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.

Nutty Dumpling Roast |Vegan Recipe|

Well, this is long overdue and somewhat of a practice run. I've been meaning to make nut roast for ages. And in true Jo fashion, browsed a few recipes and then made it up from there. So it kind of turned out more dumpling like, than traditional nut roast texture! So feel free to add more nuts to it if you so wish, if you doubled (or maybe trebled) the amount of seeds/nuts in the recipe, you'd get about double the yield. Which for me was a large rectangular baking dish. My friends and I enjoyed the dumpling though. So here's the method for that! Recipe and simplified method for cutting/pasting/printing at the end as usual. 

Chop your sweet potatoes into chunks. I went for around about 1 to 2cm cubed. They kind of mushed into the dumpling a bit so bigger could be better! 

 

 

Set them to cook (steam or boil is fine) and keep an eye so they don't get over done. They want to be just about to be edible and still pretty firm. Parboiled really I suppose. 

I'm not a professional chef. Can you tell?! 

Slice and fry the mushrooms. You don't want to add oil as the suet is oily enough later on! 

 

 

Blitz up one pack of chestnuts, the cranberries, maple syrup and balsamic vinegar with enough water to make a thick paste. 

 

 

Add all the seeds and nuts (chopping up the other bag of chestnuts). Season to taste. I added a good tablespoon of smoked paprika here. 

 

 

Mix the suet into the paste along with the packet of silken tofu and add this to the frying pan, and don't forget to add the sweet potato which should've been done a while ago!

 

 

Once hot through, pour the whole lot into your baking dish. 

 

 

Bake for 30 minutes at 200 degrees, take it out. Top it with the jar of cranberry sauce and roast for another 10 minutes at 220 degrees. 

Voila. Nut dumpling roast. Serve with potatoes and lots of veggies. 

Excuse the last photo. I was very excited to eat it and popped over to my friends, forgetting my camera. So it's only phone quality I'm afraid!! To be honest excuse all the photos, it gets dark early now!

Do you make up recipes?

Jo :)

Ingredients: 

500g cubed sweet potatoes

300g sliced mushrooms 

2 packets ready cooked chestnuts (I pack chopped)

150g cranberries

3tbsp maple syrup

2tbsp balsamic vinegar

50g golden linseed

50g blanched peanuts

50g sunflower seed

Salt and Pepper

Smoked paprika

300g veggie suet

Pack of silken tofu (349g)

Method:

Parboil/steam sweet potato till slightly undercooked

Fry mushrooms

Blitz 1 pack chestnuts, cranberries, maple syrup and balsamic vinegar with water, until it turns into a paste

Add the seeds and nuts to the frying pan

Season

Add the suet and tofu to the paste and then into pan

Heat through and pour into dish

Bake for 30m at 200degrees

Top with cranberry sauce

Bake for 10m at 220degrees

Chickpea and Sweet Potato Flat-cakes |Vegan Recipe|

Another recipe for you! It's becoming rather a habit. Partially because I don't buy that many clothes and have nothing new to share with you Pin Up wise! As a little aside from the recipe, this is my tenth post on “A Vegan Pin-up” and I have to say I'm actually pretty proud of that fact. One post a week for ten weeks is good for someone who tends to be a bit flaky with stuff like that. Proper photos taken on my camera instead of my phone, decent recipes and a review or two. So yeah, I'm quite a happy little blogger today!!

On to the more important things: food. I originally wanted to make something more burger like, and I vaguely remembered that sweet potato and chickpeas go pretty well together, so I cobbled together some basic ingredients and went at it. I've made chickpea patties before, but always found them too dry, so this is kind of a better version of those! I think with more beans than potato these could be more burger like, but that's am experiment for another day!

 

Easy to copy and paste recipe at the end as usual….

 

 

Peel and slice your sweet potatoes (about 700g or two large potatoes) and set them to boil for fifteen to twenty minutes until they're soft and cooked through.

 

While these are cooking add some oil to a frying pan or wok. Mix your spices into this and heat through. Add your drained chickpeas and butter beans as well as your diced green pepper. Get these sizzling nicely. Once they're also cooked through stir in the peanut butter. It could get a little dry and want to stick to the pan and if this happens take a bit of water from the sweet potatoes and mix it in as well.

When the potatoes are done, whiz half of everything up in a blender with some more water from the sweet potatoes. Mash the remaining potato in a bowl, add the purée and chickpea mix and stir well. Add the two table spoons of gram flour through a sieve (or sub in plain) and mix thoroughly.

Put the oven on if you haven't already. Get a clean frying pan lightly coated with oil to a medium heat and spoon portions of the mix into the frying pan. Mine fitted three at a time. Four minutes on each side, flipped with a clean spatula. I'm not being picky here, but they will get stuck and you will curse them if you have any mix left on it!!

When you've done both sides, put them in the oven and do the next three, removing and swapping the flat-cakes over when they've been done on both sides. Obviously the last three you do will have eight minutes in the oven with nothing in the frying pan, but this just gives you time to wash up!

I had mine in a bread roll with some sliced tomato. Also good with ketchup, BBQ sauce, probably vegan mayo and if you're feeling fancy I think a peanut satay type sauce would be seriously scrummy too!

 

 

How do your kitchen experiments usually end up?

Jo :)

Ingredients:

700g or 2 large Sweet Potatoes

Can chickpeas
Can butter beans
Green Pepper
2 Tbsp Gram or Plain Flour
1 Tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp smooth peanut butter

Method:

Peel and chop your sweet potatoes. Boil for twenty minutes

Fry your spices, chickpeas, butter beans and green pepper
Add your peanut butter and a little bit of water from the saucepan to thin out if needed
When cooked, blend half the potato and chickpea mix
Mash the remaining potato and mix the purée and remaining chickpeas etc in
Sieve the flour into the mix and stir thoroughly
Turn the oven on to 180 degree C
Fry portions of the mix over a medium heat for four minutes each side
Finish off for eight minutes in the oven
Serve hot immediately or cool on a rack and re-heat as required.

Easy From Scratch Pizza |Vegan Recipe|

I was so excited to have pizza a couple of weekends back on my birthday. My dear friends made the base and we topped it with tomato sauce, mushrooms and the Vegusto vegan cheese I got specially for the day! I had quite a bit of cheese left and did a review on it and Tesco's version last week and thought I'd make it from scratch as I've not made pizza in ages. My skills with yeast in the kitchen are limited and my patience even more so, therefore this is a quick and easy pizza base. The sauce took longer than I expected though...and Charlie's use of bolognese sauce is going to stay my go to as well...

Easy to copy and paste recipe at the end as always!

Start by setting your tomatoes out in a tray to roast cut side down. Sprinkle them with a little oil, some paprika, a smidge of cayenne pepper and some mixed herbs and basil (fresh if you have it, dry is fine if not). Whack that in the oven for half an hour to forty minutes until they're nicely crisped up.

While they were cooking, I prepped the veg that I wanted on my pizza. Mushrooms and two different coloured peppers suited me, but you could add anything, I'd recommend sun dried tomatoes if you want to add tomatoes on top too as I've made it with fresh before and it always seems to end up soggy! Maybe that's just me!

Once your tomatoes are roasted, blitz them up in a blender and strain them through a sieve to get all the seeds etc out. Make sure to really press it with the back of your spoon and get all the extra off the underside of the sieve after!

Set the sauce into a pan to boil and reduce down for about ten minutes until it's a nice thick, pizza sauce kind of consistency. While it's simmering, get your bases ready.

 

Thank-you Rose for gorgeous mixing bowl/jug from TK Maxx!

Sift your flour into a bowl and add your margarine. Get your (hopefully washed!) hands in there and rub it all together to form breadcrumbs. Start adding your soy milk, it wants to be a slightly sticky dough. Bring it all together into a ball and put on your well floured surface ready for kneading.

 

 

I split my dough in two here and it will do two smaller pizzas or one massive one depending on your preference.

Roll out your pizza bases to about one cm thickness and put them on your tray ready for topping.

 

Spread your lovely tomato sauce on, top with your veg and cheese and bake in a 190 degree oven for around twenty minutes.

Hey presto, yummy pizza!

It's better than takeaway I reckon! What's your favourite takeaway dupe?

Jo :)

 

Ingredients:

Base:

225g Self Raising Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

60g Margarine

100ml Soy Milk (you may not need all of it!)

Tomato Sauce:

12 Medium Tomatoes

Olive Oil

Basil

Garlic

Paprika

Method:

Cut the tomatoes in half, and fill baking dish with them cut face down

Drizzle over a little oil and preferred herbs and spices

Roast in 190 degree oven for 40 mins

Sift flour and salt into bowl

Rub margarine in with fingers to form breadcrumbs

Bring together with required amount of milk to form slightly sticky dough

Roll dough out onto floured surface till 1cm thick when you're ready to top it

When roasted, blend tomatoes into sauce and strain through sieve using back of spoon to push through

Simmer for ten minutes until thickened

Top pizza bases with sauce and preferred toppings

Bake for 20mins at 190 degrees until crispy!

Vegan Cheese - Tesco vs. Vegusto |Review|

Cheese. One of the most lamented and perceived losses from the diet according to most who contemplate the vegan way. (Aside from chocolate, but have you tried bournville?!)

I was certainly a bit worried about it as I did enjoy cheese a lot before. I've tried a few different brands and mostly been disappointed. The solid soy versions seem to have a weird after taste an I just can't get on with them. However, it was my birthday last weekend, and I haven't had pizza since last year, so I decided to treat myself to the No-Moo Melty cheese from Vegusto having read very good reviews on the stuff. Coincidentally, the friend my Mum was staying with had bought some of Tesco's Creamy Cheddar Style Spread to try as well. So a comparison was born.

I'll admit to having high hopes for the Vegusto cheese and low expectations from Tesco which may have influenced me somewhat, but they both had to go through rigorous testing to see which I preferred! It's a hard life!!

 

 

Cheese on Toast

 

Pre-Melting

The late or lazy dinner staple.

The No-Moo Melty cheese can be sliced to put on things, but I found it was better to grate it for more even coverage, as although it sort of melts and feels creamy when you eat it, it doesn't spread, so the circles just kind of sit there….it does crisp up nicely on top making it feel more authentic. It's got a pleasant taste, although a lot of it can be quite strong and tangy. The creaminess is really nice, but definitely more like a sort of mozzarella than the cheddar that would normally grace my toast. It will burn fast though if you don't watch it.

 

 

The Spread went on rather crumbly straight out of the fridge, and it, like the Melty, got creamier as it was heated, but held it's shape. It tastes really good, I wouldn't have said like cheddar, but like a smoky sort of cheese. I really liked it. It doesn't crisp up which was a little disappointing even if it was not expected.

 

 

Melty: 7/10 pleasant flavour, good crisping, creamy texture.

Spread: 6/10 good flavour, no crisping, creamy texture.

Baked Potato with Cheese and Beans

I sliced and spread two halves of a baking potato with the cheeses and topped with piping hot baked beans. The Melty again went slightly creamy but kind of held it's shape and didn't really mingle with the beans at all, whereas the Spread being slathered all over the potato, mixed in quite nicely as I cut it all up.

It all tasted the same as before, and to be honest the Melty behaved more like real cheese, perhaps I should have grated it on top rather than sliced underneath? I preferred the Spread though as I preferred the flavour and the fact there was no real difference in texture as it blended well.

Melty: 7/10 behaved like real cheese, nice and creamy.

Spread: 8/10 blended well, I preferred the flavour.

Pizza

Tesco Spread on Pizza!

The real test! Plus it's the reason I bought the Melty in the first place!

A bit sticky to grate the No-Moo Melty...

I made both pizzas from scratch (recipe next week!) and the only difference was the cheese topping. The Melty actually had the better flavour on here which surprised me (more is more with Melty?) and crisped up really nicely. Plus because it grates it's more authentic than the Spread. I really, really enjoyed this pizza, and it's also amazing cold. Just like the real (non-vegan) thing!

No-Moo Melty Crsiped up Nicely

The Spread was difficult to get onto the pizza in the first place. I warmed it slightly in the hope of it spreading easier, but actually I think you'd be better putting little chunks on straight out of the fridge. (and now I'm wondering if you could freeze and grate it, but that's an idea for another time!!). It went nice and creamy again, but not quite as good as the Melty. It also crisped up a bit which I think was a function of being in the oven for longer than on the cheese on toast. It had a very strong taste in fairly large quantities, and it was a little overpowering….I was a tad (lot) greedy and ate rather a piggy amount of pizza and the Spread slices left me feeling a little blegh. In moderation though it's almost certainly fine!!

Even the Spread crisped a bit!

Melty: 10/10 I really think this is the closest you'll get to real cheese on the pizza front!

Spread: 5/10 It was good, certainly tasty, but difficult to use and the quantity required made the taste overpowering.

ALL IN:

Vegusto No-Moo Melty: 24/30 (£7.49 plus shipping for 400g)

Tesco Creamy Cheddar Style Spread: 19/30 (£2.25 for 255g)

Both Delicious Pizzas

All in when you consider price as well I probably won't buy the Vegusto except for special Pizza occasions. It was undeniably better on the pizza (I'm restraining myself from eating more right now…) but sadly the cost puts it out of my reach for an everyday cheese. The Tesco one I have bought a few times now and I think it's brilliant. It'll do all your basics of sandwiches, crackers and anything else cold, and it's great hot too. I've mixed it with pasta, and added it to baked potato skins. It's been great every time.

Too much Vegan Cheese?

Now, I've eaten far too much cheese this weekend, so excuse me while I go detox!! Have you tried Vegan Cheese?

Jo :)