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…
-
-
Black Bean and Butternut Squash Empanadas (Vegan & Gluten Free)
The weather in good old blighty is a little confusing at the moment. While we sign about white Christmas’s and bleak midwinters, the weather seems convinced it’s mid September. Damp, a little chilly, but certainly not cold with no chance of snow or ice. Never mind, our Christmas preparations continue on apace. In the weeks leading up to Christmas I always to like to make food that completely contrasts with Christmas dinner just so you’re completely invested in the feast on the day. Even better, is food that I make make easily or even reheat from the freezer, leaving plenty of time for Christmas prep. These empanadas are perfect –…
-
Instant Pot Cauliflower and Black Bean Masala
My mother has always had this vast, Aladdin’s cave of herbs and spices that she viewed as essential in food and equally essential in our cooking education. An old coffee grinder, that is likely older than me, serves as a spice grinder for an array of whole spices that live on the top shelf before being toasted, ground and decanted into the jars for the ground spices on the bottom shelf. In my childhood memories I can still remember being taken to the Bangladeshi food shops in Yorkshire, so that she could get spices you couldn’t find in supermarkets in those days, bulk bags of rice, beans, pulses and the…
-
Vegan Meatball Subs
I had planned for today’s post to be something completely different but last night’s dinner was so well received I thought I’d bump it up the queue. Most of my burger recipes use a binder of some description to help keep them together but due to cupboard shortages last night was an attempt to build a vegan meatball without a binder. Thankfully, I think I can say this black bean based attempt was a complete success! They’re only a little delicate and not crumbly, with bags of flavour. Seved with a really simple spicy tomates sauce, it makes for an easy and slightly different dinner option. I do have to…
