Zesty Cannellini Bean and Cashew Houmous

This is a wonderful variation on the traditional houmous. I've been wanting to try other nut and seed butters in place of tahini, which is after all simply sesame seed paste, as there are so many varieties out there: cashew butter, almond butter, pumpkin seed butter (which is gorgeous by the way!) I opted for cashew butter as I had some and I love it's mild creaminess and based this on my white bean houmous with cannellini beans as I felt those beans would suit this better being further creamy and mild. I have upped the lemon juice and garlic here and added some lemon zest to give it some zing.

Zesty Cannellini Bean and Cashew Houmous

1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans (about 200g drained or a heaped 1 cup)
2 Tbsp cashew butter, about 35g
1 1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice, strain out any bits.
2 cloves garlic, pureed
1/2 tsp lemon zest, about 1 medium lemon zested.
3/4 tsp salt*
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp water

*for the salt I would suggest you start with 1/4 tsp and add from there to taste. My beans are packed in un-salted water and there is also no salt in my cashew butter but all brands vary and it's easier to add more salt than remove!

That's a 1 cup measure of beans, you want it slightly heaped.

Drain the beans well and place in a food processor with the cashew butter, lemon juice and zest, pureed garlic and salt. 

Process until well blended, stop and scrape sides if need be. With the motor running slowly add the olive oil down the chute and blend well, again stop and scrape sides if necessary. At this point it'll probably seem to be the right consistency and you may question adding the water but do, the houmous will thicken up in the fridge and I find it helps flavour wise. Simply add the water down the chute and process until really nice and creamy. Transfer to a bowl, cover and chill.

Nutritional Information: per 100g
Calories: 186
Fat: 12.4g
Sat Fat: 2g
Protein: 6g
Carbs: 15g
Sugar: 0.5g
Fibre: 3.2g
Sodium: 683mg

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Altogether it is a lovely summery houmous and I immediately started to think what to use it in. My first thought was with grilled zucchini or eggplant, the hit of lemon would go so well with that and was going to make some sort of grilled zucchini and roasted red pepper sandwich but then remembered that although it's not that warm here in Ireland most of you are sweltering in heat waves and probably wouldn't want to be grilling and roasting! (Apologies again for my previous pasta bake post!!)

So instead I made up a beautiful garden fresh summer mint sandwich with wholegrain bread, the zesty cannellini bean and cashew houmous, cucumber, avocado, fresh mint, tomato and lettuce. Wow. This was a sandwich and a half!! Mint goes so well with cucumber and avocado and really makes this sandwich, so please don't omit it! Unless of course you don't like mint then some basil wouldn't go amiss ;-)

Garden Fresh Summer Mint Sandwich with Zesty Cannellini Bean and Cashew Houmous

2 slices wholegrain bread

2 heaped tablespoons of the Zesty Cannellini Bean and Cashew Houmous

1/2 an avocado, sliced

cucumber slices

tomato slices

2 large leaves fresh mint

lettuce

freshly ground black pepper

Spread the houmous on one slice of bread and grind a little black pepper over. Top with slices of tomato, cucumber then the chopped mint.

Then top with the avocado and lettuce, sandwich together, slice in half and enjoy!

OR

Stuff all the same ingredients into a wholemeal pitta! I've actually been preferring the sandwich this way lately as it's easier to eat :-) Similarly, a wrap would work well too!

Nutritional Information: approx. based on 1 sandwich, will vary due to bread used and amounts etc..

Calories: 335
Fat: 13.7g
Sat Fat: 1.9g
Fibre: 9.6g
Carbs: 48.1g
Sugar: 5.9g
Protein: 11.8g
Sodium: 637mg

You Might Also Like:

Lemon Pepper Cashew Cutlets

Grilled Couscous Houmous Salad Wrap

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Stuffed Jumbo Pasta Shell Lasagne

Vegan Chicken, Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Stuffed Shells with a Garlic, Tomato and Basil Sauce and a Cheezy White Sauce.

Seasoned Soy Mince and Onion Stuffed Shells with a Garlic, Tomato and Basil Sauce, Spinach and a Cheezy White Sauce.

So, enjoying your summer? I'm sure you've noticed my blog posts slowing down a bit, this always happens in the summer when I have the boy home from school, just taking it easy a bit and not creating very much. You know, sticking to old favourites and easy to throw together dinners. That being said I came up with these in an attempt to find something new that the boy would like (and us!). Oh and I apologise to those of you suffering in heat waves right now and I go and post a pasta bake but I am in Ireland and actually typing this up wearing a jumper! Remember too that despite the slowing down in blog posts you can follow what I'm eating, testing and experimenting with in the daily food blog :-)


I have 2 versions of this dish for you and may actually have a third coming up to add to this post later ;-) I first made it with the soy mince stuffing and melty cheezly on top. My husband and I loved it but my son wasn't keen on the stuffing. He likes soy mince in taco's though so, go figure, kids eh?? So when I went to make this again I was trying to think of another filling I could use and settled on the filling from my Vegan Chicken, Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Sausage Rolls as he liked them and I thought the flavours would go nicely. I also opted to omit the cheezly from this version as it did feel unnecessary the first time and I know vegan cheese has that whole love/hate thing with you all!!

As for the outcome, I loved both of these but I will definitely omit the cheezly from now on, not that it wasn't good the first time, it just wasn't necessary as the cheezy white sauce actually has more, better flavour going on. I also loved the spinach added to the soy mince version but forgot to add it to the second one - d'oh! In the future I will always add it though.

The other version I want to try is to stuff the shells simply with some seasoned puy lentils as I do like to give options not using faux meats for those of you not into that stuff. Although I haven't tried it I'm sure if you cook up some puy lentils, fry some chopped onion and season gently with a bit of salt and fresh herbs it would make a lovely stuffing. Omit the cheezly as well and you have a delicious, completely faux-free dish! See, I do try and please all here :-) If I get around to trying that version I will add it to this post for you.

I'll give the recipes for both versions here. As you can see I opted to bake these in individual casserole dishes as I find that easier to serve and eat. (Although, I transferred my son's to a cool bowl so he wouldn't burn himself!) You can of course bake it all in a larger casserole dish if you prefer. I served both versions with a simple side salad but some steamed veggies would go nicely as well as would of course, some garlic bread :-)

Recipe serves 2, simply double or triple as need be for a larger casserole dish.

Vegan Chicken, Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Stuffed Jumbo Pasta Shell Lasagne: 


12 jumbo pasta shells, about 100g
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1 x recipe Vegan Chicken, Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Filling.
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100g frozen spinach, cooked and well drained
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270g passata (sieved tomato sauce, google image will show you texture if you can't find this and need to replace)
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/8 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp dried oregano
lots of fresh basil, I used about 1/4 cup chopped
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste (note - I added none as the passata I buy has enough salt added)
♥
10g vegan butter
7g flour
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp Nutritional Yeast
125ml unsweetened soy milk

Now, there is a lot going on here but one other thing I did the second time I made this was to see if it could all be made up before hand and it can. I put them altogether into the individual casserole dishes, wrapped in cling film and placed in the fridge then when it came to dinner time I simply removed the cling film, covered them in foil, popped them in a hot oven and baked.

Pasta Shells:
I use Tesco Finest Jumbo Shells here and find you do have to pre-boil them in salted water for the full 15 minutes even though they are getting baked later. Any less and they will still be too hard, of course, other brands may produce different results so just follow package instructions. Drain then run under cold water until they are cool, make sure there is no water remaining in the shells as it can pool there.

Filling:
Make up the full recipe of my Vegan Chicken, Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Sausage Rolls, omitting, of course the puff pastry! :-D

Spinach:
I used frozen here which I usually never use but find it works best in this. I just added the weighed amount to a microwave safe dish, added a few tablespoons of water, covered and microwaved for 3 minutes. Drain well in a sieve pushing the water out with the back of a spoon.

Tomato Sauce:
Measure out the passata and add the sugar and oregano. Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan and add the garlic and a few grinds of black pepper and fry very gently for 30 seconds or so - be careful not to burn the garlic. Add the passata, stir well, cover and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes, giving it a stir now and again - it should thicken up slightly and the flavours should come out more now. Turn off the heat and stir in the chopped basil, taste and season if need be, again, my passata is salty enough so I don't add any.

Cheezy Garlic White Sauce:
First, you want to make this last. If you make it too early it will thicken up while sitting and be almost unusable! I finely grind my Nutritional Yeast flakes in a mortar and pestle to get them nice and fine. Add to this the salt, garlic powder and parsley and mix well. Measure out the soy milk in a measuring jug and add the yeast and seasoning and mix well. Add the vegan butter to a small saucepan and add the seasoned milk. Turn the heat on then sprinkle over the flour and whisk well while bringing it to a simmer. Once the butter melts and the flour has dissolved switch to a wooden spoon and stir until thickened up.

Assembly:
Whether you are using one large casserole dish or individual ones first spoon a small amount of the tomato sauce in the bottom of the dish, just enough to cover the bottom. Fill the shells with the stuffing, it's a little fiddly but not too bad! I used a good size teaspoon size amount for each shell. Then lay them in the dish:

Again, I forgot to add the spinach here, if you are adding it simply scatter it in and amongst the shells now then top with the rest of the tomato sauce, spreading out as best you can.

Then spoon over the cheezy white garlic sauce and again spread it out as best you can. Both of these sauces may seem skimpy now but once this bakes up it really is the perfect amount of sauce in the finished dish so don't worry!

Now you can add some grated vegan cheese on top now if you like but I personally preferred it without - up to you! You can either bake it now or cover with cling film now (make sure it doesn't touch the sauce) and refrigerate until you need it.

Baking:
Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F and cover the dish/dishes with tin foil (remove the cling film if you pre-refridgerated) and bake for 30 minutes. I also covered them with foil when I added the cheezly as it helps the cheeze melt.

Remove and serve with a side salad or some steamed veggies if you prefer and if you are serving this to kids you might want to do like I did and transfer it to a non-hot bowl:

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Soy Mince Stuffing:

100g chopped onion

300g frozen soy mince

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan then add the onion, frozen mince and herbs and fry gently for about 6 minutes or according to your mince instructions. I use Tesco brand soy mince and it is already seasoned so like the tomato sauce I don't add any salt here. If you are using a different brand simply taste and season as need be. Also, this will probably make a bit more than you'll need but it's better to have too much than not enough!

The sauce recipes are the same for this version as is the process: some sauce first in the dish, stuff the shells then add to the dish and scatter with the spinach:

Top with the rest of the tomato sauce:

 

Spread over the cheezy white sauce:

Sprinkle over some cheezly if that floats your boat! I ground some black pepper over top:

Bake and serve!

♥

You Might Also Like:

Jumbo Shells Stuffed with Basil
Almond Feta with a Creamy
Tomato Sauce

Puy Lentil, Portabello Mushroom and
Baby Spinach Free Form Lasagne

Basic Pesto

So, apologies to the daily food blog readers who have seen this before as it's already posted there but I decided as I get so few readers over there it should be on the main blog. Plus, it's rather crazy that my all time favourite meal isn't on the blog yet - pesto pasta. I know, it's very basic and common but I love it, I could seriously eat bucket loads of pesto pasta and love pesto on just about anything :-) Plus, as we now have a garden we now have loads of basil growing like mad which is fab as pesto takes a lot of basil - even for a small amount!

I have been using this recipe since we pretty much became vegan, finding a good pesto recipe was going to be essential to my transition after all! ;-) The only reason I haven't blogged it yet is that it's essentially not my recipe - this is basically the pesto recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and it's brilliant. I decided to blog it as I have used my preferred pine nuts here and have scaled it down to suit enough pasta to serve 4.

Basic Pesto: serves 4 as a pasta sauce.
20g pine nuts
50g fresh basil
2 small or 1 large clove garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
60ml extra virgin olive oil
4 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast flakes ground to a powder.
1 tsp lemon juice
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300g pasta to serve four

Lightly toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan and set aside. Wash and dry the basil then place in a food processor with the nuts, garlic and salt. Process until finely chopped, stop and scrape down the sides if need be. With the processor running slowly pour the olive oil down the chute until all added then process until fine in texture. Add the lemon juice and yeast and process again.

Note - I actually prefer to use a mortar and pestle here as my food processor struggles with smaller quantities. I'll use it to finely chop the basil, to make it all smaller but you can just chop it with a knife. Then I transfer to the mortar and pestle and pound it with circular motions with the pine nuts, chopped garlic and salt until it's a paste then I'll add the lemon juice to loosen it up then slowly add the olive oil, bit by but until it's the consistency you see above, smooth but still grainy. I then stir in the nutritional yeast until dissolved and creamy. This is actually the more traditional way to make pesto which, according to Wikipedia actually means "to pound" and is the same root word we get pestle from! So there you go, be traditional, ditch the food processor and get a little workout!!

Cook the pasta in well salted water and drain, any type is good here but I do love this Fusilli Lunghi Bucati No. 5 by De Cecco I've used here :-) Return to the pot and toss the pesto in, mixing well. It's important to do this off the heat, don't heat pesto as the basil can turn black and the flavour will be compromised, just toss it in the hot drained pasta and go! If it seems a little dry, sometimes I'll add a little more olive oil, sometimes a little pasta cooking water (depends if I'm dieting or not!) Season with salt and or pepper if needed at the table.

Of course you can add loads of add ins to this - we love cherry tomatoes, or sometimes sun dried tomatoes and sliced black olives. Fried vegan chicken strips would be lovely, seitan or some white cannellini beans for added protein would all go well too.

Source: Slightly adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance.

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Nutritional Information: Based on 1 serving out of 4.

Calories: 422

Protein: 10.2g

Fat: 19.2g

Sat Fat: 2.5g

Fibre: 2.2g

Carbs: 55.9g

Sugar: 2g

Sodium: 196mg

Vegan "Orange Julius" Slushy

♥ Bring on summer! ♥

European readers will have to bear with me here as I relive my 1980's Canadian mall rat youth with the quintessential food fair staple of an "Orange Julius". How on earth does one even describe one of these? They basically took over malls all over North America in the 80's and I, as many others, loved them. They would have been particularly popular in my hometown which was so small we had no fast food outlets - no, not even a McDonalds! BUT we got an Orange Julius one day to much excitement; as well as the orange slushy they did sell fast food - hotdogs, burgers etc... but I only ever got the orange slushy. That being said, if I really knew how they were made, I probably wouldn't have - not much real orange juice, milk and eggs. Yes, eggs. Gross.

Still, I  can remember how they tasted and suddenly had an urge to try a vegan one. Here I have used fresh navel oranges, peeled and membranes removed, froze them and then blended with coconut milk and my own 'secret ingredient'  (far less vomit inducing than eggs) - Bird's Custard Powder. It adds the same thickness and colour that eggs would have plus has a vanilla flavour already added. I then added some sugar and a little more vanilla  - perfect! Just as I remember....no, it's better as this one is made with mostly real oranges! 

Please note you have to do some prep the day before you want to have this. Oh, and if any of you follow the daily food blog and are wondering why you never read me making or drinking this it's because I actually made this ages ago but wanted to wait and blog it in summer :-)

Vegan Orange Julius Slushy: makes 1 large slushy.

250ml orange segments and juice, about 2 navel oranges

250ml coconut milk*

1 Tbsp Bird's Custard Powder

1 1/2 Tbsp caster sugar (or more to taste)

1/8 tsp clear vanilla

* I use Kara coconut milk here, it is not a thick, canned coconut milk but the type you get in a regular milk carton so is thin and not overpowering in coconut flavour. Although I haven't tried this with any other dairy free milks I assume your favourite will work here.

First prep the oranges: slice off the top and bottom of the orange then peel with a knife removing not only the peel but the membrane as well. Then slice out the orange segments without the membranes (don't worry if some stays attached) and place in a bowl. Take the orange peel and squeeze all the juice out of them as well into the bowl. You want all the juice and the membrane free orange segments here. Once you have 250ml or 1 cup pour it all into a freezer safe ziplock bag and pop it in the freezer. 

In a pyrex jug measure out the custard powder and sugar then add some of the milk to make a paste. Slowly add the rest of the milk, stirring all the while until mixed. Cover and refrigerate and give it a stir now and again.

Once the oranges are frozen remove from the freezer and leave out until you can break the mass apart with a fork, only because if you try and blend it right away you may damage your blender! Now add it to your blender, give the milk/custard powder mixture another stir and add it too the blender with the extra vanilla. Blend until smooth. If it is too thick and not blending simply leave it about 5 minutes then blend again. The oranges probably just need to thaw a little more. Taste and if you would like it sweeter add more sugar as oranges can vary wildly in how sweet they are.

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1 slushy.

Calories: 269

Fat: 5.2g

Sat Fat: 4.8g

Protein: 2.1g

Fibre: 3.9g

Sugar: 36g

Carbs: 56.1g

Sodium: 161mg

Calcium: 371mg (depending on milk used)

Walnut Bread

So. Walnut bread. I've always loved it and have wanted to make my own for ages but to be honest I usually just buy La Brea Bakery Walnut Bread at Tesco as I love it, and it's labelled vegan. That one is a sourdough walnut bread mind you and as much as I love sourdough I've never had the guts to try my own, all that making a starter and feeding it, I just know I'll end up with some sort of cesspool of bad bacteria and end up poisoning myself. No. I'll leave the sourdough to the pro's until I brave up :-)

I had a search online and was either getting sourdough versions or soda bread versions until I came across this one. Rather embarrassingly it is from the Daily Mail but it was just what I was looking for - yeast based and very simple. I love that it called for fast action yeast too - something I used to be against but find I have been getting even better results with, plus, this makes the bread dead simple to make.

I did make a few changes, first, I swapped the olive oil with walnut oil, which seemed a bit of a no-brainer when making walnut bread. I must add too, I am now seriously in love with walnut oil, I made a salad dressing with it for lunch today that was mind blowing...not my recipe in case that sounded obnoxious!! lol. 

Second, I reduced the amount of walnuts as I simply could not knead more than 100g into this bread and I'm happy with the amount in the end - you get walnuts here and there but it's not overtaking the bread - important. Third, the recipe was a bit vague on how to get the walnuts in there so I kneaded mine in after the second rise and further, I toasted the walnuts before using.

It all turned out perfect, the taste and texture in this bread is unbelievable - I am so happy with it and will be making this one often for sure :-) I was actually making this bread for a sandwich idea I had but it was too good not to be blogged on it's own! Can't wait to try the sandwich now ;-)

Walnut Bread: makes one good size oval shaped loaf.

500g strong white bread flour
2 tsp salt
7g sachet fast action yeast
4 Tbsp walnut oil
100g walnuts
300ml hand hot water (120 - 130F)

In the bowl of a stand mixer add the flour, salt and yeast. I like to add hot water to a pyrex measuring jug and add the walnut oil then I insert a thermometer, when it is between 120 - 130F then I add it to the flour. If you don't have a thermometer you want the water hand hot, the water should be slightly hotter when you are using fast action yeast as opposed to yeast that you dissolve first in warm water.

Once you've added the water to the flour turn on the mixer with the dough hook attached and let it knead for about 10 minutes. I added another tablespoon of flour but resist the urge to add too much more flour, let the gluten develop through kneading. You can of course also knead by hand, same rule applies - don't add much more flour. When there is a couple minutes left I like to remove the dough and hand knead just to get a feel for the dough and to shape it into a nice ball. Grease a large bowl with a little walnut oil and place the dough inside, greasing the top of the dough as well. Cover the bowl tightly with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Whilst it is rising spread the walnuts out onto a baking sheet and pop into a pre-heated 200C oven for about 8 minutes or until ever so lightly golden and fragrant. Remove and let cool then roughly chop and set aside.

Punch the dough down and flatten out slightly then add some of the nuts, sprinkling them all over the surface of the dough. Fold the dough over and gently knead them into the dough, keep adding nuts and kneading gently until they are all added. Shape into a large oval then place on a baking paper covered baking sheet, cover loosely with cling film and place somewhere warm and let rise another hour.

Preheat the oven to 200C and dust the surface of the dough with flour then slash across the top 3 times on the diagonal with a sharp knife. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap on the bottom. Transfer to a wire rack to fully cool.

Now it may sound sacrilegious to toast freshly baked bread but for me walnut bread must be toasted and I massively recommend it here - it transforms this bread into something altogether quite heavenly! I had my first taste toasted and slathered with Vitalite with a cup of coffee. Sigh. :-D

♥

Source: Slightly adapted from The Daily Mail.

Nutritional Information: per 100g, a good size slice is about 70g.

Calories: 306

Protein: 8.6g

Fat: 14.2g

Sat Fat: 1.5g

Fibre: 3.3g

Carbs: 38.4g

Sugar: 1.1g

Sodium: 535mg

Three Grain Brown Soda Bread

I actually didn't start off here aiming for a traditional Irish brown soda bread but basically that's what I got - and a very nice tasting one at that! I got this recipe from one of my favourite cookbooks, 'The Great Scandinavian Baking Book' by Beatrice Ojakangas where it was listed as "Brunbraud" or "Icelandic Three-Grain Brown Bread". A read of the ingredients indicated this was essentially a classic Irish brown soda bread, with a few twists. There is brown sugar in this, just enough so that you can taste a hint of sweetness but not enough to make this a sweet bread and the addition of rye flour gives it a slightly more Scandinavian air about it.

In the end this made a really nice, perfectly textured brown bread, something I've been after for awhile now. You can buy *some* dairy free brown soda breads here in Ireland but this was by far better than any I have tried. It goes beautifully with soup, I made up my Newfoundland Pea Soup (without the doughboys) to go with this which was a lovely combination and a very hearty meal!

It would also be great with any sort of creamy white based soups like Cauliflower or Potato, anything thick and creamy really. I actually didn't make it to go with the previous post of Potato and Leek soup but it's made for it really! It's also great on it's own or toasted and spread with vegan butter and peanut butter, great at breakfast and really sets you up for the day :-) I've made the usual vegan adjustments here and have halved the recipe to just make one loaf and have also measured out the weights.

Three Grain Brown Soda Bread:

50g light muscovado sugar (1/4 cup packed brown sugar)
50g vegan butter ( 1/4 cup)
50g oats ( 1/2 cup)
80g wholegrain rye flour (1/2 cup)
170g wholemeal flour (1 cup whole wheat)
150g plain white flour ( 1 cup)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
300ml unsweetened soy milk (1 1/4 cups)
1 1/4 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and lightly grease a loaf pan with vegan butter.

Cream the butter and sugar together until well mixed. In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients. In a measuring cup measure out the milk and stir in the lemon juice or vinegar and leave to curdle slightly - this is your buttermilk.

Add the dry ingredients and the "buttermilk" to the creamed mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until well mixed. Scrape it all into the loaf pan and level the top - the mixture will be thick. Bake for about 1 hour, until golden and firm on top and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Remove from the pan onto a wire rack to fully cool.

♥

Nutritional Information: per 100g.

Calories: 280

Protein: 8.4g

Fat: 5.5g

Sat Fat: 1.1g

Fibre: 5.5g

Carbs: 50.4g

Sugar: 6.6g

Sodium: 532mg

Calcium: 75.3mg

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Irish Soda Bread

Barmbrack

Simple Potato and Leek Soup

I've been making this soup for years, it's delicious and dead simple - a nice combination! I wish we had it more often but leeks are one of those vegetables I tend to only buy if I need them for a recipe, they are not one of our "staple vegetables". Which is a shame as it means I only make this if I find myself with too many leeks and it's so good it's definitely worth buying them especially for it.

I've kept this really easy using stock powder and it will be key to the end flavour of your soup. I've used Marigold Vegan Bouillon Powder here (the orange container) as it's my favourite and I love the yellow hue the turmeric in the stock powder gives the soup here, if you use another brand you may have to adjust the amount to taste as they all vary wildly, just go by taste, it's easy to add more later!

♥

Potato and Leek Soup: serves 4

1 Tbsp vegan butter, I've used Vitalite
1 large leek (160g prepared weight)
1 medium onion (100g prepared weight)
about 230g peeled white potatoes
4 teaspoons Marigold Vegan Bouillon
1 litre water
freshly ground black pepper

Wash the leek well then slice the white and pale green parts only, place this in a large bowl with the chopped onion and diced potato.

In a large saucepan melt the vegan butter then add the veg, gently fry for a few minutes then add some freshly ground black pepper and put the lid on to let it all sweat for a few minutes more. When the veg has softened add the water and bouillon powder. Stir well and bring to the boil then simmer on a medium to high heat with the lid on for 15 - 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

Let this cool a little bit then puree in a blender in batches (2 should do it) until smooth. Return to the pot and heat again until piping hot. Check seasoning and serve.

I usually love this soup with homemade brown Irish soda bread but didn't have any this time so had it with half a toasted multi-grain bagel slathered with Vitalite (vegan butter) - delicious!

♥

Source: Based on and veganized version of Delia's Leek, Onion and Potato Soup.

Nutritional Information: based on 1 serving out of 4.

Calories: 110
Protein: 3g
Fat: 2.6g
Sat Fat: 0.7g
Carbs: 19.8g
Sugar: 3.4g
Fibre: 1.9g
Sodium: 1034mg

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Mocha Frangelico Mousse Torte

 Spiced Hazelnut Cake with a Mocha Frangelico Mousse filling, covered in Chocolate Ganache and topped with Frangelico Candied Hazelnuts.

I'm SO over cupcakes! Give me a proper slice of cake dammit!!

So, it was my husband's birthday the other day and I had asked him to think of what flavour cake he would like. He absolutely adores anything hazelnut and I also realized I have never made a mocha based cake before, coffee yes, but not mocha. I then remembered that there was something that ticked all those boxes in the ever brilliant Vegan Cupcakes take over the World cookbook - the "Hazelnut Cupcakes with Mocha Hazelnut Mousse Filling". He was sold by title alone and that was it I would try that one out.

Of course I had to make this as a whole cake and not cupcakes, something I haven't had much success with in the past, it seems a lot of cupcake recipes don't like to be baked as cakes but I had no problem with this one. I used a smaller 6" high sided loose bottom cake pan here and once baked I thought it was going to be too small (height wise) but once the mousse went on it was actually a perfect height.

Now, you guys know I love my mousse. Unfortunately all my mousse recipes here call for Granovita Soy Whipping Cream and you can't buy it or any suitable replacements anymore. I have made tofu based mousses before, I'm certainly not against them, they taste great it's just texturally speaking they are not mousses!! Firm puddings maybe, but not light and airy mousse which is what my mousse recipes used to give. All that being said, this mocha "mousse" was amazing, incredible flavour and still a really nice texture, perfect in the cake which was dense and moist without being gummy.

The cupcake recipe also calls for some ganache on top and they do provide a recipe however I've gone for my standard ganache recipe here. Not that I'm not sure their recipe isn't fantastic, I'm just used to and love my own :-) My recipe always calls for booze of some sort so of course I've added more Frangelico here.

As for the topping, well, it was a no-brainer really: the Frangelico Candied Hazelnuts that I used in the Chocolate Frangelico Mousse Gateau. This time I kept them whole for decoration (and so my non-hazlenut liking child could easily pick them off) and they just went beautifully with this cake.

Altogether this was a huge success, we all absolutely loved this cake and I will certainly make it again. Now I have to apologise for all these teaser photos when I cannot give you a recipe for half of it as the cake and mousse have come straight out of Vegan Cupcakes take over the World but I will give you some notes here on what I did and links to my recipes for the ganache and candied hazelnuts.

Spiced Hazelnut Cake:

I followed the recipe for the Hazelnut cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes take over the World exactly as is but greased and lined the bottom of a 6" high loose bottomed cake pan and baked it for 40 minutes instead, you want a toothpick to come out clean.

Mocha Hazelnut Mousse:

Also from Vegan Cupcakes take over the World. For this I could only get firm silken tofu not extra firm so I omitted the soy milk that the recipe called for and I also increased the Frangelico to 1 tablespoon from 2 teaspoons. I also didn't refrigerate it for an hour before spreading it on the cake as there was no need as the whole cake once assembled was going in the fridge.

Frangelico Chocolate Ganache:

200g plain or semi-sweet chocolate (dark)
170ml soy cream
20g solid coconut oil
1 Tbsp Frangelico

Finely chop the chocolate and place in a large bowl. Heat the coconut oil and soy cream together until it just comes to a boil - stir often. Pour this over the chocolate, leave it for a minute and then whisk up. Add the Frangelico and whisk again. Leave it to thicken slightly so that it will still pour over the cake but will pour slowly to cover well.

And, just like with my 10 Layer Chocolate Orange Truffle Cake you will have leftover ganache. I highly recomend making truffle pots with it, just spoon it into little cute bowls and chill - quick, easy and posh little dessert!

Frangelico Candied Hazelnuts:

I used my recipe here but kept the hazelnuts whole.

Assembly:

Once the cake has cooled, carefully slice it in half. The easiest way to do this is to use a serrated knife and slice all along the edges not going fully through to make sure it is even. THEN use the knife and slice through the centre. Slide a wide spatula inbetween then remove the top layer.

Line the cake pan that you baked the cake in with cling film. Place the top cake layer, top side down into the pan. Fill with the mousse then lay the bottom cake slice, bottom slice up on top. That should be your flattest cake side, which you want on top. Taking the overhanging cling film wrap the top of the cake up and place in the fridge for the mousse to fully set, about 1 - 2 hours. I have step by step photos of all of this on my Double Chocolate Mousse Layer Cake recipe if it helps!

Remove the cake from the pan, just pull up from the cling film and place on a cutting board, removing the cling film. Pour the ganache over, again, it should be thick enough to not run all over the place, using a knife make sure all the sides are nicely coated and place it again in the fridge for the ganache to set. Before it fully sets though, decorate with the Frangelico Candied Hazelnuts so that you can push them into the still soft ganache, it might be a bit too soft to put them on right away but you also don't want the ganache fully set. I probably added mine after 15 minutes in the fridge.

Take the cake out of the fridge about an hour before you want to serve it just so it's not fridge cold. I've been keeping mine stored in the fridge but mostly as it's summer and we have quite a warm kitchen, not sure I would bother in the winter. At any rate, this cake won't last long, trust me :-)

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1 slice out of 12

Calories: 388

Protein: 5g

Fat: 22.7g

Sat Fat: 7.6g

Fibre: 3.2g

Carbs: 41.5g

Sugar: 27.4g

Sodium: 167mg

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Chocolate Frangelico Mousse Gateau

Double Chocolate Mousse Layer Cake