Skip to the recipe It’s no surprise to hear that going for a plant based diet can be good for you. The benefits of fruit and vegetables is well known, and the UK’s five-a-day campaign recommends everyone gets at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Easy right? Well not quite — a recent survey found the average Briton only eats 2.7 portions of fruit and veg a day! UK diets revolve around meat so much that I’ve had friends tell me they couldn’t go vegan because they wouldn’t know what to eat. To make things easier, here are five simple tips I used, to help you reduce…
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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…
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Indian Beetroot Pancakes or Beetroot Dal Chilla (Vegan & Gluten Free)
I’ve made pancakes inspired by dal chilla before (see here) but with these I’ve gone along the more traditional route. Healthy, nutritious, and packed with protein, these make the ideal companion to your next curry night. We paired them with last week’s Gobi Manchurian which made for a very colourful dinner. I’ve flavoured the pancakes with beetroot and chives and it’s a great way to squeeze in yet another vegetable into your dinner. Provided you have a blender, these are really quite easy to make. Stuff them with your favourite vegan cheese to make a quick snack, fold them up and they make a great addition to any lunchbox, or…
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Beet Burgers (Vegan, GF)
If you’ve taken a look at my recipe for Beetroot Wellington then you’ll know that recipe started as a burger. This is that burger. It works beautifully as a cheeseburger, the earthiness of the beetroot pairing perfectly with the smoothness of a great vegan cheese. But to make the best burger, a messy burger that you’ll need napkins to eat but will never regret – use my peppercorn sauce. Believe me, it’s a revelation. What’s more, it’s easy to make a batch for a crowd as they cook in the oven. Want to prep a batch in advance? They freeze or can be stored in the fridge in an airtight…
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Beetroot Wellington with Creamy Peppercorn Sauce (Vegan, Gluten Free)
This recipe started out life very differently. I was working on a new Beet Burger recipe (don’t worry – you’ll see it this week, it’s amazing!) and had a shock of inspiration. Big meals like Christmas and Thanksgiving can be tricky for vegans as there are few big, dramatic centrepieces to build a fancy roast meal around. A lot of those that do exist are impressions of meat, like vegan friendly roast turkey. Now I have no problem with these dishes, but I wanted a dish that was both vegan and gluten free while elevating vegetables to the centrepiece. My trial beet burger was meaty and interesting enough that it…