Roasted Vegetable Pie |Vegan Recipe|

Back on the Winter Warmers recipes again, these are simple little pies, no faffing about getting a full on pie crust, just get your hit of pastry from the top. The little ones in ramekins freeze really well to be defrosted and zapped in the microwave for a midweek lunch and we demolished the large one for dinner between three of us!

Ingredients and method in an easy to copy/paste recipe at the end as usual. Hope you enjoy this one, it's really too simple to even be bothering to share the recipe!

 

 

Chop all your veg into chunks and chuck in a roasting dish with a little oil. Top with mushrooms so when they cook, their flavour gets all over the rest of the food. Cover and roast for forty minutes at 190. If you want them to crisp up a bit, ten minutes before the end, take the cover off, mix the mushrooms in and give them ten minutes with the top off.

While the veg is roasting, boil your kettle for the gravy and get to making the pastry. If you want to be really quick, buy some. I'm reasonably certain that a lot of ready made stuff is in fact vegan, but do check your labels.

Crumble your flour and margarine together into breadcrumbs with your fingers. Add water a little at a time until the dough comes together. You don't want it to be too sticky. Knead gently into a ball and refrigerate until the veg is done.

Make up your gravy (I like Bisto's favourite) and add it into the roasting tin so you get all the good veggie flavour. Put your veg mix into ramekins or pie dishes.

Get your pastry out and roll it out to about the thickness of a pound coin. Top your pie dishes various and slice off the extra with a knife.

 

 

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 200 until the top is golden brown and crispy. I still haven't figured out a good glaze, but I quite like the unglazed look. I suspect oil might work to make it shiny if added five minutes before the end? Anyone got any tips?

 

Ta Dah! Pies. Yum.

Jo :)

Ingredients:

400g parsnips (peeled)

A large sweet potato (mine was 700g before I peeled it)

300g mushrooms

450g carrots

1 pint gravy

200g plain flour

100g vegan margarine (I've used Vitalite and Pure)

50 ml water

Method:

Chop veg to similar size, add to roasting dish with mushrooms on top

Roast for 40m at 190 degrees

Make breadcrumbs with flour and margarine, add water until a dough is achieved

Add gravy to veg in roasting dish and mix up

Add to pie dishes

Roll pastry out to 5mm thickness, top pies

Bake for 25-30m at 200 degrees until golden brown

Stew & Dumplings |Vegan Recipe|

I seem to be on a bit of a dumpling kick at the moment! It's turned colder, greyer and darker all of a sudden and I feel like winter has really kicked in. Which obviously calls for hearty, warming dishes in the kitchen. If I can cook it all in one pot and serve it with thick chunky bread, all the better. I love my slow cooker and it gets the most use at this time of the year. If you don't have one, you can do this without, it just means you'll be standing around at the hob a lot more, keeping an eye on things.

Easy to copy/print recipe at the end as usual! Excuse the photos, I ended up cooking round my friends and had left my camera at home again!

First off, put your lentils, yellow split peas and pearl barley into your slow cooker with it set on high. Add three litres of vegetable stock. Home made is best, but Oxo is so much quicker!

 

Leave this for two hours to cook up. You can prep your other veg while you're waiting.

 

 

I like to pre-cook my potatoes so halve and par boil them first. Chop up your carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, and turnip into equal sized pieces depending on how chunky you want your stew to be. The packs of stew veg are perfect for this.

When the pearl barley is cooked through, add the veg and potatoes to the pot along with the gravy granules. Let this all cook down for an hour.

Mix up your flour and butter to form breadcrumbs, and add enough water until it's a slightly sticky dough. If you don't mind soft dumplings, you can stir up your slow cooker and add them on top or in the mix here, shaping the dough into little balls in your hands first, and leaving to cook for another hour.

I prefer crispy topped dumplings so I decant my stew into a dish, put the dumplings on top and bake in a 200 degree oven for thirty to forty minutes until they're nice and golden and the stew is bubbling. Serve with green veg, crusty bread, and if you're feeling really fancy, vegan Yorkshire puddings!

What's your winter go to?

Jo:)

Ingredients:

150g lentils

200g yellow split peas

200g pearl barley

3 litres veggie stock

5 large carrots

4 large parsnips

250g baby potatoes

1 large sweet potato

1 medium turnip

4tbsp gravy granules

150g SR Flour

2tbsp vegan butter (I've used Vitalite and Pure)

Method:

Lentils, yellow split peas and pearl barley into slow cooker on high with 3l of stock

Halve baby potatoes and par boil

Chop veg equally and add to pot after two hours along with potatoes and gravy granules

Mix flour and butter to make breadcrumbs, add water until you get a sticky dough

After 1 hour more either decant to dish to add dumplings or cook for another hour in stock pot with dumplings

If baking, put dish in 200 degree oven for 30/40 mins until golden brown.

Simple Gathered Skirt |Sewing Tutorial|

I wrote a simple tutorial for this on my old blog, but this will be better, plus it has photos! 

I made this skirt for a friends birthday (lacking her measurements) hence the shorter length. If I was making myself this double layer style, I'd be at knee length at least.

 

Anyway, take your measurements as shown in my wonderful (!) hand drawn diagram so you can work out how much fabric you need to buy.

 

Make sure you pre wash your fabric! Ironing it after gives you extra brownie points but I really hate ironing.....

 

Cut your two rectangles out. Hem along one long side of each one. This will be the lower hem. Fold over half a cm and then again so the raw edge is nearly enclosed.
 

If you have lace or anything to add to the hems, do so now. I stitched my lace on just straight along (didn't even pin, I'm so slap dash!) the bottom hem of each rectangle so that it hung underneath the fabric. 

 

I like to French seam, so fold your rectangle in half, wrong sides together with the two short sides meeting. Sew straight down that edge as close to the edge as possible. Turn the tube inside out so your right sides are together and press the seam flat. Then sew the hem up 5mm from the edge to enclose the raw edge. My favourite seam for skirts! Repeat on the second rectangle. 

 

 

Cut your waistband. Fold it in half, and then turn the long raw edges in by 1cm so they will end up in the waistband. Iron it and iron it again. Make sure it lines up well and your life will be easier than mine!
 

The two tubes should now fit nicely one inside the other. Make sure you put the shorter one on top!! Line the raw top edges up neatly and pin your waistband over both pieces. Fold the end you are starting to stitch at under itself so the frayed ends aren't showing. Do not stitch it closed.
 

Sew around your waistband until you're a few centimetres from the end and back stitch to stop the thread unravelling. 

 

Use a large safety pin in the end of your elastic to feed it through the waistband until you have both ends showing. I favour a criss cross square stitch to make sure it doesn't spring apart! Manoeuvre it into the waistband so you can tuck the leftover raw ends over. Finish stitching the waistband on and run up over the elastic to join the waistband into a circle.

 

Hey presto. One pretty, comfy, layered skirt. 

 

Notes:

Always backstitch at the beginning and end of any sewing, bonus points for tying off too. 

If you've got wavy lace, follow the top edge so it doesn't flop over a straight line of stitching. 

Match your top thread to your lace, but if it's fairly thick, leave your bobbin thread as the main fabric colour and the inside will look neater. 

Make sure your elastic doesn't twist. 

Ironing is more awesome than I think it is. 

So is pinning. 

Don't be lazy :) 

I like it because there's no zips or buttons. Win. 

Think you'll give this style of simple skirt a try? 

Jo :)