Tag Archive | dairy free

♥ Creme Cheeze

Creamy smooth, mildly cheezy with a slightly acidic twang – Creme Cheeze is super versatile! Spread it on a bagel, stir it into hot pasta or pipe it into a cherry pepper. Just make sure you make it in advance as it will need to firm up in the fridge overnight.

Ingredients:

75 g of vegetable shortening
½ x block firm silken tofu (drained and cut into smaller pieces)
2 x tbsp. non-dairy yoghurt
1 x tsp apple cider vinegar
1 x tsp salt
1 x tbsp. nutritional yeast

Method:

On a low heat, completely melt the vegetable shortening in a small saucepan (but don’t allow to get too hot).
Take the pan off the hob and carefully add the tofu and mash into the shortening with a fork. It will sizzle but this is fine – the heat will help to take away some of the beany taste.
Add the other ingredients and stir together.
Whizz together using a hand blender until smooth.
Pour into a container, cover and chill overnight.

Flash-Gordonette…x

♥ Chocolate and Lotus Spread cinnamon cake

Aug12

It’s my birthday at the end of the month so I’ve been trialing a few cakes. I want to try and persuade my work colleagues that vegans don’t just live off dust 😉

I’d heard very good things about the new Lotus Biscoff Spread via the Vegan Groups on Facebook, so when I saw a jar in the shops I couldn’t resist. Facebook was right, this stuff is gorrrrrgeous! So gorgeous in fact that I had to invent a cake to put it into. This one is definitely a contender for the birthday bake-off!

Chocolate and Lotus Spread cinnamon cake:

Ingredients:

¾ x cup vegan marg
¾ x cup sugar
3 x tsp “No Egg” in 6 tbsp. water
4 x tbsp. soya milk
1 x tsp cider vinegar
1 ¹/₃ x cups self-raising flour
1 x tsp baking powder
2 x tsp cinnamon
2 x tbsp. Lotus Biscoff spread (plus extra for decorating)
2 x tbsp. Vegan friendly chocolate spread (have a Google search if you don’t already have a favourite brand!)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180^oC
Put the marg, sugar, No Egg, soya milk and cider vinegar into a bowl and whizz up until a pale batter is formed (it might look slightly “curdled” but don’t worry).
In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and cinnamon together.
Add the dry ingredients to the batter a spoonful at a time and fold in until thick and thoroughly mixed.
Pour half the mixture into a well-greased baking pan. Dollop in blobs of the Lotus Spread and chocolate spread. Pour the rest of the mixture on top and swizzle around using a skewer.
Bake for 35 – 45 minutes, depending on the dimensions of your tin. A skewer will come out of the centre of the cake clean once cooked. If the outside of the cake is browning too fast, wrap in foil.
Allow to cool in the tin for 10mins before turning out onto a wire rack.
Once completely cool, you can decorate. Using a butter knife, I alternated blobs of Lotus and chocolate spread to make a pretty pattern.

My favorite part of this cake is the slightly chewy crust and of course the Lotus – chocolate spread topping. Enjoy!

Flash-Gordonette…x

Green pasta bake

Mar12

I love it when the hubby doesn’t need feeding. He’s not a massive pasta fan so it gives me the opportunity to binge on the stuff. He also hates cauliflower, mushrooms or anything green so I usually take advantage of the opportunity to make my “green pasta bake”.

Kale, cauliflower, peas, broccoli, broad beans and mushrooms – whats not to love? Especially since it’s topped with a delicious “Parmesan”crust and devoid of any animal products.

I got two portions out of the following recipe (one has gone into the freezer), but you could easily feed four people if you bulk it out with a nice side salad or some garlic bread.

Green pasta bake recipe:

Ingredients:

Sauce

½ head large cauliflower
½ x cup chopped kale
1 x small onion
2 x tsp minced garlic
1 x tbsp olive oil
½ x medium red chilli pepper
1 x stock cube
Salt and pepper to taste (I prefer not to add salt).

Veggies, pasta and mushrooms:

½ x cup peas
1 x cup broccoli
½ x cup broad beans
3 x cups sliced mushrooms
1 ½ x cups pasta shells (other pasta shapes are fine but you may need to alter the quantity).

Topping

1 x cup plain soya yogurt
1 x cup breadcrumbs
“Parmesan” – 1 x cup of cashews with ½ x cup of nutritional yeast.

Method:

Break the cauliflower into florets and add to a pan of cold water. Crumble in the stock cube and bring the water to a boil. Continue to heat until the cauliflower is tender.
Whilst the cauliflower is cooking, chop the onion and fry in the olive oil along with garlic and chilli pepper. Fry for a few minutes before adding the kale. Once the onion is soft and translucent, turn off the heat.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the cauliflower from the stock and put into a liquidizer along with the onion, garlic, chilli, kale and any oil that’s left in the pan. Add two cups of the stock and whizz until you have a thick, smooth, creamy green sauce.
Fill a medium sized pan half full with water and bring to the boil. Add the pasta. Once the pasta begins to soften, add the broccoli, peas and broad beans. Cook until the pasta is on the chewy-side of “el dente”. You don’t want to overcook any of the ingredients as the dish still needs to be baked. Drain.
Whilst the pasta etc is cooking, quickly fry the mushrooms. Again, don’t overdo them.
Add all the pasta and veggies to the mushrooms, then add the sauce. Heat through whilst stirring and keep heating and stirring until the sauce thickens and begins to bubble.
Pour into a 1 large baking or 2 small dish(es).
Top with a layer of yoghurt. Sprinkle with a layer of breadcrumbs and then generously dust with the Parmesan.

Bake in the oven for 10 – 15 mins at 180^oC – just until the top turns golden brown and the sauce begins to bubble round the edges.

Tuck in!

Creamy, indulgent, satisfying and yet full of good stuff. The hubby doesn’t know what he’s missing out on 😉

Flash-Gordonette…x

Ultimate nachos

Mar9

# Nacho nacho woman, I want to be, a nacho woman! #

I love nachos. But it makes me sad that I can never have them when we go out anymore. Well I could, but I would have to ask for no
cheese, no sour cream and to be honest I probably wouldn’t even risk the guacamole (the bottled, un-refrigerated stuff usually contains dairy). So if a veg*n chilli isn’t available on the menu, that would leave me with chips and maybe some tomato salsa. Hmpft.

However, that doesn’t stop me chowing down on nachos of epic proportions at home! Introducing my Ultimate Nachos… tortilla chips, mouth-watering “chilli sin carne”, lashings of realistic cheezy sauce and a generous helping of sour cream. Definitely one of my favorite weekend treats!

Chilli sin carne

I like to use as many different types of tomato as possible to give a nice depth of flavour. Tomato ketchup is my dirty secret ingredient – perfect for adding a hit of sweetness.

Ingredients:

1 x tsp oil

1 x medium onion (chopped)

1 x pepper

4 x average sized fresh tomatoes

2 x tsp minced garlic

2 x tsp chopped red chilli (the strength is up to you!
I opted for a medium spice)

2 x tsp tomato puree

2 x tsp smoked paprika

1 x tsp dried mixed herbs (unless you have some nice fresh coriander/cilantro to hand)

1 x tsp sugar

1 x tin black turtle beans – drained (you can also use red kidney, but I’m not a big fan)

4 x mushrooms (quartered)

1 x tin chopped tomatoes

1 x cup grated veggies* (optional)

2 x cups frozen soya mince

2 x tbsp tomato ketchup

1 x tsp soy sauce

Juice of one lime

Black pepper to taste

*I always have a bowl of grated veggies in my fridge, usually consisting of any combination of carrot, white cabbage, red cabbage, celeriac, suede etc. This comes in so incredibly useful for bulking up meals – it can be a side, part of a salad, sandwich filler, a base for soup or can easily be turned into coleslaw by adding some vegan mayo.

Method:

Heat up the oil in a large frying pan and add the onion. Fry until translucent and soft.

Add the pepper and continue cooking until soft.

Add the garlic, chilli and fresh tomatoes and cook until heated through. Keep stirring to prevent the garlic and chilli from burning.

Add the tomato puree, dried herbs, smoked paprika and sugar and continue to cook and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Add the black beans, mushrooms and grated veggies and cook for around 2 minutes before adding the tin of chopped tomatoes.

Cook until simmering.

Add the soy sauce, ketchup and soya mince and keep cooking until the mince has completely defrosted and heated through. Add water if the chilli seems too dry.

Take off the heat and stir in the lime juice and black pepper if using.

Tip: As with most tomato based dishes, this chilli is best if left to cool for a few hours (or better still, overnight) so that the flavours have chance to develop. You will need to reheat however before adding to the nachos.

Eazy Cheeze sauce

I’ve seen a few cheeze sauces knocking around the internet which use carrot and potato as a base. This is my version but I quick
Google search will bring up many more!

Ingredients:

1 x large carrot (peeled)

2 x small potatoes (peeled)

½ x cup nutritional yeast

½ x cup olive oil (don’t use virgin!)

½ x teaspoon mustard (or horseradish or wasabi)

½ x tsp black pepper

½ x cup soya milk

¼ x tsp garlic powder

½ x tbsp fresh lemon juice

¼ x tsp white miso paste

Method:

Pop the carrot and potatoes into a pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and continue to heat until the soft enough to
mash.

Add the carrot, potatoes and all other ingredients to a food processor and whiz until smooth and uniform in colour. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides.

Transfer to a pan and heat until the sauce bubbles. Stir the whole time using a silicone spatula. Taste great cold or warm!

Construction

Ingredients:

Chilli sin carne, eazy cheeze sauce, tortilla chips, vegan sour cream and a melt-able vegan “cheese”.

Method:

1. Arrange a layer of nacho chips onto a plate and pop under the grill just long enough for the edges to just start turning a pale golden brown. Don’t overdo or else they’ll burn during step 5.

2. Dollop a healthy serving of hot chilli onto the top of the nachos. I like to leave an outer ring of un-topped nachos for presentation purposes. Plus it makes the chips easier to pick up and dip.

3. Add spoonful’s of the eazy cheeze sauce onto the top of the chilli.

4. Add a nice melt-able vegan “cheese” of your choice onto the top.

5. Pop under the grill until the vegan cheese has melted, the cheese sauce has gone bubbly and the edges of the nachos have started to go brown.

6. Add blobs of vegan sour cream (I used Toffuti). If I’d have had some spare jalapeños to hand, I’d have added some of those as well. Same goes for avocado… live and learn!

7. Enjoy with a nice cold beer! I would very much like to recommend Innis and Gunn: http://www.innisandgunn.com – which is my all time favourite beer, even before I turned veg*n!

This recipe will comfortably create either 4 portions of nachos as an appetizer, or 2 healthy portions as a main meal. And if you
have any leftovers, you can stick them on a pizza base and have an ultimate nacho pizza – hell yes!!!

Flash-Gordonette…x

♥ Vegan sticky toffee pudding cupcakes

Feb2

So, I’m attempting to type this on a tablet, which is really ANNOYING no judging me for any typos or formatting errors…!

Here you have it, my vegan sticky toffee pudding cupcakes with a salted caramel sauce filling, vanilla buttercream and salted caramel chip sprinkles.

Remembering back to my childhood days l couldn’t resist turning these little gems into ‘butterfly’ cakes and I’m glad I did because I think they turned out super cute. I made these to take into work but didn’t tell people that they were devoid of eggs and dairy. They went down very well and people were still talking about them the next day!

I couldn’t find a recipe that I really liked the look of so I adapted several including a couple of non-vegan ones. I’m glad to say that I was very happy with the results. Rich, moist (hate that word!) and well and truly sticky!

Vegan sticky toffee cupcake recipe

Cupcakes:

Adapted from this recipe:

Ingredients (makes 12 depending on the size of your cases)

55g vegan marge
130g Light Brown Sugar
1/4 cup apple sauce (homemade if you can! )
90g Plain Flour
1 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
25g Golden Syrup
45g Treacle
150g Pitted Dates
150 ml Boiling Water
1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC
Pop the dates, hot water and vinegar into a food processor and blend until smooth. Set aside.
Cream the marge and sugar using an electric hand mixer, until light and fluffy and pale.
Mix in the treacle and golden syrup until smooth and fully combined.
By hand, stir in the apple sauce.
Sieve the flour, baking powder and bicarb and gently fold one tablespoon at a time into the margy-butter-syrup mix.
Fold in the date mixture into the cake batter until thoroughly combined. The mixture should be beautifully thick and airy.
Distribute evenly between your cake cases and pop into the oven. They should take around 10 to 15 mins but keep an eye on them. When done, an inserted skewer should come out clean.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Caramel sauce and chips:

I basically, followed this lovely recipe but doubled up the mixture.

I changed the method slightly in order to make the sauce for the cupcakes as well as caramel chips for decoration.

Ingredients

2 cups vegan margarine
4 cups sugar
4 cups soy milk
2 cups golden syrup
2 tsp vanilla

Method

Grease and line an 8 x 8 inch baking tray with parchment
Place all ingredients (except vanilla) in a large saucepan. (Large because the sauce WILL boil up!)
At this stage, pour half of the caramel into a bowl and stir in the vanilla and 1/4 cup of soya milk. Leave to one side – this is the sauce for the center of the cupcakes.
Bring ingredients to a boil, keep stirring.
Cook over medium heat while stirring until the caramel reaches 245 degrees F. (If you don’t have a thermometer, use the soft ball test)
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into lined baking pan.
Allow to cool and use scissors to snip off little chips, ready to decorate your cakes with. To stop them sticking together I kept them in the freezer until I was ready to use.

Buttercream:

We’re back to this recipe for the buttercream:

Simply replace the butter for vegan marge:

Ingredients:

125g vegan margarine
250g Icing Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Method:

Cream the marge in a food mixer.
Add the icing sugar and blend on a medium speed on your mixer until completely combined (cover with a tea towel to prevent a cloud of icing sugar from covering your kitchen!)
Scrape down the bowl, add the vanilla extract and continue to blend for one more minute.

Assembly:

When the cupcakes are cooled – and not a moment sooner- use a teaspoon to carve a circular piece of cake out of the middle of the top of each. Keep the little circles safe as you’ll be cutting each in half to create the butterfly ‘wings’.
Next, add the caramel to the hole in each cake. I would recommend adding just a teaspoon’s worth to begin with to make sure there is enough to go around, then top up with whats left.
When you’re done being saucy, its time to add the buttercream. I used a piping bag to be posh.
Finally, position your wings into the buttercream and decorate with the caramel chips.

The next time someone tells me how they can’t understand why all vegans aren’t super skinny… I’m going to link them to this entry!! 🙂

MAJOR YUMMERS!

Flash Gordonette…X

Spicy creamy “mascarpone” and tomato pasta.

Nov20

I made vegan cream cheese and “bacon” bagels at the weekend with scrambled tofu (stupidly forgot to take pictures). I used Tofutti vegan cream cheese (I bought mine from Holland and Barrett but there’s a description available here: http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/417921_Tofutti_Creamy_Smooth__Original__225g.html).

They were dee-licious, even if the bacon was a little on the burnt side…

I’ve not had chance to go food shopping this week, so the left over Tofutti was about the only thing I had in my fridge. So in order not to starve, the following recipe was born.

Spicy, creamy, tangy, “cheesy” and satisfying, even the pasta-hating hubby enjoyed this dish. To me it tasted like a slightly nuttier, scrummier version of the tomato-mascarpone sauce you can buy in a pot from the chiller section in the supermarket. Only this one is vegan J

Spicy “mascarpone” and tomato
pasta recipe:

(Serves 2 – 4 depending on whether or not you serve with a side)

Ingredients:

1 x medium sized onion (chopped)

Handful of chopped peppers
(either red or mixed)

3 x garlic cloves (minced)

1 x tsp mustard seeds

1 x tsp dried mixed herbs

1 x tsp black pepper

½ tsp dried chilli flakes

3 x tbsp nutritional yeast

¹/₃ pack Toffuti vegan cream cheese (other brands are available but this one is superior in my opinion)

1 x tin tomatoes

1 x tbsp soya cream

Juice of ½ lemon

Method:

Get some whole-wheat spaghetti cooking according to the packet. When ready, drain and leave until the sauce is finished.

Heat up some oil in a pan. Fry the onions until translucent then throw in the peppers.

Add the garlic, mustard seeds, herbs, pepper, chili and yeast and keep stirring until the peppers start to go soft. Be careful not to burn as the sauce is quite dry at this stage.

Add the Toffuti and keep stirring until melted and mixed in.

And the tin of tomatoes and stir until thoroughly mixed in. Continue to heat until the sauce begins to thicken and simmer.

Stir in the cream followed by the lemon juice.

Stir in the spaghetti and toss until nicely coated.

Serve up with a generous sprinkling of crispy nutritional yeast flakes on top.

I served mine with broad beans cooked with lemon juice
and mint. Protein city!

And the best part? It tasted even better the next day cold for my lunch ♥

Flash-Gordonette…x

♥ Flash-Gordonette ♥

– you name it, I'll veganize it!

Tag Archive | dairy free

♥ Creme Cheeze

♥ Chocolate and Lotus Spread cinnamon cake

Green pasta bake

Ultimate nachos

♥ Vegan sticky toffee pudding cupcakes

Spicy creamy “mascarpone” and tomato pasta.