Macaroni Goulash

Now I know this isn't a traditional 'Goulash' but it's what we called it growing up and after searching online we weren't the only ones, seems most North Americans have a version of this "macaroni goulash". I really wanted to recreate the one I had often growing up and this is it. It's very yummy, quick, easy and kid friendly - hard to beat! I've used a short cut macaroni here, regular macaroni would work too as would any smallish pasta shape.

Macaroni Goulash
Serves 2-3


150g macaroni
150g frozen soya mince
150g mushrooms, sliced  (not in photo but I always add this now)
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp salt (use less if your tinned tomatoes contain salt)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp dried mixed herbs
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1 Tbsp tomato paste (puree)
1 400g can peeled whole plum tomatoes with juice
*45g grated cheezly or daiya* optional

Put the water on for the pasta and cook according to package directions. Meanwhile in a large pot heat the olive oil and gently fry the onion, celery, mushrooms and bay leaf with some ground black pepper until onions are soft and the mushrooms are cooked.

Stir in the garlic and tomato paste, then add the tinned tomatoes, salt and herbs. Stir well roughly breaking up the tomatoes as you do. Add the soya mince and about 80ml water (I fill the tomato tin about 1/3 of the way up and add that). Turn heat up and cook until mince is cooked and the sauce has thickened up then stir in the drained pasta. If using add the cheezly or daiya and stir until melted. Dish goes lovely with some buttered soft white bread rolls.

Nutritional Information: based on 1 serving out of 3 (will vary slightly depending on brand of mince)

Calories: 386

Protein: 19.4g

Fat: 8.9g

Sat Fat: 1.2g

Carbs: 53.6g

Sugar: 12.7g

Fibre: 7.4g

Sodium: 619mg

♥

Bubble and Squeak Cakes

 Served with my coleslaw (cabbage version) and some BBQ sauce on the side. 2013 photo.

These were absolutely delicious, I initially only tried them to use up some leftover brussel sprouts from Christmas but they are so good I now buy sprouts especially for them. 

Note - I have since made these with cabbage as well and they are just as good!

I'm rather ashamed to admit that this is a Gordon Ramsey recipe but pleased to admit that it's my addition of spring onion that really makes these, take that Gordon! Anyway, it is a very good recipe to give credit where credits due and while I would like to say that I have some amazing sauce recipe to serve these with, I honestly love them with ketchup or BBQ sauce :-)

Makes 4 good sized cakes:

270g unpeeled weight mashing potatoes (vivaldi mashing potatoes very good for this)
2 tsp (10g) vegan margarine
135g brussel sprouts or cabbage
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
10 - 12 grinds of black pepper
1 spring onion, finely chopped
olive oil to fry

Peel and quarter the potatoes then boil in salted water for about 20 minutes. Drain and return to the pan for 1 -2 minutes on low heat to dry out slightly. Mash with the margarine, then add the salt, pepper and spring onion. Meanwhile, wash and pat dry the sprouts. Slice the bottoms off then cut in half, removing and skins that fall off. Cook in boiling salted water for 5 minutes then drain, rinse in cold water then plunge into ice water. When cool, pat dry then grate the sprouts with a grater and add to the potatoes, mix well. 

(If using cabbage, simply slice the cabbage up and simmer in salted water until tender, about 5 minutes, drain well and let cool then roughly chop.)

With slightly oiled hands shape into four patties....

dredge in the flour.....

Then fry in about 5mm olive oil on medium heat until golden and crisp both sides.

♥

Creamy Vegetable Pot Pie

It's really not my intention to make vegans fat with all these creamy, fatty dishes I've been doing lately! It's just that creamy leek sauce turned out so well and I keep thinking of things to use it in....and the doughnuts, well, I blame the weather, I should get out more....Anyway, I used to make this now and again as is featured on my old blog . It's always been a favourite and I've been waiting until I had a good creamy, cheesy type sauce to replace with, and have now found it. (See Edit below!)

The veg can be adapted to whatever you like, these are just my favorites, I actually didn't have any potatoes once when I made this one so just upped the quantities of the other veg to compensate, it's very versatile, as long as you keep the weight quantities about the same it will work.

2012 Edit - I am updating this recipe and the photos as I now make this with my Creamy Garlic Sauce, a variation on Chloe Coscarelli's Macaroni and Cheeze Sauce recipe. It's perfect now, love it!


Creamy Vegetable Pot Pie - serves 4

100g broccoli florets
100g carrots, diced
100g new potatoes, peeled and diced
100g petite pois
100g sweetcorn
100g flageolet or cannellini beans, drained - optional
♥
30g vegan butter
20g plain flour
1 small onion, diced fine
1 1/2 cups unsweetened soy milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes, ground to a fine powder in a mortar and pestle.
1 tsp EACH salt, garlic powder, parsley, lemon juice and light agave syrup - I've also used Sweet Freedom syrup instead of the agave and it was perfect.
♥
212g ready rolled puff pastry (1 sheet of Jus-Rol)

Preheat the oven to 200C

Boil the carrots and potato together until just fork tender in salted water. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and keep aside. Add the peas, corn and broccoli and boil until the brocolli is just fork tender, be careful not to overcook it. Drain and add to the carrots and potatoes.

In a pryrex jug measure out the milk then add the yeast, salt, garlic powder and parsley and whisk until smooth.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the onion, fry until soft. Add the flour and fry gently 1 minute. Add a small amount of the milk mixture and beat well with a wooden spoon, keep adding the milk a bit at a time until it is all incorporated. Bring to the boil and simmer until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and agave syrup. Add all the veg and the beans to this and fold gently with a rubber spatula until everything is nicely coated.

Tip it all into a buttered casserole dish and top with the ready rolled puff pastry. Pop it into the preheated oven and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes or until puffed up and golden brown.

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1 serving out of 4

Calories: 442

Protein: 13g

Fat: 21.1g

Sat Fat: 8.6g

Carbs: 44.3g

Sugar: 6.3g

Fibre: 7.1g

Sodium: 422mg

Apple Fritters

Yum, these were so good.....An apple fritter has always been one of my favorite doughnuts, right up there with a maple glazed. Ever since making the glazed doughnuts I wanted to try these but could not find any recipes for them. This style seems unique to North America as others were frying battered apple rings and calling them "fritters".

So I thought I would just use my doughnut recipe and add some chopped apple and some cinnamon, still not quite sure how I was going to get the irregular shape that fritters have.... After I got started I did find some recipes and it appears that apple fritters are not a yeast risen doughnut at all but a looser, baking powder risen dough that you then drop into the hot oil with a spoon to get the wonky shape...it soon became evident why that is as I tried to knead a dough with large chunks of apple in it... like a fool....(!)

I was so sure this wasn't going to work out that I was going to dump the dough and try again without yeast but decided to give it a go. SO glad I did, it worked out fantastically, sure it was hard to knead and it didn't rise as much as the regular doughnuts but they are very tasty, moist and soft, crispy on the outside, just like they should be. The glaze turned out perfect as well, I tossed the whole warm fritters into the glaze then set aside to set.

Like the doughnuts they are best eaten right there and then, just wait to the glaze sets to crispy but they are still warm - perfect! They will get drier as the days go by, like the doughnuts did, so try to make enough too eat in 1 day or 2. The recipe below is my doughnut recipe halved, I got 10 fritters out of this as they are smaller than the doughnuts.

Apple Fritters:

1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
20g vegetable fat (shortening)
60g sugar
40ml dairy free 'milk' (I used rice dream)
20g egg replacer
250g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
90 - 100g peeled chopped apples (about 2 small/medium apples)
vegetable oil to fry

Add 1/4 cup of the water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the fat and sugar and stir until melted. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool to lukewarm - mix in the milk. Dissolve the yeast in the other 1/4 cup of warm water and allow it to stand for 5 minutes. Give it a good mix with a fork then add it to the fat mixture - whisk well.


Mix in the salt, cinnamon and egg replacer into half of the flour. Add this to the liquid and stir with a wooden spoon. Slowly add the rest of the flour a little at a time until a soft dough forms. Add the apples bit by bit while kneading gently adding more flour if the dough is sticky. I didn't need quite all the flour but did use it all whilst kneading. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes or until soft and elastic - shape into a large ball. Grease a large warm bowl and place the dough in, turning once. Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until doubled in volume.

Tear off the dough into rough shapes, you want them wonky and rustic, and place on a baking sheet, cover loosely with greased cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for another hour. 

When time to cook make sure you make your glazes first and set aside then heat up the oil. Drop doughnuts into the hot oil (not too hot, if you have a thermometer it's supposed to be 370F. I didn't have one and had to guess, they should sizzle when they go in but not rolling about. Cook for about 2 minutes a side, you want them nice and golden. 

Glaze:

1 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
enough boiling hot water to make a thin glaze.

After frying the fritters, place them on paper towels to drain slightly, then while still warm toss them about in the glaze then place back onto paper lined baking sheets to let the glaze set.

♥

**I have to say it's really nice to not be able to just pick up some doughnuts in a shop and to be 'forced' to make my own. It's enjoyable, fairly easy, you get fresher doughnuts and it means you don't have them that often, which is a good thing for a fat, sugary treat! Above all that though, look at my ingredients for apple fritters, now look at Dunkin Donuts ingredients:

Ingredients: Donut Dough {Dough Mix [Enriched Flour (Bleached Wheat Flour, Barley Malt, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Dextrose, Soybean Oil, Contains 2% or less of: Salt, Soy Flour, Maltodextrin, Leavening (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda), Wheat Starch, Mono and Diglycerides, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate (Dough Conditioner), Cellulose Gum, Guar Gum, Gum Arabic, Carrageenan, Xanthan Gum, Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier), Enzymes, Artificial Flavor, Modified Food Starch, Vegetable Color (Annatto, Turmeric), Milk (Trace), Egg (Trace)], Water, Yeast}, Apple Filling [Water, Sugar Syrup, Corn Syrup, Evaporated Apples, Modified Food Starch, Contains 2% or less of each of the following: Natural Flavors, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate (Preservatives), Salt, Cinnamon, Malic Acid, Nutmeg], Glaze [Sugar, Water, Maltodextrin, Contains 2% or less of: Propylene Glycol, Mono and Diglycerides (Emulsifier), Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Agar, Citric Acid, Carboxymethyl Cellulose, Artificial Flavor], Shortening (Palm Oil, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil and Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil with TBHQ and Citric Acid added to help protect flavor), Cinnamon.

Even with the few extra ingredients the egg replacer and rice dream add, I know which ones I would prefer....

♥

Single Serve Peanut Butter Cup

♥

Peanut butter cups are dangerous. They taste amazing, are extremely high in fat and calories and are much, much too moreish! I started off making this as just 1 peanut butter cup as I was just testing out the recipe on Joy of Baking  - the recipe there makes 36 mini cups and didn't want to use that much peanut butter if it was a disaster! Then if it turned out I would make and blog the full version.

However, I decided I like the single serve concept here. It makes one large peanut butter cup, about the same calories as a whole chocolate bar so not something you want a lot of in the house, or at least I don't as I wouldn't be able to resist eating loads in a day. But you can of course just click on the link there for the full version if you prefer :-) Furthermore, this is so easy that you can just whip one up for yourself!

Single Serve Peanut Butter Cup:

1/2 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp vegan margarine
few grains of salt
2 tsp icing sugar
25g dark vegan chocolate
1/4 tsp vegetable oil

I used a paper cupcake liner and cut it down to the size shown, then place the peanut butter, margarine and salt in a bowl and mix well. The recipe said to warm gently in the microwave but as margarine is softer than butter this wasn't necessary. Stir in the icing sugar.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave then stir in the vegetable oil. I then spooned a small amount of chocolate into the liner and swirled it around until all the sides and bottom were coated evenly. In hindsight I should have then placed this in the fridge to set before filling but didn't. As you can see it still worked out but it was tricky getting the much thicker filling to spread over the melted chocolate, if that makes sense.... Anyway, you then spread the filling in then spoon and spread over more chocolate to cover.

Place in fridge until set then peel away the liner. I can't remember how long it was in the fridge for but it wasn't long at all and at that stage was set but still soft enough, I think hours in the fridge might make the chocolate too hard, just check it now and again.

2012 Edit - An easier way if you are just making this for yourself and have no need to go for the classic peanut butter cup shape is to simply spread about half the melted chocolate onto baking paper, shape the peanut butter mixture to a flat ball and place on the chocolate then pour the rest of the melted chocolate over top and chill to set. I *needed* mine quick and first popped it in the freezer for about 1/2 hour then in the fridge for 15 minutes and it was perfect.

♥

 
Nutritional Information: for 1 large individual 'cup'

Calories: 213
Fat: 14g
Sat Fat: 6.3g
Protein: 2.8g
Fibre: 2.6g
Carbs: 19g
Sugar: 17.7g
Sodium: 38.8mg

♥

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.

♥

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.

♥

Christmas Cookies

♥

♥ 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 :-)

♥

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.

♥