Recipes

Vegan Pancakes with Blueberry Compote Recipe

February 16, 2015

Being Vegan doesn’t mean missing out, quite the opposite actually. It opens you up to new way’s of reinventing old recipes. I often get cravings for Pancakes and since the ever popular pancake day is tomorrow, here’s my Vegan pancake recipe for you all to try.

For the pancake mixture:

150g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

300ml water (you can also try adding a little soy or almond milk to this, just substitute the water.)

1 tablespoon oil

2 tablespoons coconut sugar or brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon mixed spice (optional)

1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

For the blueberry compote:

1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries

1/2 cup of water

1 tablespoon coconut sugar

In a small saucepan, add the blueberries, water and coconut sugar. Bring to a very gentle boil and simmer on low whilst you make the pancakes, stirring occasionally until the blueberries have caramelised. Be careful that the compote doesn’t start to burn, you can always add more water if you feel it’s getting too thick.

Mix your pancake ingredients together either in a food processor or a bowl. If you are using a bowl, you should sift the flour first (something I’m guilty of never doing!!!). Whisk until nice and smooth.

Heat a frying pan, spray lightly with oil and once warm, pour a few tablespoons of your batter in. Once formed, you can flip them over and cook the other side.

Serve with a dollop of your blueberry compote and a drizzle of golden syrup or Vegan chocolate sauce if you’re feeling really naughty! (We recommend choc shot).

Totally hellbent for having my (pan)cake and eating it

Pants

Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Vegan Pear Crumble

January 30, 2015

Whoever believes that Vegan’s eat nothing but “rabbit food” and lead strict healthy diets are wrong, as are those who believe we miss out on all the good stuff. One of my most favourite Winter-esque deserts is a crumble – primarily made with lot’s of sugar and margarine, but with one teeny tiny switch, you won’t even notice the difference and will have probably helped to save a cow somewhere along the line.

My vegan crumble recipe also features not one but two ingredients which I discovered through The Vegan Kind Lifestyle box and it’s a great way to get started if you want to open up your mind to other cruelty free products, stay on the Veganuary band wagon and continue into February, or just love snacking on amazing treats! This is definitely one of the easiest recipes to make and it serves two. You can easily double up the ingredients as required to make more though and if you remember that you use double the quantity of flour to your fat and sugar, then you’ll probably need never look for a crumble recipe ever again.

What you’ll need:

2 small oven proof dishes, I used 9 inch ramekins
1 pouch of Clearspring Pear Puree or the equivalent in fruit – tinned or fresh.
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
80g Plain Flour (you can also use Gluten/Wheat Free)
40g Vegan Margarine – I used Pure Soya Spread (which FYI is cheaper than most leading brands of margarine in Supermarkets and always on offer)
40g Coconom Coconut Sugar – You can use any other sugar if you don’t have Coconut Sugar

Method

Start by pre-heating your oven to roughly Gas Mark 5/6 or 190/200 degrees. If you are using a fruit puree, you can simply squeeze this between your two ramekins or oven proof dishe(s), add a teaspoon of Cinnamon to each and mix well. If you are using fresh fruit, I tend to boil this with a little water and a teaspoon of sugar until it’s soft and sticky. Once it’s softened, share it between your ramekins.

Add your flour, vegan margarine and sugar to a blender and turn it on. If you don’t have a food processor then all you need is a bowl and a little bit of elbow grease. (I made all my cakes and puddings by hand mixing prior to the arrival of my new food processor last Christmas).

Divide your crumble mix between your two ramekins and pop into the oven on the middle shelf for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Serve with some yummy vegan custard, vegan cream or on their own. Delicious!

Are there any puddings you love to make and eat during Winter? I’d love to hear them in the comments below.

Totally hellbent for not missing out on anything ever

– Pants

Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Vegan Slow Roasted Vegetable Soup

July 11, 2014

Usually Soup is reserved for the Winter months, but at the moment I’m trying every way possible to shove as much fruit & veg into my mouth on a daily basis. More recently I’ve had a bit of a craving for a hearty homemade Vegetable Soup and I hold our guitarist Matt fully responsible – some weeks ago he invited Gem and I over to discuss some band matters and surprised us with a lovely Vegetable Soup that he’d made.

To satisfy my cravings and to test out some of the things we grew in the garden, I made a small batch of Vegan Roasted Veg Soup. This is probably one of the easiest recipes ever and you can throw whatever you like into it! My recipe serves around 2-4, so if you want to make more or less, adjust the Vegetables to suit!

Ingredients:

1 onion or 2 shallots
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 Pepper
6-10 Carrots (depending on size)
2 Sweet Potatoes
2 Stalks of Celery
3 Baby Potatoes
A few sprigs of Rosemary
1-2 Pints of Vegetable Stock (I used a Kallo cube)
1 teaspoon of Olive Oil or 1 cal Olive Oil Spray

Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees or around Gas Mark 3/4.

Peel and slice all your ingredients except the garlic and place these in a large roasting tin. I peeled both the Sweet Potatoes and the Baby Potatoes – usually I like to leave the skin on, but these were from the garden so it was easier to peel.

Add the Olive Oil to the roasting dish and coat the vegetables – I tend to use 1 cal Olive Oil spray but normal Olive Oil is fine too.

Chuck a few sprigs of fresh Rosemary on top and place in the oven for about an hour. Once they begin to soften, take them out the oven and give them a mix – add the garlic and place back in the oven for another 1-2 hours or until softened and caramelised.

Remove the roasted Veggies from the oven and set to one side.

Prepare your stock. I’ve been using Kallo who make a low sodium cube and Vecon as a lot of “Vegetable” Stock cubes contain Milk powder. I used just over 1 litre, but you can add more or less depending on how thick you want the soup. Blend all of your lovely roasted veggies (if you prefer it chunky, you can blend half of the mixture) and add to a saucepan. I like to add a little of my stock to the roasting tin just to get all of those lovely Veggie juices up.

Add the rest of your stock and your blended Veggies to a large saucepan and reheat. Season to taste.

Serve & Enjoy.

I made enough for just about 4 portions, so I’ve frozen half of this for another day. It’s great for chucking in the oven and leaving it until you are ready for dinner. It literally takes minutes to whizz it in a blender and add it to some stock in a saucepan. Depending on what (and how many) Veggies you cram it with, this dish can be really great as a snack or filling enough for a main meal.

Have you made any soups recently? If you’ve tried this recipe do share you pictures with me and tell me what yummy Vegetables you threw into the mix!

Totally hellbent for easy soup made from homegrown vegetables

-Pants

Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Vegan Banana Flapjack Recipe

April 14, 2014

I came back from my week away to Scotland to a fruit bowl full of blackened squidgy bananas – the only way to resolve this, was to use them in some baking! This is a Vegan recipe, great for using up old bananas, or if you aren’t a banana fan, you can leave them out completely and add a few more oats or dried fruit. This recipe also features my newly acquired Coconom Coconut Sugar from The Vegan Kind box number 6! Ingredients:

1 1/2 to 2 cups of porridge oats (approximately 180 grams) (I used just over 1 cup – If you want gooey flapjacks, use less Oats, but remember if you add more oats, this will bump up the nutritional values)
1/2 cup of Soya Spread (approximately 125 grams)
1 tablespoon honey ( swap this for golden syrup or equivalnt for Vegan flapjacks)
4 tablespoons golden syrup ( alternatively you can just use honey)
1 over ripened, squidgy banana you would like to save (mashed)
2 tablespoons Coconom Coconut Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

Nutritional Information: If like me you like to know the calories and other info for everything, here is a rough estimation of the
Nutritional Values:
Calories: 113
Fat: 9.4g
Saturated: 2.2g
Sodium 52.8mg
Carbs: 6.7g
Sugars: 3.5g
Proten: 0.6g
Iron: 1.1%

Method:

Preheat the oven to approximately 180 degrees or Gas Mark 4/5. In a saucepan, add the Soya Spread, Syrup, Honey, Sugar, Vanilla Essence and Cinammon. Heat gently until the Soya Spread and Sugar has melted. Turn off the head and add your mashed banana and oats to the pan. Mix the banana and oats thoroughly into your saucepan. Spread the mixture onto a lined baking tray and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Once browned, remove from the Oven and cut into slices – I’ve sliced mine up into 15 mini gooey chunks, which is what the Nutritional guidance is based on. Allow to cool or eat them whilst warm! This is a great easy recipe that can be adapted to include lots of different fruit, perfect for nibbling on and great as a basic mix to make some naughtier breakfast flapjacks. I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe and if you’ve tried it yourself I’d love to see some pictures and see your comments below!

Totally hellbent for using up all my soggy bananas

-Pants

Recipes, Vegetarian

Vegetarian Chicken & Mushroom Pie

February 18, 2014

The only time I ever struggle to eat as a Vegetarian is when I go out. Whether it be something as simple as restaurants presuming that fish is eaten by Veggies, going to Subway and getting that irritated look when you ask the server to change their gloves, only to find they have been using the green handled knife to cut tuna mayo sandwiches or deciding to stop off for a quick snack on the way to a gig and you’re offered a pitiful selection of soggy cheese sandwiches on thick white bread. My point here is that anything Meat can do, Veggie food can do too and yes I may be biased but for the most part Veggie food does it better! I know lots of you really enjoyed my last recipe, so I thought I would share another quick one with you all.

Ingredients:

For the pie:

2 Quorn fillets/Vegan equivalent (tofu perhaps?)
Approx 100grams mushrooms (any kind and the weight really is negotiable)
Half an onion
1 clove of garlic
100ml Vegetable Stock (make sure this is Vegan/Veggie as some stock brands are a little sneaky)
150ml Soya Milk
50ml Soya Cream (if you are watching your weight, you can use more water, less milk and skip out on the cream)
Roughly 6oz shortcrust OR Puff Pastry (Depending on how big your pie dish is, mine is roughly 8 inches)
1 tablespoon Soya Spread
1 tablespoon of Plain Flour (You can also use Gluten Free Flour)
1/2 teaspoon of Fresh or Dried Parsley

If you want to make Shortcrust Pastry:

3oz Soya Spread
6oz Plain Flour
5-10mls Water (Add water slowly until you have a stiff dough)
Pinch of salt (Add a little sugar too if you want sweet pastry)

If you want to make a quick Shortcrust pastry, simply rub the spread into the butter, add the pinch of salt and slowly add the water until it forms a dough. You don’t want it too soft and sticky, I usually leave mine in the fridge for a little while after I’ve made it. I’m using Puff Pastry today because it needed using and had already defrosted, but you’ll see in the photo above there are two round bags near the front. One is diced frozen onion and the other some is Shortcrust Pastry that I threw in the freezer, you don’t need both for the recipe, it’s just to show you an example of the size I would use.

The first thing I usually do, whether I use Short or Puff pastry is line my pie dish and bake it in the oven for about 5-10 minutes. Be conscious that Puff Pastry … well … Puffs. That’s Okay, just pop a hole in the top and it should settle down by the time you come to fill the pie, I find it just stops the bottom of the pie from becoming a soggy mess. I’ve also left a little over the edges, just so it doesn’t shrink into the pan.

Whilst the pie base is cooling, I fry some onions, add my garlic clove (I buy frozen garlic which is much easier and once you have finished it up, you can fill it back up with crushes garlic cloves yourself and chuck it back into the freezer). Once the onions are soft, add the Quorn, or your replacement and mushrooms.

Scoop the mixture out onto a plate and turn the heat down low. If you haven’t made up your stock already, do it now and have it ready to go. I’m just using a Vegan stock cube in some boiling water.

Now we can make the roux, this is why you should ensure your pastry base is already out of the oven so you don’t get distracted and a) burn your pastry or b) ruin your roux. Add the Soya Spread and flour into the same pan you fried your mixture until it forms a smooth paste.

Very slowly begin to add your milk, it’s best to do this with a whisk, but I don’t have one so a spoon it is! Once this reaches a smooth consistency that is more liquid than paste, you can add your cream, parsley and stock. Bring to the boil slowly! Don’t just “give it a quick blast” as Brain’s likes to do.

Once it’s boiled, you should notice it has formed a thick sauce like consistency. Turn off the heat and add your mixture from the plate, mixing thoroughly.

Pour into your pie dish. I like to use a little bit of Soya Spread rather than egg just around the edge of the pie.

Top with the rest of your pastry (I didn’t measure my pastry here and ended up glueing two bits together, which is complete karma for using pre-rolled) and make a slit in the top. If you want to be adventurous you can make some little leaves for the top, but I was saving my scraps for later.

Place in the oven at approximately 180 degrees or Gas Mark 4. You can brush it with egg or milk if you so desire, but whenever I do that I end up with burnt pie, I think that’s mostly to do with the fact that I’m un-blessed with an electric oven which tries it’s hardest to ruin things for me. Cook until Pastry has risen and is a nice golden brown. Usually between 15-30 minutes depending on the temperament of your oven.

Take it out and serve – if you are only cooking for yourself then make these in some foil pie dishes and freeze them before putting them in the Oven, we only have a quarter each and save the rest for lunch the next day.

I hope you like this recipe – but the best part is still to come! The most exciting part about making pastry based dishes is the left over pastry. I made some little Strawberry and Cherry tarts, by slicing some fruit, throwing it into the left over corner strips of pastry, giving them a little sprinkling of brown sugar and putting in the Oven whilst I ate pie for 15-20 minutes at the same temperature. The best thing being that they are still warm after you’ve finished dinner, just in time for desert.

If you’ve made something similar recently I’d love to hear about it. Also, if you have any Vegan suggestions on the Chicken replacement then comment below!

Totally hellbent for “2 for 1” meals

-Pants

Lifestyle, Recipes, Vegetarian

Vegetarian Chicken Style Roast

February 9, 2014

I used to buy a Meat-free Roast from Tesco’s that Brains and I would have once in a while but more recently, we haven’t been able to find them anywhere! With that, I decided to make my own and figured I could share it with all of you lovely people.

You will need:

4 Quorn fillets or Vegan equivalent
2 pieces of bread
Stuffing (e.g sage & onion, garlic & herb, packet or home made)
1/2 teaspoon Parsley
1/2 teaspoon Oregano
Garlic Clove
Pinch of Salt
Something to bind the ingredients – 1 Egg (beaten), Oil or Soy butter/margarine for Vegan recipe

Begin by making the breadcrumbs first.

Heat the oven to around 180 degrees/Gas mark 4, place your bread on a baking tray and cook for 15 minutes each side until crisp. You can use any type of bread you like, usually I go for Gluten Free, but the stuff I had in the freezer was seeded, so I opted for some of Brain’s full on “bloating incoming” white bread.

Once cooled, place in a blender until fine crumbs are achieved, add a pinch of salt if desired and half a teaspoon of parsley and oregano. Set the breadcrumbs aside for now. These freeze for up to 6 months, so if you have some stale bread lying around, put them to good use. You can also experiment with the seasoning.

Next for the filling. I am having a very lazy Sunday today and used a packet of Sage & Onion Stuffing, I made this up in a bowl and left to cool before starting. Roughly cut the Quorn fillets or your Vegan replacement and place into your blender. I chucked in a clove of garlic and half an egg into the mix to bind it together, but you can use oil or soy butter for this. (Despite my cutting out of nearly all dairy, I’m still struggling with eggs)

Roll out some cling-film onto a clean surface or chopping board, and spoon your Quorn mixture onto it, spreading it evenly in a vague rectangular shape.

If you’ve pre-cooled your stuffing, spread this in the middle of your mixture. You can keep this in the fridge if the stuffing is still steaming.

Slowly take the edge of the clingfilm and fold the mixture over until you are left with a delightful sausage like roll.

Place this in the fridge to harden a little or place it in the freezer as it is. Once ready to use, remove from the fridge and coat with the other half of the beaten egg, (or oil/butter) roll it in your breadcrumbs and place on a baking tray.

Bake at 200 degrees/Gas mark 5/6 for around 25 to 30 minutes. Again, you can coat with the breadcrumbs and freeze this if you like, just remember to increase the cooking time if you are cooking from frozen. Remove from the Oven and bask in the glory of your very fine creation.

I served mine with mashed new potatoes – skin still on, broccoli, a Yorkshire pudding and some little stuffing balls.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! If anyone does find some Vegan alternatives to the Quorn that taste great please let me know in the comments below as I’d love to hear from you. I’m itching to try this out with The Vegetarian Butcher chicken that Gem and I absolutely adore, sadly it’s only available from The Netherlands so we often have to wait for Gem to whisk herself off to Rotterdam to see Roode until we can get our hands on some and because it’s so delicious, it never lasts long once we’ve got it back to England.

Totally hellbent for getting one over on all the supermarket’s and doing it myself

-Pants

News, Recipes, Vegetarian

How do you like your eggs in the morning? – Baked with Mushrooms!

September 20, 2013

No make up here today, just a lovely easy to make Breakfast recipe!

Since working from home with Brains for his Web Design and Development company BIOSTALL, I have the luxury of actually having cooked breakfast in the morning should I so desire.

I love cooking and I especially love baking so I’m always trying out new recipes and throwing stuff together to see what happens. So here is a recipe I tried for the first time the other day – Baked eggs with bacon and mushrooms.

You will need:

1-2 eggs per person
Fresh Chives
3-4 Button Mushrooms or 1-2 Breakfast Mushroom’s per person (remove the stalks)
Veggie Bacon (or real Bacon if you so desire)
Some Cheese (<obviously)
A smidgen of oil
Muffin/Cake tray

What to do:

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190 degrees (for those of us with electric ovens, you might need to go up to 200)
Oil 1-2 muffin holes per person (*snigger*) and place 3-4 button mushrooms or one Breakfast mushroom in each, putting them in the over for around 5 minutes
Take out of the oven, place the Veggie bacon underneath the mushroom to form a little “holder”.
Sprinkle half he cheese and chives over the mushroom and crack an egg into each muffin hole.
Sprinkle the rest of the cheese and chives over the top and put back in the oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on how well you like your eggs.
Dish up on some toast, or muffins … or eat it as it is!
Bon Appetit!

For an extra healthy kick, I had mine with some hot water and lemon!

Totally hellbent for quick and easy morning dining

-Pants