NEW Alpro Fromage Frais

Tags

Alpro, Vegan, Vegan Desserts, Vegan fromage frais, Vegan quark, Vegetarian

Great new dessert from Alpro – in Sainburys for just 50p!

Just a super quick post to tell you about these delicious little pots.

They come in three flavours, blackcurrant, mango and passion fruit. I spotted them in Sainsbury’s yesterday on offer for 50p.
The texture is gorgeous! Really thick and creamy, like strained yoghurt. So far I’ve tried passion fruit and it’s a lovely combination of flavours and textures.
Each pot contains around 120 calories and 11g sugar. Compared to their other fruit yoghurts that’s less sugar but 11g is still just under 3 teaspoons! Personally I would save them for an occasional treat… but how cool to wander into a shop and pick up an indulgent vegan dessert!

Have you spotted these already in other shops? If you’ve tried them already I’d love to know what you think.

Lots of love,
Chava

Top ten tips for perfect VEGAN meringue

Tags

Aquafaba recipe, best vegan dessert, Chava Eichner, dairy-free, Vegan, vegan dessert, Vegan Food photography, Vegan Lemon meringue pie, Vegan Meringue

There’s nothing like a good challenge to ‘veganise’ a classic dessert. If you love meringue and don’t eat eggs you’re exactly in the right place.

Most of you will know that I put together the recipe pages for Viva!Life magazine. There’ll be an exposé of the egg industry in the spring issue. Surely it’s fitting to include really ‘eggy’ and very egg-citing vegan recipes… Yes, there will be an amazing cheese and onion quiche, omelette and the holy grail of vegan desserts: Lemon meringue pie. Phew, sounds easy when you write it down like that 😉 Well, we had talked through the ideas, my mission was set and I was prepared to accept it!

  

As soon as Tony (Wardle from Viva!) mentioned Lemon Meringue I knew my feature was going to be all about Aquafaba! Essentially, Aquafaba (or liquid gold as I like to call it) is the liquid you drain from a can of chickpeas. It’s the strange stuff we’ve always poured down the sink in the past because… well, why wouldn’t you?! Somewhere, someone very experimental came up with a completely random idea though: ‘Hey dude, why not whip up that stuff? Never tried that one before!’ And the rest, as they say, is history! The process has already changed vegan cooking, baking and dessert making…
Today’s post is all about my hits and misses with using Aquafaba on my path to meringue success! Hopefully it can be your guide and will give you all the info you need to get started.

For vegan meringue you will need:
100ml aquafaba (unsalted chickpea water)
1 tbsp lemon juice
100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

A good food processor or electric whisk

Put the chickpea liquid in your mixing bowl and whisk, whisk and whisk some more.
Some brands whip up faster than others but basically you just keep going until you end up with fluffy white clouds (like the picture below). It really is quite magical!

My steps looked like this:

after five minutes

after 10 minutes

after 15 minutes – add the lemon juice

after 20 minutes

after 23 minutes – time to add the sugar. Slowly, one teaspoon at a time.

And voila, a big bowl of fluff.

Transfer the meringue mixture into a piping bag and get piping.

Line a baking tray with non-stick paper and pipe small circles. Bake at 100˚C (200˚F) for two hours! I know it seems like forever but basically it dehydrates the meringue slowly. You’ll be left with amazing crispy, pavolova-type meringues that melt on your tongue.

My Top Ten Meringue Tips (for perfect Lemon Meringue Pie):
1. Don’t stop whisking the Aquafaba too early. When you’re finished you should be able to turn your mixing bowl upside down and nothing will slide out. Patience really is one of the key ingredients in this recipe.

2. There are different ways to help ‘stabilise’ your meringue. I’ve tried cream of tartar. Apart from the fact that you probably have to buy it especially, I also found that it adds a slightly tangy flavour to the meringue. Lemon juice seems to do the trick for me.

3. The sugar is really needed! (I think we can all agree that meringue is not health food.) There are websites that explore the chemical explanations and how the sugar and proteins build the structure in meringue.

4. Moisture and humidity are your enemy when you’re making meringue! I left a batch of meringues on the kitchen worktop while I was cooking pasta. They started to absorb moisture from the air and got sticky and chewy.

5. Heaped mountains of meringue in a large diameter don’t seem to work as well. Anything over 10cm in diameter and I’d rather not risk it. The middle can get soggy and collapses…  a real disappointment after 1.5 hours in the oven.

6. After a couple of hours in the oven, switch it off, open the door and let the meringues cool down fully. Place them in an airtight container until you want to use them.

7. The meringues are ready when they come off the baking paper easily. If you try to take one off and it still feels gooey they need more time in the oven.

8. For my Lemon Meringue Pie recipe, I prepared the meringue topping separately by piping small dollops in a large circle shape. (The bottom of the tart tin makes the perfect size guide.) Once baked I placed the meringue on top of the chilled pie just before serving. That way, if your first meringue attempt doesn’t turn out perfectly, you’ll still end up with a delicious Tarte Citron. Also, make sure that any tart filling is completely chilled first. If it’s still a tiny bit warm the ‘steam’ will melt away the lovely, crispy topping. (Yep, I’ve tried that!)

9. Individual tarts with smaller diameter work really well too. Maybe I’m just biased. I love mini desserts and anything that’s an individual serving. They’re just so photogenic! Because you need to eat a meringue-topped dessert on the same day, individual servings are useful too.

10. And finally, there are two different types of meringue toppings. The crispy, melt-in-your-mouth variety and also the fluffy topping that’s not dehydrated but instead soft and creamy. Take your pre-prepared lemon pies. Scoop some of the meringue straight from your mixing bowl and top the pies. Place them under a hot grill and watch like a hawk! You definitely don’t want the tops to burn so don’t answer the phone, don’t try to take a photo, don’t even turn your head for a second…  😉 When the tops are a lovely golden brown quickly grab the pies and let them chill in the fridge for half an hour. Don’t be tempted to dig straight in as the freshly caramelised top will stick to your fork. If you wait until they’re chilled it will be so much better, promise!

These days, you will find whole Facebook groups and websites dedicated to the joys of Aquafaba… A special thank you to Justine Butler from Viva! who got me started. She has done lots of experimenting and written about it on her blog too.

Enjoy experimenting and good luck!
Lots of love,
Chava x

 

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!
 


********

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

Ethical companies come up trumps!

Tags

Equinox Kombucha, Ethicoco, food photographer, Great Taste Award 2014, Kombucha, Vegan, vegan chocolate, Veganuary, Vegfest London, Wise Owl Tea

Happy Veganuary everybody! A new year starting full of promise and hope as 10 000 people have pledged to go vegan for January.

Last September I met Matthew, Jane and Clea (aka Team Veganuary) at Vegfest London…. sparkling with enthusiasm and full of drive to make Veganuary the best thing since vegan chocolate fudge cake!

The website (www.veganuary.com) they’ve created is outstanding and I was singing its praises to my friend Zoe on our way to a night-out dancing.
I was over the moon when she told me that she had actually signed up to a month of trying vegan and was busily planning meals and snacks. It’s so much fun sharing my tips and telling her about my favourite vegan treats. And as I’ve had some fabulous products sent to me to review recently I couldn’t wait to share the love…

At Vegfest London I had also bumped into two great guys from Equinox Kombucha and they got in touch and kindly sent me four of their drinks to review.
Kombucha (a fermented green tea drink) is a well-known source of probiotics with lots of vitamins and detoxing properties. When you read a bit more about the Equinox story you’ll get a real sense of their passion, commitment and kindness. Equinox Kombucha choose ethically sourced ingredients, Fair Trade wherever possible, and alway certified organic.

I will admit that I was already a little biased as I love the gorgeous bottle design. Also these drinks don’t scream ‘artificial colours’ with their pretty pastel shades.

 
 

If you’ve never tried Kombucha before you’ll notice the tangy flavour, a little bit like a slightly tart cider. The Original flavour immediately made me forget my teenage memories of my mum’s attempts to brew her own Kombucha (brrrr!). In fact, I really liked all four varieties.
Ginger is refreshingly fizzy without the full-blown spicy heat that some people don’t like in ginger. Raspberry and Elderflower and Wild Berry add delightful fruit flavours. I’m particularly keen on these two. I love the way the Wild Berry looks like a sparkling rosé wine in a champagne flute. This would make a sophisticated and indulgent alternative to alcohol.
I’ve never been keen to let my boys have sweet fizzy drinks – they’ve tried them on a couple of occasions and luckily didn’t go crazy for them. Sam and Alex were really curious to try Kombucha and I’m going to hand over the mic to my seven year old who gave me his eloquent review:
“I like it more than lemonade because lemonade has hardly a taste and is just sugary. This has more flavour and (is) less sugary. I love it!” Good point, well made 🙂

Equinox Kombucha picking up their Best Vegan Drinks award at Vegfest in September.
Pretty cool, huh?

 

While I’m on the topic of tea please let me point you to the Wise Owl Tea company. Steve Ellis got in touch and kindly sent me some samples. He and Lucy combines their deep passion for travel and love of fragrant herbal tea infusions perfectly. Ingredients are organic and the delightful little tea bags are hand made. Last year the two ‘Wise Owls’ have seen their efforts rewarded in the Great Taste awards with three gold star winners!

I was very excited to try the Corsican Olive Leaf Tea. Blended with apple and pineapple it looked very elegant in the little pyramid shaped silky bags. It’s become my favourite of the Wise Owl teas.
Tahitian Night is a full blend of flavours with Liquorice Root, Chamomile flower, Lavender flower, Lime flower and Valerian Root. The liquorice adds sweetness, while chamomile, lavender and valerian root make this a great drink to aid deep, refreshing sleep.

The packaging is so beautiful that I couldn’t bring myself to recycle these pretty containers. They make lovely storage jars for all sorts of bits and pieces.

 

And finally, I was lucky enough to sample some exciting vegan chocolate from Ethicoco. (I know it’s a tough job…)
Ethicoco is a new vegan chocolate business that is handcrafting a variety of bean-to-bar chocolates.

I got to try the Ecuadorian With Oat Milk and a 72% Peruvian Dark. Here’s another company that really celebrates ethical values and care of our planet. All the ingredients are organic, with beans certified by the Rain Forest Alliance, FairTrade, or sourced via direct trade.
Given the choice, I would usually go for a vegan ‘milk chocolate’ first so when I tried this one I really enjoyed it. But it was the 72% dark variety that surprised me the most. There was none of the ‘bitterness’ that I was expecting and the longer the chocolate melted in my mouth the more the flavours developed. Absolutely gorgeous and a huge success with all the family. I’m really looking forward to trying the other two flavours soon.

Have you discovered some exciting new products during Veganuary? And have you got any Top Tips for staying plant-based this month? It’s always great to hear from you…

Lots of love,
Chava

 

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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

Quick and easy family dinners: Lentil’s king!

Tags

Easy midweek recipes, Easy Pasta sauces, Healthy family meals, Lentil Bolognese, Meat-free Monday, Vegan, vegan main course, Vegetarian, Vegetarian Living magazine, Vegetarian main course

How often do you find yourself getting stuck in a midweek dinner rut? After a long day at work and school dinner has got to be tasty, quick and easy!

Now that the weather is turning autumnal and blustery it’s no wonder that I’m craving comfort food! Today I’d like to share one of our family favourites with you. It’s the kind of recipe that’s so easy to throw together but makes you glow contentedly… it’s healthy, nutritious and still leaves you time to help with homework or finding those missing PE shorts!

Lentil Bolognese

1 onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, in small cubes
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 courgette, grated or in small cubes
100g red lentils
400ml water
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp fresh marjoram leaves
a sprig or fresh rosemary
1 tsp milk paprika powder
1/2 vegetable stock cube
salt and freshly ground black pepper
a little marmite or soy sauce

Start off by sautéing the onion and pepper pieces in olive oil until softened. After 5 minutes add the crushed garlic, courgette, lentils, water and chopped tomatoes. Stir well and season with the fresh herbs, paprika and stock cube.
Simmer for 20-25 minutes until the lentils are soft and are starting to fall apart.
Season to taste with salt, black pepper and a little marmite or dark soy sauce for an extra rich flavour.

If you’re feeding a fussy eater you can blend the sauce until smooth before serving it with their favourite pasta shapes. I would recommend peeling the courgette first to avoid the tell-tale green specks in the bolognese!
I’m bringing this scrumptious dinner to the weeks Fiesta Friday. It’s Angie’s birthday and I hope these lovely bright colours will cheer up her day 🙂

Vegetarian Living September 2014

This recipe first appeared in my Vegetarian Living column and I got the sweetest letter in the next month’s issue.

I would like more bias towards easy, interesting everyday meals. The best one in the September issue was the idea of Bolognese sauce – not even set out as a recipe – in Chava Eichner’s column. We happily lived on it, combined with various things, for several days. Wonderful. 

Must admit that I actually blushed when I spotted this… it really means a lot to me! Anyone who writes recipes can tell you that it’s the greatest joy when somebody cooks one of your dishes and loves it. Thank you so much June, you made my day 🙂

And here’s just a little reminder…

Don’t forget to enter the Halloween competition for all these wonderful Moo Free chocolates. Closing date is midnight on Sunday 26th October.

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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

 

Vegan Halloween treats… no tricks here!

Tags

Best party bag sweets, Best Trick or Treat sweets, dairy free halloween treats, dairy-free chocolates, dairy-free sweets, halloween, Healthy lunchbox treats, Healthy treats for kids, Vegan, Vegan Halloween Sweets, vegan kids, Vegan Party Bag Sweets, Vegan Sweets, Vegetarian jelly sweets

If you’ve got a vegan Halloween trickster in your house or if you are looking for party bag inspiration, this round-up of the best cruelty-free treats is an absolute must-read!

I promised my lovely Vegetarian Living Magazine readers to search the stores up and down the country to bring you the best selection of vegan goodies – just in time to get organised for spooky Halloween fun!

Those of you who know me through the column or from following my blog, are aware that for me occasional treats can certainly be part of a balanced vegan childhood.  For this post, I’ve chosen a wide selection of different sweets and treats for every taste. I hope you’ll find something that tickles your tastebuds and will bring a smile to your mini vegan. I’ll be sure to prepare our neighbours with some gruesome goodies before Sam and Alex go for their very first Trick or Treat mission.

 

Jelly Sweets and Tuck Shop treats

I’m a big fan of these cute mini sized treats. Goody Good Stuff have been creating gelatine-free sweets for the last 15 years. We always keep a few bags of these at my boys’ school so they don’t need to miss out when their little friends bring non-veggie birthday sweets to share.

For more heart-warming and star-winning jelly sweets, check out the Fruit Factory’s range that include fruit flavoured stars and strawberry hearts, amongst many others. Fun website for kids too!

Small Love Heart rolls are very cute and a great size for a Halloween treat.
If you want to buy these online, here’s a link.
Another useful size for mini treats are Pez refills.

Starburst chews are vegan in the UK and available in pretty much any supermarket, petrol station and corner shop. I’m not 100% certain about the US variety as they may be made to a different recipe.

Lollypops and boiled sweets are always a useful Trick or Treat staple. Good value and I’ve yet to hear of a child who doesn’t like lollies. The mini Chupa Chups are great for party bags too and they often bring out a larger ‘Halloween bag’ when it gets nearer to October.

 
Raspberry and Strawberry Millions are another unexpected vegan find. They are officially approved by the Vegetarian Society but I had to double check that these pretty bubble sweets don’t contain animal products. They come in different pack sizes, including a mini 25g tube. Another success for mini vegans.

 

The Healthy Treats

No urban myth, there really are some tasty snacks for kids that are packed with goodness and some even provide kids with one of their 5-a-day.
Packaging can make all the difference!

Humzinger Fruit Sticks. 100% fruit and individually wrapped in colourful foil wrappers. I feel slightly mean to admit this now, but we cheekily told our son that these were ‘cake’ for quite a while. Only works with the first child, I’m afraid.

Gingerbread is always a firm favourite with kids and these teeny weeny men are organic, baked with wholemeal flour and sweetened with organic grape juice.
Better hide them from the parents… they’re very moreish.

While mini raisin boxes may not sway an older gremlin or witch at Halloween, many younger kids still love these. Makes a nice change with the added apricot or apple pieces.

Grrrrrrrrr, let’s hear it for the bear! The Bear fruit nibbles are another pure fruit snack that is beautifully packaged. Their Fruit Yo-yos come with fact cards to collect too. My 5 year old thinks they are really cool!

Amended 25.09.14:
Look what arrived in the post today… perfect timing for the Halloween post. The Yu! fruit chews are a great fit for this healthy treat section.

These little sweets are made from 100% fruit and the 24g bags are a really nice snack size. For some reason they have a zip-lock to reseal the pack. I wonder if anyone has that kind of self-restraint because I certainly couldn’t have stopped after just a couple! Strawberry, mango, blueberry and cherry… yes please!

 

Chocolate Treats

Moo Free. This deliciously creamy chocolate comes in individual bars in four funky flavours: Cheeky Orange, Minty Moo, Original Organic and Bunnycomb Bar. Moo Free also offer some scrumptious organic chocolate drops in 35g bags. Click here for stockists.

For a chocolate treat with a mouth-watering caramel centre you should look no further than these fantastic gold-wrapped treasures. Made by Celtic Chocolates (who are based in Ireland with the fairy-tale address of ‘Summerhill’!) these are available in Sainsburys, health food shops and also online.
As far as we know, they are actually made by Father Christmas’ elves as they appear in Sam and Alex’s stockings every year!

More dairy-free chocolate buttons than you could shake a witch’s finger at!
Humdingers dairy-free chocs and particularly the white buttons are a firm favourite in our house too. They look super cute on miniature chocolate muffins!

 

At this point I could happily stop and feel that I’ve found some great inspiration for all the veggie and vegan parents out there but I’m having sooooo much fun 🙂
So…. here’s even more:

Oreos in the UK are vegan – did you know!?! I like these individual packs for party bags or occasional lunchbox surprises. They’d make a great treat for a trainee wizard or zombie too.

Remember tic tac and Vimto bars and Raspberry Ruffles?

 

Now, at the very end of today’s post I need to add a little disclaimer:
Where refined sugar and occasional E-numbers are involved there’s no fooling ourselves… Obviously, sweets are not health-food! Only because they’re vegan does not mean that they are good for you.
Please double-check the ingredients, just in case a recipe has changed recently. And if you find something really fabulous that I have missed, then please do write a comment to let us all know straight away 🙂

I hope you’ve had as much fun looking as I had when putting this list together. I’d love to know what’s your #1 favourite vegan sweet 🙂

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Keep in touch via Twitter or Facebook
More scrumptious food photography here: www.flavourphotos.com

 

Have your nut roast and eat it too…

Tags

BBQ glaze, nutloaf, nutroast, Vegan, vegan family meals, vegan main courses, vegan sunday lunch, Vegetarian

Every home needs a good nut roast recipe and here is my absolute favourite. The cute ‘cupcake’ shape and delicious rich flavours make this recipe irresistible.

I know nut roast is such a vegan cliché but once you’ve tried a really good one you can understand why! Over the years, I’ve experimented a lot with different nut roast combinations to get the perfect mix… this version is deliciously moist and full of flavour. Kids just love the savoury cupcake shapes and the whacky ‘BBQ icing’… I first came across the glaze idea on Angela Liddon’s website. It makes a nice change but the roast is really, really good with a rich red wine and onion gravy as well.

The Ultimate Nut roast

Slices beautifully when cold for a picnic and any leftovers make a delicious sandwich filling. 1 onion, finely chopped vegetable oil 2 cloves of garlic, crushed 1/2 vegetable stock cube 1 tsp each of dried rosemary, marjoram and mixed herbs 1 400g tin chopped tomatoes 75g rolled oats 50g fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs 200g mixed ground nuts (e.g. walnuts, brazilnuts and hazelnuts) Glaze (optional) 3 tbsp tomato ketchup 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 1 tsp agave nectar 2 tbsp pureed stewed apple Slowly sauté the chopped onion in vegetable oil until translucent. Add the crushed garlic, stock cube, 1 tsp each of dried rosemary, marjoram and mixed herbs. Pour in a tin of chopped tomatoes and stir well. Now, add the oats, breadcrumbs and mixed ground nuts. Season to taste and spoon the roast mixture into a lined loaf tin or into small non-stick cupcake cases (about 15). To make the topping, combine the ketchup, balsamic vinegar, agave nectar and pureed stewed apple. Organic apple fruit pots for kids (e.g. Hipp or Organix) are a great cupboard staple for this recipes. Spoon the mixture over the nutroast and bake at 180˚C for 40-45 minutes (25 minutes for mini roasts). Tip: I’ve noticed that nut roast slices particularly well once it has cooled down. If I really care about the appearance of my sliced roast I will bake it the day before and then just warm it up in the oven before serving. Can’t wait to share this recipe at Fiesta Friday and the VVLP. This recipe was first published in Vegetarian Living Magazine (August 2014)

Of Poetry and Potatoes…

Tags

Brunch, dairy-free, English traditions, Gingerbread, Performance Poetry, Poetry, Twoem, Vegan, Vegan Full English Breakfast, Vegetarian, Vegetarian Breakfast, Village Fete

The forecast for this Bank Holiday Monday has been looking pretty awful for days and unfortunately they got it just right… But we certainly wouldn’t let a bit of rain spoil our fun!

Some of you may know that my partner is a writer and performance poet. He’s been working around the world for 25 years and has entertained in the most unusual, beautiful and unexpected places. His audiences include anyone from the Queen to Friends of the Earth and the Olympic Sailing Team… Feel free to check out his website www.judgethepoet.com. He’s really rather amazing and I’m not just saying it because I’m biased 😉

He did make me laugh today with this Twoem (Twitter poem) as we were getting ready to visit our local village fete:

Who needs Spain when you can shelter in a large marquee, admiring the longest runner bean, most perfect potatoes, best super hero made from scrap material and find out who’s made the best gooseberry jam? This will be our 12th Village Show since we’ve moved here and I still admire the quaintness of it all.
Getting the entries ready on Show morning is really quite an operation. I’d like to claim that it’s all calm and in control here…. but I’d be lying. One year I was holding my home-made scones out of the car window to cool them down enough! We made it just in time this morning and displayed the super heroes, Sam and Alex’s first photo entries, collage sunsets, gingerbread men and flower arrangements.

After all this excitement (and once David made it back from judging the poetry entries) we really needed something warming to set us up for an afternoon of wet outdoor fun.
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Despite the pretty relentless rain at the show we came back triumphantly: 5 prizes for Sam, 6 for Alex and even one for myself. Proud mummy moment!
Well done, Sam!

Fresh culinary herbs, 5 named varieties.

Gingerbread… I think the kids did really well with these.

After much deliberation and changing his mind, Alex went with simplicity for his flower arrangement. I’m looking forward to sharing all this quaintness, flower arranging and baking at Fiesta Friday.

And after braving the wet weather, we ended up winning an amazing raffle prize too. Of all the things we could have won…. this stunning hamper from a local farm shop was just made for us!

How did you spend your Bank Holiday? Did you curl up inside with a steaming mug of tea or did you manage to get out and have some fun?

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Don’t forget to enter my Vegfest ticket competition by Sunday, August 31st. Good luck!