Vegan Pepperoni Pizza

Don't tell me what I can't have as a vegan!!!

This falls in the same category as my last Hawaiian Pizza post of 'I can't believe I'm blogging this'! I know it's nothing original but I do like to post things that people don't expect when thinking of vegan food. I always think back to why I was vegetarian for 12 years and not vegan, as now I know how easy it is. I think I probably thought that it would be too hard and oh, I couldn't have this and that etc... Well, it's all simply not true and had I known this before would have become vegan much sooner than I did :) While it's true that you have to have a taste for cheezly here, as no, it doesn't taste like cheese ;) this was still so, so good!! I made the base myself and it turned out beautifully! Lovely thick fluffy base, crisp on the outside - so good....then just used store bought pizza sauce, redwood foods' vegan pepperoni slices and super melting cheezly mozza flavour.

Makes 1 good sized individual pizza:
112g strong white bread flour (I highly recommend Waitrose's Canadian very strong white flour here, it's fantastic! UK specific though, I know!!)
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/8 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
75ml hand hot water
1/2 tsp olive oil (plus more to grease bowl)

Dissolve the sugar in the water then sprinkle the yeast on. Let it get frothy for 10 minutes then whisk it up with the olive oil. Stir in the flour and salt then knead for 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic, form into a ball. Wash a bowl with hot water, dry then grease well with olive oil. Add the dough to the warm bowl, turning over to coat with the oil, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for 1 hour. Punch down and give it a few more kneads then shape into the base size you like.

Spread with the sauce, top with pepperoni and a generous amount of cheezly and a few grinds black pepper. Bake in a 220C oven for about 15 minutes or until puffy, edges are golden and cheese is melted and bubbling.

Custard Creams (cheat!)

Not a recipe this time but just an idea. We got these 'morning coffee biscuits' from Waitrose the other day - they are on their vegan list. While I found them dead boring on their own, felt they would make excellent sandwich biscuits due to their thinness. I was right - made up a batch of vanilla buttercream and was surprised how much that turned these into custard creams! I've always missed those and have always been annoyed that all brands have whey in them - seriously, what's the point???

Obviously any flavour frosting can be used here but if you fancy some custard creams - go for straight vanilla. I just mixed up some vegan margarine, vanilla extract, icing sugar and rice milk until I got a slightly thicker buttercream than I would use for cupcakes and sandwiched them up :)

Earl Grey Tea Loaf

So, I was going to call this 'sunken raisin loaf' and try to pull off that having all the raisins sink to the bottom was entirely intentional ;) Of course, it wasn't....amateur mistake, apparently I should have coated the raisins in flour before adding to the batter. Oh well, now I know! Still it wasn't a big deal, I really wanted to try a tea loaf - one actually made with tea, and use my favorite flavour - Earl Grey. I found this recipe on Waitrose's website and thought it looked good.

It did call for 2 eggs and as I started to think what to replace those with read in the comments that one lady forgot to add the eggs and actually preferred the bread that way! I thought, perfect - I'll just omit them then! I made other changes too, it originally called for dried fruits, I personally can't stand peel etc... so just used raisins, used regular flour and some baking powder to replace the self raising flour (which I never have) and then glazed with light agave nectar instead of honey.

Despite my raisins sinking this was absolutely lovely and perfect with a cup of, you guessed it, Earl Grey tea! Strangely I had it one day with coffee and was surprised how much that did not go together....definitely have it with tea :)

Ingredients:
2 bags Earl Grey Tea
125g golden caster sugar
300g raisins or mixed fruits
225g plain flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon (I also added some orange zest)
1 Tbsp light agave nectar, to glaze

Place the tea bags in a large heat proof bowl and add 300ml boiling water. Let steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags, giving them a squeeze and add the sugar - stir to dissolve. Add the fruit and leave to stand for 4 -12 hours. ** as I was only using raisins and not other fruits I didn't do this for so long, I just let the raisins sit while I got everything else ready, don't think it matters** To stop the raisins sinking try draining them off now (keeping the tea of course!) and coating them in flour before adding the rest.

Preheat oven to 180C and line a 1kg loaf tin with baking paper. Add the flour, baking powder, zest and juice of lemon to the tea and beat well, stir in the raisins. It should almost foam up and be light in colour. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1 - 1 1/4 hours, or until a skewer comes out clean. Here I have to apologize as I know mine did not take this long but I seem to have forgotten to write down how long mine took.... possibly just an hour. Keep an eye on it, it will be golden on top and a toothpick should come out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then brush with the warmed agave nectar. Remove from the tin to cool on a rack. Best when warm and spread with some vegan margarine and a cup of Earl Grey tea :) Note, original recipe called for Lady Grey tea but any black tea could be replaced here.

Creamy Spinach Pasta Sauce

Or to give it it's full title: Creamy spinach garlic lemon nutmeg sauce...yeah, there's a lot going on there but it works and is so easy - just chuck it all into a blender till smooth :) I based this on my previous Creamy Lemon Garlic Sauce but had some spinach that needed using up so got to experimenting. I basically kept it the same but as well as spinach added some nutmeg and some nutritional yeast. Like the last post it gets it's creaminess from coconut milk but again, don't worry, with everything else going on you don't taste anything "coconutty" but it does make for a super creamy pasta sauce :) Also, I didn't show it in the photo here but I added some fried mushrooms to mine which went really well with it.

Creamy Spinach Pasta Sauce

Serves 2

• 200ml coconut milk, full fat or reduced. Can also use soy cream.
• zest of 2 lemons
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 2 large cloves garlic, chopped
• 120g spinach, chopped up so it'll fit in the blender!
• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• freshly grated nutmeg
• freshly ground black pepper
• 150g - 200g pasta of your choice.
♥
• optional - 250g sliced mushrooms, fried
• optional - 1 large red onion, sliced and fried

For the sauce simply place everything in a blender and puree until super smooth. That's it! Cook pasta according to package instructions but remove with a couple minutes left. Drain and place back into pot. Pour the sauce over, it will look like too much but don't worry, it cooks down. Cook over medium heat until hot and thickened up. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt/pepper/nutmeg as you like.

EDIT - If adding mushrooms and onions, simply fry the sliced mushrooms and red onion together with some vegan butter and a pinch of salt and pepper until soft and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in with everything else.

Apologies for the messy bowl, but this is it using soy cream and with added mushrooms and red onion, which although hard to see, there was plenty in there!

♥

Mixed Berry and Green Apple Gelees

Well I promised lots of vegan sweets from my Canadian Living Holiday Cookbook magazine and these are the first! They are really simple - just fruit, sugar and pectin, fairly easy to make and lovely:) I was just going to direct you to their website for the recipe but I can't find it there, so will post it here. The recipe was easy to follow with one exception. After cooking the fruit you are to purée then push it all through a fine sieve to get 2 cups of purée. This was quite difficult - my arm was killing me and I gave up after getting 1 cup. This meant I was only getting half the mixture so only added half the sugar and pectin listed here. It also meant I had to fill only half an 8" square pan. Thankfully the mixture is so thick this is easy to do - just fill half and shore it up with a strip of baking paper.

Mixed Berry Gelees:
2 large granny smith apples *increase to 4 for the green apple version
3 cups frozen mixed berries *omit for the green apple version
1/2 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
85g liquid pectin
more granulated sugar to coat

Line bottom and sides of an 8" square pan with baking paper and set aside. Coarsely chop apples, leaving skins and cores but removing seeds. In saucepan cook the apples, water and berries over medium heat until apples are very soft, about 20 minutes. In processor puree the mixture until smooth. Press through fine sieve to get 2 cups* see notes above on this.

In clean saucepan bring the purée with sugar to a boil over medium heat. Boil, stirring often until candy thermometer reaches 'gel point stage' of 218G (103C) or when spoonful cooled on cold plate wrinkles and does not run together when separated, about 20 - 30 minutes. Note, I do not have a candy thermometer and you really do not need one. You'll tell when it's done as it gets thick to the point where a space is left when you stir with a wooden spoon, only slowly coming back together.

Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the pectin. Pour into prepared pan and let stand at room temperature without disturbing for 18 to 24 hours. Turn out onto a cutting board leaving the baking paper underneath. Slice into cubes, remove from paper and toss in the sugar. Let dry for 3 days. You can eat them right away, I think they say this as they do dry up making them easier to pack up for gifts. Store layered between baking paper for up to 2 weeks.

Chilli and Chips

I really should have blogged this a few days ago as it's a great dish for bonfire night! Nothing original here, I know, but it's yummy and comforting AND my son said these are the best chips he's ever had!! Please tell me he's finally off his McCain's addiction! Success! I got the recipe for the chips and the idea from this year's 'Canadian Living Magazine's Holiday Edition'. I love these so much, my mom sends me one every year as soon as they come out. So many great recipes and good ideas. This years edition particularly has loads of sweets - VEGAN sweets at that! So expect lots of treats in the posts to come :)

A note on the seasoning I used for the chips - my mom also sends me a chilli powder that you can't buy here and I used that. For those in Canada I used Club House brand chilli powder. If you can't find this the ingredients are: chilli pepper, cumin, coriander, salt, oregano, garlic powder and cloves. I think a good replacement would be Discovery Foods' Fajita seasoning. It's surprisingly good with no preservatives or nasties in it.

The chilli is just my super simple and easy recipe, not the one from the magazine. I use tins and frozen corn and even use kidney beans that are already in chilli sauce. Major cheat I know (take that Delia!) But, what can I say? I like the flavour and it's mild enough to give to kids, I add cayenne pepper to ours for the adults.

Chilli and Chips - serves 2:
2 baking potatoes
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp chilli powder (see notes above)
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
black pepper
----------------------------------
1/2 Tbsp corn oil
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 can chopped tomatoes
80g frozen sweetcorn
1/2 can red kidney beans in chilli sauce
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp fine sea salt

Preheat oven to 220C. For the chips, wash and scrub the potatoes and dry. Cut into 1/2" slices and then into chips. Soak in cold water for 5 minutes then drain and rinse and pat dry. Place in a large bowl and toss with the olive oil then mix together the chilli powder, paprika, salt and pepper and toss well with your hands. Spread out on a baking sheet lined with baking paper then bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Turn each chip over then bake for another 10 - 20 minutes, it will depend on how you cut the chips, type of potato etc... you'll see when they are done.

For the chilli, heat the corn oil in a large pot then add the onion, garlic, peppers, cayenne and salt. Fry until the onions are soft. Add the tomatoes, beans, corn and a couple Tbsp water. Cook until thickened up and the corn is cooked. Split the chilli into two bowls and serve with the chips.

Banana Pineapple Muffins

Happy World Vegan Day!!! I was hoping to blog some new, fancy, savoury dish but have just been too shattered lately.... However I felt I had to do something today and had these lined up to blog. I made them awhile ago when I had some bananas to use up and they are really nice, initially they had too much ginger so I've scaled that back. The texture is lovely in these - really light and fluffy, although next time I may try replacing some or all of the rice milk with the drained off pineapple juice as they weren't as 'pineappley' as I would have liked, but still yum :)

Makes 12 muffins:
280g plain flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp salt
175g golden caster sugar
150ml rice milk
200g very ripe bananas
60ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
432g tin crushed pineapple, drained weight of 260g
demerara sugar

Preheat oven to 190C and line 12 muffin holes with paper liners. Whisk together all the dry ingredients. Combine in a blender the bananas, rice milk, vanilla and oil. Blend until smooth. Stir the wet into the dry until almost all incorporated then add the pineapple and fold in until just mixed. Do not overmix. Spoon mixture into the muffin tins - they will be almost full. Sprinkle tops generously with demerara sugar. Bake for about 20 minutes or until risen, golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in tin then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Although, they are nice warm too :)

Creepy Halloween Food!

Severed Fingers

Shrunken Head Punch

Eyeball Pasta

Oh I do love Halloween!! I also love freaking my kid out and certainly succeeded with these! I've been wanting to do something fun with food for Halloween for awhile now, I know I'm a little early but wanted to give you all some ideas before hand. The severed finger cookies are very common, I think I first saw them in a Canadian Living magazine about 25 years ago! However, this was the first time I made them and loved the way they turned out. In fact they were so effective we've all slightly gone off almonds now :)

My favourite is the shrunken head punch - apples are carved, slightly preserved then baked until they shrink -they turned out so well and look great in the "blood". For the photo I just used wine, obviously for children you'll want to use red grape juice or blackcurrant - whatever looks 'bloody'. Original recipe used cloudy apple juice which I had them in first but as they are the same colour as the apples it just didn't look as good.

The eyeball pasta was fun to make, but, a major waste!! I got the idea from BBC Good Food where they used mozzarella balls for the eyes and a bit of basil for the pupil. I decided to replace that with silken tofu but due to the size of my 'scoop' only ended up with 2 eyes out of 1 block of tofu! Obviously I'll use the rest for something else but I was hoping to get lots of little eyes out of it. As it's plain tofu it's not too yummy as is but the idea is to mash it up with the tomato sauce before eating - if you dare!!

Severed Fingers:


112g vegan margarine
14g vegetable fat/shortening (1 Tbsp)
90g icing sugar
20g egg replacer
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
whole blanched almonds
red decorator gel*

In a bowl beat together the marg, sugar and extracts. Beat in the flour, baking powder, salt and egg replacer. Form together into a ball, slightly flatten wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes. Working with half the dough take about 1 tsp of dough and form in to a finger shape. Make sure to start off small here, I made my first ones too big - remember they spread out in the oven. Press an almond in for the nail and slice 3 lines for the knuckle. In some I put some dots for hair but don't think those look as good. Place on a baking paper lined baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool on sheet for 3 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Lift the almond off and squeeze some gel around then place the almond back on. Also squeeze some gel at the end of the biscuit.

Despite the way these look they are very good - a crisp almond infused biscuit, and the best part is actually the nail! The almond gets nice and roasted in the oven - lovely :)

*for the gel, I found mine in Hobbycraft, it was full of E numbers so was sure it wouldn't be veggie but bought it anyway. When I checked them all out online at home it appears to be fine! It's even set with carageenan instead of gelatine. Now, I'm not happy about all the E numbers but not much is used here. If you can't find this or are worried about it, just use seedless raspberry jam - wouldn't look as effective but at least it would taste nice!*

Source: Canadian Living Magazine

Shrunken Head Punch:


8 firm apples
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp salt (yes, that's not a typo!)

OK, no recipe for an actual 'punch' here as you can use whatever beverage you like - mulled wine for adults, juice based for the kids. Note that the shrunken heads are too salty too eat but just too much fun not to make! For the shrunken heads - In a large bowl combine the salt and lemon juice with 1 cup (250ml) water until the salt dissolves. Peel the apples, cut in half lengthwise and spoon out the seeds and core. Turn into the mixture to stop them browning. Using whatever tools you have carve out the eye sockets, nose and mouth - I have a pumpkin carving kit that was perfect for this. Return them to the mixture turning to coat. Leave them in there for 20 minutes to 1 hour.

Pat them dry and place on a wire rack over a roasting tin or rimmed baking sheet. Bake in a 120C (250F) oven for 2 - 3 hours, until they begin to shrink and edges are lightly browned. I think I pulled mine out after 1.5 hours though. Let cool on rack. You can make them ahead and refrigerate now in paper towel lined airtight container for up to 24 hours.

Source: Canadian Living Magazine .

Eyeball Pasta:


No real recipe here, I just cooked up some spinach pasta, spooned over some fresh ready made tomato and basil sauce then added the 'eyes'. For them I used a scoop and carefully scooped out some firm silken tofu. Place them on paper towels and gently pat dry. For the pupils, slice some green pimento stuffed olives and place a black peppercorn in the centre. Carefully (the silken tofu will crumble VERY easily!) scoop out a hole for the olive and place it in. To make them look bloodshot I added saffron threads but you'll need to remove these before eating so it's a bit fiddly - they still look good without them. I also brushed on some glycerin to make the eyes look 'wet' but again that's not essential.

Recipe inspired by: BBC Good Food .

♥

Beanburger with Grilled Pineapple

Well, after all the almost unbloggable posts I decided to go back to an old favorite. This came from an old Tesco Vegetarian magazine - years ago - remember those?? Anyway, it's been tweaked a few times and is one of our favourite burger recipes. I added the pineapple as the Worcester and soy sauce flavours in the patty reminded me of an old 'Hawaiian Burger' I used to do with pineapple. It goes really well with this but feel free to make a 'traditional' burger with lettuce, tomato, onions, ketchup etc... it's equally as good :)

Original recipe was egg free and thus prone to breaking apart a wee bit but as it was initially put inside pita's - not a problem. As I made this one a burger, in a ciabatta roll at that, I added some potato starch to help bind it up a bit more. It was still soft but held together just fine.

Smoky Beanburgers: I tend to get 3 regular size burgers out of this.

50g onion, finely chopped
1 small clove garlic, pureed
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 x 210g tin red kidney beans, 130g drained and rinsed
50g finely grated carrot
40g rolled oats
2 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp soy sauce
1/8 tsp smoked sea salt (or regular)
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1-2 Tbsp potato or cornstarch

Ciabatta, Burger, Pitas OR Wraps (my new favourite!)
Pineapple rings
Vegan Mayo
Very good with "Reggae, Reggae", HP sauce or BBQ Sauce.

Place beans in a large bowl and mash well. Add grated carrot, oatmeal, sauces, salt and paprika. Stir well. Fry the onion in half the oil until soft, stir in the garlic. Add this to the mixture and mix well. If making burgers as opposed to pitas add 4 tsp potato or cornstarch. Oil hands and shape into 2 patties or whatever you like. The great thing about making your own here is you can shape them to fit whatever size bun your using. I made 8 mini ones once to fill pitas for example.

Preheat grill to the highest setting and brush a baking sheet with oil. Place patties on then brush the tops with more oil. Grill 5 minutes one side, flip, brush with oil and grill the other side for 5 minutes. Meanwhile grill the pineapple rings on grill pan until black lines have formed - both sides. Pop the split ciabatta under the grill until lightly toasted, top with the burger, pineapple, mayo and sauce.

♥

Roasted Garlic, Zucchini and Lemon Quinoa with Red Kidney Beans and Pine Nuts

First of all let me explain that I did quite overcook my quinoa here! Oooops....like I mentioned in the post below - losing my cooking mojo!!! So don't cook yours until you end up with quinoa porridge like I did :) Despite that, this was delicious and so nutritious! I was inspired by Susan's recent post over at The Fat Free Vegan Kitchen for Lemony Quinoa with Butternut Squash.

I will just direct you over there for the recipe but I made these changes to suit my tastes and what I had to cook with. I replaced the butternut squash with zucchini as butternut's not my fav and I had some zucchini to use up. Roasted the chopped zucchini, shallot and garlic and fresh thyme with 1 tsp olive oil and salt and pepper for about 20 minutes, added about 65g drained red kidney beans per person to make it more a main dish than side and increased the lemon juice as I do like things very lemony :) I also just cooked the quinoa in water, not stock. At the end I drizzled another tsp of olive oil around just before serving. Lovely, and can't wait to make it again without overcooking the quinoa! (note - changes are for 1 serving)