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

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

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

 

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!

 

 

 

 

Win a pair of Vegfest London tickets…

Tags

Giveaway, Ticket competition, Vegan, Vegetarian, Vegfest London

Next month is Vegfest month 🙂 Here’s your chance to WIN a pair of tickets to Vegfest London on Sunday 28 September?

I’m really excited about this post as I’ve got two lovely tickets sitting here on my desk, waiting to be sent out to a lucky reader.

As you may well know I LOVE the Vegfest events, in a ‘slightly overexcited, jumping-up-and-down’ sort of way – they’re a fixed date in my diary!
And this year is extra special for me as my blog has been nominated in the Vegfest awards, yeah!! For the first time, I’ll also be there in a professional capacity – camera in hand as official photographer – to capture the atmosphere, delicious food, exhibitors and speakers on both days. Come and say Hi if you see me there, it would be wonderful to meet many of you in person!

If you haven’t cast your vote in the Vegfest Awards yet, I would be over the moon if you’d vote for my Flavourphotos blog in the Best Blogger category. Have a little browse around if you’re new to the site – I really hope you’ll like my weekly recipes posts and stick around for a while 🙂 
I wonder if any of my VVLP friends fancy entering?

Is it a bit cheeky asking for your vote right now, after mentioning a ticket competition? 😉 Trust me, the two are not at all connected!

Here’s the important bit: To be in with a chance of winning these two tickets (worth £22 in total) tell me a fun fact about yourself. Could be food related, could be a special talent you may have, anything at all. I’ll pick a name at random on August 31st. Good luck!!!

Peach and Strawberry Ice Lollies

Tags

dairy-free, Fiesta Friday, ice lollies, Ice lolly moulds, peach and strawberries, Summer recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian, Vegetarian Living

Nights are drawing in… Who said that?!? I’m determined to squeeze out every single sunny hour of this year and nothing screams out summer more loudly then ice lollies!

Earlier in the year I was experimenting with lots of different flavours of ice lollies for my Vegetarian Living column. They always look so pretty and colourful as well. I’ve had a lot of fun making (and eating!) them with my two boys this year and I’m certainly not ready to pack those lolly moulds away just yet!

 

Peach and Strawberry Ice Lollies

Here’s one of my favourites: These two-tone lollies are such a great way to cool down and the combination of peach, strawberry and creamy vanilla yoghurt is just a match made in heaven.
Makes 4

Could you resist these super-cute snowmen faces? Luckily my sister couldn’t and bought them for her nephews.

You’ll need:
125g tinned peach (drained)
100g strawberries
zest of ½ orange
75g dairy-free vanilla yoghurt (e.g Alpro)
icing sugar

Use a handblender to whizz the peach pieces until smooth. Divide between four lolly moulds. Now blend the strawberries with the orange zest and yoghurt. Sweeten to taste with a little icing sugar and pour into the moulds. Pop these into the freezer until they’re solid. Enjoy! Get those sunglasses and big hats out while you can 🙂
Can’t wait to share these at Fiesta Friday and the VVLP this week.

Do you remember these fabulous Zebra lollies? Recipe here:
https://flavourphotos.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/umbrellas-on-a-sunny-day/

The joy of being a food photographer! I’ve currently got 4 (or is it 5??) different lolly moulds. Thank goodness for my walk-in prop cupboard where I can hide all my crockery and fabrics 🙂

Have you ever tried making your own lollies? What’s your favourite flavour?

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The Best Vegan Dessert Ever!

Tags

baking with kids, best vegan dessert, Chocolate Fudge Cake, dairy-free, Demuths, desserts, Rock Cakes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Have you noticed how restaurants are now so much more skilled and willing to cook tasty vegan fayre? but when it comes to dessert there’s still a lot of fruit salad around…

Don’t get me wrong, I really like fruit salad but when I go out for a meal I want to be wowed by my dessert. A couple of weeks ago I was taking part in the #veganrecipehour on Twitter and we were chatting about the best vegan dessert we’d ever had in a restaurant. This is IT for me – Demuths’ Chocolate Fudge Cake!
Well, at least my re-creation of it!

This cake is deeeeeelicious. My gratitude goes to the wonderful Rachel Demuth who picked up on our conversation and generously shared the link to the recipe here. You can either serve this Chocolate Fudge Cake cold as an iced cake or hot, in a pool of warm, lip-smackingly good chocolate sauce.
When we went to Demuths Restaurant in Bath for the first time I would have been vegan for a year or two. The memory of being served something so outstandingly delectable has stayed with me to this day.
In fact, when we visited one year with a very tiny baby Sam he wouldn’t settle at all during our meal and we had to miss out on dessert. I assure you that we went back the very next morning to have our cake then… definitely worth it!

When I tried out the recipe, we certainly had our cake and ate it too… I got a bit distracted when making the first cake and accidentally forgot to add oil. With all that swirly icing it was still quite successful. But here is the real thing:

Simply delicious with a scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream… and good enough to share at Fiesta Friday and VVLP.

 

It’s not been ALL about food in our house this summer, but somehow ‘foodie things’ have even managed to sneak into our artwork.

Sam’s sunset with lentils, turmeric and paprika

And here is Alex’s version… Isn’t it great how they have created entirely different pictures with the same ‘ingredients’? A lot like cooking really 🙂

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Finally, as we’re getting ready for a few days of camping by the Welsh seaside (a proper break from work, blogging and social media!)…
These ‘Rock Cakes’ are great to bake with young children. They may not make it in my food photography portfolio because of their good looks! But with a little added cinnamon and ground cardamom they are the perfect treat for a beach holiday.

So pleased that I still kept some of the candied lemon peel and kumquat peel (!) my mum had made and sent over to me from Germany. I’ve been saving this for a special occasion as the flavours are really wonderful.

What’s been the best dessert (vegan or not) you’ve ever eaten in a restaurant? Go on, make me envious 😉 I look forward to catching up again after my break.
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Website www.flavourphotos.com