The Adventures of Darth Pumpkin

I was hugely excited to spot pumpkins in the supermarket that i just had to buy one. I have been reading so many pumpkin-related vegan blogs recently and i don't think canned pumpkin is sold in the UK (any UK bloggers found it?). To be honest i've never had pumpkin before, so did a bit of reading around on the net for ideas and decided to make Isa's Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies from the PPK and to roast the seeds.


My husband A decided he wanted to carve the pumpkin and after his cousin suggested Darth Vader there was no stopping him. Since he wanted the outside left intact he scooped out the goo and seeds into a bowl for me to sift through and wash the seeds, and then scooped the good stuff into a pot for me to boil up since I couldn't get any nice big chunks to roast.


After washing the seeds i added a little oil and some salt and stuck them in a medium oven for about 20 mins i think. They came out amazing! So crunchy and salty that i couldn't stop snacking on them all day!


For the cookies i needed a cup of pumpkin puree so i boiled it up till it was pretty soft and drained as much water out as i could, i even put it back on the stove to try to dry it out a bit more before throwing it in the blender. I think it might have been a little too moist but since i don't have anything to compare it to i'm not sure.


I had about half a cup of pumpkin puree left over from the cookies which i made into pumpkin chilli for dinner. I didn't notice any difference in flavour but the texture was thicker and creamier (didn't take a pic as it just looked like regular chilli). I followed Isa's recipe pretty closely, except that I omitted the nuts and the flax seed (which was optional) as nuts make me ill and i can't find flax seed, and i subbed the molasses for some golden syrup because that's all i had.

Once i mixed it all together it did seem a bit too wet but since there's no pictures with the recipe i wasn't sure if it was meant to be like that. 

They turned out a bit too soft and crumbly, almost cakey, which makes me wish i had flax seed as Isa explains that it makes them chewier, but don't get me wrong they were still enjoyable. Although next time i would probably up the cinnamon a bit more as i really love cinnamon but they had a nice subtle flavour. The picture only shows half of them (not sure how to rotate it!) and they were huge, despite Isa's instructions saying that they wouldn't spread out much mine did and almost joined into one mega cookie as my trays aren't very big!

Since i knew that if they were in the house my husband and i would be too tempted to eat them all i decided to take most of them to his photography exhibition opening night, which was the next day, and hand them out to our friends who were coming along. They looked huge and a bit messy so i used a little cookie cutter and made them into mini ones which i put into an old biscuit tin lined with a pretty tea towel. We had a big pile of crumbs and left over bits which we nibbled on while we worked.

The opening went really well and lots of people turned up. The mini-cookies went down a treat as most people had come straight from work or uni and were pretty hungry. The venue also provided free wine.

So all in all i was very pleased with my first ever pumpkin and that we had managed to get so many different things out of it, considering it was pretty small and only cost me 74 pence!

And incase anyone is interested here's how Darth Pumpkin turned out:

Vegan Paneer Saag

I had a bag of spinach sitting in the fridge begging to be used and as much as i love my usual lemon juice and soya sauce spinach i felt like being more adventurous. Google led me to this recipe which i used as a guide but i changed it up so i'll post my version. They used 1/3 cup of yoghurt but since the only soy yoghurt i had was peach i decided to sub 1/3 cup of white sauce but it needed way more than 1/3 of a cup of soymilk. Also i had no idea how much 6 bunches of spinach was so i used about 3/4 of a 200g bag. You can probably vary the amount to suit how much spinach you have but i love spinach and it gave the sauce such a wonderful, vibrant shade of green!

Ingredients

1 pack of tofu (not silken), well drained and cubed
1 TBsp garlic granules
2 TBsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp ginger
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp flour
30g margarine (approx. as i eyeballed it)
250-300ml soymilk (depending on how thick you want your sauce)
150g spinach (approx.)
lemon juice and soy sauce to taste

Fry tofu cubes in a little bit of oil  (the other recipe called for 2TBsp of oil but i don't like to use that much) till brown and crispy and set aside. Whizz the spinach in a blender till fine (or i guess you could just chop it but i was feeling lazy) and set aside. Gently melt the marg in a pot, add the flour, cornflour, garlic, cumin, ginger and curry powder to form a roux and cook over a low heat for a minute. Gradually add the soymilk a little at a time, stirring constantly to get rid of any lumps, let it simmer till it thickens. Add the spinach and tofu to sauce and gently heat (but don't let it bubble and keep stirring). Take off heat and add lemon juice and soy sauce to taste. We had it with basmati rice but it would have been lovely with some bread to mop up the sauce, but all the naan breads around here seem to have milk in them. Will have to bribe A into making naan bread for next time, as his bread always turns out way better than any of my pathetic efforts.

I Love Swede!

I really love swede, especially mashed, with a little bit of margarine and a lot of cracked black pepper. It tastes like christmas and, along with the gravy, was always my favourite part of christmas dinner. So i am of course pleased that it's swede time of year again.

We had it tonight with peas and a calzone that A, my husband, made (he always makes the dough/pastry things). I made a simple filling of mince, onion and gravy. Looking at the photo i can't remember if it is carrot or a pepper that i added, but since i always try to get him to eat extra veggies it could be both. Either way this was a nice warm, winter-y dinner because it's Scotland and we seem to have skipped the autumn weather and gone straight to cold and rainy winter.

Not Meatballs

First of all i will admit that i never know how to refer to vegan "meatballs" because it sounds wierd to call them meatballs but i can't think of a better term and i get fed up putting it in quotation marks after a while so when i say meatballs you know that i really mean non-meatballs. My husband calls them "featballs" because they are fake meatballs but it sound like feet and feet are gross.

I've attempted meatballs a few times but have never been entirely happy with the results, they always turn out too crumbly and this time was no different.(Apart from the time i made seitan meatballs but they were just a tad too chewy for my liking.) I usually use a combination of tsp (i like Morrison's soy mince), grated carrot, silken tofu and a little bit of flour. And of course garlic and various herbs and spices to make it tasty. But the flavour is not a problem they are always full of flavour.

I usually cook up the soy mince in the wok and after mixing everything together put the balls in the oven till browned on the outside and then gently reheat them in the wok or under the grill as and when i need them. But they always fall apart so if anyone has advice either about ingredients or cooking technique to keep them together i would love to hear it.

Here they are grilled with a mountain of mashed swede (with lots of cracked black pepper mmm), mashed potatoes and some onion-y gravy.

And the next night hidden under a paprika and tomato sauce on top of spaghetti. You'll have to take my word for it that they are in there! This was a really good combination of tangy, slightly smokey,spicy sauce with the texture of the balls if only they didn't fall apart when you bit into them and splatter sauce all over you!

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

Inspired by this post by The Voracious Vegan i attempted to make make my own sun dried tomato pesto. Plus basil was getting riddiculously big and sprawling all over the kitchen table so was in need of a major haircut (is it wrong to think of my basil plant and refer to him like a person?).

I've tried my hand at pesto before but having to omit the cheese (i had yet to discover vegan parmesan) and the nuts meant that it ended up being pretty bland and textureless. It was also way too oily. So to give it a bit of texture this time  i decided to use chickpeas and i'm so pleased that they worked perfectly! I liked this exactly the way it was and din't even bother adding any vegan parmesan. I also cut down on the oil so it was nice and thick just the way i like it.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of fresh basil (packed and overflowing)
• 1/2 cup of sundried tomatoes
• 1/3 cup of oil (i used the oil the sd tomatoes came in)
• 1/4 cup of chickpeas (i used canned ones)
• garlic puree to taste (i didn't measure but i like a lot of garlic)
• generous splash of lemon juice
• pinch of salt

Mix the basil, tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice and chickpeas in the blender, whilst gradually adding the oil. I like my pesto kinda chunky so i didn't process it much. Add a pinch of salt to taste, and more garlic or lemon juice if needed.



For a quick and easy dinner i boiled up some linguine, added a nice crunchy yellow pepper and stirred some of the pesto through it. I had it with some grilled aubergine antipasto from Tesco.

The rest of the pesto went into a jar, covered with a little bit of oil, and into the fridge for another night. It was so tangy and flavoursome that i shouldn't have bothered with the oil as it didn't last long enough to have the chance to dry out on top! Some of it became lunch the following day, spread generously on toast and topped with a chopped tomato and some more fresh basil.

Easy Potato and Veg Curry

I had bought a rather large bag of potatoes last time i was at the supermarket and after making mashed potatoes and using it to top pies i wanted to do something a bit different. I'm not a huge soup fan which seemed like another obvious choice so on a whim i put together a simple curry. I didn't follow a recipe and although i could swear i wrote down the amount of spices etc i was using as i went along, i can't find any record of it now. This is more of a hint than a recipe as the veg can easily be subbed for whatever is lurking in your fridge that needs using up and depending on how hot you like it the amount of spices will vary.

The picture gives some idea of quantities. I chopped the potato and carrots into cubes (about 1cm) and boiled them. After ten mins i added the red pepper which was also chopped to a similar size. In a small bowl i blended garlic powder, onion granules, ground ginger, corriander, cumin and a little bit of madras curry powder with some cornflour (2 tsp i think) and added a spoonful of the starchy potato cooking water and some tomatoe puree to form a thick paste.

Once the veg was almost ready i threw in a generous helping of frozen peas. Once the peas were cooked i added the paste mixture to the veg (you may need to drain some of the water out first depending on how much you used and how thick you like your curry). I let it gently simmer over a low heat for a few mins, stirring frequently till it was lovely and thick. I made the curry in the afternoon so that by dinner time the flavours had developed a bit more. There was enough for both of us for that night and for another night's dinner (which was hotter after a day or two in the fridge).

My Love for Edamame Knows No Bounds

Hi my name's Louise and i have an edamame addiction. There i said it. I just can't get enough of these little green beans of nutritional goodness. I've started adding them to everything. Not just Japanese or Asian cuisine but Mexican, Italian, Scottish, anything.

Here is a deliciously creamy, tangy risotto that i made with onion, garlic, oregano, and sundried tomatotes. I cooked the edamame separately in a wok with lemon juice and soya sauce and then stirred them through when the risotto was done so that the super lemonyness of them would cut through the creamy, thickness of the risotto. Served it with a big pile of lemony spinach for some extra greens.

Hummous

Hummous is one of those things which is deceptive. It sounds so simple to make but to get the balance of flavour and the texture just right has been quite tricky. I know everyone has their own way of doing it but i found that following other recipes didn't help. I eventually realised it was because other recipes always call for olive oil but (and don't hate me for saying it) i don'tlike olives and i don't like the olivey taste of olive oil. That was what was throwing my hummous off balance. I don't measure anything when i make it but i like mine with paprika, a dash of ground corriander and plenty of lemon juice and garlic. I also discovered cooking the chickpeas for longer than you would normally helps achieve a creamier texture.

Hello and welcome!

Hello and welcome to my vegan/food intolerance blog. I'm a complete blog newbie so any constructive feedback or tips are welcome. Whilst looking online for vegan recipes I discovered so many wonderful vegan blogs. They made me think about keeping my own so I have a backlog of pictures of recipes I have been trying out over the past month that I will upload along with the recipes. Hopefully soon(ish), depending on how much I feel like procrastinating - there is a huge pile of books I should be reading for my Master's dissertation, which are strangely less appealing at the moment than deciding what to whip up next in the kitchen!