Vegan Toad in the Hole can be … tricky. There are quite a few recipes out there for vegan attempts at Yorkshire puddings and toad in the hole and I’ve tried them all. Without exception they were all cakey, not the right texture at all. A good Yorkshire pudding should be light and airy, crisp on top, and a base that’s almost reminiscent of a set custard. Add in the need to make it gluten free and you’d think that would make it even harder, but that was my breakthrough for this recipe. I’ve got quite a stash of weird and wonderful gluten free flours these days and after experimenting…
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Restaurant Style Tofu Tikka Masala (Vegan & GF)
See the recipe I love Tikka Masala. There’s something about the creamy, rich sauce that is just so incredibly satisfying. I’m pretty sure I’m tried almost every recipe for Tofu Tikka Masala on the internet but none of them hit the same spot as the classic takeout version of Chicken Tikka Masala. A treasured favourite of our pre-vegan days, I deeply wanted to find a homemade version that was just as good. Lets get something straight, I’m not claiming this is an authentic Indian recipe. Instead, this is based on a British-Indian restaurant classic and is a damn delicious fakeaway copycat dish that has converted some tofu-haters in our family.…
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Restaurant Style Brinjal Bhaji
An Indian restaurant specialty with aubergine cooked in a wonderfully spiced sauce. Served with my own okra side and saffron rice the house ended up smelling like an Indian restaurant and it was amazing!
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Chilli Non Carne (Vegan & Gluten Free)
See the recipe Obliviously, this dish is inspired by Chilli con Carne. If you’ve not heard of it before, this is a Tex-Mex dish normally made with minced beef, chili peppers, and a mixture of spices. The meatiest of all the chillies, it’s been a challenge to make a vegan version that will make most meat eaters just as happy. But I brough this to a pot luck with friends last week and it was incredibly popular, I think I might have cracked it. Let’s talk about flavour Let’s be honest, this chilli recipe is not quick, it’s all about building up the flavour layer by layer. However, I guarantee…
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Scotsman Approved Vegan Haggis (Vegan & GF)
Originally posted back in 2021. Grab your haggis, we’re wishing you a happy Burns night! Held on the birthday of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, events typically include reading poetry, raising toasts (with lots of whiskey for preference), and properly addressing the haggis before eating it. I know – I really do – just how worried some people will be by the idea of doing a vegan version of this meaty dish. Traditionally made from those lesser eaten bits of a sheep (translation – offal like stomach and lungs), it’s the ultimate of waste not, want not food. It also known for a very distinct taste. Surprisingly a lot of…
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Lo Bak Gou or Daikon Cake (Vegan & Gluten Free)
See the recipe If you’ve never had Lo Bak Gou before, you are missing out! It’s a delicious dish that can be eaten steamed or, as we prefer, stir fried. You can find it in most Chinese restaurants in the Dim Sum section of the menu and is often made around Chinese holidays, as a symbol of prosperity and new beginnings in Chinese tradition. Traditionally this radish cake is made from Chinese turnip or daikon (also known as mooli), rice flour, and water and then steamed. Once cool it can be cut into slices and pan fried until golden brown and crispy. The interior of the cake remains soft while…
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Mung Bean Coconut Curry (Vegan & Gluten Free)
Skip straight to the recipe This dish definitely fits the definition of #uglydelicious. I know it looks … dubious but trust me here, it’s so tasty that I probably ate twice as much as I should have. Another recipe borne from COVID lockdown when I was attempting to use every little bit of pantry staples before going shopping again, this turned out so tasty we’ve had it several times since. Like most pulses, mung beans are little powerhouses of nutrition, stuffed full of protein, vitamins, and minerals making them the ideal cornerstone for a plant based pantry. What’s more, they’re cheap and a bag of dried beans is the perfect…
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Easy Vegetable Chilli (Vegan & Gluten Free)
See the recipe As a child I hated kidney beans with a passion. I would sit, hovering over my mother’s Chilli Con Carne, picking out every dark red, hated bean before even deigning to eat the dinner she had lovingly cooked. These days, I acknowledge that beans and lentils are part of a balanced vegan’s diet but it took hard work for me to get past my own legume phobia. That and cooking my beans from dried. I don’t know what it is about tinned beans but the texture just isn’t nearly as good as when you’ve cooked them yourself. It’s cheaper and, even better, with a pressure cooker you…
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Beetroot & Coconut Curry (Vegan & Gluten Free)
We get a veg box most weeks and it’s been great for encouraging me tto be creative with my cooking, as well as being more seasonal. What it’s not great for? Seasonal means that we sometime gets the same veggies over and over again. While that’s great for staple like carrots and potatoes, for some veg it can be a bit of a struggle. At this time of year, beetroot can be one of those problems – since we don’t tend to have the same things over and over again it’s been a struggle to make something new each time. I’ve turned it unto pancakes, vegan wellington, burgers, ravioli, pickled…
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Vegan & Gluten Free Ravioli Two Ways
I did a thing and I am oh so proud of it. I made homemade pasta, it was vegan and gluten free and it was oh so tasty, and I’ll teach you to do it too. It’s not difficult and you don’t need a lot of special equipment. You will need time and patience but hey, we’re in lockdown, time isn’t something we’re short of right now. Get the kids involved, they’ll love it, or spend your next Friday night making pasta, while you watch something fascinating. I found it really quite satisfying. But first, before we look at pasta, we need to talk about flour. Gluten free flour to…
