Super Vegan SUPPERS - ideas for Vegan-uary and beyond!

Never has there been a better time to learn about and experience a plant-based lifestyle.

A lifestyle that's kind to you, to animals and to our beautiful planet.

Whatever you've either heard about Veganism or think about Veganism - perhaps: how hard it is, how boring it might be, how bland the food must be - FORGET IT!!!

Negative perceptions - are just that - PERCEPTIONS - because a lot of industries want you to doubt how good a life Vegans have.

But I'm here to let you in on the world's best kept secret - being VEGAN is WONDERFUL!!!

Of course Veganism is a whole lifestyle, but starting with changes to your diet is the most fun way to begin. So let me show you that it's never about deprivation - more about liberation! Through scrumptious breakfasts, brunches, lunches, suppers and treats.

[All the meals you see here have been made by me, from scratch, in my kitchen at home. I take my inspiration from everywhere and love to be creative too. No time to add all the recipes, so please contact me if something takes your fancy and I'll send you your very own recipe sheet.] 

Much love - Chantal xxx

 

Easy flatbread pizza topped with tomato salsa, griddled veg, olives & pinenuts. Great for a Monday night after work!

Roast pumpkin linguine with sundried tomatoes, chilli basil pesto & croutons. Easy to make, then assemble!

Crispy smoked sesame tofu strips with a sweet and sour vegetable stirfy. Always easy midweek.

Lentil & nut roast (from Fair Foods of Exeter) with paprika parmentier potatoes & a fresh 'rainbow' salad.

A hearty vegan sausage & cider casserole with olive oil mash, romanescu and braised red cabbage. Perfect for Autumn/Winter!

There are hundreds of vegan burgers to be enjoyed! This one is a millet burger with onion relish.

Saturday night can still be curry night! This is a red Thai curry using cucumber, romanescu, courgette & extra chillis cos I like it hot!

And on Sundays something like this mushroom in ale pot pie hits the spot! With roast baby potatoes & steamed seasonal veg. The pastry is Jus-Roll vegan puff.

Spicy courgette rigatone with homemade coleslaw & vegan mayo.

Buddhas delight - a light and healthy vegetable tofu stirfry with steamed basmatti rice.

Stuffed fennel baked in white wine with a piquant tomato sauce.

Tofu and mushroom kebabs in a BBQ marinade with couscous & steamed broccoli.

Smokey mushroom burger with avocado and raw red seeded slaw.

Punjabi style potato curry with green salad, vegan raiita, papadums & mango chutney!

Nut Cutlet (Tesco) with steamed seasonal veg & roast new potatoes.

Mediterranean vegetable linguine with chill basil cashew pesto.

Thai spiced tofu cakes with chilli soy dipping sauce.

Vegetable chilli chimichangas with creamy coleslaw & sweetcorn relish.

Broccoli and peanut bake with seasonal steamed vegetables.

Mock BBQ'd pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw and fresh salad.

Aduki bean curry with a trio of vegan naan breads - coriander, kalonji & peshwari.

Mixed but and lentil loaf with steamed green vegetables.

GF Fusilli with kale and griddled artichokes.

Rich vegetable ratatouille with quinoa & bulgar wheat.

Terriyaki tofu with stir-fried vegetables and noodles.

Savoury root veg oat crumble with steamed vegetables.

Beetroot & beanburger with courgette frittes & rainbow salad.

Sundried tomato and artichoke pithivier with steamed greens.

Spicy root veg and red lentil casserole, topped with soya 'cream'  & served with fresh veg.

Full on vegan fry-up!! (with tofu scramble) Why not?!

And there we have it for Vegan-uary! A month's worth of delicious Vegan supper ideas!

Next up I'll be sharing some incredible new recipes of my own and also cooking from and reviewing tibits new cook book and Vegan Zombie's new cookbook!! Cannot wait!

Enjoy!

Much love, Chantal x x

Halloween Recipe - Roast pumpkin linguine with sundried tomatoes and a chilli, basil, walnut pesto.

Happy Halloween!

I love pumpkin - not quite as sweet as butternut squash and very versatile. But I bet there's a few people who carve one up for Halloween and don't know what to do with the flesh?! Oh! what a waste :(

So, no excuses now, I've come up with this delicious Vegan creation especially for you - perfect for a cold autumnal eve before sitting round the fire and telling ghost stories until the witching hour.........

Enjoy!  

Chantal xx

roast pumpkin linguine with sundried tomatoes & a chilli, basil, walnut pesto

[serves 2 - 4 or 2 generous suppers & 2 light lunches the next day]

Gather:

ingredients gathered - i used half of this pumpkin

Roast veg

Chopped flesh of a small - medium pumpkin.

2 small - medium red onions sliced into 8-12 (leave root intact so slices hold together)

1/2 jaror deli pack of sundried tomatoes in oil - tomatoes cut into 4 pieces each

freshly ground black pepper

salt (I use pink Himalayan - expensive but wonderful and toxin-free)

Pesto

2 cloves of garlic roughly sliced

1 small pack of fresh basil - roughly torn (reserve a few leaves for the garnish)

1 handful of walnuts (approx 10 halves)

1 red chilli deseeded and roughly chopped

extra virgin olive oil or light rapeseed oil (or oil of choice)

Other

150g dry linguine pasta

1 slice stale bread (I used granary sourdough)

A little oil for frying

Create:

Set your oven to high - 220C, 200C fan, GM 7, Aga 'hot'.

1.  Chop the pumpkin, onion and tomatoes, add to a roasting dish, season and pour over about 2 tbsp of the oil from the sundried tomatoes. Mix well to coat.

veg ready to roast

2.  Roast in the oven for approx 25 mins (stiring half way) or until the pumpkin has caramelised around the edges.

3.  Add the pesto ingredients to a blender and whiz to your preferred consistency - adding oil as you go - again to the consistency that you prefer. Season if you wish.

chilli, basil, walnut pesto

4. 15 minutes into roasting your veg bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the linguine according to packet instructions - usually for about 9 minutes for the perfect 'al dente' texture.

5.  Whilst this is cooking heat some oil in a pan and fry the bread cubes until golden brown and then drain on kitchen paper.

granary sour dough bread made incredible croutons

6.  Remove the roast vegetables from the oven, drain the pasta, add to the vegetables, pour over the pesto and stir to coat and mix in well. Serve topped with the croutons, fresh basil leaves and condiments as below!

Enjoy:

I can't resist serving any pasta dish with added Nutritional Yeast Flakes as sprinkles (good for your B12 intake too). I also added some Vegan bacon flavour salad sprinkles - which were incredible with this! And lashings of Vegan mayo on the side made my trio of condiments complete!

Cooks Tips:  This would also be lovely with other cucurbits such as courgettes and with pumpkin other herbs such as rosemary and sage work well roasted with it (although they are very pungent and pumpkin has quite a delicate flavour - so use sparingly).

Learn to love this veg and don't just cook it for Halloween (see why below!)

Health benefits of Pumpkin

• It is one of the very low calorie vegetables. 100 g fruit provides just 26 calories and contains no saturated fats or cholesterol; however, it is rich in dietary fiber, anti-oxidants, minerals, vitamins. The vegetable is one of the food items recommended by dieticians in cholesterol controlling and weight reduction programs.
  
• Pumpkin is a storehouse of many anti-oxidant vitamins such as vitamin-A, vitamin-C and vitamin-E.
  
• With 7384 mg per 100 g, it is one of the vegetables in the Cucurbitaceae family featuring highest levels of vitamin-A, providing about 246% of RDA. Vitamin A is a powerful natural anti-oxidant and is required by the body for maintaining the integrity of skin and mucus membranes. It is also an essential vitamin for good visual sight. Research studies suggest that natural foods rich in vitamin A help a body protects against lung and oral cavity cancers.
  
• It is also an excellent source of many natural poly-phenolic flavonoid compounds such as α, ß carotenes, cryptoxanthin, lutein and zea-xanthin. Carotenes convert into vitamin A inside the body.
  
• Zea-xanthin is a natural anti-oxidant which has UV (ultra-violet) rays filtering actions in the macula lutea in retina of the eyes. Thus, it helps protect from "age-related macular disease" (ARMD) in the elderly.
  
• The fruit is a good source of B-complex group of vitamins like folates, niacin, vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), thiamin and pantothenic acid.
  
• It is also rich source of minerals like copper, calcium, potassium and phosphorus.
  

Halloween Recipe: Death by chocolate with frozen brains... (cake)

Happy Halloween!

This is the best vegan chocolate cake I've made yet! And 'death by chocolate' is an ironic name really cos nothing died in the making of it - as with all that I now create it's dairy-free, egg-free and cruelty-free all round. I guess you could explode, and hence kill yourself, if you ate a whole one - but hey, fun tryin!

Have a spooktastic Halloween 13!

(cue evil laugh effect...) wa ha ha ha haaaaaaa .....

Chantal xx

death by chocolate cake with frozen brains....

[serves 1 to 16]

Gather:

Margarine for greasing (I use either Stork gold block for baking or Fry-Light 1 cal 'butter' flavour)

Cake:

300g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb
1/2 tsp salt
300g granulated sugar (Silverspoon is Vegan)

375ml soya milk (I used Tesco organic uht)
125ml rapeseed oil
7 tbsp seedless raspberry jam
2 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting:

40ml soya milk

85g vegan dark chocolate broken into small pieces (I used Montezumas organic very dark chocolate)

60g icing sugar

1 tbsp maple syrup

fresh raspberries to decorate (mine were frozen from this summer's harvest - hence frozen 'brains'!)

Create:

1.  Heat oven to 180C  /  160C fan  /  Gas 4  /  Aga 'medium'.
     Line and grease a 23cm  /  9" cake tin.

re-usable liner with 1cal spray

2.  Sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl and combine.

3. Add wet ingredients to a saucepan and heat gently until the jam has melted and whisk to combine.

4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix well.

5.  Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and bake mid oven for approx 45 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

6. Leave the cake in the tin to cool on a rack while making the icing. Remove the cake from the tin once cool enough.

lovely rise but note the cracking means my oven was too hot!

7.  To make the frosting, heat the soya milk gently in a pan with the chocolate and whisk until melted, remove from the heat and whisk in the maple syrup and icing sugar.

8.  Leave the icing to cool before icing the cooled cake and top with fresh fruit if desired.

just one more slice? go on, you know you want to...

Cooks tips: This could be made even more chocolatey and 'deathly' by adding chocolate chips in the batter and also on top. I think it would also be incredible made in a chocolate orange version - using marmalade instead of raspberry jam and crystalised orange peel to decorate. Yum!

Recipe: Spicy Thai-style Butternut Squash Soup [Vegan]

Given that British summertime seems to be subzero I am still making soups and warming lunches to make freezing afternoon gardening sessions more bearable! Here's something to warm you up this summer....

topped with pink grapefruit, fresh coconut & coriander!

When butternut squash first became fashionable I just couldn't understand what all the fuss was about - I didn't really like its sweet taste. But knowing it was good for me, I persevered and I'm so glad I did because I think this is now one of my favourite soups. I've never seen soup like this in the shops and so I hope you'll give this a try and that you'll love it as much as I do!

Gather:

15ml / 1tbsp oil (coconut, olive or vegetable)

1 medium onion - chopped

2 cloves of garlic - chopped

1 - 4 Thai red chillis - chopped (4 will be very spicy!)

1 red or orange pepper - deseeded and chopped

1 carrot - peeled and chopped

1 butternut squash peeled, deseeded and chopped

1 lemon grass stalk - split length ways, root intact

600ml veg stock

1 x 440g can coconut milk

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

torn fresh coriander to garnish

Other toppings to try - toasted coconut, slices of fresh coconut and a squeeze of fresh lime, slices of red chilli with some toasted pumpkin seeds, swirl of coconut milk.

Create:

1. gently heat the oil and sautee the onions until softened (about 5 mins)
2. add the garlic and chillis and sautee for a couple of minutes without browning
3. add the remaining vegetables and continue to cook for a couple more minutes
4. add the stock, coconut milk and lemon grass, bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer for approx 20 mins or until all veg are softened
5. remove the lemon grass stalk and blend the soup until really smooth and glossy
6. add a little extra stock if the soup is too thick

Enjoy!

Serve with a garnish and some hot crusty bread. 

Happy (warm) gardening!

Chantal xx