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!

Healthy Vegetable Curry |Vegan Recipe|

My friends actually got me onto the idea of just using vegetables in a curry, I always felt I had to add tofu or something for substance, but this does, in fact, work great! I like to keep my vegetables fairly chunky though, got to have some bite to them! The list I use below is what works for me, you can really add whatever you fancy!

There's an easy to copy and paste method and ingredients at the end of this blog post for if you want to print and use it!

First things first, chop your butternut squash in half lengthways so you can scoop out the seeds. Place it cut side down in a baking dish, filled with water coming a couple of centimetres up the side of the squash.

Ready to Roast!

Roast this in the oven for forty minutes to an hour until it's nice and soft and easy to scoop the flesh out, a little longer won't hurt it!

Whilst this is going on, prep your veggies!

Chunky Mushrooms

Yellow Courgette, and there's green in the background!

Two Red Peppers

Chuck everything you've chopped up in some bowls and wait until ten minutes before the squash is done before coming back to the kitchen. Maybe read a book or let me know you're cooking my curry via social media!

Carrot and Cauliflower all ready in my steamer!

When you've got about ten minutes left on the squash, set your carrot and cauliflower (or similar veg) up to steam for a bit, just to soften it a little.
Throw your mushrooms in a wok and once they're a bit wet as they're cooking, add your spices until they're nicely coated.

So difficult to photograph!

Lots of courgette....

Once your mushrooms are cooking up nicely, add in your courgette and pepper and get it all frying away. Because of the wetness of the veg, if you're using a non stick wok, you don't really need oil, but can of course add if necessary!

Your squash should be done by now, carefully remove it from the oven and put the flesh into a blender with a can of coconut milk and a tablespoon of curry powder (depending on your preferences).

Korma Coloured!!

The butternut squash makes the sauce a fabulous yellow colour, just like a takeaway korma!

Add the steamed veg and your sauce into your wok and leave it to simmer for however long it takes to boil up some rice to eat with it!

Vegetable Curry

Serve and enjoy. The coconut flavour of this dish is amazing, and the milk is the only other thing in it other than vegetables, so I reckon this counts as a healthy dinner treat!

Healthy Vegetable Curry

 I actually freeze mine in portions and take it for lunches at work. A quick re-heat in a saucepan or microwave and some microwave rice is a perfect quick, filling lunch!

I've learnt I should take blog photos earlier in the day....

Easy Copy Recipe

Ingredients:

Sauce:
Large Butternut Squash
Can of Coconut Milk
Curry Powder

Vegetables:
Mushrooms
Courgettes
2 Red Peppers
Cauliflower
Carrots

Spices:
Paprika
Smoked Paprika
Mixed Herbs
Garam Masala

Method:

Oven to 200
Halve and de-seed butternut squash
Roast cut face down in 2cm of water for a hour
Prep all veg by cutting into chunks
Ten minutes prior to the squash being cooked, set the cauliflower and carrots to steam
Fry the mushrooms in a wok till wet, then add spices
Add the courgettes and peppers
Scoop out the flesh of the squash and blend with coconut milk and curry powder
Add carrots, cauliflower and sauce to wok
Simmer for at least ten minutes

Serve with rice, naan bread, poppadums....the choice is yours!

I hope you enjohy making this recipe! I'd love to see your efforts, as I'm sure they'd be better presented than mine!