Garden Vegetable Almond Cream Cheese

Yay! It worked!! *sigh* I've been wanting to make a vegan garden vegetable cream cheese for so long now, styled after Philadelphia's. Since the Baked Almond Feta recipe works so well I decided to base it on that but tried to remove the 'feta' elements from the cheese, mainly the extra salt and the garlic and then I added quite a bit of nutritional yeast to give it a more "regular" cheese flavour. I then drained and baked it off as normal then blitzed it with some veggies. For those I went with what was listed in the ingredients for Philadelphia's Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese - mainly green and red peppers, cucumber, celery and carrot.

Now, I loved the flavour but I was left with more of a dip or spread more akin to houmous in texture. Not really a problem but it was a bit too runny for my liking. I put it in the fridge thinking well, we'll use it as a dip instead when in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep as usual I thought, hmmm, what if I drained it off AGAIN in cheesecloth?

So the next day I did that and left it overnight. In the morning I was saddened to see very little liquid had drained off but the cheesecloth itself was heavy with liquid, it had simply absorbed it from all around and when I removed it I had a ball of "cheese"! 

This is still soft of course as it is supposed to be like cream cheese and it is just the texture I was originally after - soft and spreadable. I was also happy that doing a second draining did not affect the flavour in any way, it just helped the texture.

This does add another day to the process of course but you can just stop after blending and use it as a dip. Both versions are just packed with flavour - this stuff is so fresh tasting, you can taste all the gorgeous veggies in there and makes for an awesome sandwich spread - especially with flavours that are not in there - avocado, tomato and lettuce :-)

As usual, my Froothie 9400 high performance blender did an amazing job here, from the first stage of making the cream cheese to adding the veggies. I wanted it smooth so blended them fully in but with the froothie you can just pulse the veggies to have a chunkier texture - it's wonderfully versatile that way!

Garden Vegetable Almond Cream Cheese:

1 x recipe almond cream cheese, baked and cooled (recipe below)

1 shallot, peeled and chopped
1 whole small carrot, peeled and sliced
½ stalk celery, sliced
4" cucumber, de-seed but leave skin on
¼ whole red bell pepper, chopped
¼ whole green bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic

½ Tbsp chopped chives

Almond Cream Cheese:
150g ground almonds
¼ cup lemon juice
½ cup water
½ cup nutritional yeast
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt

First make the cream cheese: Place everything in a blender and blend until really smooth. Transfer to cheesecloth, tie up and place in a sieve over a bowl; refrigerate overnight to drain and set. Transfer to a greased dish and bake at 180C for 30 min. Let cool.

Note: there are step by step photos of this process in the Baked Almond Feta post.

Place all the veg except the chives into a blender and pulse blend until finely chopped. Crumble in all of the almond cream cheese and pulse blend some more until well blended and pink-ish/orangey in colour. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the finely chopped chives. 

You can chill it now and have....

Great for use as a dip, especially with an assortment of veggie crudites and breadsticks....

.....or, transfer the mixture again to 3 layers of cheesecloth, tie up and place in a sieve over a bowl and place in the fridge overnight. Remove the cheesecloth and place the ball of cheese smooth side up on a plate for a spreadable Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese :-)

It's also great at breakfast simply spread on a toasted wholemeal bagel alongside a cup of coffee.

Enjoy!

♥

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliated links with Froothie UK.

Nutritional Information: per 100g

Calories: 358

Protein: 11.5g

Fat: 29.4g

Sat Fat: 3g

Fibre: 6.2g

Carbs: 14.5g

Sugars: 3.1g

Sodium: 602mg

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Crispy Corn Fritters with a Sweet Chilli Apple Glaze

I just might have a new favourite snack! These are absolutely incredible, really light and crispy corn fritters with an almost tempura style batter and a gorgeous sweet chilli apple glaze. It's a match made in heaven! Both the fritters and the glaze have taken many attempts to get just right but I have it now and am so happy. These will be featuring in my life many times I predict :-)

I was actually inspired by an episode of You Got to Eat Here, I can't remember the name of the restaurant but they had these corn dogs with a chilli apple glaze that just looked incredible. I knew I had to make something similar and opted for corn fritters instead and started experimenting with the glaze.

The glaze (or dip - you can use it either way) is amazing, essential with these fritters and something I can see going with many other things like spring rolls, wontons or anything else you might use say a Thai Sweet Chilli sauce with but honestly, this is better. 

It's also SO easy to make, just organic natural apple juice, apple cider vinegar, light brown sugar, shallots, garlic and red chilli. Give it a blitz in a blender then simmer in a saucepan until thick and lightly syrupy then chill to thicken a little more. Simple.

Due to the sauce having so much flavour I've opted for really simple corn fritters here. They are SO light as the addition of sparkling water gives them a tempura type texture and they have a perfect fluffy texture inside. They also reheat in the oven brilliantly (if you manage to find yourself with leftovers!) Just 5-10 min at 200C and they are as good as new :-)

Light and Crispy Corn Fritters:

Yields about 17 fritters

100g plain flour (2/3 cups)

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp caster sugar

½ tsp salt

1 Tbsp melted vegan butter

90ml sparkling water – 6 Tbsp

90g plain or unsweetened soy yogurt - 6 Tbsp

1 x 165g tin of sweetcorn, drained (1 cup drained) 

Vegetable oil, for frying

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Whisk together the soy yogurt, melted butter and sparkling water.  Mix to create a batter, then fold in the corn. Let it sit while the oil heats. 

Pour enough vegetable oil in a high sided saucepan to about 4-6", depending on the size of your pot. Make sure it's not too full. Heat oil to 190C/375F. 

Drop by heaped teaspoons into the oil and fry until golden and puffy, turning them over once. As the batter is fairly runny it's best to scoop up with 1 teaspoon and quickly push it off with another teaspoon. The quicker you do this the more rounded shaped fritters you will get. Remove with a heat safe slotted spoon and drain in a paper towel lined bowl. This type of batter absorbs quite a bit of oil so I recommend changing the paper once more and flipping the fritters to ensure all excess oil drains off. They can sit for quite a bit before they get cold so do let them drain well.

Sweet Chilli Apple Glaze:

½ cup cloudy organic apple juice 

¼ cup light brown sugar (45g)

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

1 small shallot

½ red chilli, de-seeded and membranes removed

1 clove garlic

Note: when I first made this and tested it I found it too hot and was going to make it again with just 1/4 of a chilli. But when it is used as a dip or glaze it's perfect. So don't be alarmed if you find it a bit hot at first too :-) Of course if you really like super spicy food you might like to add even more! Thankfully this dip/glaze is so easy to whip up you can experiment with the heat levels.

Place everything in blender and blend until really smooth and pink in colour. I used my awesome Froothie 9400 which took no time at all :-) Transfer to a saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil, stirring frequently until reduced, glossy and thick yet still a bit runny, about 10 minutes. Keep in mind it will thicken up some more in the fridge. Transfer to a bowl and let cool then refrigerate until fully cool. I like to bring it to room temperature before serving.

Serve the crispy warm fritters with the glaze. You can either dip them as you go where the fritters retain their crispiness. Or you can pre-glaze the fritters - they lose their crispiness a bit this way but it's also really good having the fritters saturated with that glaze! I recommend trying both ways :-) Oh, and yes - a nice crisp lager or blonde ale essential here. Enjoy!

♥

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliated links with Froothie UK.

Nutritional Information

Corn Fritters: per fritter after frying (out of 17 fritters)

Calories: 92

Protein: 1.1g

Fat: 6.8g

Sat Fat: 0.6g

Fibre: 0.4g

Carbs: 7g

Sugar: 1g

Sodium: 117mg

Sweet Chilli Apple Glaze: whole recipe

Calories: 237

Protein: 0.5g

Fat: 0.1g

Sat Fat: 0

Fibre: 0.2g

Carbs: 60.1g

Sugar: 43.9g

Sodium: 24.7mg

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A Trio of Almond Cheese: Chive, Sun-Dried Tomato & Basil, Chili & Rosemary

Well, finally - a new blog post! I've just been so busy lately and these have been sitting on the rather large "to be blogged" pile for quite awhile now :-) These are all variations on the Almond Chive Cheese which is actually already on the blog from way back in 2009. It's one of our favourite homemade cheeses but I decided to make a few changes this time around. Mostly I usually find myself without any sweet white miso paste whenever I want to make this so I've omitted that here, swapped the rice milk to either unsweetened soy or almond (both work well) and then tried a couple more flavours.

First I tried a Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil version and we both absolutely loved it!! Wonderful flavour and such a nice variation. I was just going to blog the two flavours but figured everything should come in threes right?? So I thought a spicy version would be nice and opted for one of my favourite flavour combinations, chili and rosemary (similar to my socca recipe). Really love this one as well, good heat coming through with the chili but not too overpowering and I love the rosemary there, this one will become a regular as well. The great thing about these cheeses as well? They are SO easy to make and set and chill within an hour, no waiting days or even overnight for these!

All of these cheeses are based on ground almonds, nutritional yeast, olive oil, unsweetened soy or almond milk, flavourings and set with agar flakes. Using agar can be a little hit or miss but the great thing with these is it doesn't matter if they have trouble setting, you simply end up with a spreadable cheese instead :-) Mine end up as you see in the photos here, you can slice them, carefully, but they are also soft enough to spread - the best of both worlds! But please note these are not grating or melting cheeses. We love them simply sliced/spread onto crackers or bread in the evening with either a nice red or white wine and my husband loves them in sandwiches.

~ Recipe Notes ~

• The recipes make small portions of the cheese. Above are the ramekin dishes I use to make mine, they fit perfectly and measure 3" across on the bottom, 2" high and hold 180ml/ ¾ cup liquid. I just give the dishes a spray of cooking oil and the cheeses always come out easily after running a knife around the sides. If you are using a different type of dish and are weary of the cheese coming out, simply line the dish with cling film.

• All recipes can easily be doubled or tripled if you would like more.

• I used dried chili flakes for the rosemary and chili cheese as you get more consistent heat levels with those as opposed to fresh chillies which can vary wildly in heat levels. That being said, you can easily use fresh chillies and rosemary, I would say 1 small red chili finely chopped and 1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary and just use as per recipe.

• As mentioned above, don't fret if they don't set, agar can be fickle and these are just as good spreadable :-)

• When I say to grind the nutritional yeast flakes to a powder I always use a mortar and pestle but you can easily just use your hands.

Almond Chive Cheese:

• 40g ground almonds (5 Tbsp + 2 tsp) also known as "almond meal"

• 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes, ground to a powder

• ¼ tsp garlic powder

• ¼ tsp onion powder

• ¼ tsp salt

• 100ml unsweetened almond or soy milk (3.5 fl oz)

• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 1 Tbsp agar flakes

• ½ tsp lemon juice

• 2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh chives

In a small mixing bowl whisk together the ground almonds, nutritional yeast, garlic and onion powder and salt. Set aside.

In a small saucepan whisk together the milk and oil. Sprinkle on the agar flakes and let it sit for 5 minutes (off the heat). Give it a good whisk now and turn the heat on to high. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking all the while, then reduce to a simmer and switch to a wooden spoon to stir. Simmer the mixture for 5 minutes on low heat, stirring often.

Turn off the heat then quickly pour it over the almond mixture. Add the chopped chives and lemon juice then mix really well. You should have a fairly thick mixture. Scrape it all into the prepared ramekin dish then gently press it in using a sheet of cling film until it's nice and smooth on top. Wrap the whole dish in cling film and chill until set. They set pretty quickly, 1 or 2 hours.

Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Cheese:

• 40g ground almonds (5 Tbsp + 2 tsp)

• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes, ground to a powder

• ½ tsp garlic powder

• ¼ tsp salt

• 100ml unsweetened almond or soy milk (3.5 fl oz)

• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• ½ Tbsp tomato paste

• 1 Tbsp agar flakes

• 2 Tbsp finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes (the type packed in oil)

• 1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh basil

In a small mixing bowl whisk together the ground almonds, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and salt. Set aside.

In a small saucepan whisk together the milk, tomato paste and oil. Sprinkle on the agar flakes and let it sit for 5 minutes (off the heat). Give it a good whisk now and turn the heat on to high. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking all the while, then reduce to a simmer and switch to a wooden spoon to stir. Simmer the mixture for 5 minutes on low heat, stirring often.

Turn off the heat then quickly pour it over the almond mixture. Add the chopped sun-dried tomatoes and basil then mix really well. You should have a fairly thick mixture. Scrape it all into the prepared ramekin dish then gently press it in using a sheet of cling film until it's nice and smooth on top. Wrap the whole dish in cling film and chill until set. They set pretty quickly, 1 or 2 hours.

Chili and Rosemary Cheese:

• 40g ground almonds (5 Tbsp + 2 tsp)

• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes, ground to a powder

• ½ tsp garlic powder

• ¼ tsp salt

• 100ml unsweetened almond or soy milk (3.5 fl oz)

• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• ½ tsp dried rosemary

• ¼ tsp dried chili flakes (also known as red pepper flakes)

• about 6 grinds of black pepper

• 1 Tbsp agar flakes

In a small mixing bowl whisk together the ground almonds, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and salt. Set aside.

In a small saucepan whisk together the milk, oil, chili flakes, rosemary and pepper. Sprinkle on the agar flakes and let it sit for 5 minutes (off the heat). Then give it a good whisk and turn the heat on to high. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking all the while, then reduce to a simmer and switch to a wooden spoon to stir. Simmer the mixture for 5 minutes on low heat, stirring often.

Turn off the heat then quickly pour it over the almond mixture and stir well, you should have a fairly thick mixture. Scrape it all into the prepared ramekin dish then gently press it in using a sheet of cling film until it's nice and smooth on top. Wrap the whole dish in cling film and chill until set. They set pretty quickly, 1 or 2 hours.

♥

Nutritional Information

(all per 100g and using unsweetened almond milk)

Almond and Chive Cheese: 

Calories: 385

Protein: 12.3g

Fat: 33.3g

Sat Fat: 3.4g

Fibre: 7.3g

Carbs: 12.2g

Sugar: 1.8g

Sodium: 619mg

Calcium: 138mg

Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Cheese:

Calories: 308

Protein: 9g

Fat: 26g

Sat Fat: 2.7g

Fibre: 6g

Carbs: 12g

Sugar: 1.8g

Sodium: 502mg

Calcium: 106mg

Chili and Rosemary Cheese:

Calories: 411

Protein: 12.1g

Fat: 35.9g

Sat Fat: 3.8g

Fibre: 7.5g

Carbs: 12.6g

Sugar: 1.5g

Sodium: 665mg

Calcium: 151mg

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Pesto Cannellini Bean Houmous

I really can't believe I haven't thought of this before - combining my two most favourite foods, pesto and houmous, into one! I was inspired by this Bean and Pesto Mash on BBC Good Food which was just a can of beans mashed with some store bought pesto and a little olive oil. For my version here I've used my pesto recipe and added some of my homemade vegan parmesan. 

Further I wanted a really super smooth and creamy spread as opposed to a chunky mash so I threw everything into my Froothie Optimum 9400 blender which did an amazing job! It's absolutely silky smooth and I didn't even have to make the pesto first, just threw all the ingredients in and blended :-)

We've been loving this as a late night snack with some vegan butter grilled french bread slices but it would also make an excellent sandwich spread, filling for wraps with some roasted veggies or as a dip with crudites. 

Note that I would recommend omitting the water if you will be using this primarily as a sandwich spread so that it is thicker.

Pesto and Cannellini Bean Houmous

1 x 400g can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (about 215g drained weight)

50g/ 2 cups packed fresh basil, washed (remove thicker stems)

2 cloves garlic

25g/2 Tbsp pine nuts, toasted

60 ml/ ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp lemon juice

¼ tsp salt 

about 9 grinds freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup/ 4 Tbsp vegan parmesan* recipe below

1 Tbsp water to thin if needed 

Add everything to your blender in the order given. For my Froothie Optimum 9400 I used the tamper tool to mix as it blended. Start on low and turn up to medium-high speed. Blend until super smooth and bright green. 

Vegan Parmesan: (makes the 1/4 cup you need)

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast, finely ground in either a blender or a mortar and pestle

2 Tbsp ground almonds (almond meal)

¼ tsp salt

Butter Grilled French Bread:

Slice a baguette in diagonal slices. Spread with vegan butter on both sides and fry in a grill pan until golden both sides.

♥

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliated links, if you purchase a Froothie blender through my link here I receive a little commission which helps fund my blog. Thanks!

Nutritional Information: per 100g

Calories: 245

Protein: 6.6g

Fibre: 4.8g

Carbs: 11g

Sugar: 2.0g

Fat: 20.8g

Sat Fat: 2.6g

Sodium: 410mg

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Zucchini Bhaji and Tarka Dal

vegan•gluten-free•soy-free•nut-free

Anyone else have a glut of zucchini in their garden right now? Yeah, thought so :-) I actually came up with this bhaji recipe last summer when we were in a similar situation and we just absolutely love these. They have great flavour and texture and best of all - they use up a LOT of zucchini! I made loads of these last summer and I suspect the same thing will happen this year. It's taken me so long to post them as I kept thinking I should blog them with something even though I usually just make these on their own to snack on, preferably with some mango chutney and a chilled beer! 

I decided they would be nice dipped into my tarka dal which is just a very basic version using common cupboard ingredients, probably not very traditional but certainly has far less fat than the versions you get in restaurants ;-) I keep my dal mild for my son but feel free to throw in some chillies, with seeds or not - up to you!

The bhaji's are good hot or cold so would be great to pack on a picnic and they are perfect with some mango chutney. They would also be good used like falafel in a wrap or a pitta with some salad and chilli sauce, lots of options! They also freeze and reheat beautifully, just defrost and lightly pan fry till warm :-)

Zucchini Bhaji

makes about 10 fritters.

500g grated zucchini (you'll need about 600g prior to grating)
1/2 Tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp mild curry powder
1 fresh red chili, finely chopped, I de-seed mine, if you want them hotter leave them in.
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped 
1 large onion, diced
1 “egg”:
     1 Tbsp cornstarch
     1/8 tsp xanthan gum
     1/8 tsp gluten free baking powder
     1/8 tsp turmeric
     1 tsp peanut oil (or melted coconut oil)
     50 ml water
80ml (1/3 cup) unsweetened soy, coconut or almond milk
140g (1 cup + 1 Tbsp) Gram flour*
1½ tsp gluten free baking powder 
½ tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper

*Gram flour is also known as chickpea flour, garbanzo bean flour or besan.

Top and tail the zucchini then grate, preferably in a food processor with the grating attachment. Tip the zucchini into a colander, sprinkle generously with salt and toss well, massaging the salt into the zucchini. Don't worry about the amount of salt as it will be rinsed off, this is to draw out the water from the zucchini so you don't end up with soggy bhaji! 

Leave for 20 mins then rinse under cold water. Now take handfuls of the grated zucchini and squeeze as much water out as you can then spread out on a clean dish towel. Cover with another clean dish towel and press down getting the zucchini as dry as you can. Tip into a bowl and separate it all with a fork.

Gently fry the chilli, garlic and onion in the coconut oil with some black pepper until soft. Add the curry powder and fry gently for 1 minute more. Set aside. 

Make the "egg": In a small bowl add the cornstarch, xanthan gum, baking powder and turmeric and whisk. Mix together the water and oil in a small glass. Slowly add the liquid to the dry whisking all the while until it is all added then whisk really well until the mixture is really thick and gloopy. This takes a little while - if your arms don't hurt, you haven't whisked enough! Now start whisking in the milk a little bit at a time again whisking really well after each addition so it stays on the thick side.

In a medium bowl add the gram flour, salt and baking powder. Add the zucchini, “egg”/milk mixture and fried mixture and stir with a fork until really well blended. There should be no more flour showing and you should have a thick mixture.

Preheat the oven to 120C and line a baking sheet with baking paper. Pour enough peanut oil in a medium size fry pan to cover the bottom and drop heaping tablespoons of the mixture onto the pan. Flatten slightly with a fork and fry until golden then flip and fry the other side. Repeat until all the batter is used up adding more oil if need be.

When the fritters are cooked transfer to the prepared sheet to keep them warm in the oven. I also do this to ensure the fritters get fully cooked in the middle. They will keep happily in a low temperature oven for even up to half an hour. I usually make the fritters first and keep them warming in the oven while I make the dal.

EDIT: I've since discovered that these can also be BAKED! Just line a baking sheet with baking paper and lightly grease. Preheat the oven to 200C and drop heaping tablespoons of the mixture onto the sheet. Shape and press down lightly with the spoon. Bake for 15 minutes or until fully cooked and lightly golden brown on top. They come baked really light and fluffy, like little bhaji clouds :-)

Tarka Dal:

serves 2 generously, 3 as a small side

240g (1¼ cup) dry red split lentils
250ml (1 cup) water
1 tsp turmeric
1 Tbsp mild curry powder
1 Tbsp coconut oil
½ tsp cumin seeds
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, cored and finely chopped 
¾ tsp salt
¾ tsp garam masala
1 Tbsp vegan butter

Rinse lentils well, place in saucepan and cover with cold water (not the 1 cup listed in the recipe, just cover them with water). Bring to boil and boil rapidly for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse with hot water and place back in the pot with the measured water, turmeric and curry powder. Simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes adding more water a bit at a time if need be until the lentils are fully cooked and there is very little water left.

Meanwhile heat 1 Tbsp of coconut oil and fry the cumin seeds a few seconds. Add the onion and fry until slightly golden brown, about 10 minutes. With a few minutes left add the garlic (you can add a finely chopped chilli now if you want more heat, keep in mind this is a mild dal). Add the tomatoes and cook until they start to break down.


Stir this into the lentils along with the garam masala, salt and 1 Tbsp vegan butter. Stir until the butter melts and everything is well blended. 

♥

Nutritional Information:

For 1 Bhaji out of 10:

Calories: 103

Protein: 4.1g

Fat: 4.7g

Sat Fat: 1.2g

Fibre: 2.3g

Carbs: 11.7g

Sugar: 3.1g

Sodium: 138mg

For 1/2 of the tarka dal:

Calories: 300

Protein: 11.4g

Fat: 13.3g

Sat Fat: 7.3g

Fibre: 7.4g

Carbs: 36.6g

Sugar: 6.8g

Sodium: 904mg

Still have too much zucchini?? A couple of my favourites...

Zucchini, Lemon and Dill
Soup with Orzo

Beer Battered Zucchini Sticks
with Ranch Dip

Vietnamese Mushroom Balls with an Apricot-Ginger Dipping Sauce

I was going over some old blog posts with the intention of deleting some of them. You see, in the early days I would blog almost everything I made - successful recipes and the experiments. I would always state in those old posts when something didn't quite work out and what I would do next time, etc...Of course for the past few years that has not been the case - I only post tried, tested and perfected recipes but I was simply more casual in the start. 

I came across this post for "Vietnamese Mushroom Balls with Plum Sauce" from October 2008 and while reading the post remembered that although they tasted great it just wasn't a very successful recipe and decided to delete it but then noticed that it has been pinned over 600 times!!! What the frack?!?! I really have no idea how that could have been, it's a terrible photo and I even mentioned in the write up that it was a bit of a botched up experiment. I mean it's appreciated of course but baffling! :-)

Well, I decided I couldn't very well delete a post that's been pinned that many times but I could definitely get in the kitchen, experiment some more and get this one right! 

Originally this recipe came from "The Asian Vegan Kitchen" cookbook and called for some pretty obscure ingredients like dried wood ear mushrooms and straw mushrooms. I decided to make them with just regular ol' mushrooms to make things easier and also changed the process quite a lot to get the texture just right (they were like raw dough balls before!) Now, I am very happy with this recipe and am so glad I returned to it - these things taste incredible - packed with flavour, crispy on the outside and soft inside... So good, in fact, my husband boldly claimed that these are the best savoury things I've ever made! I think I have to agree with him :-)

For the dipping sauce, the old post just called for store bought plum sauce and I thought I could probably do a bit better than that now :-) Apricots actually go really well with mushrooms and I just happened to have a jar of apricot jam in the fridge not doing anything so I thought about making a plum-style sauce but apricot flavoured instead. I found a recipe for plum sauce that called for plum jam and based this one on that. 

OMG - I can safely say that I will never buy plum sauce or even Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce again. It is incredible: sweet and spicy with a good flavouring of ginger - it is the perfect accompaniment to these balls and best of all - incredibly easy and only takes 10 minutes to make.

Recipe Notes

• If you can't find white rice flour you can use cornstarch (cornflour in the UK/Eire) but I do find the rice flour gives both a better texture and taste.

• I did try baking these as well as I know a lot of people are not keen on deep frying and basically, I can't recommend it. A lot of the breadcrumbs fall off, they don't get that crisp shell which is so important and the filling goes a bit chewy. Just fry them and enjoy these at their best! Fried they have 53 calories each and 3.2g of fat. Baked they have 38 calories each and 1.5g of fat. Really, it's not so much to worry about! Treat yourself :-)

Vietnamese Mushroom Balls:

1 Tbsp peanut oil
200g mushrooms, diced small
1/2 carrot, diced small
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 inch cube ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 fresh hot red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
1/2 tsp sweet freedom syrup (or light agave)
6-7 grinds of fresh black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup white rice flour
30g breadcrumbs or panko
~a little more peanut oil to coat the balls
~vegetable oil to fry

Heat the peanut oil in a wok. Add the mushrooms carrot, salt and pepper and fry until cooked and any liquid is gone. Add the garlic, ginger and chili and fry a few minutes more, until fragrant. Add the soy sauce and syrup and fry until most the liquid is gone, it’ll be wet looking but you don’t want any pools of liquid. 

Transfer to bowl and refrigerate until cool, about 1 hour. Remove from the fridge and sprinkle over the rice flour, toss with a fork until everything has a coating of flour.

Have a little bowl of peanut oil ready. The best way to make the balls and ensure they stick together is to press the mixture into a tablespoon (a measuring tablespoon, not a cutlery tablespoon) once it's pressed in, scoop it out then take some of the peanut oil to grease your hands and press and shape into a ball, ensuring that the ball is coated lightly in the peanut oil (this will help ensure the breadcrumbs stick). Repeat until all the mixture is used up - you should get 12 balls. 

Note: photo is from when I made a half recipe, hence only 6 :-)

Wash and dry hands then roll each ball into the breadcrumbs, pressing the crumbs lightly into the ball. Repeat until all the balls are coated.

Heat a pot of vegetable oil to 350F. I use a large pot and about 1 litre of oil, make sure the oil is only about halfway up the pot. Carefully lower 6 of the balls into the oil and fry until crisp and deeply golden brown – this should only take a few minutes maximum. With a deep fry safe slotted spoon, scoop them out and place in a paper towel lines bowl to drain. Repeat with the other 6 balls. Let cool slightly and serve with the Apricot-Ginger dipping sauce.

Apricot-Ginger Dipping Sauce:

113g apricot jam (¼ cup + 1 Tbsp)
½ Tbsp rice wine vinegar
¾ tsp dark brown sugar, packed
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, minced
½ teaspoon finely grated ginger
2 Tbsp water

Place everything into a small saucepan and slowly bring to a boil, whisking all the while until smooth. Once it just comes to a boil, turn off the heat. If you want the sauce right away then transfer the sauce to a bowl and place the bowl into another bowl of ice water (with ice cubes) to cool quickly. Give it a whisk now and again while cooling to keep it smooth and even. Serve at room temperature or chilled, cover and refrigerate leftovers. After chilling you may have to add a splash of water if it's gone a bit too thick.

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