Vegan MoFo Day 30: Saucy Chickpeas

I can't believe it's almost the end of MoFo already!  I don't think any of my posts were especially inspiring this year, haha, but it has been great reading everyone else's blogs. I totally forgot how much inspiration blogs can provide for meals.

Case in point, yesterday's dinner.  Coronation chicken used to be a big favourite of mine in my pregan days and since going vegan I've made it with tofu and seitan, but never did I think of using chickpeas, like I saw over on the veghotpot blog yesterday.

I thought this idea was genius so I decided to make my own version.  I didn't add any dried fruit, mine was just about 1/4 cup of soya yoghurt, 1 tsp of korma paste and 1 tbsp of mango chutney, plus a bit of salt.  I added half a tin of chickpeas and served it over a baked potato.  It was awesome!

See ya tomorrow for the last MoFo post.

Laterz
xXx

Vegan MoFo Day 12: I'm Souper, thanks for asking

Happy Friday peeps.  I can't believe we're almost half way through MoFo - it's bananas!

 

Yes yes, I'm aware that I'm HILarious!  But enough of my razor sharp wit, onto the food.  I spent AGES yesterday looking through cook books and trying to work out something rad for dinner and in the end I decided just to wing something quick out of the contents of my fridge.  I had less than half a tin of chickpeas left that I opened to make the chickpea cutlets, so I smushed 'em up with some vegan mayo, some nori flakes and some sweetcorn to make a faux tuna salad. I stuffed it into a roll and put a tonne of vegan cheese on top for a riff of a tuna melt.

 

Cheesy goodness before being blasted under a hot grill.  I used Tesco's red cheddar, which I surprisingly like. I say surprisingly cuz I always thought Sheese, which this basically is, tasted like butt.

 

Melty Goodness!

 

There was so much filling it was bustin out!

 

To go with it I made a really easy soup by just sauteeing a clove of garlic and a shallot in a teeny bit of oil, then chucking in a tin of chopped tomatoes, half a cup of basmati rice, some dried thyme and some veggie stock.  I cooked it for 15 minutes and added some sriracha so it was good and spicy, et voila!  Easy as pants and plenty of leftovers for lunch today.

 

I'm leaving to go onsite for work today, so I'm not sure how good internet access will be, but so far I'm still planning to blog every day.  Food onsite is SUPER exciting*, so I bet you guys can't wait for that!

 

(* = shite!)

 

Have a good weekend all and think of me walking round yawning and pretending caravans are really interesting, while you're enjoying yourselves! ;o)

 

Laterz

xXx

Vegan MoFo Day 11: chickpea cutlets of radness

I decided not to go to the gym last night, as I'm going to be away with work from tomorrow night over the weekend, so won't really have a night to myself for a bit.  And because of this I decided to spend a bit longer making dinner. Also I thought my attack class was tonight and it was actually last night! haha oops, that's a fine I'll have to pay next time I book! :(

 

Anyways.... I went with the chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon.  I don't make these that often because I always think they take ages to make, but actually if you have all the ingredients, they really don't take that long at all.  I always bake them, I've tried frying like it says in the book but there is ALWAYS gluten strings inside when I've fried. And uncooked stringy seitan makes me wanna barf.  So oven it is.  But that's good because it gave me time to prepare and cook some mushroom gravy, broccoli, mashed potatoes and green beans.

 

The gravy was suuuuper easy.  Just sauteed up about half a cup of mushrooms with a shallot and a clove of garlic. Then added about half a cup of veggie stock and some thyme.  To thicken I mixed about a tablespoon of flour with a couple of tablespoons of soymilk, I added this in then stirred till it thickened.  I also (of course) added some nooch! A couple of tablespoons.  Quick, easy and yummy.

 

Leftovers make a great sarnie for lunch the next day by the way!

I also had a bit of an experiment fail, but I'm trying it again, so that is a blog post for the future! 

Making cookies tonight - YAY.

Laterz
xXx

Happy New Year!

Did everyone have a good Christmas?? 

I know I know, I'm over a week late, but here is the pictures of my christmas food and a few things since then.

I make a yule log every year and here was this years (VCTOTW basic chocolate recipe and store bought frosting - I was lazy!!) It fell apart a bit when I rolled it, so I just covered it with a tonne more icing.

Christmas day - first drinky!

My Christmas dinner. I took the pic before I slathered it with gravy.  This was a Redwoods celebration roast (fake turkey and pigs in blankets).  It was pretty gross and I wouldn't buy it again.  To be honest though, I'd have been happy with just the veg, sage & onion paxo stuffing and gravy, which is what I will probably have next year, if I'm too lazy to make something seitan based.  My Mum makes the best roast potatoes ever. Ever.

Christmas cake!  I never write down the recipe or follow one for that matter, I just wing it and if I'm lucky it turns out good.  This year was a good-un.  The decorations on top were not vegan (egg-white), so I picked them off my bit.  I just decorated it with a layer of marzipan then a layer of ready-made fondant icing, as cake decorating is not really my best talent, as you can see!

Dinner on boxing day was a puff pastry concoction I made.  It was mushrooms and onions sauteed and then I made a white sauce and added some cooked potatoes to it, then just wrapped it in puff pastry and baked.  It was pretty good for something I didn't put much thought into.

The next day I fancied soup, so I used some of the leftover veggies from boxing day...

I added the veg to veggie stock, a bit of tomato puree, some sauteed onion and garlic, lentils, a chopped up Wheaty Hemp Spacebar and some smoked paprika.  It was yummy and kept me in lunches up until I went back to work.

OK jumping forward a bit, this was dinner for my 3 besties, who came over on Saturday night.  I made the coconut lemon bundt cake from Veganomicon.  I ordered a bundt tin from amazon, but it didn't arrive in time, so I made it in a regular tin and it burnt a wee bit. Sadface!  However, it was still really really good!  I can't wait to try it again in the right tin, if the sucka ever arrives.  I used lite coconut milk in this.

It was a Veganomicon kinda night, because I decided I do not cook from that book enough, and it's awesome.  So I made the saffron garlic rice (although I only used 2 cloves of garlic, as my friends are not as into it as me).

And the Chickpeas Romesco.  I LOVED this.  I think the only change I would make next time is to maybe use ground almonds, as my food processor didn't get them as fine as I think they need to be.  Aside from that it was delicious. 

The side dishes were just some blanched green beans that I then sauteed with shallots and some baked tofu.  I made the marinade up as I went along, so I can't remember exactly what was in it, but from memory I think I added some wine, sherry vinegar, agave, paprika and vegan worcester sauce.  I burnt it a bit (theme of the night??) but it was still not bad and all got eaten!

And this was yesterday's lunch.  A quesadilla I made with cheezly white cheddar and jarred salsa.  Easy and quick (and yummy!).  My dad said I shouldn't post it as it was burnt (recurring theme...) but I think it was just well done! :-)

Hope you all had a fab break and if like me you celebrated an anniversary of being vegan on 1st January - Happy Veganniversary!! Mine was 4 years! :0)

Laterz
xXx

Vegan MoFo: African Sweet Potato Stew

Last night for dinner I made this stew of awesomeness. I've made (and I think blogged) this before and it's so good, I know I'll be making it again. Sweet potatoes, chick peas, tomatoes, peanut butter... It's rad. I served it with brown rice.

I have been baking baking baking, look out for those pics on Sunday!

Laterz
xXx

Well hellooooo

It's been a while but I am now all moved in, settled and almost completely unpacked!! I just have a few more bits (and a craptonne of bill-shredding) to do! The flat is looking gorgeous and I'm so happy with it! I haven't taken photos yet as it's not all ready but hopefully by next time I'll have some to share.

Also, I had my shoddy tattoo fixed on Friday and it now looks lovely, so once that heals I'll post a pic of that too - YAY!

It's great to have my own kitchen again and I've been really enjoying myself, thinking up menus and cooking. On my second day in the flat, I felt the need to make bread. I had some soup in the fridge and wanted some lovely rolls to go with, so I made some.

They were lovely and crusty but once cold, they were a little too dense so next time, I'll make 8 out of the dough instead of six. I sprayed them with a teeny bit of light olive oil and sprinkled some sesame seeds on them before I baked them.



Last monday, I made Jessy's butterbean burgers, I used yellow pepper and added in some fresh parsley because I had some in the fridge. These are soooo freakin good!



For lunch the next day, I had another patty of the beanburgers left and to make it a bit lighter for lunch, I didn't bother to cook it up, I just mashed half of it with some soya yoghurt to make a sandwich spread. YUM!!!!!! Seriously yum. I did the same with the other half the next day.



I had this big old bag of basil in the fridge becuase it was on special so I bought it and only used a little bit in the soup I made, more on that in a minute. So I thought I'd make some pesto and I had it mixed with some soya yoghurt and some fresh, shelled edamame that I bought in watroise, served over wholewheat rotilli. Nice but the beans were a bit, erm crunchy, despite following the cooking instructions like a good girl!!!


Speaking of soup, this is it. I really struggled to get a good picture of it, as you can see! I roasted up some plum tomatoes and garlic cloves, then added them to my new blender with veggie stock, salt & pepper and a handful of cashews. It was good but my blender really couldn't cope with blending the cashews properly - my trusty old stick blender may have done a better job. It tasted rad though.

I made some VCON chickpea cutlets in the week too. I didn't have any breadcrumbs so I subbed in medium cornmeal. I had to double the water but I really like the flavour of this. It gave them a lovely crunchy edge as well. I always bake my cutlets, as I prefer them this way and I also halved the oil called for in the recipe.

The stir-fry was so good though, that it didn't even really need the cutlet. It was loads of veggies, cooked spelt wheat and some teriyaki sauce. MMM.

This is the spelt wheat - I saw it in Waitrose and had to give it a try - good stuff!!

And this was another Jessy recipe!! Jalapeno polenta with spicy black beans. I added some mushrooms into the black beans and also some fresh parsley as I still had some kicking around. This was gorgeous. I had the polenta cold for lunch the next day and it was just as rad. And the black beans were delicious - definitely a winner!

And shocker - no baked goods (aside from the bread)! I've been really trying to be good, as we have now picked our bridesmaids dresses for October and so I only have 6 months to drop some poundage!! I wonder how long that'll last!!

It's all Greek to me

I finally got around to making tofu. Actually this was my second attempt, the first was a big fat failure. This one worked really well.

The texture is strange, it is somewhere between regular and silken tofu. Very soft - and the taste reminds me of what I remember cottage cheese to taste like. It split down the middle when I turned it out of the mould.


I baked some (that I didn't get a photo of) but I overcooked it and it was a bit yuk. When trying to decide what to do with the other half, all that kept popping into my mind was feta! I know there are a few recipes out there for tofu feta but I was too lazy to look one up so I just doused it in a bit of olive oil, white wine vinegar, oregano and salt & pepper and left it over night.

Then I made a greek salad with it. The supermarket has started doing pick and mix tomatoes and I got yellow, orange and red cherry tomatoes - they were so pretty and sooooo tasty....

I added some chunky cucumber, finely chopped red pepper, my tofu feta and shallot and a simple red wine vinagrette. Oh and lots of fresh mint. The rather unphotogenic stuff next to it was some brown rice and lentils, cooked together in veggie stock with some peas added and a bit of red wine vinegar. Ugly but tasty.

This week, my copy of Sarah Kramer's Garden of Vegan arrived. I was flipping through and as soon as I saw the recipe for the Bodacious Barley & Bean Soup (AKA the best soup EVER), I knew it had to be mine. Oh yes, it had to be mine! So I made it and wow! My friend was round at the time and when she tasted it, took the recipe straight away to make it when she got home.

To go with it I made some more soda bread. I'm still working on getting the recipe right though so I can post it.

Vegan MoFo: Chickpea love

I stared into the fridge for ages hoping for inspiration tonight. I had some chickpeas left from the big batch I cooked up at the weekend, some sugar snaps and a sweet potato - so I decided to make the famous chickpea cutlets from veganomicon.


I've made these a few times and whenever I've pan fried them, they're just wrong. The flavour is awesome but they are still soft and a bit stringy / undercooked inside and undercooked seitan just makes me gag!!

So I baked them and they were absolutely stunning! With some plain sugarsnaps and sweet potato fries. Mmm Mmm MMMM!

I also borrowed the mustard sauce recipe from V'con to go with. I say borrowed as I didn't have exactly the right ingredients. I subbed dijon mustard for the wholegrain called for in the recipe and I subbed arrowroot for the cornstarch. It was really REALLY good (I'm loving mustard lately!) and luckily there's some left to go in a sammie for lunch tomorrow with the leftover cutlets. YAY.

Cooking to: Thin Lizzy's greatest hits