Chickpea Noodle Soup with Herb Dumplings

I realize this dish may seem a bit 'confused' - it's because I was when making it. It's absolutely freezing here lately and I really fancied some dumplings for lunch, and wanted to make a chickpea noodle soup...so, sort of combined the 2 ideas. It works really well although feel free to omit the dumplings as it's hearty enough with the noodles and chickpeas in there, it's just given the choice I would probably put dumplings in everything! 

Chickpea Noodle Soup with Herb Dumplings: serves 2

• 40g carrots, diced small
• 40g celery, diced small
• 40g onion, diced small
• 30g small thin soup noodles
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 litre water
• 2 tsp marigold vegan powder veg stock (try and use this as it has a good, light, chicken noodle quality to it)
• 50g canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed (flageolet beans are nice too!)
• 1/2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Dumplings:

• 100 grams flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
• 1 ½ Tbsp vegetable suet*
• 5 - 6 Tbsp cold water

*Edit - for a non-suet version of these dumplings simply replace the suet with 1 ½ tablespoons of olive oil and use 1/4 cup or 60ml of cold water. Just mix the olive oil with the water and add to the dry ingredients - they turn out just as good!

Mix together the dry ingredients for the dumplings and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a medium pot and fry the onion, carrots and celery until all soft. Add the water and stock powder, stir well and bring to the boil. Stir in the noodles, chickpeas and parsley, cover and bring back to the boil. 

Mix the cold water or cold water and olive oil to the dumpling mixture and stir until a dough comes together. Transfer to a floured surface and knead a few times then cut into 4 equal size pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. 

When the broth is boiling drop in the dumplings reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes. I stirred it a couple of times to make sure the noodles weren't sticking. Ladle into 2 warmed bowls with 2 dumplings each and serve immediately. 

Another version with baby new potatoes instead of beans and a new drop dumpling recipe.

2013 edit - I've tried a new dumpling recipe and have to say I like this one even better! It's even easier as you just drop the batter into the soup. Also, as you can see from this picture, if you happen to be out of chickpeas you can make it without. This time I added some diced baby new potatoes - it's just as good!

New Dumpling Recipe: makes 2 large dumplings (1 each)

• 60g / ½ cup plain flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ¼ tsp salt

• ½ tsp dried mixed herbs

• 20g vegetable suet (2 Tbsp)*

• 4 Tbsp unsweetened soy milk

* For a non-suet version use 1 Tbsp olive oil and reduce the soy milk to 3 Tbsp. They turn out just as good.

Mix together everything except the milk until well blended. Stir in the milk (and olive oil for the non-suet version) and mix well. Drop into the boiling soup then cover, reduce and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

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Vegan Aebleskiver!!!!

This recipe has taken many attempts to perfect and I am so glad it has finally worked out as I'm not sure I could live without my aebleskiver. Here is the link to my old blog describing what they are and step by step photos on how to cook them.

They are traditionally made by mixing 3 egg yolks into the batter and then whisking the egg whites to stiff peaks and folding in. Clearly something difficult to 'veganize'. I have in the past just used a regular pancake recipe for these which turns out fine as well but unfortunately my vegan pancake recipe would not work. They turned out heavy and really gummy, tasted fine, but wrong texture altogether. Various attempts to change this resulted in the balls really sticking to the pan....

Then I found a recipe online for vegan yogurt pancakes and the photo of the batter looked nice and thick, just like the egg white whipped one is, so tried that. It tasted perfect but stuck the worst of all as the recipe actually didn't call for any fat. As my original recipe called for quite a bit of melted butter in the batter I combined the two recipes, the yogurt pancake one and my original aebleskiver recipe and this one is perfect! Absolutely perfect.... the yogurt gives them that buttermilk taste they really should have and they turn out crisp on the outside and light and fluffy inside and don't stick!! So happy with these...

Just a note on the milk, rice or oat milk won't work. You need a vegan milk that is higher in fat and protein, I have made these with unsweetened soy milk and sweetened almond milk. Both work well, as would sweetened soy milk. I think the almond milk was nicest as it gives the faintest hint of almond which is lovely.

Makes 2 pans of aebleskiver (14 balls):

160g plain flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 heaped tsp salt
4 tsp caster sugar
150g plain, unsweetened soy yogurt
100ml soy or almond milk (can be sweetened or unsweetened)
90g vegan margarine, melted (I use 'Pure' sunflower)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
vegetable oil for the pan

Mix the dry ingredients together. Whisk the yogurt, milk and vanilla together then slowly whisk in the melted margarine until fully incorporated. Pour this into the dry ingredients the fold in with a rubber spatula until no more flour shows. The batter will be very thick and lumpy, it may even look slightly curdled if using soy milk - that's ok. Heat your aebleskiver pan till hot then turn down to the lowest heat. Brush the holes with vegetable oil then spoon in the batter till level with the top. Unlike my past recipe where I used the knitting needle to turn them, I found these easier to turn with a very small teaspoon, just use it to loosen the edges then scoop under and flip them up, first onto their side then fully over. Cook until golden all over and a toothpick comes out clean. Keep warm in the oven while you make the next pan.

Serve with margarine and warmed maple syrup over top, and of course the applesauce and sugar!!

** I have also used this recipe to make blueberry pancakes, I increased the milk to 100ml, butter the frying pan, spoon on some batter, you'll have to spread it out a bit. Dot the top of the pancake with blueberries (don't add the blueberries to the batter), cook till golden underneath then flip over. Serve with margarine and warmed maple syrup.**

Vegan Tourtiere - Soy Mince or Puy Lentil

I decided to try a vegan tourtiere for Christmas dinner this year. A tourtiere is a traditional French Canadian dish consisting of a double crusted meat pie seasoned with wintry spices of cinnamon and nutmeg. 

Although traditionally made with ground pork it's the spices that make it so it lends itself very well to soya mince. It turned out fantastic and was absolutely delicious, will definitely be doing it again next year. Makes a nice change from all those nut roasts! I never took a photo of the whole Christmas dinner but it was much the same as my earlier Thanksgiving post. 

**2010 edit - just made this with puy lentils in place of the soya mince as I'm finding vegan frozen soya mince hard to find here in Ireland. Pleased to say it turned out delicious, perhaps even better? Just use the same weight of cooked puy lentils (tinned are easiest) in place of the mince and omit the potato water.**

As well as the tourtiere we had stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots and parsnips, brussel sprouts and petite pois in lemon hazelnut butter, red cabbage and mushroom gravy, which went very well with the tourtiere, all served with champagne.

Recipe was originally on Yves Veggie Cuisine website but now gone, thankfully re-posted by someone somewhere! 

Double Pie Crust:

• 2 cups plain flour (280g)
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cold shortening/ vegetable fat (175g)
• 4 Tbsp cold water
• 2 tsp white vinegar

Ideally, use a food processor: Add the flour, salt and shortening and process until you have fine crumbs. With the mixer running add the water and vinegar. You will have a mixture that looks like moist crumbs. Gather it together into 2 balls, one slightly larger than the other and press down into a disc onto a sheets of cling film, wrap up and chill for 30 minutes.

Alternatively: Mix flour and salt, cut in shortening with a pastry cutter until it's like breadcrumbs, sprinkle water and vinegar on and stir with a fork until a ball forms. Gather it together into 2 balls, one slightly larger than the other and press down into a disc onto a sheets of cling film, wrap up and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the larger piece out to line a 9 inch pie plate, leave sections over hanging. 

Filling:

• 340g frozen soya mince or 340g cooked puy lentils, drained well
• 1 large baking potato
• 2 Tbsp veg oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3/4 cup water reserved from potato cooking water  - omit if using lentils
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp salt
• black pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, minced

First peel the potato, cut into quarters and cook in slightly salted water for 20 minutes or until tender, let cool then roughly mash with a fork, you still want some chunks. cover and set aside. You can do this earlier in the day.

Heat the oil in a large pot and fry the onion with some ground black pepper until the onions are soft. Add the garlic, stir then add the spices, potato, mince or lentils and water. Cook till water is gone and it's all heated up nicely. 

Pour and scrape into the lined dish. 

Roll out the other piece of dough, brush water along the edges of dough lines pie dish and place dough on top. Seal edges then cut off all excess dough along the edges. I rolled these out and cut out maple leaf shapes to decorate the top of the pie. It looked great, shame I never took a photo when it was whole. 

Brush whole top with unsweetened soya milk and bake in 220C degree oven for about 20 minutes or until nice and golden brown. 

Let sit 5 minutes then slice and serve.

Mushroom Gravy:

• 30 grams/ 2 Tbsp vegan margarine

• 1 small onion, chopped finely

• 125 gram/ 1 1/4 cup mushrooms, chopped finely

• 30 grams/ 1/4 cup plain flour

• 300 ml/ 1/ 1/2 cups vegetable stock made with 1 veg oxo cube

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and fry the onion until dark golden brown. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further 2 minutes. Stir in the flour, cook gently for 1 minute and then gradually add the stock. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, until thickened and blended. Add more water if too thick.

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Christmas Cookies

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♥ These are for you Jen!! ♥

I've been making decorated Christmas Cookies like this for years! My good friend Jennifer back in Canada and I would get together a couple weeks before Christmas and make a huge batch and spend the evening decorating them and listening to pop-tastic Christmas music!! It became an absolute tradition and one I simply had to carry on with my son. I've based this recipe on our standard vanilla cut out cookie dough but have simply swapped the butter with vegan margarine and used egg replacer in place of the egg - works great :-)

Christmas Cookies:

165g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
92g vegan margarine
116g caster sugar
20g egg replacer + up to 50ml water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

Stir dry ingredients together, including egg replacer. Beat margarine together with sugar until creamy, beat in extracts. Stir into dry ingredients then add enough of the water until a dough ball forms and cleans the sides of the bowl. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least an hour. Cut in half then roll out on floured surface - not too thin. Cut out desired shapes, re-rolling scraps and cutting out more. Place on baking sheets lined with baking paper. Bake in 350/180 degree oven for 10 - 12 minutes - the edges should just start to look a bit golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Fluffy Vegan Buttercream Frosting:
1/4 cup shortening (vegetable fat like trex - about 50g)
1/4 cup 'pure' sunflower spread or other vegan spread (about 55g)
1 3/4 cups icing sugar (I forgot to weigh this!)
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp soy, rice or oat milk

In a mixer with the whisk attachment soften the shortening and pure until soft, add vanilla. Now add icing sugar 1 cup at a time beating well between each addition, you'll need to stop now and again and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula. You want this one just slightly thicker than when using for cupcakes so keep that in mind. Separate into smaller bowls and add food colours, if it gets to thin add more icing sugar.

Decorate as desired.

♥ 2012 EDIT ♥

I've been wanting to make these again without the egg replacer - something I haven't used in years. My recent Canadian Living Holiday Baking magazine had a recipe for sugar cookies that just needed a little veganizing and these turned out great! The dough is workable, easy to cut out shapes, bake up perfectly and taste just as good as I remember.

Sugar Cookies

Yields about 36 cookies, depending on size of cutters.

• 150g vegan butter (3/4 cup)

• 240g caster sugar (1 cup) can use granulated.

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 350g flour (2 1/2 cups)

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 4 Tbsp water (more or less)

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Separately mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this to the butter mixture and mix, add the water as you need it will depend on how 'wet' your vegan butter is. I used Vitalite which is quite a wet butter and needed the full amount. You want it to just come together as a dough. Shape the dough into 2 equal size balls, flatten slightly, wrap in cling film and chill for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 190C. Generously flour your work surface then gently knead the dough a few times until it is smooth - this will help in rolling it out. Keep the surface and your rolling pin well floured and roll out to about 1/4" thick. Flour your cutters and cut out your shapes.

Transfer to a baking paper lined baking sheet:

Then bake for 10 - 12 minutes. They should still be pale and only just getting golden at the edges.

Let cool for 5 minutes on the sheet then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool before decorating as you wish.

For the frosting, I no longer use the above recipe as I don't like using shortening in it, I don't really follow a recipe per say I just add a few tablespoons of vegan butter with a few drops of vanilla extract, mix it up then add enough icing sugar alternately with either dairy free milk or cream (whatever I have on hand) until it's creamy and tastes good :-)

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Oven Baked Tomato, Roasted Red Pepper and Basil Risotto

This is a terrible photo as it's so dark by dinner time now I can't get good light...anyway, it's very delicious. 

2013 Edit - I have finally gotten around to updating this photo, look how bad the original one below is!! I've come a long way....I've also added some step by step photos below :-)

(Although a bad photo, this one does show how it would look if you grilled the cheezly on top which I didn't do with the updated pics.)

Recipe comes from BBC Good Food website here , I just made a few changes. First it calls for frozen roasted peppers which I've never found so I use the method to 'quick roast' from the 'Golden Slipper' recipe, obviously omit the parmesan, add a pinch of sugar to counter the acidity of the tinned tomatoes, some garlic, and I tend to add baby spinach for colour and extra nutrition. Once I only had one pepper so added some zucchini and mushrooms, that was delicious too. I tend to top it with grated super melting cheezly but don't often have it. Regular cheezly will melt if stirred in but won't grill on top well. Recipe doesn't need it either way, just makes it that much nicer.

Oven Baked Tomato, Roasted Red Pepper and Basil Risotto

• 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 150g risotto rice
• 50ml dry white wine -optional, can replace with more stock
• 200g can chopped tomatoes
• 2 large red peppers
• 250 ml vegetable stock made up with 1 tsp marigold vegan powder
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 40g baby spinach
• good handful of fresh basil, chopped
• about 50g grated super melting cheezly - optional
• salt and pepper (about 1/4 tsp of salt, but just add to taste)

Quick roast the peppers - Put the grill on high and line a baking sheet with foil. Slice the peppers and place skin side up on the pan. Note that these pics are when I was making enough risotto for 3, hence the extra peppers.

Grill until the skins are blackened.

Scrape them all into a bowl and quickly cover with cling film. Let them sit for 15 minutes. This will get them sweating and make the skins easy to peel off.

Remove the peppers and the skins *should* just peel off easy now - discard the skins. Note that sometimes they will stick, I tend to find that happens with newer peppers. When you get the peppers that peel off easy it's heavenly - like stripping off a whole sheet of wallpaper in one go, lol!

 Once all the peppers are peeled, slice or dice them as you like, and set aside.

Heat oven to 200 degrees. Heat oil in a pot and fry onion for a few minutes until soft with a few grinds of black pepper. Turn up the heat, tip in the rice, stir then fry for 1 minute more. Pour in the wine (or a little stock if not using) and stir until absorbed. Stir in the tomatoes, sugar, garlic, salt, roasted peppers and 200ml of the stock. 

Pour into a greased ovenproof dish: 

Cover with a lid or some foil:

....and bake for about 25 minutes until the rice is tender and most liquid is absorbed. 

At this point I take it out, add the remaining stock, spinach and basil:

...and stir in the spinach until wilted: 

Cover again and bake a few minutes more, until the liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. If it's still not tender, you can add a bit more liquid and keep baking until it is but it should be done at this point.

If using super melting cheezly, turn oven to grill, sprinkle cheezly on top and grill until bubbly and golden.  

Serves 2 - excellent with a glass of the white wine you used in the recipe.

♥

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

"Reese" style with chocolate topping.

Well these are another great cupcake variant from 'Vegan Cupcakes take over the World'. I've never made a peanut butter frosting before but read of others raving about this recipe online. It's fantastic, tastes just like the filling of a Reese peanut butter cup...only better. Then I had some bananas in that perfect state for baking and had to put these together. In the cookbook this cupcake is known as 'The Elvis' - I presume due to his love of deep fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.... I then decided to follow the style of the chocolate mint cupcakes and top a couple with some chocolate ganache, the urge to make these as close to a peanut butter cup just too strong....and I'm thinking the chocolate topped ones are best.

Bramley Apple Pie Jam - Quick and Easy

Why this isn't a common jam flavour available in any grocery store is beyond me. I have been wanting to try this for months now but wanted to wait until autumn when English apples were in season, then of course left it so long I almost missed the season....thankfully I was able to get some in season English bramley apples (you want these as tart as can be) and finally got around to it. I have never made jam before but this was so easy. 

I made some changes to the recipe - mainly I've reduced it a lot to make just 1 good size jar of jam so that there is no need to do all the jar sterilizing and water baths and everything else associated with jam making. You simply chop apples, simmer everything for a few minutes then chill to let it set. Super simple!

It is absolutely delicious too, tastes really just like apple pie filling and is so good on toasted 'buttered' good quality white bakery bread like above, as well as toasted bagels but I can't wait to try it on pancakes and think I'll make some apple jam tarts with it as well.

Bramley Apple Pie Jam

Makes 1 good size jar of jam

2 cups chopped bramley apples - chop quite fine, they don't break down much at all
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 cups jam sugar (sugar with added pectin)
1/2 cup light muscovado sugar (light brown sugar)
2 tsp vegan margarine

Place the chopped apples in a pyrex measuring cup and pour in water to fill the 2 cup line (with the apples in). Add to a medium saucepan with the margarine, spices and lemon juice. Bring to the boil, add sugars and bring back to a full rolling boil. Boil for 4 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir until no longer bubbly and slightly thickened.

Transfer to a jar or suitable sized bowl - anything that's not metal or plastic will do and leave to cool and set, giving it a stir a couple of times. When cool or room temperature transfer to the fridge. Jam should keep just fine for a week or two.

Source:  Based on this recipe.

Nutritional Information: per 100g

Calories: 291
Protein: 0.1g
Fibre: 0.6g
Carbs: 72.6g
Sugar: 71.2g
Fat: 1.2g
Sat Fat: 0.3g
Sodium: 13.9mg

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Barley Hotpot

I absolutely love barley and have no idea why I don't cook with it more often. This is a greatly adapted recipe from the latest tesco magazine. It's one of those recipes you can use whatever you like. Originally it called for all root veg like turnip parsnip and swede as well as spinach and peas. I replaced the peas with flageolet beans for added protein and the veg with just what I had in the house and felt like. I definitely would have added some baby spinach stirred in at the end until just wilted for colour and nutrients, but didn't have any.

The first time I made this I made the veg stock from 1 oxo cubes and kept the liquid fairly low so it was more stew like. The second time I used marigold vegan stock and added more water to make it more like a soup. Both are very good but I think I preferred it thicker and creamier. You could also cook it down even more and make an orzotto which is risotto made with barley. Any style it is equally delicious and so warming...

2013 Edit - Just made this again and forgot how good it is BUT I didn't realize just how unnecessarily complicated the instructions were for this post! In my defence I was just following the original recipe back then....I've updated it now to make it much easier :-)

Recipe notes 

• This time I used 1 Knorr Vegetable Stock Pot and feel it's the best but just use whatever cube or bouillon powder you like. 
• I have made this with both flageolet and red kidney and both work well as would any other mild flavoured bean. Flageolet is probably my favourite.
• I have used white onions, red onions and a combination of both.

Barley Hotpot 

serves 3 

• 150g pearl barley
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 120g onion, chopped (1 onion)
• 2 bay leaves
• 60g celery, sliced (2 stalks)
• 150g carrots, sliced and halved (1 large or 2 medium)
• 150g new potatoes, peeled and diced 
• 2 cloves of garlic, puréed
• 1 stock cube dissolved in 500 ml hot water
• 60g zucchini, sliced and quartered (1/2 a small)
• half a 400g tin flageolet or red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 Tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

Wash the barley really well and drain. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, add the barley give it a good stir, cover and reduce to a simmer for 1 hour. Give it a stir now and again.

When there is 10 minutes left for the barley heat the olive oil in a large saucepan then add the onion, carrots, potatoes, celery, bay leaves and a few grinds of black pepper. Fry gently for 5 minutes.

Stir in the garlic then add the stock and stir well. Bring to a boil, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Drain the barley then add to the pot with the beans, zucchini and parsley. Bring back to the boil, cover and cook for 10 minutes, reducing to low heat with 5 minutes left. Give it a stir now and again. Check that the potatoes are now cooked, taste and season as need be.

Nutritional Information: per serving

Calories: 360
Protein: 10.4g
Fat: 6.6g
Sat Fat: 1.3g
Fibre: 13.8g
Carbs: 59.4g
Sugar: 7.1g
Sodium: 638mg (depending on brand of stock cube used)

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Chocolate Yule Log with Fondant Mushrooms

I've been wanting to make a yule log for Christmas for a long time now and figured it would be near impossible without eggs in the cake. They provide the much needed structure while rolling up without cracking or falling apart. I just used vegan cupcakes take over the worlds chocolate cupcake recipe here, cut in half and baked in a jelly roll pan. Now it did crack quite a bit but was still able to hold it's shape and as I was frosting the top was able to hide all the cracks and crevices! The filling was a test, using same cookbooks 'thick fudgy icing' and the top was frosted with their chocolate buttercream. All individual components taste great, I just hope I can slice it easily enough as the cake is quite delicate. The mushrooms were an idea I saw somewhere else where someone made meringue mushrooms to decorate their yule log. As meringue is definitely something that cannot be veganized I just shaped some out of ready made fondant frosting and dusted the tops with cocoa. As they are straight, thick fondant frosting I wouldn't recommend eating them, but they look the part!

Ravioli with Fresh Sage and Garlic Olive Oil

I miss filled pasta, why they are all made with eggs I don't know as this turned out beautifully. I wasn't feeling up to making some elaborate filling as I didn't know how the pasta would turn out so in this one I just crumbled up some sun dried tomato flavoured tofu that I had - which actually worked quite well. However it was just the pasta I wanted to try and as it turned out so well will start working on some fillings. Vegan with a Vengeance do a really nice basil tofu 'ricotta' so will try that, and am thinking a mushroom ravioli with tomato sauce would be fantastic. Loads of options to fill these with!


Ravioli Dough:

1 2/3 cups (200g) pasta flour *must be this type* I used Tesco's own label, it's really finely milled and silky soft.
1/2 cup (120ml) water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil

Mix flour and salt together and stir olive oil into water. Pour the liquid into a well into the centre of the flour and mix together with a fork until a dough forms. Knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes, add more flour until it is no longer sticky. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Cut into 4 sections and roll out very, very thin. Place desired filling according to size of ravioli wanted, wet around the edges and place another sheet of dough over top. Seal around edges well and place on a floured plate. Continue with remaining dough. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, add a little olive oil and cook the ravioli for about 5 minutes.

For the 'sauce' just finely chop some fresh garlic and sage and heat up with some olive oil gently, turn off heat and let sit briefly. Spoon over cooked pasta and season with smoked sea salt and lots of black pepper.

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