All you need is l💜ve… and Vegfest Brighton

Tags

Aneesh Popat, Bristol Bakehouse, cake, Cat & The Cream, Chocolate, Dosa Deli, Dragonfly, Ms Cupcake, Soapnut powder, Sunshine Kitchen, Teen VGN, The Honest Carrot, Vegan Society, Vegfest, Vegfest Brighton, Vegfest Bristol

Another fantastic event from the organisers of Europe’s largest vegan festivals.

Long overdue! Visiting the Viva! Roadshow in Gloucester has inspired me to pick a few photos from last month’s Vegfest in Brighton to share some of the sights with you.
I am a huge (no, try that again… HUGE!!!) fan of the Vegfest events that take place in Bristol, Brighton and London.
My journey to Brighton was somewhat turbulent but it was definitely worth the trip and every minute of waiting for the recovery van 😉

The gorgeous ladies from the Sunshine Kitchen

Alix Meek, the Vegan Society’s Business Development Assistant

The TeenVGN stall. Truly inspirational, you’re superstars!

Soapnut powder – a truly environmentally friendly choice. Probably the most innovative product I’ve seen at the show this year.

Soapnut powder in laundry tabs… ultimate convenience

Merryhill Mushrooms – Grow your own. Looks such fun. I wish I could have taken some home with me.

Caught ‘blue handed’: Ms. Cupcake with her ever popular cakes.

These stunning cakes were for sale on the VBites stall.

It appears that vegans don’t just eat nuts and leaves 😉

Incredibly fast, this man is a master of the Woks

Bangwok toppings.

Great name, great food 🙂

Nice as pie!

Dosa Deli. If you get the chance… just do it! Mmmmmm 🙂

Part of my Dosa lunch… there was something deliciously crunchy in there. Never got a chance to ask what the secret ingredient was.

Lunch… Oh my goodness this was so incredibly tasty. Full of flavour, variety of textures and just all round yummy!

Looking good!

Vegan Catering at its best. Cashew Catering from Lewes.

Mouthwateringly beautiful

Chocolatier Aneesh Popat

Some of Aneesh’s chocolates. How fabulous are these!?

Aneesh with his lovely fiancé

A day out at Vegfest is like elixir for the weary vegan traveller’s soul… When I arrived at the Bristol venue last year, I felt an incredible sense of ‘coming home’ and belonging! My family and I live in a tiny little community in the Cotswolds and we don’t usually mind being the ‘only vegans in the village’. But just occasionally I wish I could simply sit down to a vegan meal in a cafe without lengthy explanations. Sometimes, it would be amazing not having to explain why I choose not to eat animal products, where I get my protein from or whether I eat fish!
But here I find no judgement, no critics… simply a crowd of caring, open minds.

Just a small selection of images from Bristol 2013.
Blue skies, sunshine, live music and over 140 stalls, caterers and talks.

Amphitheatre with live music

Cat and the cream

Stunning colours in the May sunshine

Dragonfly

Ms. Cupcake

The Bristol Bakehouse

Aneesh Popat

Live music, a bar and blue skies… Life is good!

Another view over the Amphitheatre.

I’m incredibly lucky to work with organisations, charities and magazines who feel just as passionately about living without cruelty as I do. Because of that and thanks to this blog, Twitter and Facebook, I’ve got a real sense of connecting with ‘my community’. Click here to follow me on twitter and catch my latest Facebook updates… It would just make my day 🙂

How do you link up with like-minded people? I’d love to hear what works for you.

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Hope to see many of you at the next Vegfest event!
Vegfest Website
Twitter @VegfestUK

Viva!’s Incredible Vegan Roadshow – Gloucester

Tags

Amanda Woodvine, Bournemouth Vegan Fair, Gloucester, Gloucester Vegan Group, Incredible Vegan Roadshow, Jane Easton, Juliet Gellately, Tall Poppy Foods, Vegetarian for Life, Viva!

Viva! Incredible Vegan Roadshow does Gloucester!

A brilliant day in a packed town centre venue:
Gloucester Guildhall turned into vegan central with talks by Juliet Gellately and Viva! health campaigner Veronika Powell, plus cookery demonstrations and tastings by Viva!’s cookery expert Jane Easton.
The tables were almost bowing under the weight of delicious free food samples, kindly supplied by VBites, Bute Island Sheese Company, Organico, Good Hemp, Wicken Fen Sausages, Fry’s Vegusto, Food Heaven Cheesecakes, Ombars, Leafu, Cariad Cakes and Goodie Good Stuff…
(VBites Pepperjack Cheezly was a new one for me, yum!)
There were some fabulous hot dishes on offer too by Viva!. We sampled a delicious Vegetable and Tofu dish and a sun-dried tomato and asparagus pasta with pesto. The boys discovered a whole table with dairy-free milk options, including a very tasty chocolate milk! Chocolatey smiles all round 😉

Vegetarian for Life’s wonderful Amanda Woodvine (Editor of the Didsbury Dinners Cookbook) was there with her stall as well as many other campaigning groups and organisations such as Sea Shepherd, the Velvet Monkey Foundation, Dean Farm Trust…
It was a lovely day out for the whole family browsing the packed hall full of vegan information, guides, tasty foods, clothes, Moo free chocolates and Yaoh’s goodies; perfectly rounded off by cake from Tall Poppy Foods and The Gloucester Vegan Group.
My experienced taste testers came away with big smiles, bags of goodies and two thumbs up.

Viva!’s founder and director Juliet Gellately

Cookery Writer Jane Easton preparing meals from the new Viva! Cookbook (which I believe is out in May!).

Tall Poppy Foods from Selly Oak, Birmingham. Stunning cakes served with a happy smile!

Fiona and the team from the Gloucester Vegan Group. The members have been very busy baking all these tasty treats to raise funds for the Evesham Farm Animal Sanctuary.

If you’ve never been to a vegan event like this I would really, really recommend that you go along to one near you. The Vegfest website has a list of events around the country and I’m delighted to be sponsoring the website of the Bournemouth Vegan Fair.
The atmosphere at these events is so warm and welcoming and even after 14 years as a vegan I’ve picked up lots of information about nutrition. Best of all, I got to catch up with many familiar faces and colleagues as well as meeting some lovely new people. Thank you Viva! for a great day out 🙂

Bunny and Easter Egg Flapjacks

Tags

dairy-free, Easter, Easter bunny, Easter Egg, flapjack, Food photography, recipe, Vegan, Vegetarian

Happy Easter. These delicious flapjacks are full of seeds and dried apricots. Just the thing to re-energise you after a strenuous Easter egg hunt!

 

Easter Bunny Flapjacks

A sweet treat for lunch boxes and afternoon tea

225g rolled oats
60g margarine
80g brown sugar
2-3 tbsp agave nectar
6 dried apricots, finely chopped
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
Round chocolate chips

Tip: Round metal cutters can be squeezed into Easter egg shapes. Have fun decorating.

 

Warm the margarine, sugar and agave nectar in a saucepan, then stir in the remaining ingredients.
Line a baking tray and use a teaspoon to fill a rabbit cutter or egg shape with the mixture. Press down firmly before carefully lifting the cutter. Use the back of a spoon to gently push down rabbit ears.
Bake in a preheated oven at 160˚C until golden brown. When the bunnies come out of the oven, decorate with chocolate chip eyes.

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And here’s our very own Easter Bunny, when he was still a little chap.
Kevin has celebrated his 10th birthday in February and even received a telegram from the Rabbit Queen.

How do you celebrate Easter? Do you go for the big Easter egg hunt, a traditional German Osterlamm (lamb shaped cake) or is it the blissful decadence of ‘chocolate heaven’ for you?

 

Lemon Ginger Cheesecake Shots

Tags

Alpro, Cheesecake, cream cheese, dairy-free, dessert, Food photography, ginger, Gourmet Garden, herbs, low fat, recipe, recipe development, spices, Vegan, Vegetarian

Dairy-free and fabulous! If you’re a big fan of Cheesecake here’s the quickest, easiest recipe (with a little help from my friends).

Spring has truly sprung here in the UK! Vibrant blossoms wherever you look, bees buzzing busily and a windowsill full of green shoots getting ready for the greenhouse.
With the recent sunny weather my tastebuds seem to have changed from warming comfort food to lighter and more delicate flavours.
These bite-sized mini Cheesecakes with hints of summery lemon and ginger are just perfect for an eye-catching dessert and best of all… they’re ready in minutes.

Recently, Gourmet Garden kindly offered to send me a selection of their herbs and spices to review. This Australian company produces ready-to-use tubes of herbs and spices that offer a convenient alternative to fresh herbs. During the winter months, when I can’t just pop out into the garden to pick my own, I often end up with shop-bought herbs that never quite get used up or make it to the freezer. The Gourmet Garden products struck me as a great idea to avoid food waste as the packs will keep for up to three months in the fridge.

It turns out that most of the herbs and spices contain lactic acid from milk as an ingredient which makes them ideal for vegetarians. Currently only the ginger is suitable for vegans.
Obviously, there are endless options to use ginger in savoury recipes such as curries, stir-fries and marinades but I wanted to try something a bit different!

Lemon Ginger Cheesecake Shots

Makes about 12 shots
The gorgeous little shot glasses were lent to me by a friend and I’ve been thinking about the perfect recipe to photograph with them. These cute little desserts are exactly what I was looking for.
Are you ready for an incredible 6 ingredient recipe?

 

3 ginger biscuits or Hobnobs
75g dairy-free cream cheese
50g dairy-free vanilla yoghurt (e.g. Alpro)
1 tsp Gourmet Garden ginger puree
zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp icing sugar (more or less to taste)

Crush the biscuits in a pestle and mortar and spoon the fine crumbs into the shot glasses. Cheesecake is often made with a base of biscuit crumbs and melted margarine. If you prefer you can do that too but I wanted to opt for a lower fat version in this recipe. This way, it reminds me a bit of the Mueller yoghurts where you could snap a corner with granola into a creamy yoghurt dessert. Are they still around? I haven’t looked for a very long time!

Mix the cream cheese, yoghurt, lemon zest and ginger puree until you get a smooth, creamy consistency. Add icing sugar to taste and a little more ginger for an extra zingy flavour.
Spoon the cheesecake mix into the shot glasses and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Could this be any easier?!

Over the years I’ve attempted many dairy-free versions of Cheesecake. I’ve graduated from my first pretty strange attempts of baked silken tofu versions to my current favourites… Eating a vegan diet is definitely not about missing out but about finding the most delicious way to live life without causing unnecessary harm.

 

I love berries to top my Cheesecakes! What’s your favourite version? I’m keen to try out new suggestions.

Are we connected on Twitter or Facebook? I’d love it if you pop over to say Hi!
For food photography and vegan recipe development contact me via my website www.flavourphotos.com

Let’s twist (and twirl) again… Tagliatelle alla Genovese

Pasta is without a doubt one of the best cupboard staples when you’re starving and time-starved too! Here is one of my favourite Tagliatelle recipes. It’s always a great hit with the whole family.

Creamy Pesto Tagliatelle with Mock Chicken

Serves 4
Home-made pesto is amazingly versatile. I often use left-overs in sandwiches, salad dressing, marinades… Its delicious, fragrant flavour is undoubtedly superior to anything you can buy in a jar. But if you are really in a hurry Meridian, Suma and Zest all sell it ready-made too.

Pasta for four – about 90g each, depending on your appetites
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
300g chicken-style pieces (or use a 420g tin butter beans)
3 tbsp dairy-free pesto
250ml oat cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
toasted pine nuts and basil leaves

For the pesto:
1 large bunch of basil leaves
about 1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp pine nuts
1 small clove of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp grated vegan cheese (optional)
olive oil

Pound basil leaves, sea salt and pine nuts in a pestle and mortar. Add the crushed garlic, vegan cheese and keep mashing it all together until you get a vibrant green pulp. Stir in a generous glug of olive oil. I wish I could give more exact amounts but I don’t ever measure the quantities for pesto… it always seems to taste great!

In a large pot of boiling water cook enough Tagliatelle for four people. My mum used to add a vegetable stock cube to the cooking water which gives a wonderful flavour to the pasta.
While the pasta is cooking, heat some oil in a sauté pan and fry one chopped red pepper and 300g chicken-style pieces (or butterbeans, if you prefer) for five minutes. Add 3 tbsp of pesto and a 250ml carton of oat or soya cream. Simmer for a couple of minutes and season with plenty of freshly ground black pepper, salt and possibly some crumbled vegetable stock cube. Stir into the drained pasta, adjust the seasoning to taste and garnish with toasted pine nuts and basil leaves. For a tasty lunch or dinner, serve the pasta with a big bowl of tomato salad and crusty garlic bread.

 

This recipe was first published in the April 2014 issue of Vegetarian Living:

This recipe has been entered into the #BettaRecipe competition by Betta Living. For  more information and details on how to enter click here.

 

Homemade Vegan Chorizo

Tags

Absolute Cooking, chorizo, dairy-free, orzo, Orzo Salad, seitan, Vegan, vegan sausages, Vegetarian, wheat gluten, Wheaty

If you love the spicy punchy flavour of Chorizo in your vegan recipes I’ve got great news for you. There’s now a DIY Chorizo kit to make at home… And it’s great fun too!

A couple of weeks ago I came across Absolute Cooking, who produce a range of meat-free DIY sausage kits. Alison Challoner-Jones kindly sent me two samples to try (a vegan Chorizo and a vegan Maple Bacon mix) and both have been a big success in our house.

As I grew up in a very sausage-savy part of Germany and I can usually speak with great authority on all things sausage. 😉 However, even though I used to eat other meats, I have never tried pork in my life and therefore couldn’t tell you if either the Chorizo or Bacon were ‘authentic’. What I can say however, is that the flavours are excellent and I’ve been tempted back to the fridge several times for a slice or three to munch with some crackers. Very moorish!

The kits couldn’t be easier to make! The Chorizo simply required the addition of 200ml water, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar and 2 tbsp vegetable oil. (The Bacon mix was equally easy with added water, soy sauce and vegetable oil.) I used a measuring jug for my wet ingredients and added the dried mix. Within seconds of stirring, the soft mass came together perfectly in a slightly springy ‘dough’ that could easily be separated and shaped.
I formed the Chorizo sausages, wrapped them in foil and baked them at 180˚C/350˚F for half an hour, turning once.

Most people who are new to meat-free eating prefer the slightly denser and chewier texture of seitan/wheat gluten. For example, whenever the German company Wheaty have a stall and samples at a UK veggie festival they always get raving reviews and unanimously positive feedback.
Alison’s products have got the same lovely texture and here comes the best bit… the ingredients list of Chorizo mix:
Vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, chickpea flour, herb and spice blend, vegetable bouillon, natural hickory smoke flavour…. THAT’S IT!

For this colourful Orzo salad I picked juicy tomatoes, spring onions, chives and Chorizo pieces – the flavours and textures complemented each other beautifully. My trusted ‘taste testers’ were particularly keen on the spicy smokiness of the sausage.
As the kids were hungry after a busy day at school I didn’t get the chance to write down a proper recipe. All I managed was a handful of photographs and “DINNERTIME!” before this vibrantly coloured dish vanished at lightning speed.

As a guide though:
I cooked enough orzo pasta for four in vegetable stock and a little turmeric to give this fabulous yellow colour.
In a separate pan I briefly fried chorizo pieces and some sliced spring onions, added the drained orzo, more sliced spring onions, chopped chives and sweet cocktail tomatoes. Together with an olive oil-vinegar-garlic vinaigrette this made a stunning dinner which would look equally fabulous on a buffet or picnic.

I was sent the samples by Absolute Cooking without a request for this review. But as I thoroughly enjoyed making and eating the sausages I felt it was only fair to share! 😉