Vegan Chipotle Carrot & Coriander Soup

Vegan Chipotle Carrot & Coriander Soup

Soups are so comforting, warming and simple. Served with a lovely lump of bread there are few things that can make me feel more like I'm being hugged from the inside than than a big old mug of warmness. As someone who is vegetarian and dairy free, soup in a can is not really something that I can get down with because even when it's veggie, nine times out ten, they put milk all up in it. But that's cool, that's alright, I'll just make my own! Making soup from scratch means that you can miss out the dairy AND all of that extra salt that they use to store it for ages.

This carrot and coriander soup is a spicy little number inspired by the jalapeño pickled carrots that you get in quality Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles. I'm a little bit obsessed with chipotle chilli flakes at the moment and the smokiness is put to great use here.

Vegan Chipotle Carrot & Coriander Soup

Serves 2

Ingredients

500g carrots, peeled & chopped
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp chipotle chilli flakes
2 tbsp soy margarine
1 clove garlic crushed
600g vegetable broth
2 tbsp almond milk

1. Dry roast the cilantro seeds and chilli flakes in the bottom of your sauce pan for 1 or 2 minutes or until you can smell them. Once toasted, remove from heat, and crush in a pestle and mortar.
2. Add margarine to the saucepan along with chopped carrots, garlic and all the coriander seeds. Stir everything around until everything is evenly coated, then cook on a low heat until carrots begin to soften - 10 mins or so. 
3. Add the vegetable stock and season to taste with salt and pepper, before bringing to a boil.
4. Reduce to a simmer, cover and let cook for another 15 mins until everything is tender. Remove from heat and liquidise with a hand blender or food processor. To finish, return to heat and stir in almond milk. Dish up and eat.

Vegan Recipe: Lemon Basil Butter Bean Salad

Mmmm butter beans, also known as lima beans, also known as in my belly. They have a flavour that is so stand alone indulgent that they don't need much doing to them. This makes these little pulses perfect for salads, so I set about making it happen. A little bit of dressing and the mineral rich sources of protein, potassium and b vitamins are ready to eat.

Lemon Basil Butter Bean Salad

Ingredients

250g cooked butter beans
2 medium tomatoes
1 tsp chipotle chili flakes
1 clove garlic minced
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 bunch of basil, chopped
pinch of salt

1. Mix tomatoes, chili, garlic lemon and basil together in a medium sized bowl. 
2. Add butter beans and mix until distributed evenly. 
3. Serve chilled over a bed of mixed leaves.

Vegan Recipe: Oven Baked Red Pepper & Sun Dried Tomato Risotto

I bought some risotto rice ages ago and had big plans to add it to my repertoire. Everyone says how easy it is and that it's really versatile and blah blah blah. So I get the bag home and whip out my recipe book and suddenly realise that traditional risotto requires a lot of stirring. Like a whole lot. Like a where is Sweet Brown when you need her because I shouldn't have to tell you that ain't nobody got time for all that stirring, amount of stirring. And I did remember being at college with an Italian room mate who made risotto once and watched him stir it for what seemed like days. He made it look so simple, but he didn't leave that pan alone for a second.

So I procrastinated. For months. And every time I opened my cupboard, that bag of rice was starring at me like 'Whatcha gonna do?', 'What's that matter? You afraid of a little bag of grain?'.  ENOUGH, I thought. There must be a way to do this and keep my sanity - though I was already talking to vacuum packed food at this point.

Enter oven baked risotto. The no fuss, simple, one stir cousin of the traditional method. I made this recipe this afternoon and it was delicious first time - which is exactly what we like. It took me about 10mins to prep then I popped it in the oven and wandered off to check my Twitter feed. Came back gave it a stir. By the time I had retweeted the latest raw vegan smoothie in a mason jar, it was ready to eat. That's 30mins from start to finish. Now that I can do!  

But it's not all about convenience, this risotto was off the charts. The sweetness of the peppers and the tang of the sun dried tomatoes makes for a beautiful combination that tastes as good as it looks.

Oven Baked Red Pepper & Sun Dried Tomato Risotto

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 finely chopped yellow medium onion
4 sliced garlic cloves
1 finely chopped red pepper
1 cup of chopped sun dried tomatoes (about 15 slices)
2.5cups or 600ml of vegetable stock
250g risotto rice
pinch pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1. On the stove top, cook finely chopped onions and sliced garlic in olive oil until soft in an oven safe pan.
2. Add coarsely chopped red pepper and sun dried tomatoes to the pan and mix well. Add rice to the pan and cook for 1 minute.
3. Add vegetable stock to pan, stir through, cover and place in the oven for 20 minutes, stirring once in between. 
4. Season with pepper and vinegar to taste and serve.

And that's kind of it. Really simple right? Enjoy!

Vegan Recipe: Ginger Cranberry Granola

I'd never made granola from scratch before but it was actually simple, satisfying and pretty tasty if I don't say so myself.   I found that making my own was a really good opportunity to clear out odds and ends of tasty little tidbits from the pantry and I'm looking forward to trying more combinations in the future.

Making your own is also a good way to get high grade granola a a reasonable price. There are lots of different brands and flavours available to buy readymade but the good stuff often comes at gourmet prices and the cheap stuff tends to come with preservatives and questionable ingredients like palm oil. I got packs of the dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds for just 99cents each, and I had all the other ingredients in the cupboard already so it worked out to be cost effective and delicious. And this particular recipe made about 700g of granola which should keep me happily munching for days.

Ginger Cranberry Granola

Ingredients

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup agave nectar or honey
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1 cup dried cranberries

1. Mix oats, seeds, salt, cinnamon and ginger in a large bowl.
2. Add agave nectar and oil to mixture and stir until well coated.
3. Spread oat mix on a baking sheet or tray, and cook at 300F/GasMark2 for 30mins or until a little bit golden brown.
4. Remove oat mix from oven to cool, then add cranberries.
5. Store in an air tight container and eat with milk, I like almond milk, or ice cream!

Vegan Recipe: Easy Watercress & Potato Soup

Vegan Watercress Soup

I adore watercress. It's got such a unique combination of spicy bitterness and is such a versatile green. Delicious for salads but hearty enough to stand up to a bit of cooking. No to mention that it's generally pretty cheap, available almost year round and has some nutritional vitals that are out of this world. Yes and Yum.  

I grabbed a bag the other day and whipped up this tasty bowl of soup that would have served two, it I hadn't eaten it all!

Vegan Recipe: Easy Watercress & Potato Soup

Serves 2

Ingredients

1/4 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp vegan margarine
500 ml vegetable stock
4-5 small potatoes chopped (with or without skins is up to you I generally go with skins)
100 g watercress
2 tbsp almond milk

Instructions

1. Saute onion and garlic in margarine on low/medium heat until onions are soft.
2. Add coarsely chopped potatoes and stock to pan, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover for about 10 minutes or until the the potatoes fall off the fork when you give them a poke.
3. When the potatoes are soft, add the watercress to the pan and stir until the leaves wilt into the spuds. 
4. Add the almond milk and stir for another minute or so.
5. Remove pan from heat and blend mixture into a soup using a hand blender or tabletop blender.
6. Once smooth, return to heat and stir for another minute or so before serving.
7. Grab some bowls and dig in.

Vegan Recipe: Avocado Yeasadilla with Scallion Salsa

Avocado Yeas-adillas & Scallion Salsa

¡Felicitaciones! Hoy es Cinco De Mayo! As a California girl, I don't really need any excuse to eat more Mexican food. I genuinely LOVE it. The spices, the vegetables, the chilies, the cilantro, rice, beans, tortillas and of course, avocados. This quick little rececta is a vegan take on the classic quesadillas that I grew up eating in Los Angeles and San Diego. Avocado gives it that gooey satisfaction while the nutritional yeast adds a slightly cheese flavour to the mix, and the simple scallion salsa refreshes the palette. I promise that you won't miss the grease and it will make a great addition to your vegan sandwich repertoire. Now who's got the margaritas?

Avocado Yeas-adillas

Makes 2

Ingredients

Avovado Yeas-adilla

1 avocado
1 scallion/spring onion
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp lemon juice
1-2 tsp vegetable oil
tortillas (I used tortillas that are about 8 inches in diameter)

Scallion Salsa

1 chopped tomato
1 scallion/spring onion chopped
1 tbsp dried cilantro/coriander

Instructions

1. Place the avocado, scallion, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, nutritional yeast and lemon juice in a blender/food processor and blend until smooth. Place to one side.
2. Mix chopped tomato, scallion/spring onion and cilantro/coriander together in a bowl and leave to one side.
3. On a medium heat, heat 1 tbsp oil in large flat frying pan, big enough to fit your tortillas. When the oil is hot add a tortilla to the pan and move it around to make sure that all parts have a thin layer of oil, then flip and do the same thing on the other side. Reduce heat to low. Add about half your avocado spread to one side of the tortilla and spread evenly. Then fold the blank half of the tortilla onto the part with the spread. Flip and cook until both sides are golden brown. Repeat or second tortilla.
4. To serve, cut yeas-adilla in half and plate up on a bed of salsa with a few scallions on top. Perfecto!

Vegan Recipe: Sweet Bean Pie with Coconut Whip Cream

Vegan Sweet Bean Pie with Coconut Whip Cream

This recipe for Vegan Sweet Bean Pie is inspired by the traditional Bean Pie that has been a staple for followers of the Nation of Islam for generations. It is also part of my personal mission to make friends with silken tofu. BUT, as I found out after I cooked it, this is not actually something that could be eaten by anyone in the Nation of Islam because tofu is made from soy, which is actually a forbidden food for that religion! Clever me.

So I went back and forth in my mind about whether or to post this or not, and in the end I thought it was tasty enough to stand alone outside of it's original religious context. It's got seasonings that are similar to the pumpkin or sweet potato pie and pairs surprisingly well with the coconut whipped cream and coconut water instead of milk. And though beans might seem like a strange thing to make a pie out of, there is plenty of precedent for making sweet treats from beans in East Asian cuisines, specifically the candies from sweet bean paste seen in Japanese, Korean and Chinese cooking. So lets just think of this as an opportunity to expand our beany repertoire.

BEFORE YOU START: If you want to make the coconut whipped cream you will need to place a can of coconut milk in the fridge for a few hours so that it will separate.

Bite Sized Sweet Bean Pie

Vegan Recipe: Sweet Bean Pie

Makes one pie large pie

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked navy beans or cannelloni beans
1 vegan pie shell
120 ml of blended sliken tofu
1 cup coconut water (this will come from the bottom of the separated coconut milk that you use for the whipped cream)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp clove

1 cup thick coconut cream separated from the top of a cold can of coconut milk
2-3 tbsp of powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425F/220c/Gas Mark 7 for 15 minutes.
2. Open your can of coconut milk. Carefully scoop the cream from the top of the can in to a large bowl and let stand. It should separate into about 1 cup of coconut water and 1 cup of coconut cream.
3. Blend the coconut water, should be about a cup, and silken tofu in a bowl until smooth.
4. Add spices and beans, and blend until this is smooth.
5. Pour batter into the pie shell and bake in the oven at 425f/220c/Gas Mark 7 for 15mins.
6. Now is a good time to start on the whipped cream.
1. Grab your bowl of cream, which should now be room temperature and add the powdered sugar and cinnamon.
2. Get a whisk or electric beater and whip until it looks like whipped cream.
3. Let stand until ready for use.
7. Reduce the heat to 350f/180c/Gas Mark 4 and bake for another 35 minutes. 
8. Serve warm with coconut whipped cream on top.

Sweet Bean Pie

This post is shared at Healthy, Happy, Green & Natural Party Hop

Vegan Recipe: Waffles of Justice

Vegan 'Chicken' & Waffles with Southern Fried Seitan

Let's be real: waffles are better than pancakes. It's just the truth. Pancakes are cool for stacking and everything, but when it's time to get the syrup, and the fruit and all the lusciousness out, you don't want some doughy flat like a frisbee thing on your plate, you want a multi-pocketed flavour receptacle so that you can fill every nook and waffley cranny.

This recipe for vegan waffles, makes for deliciously light and moist waffles that are fantastic with any lovely topping you can think of. There were only two of us, so we couldn't get through he whole stack at once, but they kept in the fridge for a couple of days with a bit of toaster reviving for snacking.

Vegan Waffles of Justice

8 - 12 waffles

Ingredients:

3 cups (700 ml) plain flour
2 Tbs baking powder
1-2 Tbs agave nectar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups (700 ml) almond milk
1/3 cup (80 ml) orange juice
1/3 cup (olive oil)

1. Turn the waffle maker on.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together all the ingredients until smooth. Pour batter onto waffle iron and cook until golden brown. 
3. Serve with your favourite toppings - agave nectar, chocolate spread, maple syrup, fresh fruit or even a little bit of Southern Fried Seitan.

Waffles: Best of the Batter Breakfasts

Vegan Recipe: Red Cabbage Spring Rolls with Soy Ginger Dipping Sauce

Red Cabbage Spring Rolls with Soy Ginger Dipping Sauce

I love spring rolls and these colourful vegan cabbage spring rolls are a great treat for any day of the week. Using rice paper there is no need to batter these in egg and this Kikkoman dipping sauce can be used for all manner of dumplings, dim sum or tempura.

Red Cabbage Spring Rolls with Soy Ginger Dipping Sauce

Ingredients for Spring Rolls

100g finely shredded red cabbage
1 medium carrot shredded
1 quarter onion finely chopped
1-2 tsp Kikkoman Soy Sauce
10 -12 rice paper spring roll sheets
2-3 cups of water

Ingredients For Dipping Sauce

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp Kikkoman soy sauce
2-3 tbsp water

1. Combine cabbage, carrots and onion in a large bowl and sprinkle with soy sauce. Let stand while you make the dipping sauce.
2. Mix ginger, vinegar and soy sauce in a small bowl to make dipping sauce. Now let this stand while you cook up the spring rolls.
3. Grab a tray and fill it with just enough water to submerge one rice paper sheet at a time. Place one sheet in the water until it's fully wet, about 5 seconds, then place on to clean flat surface for filling. Scoop out one tablespoon of filling and lay left of centre in a short line. Now fold your spring rolls like a...spring roll or a tiny burrito. Wet the corners to seal.
4. Deep fry spring rolls in vegetable oil (don't use Olive Oil - it makes everything extremely oily) until brown.
5. Remove and place on a towel or rack while you cook the rest.
6. Repeat until you've got about a ten rolls.

Why are vegan sandwiches so hard to find? Vegan Sandwiches are not Unicorns

Seriously though, vegan sandwiches are not that hard.

Dear people that make those pre-made sandwiches for supermarkets and service stations and other places that are designed for busy people on the go, why do you make vegan sandwiches so hard to find. They aren't unicorns or aurora in the desert. They're really easy. Look here's three without even trying, there's hummus with almost any veg you like; the ALT avocado, lettuce & tom; or Grilled veg with cheese-less pesto or anchovy free olive tapenade. There, without even thinking, boom.

Please, for beets sake, stop putting yogurt sauce on everything with hummus. Stop thinking every veggie sandwich needs cheese. The former can be happily replaced by Thai sweet chili sauce. The later is just not true.

And just because I don't eat meat doesn't mean I've got time to pack a lunch whenever I'm out and about. Or that I want to succumb to just eating starch if I'm in a hurry.

Honestly, it's not that complicated. Vegans and vegetarians love sammiches just as much as everybody else.

Don't believe me? Need some ideas? Try some of my recipes and even a book of 100 vegan sandwiches dedicated to the subject.

• Tempeh 'Chik'n' Salad Sandwich by Roots n' Greens
• Tangy Beetroot and Slaw Sandwich by Roots n' Greens
• Roasted Veg with Olive Tapenade on Turkish Flat Bread by Roots n' Greens
• Avocado Caprese Salad from Kathy at Healthy, Happy, Life
• Plantain Poblano Wrap from Happy, Healthy, Life
• Chickpea Salad Sandwiches from Post Punk Kitchen
• Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day book by Tamasin Noyes and Celine Steen

Serena Williams Killing it a Wimbeldon 2013 on a Raw Food Vegan Diet

Number One ranked and easily one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Serena Williams, is currently treading the grass at Wimbledon 2013. After more than 10 years in the game and five Wimbledon plates on the mantle, just about anyone who's watching knows that she's flipping fantastic with the racket. But what a lot of people don't know is that this year, her power serve is powered by a raw vegan diet.

Back in November 2011, Serena joined sister Venus in a raw vegan diet in order to fight symptoms of Venus' Sjogren’s Syndrome.  Since then, pundits and opponents have been noticing that she's been leaner and keener on grass, clay and concrete, playing some of the best tennis of her life. As of writing, she's on a 34 game winning streak and in 2012, she won 'the most WTA singles titles of the season with seven titles which included two grand slam titles at Wbimbledon and the US Open. She also won the WTA Championships and her first singles Olympics gold.'  So far this year, she's been killing it on the WTA tour with 6 titles including the French Open and is looking in fine form at Wimbeldon, strolling into the 4th round without dropping a set.

Obviously, 18 years of professional tennis and countless hours of practice with a superstar sister go a long way, so it cannot be conclusively said that her raw food vegan diet is the secret to her latest her competitive edge BUT it is clear that it ain't hurtin' nothin either. With simply fabulous private raw food vegan chef, Lauren Von Der Pool, in tow we wish her all the best in this year's tour. 

Celebrity Chef Lauren Von Der Pool

Bring on the Beetroot Hummus

Beetroot Hummus

Hummus. Delicious hummus. I'm not sure what I'd do without you. Who ever decided to blend up chick peas and tahini into that delectably delightful dip should be given a medal for contributions to mankind. I commend you for making sandwiches less boring and flat bread more tasty.

There is a bit of a knack to making homemade hummus though. I have definitely had a few rough experiences ending up with a pile of bean mush that never quite got the tahini/chickpea balance right and totally missed that garlicky sweet spot. After a few tries I realised that the real secret to making hummus that tastes as good or better than what you can buy from the shop is: garlic powder. No joke. This makes all the difference. You can actually spread the garlic flavour all the way through your hummus rather than ending up in a situation where you taste nothing until you bite into an overly spicy garlic chunk. Lame. I know it sounds like a cheat, but garlic powder is amazing, seriously.

This vegan beetroot hummus recipe is a take on the classic one of my favourite root vegetables. I like it because it's tasty and purple.

Beetroot Hummus

3 boiled beetroot
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon tahini
juice of half a lime
1 tablespoon olive oil

Cut beetroot into quarters and place in a food processor. Add all other ingredients and blend until you have a chunky mixture. Now it should be ready for dipping, spreading or keeping for later.

I put it on some flat bread, because I love flat bread.

Vegan Sandwich: Tangy Tamarind Beetroot Sandwich

Vegan sandwiches are remarkably hard to come by. Hummus and roasted vegetables are lovely but ever so predictable. I'm not strictly vegan, but as a lactose in tolerant vegetarian, I eat a lot of vegan food. When I'm on the go and in need of a vegetarian lunch time solution, checking the counter at the corner shop or my local deli, I am often left sad and hungry because all their offerings are full of flesh and cheese. Everybody loves a good sammich and I don't see why I should go without! 

You've seen my recipe for Mediterranean Roasted Vegetable Sandwich on Toasted Turkish Bread with Homemade Vegan Olive Tapenade and Tempeh 'Chik'n' Salad Sandwich, my latest addition to my vegan sandwich roster is this tasty little flat bread number with beetroot and 'slaw. Yum!

 

Tangy Tamarind Beetroot Sandwich

2-3 boiled beetroot (boil yourself or use vacum pack style)
1 teaspoon Green Tamarind Pickle
Juice of 1 lemon
approx 1/2 cup water
flat bread - something thick like a chappati or paratha
2-3 tablespoons flat bread
3- 4 leave of Spring greens
1 carrot
1/2 onion
2-3 tablespoons of vegannaise/mayonnaise

1. Slice your beetroot into 1/4 inch thick disks and place in a long bowl.
2. Add your Green Tamarind Pickle, lemon juice and water to the beetroot and let them marinade while you make your coleslaw. Make sure that all the beets are covered.
3. For the coleslaw, finely chop greens, and onion and mix with vegannaise/mayonnaise until fully covered. This s a vey basic 'slaw without too much seasoning as I don't want to over power the beets. Let stand.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and saute the beets until you've got a few crunchy bits and they're hot all the way through. Add the marinade to the pan to make sure they don't dry out...they should be hot and juicy when your done. Remove from heat and let stand while you heat the flat bread.
5. In a hot pan(I used the same one!) add a tablespoon of oil and heat your flat bread until it's hot and foldable.Then remove from heat and assemble you tasty lunch. Place the beets on half of the flat bread, slaw on top and fold over for serious tastieness.

Marinating Beetroot

Sauteed Beetroot with Crunchy Bits

Warming Paratha Flat Bread

Tangy Tamarind Beetroot Sandwich

Huffington Post Reports: A Vegan Diet (Hugely) Helpful Against Cancer

Bell Peppers at the Las Vegas Farmers Market

Bestselling vegan author and wellness activist Kathy Freston, recently reported some pretty conclusive information the benefits of Vegan and Vegetarian diets in The Huffington Post. It seems there's more than just vitamins behind the health benefits of a vegetable diet.

Source: The Huffington Post 

If you're anything like me, the "C" word leaves you trembling. But today there is very good news to report: Research suggests you can improve your odds of never getting cancer and/or improve your chances of recovering from it. Not with a drug or surgery, although those methods might be quite effective. This is all about the power on your plate, and it's seriously powerful.

A 2012 analysis of all the best studies done to date concluded vegetarians have significantly lower cancer rates. For example, the largest forward-looking study on diet and cancer ever performed concluded that "the incidence of all cancers combined is lower among vegetarians."

That's good news, yes. But what if we're looking for great news? If vegetarians fare so much better than meat-eaters, what about vegans? Is that an even better way to eat? We didn't know for sure until now.

A new study just out of Loma Linda University funded by the National Cancer Institute reported that vegans have lower rates of cancer than both meat-eaters and vegetarians. Vegan women, for example, had 34 percent lower rates of female-specific cancers such as breast, cervical, and ovarian cancer. And this was compared to a group of healthy omnivores who ate substantially less meat than the general population (two servings a week or more), as well as after controlling for non-dietary factors such as smoking, alcohol, and a family history of cancer.

Why do vegans have such lower cancer risk? This is fascinating stuff: An elegant series of experiments was performed in which people were placed on different diets and their blood was then dripped on human cancer cells growing in a petri dish to see whose diet kicked more cancer butt. Women placed on plant-based diets for just two weeks, for example, were found to suppress the growth of three different types of breast cancer (see images of the cancer clearance). The same blood coursing through these womens' bodies gained the power to significantly slow down and stop breast cancer cell growth thanks to just two weeks of eating a healthy plant-based diet! (Two weeks! Imagine what's going on in your body after a year!) Similar results were found for men against prostate cancer (as well as against prostate enlargement).

How may a simple dietary change make one's bloodstream so inhospitable to cancer in just a matter of days? The dramatic improvement in cancer defenses after two weeks of eating healthier is thought to be due to changes in the level of a cancer-promoting growth hormone in the body called IGF-1. Animal protein intake increases the levels of IGF-1 in our body, but within two weeks of switching to a plant-based diet, IGF-1 levels in the bloodstream drop sufficiently to help slow the growth of cancer cells.

How plant-based do we need to eat? Studies comparing levels of IGF-1 in meat-eaters vs. vegetarians vs. vegans suggest that we should lean toward eliminating animal products from our diets altogether. This is supported by the new study in which the thousands of American vegans studied not only had lower rates of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, but significantly lower cancer risk as well.

This makes sense when you consider the research done by Drs. Dean Ornish and Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn; they found that a vegan diet caused more than 500 genes to change in only three months, turning on genes that prevent disease and turning off genes that cause breast cancer, heart disease, prostate cancer, and other illnesses. This is empowering news, given that most people think they are a victim of their genes, helpless to stave off some of the most dreaded diseases. We aren't helpless at all; in fact, the power is largely in our hands. It's on our forks, actually.

Waste Not Want Not Vegan Dumpling Recipe

My Mother always taught me not to waste my food. 'Finish your plate' she'd say. 'Don't let that go to waste' she'd say. 'You to eat your food...you know there are children starving in Africa right now...' she'd say....'You gonna eat that?' my Dad would say.  We would eat leftovers until there wasn't anything left over at all and my Mom was the queen of reinvention. It didn't feel like some lesser knock off of the original meal but something totally new and equally tasty. Remembering that you're saving money as well as helping to fight climate change by saving some of the 7.2 million tonnes of food waste that goes to land fill in the UK every year.

These days I look at leftovers as a bit of a challenge. I ask myself 'What can I do with what I've got?' Today I looked a a little bit of left over Leek & Potato soup and thought, 'how can I step up to the challenge of stretching this bit of soup in to something substantial enough for my dinner time food meal?' Then in came to me, like a sticky blob...dumplings!

Vegan Dumplings over Steamed Cabbage 

Vegan Dumplings in Leek & Potato Soup 

The Soup Stretch

1 cup of left over thick Leek & Potato Soup
1/2 cup Soy milk
1/2 cup Vegetable Stock

The Dumplings (recipe from Veg Web)

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 cup soy milk
2 tablespoon vegetable oil

1. Mix your soup stretching ingredients together in a sauce pan on a low heat.
2. In the meantime, prepare the dumplings in a large bowl. First mix dry ingredients together with minced garlic. Next add milk, oil and stir until you've got a stick ball of dough. Break off spoonfuls of dough and add to the soup. Cover and cook for 10 -15 mins. 
3. Serve over steamed vegetables for a delicious winter warming meal.

Vegan Recipe: Thai inspired Roasted Squash over Satay Sauteed Peppers with Coconut Rice

Roasted Squash over Satay Sauteed Peppers with Coconut Rice

One of my favourite things about being vegetarian is looking forward to the new produce as it comes into season. Strawberries in summer. Greens in the spring. When I think of autumn, I am most excited about the abundance of pumpkins and squash! I like lots of different types of gorgeous gourds, but butternut squash is easily my favourite. It's so versatile, easy to cook and easy to find that you can't really go wrong

For this butternut squash recipe I took the commonly seen flavour combination of butternut squash in coconut curry and got a little crazy by putting the coconut into the rice. I know, I know, what can I say I'm a rebel.  So then I thought, what is the awesome sauce that would make coconut rice truly rocking? Satay. 'But you can't make satay sauce if you haven't marinated it overnight' you say. To which I reply: Let's do this thing.

Thai inspired Roasted Squash over Satay Sauteed Peppers with Coconut Rice

This is a recipe in 3 parts and will take about 40-60mins from start to finish and it was well tasty...

Roasted Squash Ingredients

1 butternut squash
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp all spice

Coconut Rice Ingredients

1 cup of rice
1 cup water*
1 cup coconut milk *

*This is a bit of a ball park, the trick with rice is to pour double the amount of water into the pot as rice by volume and then cook it off. So when you pour the rice into the pan, look at how high it is on the side and the pour the water/liquid so that it's double that height.

Satay Saute Ingredients

1/2 tbsp peanut oil
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp sweet soy sauce
1 - 2 heaped tbsp of crunchy peanut butter
1/2 small chopped onion
1 small chopped yellow or red pepper

1.  Heat the oven to Gas Mark 7. Cut your squash open length ways and then scoop out the seeds. Next score the squash with a knife and then rub in the olive oil. Sprinkle the spices on top and then pop it in the oven for 30 - 40 mins or until soft and brown.
2. For the rice you, cook like normal rice but instead of using water you use diluted coconut milk. So pour the rice into a sauce pan, then add the liquid and then simmer until cooked through. Be careful to keep stirring the rice as coconut milk is more likely to increase the chances of the rice burning.
3. Now to the satay sauce. I generally use the last bit of the peanut butter jar, or a few peanut butter jars to do this which means I can put all of the sauce ingredients into the jar and then just shake them up...which makes me happy. Once the sauce is shaken, you can add your peppers and onions, and then shake it a little bit more. I treated my sauce more like a coating, but if you want liquid then you could add some coconut milk.
4. To make my satay saute, I heated about a tablespoon of peanut oil in a skillet and sauteed the saucy peppers & onions until aldente. Whilst cooking, the satay went a sort of dark brown and started to make crunchy bits, so I made sure to keep stirring as I went along. 
5. By the time the peppers are cooked and the rice is ready to eat i.e. when the liquid is absorbed and the rice is soft, you should be able to remove the roasted squash from the oven and serve. Yum yum.

5 Totally Sweet Vegan and Vegetarian YouTube channels

I love YouTube but it's not all Korean pop music and honey badgers. There are some crucial resources made by some awesome people on the web. I recently found myself tripping and clicking through the vlogosphere and though that I would share some of the wonderful and inspiring vegan, vegetarian and raw food YouTube Channels I found. It's such a great resource for research, recipes, restaurants and recommendations. Post a link if there's anyone I've missed.

Manjula's Kitchen
Manjula's Kitchen has more than 12,000 subscribers to her full of start to finish vegetarian and vegan Indian food recipes. With her casual style and warm smile, Manjula reminds me of spending time with my grandmother in her kitchen when I was growing up. Her recipes are accessible and clearly explained, and with more than 200 uploads there are plenty to choose from. This Spinach Chaat Recipe looks scrumptions and she's got the whole thing on her website too. Nice one Manjula.

The Vegan Zombie
John's recipes are designed to prepare you for the upcoming zombie apocalypse.  He cooking has a lot of variety with some really good spice mixtures. The recipes range from advanced - home made seitan - to beginner - tempeh kebabs - but they all look tasty. Toss in a couple of zombie jokes, some pretty sweet tattoos and regular pop music references, you've got a wicked YouTube channel.

The Sweetest Vegan
This is Soul Food with a vegan Southern Belle. The recipes are home cooking with hot sauce and lots of a healthy dose of southern hospitality. Her most recent project is translating the Paula Deen's 'Southern Cooking Bible' in to vegan. Her recipes have all the love and flavour of traditional soul food with less grease and mo' veg. Check out her 'Baked Fried Green Tomatoes'

The Vegetarian Society of Hawaii
This is a wonderful resource for lots of great amazing lectures on all things vegan and vegetarian. From recipes, to business, to health and the environment they hold a monthly series of lectures and upload all of them. Speakers come from all over the world to enlighten their veggie brothers and sisters. In total, they have more than 125 of the best online vegetarian speakers in the world available online for free.

The Cool Vegetarian
This is a kind of magazine channel, with lots of interviews and discussions on vegan, vegetarian and raw food.  Really personable and honest, there are lots of great stories from people who can are living and loving a healthy and sustainable diets. My favourite video is easily this interview with Sunny Griffin.

Vegan Recipe: Chinese Five Spice Spring Rolls

Vegan Five Spice Spring Rolls

Chinese Five Spice is easily one of my favourite seasonings and I've always been a big fan of spring rolls, so when I came across Nigel Slater's recipe for Five-Spiced Pork Buns in his Real Fast Food book, I couldn't resist putting a vegan spring roll spin on it. And since I'm looking at Granose's Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausages for my Meet Your Meat Substitutes series, it seemed like a great opportunity to put the mix to the test.

The sausage mix is highly absorbent with a neutral flavouring making it perfect for Nigel's rich seasoning and really easy to work with as spring roll filling.

On this occasion I munched the spring rolls as my dinner with a nice side of Kung Fu Collard Greens, but I'm confident that these would also make an amazing wow factor vegan dinner party canape or starter.

Vegan Chinese Five Spice Spring Rolls Recipe

1 sachet of Granose Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausage Mix
143 ml water
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons of five spice powder
2 tablespoons of runny honey
fresh black pepper
10 - 15 rice paper spring roll shells
2-3 cups of water
1 cup of bean sprouts (This could easily work with cooked carrots or cabbage or both as well)
Vegetable oil for frying

1. Pour the sausage mix into a bowl, add 143ml of water and let stand for 10 mins.
2. In the mean time, finely chop your garlic add to the mix with soy sauce, lemon juice, fives spice powder, honey and a pinch of pepper. Mix until all the flavours are evenly distributed.
3. Saute the bean sprouts until they're soft and then add into to mixture.
4. Grab a tray and fill it with just enough water to submerge one rice paper sheet at a time. Place one sheet in the water until it's fully wet, about 5 seconds, then place on to clean flat surface for filling. Scoop out one tablespoon of filling and lay left of centre in a short line. Now fold your spring rolls like a...spring roll or a tiny burrito. Wet the corners to seal.
5. Deep fry spring rolls in oil (don't use Olive Oil - it makes everything extremely oily) until brown.
6. Remove and place on a towel or rack while you cook the rest.
7. Repeat until you've got about a dozen rolls.

Vegan Recipe: Red Pepper Tapenade with Harissa

This vegan recipe for Red Pepper Tapenade is inspired by my recent discoveries of Ross Dobson's book Market Vegetarian and the wonders of harissa. I love olive tappenade and I love red peppers, so I had high hopes for Dobson's variation when I was reviewing the book. Add to it just a tiny drop of smoldering harrisa paste for a lovely warm hum of heat and I was in dipping heaven.

Red Pepper Tapenade with Harissa

 Red Pepper Tapenade with Harissa (Vegan)
1 Red Pepper
1 Garlic Clove
2 tbsp Olive Oil
a drop (literally just a touch) of harissa paste
salt and pepper to taste

1. Roast pepper and garlic in oil at Gas Mark 7 for 15 mins or until the skins are black. 
2. Remove pepper from the oven and let cool.
3. Put the pepper in the blender with a drop of harissa and a blend. 
4. Season to taste and serve as a dip or a spread.

Easy, delicious and the kind of thing that if you served it up at a party and told everyone you made it from scratch, they'd be well impressed.

Meet Your Meat Substitutes: Mock Duck Review

When I started on my Meet Your Meat Substitutes journey to try out high protein vegan and vegetarian meat replacements, I knew that one day, a duck would cross my path, specifically a Mock Duck. I won't deny it, I was little bit scared of this one. Alternatives to mince, chicken, burgers, and sausages have become so common place that we take them for granted, but something as gamey as duck...and in a can? That is a bold ask. But, MYMS is about trying new things, expanding my palette and trying what's tasty, so here we go.

First question: what exactly is Mock Duck? Well, it's wheat gluten marinated in a soy based sauce and shaped into duck style pieces for use as a duck meat replacement. It was originally developed by Chinese monks and it is now available throughout the UK courtesy of the fine folks at GranoVita. And it's vegan.

Now to answer the next question: is it any good?

Review: Good
'Meatiness':
The meatiness of this meat substitute is most manifested by the it's fibrous texture, which I'll get to in a bit, and the fact that it's quite filling. It looks delicate but it's actually got a lot of body and can be marinated overnight like one would with chicken. This, combined with the dark colour of the pieces, pretty much explains where the 'duck' reference comes from.

Yep, mock duck out of the tin looks like it's been plucked!

Texture:
I have two words for you on this: Plucked duck. Yes. It's true. Your pieces of mock duck will look as if they have been plucked before they were canned. At first, I found this to be both perplexing and off putting, but as this has been a part of the mock duck experience since it was a specialty item in Chinatown supermarkets, I've decided that it's charming. Once you get past the 'skin', the fibrous texture of the gluten is similar to what you would expect when you pull apart poultry. And each piece is firm and bouncy to the touch.

Taste:
Discussion on the web about Mock Duck seems to show it as a bit of a marmite meat substitute: some people love it and some people just hate it.  And like I said, I was a little bit nervous about this one. But after the first bite, the mystery was over because the truth is that mock duck tastes almost exactly like tinned Braised Tofu. And if you've never had braised tofu, then I should explain that it's got a smokey salty almost mushroomy taste. I like it, but it might not be your thing.

Mock Duck Kebabs with Grilled Mushroom on the side

Versatility:
I was having a bit of busy week and so tried mock duck in a little Grilled Mock Duck Kebab meal and in a Quick Mock Duck Coconut Stir Fry.  Both recipes are quick and easy. For the kebabs, I added the some of the marinade from the tin, soy sauce, pepper and garlic. Then I stuck them onto wet skewers, and put them on the grill. Voila! For the Stir fry, I sauteed mock duck, onions, peppers garlic and mushrooms until the onions were soft and then smothered the whole thing in coconut milk. It took about ten minutes and was mighty nice. If you've got more time, there are lots of good recipes across the web for things like Mock Duck Pancakes, Mock Duck Cashew Stir Fry, or Granovita's own Mock Duck Ragu. Fried, steamed, stewed, there are tons of things that can be done with mock duck, so it definitely scores highly there.

Overall, I was surprised by mock duck because I wasn't really expecting to like it. But it's pretty good and I'm actually looking forward to trying out the pancakes sometime soon.