Photo shoot with Our Lizzy

Tags

Food photography, Our Lizzy Cookery School, Valentine's Day present, Vegan, vegan christmas, Vegan Desserts, Vegan Food photography, Vegetarian, Vegetarian Cookery School, Vegetarian food photography

A couple of months ago I had an incredible day shooting food with Lizzy Hughes from Our Lizzy Cookery School in Malvern.

Nestled on the foot of the stunning Malvern Hills in Worcestershire is a cookery school with a difference. Lizzy has converted her house into a wonderfully welcoming space where she teaches vegan cookery classes – from stunning Christmas centrepieces to Meals in Minutes, Mezze, Mexican dishes and just about everything in between.
Lizzy used to be a teacher and her patient, organised approach really shone through during our photo shoot. From the moment I walked through the door we had a great time working together! It was such good fun spending time with a fellow foodie, whilst discovering some of her go-to ingredients and favourite recipes.
I have never photographed so many dishes in a day and Lizzy, perfectly organised, had prepared an amazing spread. Tiramisu, truffles, cakes, falafel, curry, Christmas mains, pies, breakfasts… seriously, you wouldn’t believe all the things that kept appearing from fridges, freezers and store cupboards.

Lizzy and I were both delighted how beautifully all the photos came out and it’s so nice seeing them on the website already. Here’s just a very small selection from our day:

Imagine our scrumptious lunch break! I even got to take a selection of delicious goodies for dinner. (Perks of the job!)
If you’d like to find out more about Our Lizzy have a look at her website. Her courses would make a lovely gift for Valentine’s Day, a birthday or to treat yourself. If you don’t fancy driving home afterwards you could even make a mini break of it, stay at her B&B and sample an award winning breakfast the next day.  Lizzy really is a lovely, lovely lady and if you book on one of her courses please do tell me all about it! 🙂

Lots of love,
Chava

Pass the pasta – vegan, homemade

Tags

dairy-free, Food photography, home made pasta, Vegan, Vegan Food photography, vegan pasta dough, Vegetarian, Vegetarian food photography

Whenever I read posts about homemade pasta I thought ‘Yeah, right! That looks way too much like hard work – it’s just not going to happen in my kitchen.’ Turns out I was wrong!

A couple of days ago, I was experimenting and playing with a new open ravioli recipe for a magazine article. Unfortunately, I discovered that you can’t precook a whole bunch of shop-bought lasagne sheets at the same time. Some stick together and some fall apart… grrrrr! The fact is, when you write a recipe you want to be absolutely sure that it’ll work! And because I couldn’t buy fresh vegan pasta sheets I decided to give the whole ‘pasta making business’ a go…

Officially FUN! I’d probably describe it like a mixture of playing with play dough and cutting out cute biscuit shapes …. Exactly! That’s pretty good fun in my book.  When I served the pasta shapes with a creamy porcini mushroom sauce, Sam informed me that it was the best pasta he’s ever eaten. Nice one, son!
I’ll let you take a tiny little peek at the picture of my open ravioli and if you fancy to give it a try the recipe will be featured in the April issue of Vegetarian Living. It’ll come out at the end of March and will definitely get you in the mood for lighter, spring cooking.

Have you ever been tempted to make pasta from scratch? Or have you ever tried something that looked wayyyy too complicated and it turned out really well? I’d love to hear your kitchen successes (or disasters?)

Lots of love,
Chava

 

 

 

Easter was a long time ago…

Tags

Food photography, National Vegetarian Week, Vegan, Vegan Dal, vegan main courses, Vegan Paella, Vegan Wontons, Vegetarian

Anyone who’s visited my blog recently was greeted by a round-up of the best vegan Easter treats. Sorry, that really isn’t at all what you guys want to see in July. Melting bunnies anyone?

Okay, let me make it up to you with some mouthwatering photos and recipes… it’s been a busy time in so many good ways. From National Vegetarian Week to extending my column for Vegetarian Living, more tasty dishes for Viva!, a campaign for Plamil…

Let’s start with the fabulous National Vegetarian Week and some of my favourite photos  from this year’s campaign. I’m including links for each recipe – all three of these below are outstanding!

This Artichoke and Asparagus Paella from the Vegetarian Society has become a firm favourite in our house already. It’s great for entertaining – easy to make, very tasty and it looks very special too.


A Lemon and Lime Dal with quite a zing. I adjust the amount of lemon juice to taste, depending on how I feel that day 😉

And how about this Thai Mushroom Soup with Crispy Wontons? The wonton filling of shiitake mushrooms with smoked tofu, ginger and chilli is mouthwateringly good. Sounds far too simple to create such a great flavour. I’d definitely recommend the Taifun smoked tofu with sesame and almond (e.g. from Waitrose or health food shops).

If you’re super organised and already thinking ahead for next year’s Vegetarian Week please remember that the Vegetarian Society is able to offer small grants to stage events. They very kindly sponsored our Big Veggie Picnic and the food, colouring-in competition and games were a great success with everyone!
 


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Part-way through the week I received an email about a special feature:
I mean Hello! magazine!! To see these vegan feasts go mainstream really got me excited. There was a three page feature all about NVW and it will have reached thousands of people that week that may have never thought about trying a vegan meal before in their life. I read that their current print circulation number is just under 270,000. Wow! I will confess to going out and buying my first ever copy 😉

I’m going to update the blog with more news in the next few days. It certainly feels good to show some blog presence again.
Lots of love,
Chava

Win A Moo Free Chocolate Hamper

Tags

Best Halloween Sweets, Chocolate Week, Competition, Food photography, Moo Free Chocolate, vegan chocolate recipes, Vegan Desserts

It’s National Chocolate Week – as if we needed an excuse! I’ll be featuring my favourite chocolate recipes from the last year and there’s an exciting competition for a Moo Free Chocolate hamper too.

The last weeks have been an amazing whirlwind of magazine deadlines for Vegetarian Living and Viva!Life, Christmas photo shoots and being the official photographer at Vegfest London. I nearly missed my first blog anniversary this Wednesday 🙂
To celebrate I’ll be tempting you with some mouth-watering chocolate recipes from the last 12 months… Will you be able to resist?
Whether you’ve just stumbled across my blog or have been following from day one – it’s lovely to have you here. I hope you’ll stick around for a while and join the fun. (There’s a subscribe button in the top left corner so you’ll always get the latest posts the moment they appear on here!)

Chocolate Cherry Cakes

5-ingredient Chocolate Pots

Rich Chocolate Fudge Cake

Ruby’s Cookie Pie

Viva!’s Chocolate Mousse

 

Are you tempted yet?!?
To celebrate National Chocolate Week and to link in with my BIG vegan Halloween sweet-round up you can win a delicious selection of Moo Free chocolates. Thank you so much to the lovely Moo Free team!

To enter, simply tell me in the comments section how many different flavours of Mini Moo Bars you can get and what your absolute favourite vegan Halloween treat would be. (Click here to help with your answer 🙂 )
The competition will close at midnight on Sunday 26th October and is open to UK residents only.

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If your business could benefit from fabulous meat-free recipes and photographs I’d love to hear from you.
Keep in touch via Twitter (@flavourphotos) or Facebook
and look out for more scrumptious food photography here: www.flavourphotos.com

 

Creamy Dreamy Sandwich Swirls

Tags

children's party, dairy-free, Food photography, Party food, Sandwich spirals, sandwich swirls, Vegan, Vegan Canapés, vegan fingerfood, Vegetarian

Can you eat a vegan diet and still have great party food? Too right, you can!

These cute little finger food sandwich swirls are great for any gregarious gathering or fun-filled festivity. Whether you are organising a kids’ birthday treat or an indulgent cocktail party with bubbly and canapés, these will be the best thing since sliced bread. (aarrrhh, sorry just couldn’t resist the pun!)

In the last couple of weeks I’ve had so much fun joining a couple of virtual potlucks. If you’ve never come across these before please let me introduce you to Angie’s (The Novice Gardener) Fiesta Friday. It’s a real feast for the eyes and includes mouthwateringly tempting dishes from all around the world. If you can’t be at a party in person, this has got to be the best virtual foodie gathering there is  – the atmosphere is incredibly supportive, encouraging and kind!

Another exciting new venture was started by An Unrefined Vegan blogger Annie with Bunny Kitchen’s Poppy and Angela from Canned Time. The Virtual Vegan LINKY Potluck has been going for three weeks and has attracted delicious offerings from Banana Avocado Mint Ice Cream to the cutest Mini Cinnamon Rolls (plus plenty of savoury dishes too, in case you’re wondering about my sweet tooth!). Can’t wait to see what everybody is sharing this week.

I’m sure to bring my offerings to Fiesta Friday #26 and VVLP this week. These little canapés are just made for sharing.

Sandwich Pops

 

Pinwheel Sandwiches

Makes 16
The little sandwich spirals are also a fun way to add variety to lunchboxes.

4 slices of sandwich bread, crusts removed
Savoury filling:
100g dairy-free cream cheese
2 tbsp each of finely cubed yellow and red pepper
1 tbsp finely sliced chives
¼ tsp mild paprika

Sweet filling:
100g cream cheese
5 strawberries, finely chopped
1 tsp icing sugar
zest of ½ orange

Blend the cream cheese in a bowl until smooth, then add the remaining ingredients. Using a rolling pin, flatten out the bread slices.
Spread the filling right to the edges and carefully roll up until you have four ‘mini Swiss rolls’. Freeze for 30-40 minutes (they’ll slice more easily) and cut each roll into four pieces.

In case you’re wondering about the vegan cream cheese, here are the two varieties that are most commonly available in the UK.

They come in various flavours but my favourite is the plain type as it’s so versatile. Anything goes, from chocolate cheesecake to stirring into a savoury pasta sauce.

This recipe was originally published in my monthly column for
Vegetarian Living (July 2014)

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Rainbow Chard and Smoked Tofu Tart

Tags

buffet food, dairy-free, Food photography, rainbow chard, seasonal eating, smoked tofu, spinach tart, summer lunch, Vegan, vegan main course, vegan recipes, Vegetarian

Ever been told to eat your greens? Now you can eat your pinks, yellows and reds too with this stunning Rainbow Chard Tart.

A mouth-watering combination of crumbly shortcrust pastry and creamy chard, spinach and smoked tofu filling…

Our friends Sean and Tammy are the most knowledgeable, green-fingered gardeners! Tammy, who lives across the road from us, kindly offered me some of her rainbow chard plants earlier this year. I’d grown some of these before and so I was really pleased – chard grows very easily, looks gorgeous and makes a versatile alternative to spinach. Oh, and Tammy is also responsible for the success of this dish in another way. Halfway through cooking the filling, I realised that I’d run out of cornflour. Good neighbours are such a blessing! And this is what my little plants have turned into… I’m in awe of nature’s palette, aren’t these leaves stunning?

Rainbow Chard and Smoked Tofu Tart

While I was harvesting the chard I also grabbed a bundle of spinach leaves and some parsley from the garden for this recipe. The tofu I’m using here is my absolute favourite. It’s by a German company called Taifun and it’s so good that I could (and occasionally do!) eat it straight from the packet. It has added sesame seeds and almond pieces as well as a lovely, dense texture.

For the filling: 1 onion, finely chopped olive oil 2 cloves garlic, crushed 200g chard and spinach leaves, finely sliced (remove the tougher stalks) 100g smoked tofu 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley salt and pepper 1-2 tbsp lemon juice vegetable bouillon powder 150ml oat cream (or soya) 2 heaped tsp of cornflour, mixed to a smooth paste with a little water And also 1 pack of ready-rolled shortcrust pastry (or your finest home-made pastry) Line a tart tin with the pastry and set aside. Sauté the onion gently in olive oil until translucent. Add the crushed garlic, sliced greens, and smoked tofu. Cover your pan and let the greens wilt. Season with fresh parsley, salt and pepper, a little crumbled stock powder and lemon juice. Start with 1 tbsp of lemon juice and add a little more to taste – I like this quite tangy but go with your tastebuds. When the chard is soft, add the cream and cornflour. Stir until the sauce begins to thicken and adjust the seasoning to taste. Set aside to cool down while the oven preheats. Spoon the filling in the prepared pastry case. I had enough to fill a 20cm tart tin and a smaller heart shaped tin as well. Bake at 200˚C for about 25-30 minutes.

I’d love to submit this recipe to the Second Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck, Meatless on Monday and Fiesta Friday #24 this week. Have you ever grown chard before? I’m sure to need plenty of inspiration this year as it’s already growing abundantly. Who’s got any good recipe ideas?

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Yellow Thai Curry – sensationally seasonal!

Tags

Food photography, seasonal, Thai, Vegan, Vegan Wedding, Vegetable curry, Vegetarian

June is such a fabulous month for seasonal veggies!
Mangetout, peas, spring onions, watercress, rocket and broad beans are all coming into season in the UK… Choose your favourite ‘shades of green’ for this easy Thai curry.

Vegetarian Week has been and gone and I really hope you’ve enjoyed the daily recipe posts and have felt a little inspired too.

While thousands flocked to Vegfest in Bristol to celebrate all things vegan and vegetarian, we were making our way to Germany for two weddings. My cousin Margit got married first, followed one week later by my school friend Dani whom I’ve known for 26 years! Two gloriously sunny days for two great couples!

With my school friends Alice and Dani.

I will report a little bit more about the vegan food options at both weddings soon (yes, delicious vegan options at both weddings!).
One of the main courses was a flavourful Thai Curry. To reminisce about our German family adventure I’d like to share my own version of this recipe with you today. It’s great with any mix of veggies you have in your fridge and makes the perfect celebration meal… Fact!

Yellow Thai Curry

Serves 4

750g of lightly steamed seasonal veggies
3 sliced spring onions
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp mild curry powder
½ tsp turmeric
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 stick of lemongrass, sliced in half
a thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated
1 can (400ml) light coconut milk
2 tbsp line juice
½ tsp brown sugar

Choose a large sauté pan and gently fry the spring onions in a little oil. Add the curry powder, turmeric, crushed garlic, lemongrass and grated ginger. Stir continuously for 3-4 minutes until the spices are fragrant. Pour in the coconut milk along with the lime juice and brown sugar.
Season with salt, some crumbled vegetable stock cube (or bouillon powder) and chilli to taste. Now add your veggies and simmer over a gentle heat for another 5-10 minutes. You may need to add a little extra stock and adjust the seasoning.

For a family meal, you can start this off as a mild curry and serve with fresh chilli slices or cayenne pepper at the table.

This recipe was first published in Vegetarian Living Magazine (June 2014 issue). Best Publication in the Vegfest awards and a throughly enjoyable read… click here for more info. 
It’s such a tasty curry, I’m actually going to bring this to the VVLP to share.

When was the last time that you ate outstanding food that really ‘exceeded your expectations’? Maybe at a wedding or a work’s conference or even a quick bite on the go? I’d love to hear all about your unexpected finds.

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

It’s Mother’s Day… or is it?

Tags

Afternoon Tea, Biscuits, chocolate mousse, cookies, Food photography, Isle of Bute, Mother's Day, Spitzbuben, Tofu recipe, Tofu Scramble, VBites, Vegan, Vegetarian

This Sunday is Mother’s Day – In some parts of the world! I hope you’ll find plenty of opportunity to spoil your mum, your mother-in-law, any mum, really…  Just go for it! I hope these Recipe ideas will give you some foodie inspiration.

We all sometimes feel that our own country is the centre of the world. What seems a date set in stone in our annual calendar means absolutely nothing to millions of people around the world. Did you know that there are 10 months in the year where some country somewhere celebrates Mother’s Day? Here’s just a small selection of nations… all choosing different days and reasons to celebrate mothers and motherhood around the globe.

Source: good old Wikipedia 

I’m probably sharing this with you in an attempt to excuse and justify my very own Mother’s Day mix-up 😉
Seventeen years ago, during my first visit to the UK, the shops had their shelves filled with gifts and cards and were getting ready for Mother’s Day. Of course, I made sure to send my mum a card to Germany and she sounded delighted when I phoned that Sunday. Eventually she let it slip that it wasn’t Mother’s Day at all in Germany (had I forgotten that it was in May?) but that she really, really liked the surprise!

Just goes to show… it’s often the unexpected surprises that really touch our hearts. Breakfast in bed, a surprise invitation for coffee or even a trip to the movies…
Make your Mum’s day whether it’s this Sunday or any other. Mongolian Mother’s and Children’s Day anyone (June 1st)?

Vegan Tofu Scramble.

Serves 2 (or 4 if you make it as part of a Full English Breakfast)

Sauté two spring onion in a little vegetable oil and add 3 heaped tbsp of chopped, vegan ‘chorizo’ pieces (I used Isle of Bute’s Vegandeli Smoked Gourmet Chorizo, but VBites also do a nicely spicy variety).
Roughly mash a 400g block of tofu with a fork and add it to the pan, together with 4-5 quartered cherry tomatoes. Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper, paprika, garlic salt and a very small amount (just the tip of a knife) of turmeric to add some colour. Adjust the seasoning to taste and sprinkle generously with chopped chives. Great for a brunch with thick slices of granary bread.

Tip: Sliced mushrooms are a tasty alternative to the ‘chorizo’ pieces in this Tofu Scramble.

 

Afternoon Tea Surprise – Chocolate Mousse

This recipe would be perfect for an elegant afternoon tea.

 

Cheeky Chaps Biscuits (Spitzbuben)

Appropriately named? These cute cookies make a sweet and thoughtful gift.

Is it Mother’s Day where you are this Sunday? Who’s planning something fun?
I’d love to hear about your very own Mother’s Day ‘traditions’.