelming cheese-addiction withdrawal pangs – hurrah! Not that I was expecting to; although, seeing as I’ve used Violife vegan cheese three times already during Veganuary, you’d be forgiven for thinking I’ve got a bit of a thing about cheese.

Where I would find cheese tempting, however, is in restaurants but, as old Billy-no-mates me hasn’t got any nights out planned for January, temptation shouldn’t get in my way. I did, however, meet a friend at lunchtime yesterday in Wetherspoons and checked the menu beforehand, in case we were going to eat. Do you know what one of the first things on the Wetherspoons menu is? It’s halloumi. Yeah, halloumi. You know, halloumi – one of my most favourite food things ever. So, I thought I might get some chips (even though I read here yesterday that the chips in Wetherspoons are barely vegetarian as, even though some of the branches cook the chips separately to meat, the oil is all filtered together at the end of the day, so there’s always going to be a problem with cross-contamination) but the 955 calories put me off. I’m not a calorie-dodger on the whole but 955 CALORIES IN ONE PORTION OF CHIPS? Jeez.

Calories in a bowl of chips from Wetherspoons
Calories in chips from Wetherspoons

You can filter the menu on the Wetherspoons website to show only vegan menu items. There aren’t many, I can tell you. If you filter down the burger category, you’re offered the avocado topping and BBQ sauce – that’s just the avocado topping and BBQ sauce, not the burger. Woo.

Still, it wasn’t really relevant to my particular circumstances at the time, as I didn’t think we were going to eat but I just wanted to have a nose anyway, out of interest. What I did want was some hot chocolate and although when I filtered out hot drinks containing milk on the website, hot chocolate was left, I was sceptical and thought I’d be brave and ask when I got there.

It may not sound like a big deal to you, asking the bar staff if something’s vegan but, although I’ve been vegetarian for 24 years and have no problem asking if something is vegetarian, I’ve always felt shy/embarrassed about asking if something’s vegan. I don’t know exactly why this is – maybe it’s because I’m not a vegan and feel like I shouldn’t be asking if something’s vegan, or maybe I’m just too timid. Anyway, I was brave and asked the barman if the hot chocolate contained milk and he said yes, it did. Bah. Still, the pint of lime and soda I bought instead was a lot cheaper at just 80p.

Anyway, back to my food diary and, for breakfast, I had a – yes, you guessed it – a Nutriblast. This morning’s one was my usual spinach, clementine, apple, chia seeds and coconut water. You’re only getting a bog-standard photo today though, not a pretty one, sorry. I gave my inner David Bailey (or should that be Lebovitz?) the day off.

Spinach, clementine, apple and coconut water Nutriblast
Spinach, clementine, apple and coconut water Nutriblast

As mentioned above, lunch was two pints of lime and soda in Wetherspoons, then I came home and had hot chocolate and an Oat Flip. Oats are healthy, yeah?

Green & Black's hot chocolate and an Oat Flip
My healthy lunch

For dinner we had tacos. Tacos are my new favourite thing (after halloumi, obvs), ever since Old El Paso sent me their Stand ‘n’ Stuff Soft Taco Kit to review. On top of the tacos, I had some grated Violife and a couple of blobs of home-made vegan sour cream (for more information on the sour cream, see my first Veganuary post). I accompanied the tacos with home-made spicy potato wedges and steamed broccoli and green beans. I’ll share the recipes for the tacos and home-made wedges with you below.

Vegan tacos with home-made spicy wedges
Vegan tacos with home-made spicy wedges

Vegan Tacos
 
Prep time
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Please note this is a rough indication of the ingredients - I didn't actually measure anything, so go by your own instincts.
Author:
Recipe type: Mexican
Cuisine: Vegan
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 4 Old El Paso Soft Stand 'n' Stuff Taco Shells (heated as per packet instructions)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 150g vegan mince (I used Tesco's own meat-free mince)
  • 2 tbsp Old El Paso Taco Seasoning
  • 50ml water
  • 2 baby onions, sliced
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the baby onions and fry for a few minutes until soft.
  2. Add the vegan mince and fry for about three to four minutes.
  3. Add the taco seasoning and water and bring to the boil.
  4. Simmer for about five minutes.
  5. Share the mince between the heated taco shells and top with jalapenos, salsa, salad, cheese and sour cream.

Vegan Spicy Potato Wedges
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Please note the quantities for the ingredients are approximate - I made this up as I went along and didn't measure anything.
Author:
Recipe type: Mexican
Cuisine: Vegan
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 4 medium potatoes, cut into wedges
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • a few drops of liquid smoke
Instructions
  1. Cook the potato wedges in boiling water for about 5 minutes, then drain and put in a roasting tray.
  2. Mix together the other ingredients and pour over the potato wedges, turning to coat thoroughly.
  3. Bake in the oven at 200C, turning occasionally for approximately 45 minutes.

 

It’s not too late to take part in Veganuary – for more information and to sign up, visit the Veganuary website.

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My First Veganuary

Veganuary banner

I thought Veganuary had been a thing for a number of years but it seems that number is only three, with 2016 being its third year. Which means that I may be fashionably late to the party but not that late. Yay for me.

Veganuary – as you’ll probably guess, if you don’t already know – is a month-long challenge to be vegan throughout the month of January. I did my own Veganuary during July 2008, but as Veganuly sounds more like a venereal disease than a fun food-based challenge, I can see why that didn’t catch on. I only slipped up once during my Veganuly when, one Sunday evening, I fancied something creamy and remembered the Baileys in the fridge, before remembering what exactly made Baileys creamy (clue: it’s cream).

As you’ll know if you’re a regular here (or know me personally), I a) have strong vegan leanings (dietary-wise at least); but b) live with someone who is strongly anti-vegan and who, if he suspects I’ve put something vegan on his plate,  will cover it in salad cream. Which gave me something of a dilemma as someone who a) has strong vegan leanings; and b) loves monthly challenges.

But, I kept hinting I wanted to do Veganuary and the more I hinted at it, the more I wanted to do it and the more The Meat Eater didn’t really seem to mind that much. YAY. I drew up a list of ‘normal’ food that I’d be cooking, to assure him that nothing would really change that much and he wouldn’t be getting anything ‘odd’ like omelettes made out of chickpea flour instead of eggs.

I’m on Day 5 at the moment and all is well. We’ve had pizza, garlic bread, jacket potato with chilli and stew for dinner and my daytimes have been the same as usual with my Nutriblasts – the only thing I’ve had to change is making hot chocolate with vegan cocoa powder and soya milk, instead of boiling a kettle and using the instant stuff that contains milk. No biggie.

Below are photos of everything I’ve eaten so far during Veganuary 2016.

Veganuary 2016 – Day 1

Um, this was New Year’s Day and I was too hungover to eat. I couldn’t even stomach any hot chocolate. Still, 100% is 100%.

Veganuary 2016 – Day 2

Breakfast

Um… might have skipped breakfast… next…

Lunch

Banana, passion fruit, kiwi, dates, cashew smoothie
Banana, passion fruit, kiwi, dates, cashew and cacao smoothie

I’m still using my Nutriblast regularly (even if I did skip breakfast over the holidays) and this banana, passion fruit, kiwi, dates, cashew, cacao, soya milk and coconut water smoothie was not only delicious, it was filling too. A complete meal in a glass (or jar).

Dinner

Tortilla pizza with Violife vegan cheese
Tortilla pizza with Violife vegan cheese

I’ve got to admit, making two pizzas and two lots of garlic bread was a bit of an inconvenience, but an inconvenience that was most definitely worth it. I had Violife vegan cheese on my pizza and made my half of the garlic bread with Vitalite, while The Meat Eater had Cheddar on his pizza, and I made his garlic bread with Flora. The pizza was fab but the garlic bread was a revelation – I’d only ever made homemade garlic bread before with real butter and thought Vitalite wouldn’t quite cut it, but I can honestly say this was better than any garlic bread I’ve ever made or bought in the supermarket.

Here’s my tortilla pizza recipe (swap the mozzarella for vegan cheese, or just leave out).

Vegan garlic bread
Best ever garlic bread – vegan or otherwise

As I said above, this garlic bread was amazing. It’s so easy to make – mix up some crushed garlic and/or garlic powder (I used about 4 cloves of crushed garlic, then added some garlic powder too) with vegan spread (I used Vitalite), slice a part-baked baguette (available in all supermarkets), and thickly spread the slices with the garlic butter and put the slices back together and wrap with foil. Bake in the oven at 180C for about 10 minutes, then unwrap the foil and bake for another 5 minutes, so the bread crisps up.

Snacks

Mini moo vegan chocolate
Mini moo vegan chocolate

My friend Cassie had sent me a selection box of Mini Moo vegan chocolate for my birthday (thank you, Cassie!), so I won’t be going without chocolate this month.

Tesco Mint Thins - accidentally vegan
Tesco Mint Thins – accidentally vegan

I also have a mint chocolate after dinner every night and as Tesco Mint Thins are about a third of the price of After Eights, that’s what we have and, luckily, unlike After Eights, Tesco Mint Thins are vegan. Yayness.

Veganuary 2016 – Day 3

Breakfast

I have no record of having anything for breakfast so either I didn’t have anything or I didn’t write it down or take a photo. Eat something and not take a photo first? I don’t know what the world’s coming to.

Lunch

Vegan peanut butter on toast and hot chocolate
Peanut butter on toast and hot chocolate

I had planned to have a Nutriblast for lunch, then I changed my mind and had peanut butter on toast and hot chocolate instead. Near enough, isn’t it? As mentioned earlier, the only thing I’ve had to change so far is to stop drinking my usual instant hot chocolate and drink cocoa powder and soya milk instead. Which can only be a good thing, taking into consideration just how much crap is in that instant stuff.

(Do you like my cow mug? My friend Gene sent it to me from America.)

Dinner

Jacket potato with vegan chilli, cheese and sour cream
Jacket potato with vegan chilli, cheese and sour cream

Another ‘vegan cheese for me’, ‘Cheddar for The Meat Eater’ meal. The chilli was easy enough, having remembered to check the stock was vegan (did you know some vegetable stock has milk in? Fuck knows why, but it does) and buy Tesco Meat-Free mince, which is vegan (unlike Quorn mince). The cheese was also easy enough, as I still had some Violife in the fridge and, anyway, Tesco sells it. But… sour cream… I love my condiments and didn’t like the idea of going without my usual sour cream topping. So, what’s a girl supposed to do? Yep, make her own. Here it is:

Vegan sour cream using silken tofu
Vegan sour cream

I got the recipe from here – it’s really easy to make and, as a bonus, I had all the ingredients in already, including the coconut nectar. If you don’t have any coconut nectar (I only had some because it had been sent to me, along with some coconut oil, to review), you could use agave nectar or maple syrup instead. Or leave it out all together, I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference.

I’ve got to admit, it’s not exactly the same as sour cream but it’s creamy and tangy and if you – like me – are a condiment lover, then give it a go.

Snacks 

Vegan Winter Berries & Prosecco Crisps from Marks & Spencer
Winter Berries & Prosecco Crisps

I’d had an inkling I’d seen on a vegan Facebook group someone mentioning these crisps at Christmastime, so I checked the ingredients and all seemed okay, but to triple-check, I had a look on the Vegan Womble website and yay, these Winter Berries & Prosecco crisps from Marks & Spencer that I hadn’t finished over Christmas are vegan. But, sod the vegan bit, they contain edible gold stars – what more do you want from a crisp?

Veganuary 2016 – Day 4

Breakfast

Spinach, clementine, apple, chia seeds, coconut water Nutriblast
Spinach, clementine, apple, chia seeds, coconut water Nutriblast

No skipping breakfast for me today. Today’s Nutriblast was a combination of spinach, clementine, apple, chia seeds and coconut water. Did you know you don’t have to core apples before putting them in your Nutribullet? It’ll break the seeds up just fine (so none of that worrying about whole seeds sprouting and turning into trees in your stomach – or was that just my mum who told me that when I was little?)

Lunch

Vegan tofu wrap with salad
Vegan tofu wrap with salad

Another ‘I’m going to have a Nutriblast for lunch/I’ve changed my mind and going to have carbs instead’ lunch and very nice it was too. I coated some tofu in Jack Daniel’s Extra Hot Habanero BBQ Sauce (they’re not joking when they say ‘extra hot’ either), grilled it on my George Foreman grill until crispy, cut it into cubes and put it in a wrap with some homemade hummus and salad.

Dinner 

Vegan sausage stew with broccoli and beans
Vegan sausage stew with broccoli and beans

I make this tasty stew often and you can find the recipe here. I cooked Linda McCartney sausages beforehand, then added them to the stew with the dumplings (made with Tesco’s own vegetarian suet, which is vegan) for the last 15 minutes. I had Vitalite on my half of the bread roll, while The Meat Eater had Flora on his (he also wiped his vegetables on his buttered roll to un-veganise them. I kid you not).

Snacks

These Oat Flips are vegan
Oat Flips – kind of like Hob Nobs, i.e. yum.

I wasn’t going to be strict about E numbers during this Veganuary but although these Oat Flips that were given to us for Christmas seemed to be vegan – at least to my untrained eye – there was no mention on the tin of them being suitable for vegetarians and the E numbers played on my mind. As I was indoors with all the information I needed on the internet, I decided it’d be silly not to check so I looked up E475. Unfortunately, E475 is of dubious origin and although it’s usually derived from plants, it can also be of animal origin. I looked on the Oat Flips website for more information and on there it said the Oat Flips were suitable for vegetarians. The logical part of my brain then thought, ‘Well, if they’re suitable for vegetarians, then this E475 must be of plant origin because if it was animal origin, it wouldn’t be vegetarian and if it was made of milk or egg, that would have to be listed in the allergy bit, which it isn’t, so that must mean these Oat Flips are vegan’. But, I didn’t want to trust my logic so I asked on the Veganuary Facebook page if my logic was correct and was told yes, it was.

That was a very long-winded way of saying these Oat Flips are vegan. Yay for Oat Flips.

And that brings me up to Day 4 of my first Veganuary. I’ll be posting for the rest of the month, so keep checking back to see how I’m doing (and what I’m eating).

For more information on Veganuary and to sign up, visit the Veganuary website.

My fellow veggie blogger Kate at The Veg Space is also doing Veganuary and you can read what she says about it here.

Also, read my Q&A with Jacqui about how she’s continued being vegan after taking part in Veganuary 2015.

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Recipe: Citrus Coconut Nutriblast

Clementine, kiwi fruit, pineapple and coconut water nutribulast

I thought I was making a citrus smoothie. But then I found out that a kiwi fruit isn’t a citrus fruit, but a berry, and then I found out a pineapple isn’t a citrus fruit either because citrus fruit belong to the Rutaceae family and a pineapple belongs to the Bromeliarceae family. So there you go. And no, I hadn’t heard of the Rutaceae or Bromeliaceae family either. The only family name I usually hear about is ‘Mitchell’, and I now I’m imagining Phil sitting at the kitchen table at breakfast time, picking up an orange and telling Ben how citrus fruit are from the ‘rutter-see-er faaaaaaaaaaaaaamily, innit’.

Still, despite the clementine being the only citrus in this citrus smoothie (which isn’t even a smoothie, as it’s more like a juice). it only took a few seconds in my Nutribullet to blend it all together with some Buko organic coconut water.

Buko organic coconut water

Citrus Coconut Nutriblast
 
Author:
Recipe type: Nutriblast
Ingredients
  • 1 clementine, peeled
  • 1 kiwi fruit (I don't bother peeling them)
  • ¼ pineapple, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 330ml coconut water
Instructions
  1. Put everything in the tall cup of your Nutribullet and blast for a few seconds

Thank you to Buko for sending me some of their organic coconut water to try.

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Recipe: Easy Vegan Gingerbread Men

Vegan gingerbread men

As you know, I’m not a great cake or cookie person (actually, that’s a lie – I love cookies, I just don’t like making them because then I see exactly what goes into them and then I’m thinking HOW MANY CALORIES?)

But then Discount Supplements asked me to make something healthy for Christmas, using one of their products. They gave me a list of recipes to choose from and I chose the vegan gingerbread men because a) it looked the easiest; and b) I fancied playing with men-shaped cookie cutters.

Vegan gingerbread man and hot chocolate
Yes, those are vegan marshmallows in the hot chocolate

I didn’t quite follow the provided recipe (and when I say ‘quite’, I mean ‘disregarded 99% of it’) so this recipe is how I made the gingerbread men, using the ingredients I had available (e.g. I used applesauce as an egg replacer instead of a flax egg, wholemeal flour instead of gluten-free flour and Golden Syrup instead of molasses).

I’m not sure I’ve ever had a gingerbread man before (not sure I’ve had a ginger man before – bread or otherwise, actually, but let’s not go there, eh?) so I don’t know if these are how they’re supposed to be, but if gingerbread men are supposed to be crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, then I’m the boss at making gingerbread men.

Vegan gingerbread men

Recipe: Easy Vegan Gingerbread Men
 
Prep time
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Author:
Cuisine: Vegan
Serves: 15
Ingredients
  • 350g wholemeal flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 125g dairy-free spread
  • 175g demerara sugar
  • ¼ cup applesauce
  • 4 tbsp Golden Syrup
  • ⅛ cup almond butter
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
  2. Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon into a food processor. Add the butter and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
  3. Beat the applesauce, Golden Syrup and almond butter together, add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together. Tip the dough out and knead until smooth. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for 15 minutes.
  4. Lightly flour a chopping board or worktop and roll out the dough to a thickness of about 0.5cm.
  5. Using cookie cutters, cut out the gingerbread men shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them.
  6. Bake for about 13 minutes, or until a light golden-brown.
  7. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.
  8. Either use a skewer to make eyes and buttons, or decorate with icing.

Thanks to Discount Supplements for supplying me with the almond butter used in this recipe.

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Recipe: Vegan Chickpea (Gram) Flour Pancake

Chickpea flour (gram flour) pancake

Chickpea flour (also known as gram flour) is so versatile. It can be used instead of eggs in omelettes, pancakes, quiches and loads of other things. My latest favourite way to use it is to make pancakes – they’re just as quick and easy to make as their eggy equivalents, but with the added bonus of it being vegan and therefore cruelty-free (and wheat- and gluten-free if you need to avoid those). What I mostly love about pancakes though is that they’re just a pancake-based pizza – choose your toppings just as you would a pizza and throw them on the top of the pancake at the end of cooking.

In the photo is a chickpea flour pancake I made the other day with spinach, mushrooms, olives, sundried tomatoes, garlic and pine nuts.

You should be able to find chickpea flour in your local supermarket (just bear in mind it might say gram flour on the packet) but if not, then any Indian/international store should have it.

Chickpea (Gram) Flour Pancake
 
Author:
Recipe type: Pancake
Cuisine: Vegan
Ingredients
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • ½ cup chickpea (gram) flour
  • ¼ tsp baking powder
  • ½ cup + 2 tbsp water
  • salt and pepper
  • Your choice of toppings
Instructions
  1. Prepare your toppings (e.g. fry your mushrooms, spinach and garlic) and set aside.
  2. Whisk together the chickpea flour, baking powder and water, then season with salt and pepper. Whisk until no lumps remain.
  3. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and pour in the pancake batter.
  4. Cook for a couple of minutes until the pancake feels firm enough to flip over.
  5. Carefully flip the pancake over, scatter your toppings on top of the pancake and cook for another couple of minutes.

 

If you’re interested in cooking with chickpea flour, here are a couple of recipes from other food bloggers you might like:

Coconut Chickpea Chocolate Cake from Tin and Thyme
Quick Indian Pancakes with Spiced Potato Filling from The Veg Space

 




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Recipe: Smoothies Containing Blueberries

I generally don’t plan what goes into my smoothies – as I mentioned in my Nutribullet review the other day, it doesn’t seem to matter what combination of fruit you add, it always turns out delicious.

These two smoothies were no exception – I randomly chucked in whatever fruit I could find in the fridge and freezer and out of the Nutribullet came fresh, creamy smoothies. You can see what they were made with in the captions.

Spinach, clementine, raspberry, blueberry, chia seeds and Alpro coconut drink Nutriblast
Spinach, clementine, raspberry, blueberry, chia seeds and Alpro coconut drink
Spinach, blueberry, frozen summer fruit, Alpro coconut drink Nutriblast
Spinach, blueberry, frozen summer fruit, Alpro coconut drink
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Recipe: Smoky Marinated Tofu in Pitta Bread

Tofu marinated in sesame oil, sriracha, liquid smoke and nutritional yeast

I hadn’t had tofu for ages, so it was time to remedy that and raid the cupboard and fridge for condiments and drag the George Foreman out of the cupboard.

The result was cripsy, smoky, spicy tofu that I stuffed in a Food Doctor seeded pitta bread (only £1 for 6 in Tesco) with spinach, olives and mayo.

Recipe: Marinated Tofu in Pitta Bread
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Cuisine: Vegan
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • ½ block tofu, pressed and sliced in half
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1 tbsp sriracha
  • A few drops liquid smoke
Instructions
  1. Mix up the sesame oil, nutritional yeast, sriracha and liquid smoke and coat the tofu in it, rubbing it in with your hands
  2. Leave to marinate for a few hours (or minutes, depending on how organised you are in planning ahead)
  3. Grill on a George Foreman grill for 10-15 minutes, until crispy
  4. Stuff in pitta bread with salad

 

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