Tag: Vegetarian (Page 1 of 7)

Mushroom, Leek and Wild Garlic Soup

13/03/2024 / Neville

This is a quick and delicious soup which is best if you have some wild garlic, but if it is out of season or you aren’t a forager, a crushed clove of regular garlic and some parsely will do. Here is enough for four generous servings.

2-3 leeks depending on size, washed and chopped
butter or olive oil (vegan)

Sweat the leeks for 5 minutes in a pan. Add

250g chestnut musgrooms, chopped
250g white mushrooms, chopped
pinch of dried thyme or leaves from a sprig of fresh thyme
(1 clove of garlic, crushed and chopped if you are not using wild garlic)

Cook away for another 5-10 minutes until soft. Add

1 L vegetable stock
Generous handful of wild garlic leaves, chopped

Simmer for 5-10 minutes. If you weren’t using wild garlic and would like some green vibes in the soup, a small bunch of parsely leaves chopped can be added towards the end of the cooking. Allow to cool slightly then zap with a stick blender to the level of smoothness you like. Add up to half a tub of creme fraiche (or vegan cream) depending how creamy you like it. Adjust the seasoning, warm up and serve.

Vegan Meatballs (nutballs)

17/09/2023 / Neville

Well obviously you can’t have vegan meatballs but these nut-roast equivilents are incredible. That’s from a non-vegan too! We had a glut of hazlenuts this year, prompting a search for a suitable recipe. This one came to light and it is recorded here to use again (and again). We served them with a rich onion gravy which is more trouble but a lot better than vegan Bisto gravy. You could use that instead though. Here’s a generous recipe for two, easily scaled up.

For the gravy,

1 small onion
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 tbs olive oil

Sweat the onion gently in the oil for at least 10 minutes. Add

1 tbs plain flour

Stir into the cooked onion and cook on for a minute or two. Add

300ml hot vegetable stock
1 tsp Marmite
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 rosemary sprig

Stir gently and cook until thickened. Remove the rosemary and either strain and serve, or leave the onions in.

For the nutballs:

150g mixed nuts (we used hazlenuts, cashew nuts and almonds). No need to skin or blanch.

Add enough boiling water to cover. Let stand for two minutes then drain. Meanwhile in a frying pan, gently cook:

chopped small red onion
2 crushed cloves of garlic
1 celery stick, chopped
1 carrot, grated
75g mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves or a small pinch dried
2 tbs olive oil.

Fry until slightly coloured. Add to a food processor with:

the soaked nuts
1 tbs peanut butter
50g ground almonds
50g breadcrumbs (or panko)
3 tbs gram flour
salt and pepper

Pulse until mixed, you want some texture but it needs to be sticky enough to bind. Now roll into balls 30-40cm diameter. Wipe out your pan and reheat some oil. Now fry your nutballs, jiggling around to get some colour on all sides for about 10 minutes. Then put in an oven at 180C fot 10-15 minutes to cook through and colour up. Serve with the gravy and new potatoes or mash and some wilted or steamed greens.

Mighty Fine Vegan Cobbler

17/09/2023 / Neville

If you want a rich, hearty Autumn meal full of vegetables and flavour, this is it. It just happens to be vegetarian or vegan, but it will appeal to carnivores too. This recipe serves three but is easily scaled up. Method is given for an Instant Pot or conventional pan.

For the casserole base:

half an onion, chopped
1 parsnip, chopped
1 leek, sliced
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
half a small butternut squash, cubed
Dash of vegetable oil

Sweat your vegetables in a pan until soft and maybe just a bit coloured. For the Instant Pot or conventional pot the next bit is the same except timings. Add to your pot of choice:

Your part cooked vegetables
Handful of brown or green lentils
450ml vegetable stock
1tsp Marmite
1 tsp dark soy sauce
pinch of dried thyme
1 bay leaf
a good grind of black pepper

For an Instant Pot, cook 4 minutes. For a conventional stove top pan, cover with a lid and cook 40 minutes, adding water if it is drying out. At the end of cooking, all will be nice and soft. Now for the key sneaky move: take a stick blender and zap a small section of the mix. Stir it all about to make the liquid a bit gloopy instead of watery. Meanwhile, make your cobbler topping.

150g plain flour
10g baking powder
0.5 tsp mustard powder
pinch ground white pepper
35g grated cheese (for vegan, Pilgrims Choice cheddar is excellent)
50g butter, cubed (or vegan baking block)

Whizz the lot in a food processor to make fine crumbs. Add

about 100ml milk (or soya milk) plus a bit (see below)

Mix gently to make a stiff dough. Add more milk if needed. Press out on a floured surface to about 2cm thick. Stamp into 40cm or 50cm rounds, re-rolling trimmings until you have made about 6 or 7 disks. Put the veg mixture into an oven proof dish of the right size, and lay your cobblers on the top of the veg. Brush them with a bit of milk. Now bake in a 180C fan oven for 30 minutes. Serve with mash and a green veg if you like. The cobbler will absorb liquid so it may need a bit of gravy if it looks dry. This is very filling and extremely tasty. No bland vegan dishes allowed in this house!

Mary Berry Orange and Passion Fruit Cheesecake

20/03/2023 / Neville

Nearly exactly her recipe, but not quite. Lovely and light, fruity and delicious. Allow four hours to make and chill this. First make the base: grease and line an 8 inch loose bottomed tin.

150g digestive or oat biscuit crumbs
75g butter

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the crumbs, mix very thoroughly and press into the base of the tin.

2 passion fruit

Take out the middles and push the juice and pulp through a sieve into a bowl. Add

0.5 orange zest
250g mascarpone
4tbs good orange conserve (or half a jar of orange curd if you can find it)

Mix together. In another bowl whip to firmness

200ml double cream

Fold cream into the mascarpone mixture and pour over the biscuit base. Level the top and chill at least 4 hours. Turn out and decorate with

pulp and seeds of 2 passion fruits
Thin slivers of orange rind

As you can see, three quarters of this was consumed before I could grab my camera.

Rainbow Pakora

09/03/2023 / Neville

This is remarkably simple and with relatively few spices, but it is incredibly tasty. You can use up almost any combination of vegetable but it is best to stick to those that cook at similar times: carrot, beans, onion, cabbage, spinach, courgette, capsicum pepper, beetroot etc. You can be quite vague with quantities too, the recipe is very forgiving. As long as there is enough batter to just coat the vegetables and bind them, you will be fine. Too much batter makes them stodgy, too little and they’ll fall apart. Just do what looks right!

In a bowl, assemble:

1 carrot, grated
Handful of spinach leaves, sliced
5 or 6 cabbage leaves, sliced and timmed to 5cm lengths
Half of a red pepper, thinly sliced
Half a mild chilli pepper, chopped
2cm squeeze of minced garlic
1tbs grated ginger
2 tbs choped fresh coriander (or 1 tbs chopped mint leaves)

Mix tegether and allow to rest for ten minutes

125ml gram flour
1 tsp garam masala
0.5tsp salt
2 tbs cornflour

Mix together, then mix into your vegetables. Add splashes of water until it gets sticky. You may not need much liquid if your vegetables were already juicy. Now heat a pan of oil for deep-frying, to a temperature of 160C.

Take spoonfuls of the mix and drop into the oil. The easiest way is to scoop with a dessert spoon and scrape off with another spoon. Don’t over crowd the pan, you can do this in batches. After a minute or so flip the pakoras over, and when they are light brown and cripsy all over scoop them out and drain on kitchen paper. Keep warm while you make the next batches.

These are lovely served with a yoghurt dip (mint or coriander flavoured is nice) or chutney. Use as a side or a starter, or nibbles with drinks.

Spiced Roast Cauliflower Soup

04/12/2022 / Neville

Tastier than a plain soup and very quick. First roast your cauliflower (you can use leafy bits too) and while that is happening you can cook the other ingredients.

1 cauliflower, chopped into large florets or equivalent
Splash of olive oil
Pinch of dried thyme
2 tsp ground cumin

Toss around in a baking tin, then roast at 200C for 15 minutes. Meanwhile…

Splash of olive oil
1 sliced onion
1 celery slick, sliced
1 potato (optional – used to bulk up if the cauli is mean)

Saute very gently for 10 minutes, and add

1 garlic clove, crushed

at the final minute. Make up

750 ml vegetable stock

Add to the pan with the roast cauiflower and simmer for 10 minutes until everything is soft. Zap with a stick blender then add

100ml to 200ml milk (vegan: use vegan milk)

depending how thick you like the soup. Bring to temperature and adjust seasoning. Awsome served sprinkled with chopped fried smoked bacon or chorizo (vegan: fried chopped hazlenuts) and chopped parsley.

Best Vegan Sponge Cake

12/09/2022 / Neville

I like moist cakes and this one is so good you wouldn’t know it was vegan.

Grease and line two 8 inch or 20cm cake tins. Preheat the oven to 180C.

In a bowl add

2tbs cider vinegar
480ml vegan milk

This will curdle but don’t worry. Set aside. Now whisk together

400g brown sugar
360g plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Add your milk mixture plus

150g vegan butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat with a mixer for one to two minutes until everything is just combined. Scrape the sides down and stir in, but don’t over-mix. Divide between your two tins, and bake for 40 minutes until cooked through. Allow to cool while you make the frosting.

200g vegan butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat together with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add

125 g icing sugar

Beat until well combined. Add another

125g icing sugar

Beat again. Add a final

125g icing sugar

Beat again. If it’s too sloppy add a bit more icing sugar. If it’s too stiff loosen up with a tablespoon of vegan milk. Beat for about 5 minutes until it is all light and fluffy. Now sandwich your cakes together with some f the frosting and spread the rest of the frosting on top and around the cake. It will set at room temperature. Decorate how you wish – pictured above is a vegan birthday cake.

Farmer’s Pie

12/09/2022 / Neville

Aedy’s very descriptive terms for a vegan cottage pie! This is easily as good as a meat-based cottage pie and very simple to prepare. This quantity serves 8.

400g lentils
Vegan vegetable stock cube

Rinse the lentils and add to an Instant pot with enough water to cover by 2cms. Add the crumbled stock cube and cook for 6 minutes. Allow to depressurise naturally. Alternatively, simmer for 40 mintues in a pan but keep an eye on the water level and add more if necessary. You want the lentils to be cooked but not swimming in water – a bit is OK.

Add to one side of the pan:

1 tin black or red kidney beans, drained

With a stick blender, zap the beans and any lentils below. Now mix in and you should get a nice textured gloopy sauce.

1 onion, choped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
Dash of oil

Heat the oil in a frying pan and gently fry the vegetables until soft. Add the lentils. Also add

2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbs tomato puree

Now simmer for 20 minutes or so while you boil your potatoes

1 kg potatoes, peeled and quartered. Quantity approximate, it depends if you want to fill up or be polite.

Boil until tender. Drain and mash with a dash of vegan milk and vegan spread. Now find a suitable oven-proof bowl or casserole, put the lentil mixture in the bottom and adjust the liquid, add a splash or water or stock if it needs loosening up. Spread the mash over the top and rough up the top – this helps it get crispy! Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 180C. Serve with Bisto gravy (which is vegan) and vegetables of choice.

Courgette and bean Salad

14/08/2022 / Neville

Perfect for a summer glut of vegetables.

160g (handful) green beans, trimmed

Cook in boiling water for 4 minutes then place in iced water. Drain, chop into 3cm lengths

2 courgettes

Slice longways on the smallest setting of a mandoline slicer to create ribbons. Mix with the beans in a bowl

10g coriander, chopped
10g parsely, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbs red wine vinegar
2 tbs olive oil
1 shallot chopped or a small bunch of chives, chopped
half a mild chilli, chopped

Mix to form a dressing. Toss the vegetables in the dressing and leave to absorb the flavours, from 5 minutes to several hours. Just before serving, top with

10g pine nuts, toasted
20g feta cheese or goats cheese, crumbled (omit or use vegan cheese for vegan)

Middle Eastern Roasted Vegetables

06/11/2021 / Neville

This is very cheap, very easy and very delicous. It makes a great side for a Middle Eastern-themed meal, or it could be a veggie/vegan main. Try stuffing pittas with it. You can use any suitable vegetables for this, just swap out the ones listed for something similar.

First roast the vegetables:

1 red onion
1 carrot
1 courgette
1 small raw beetroot
Cauliflower florets
half a butternut squash or small pumpkin
olive oil
salt and petter

(alternatives are broccoli, parsnip, pepper, sweet potato, aubergine, button mushroom)

Prepare the vegetables then dice into about 2cm cubes so they cook evenly. Put them in an oven roasting pan. Toss in olive oil then season with salt and peper. Roast in an oven for 30-40 minutes at 180C . (Tip: prepare everything except the beetroot. Then prepare the beetroot and push to a corner of the tin. That way the vegetables stay their own colour otherwise everything ends up pink!)

Meanwhile make the tahini sauce.

3 tbs tahini paste
3 tbs lemon juice
I garlic glove, crushed
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper

Mix all the ingredients and add cold water to make a consistency of thick cream.

To assemble, take your vegetables and mix in

2 tbs toasted pine uts
2 tsp za’atar spice mix
1 tbs chopped fresh parsley or coriander

Drizzle over the tahini sauce. Enjoy!