Amazing Vegan Burgers!

These are sensational and well wroth the effort.  Recipe from One Green Planet

Sweet Potato Burgers With Green Tahini [Vegan, Gluten-Free]

Serves 12-14

Ingredients

• 1 red bell pepper
• ½ red onion
• 2 cans chickpeas
• 1 cup packed cilantro or parsley (or half and half)
• 
3 cloves garlic
• 1 cup almonds
• 2 tbsp cumin
• 3 tsp coriander
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 2½ tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes (1½ cup), steamed or baked, peeled and mashed
• ¾ cup quick-cooking oats

Green Tahini Sauce:

• 
1/2 cup tahini
• ½ cup water
• 
juice of 1 lemon
• 1 cup packed fresh mint, cilantro, and parsley (or your favorite fresh herbs)
• 
1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Preparation

Burgers:

1. In a food processor pulse and chop the red bell pepper and red onion. Pour the chopped veggies into a large mixing bowl. Place the chickpeas and cilantro/parsley into the food processor and blend until the chickpeas are a thick mealy texture. Pour into the mixing bowl with peppers and onions. Place the garlic, almonds, and spices into the food processor and blend until the almonds are a crumbly texture. Pour into the mixing bowl.
2. Mash the sweet potato with a fork, or place it in the food processor and blend until smooth. Pour it over the contents of the mixing bowl followed by the oats, and stir well to combine the ingredients. Season to taste with more sea salt and spice.
3. Place the burger batter in the refrigerator to firm up for an hour or longer.
4. Preheat oven to 375°, and line one or two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop about ¾ cup of the batter into your hands and form into a tight patty. Place the patty onto the baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining batter. Make sure that the patties are not too close to each other on the baking sheet (2 inches separating is good). Bake for 40 minutes, or until cooked through. After removing them from the oven, allow the patties to cool for at least 15 minutes before trying to remove them with a spatula or your hands.
5. Serve with green tahini on bread, lettuce, or solo. Bon appetit!

Green Tahini Sauce:

1. Place the tahini, water, lemon, herbs, and sea salt into a blender. Blend until smooth, slowly add in the olive oil.

Gooey chocolate brownies!

At last!  A recipe for vegan chocolate brownies that actually works!  And proper sticky rich gooey ones too.  This recipe has been 2 years in the finding and along the way there have been a lot of charred chocolate casualties.  But this one is a keeper and totally idiot proof so get your chocolatey chops around this…

From The Vegan Society website:

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 oz / 75g margarine
• 1 1/2 oz / 45g / 5 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 floz / 75ml soya milk
• 7 oz / 200g caster sugar
• 6 oz / 160g plain white flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 oz / 20g / 2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 4 oz / 115g caster sugar
• 6 fl oz / 170 ml soya milk
• 1 1/2 fl oz / 45ml vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C, Gas Mark 4.
2. Combine first four ingredients in a saucepan and gently bring to the boil. Simmer for 1 minute, stirring well. Put saucepan into a bowl of cold water and beat sauce until it cools and thickens. Set aside.
3. Sieve flour, baking powder, cocoa and sugar into a bowl. Mix soya milk, vegetable oil and vanilla essence together. Stir flours, soya milk mixture and sauce together – do not overmix.
4. Place in a greased and lined tin roughly 10″ x 8″ and bake for 30 minutes.

I ate mine warm from the oven with Booja Booja’s vanilla ice cream.  Heaven!

Best green smoothie recipe

I may have discovered the best green smoothies recipe. Well I haven’t discovered it, The Minimalist Baker has. Here it is – http://minimalistbaker.com/my-favorite-green-smoothie/

I used frozen strawberries and raspberries and also added in a tbsp of chia and a tsp of spirulina and wheatgrass. The peanut butter disguises their flavour perfectly and it just tastes like a creamy bananaey peanut butter milkshake.

All three girls nailed it for brekkie too which is the ultimate green smoothies test.

Success at last!

Mother’s Day vegan brekkie

That’ll do! This is what Ed and the girls have produced this morning for me. Vegan hollandaise sauce (recipe from http://www.hotforfoodblog.com/recipes/2014/2/27/vegan-hollandaise-sauce) on mushrooms, baby spinach and avocado, on delicious multi seed toast.

Completely delicious!

X

Mango and coconut raw cheesecake

Here’s today’s pud. Super easy and quick to make. Looks sensational and the perfect thing to celebrate and welcome the first days of Spring! Hoorah!

Full recipe can be found at http://honestlyhealthyfood.com

Easy cheap delicious quick vegan supper!

Tonight’s delicious supper:
Quinoa cooked with bouillon
Chickpeas fried in coconut oil, cumin, paprika and turmeric
Steamed broccoli, edamame beans and baby spinach
Sprinkling of toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds
Drizzle of oil and season.
Voila.
Super cheap, super tasty, super healthy, super quick, super easy!

Top 10 Vegan Pancake Recipes!

Tomorrow is of course Shrove Tuesday, so in case any of you are wondering how on earth you are going to honour such a day without access to eggs, then fear not.  Here are my top ten tried and tested vegan pancake recipes – all of them eggless and still eggcellent!

1. One Ingredient Chef’s Classic Vegan Pancakes  

2. Jamie Oliver’s Vegan Blueberry Pancakes

3. Post Punk Kitchen’s ‘Puffy Pillow Pancakes’

4. BBC’s ‘Vegan Mushroom and Tomato Pancakes’

5. OhSheGlows’ ‘Strawberry Shortcake Stacked Pancakes’

 

6. Hungry Curious’ ‘Three Ingredient Vegan Pancakes’  

7. Vegan Insanity’s ‘Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes with Blueberry Compote’

8. Minimalist Baker’s ‘Oreo Cookie Pancakes’  

9.  Deb Gleason’s ‘Chocolate Protein Banana Pancakes’

10. Why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone and make your loved ones some Valentine’s themed vegan pancakes, with Vegan Woman’s ‘Valentine’s Day Chocolate Chip and Strawberry Pancakes’

Best vegan pesto recipe…

Here’s a recipe I found on Food 52 for a delicious vegan pesto.  I make a huge vat of this on the weekend and use it all week on pasta, in baked potatoes, drizzled on tomatoes, in sandwiches, wraps, on toast, crackers – anything basically.  The kids love it too and you’d never know it was dairy free as the nutritional yeast gives it a deep cheesy kick!  It’s packed full of flavour so a little goes a long way.

Makes 1 generous cup

• 2 cups tightly packed fresh basil
• 1/2 cup walnuts or pine nuts
• 1 to 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped (to taste)
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1. Place the basil, walnuts or pine nuts, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse to combine, until the mixture is coarsely ground.
2. Turn the motor on and drizzle the olive oil in a thin stream. Add the sea salt, pepper, lemon, and nutritional yeast, and pulse a few more times to combine.

Voila!

Miso-Marinated Portobello Carpaccio (Vegan)

Last night’s ridiculously delicious supper!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons red or white miso paste
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons juice plus 2 tablespoons thinly sliced zest from 1 lemon, plus 1 extra whole lemon, cut into wedges
• 4 portobello mushroom caps, stems and dark gills removed
• 4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 ounces arugula or other spicy greens
• 2 tablespoons toasted pistachios, roughly chopped or pressed in a mortar and pestle
• Coarse sea salt such as fleur de sel or Maldon
• Freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Combine miso paste, brown sugar, soy sauce, vegetable oil, and lemon juice in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Marinade in fridge for at least an hour or overnight preferably.
2. When ready to prepare, preheat oven to 350°F. Remove mushroom caps and wipe off excess marinade with paper towels. Place on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet gill-side-down and roast until top surface is dry and mushroom is tender throughout, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and let rest 5 minutes to cool slightly.
3. Using a very sharp knife, cut mushrooms on a sharp bias into thin slices. Transfer slices to a serving platter or individual platters, fanning them as you go. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with lemon zest, pistachios, black pepper, and coarse sea salt. Toss arugula with remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil, squeezing one of the reserved lemon wedges over the greens. Top mushrooms with arugula and serve.  Et voila!

Thank you ‘Serious Eats’ for this recipe!

Easy, tasty, super healthy light lunch…

I baked some tofu for the first time this week and can’t believe I’ve waited this long to try it.  It’s entirely different to stir-fried tofu and the perfect thing for when you fancy a ‘meatier’ texture but don’t fancy mushrooms…  For this recipe I used firm tofu and then pressed it for 15 mins to get as much moisture out as I could.  Then I cut it into 1 inch cubes and marinated it for 2 hours in soy sauce, rice vinegar, grated fresh ginger, chilli paste, agave and minced garlic.  I then baked it in a hot oven (200 degrees c) for 40 mins so it was really chewy and added it to some lightly steamed baby spinach and squeezed some fresh lemon over it.

Along side this I made a really vibrant tasty salad –

1 cup quinoa, black olives, red and yellow tomatoes, cucumber, pine nuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds and torn basil.

Light but filling lunch.  Super easy to make and extraordinarily nutritious!

World’s best guacamole recipe…

Thanks Flicka for this insanely delicious guacamole recipe.  Tried and tested it today and it is indeed the world’s best guacamole!

3 garlic cloves, 1 to 2 chillies depending on fire requirements, 1/2 large red onion wizzed up so its in tiny chopped pieces, so you can still get some crunch but it flows through all avocado beautifully

2 avocados whipped up in the processor with juice of 2 small limes or 1 very large lime, this keeps the guacamole its vibrant bright green colour even after sitting in the fridge for a day

1 ripe mango fairly finely chopped

handful of very finely chopped coriander leaves

2 large ripe, smelling gorgeous tomatoes ,quartered, deseeded and chopped into fine little squares. Keep middles for bean stews etc.

decent sprinkle of Himalayan salt and some freshly ground pepper.

drizzle of E.V.O oil

mix together and serve with pittas etc, or cos lettuce leaves for guacamole boats.

Delicious vegan frittata recipe!

Just made this delicious vegan frittata for supper. 

Uber easy and you can chuck any veg in you want.  I added mushrooms and spinach.  never used arrowroot before but whatever it is it works!  The tofu sauce comes out spongey and omelettey… yum! x