Wild Garlic Pesto

Can you get wild garlic where you are? This time of year I can find it at my farmers market, but I understand that it's easily foraged for in the English countryside, if you know where to look (smell?). But for me, purchased is just fine. It looks like grass, and tastes like strong garlic - we're a garlic-loving household, so that's just fine too. Made this pesto today to go with a barbecue and we couldn't get enough. I didn't plan on posting about this, so forgive the photo quality, but it's so good I couldn't resist -  I'm not going to be humble, this is killer:

Kabocha Kale Pasta + The Concept of Squish

Today's prompt: a dish made with seasonal produce. We shop mainly seasonally these days, getting a weekly organic veg box delivery and topping up at the farmers market, with online shops for tins and dry goods. It works for me, as I don't like to plan meals in advance. I'd rather throw together a grain, a protein (usually, not always), and some seasonal veg - whatever needs to be used up first. So this dish is very typical weeknight fare for us, which brings me to the concept of 'squish'. A friend of mine was talking about her mother, who from all accounts sounds an amazing lady, and how she used to make 'squish' for dinner. What the hell is squish, you ask? It's anything, thrown together in a loose sort-of way; in their house I think it was quite saucy like a savoury pie filling. So they would have, say, chicken squish with mashed potatoes. If I broaden the concept slightly, to include what amounts to hash, I realised that all I eat is vegetable squish! It's like paint by numbers. Take, say, 3 seasonal ingredients, cook them together simply and serve with a starch. Or, let's say you made a root veggie squish in white sauce, then maybe you'd serve with greens or seitan instead. You can prepare the same thing over and over, but never eat the same meal twice. For a busy mom (so, you know, all of us), it's a healthy, no-brainer option that allows my kid to try new seasonal food all the time, in the context of a familiar meal (say, pasta). Like so:

Roasted Kabocha Squash (my FAVOURITE. On the off-chance you don't know how to roast kabocha squash, I just cook mine in chunks in the oven with a little olive oil for about half an hour, at 200C. Leftovers are obviously great for this sort of thing.)

Chestnut Mushrooms

Chopped Curly Kale

Half a red onion

1 clove garlic

Your favourite pasta

Pretty squash. The skins are edible, by the way. 

I roasted the squash ahead of time (while my daughter was enjoying her VERY FIRST DAY at nursery. Sob.), then sautéed the onion, garlic, mushrooms and kale together in a little olive oil and lemon juice, adding the squash in at the last minute just to warm up again. So that's my 'squish', combine with pasta = awesome meal. This is how I want to cook on weeknights; I want it to be easy, tasty, healthy, fast, and not make too many dirty dishes in the process. Is that too much to ask? Squish! 

I think the squash is a hit! Between the two of us, we were lucky to have some left for the pasta. 

Kale Taco Salad (Vegan)

Taco Salad is one of those American dishes that are utterly foreign here, and sometimes I get a real jones for it. Not the traditional version with ground beef and cheese - yuck - but rather this fresh version. 

Today's:

Base of massaged kale, to make it extra vegan. Gives it a nice heft. *See note below. Lettuce works too, obvs.  

Tomatoes

Fibely chopped red onion

Red Pepper

Canned black olives (not optional! These are what make it taste like my mom's!)

Kidney beans

Avocado

If I were in the US, I would also add these 'tamed jalapeños' that are available there - so good if you can find them. 

Dressing:

Start with equal parts vegan mayo and hot salsa, adjust to taste. It's hard to find good ready-made salsa in the UK, but luckily the underwhelming jarred variety works really well here. 

Serve huge portions, with tortilla chips!

*How and why massage kale? You basically work the kale for a while with your fingers to make it tender enough to eat raw. Don't be gentle!

Undressed:

Dressed:

Yum! Taco Salad!

Apple Blackberry Rustic Pie with Buckwheat Crust

This is something of a cross between a galette and a pie, and it's so autumnal I can barely stand it. It's sweater weather on a plate.

It's also inspired by two favourite recipes, the Rustic Tarts from Kim Boyce's excellent Good to the Grain, and the Appleberry Pie from Vegan Pie in the Sky - with a few modifications. Here's how we do:

For the Buckwheat Crust: 

1 cup of buckwheat flour

1 cup of plain flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup of Trex vegetable shortening 

6-8 tablespoons of cold water

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

For all the hand-wringing about homemade pastry, I really don't think it's all that difficult, though it's possible I have lower standards than most. Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl, 'cut in' the shortening with your fingers, working quickly, until it looks like breadcrumbs, as below:

Then add the vinegar and water, (start with 4 tablespoons of water maybe, then one tablespoon at a time), until it forms a ball of pastry. Then wrap it up and rest in the fridge for at least an hour. Kim Boyce recommends folding it a few times after this time, then resting again. It's not the end of the world if you skip this step - I often do. It's also worth noting that she uses rye, and I find this is a good template for any whole grain flour. 

When you're ready, roll it out imprecisely. You could go a bit thinner than I have here, as you want it to fill the pie plate and fold over the filling.  

The Filling:

About 4 cups of peeled cooking Apple chunks. I like Bramleys, and this is about 2 good sized apples.

About 1 cup of blackberries, I used my foraged stash. Frozen is fine and dandy.

About 1 cup of blueberries. I happened to need to use these up - you can use more blackberries to be more seasonally appropriate.

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of water

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

A grating of nutmeg

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

It's basic, and I've made very few modifications, but that's how I like it. It's not overly sweet, and has a satisfying messiness. So you fold the crust over loosely for a rustic galette kind-of feel, and then brush this little mixture over the exposed crust:

1 tablespoon sugar

Pinch of cinnamon

1 tablespoon of non-dairy milk. I use oat. 

Bake at 180C (350F) for 50-60 minutes. My oven is on the fast side. 

Let it cool, then you've got some rustic, autumnal goodness to share with the world. Not too shabby. 

*Sorry about the photo quality! The nights are drawing in faster than I anticipated! 

Vegan Fondue Night (and Sticky Tempeh Bites)

So, we are headed home soon, and it's been difficult to keep up the Mofo mojo while travelling, so all I can say is that I intend to do better once we are back on English soil. I am keeping up on Instagram if you follow us there. Swapping today's prompt for the 9th, because we'll be in midair: a retro recipe. And this is less a recipe than an idea for a meal, vegan fondue night!

We have a proper fondue pot, which was a gift, and some fondue plates I found at a thrift store. I like to start with a plain old nutritional yeast sauce (usually one of Isa's), but you could also make a more traditional fondue sauce with garlic, white wine and your favourite vegan cheese - I think Daiya would work best. But what to dip? Besides bread, because duh. 

Cooked veggies:

Broccoli 

Cauliflower

Carrots (I really like a roll cut for this)

Sugar Snap Peas

Other root veggies like Sweet Potato, or even Swede and Celeriac - just don't overcook them to mush. 

Roasted onions - keep the root base in tact on your sections so they won't fall apart. 

Raw Veggies:

Peppers

Mushrooms

Fennel

Tomatoes, little ones

Radishes

Some selective fruit, like crisp apples.

Some pickled things, like gherkins.

And, my must-have, Sticky Tempeh Bites

A block of Tempeh, cut into bite size chunks

Equal volumes of BBQ sauce and hot water from the kettle (eyeball it; you want enough for a marinade, but not so much that it's drowning - I say the bites should be about halfway submerged). If you have access to a Californian hot sauce called Pepper Plant, you should definitely add some to the sauce. 

Marinate for a while, an hour is fine.

Bake at about 180C (350F), WITH the marinade, flipping a few times. 

Once the tempeh is browned and sticky, it's done! Yum. 

See you when we're back home!

Summer Porridge Parfait

Still enjoying our last blast of summer here in California, so I thought I would share one of our quick, simple, warm weather breakfast go-tos. There's nothing to it!

Uncooked quick oats

Non-dairy yogurt, coconut or soy (as plain as possible!)

A little brown rice syrup

Seeds, nuts and fruit (chia, sunflower, almonds, walnuts, pecans - any kind of berry works really well, or chunks or pear)

I like to layer it up like a parfait. Sometimes I add a drizzle of Udo's oil.  Breakfast is served in under a minute, and it's always a hit! Enjoy the warm weather while you can folks! 

Serious Protein Salad (with Juice Pulp)

 

I seem to share a lot of treat-y recipes on here, but we don't eat pancakes day in and day out (I swear!) - we eat regular food. I guess our regular food sometimes seems a little too boring, to me, to blog about. But maybe it isn't! Let's see! This is just a simple but hearty main-course salad that can be thrown together in no time if you have some leftovers on hand, and of course can be modified in a million ways., loosely inspired by one that my guy ordered at that great vegan place in Cape Town. It's another way to use up some juice pulp as well, which is always nice.

Vanilla Coconut Ice Cream (Vegan)

I'm the mom at playgroup who won't let my kid have biscuits, and brings fruit instead. Other parents sort-of roll their eyes, and go, 'yeah, I used to be like that, with my first'. Point taken, I am an uptight, health-nut, first-time mom, but I hope I don't ever get to the point where I don't at least try to provide a healthier option most of the time. That said, while I don't feel bad about 'depriving' my kid of junk food, I do believe in treats. I believe in dessert. I believe in cake, and pie, and ice-cream. Sometimes we just have to wait until we get home to have it.  

Although relatively-healthy vegan ice cream is easy to come by these days (I counted 5 different kinds at Waitrose this weekend, not counting sorbet), I still like to make it at home. It's so easy - only 5 ingredients in my simplified version. Sometimes I don't mind being precise with measurements, but other times I just want to use a packet of this, a bit of that - this recipe definitely falls into the latter category.

You will, however, need a blender and an ice cream maker. I'm very dubious about recipes for ice cream that don't require a normal ice cream maker - I once killed a food processor with frozen bananas. Anyway...

Strawberry Buckwheat Hotcakes

I've mentioned that the babe is quite impatient for breakfast since she started sleeping through, so on the weekends, I like to sneak downstairs and get started on something nice while she plays with her Dad, gets changed, etc. It's a quiet moment for me, and when they do amble downstairs, there's a lovely hot breakfast for all of us. This is a weekend breakfast.

Uncle Will's Manly Vegan Plantain Chili

My younger brother is a scientist, vegan, and all-around good guy, and he has kindly shared this recipe with me. I was chatting to my family on Whatsapp about plantains, like normal people do, and my brother said he puts them in chili. Say what? - said I. Need. Recipe. Now. It's hearty and smoky (and hot!), with a bit of sweetness from the plantain. It has both beer AND whiskey (how's that for manly?), giving the broth serious depth. I had to make a few substitutions, which are noted at the bottom, partially because I'm a wimp and just reading it made my ears pop, partially to replace a few ingredients I couldn't find locally. But this is as written by Uncle Will, with Californian ingredients:

Citrus & Cinnamon Baked Vegan Spelt Doughnuts

Phew, that's a mouthful. But that's what they are, citrusy spiced, wholegrain, healthy(ish), baked doughnuts, and obviously they are vegan to boot. 

I learned how to make baked doughnuts last fall, because I was obsessed with the idea of serving them at F's first birthday (I was spending way too much time on Pinterest, ended up making 3 dozen for the party). I think I got the first recipe from the PETA website, but quickly modified it into my own creations, most of which are recorded on the back of envelopes. Just recently I was thinking about them again, and how I'd love an iced doughnut that didn't rely on white icing sugar - then I remembered that we live in the era of cashew cream! So these aren't glazed exactly, rather topped with a sweetened, lemony cashew cream. Sold? Ok, here we go:

Basic Spelt Waffles

 

We have waffles fairly frequently - I'd say I make a batch once a week, which can also give us leftovers to freeze if it's a weekday. Thought it only fair to post my basic, basic, basic spelt waffle recipe, although I can't take full credit for it. The original proportions were from Vegan Brunch, just stripped down to make it weaning-baby-friendly. F. loves them - lately she's been reverently whispering 'bwead', and even attempting to say blueberry, but it comes out 'boobooboo'. At which point I die. Without further ado:

 

2 cups of non-dairy milk, in our house usually hemp or soy

1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons of neutral cooking oil, like canola

1 tablespoon brown rice syrup

2 cups spelt flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Spray oil for the waffle iron

 

Mix up the wet ingredients, mix up the dry ingredients, mix 'em together. Use a light touch with the batter, so it doesn't get tough. I find spelt flour can vary in texture quite a bit - if it's too thick, add another tablespoon of milk. It shouldn't be as thick as muffin batter, but slightly thicker than pancakes. Cook as per your waffle iron, generously using the spray oil between batches.

 

You could use some proportion of white flour if these are too whole-grainy, but I admit I like them that way. The babe usually has hers with nut butter and fruit, and I have maple syrup!

 

Top tips:

 

Let your waffle iron pre-heat properly. This only makes, like, 8 waffles in my Cuisinart. You can't afford for 2 of them to be duds.

 

While the iron pre-heats, let the batter rest for a few minutes. It's better behaved that way.

 

Don't overfill the iron. I'd rather have cute frayed edges than messy, overflowing, burning awfulness. Been there.

 

In the event of a waffle iron disaster, they make pretty decent pancakes with a little more milk. Again, it's happened to the best of us...

 

 

That's it! Embarrassing basic, but healthy enough to be in our regular rotation.

Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls

Look, they aren't bakery style, but if you've got some leftover pizza dough - why not make cinnamon rolls! Refined sugar free, unless you glaze them, and ready in 15 minutes. Not too shabby.

Ingredients:

Leftover pizza dough (the batch was made from 500g "OO" flour, 1 teaspoon yeast, 1 teaspoon salt, 325 ml warm water, and about a tablespoon olive oil - this was roughly a third of the resulting dough, two days later.)

2 Tablespoons melted vegan margarine

2 Tablespoons brown rice syrup

Cinnamon

Roll out your pizza dough (about enough for one pizza) into a rectangle. Spread on the margarine and syrup - you'll have too much of both in all likelihood, but you can eyeball it. Sprinkle cinnamon on top. Use more than in the pic above - I just didn't take a pic after because I use my fingers to mix it all together, like fingerpainting.

Roll and slice, bake for 10 - 15 minutes on 180C (350F). Boom, cinnamon rolls. Check them at 10 minutes, just in case, because they can go a bit hockey-puck if they bake too long. If you want to glaze them, by all means use an icing-sugar and soy milk glaze, but I quite like them plain, and obviously then they are ok for little ones. This was the last batch, made with whole grain dough:

Gingerbread Porridge

 

It's a bit embarrassing to call this a recipe - it's more like a good idea, or a template for wild experimentation. It's yum, whatever it is. Great for a cold; the molasses is loaded with minerals and the spices cut through congestion.

 

1 cup of jumbo rolled oats (look, steel cut are delicious, but ain't nobody got time for that.)

3 cups of water

1 tablespoon of Blackstrap Molasses

1 tablespoon Brown Rice Syrup

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

About a teaspoon of cinnamon

About half a teaspoon of ground ginger

A sprinkling of ground clove

A crack of black pepper (black pepper? YES.)

 

To serve:

Non-dairy milk

Vegan margarine

Seeds, nuts, etc.

 

You basically cook it all for 10 minutes, at a good simmer. The spices are to taste, this is just approximately what I end up with. You may like it spicier. I'd only venture that it ought to be cinnamon > ginger > clove > pepper. Nutmeg or Allspice could be fun too.

 

Variations:

Pumpkin Pie: Add leftover cooked squash, blended. Use a little less molasses.

Carrot Cake: Add grated carrot, raisins and walnuts.

 

We've had it twice this week. It's so comforting!

Weekday French Toast: Easy, Lazy, Healthy(ish), Vegan

 

 

There are a few lots and lots of vegan French Toast recipes out there, but this version is so incredibly simple, I can throw it together in 15 minutes on a weekday. It's also relatively virtuous (as virtuous as fried bread can ever be, I suppose) - no sugar or salt for weaning babes, and can be made with just a handful of cupboard staples (at least staples in our house!). This is a small batch. It's a weekday, remember? Can easily be scaled up.

 

A few tablespoons neutral cooking oil.

3 thick slices of sturdy bread. Stale is fine, even better. I used some homemade malthouse from Friday, but Sourdough would also work well. The flimsy, shop bought stuff probably won't work.

Half a cup of non-dairy milk. My top choices would be almond, hemp or soy. We used almond today.

1 Tablespoon chickpea flour

1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed

Generous sprinkling of cinnamon

 

Ok, first things first, before even putting your coffee on, get your pan and oil pre-heating. If the pan isn't good and hot, these bad boys WILL stick. My kitchen is unheated, and in the winter it's freezing in there at night, so I don't judge if my pan is pre-heated by time, but rather by the way the oil behaves. I pre-heat my cast-iron skillet on medium low, until the oil swirls around quickly. Sluggish oil = ruined toast.

 

While your pan is getting good and warm, lazily mix together the milk, chickpea flour, flaxseed and cinnamon with a fork on a shallow serving plate. Give it a minute to come together - if you don't already know this, ground flaxseed adds a viscosity that is not unlike egg, you just have to give it a little time to work its magic. Soak the bread, both sides. Now is a good time to make coffee.

 

 

As appetising as wet bread is, don't taste the batter. Chickpea flour is foul when raw. I found out the hard way.

Fry 'em up! You obviously want them browned on both sides. For me, that's about 3 minutes a side. They shouldn't stick if you follow the golden rules I just made up:

 

Pre-heat well - have I mentioned that?

Don't mess with them until you are fairly certain they will be browned. If you try to flip them too early, or sneak a peek before they are browned, the pan won't 'let go'.

Use a metal spatula, and really be careful to get under there.  

 

Any number of toppings would be delicious, and as they aren't sugary to begin with you can be as decadent or abstemious as you feel that day. I had brown rice syrup and pumpkin seeds with mine, the babe had some banana slices. It's a big hit in our house!

Green Lasagna

My senior year of college, after my initial stint in London, my class schedule was too erratic to go back to my normal, well-paying bank teller job (I worked through college, I'm proud to say), so for a while I worked as a technician in the University Theatre's costume shop. The pay was low, but the hours were flexible and it was possibly the most fun I've ever had while earning money. Anyway, one of the actors once brought us hard-working seamstresses a green vegetarian lasagna, and it was so delicious I've always remembered it! I know it had broccoli and spinach, and probably heaps of dairy (I was vegetarian, but not vegan at the time). This is my vegan version of that memory.

 

 

Ingredients:

Green Lasagna Sheets

Small Block of Tofu, crumbled to resemble ricotta cheese

Cup of cashews, soaked for a few hours, for an Isa Does It-style cashew cream

2 teaspoons cornstarch - for the cashew cream

3/4 cup of water - for the cashew cream

1 medium white onion

3 cloves garlic

A few tablespoons of oil

About 50g plain flour

4 cups of veggie stock (I used powdered)

Big bunch of fresh spinach or other tender greens

Head of broccoli

A few slices of mozarella-style Violife vegan cheese (optional)

Pumpkin seeds

 

Cook the onion and garlic in a few generous sploshes of oil, then add the flour and make into a paste. Slowly add the stock to make a thick, lazy-person sauce. Let it simmer and thicken for a bit. I suppose you could use unsweetened soy milk for a super creamy sauce (or indeed, make a proper non-dairy bechamel), but this was plenty creamy for me and its very easy. Meanwhile, you are steaming your broccoli, chopping your spinach, crumbling your tofu and blending your cashew cream. The cashew cream is from an enchilada recipe in Isa Does It. She uses creamed cashew all over that book, and at first I was like  'nah, that sounds hard', but it isn't! You just blend your soaked cashews with the cornstarch and water. She adds salt, but I didn't because of the babe. And just so you know, I have a rinky-dink blender - you don't need a Vitamix for this one.

 

Layer it up! As long as there is plenty of sauce under and on top of the lasagna sheets, you can't really go wrong. I added some Violife cheese underneath my top lasagna layer, but that is totally optional. If you want it to be purely whole-foods, it's plenty creamy without it. Also, I personally wouldn't put fake cheese on the very top - I just think it never looks very appetising. Top layer of sauce, cashew cream and some pumpkin seeds (another idea ripped off from Isa's enchiladas), then bake in the oven at 180C (350F) for about half an hour. 

Lush. We had it with a simple raw tomato salad on the side. My husband ruined his with truffle oil, which he insists is delicious but I think smells like motor oil.