Chocolate & Coconut Desert

This rich and dense chocolate desert contains everything chocolatey that you could imagine: melted chocolate, melted cocoa butter, liquid chocolate extract and raw cocoa powder. All of these were blended with silken tofu, with some agave nectar, golden syrup, a little egg replacer and some nice vanilla extract.

I spooned this mix into ramekins and topped it with a homemade coconut and vanilla cream made in a similar manner, by mixing melted coconut oil, cocoa butter, vanilla extract, a little soya milk, agave nectar and dessicated coconut into silken tofu and blending.

I toasted some coconut and crumbled some chocolate shapes for the topping.

Jen x

Spiced Apple Jelly

Today, I made a chilled spiced apple jelly, topped with warm steamed red fruits. And oh my...

The jelly contains chunks of cooked apples, fresh from our neighbours' garden! I used a mixture of Vege-gel and powdered pectin as gelling agents, and added Turkish apple tea to strengthen the flavour. The pre-set jelly was boiled with a large stick of cinnamon, some fresh ginger and a sprinkling of cloves, which were all removed before serving.

Jen x

Homemade Burgers & Sweet Potato wedges

Today, I made homemade sage & marjoram veggie burgers using a mix of gluten flour and soya mince.
I served them on Cavolo Nero, which is a delicious dark cabbage that tastes something like a cross between curly kale and savoy cabbage.
I also served them with lightly-spiced sweet potato wedges, and a gravy boat.

Jen x

Parsnip puree et al...

Slices of fried tofu sausage and half a roast green pepper on a bed of caramelised parsnip puree, with veg gravy.

The parsnip was brilliant, if I so say so myself. And rather simple (albeit time-consuming :P). You simply peel and chop a few parsnips, then lightly boil them in vegetable stock so that they're warm through, but not fully cooked. Drain them and transfer them to a frying pan of melted vegetable margarine and add a little nutmeg. Fry them, stirring continually, until very soft. Then add a splash of soya cream and a little extra vegetable stock and puree, ideally with a hand blender. Mmmm...

Jen x

Basil tofu & Pea shoot salad

Had a nice little lunch today.
Basil tofu slices, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Served with a peashoot salad in a ring of cucumber, with a balsamic vinegar dressing.

Jen x

Ritz crackers

I recently rediscovered the concept of crackers and all the brilliant appetisers that can be made with them.

Little ones like Ritz crackers are ideal for simple, but delicious, snacks. For example, I tried a few variations on simple cheese & tomato crackers:

Some with tomato puree and cracked black pepper, topped with baby basil leaves (grown on my windowsill!)

I also tried them even simpler, without the tomato puree, served around a salad of peashoots, with raw green beans and mangetouts, with a sticky balsamic dressing.

Jen x

Pumpkin Goodness!

Lately, we finally harvested a pumpkin grown in our garden. And oh my, it was worth it.

First, I made Cream of Pumpkin soup, sweetened with a little carrot:













Next up, I made pumpkin croquettes by mixing pumpkin with margarine, a little soya milk, herbs and spices, powdered vegetable stock, 'Parmazano' non-dairy cheese style powder and some potato flakes to thicken.
I blended this mixture with a hand-blender, then formed them into quenelles with a couple of teaspoons, and coated them in a herby breadcrumb and baked them.

I served them with Sage & Marjoram veggie sausages on a bed of spinach, with a fresh red onion gravy.

Jen x

Potato Rosti

So, today, I made potato rosti from scratch...in a hurry. Yet they still turned out brilliantly.
I simply peeled and grated some pink desiree potatoes, then added onion powder, vegetable oil, dry powdered vegetable stock, paprika, sage and a pinch of egg replacer and stirred it all together thoroughly. I then formed the shapes with a food ring and baked them (turning in the middle) for about 20 minutes on a mid to high temperature.
Today, I served them with breaded 'chicken-style' burgers on a bed of carrots and leeks, with a nice gravy boat full of vegetable gravy...

Jen x

Seitan and Kale!

For years, I've hunted for Gluten flour in order to make my own seitan. And I finally found some from the wonderful Kings Cross vegan boutique Vx (V-Cross).
Almost simultaneously, the curly kale we've been growing finally seemed ready to pick. So an extravagant and delicious meal was made from the two...

Firstly, fresh kale from the garden? Wow!

We got about 220g so far, which is more than a standard supermarket bag, and there should be more to come!

I've also been loving rainbow carrots lately. Not only do they look lovely (in fact the pale orange ones have stripy centres!), but the yellow ones are super sweet!

With these ingredients, I made fried seitan strips on a bed of kale, served with a tower of rice and garnished with roast apricot & ginger glazed carrot strips. Oh my!

Jen x

Caramelised Onion & vegan Cheese Tarts

Once again, I made something overwhelmingly delicious and failed to get a decent picture of it! Boo!

Still, these tarts were fantastic. They're individually-sized caramelised onion and vegan cheese tarts, in puff pastry.
The caramelised onion was made with a splash of pomegranate syrup, to stop the sweetness from being overwhelming, and to add a nice pink tone to the red onions. The vegan cheese was the wonderfully tangy, but melty and creamy VeGourmet.

I served the tarts with garlic roasted asparagus, and apricot and ginger glazed rainbow carrots. This way of cooking carrots has become one of my staples as of late, but finding these rainbow carrots made them extra special. They not only look more colourful, but the yellow carrots have an extra sweet and fresh taste. Mmmm...

Jen x

Chocolate & Chilli Tart

I massively need to work on the presentation, and I need to get some better pictures.
However, I made a super-rich and creamy Chocolate and Chilli tart by blending together roughly equal parts firm silken tofu and melted Belgian plain chocolate, with a kick from fresh red chillies grown by my brother! Sweetened a little agave syrup, and a dash of Madagascan vanilla extract, and some pure chocolate extract...
Oh my!

I served it with whipped soya cream, and shards of caramel.

Jen x