No picture but great recipe, Healthy Vegan Brazilian Caramel Sauce

I didn't take pictures but I HAVE to share this recipe with you. Now many vegan caramel sauces are either
a) sugar based
b) cashews based
c) soy cream based

Now in moderation these thing aren't bad but wouldn't you like a caramel sauce that you didn't have to moderate so much? I'm not saying consume the whole batch of this however it wouldn't be awful if you did. In my version I use Brazil nuts, banana, hemp milk and dates. As vegans cashews and almonds are used a lot and Brazil nuts less, however they are perfect for this recipe as they are surprisingly creamy and Brazil are the richest dietary sources for selenium, beating the cashew nutritionally. Hemp milk also helps to add creaminess, silkiness and nutrition to this caramel. Hemp milk is rich in omega 3's and free from cholesterol. Seriously can this caramel get any better.
Yes, yes it can.
Banana adds the sweetness and potassium and dates are just delicious. we only use 4-5 brazil nuts so the caramels doesn't have a high fat content and if you use Pink Himalayan rock salt your getting 84 minerals out f the 84 minerals that your body need.. perfect for a hangover.
Now do you understand why I had to share this with you!

Ingredients
1/3 of a cup of roughly chopped dates
2 prunes
4-5 Brazil nuts soaked over night (depending on size if they're large have 4 if they are particularly small have 5, simple)
1/2 cup of hemp milk
1/2 cup of water
1-2 tbsp of agave (to taste)
1 banana (very ripe)
'large pinch of nutmeg (freshly grated/ground is all ways better)
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of Pink Himalayan rock salt (or salt of choice)

-Soak your dates and prunes in the water till soft (2 hoursish)
-Once soaked place in your blender with the soaking liquid and the rest of your ingredients (apart from the agave).
- Blend in till smooth, you may want to add more water or milk to make are thinner sauce, depending on your preference. Add your agave to taste, it may be sweet enough depending on your banana and dates.
- For an extra smooth sauce pass through a sieve. Store in a air tight contain/jar in the fridge.

VOILAAA
sorry about the lack of visuals, I'll try post some picture soon!

VEGANS CAN HAVE MUG CAKES TOO

VEGANS CAN HAVE MUG CAKES

I thought mug cakes were a thing of the past, those magical delights that cooked up in no time in the microwave. However I've discovered you can make vegan, low fat mug cake that actually taste good. Like seriously, its fluffy and moist with no oil, dairy, sugar or eggs. This version I have created is under 100 kcal even gluten free! Using chickpea flour is awesome as not only is it gluten free but it has a higher amount of protein then other flours.

MUG CAKES FOR ALL

Chocolate Banana Mug cake

Ingredients

1/4 of a small banana

1 teaspoon of flax seed

3 tbsp of alternative milk (I used almond milk)

1/2 tbsp of cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoon of chickpea flour (or other gluten free flour)

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1 tbsp of powdered sweetener 

pinch of salt

*optional 1 tsp of nut butter/ vegan chocolate nut butter (I used sesame chocolate spead)

  

-Mash together in good mug the banana, milk and flax. Set aside to thicken for a couple of minuets.

- Measure out you chickpea flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt sweetener and, if using, nut butter. I used raw sesame chocolate spread as it has a slightly bitter edge that would complement the chocolate making it more chocolaty (like adding a little coffee to chocolate to coffee does)

-Combine all your ingredients and place in a microwave for 1.30 minuets. 

- I heated up some cocoa powder, almond milk and agave to make a warm chocolate sauce and poured it over my cake once i removed it from its mug. You can leave it in the mug if you want.. but who doesn't love a little mini cake in front of you.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... cake

Not a Chicken Kiev

The childhood food of chicken kievs has made a return..

 However this is its grown up vegan lower fat and healthier self. 

Not only is this baby gluten free but is stuffed with flavor and protein. It's taken me a while to plan and get round to this one, coming up with different ways to replicate this chicken dish, but I've finally done it. The key is a good firm tofu (smoked) and a bag f good mixed herbs. I like to use Dragonfly Organic tofu, which in the UK you can get and Holland and Barret and most other health food store. 

Tofu Kiev

Ingredients

Marinade

1/4 cup soy sauce/tamari

3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

2 sun dried tomatoes

1-2 tsp of agave (depending on your taste)

1 tbsp of mixed Italian herbs

Pepper to taste

- Mix together all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl big enough to fit your tofu block in 

1 block of smoked firm tofu

3 toasted corn crispbread (or gluten free cracker of choice)

2 tbsp of mixed seeds and nuts

1 tsp of mixed Italian herbs

1/2 a tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of cumin seeds

3 heaped tsp of flaxseed

1/4 cup water

-Place your tofu in the marinade and spoon over the mixture. Leave to marinate whilst you prepare everything else. If you rotate the tofu ever couple of minuets or so the better the coverage of marinade.

- In a blender place your crispbreads, herbs, seeds and nuts, salt and cumin seeds. Blitz till they resemble fine bread crumbs, remove from blender and place in a flat bowl.

- In another flat bowl create your flaxseed egg mixture by mixing your flaxseed with water and setting it aside for it to turn gloopy (like an egg). 

1 cup  spinach

1 garlic clove

2 sun dried tomatoes

1 tbsp mixed Italian herbs

2 tbsp of veggie stock

2 tbsp of lemon juice

1 heaped tbsp of vegan cream cheese (i used one with chives in, garlic and herb ones would work well too)

1 chopped large spring onion

-Clean out your blender and place in all the ingredients above apart from the spring onion. Blitz till fairly smooth.

-Remove from blender and add finely chopped spring onion

-Now cut your tofu in half to make two 'kievs'

- Insert a whole through the center of your 'kiev' here you can see me using a knife sharpener to do it, as i couldn't find the apple corer, an apple corer would probably work better.

- Stuff your 'keiv' with the vegan cheese spinach garlic mixture

- Set out your flat plates of flaxseed and crispbread crumbs. Then coat you 'kiev' first in the flaxseed egg, then in the crumbs then place on a packing tray.

- Place in a oven at 180 degrees for around 20 minuetes or till cooked.

with chunky tomato ketchup and small trees

YUMM!

Vegan Nutella

For people who don't have a vita-mix or an amazing blender but still want to make vegan nutella, this is for you. I have found that the more liquid you add to a 'less good' blender the better it whizzzes. However most vegan nutella recipes I have seen have little to no liquid at all, it is basically a hazelnut butter with cocoa. Therefore the average to good blender struggles with this task and takes 100x longer to make. This recipe how ever uses almond milk to loosen up the mixture and make it more blendable.

 

SO VEGAN NUTELLA FOR ALL! 

Plus, because it's bulked out by the nutritious but lower calorie almond milk, this version is not nearly as fattening or as calorie dense as other vegan nutellas or nutella itself. Hazelnuts are rich in protein and vitamin E making them great for your hair and skin. 

Ingredients

1 cup almond milk (I did this again only with vanilla almond milk which was amazing)

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup dates + one tbsp plus raisins soaked 

1 cup hazelnuts soaked for 4-6 hours

pinch of salt

sweetener of choice to taste

- To a food possessor or blender add your drained soaked nuts, raisins and dates along with the almond milk. Blitz till the mixture is the texture of ready break.

- Add your cocoa powder, salt and then blitz again till you reach your to your desired consistency. The smoothness of your nutella will depend on how good your blender is and how persistent you are at pulsing,blitzing and scraping down the sides.

Just keep persisting till you get smooth perfection

- Finally add your sweetener to taste, powdered or liquid, either works fine. You can also just up the amount of dates you use it depends on the type of sweetness you like. just I fined using half date and half sweetener works for my taste buds as dates are quite caramely and expensive and so on... 

- Store in the fridge in a jar, tub or bowl. It will keep for a good 2 weeks this way, however I

doubt it will last that long.

nom nom nom

My Cereal Milk Cinnamon Health Cookies

In my opinion, the best thing about cereal is the taste of your alternative milk at the bottom of the bowl. Almond Milk with the oaty sweet taste of cereal is just so good. There for when putting this taste into cookies it makes every thing ok. The world is at peace when you have cereal milk cookies AND theyre healthy.

Healthy? you may ask. How?

Well, you'll never guess what makes these cookies health bundells of joy.. chickpeas. I shit you not. Honestly they make the best doughy cookies and give you so much more protein then a conventional cookie. Also these cookies have no refined sugar, added oil and are vegan. When your troubled makes these cookies, get a cup a tea and don't feel guilty.

EAT ME

My Cereal Milk Cinnamon Health Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup drained chickpeas (self cooked or from a can)
1/2 cup dates (soaked in a 1/4 cup of warm water)
1/2 cup Almond milk (or any alternative milk)
1 cup of your favorite cereal/s (I used buckwheat puffs, muesli and bran flakes)
1 tbsp of cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/4 cup of oats
3 tbsp sweetener (powdered like stevia or sweet'n'low)

- First place your chosen cereal into a food processor and pulse lightly to break down any large pieces of cereal, your cereal should be the consistency of chunky bread crumbs. Remove cereal and set aside.
-To a food processor add your chickpeas, soaked dates, almond milk, salt and sweetener. Blitz till pureed, should be the texture of hummus, don't worry if its a little chunky. You may want to add more or less sweetener depending on how sweet you like your cookies.

- In a mixing bowl combine your cereal, chickpea mix and all the other ingredients.

-Roll into balls and then squash into a cookie shape. Place on a lined baking tray.

Babies before the inferno

-
-Place in a pre-heated oven at 180 for around 10 mins (or till cooked) the outside should be lightly crisp while the inside is still soft

- Add some extra sweetener and cinnamon in to a small bowl or cup and mix together. Roll the warm cookies in this mixture to make them extra lovely.  Todaaaaaaa!


.

Perfect with a cuppaaa

Vegan Lasagna and home made cheese sauce

This is the first time I've made vegan nut cheese sauce and I can not explain to you how satisfying it is to make your own vegan cheese. I felt like a god. Creating cheese from scratch was just so fun, and no animal saturated fat just protein and healthy oils and omega 3's. Cheese that makes your hair and skin glow, helps muscle repair and growth and a healthy brain? Yes-a-fucking-please. Plus nutritional yeast (the stuff that makes it taste cheesy) has a shit load of B12 in it which is essential for us non meat eater.

Now don't expect this to taste exactly like a meaty carbohydrate filled lasagna

it wont

it will taste fucking good though.   

Ingredients

Cheese sauce
1 1/2 cups of cashews (soaked for 4-6 hours)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp of salt
3tbsp of lemon juice
tsp each of powdered mustard, paprika and agave
1 tbsp of garlic Italian mixed herbs (or any combination of desired savory herbs, mixes with granulated onion and garlic add to the cheesy taste the best)
3/4 cup of water (may need more, depending on the desired consistency of the sauce)

This is what makes nuts cheesy

- After your nuts have soaked (eh eh eh) drain and place in a blender.
- Add the rest of your ingredients, and blitz. You may need to add more water for a smoother sauce.

Mmmmm creamy cheesy goodness

Tomato Sauce
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 cup of grated carrot
1/2 cup of grated onion
2 bay leaves
hand full of fresh basil
tbsp of mixed garlic Italian herbs
1 tbsp of lemon juice

- In a pan add the chopped tomatoes, then fill up half the can the tomatoes came out of with water and add that to the pan.
- Add the lemon juice, carrot, onion, bay leaves and dried herb and place the pan over a medium heat. Bring to a gentle simmer and leave to reduce to a thick tomato sauce (20 mins)

3 of your 5 a day in this sauce..

- At the end remove from the heat tear up the basil and stir through the sauce.

Parmesan Topping
1/3 cup of nutritional yeast
1/3 cup of mixed raw seeds
1 tbsp of garlic Italian Herb mix
pinch of salt and pepper

- Clean up your blend and place in all ingredients
- Blitz into fine crumbly texture

Assembly
1 large eggplant
1 large courgette/zucchini
1 red onion
handful of fresh basil
handful of fresh parsley
2 large tomatoes

- Finely slice the eggplant and courgette into rounds, season and pat dry using a clean tea towel or kitchen roll.

-  Roughly chop your fresh herbs and slice your onion and tomato
- Place a layer of your courgette and eggplant on the bottom of a casserole dish. Sprinkle over some of the chopped herbs and onion slices.

-Then top with the tomato sauce

-Then spread on your 'cheese' sauce ( I forgot to take a picture of this layer sorry lads)
- Then repeat (vegetable, herbs and onion, tomato, cheese) till you have run out of courgette/eggplant
- Top of with slices of tomato, more cheese sauce and sprinkle with the seed Parmesan

Mighty fine lasagna

- Place in a 190 degree oven for 20 minutes or till cooked through and golden on top. VOILA

Greedy fuckers tucked in before I could take a picture!
 Hope you can still appreciate the beauty of it half eaten <3

What a tart...!

What to do with seed butter

make a fucking awesome vegetable tart of course.

This tart is packed with flavor and nutrition. Seed butter base (full of vitamin E and fiber), lemon and herb marinated veggies (immune boost from the lemon, onions and herbs), hits of smokey tomato and paprika hummus (get your protein in there) and topped of with spinach and kale (iron galore). So not only is this tart a Mediterranean flavor inspired hit but a great big explosion of health. Have I sold it to you yet?

Ingredients

Wholemeal Base
1.25 cup of whole meal flour
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp of rapeseed oil (or oil of choice)
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of agave or honey
Dried Herbs of choice (I used thyme, basil, oregano and parsley)

- Sieve together all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl

- Add water, agave or honey and oil and lightly combine till the dough comes together in ball.
- Lightly need then place in a covered bowl while you create the topping

Toppings

Veggies
1/2 a courgette
1 large red onion
hand full of spinage
hand full of kale
2 tbsp of lemon juice
1 large garlic clove
Salt and pepper
dried Herbs (thyme, basil, oregano and parsley)
Hummus
1/3 cup chickpeas
5 sundried tomatos
1 tbsp of tahini
2 tbsp of lemon juice
2 tbsp of water (I used the water that the chickpeas were in)
1 tsp of smoked paprika
Sweet Balsamic
1 tbsp honey or agave
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

- Thinly slice your courgettes and onion. Add to a bowl with a crushed garlic clove, the lemon, salt an pepper and herbs. I used about 1tsp of each herb and a large pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside to marinate.

- Place all the hummus ingredients in a bowl and hand blend to desired consistency.

- Mix together the ingredients for the sweet balsamic, set aside.

Assembly
Seed butter
2 tbsp of pumpkin seeds

-Roll out your base in to a rough  rectangle and place on a baking tray

- Spread with seed butter

- Place on the vegetables

-Add little blobs of the hummus

- Tear up the kale and spinach and place on top

- Sprinkle with seeds and drizzle with half the Sweet balsamic

- Place in the oven and 180 degrees for around 20 mins, or till the base and toppings are cooked through. Remove from oven and drizzle with the rest of the balsamic. Serve and enjoy! Perfect cold in lunches by the way, that's if you have any left...

Voilaaaa

Banana Roll Cake with cashew and walnut cream

Last two weeks I have been in rehearsals for Great Expectations (which is playing at The Nuffield Theatre Southampton 4th - 7th) so I haven't been able to get to my beloved kitchen to bake. And boy have I missed it. So on my day off, no one was going to stop me knocking up a cake. 

OH YEAH. Also we have a new blender that actually works! So now I can make all variety's of vegan creams and sauces to add to my cakes. So really, nothing was going to stop me.

My dad came home with these tiny over ripe bananas  that he got cheep for me to bake with, as we all know the riper, browner and uglier the banana the better the cake. However instead of a plain banana cake I wanted something more exiting. Inspired by my friend Adam from rehearsals (who ate about 6 mini rolls in 10 minuets and put all the wrappers in my bag) I made a banana roll cake filled with cashew and walnut cream flavored with maple syrup (cause I can do that now i have a decent fucking blender). The nut cream is great, so much better then a butter or margarine based icing, not only for the added nutty taste but the fact that its much more nutritionally good for you! packed with omega 3, protein and good fats that are need for your brain. Also the cake uses whole meal flour and maple syrup to reduce the refined sugar and white flour content, increasing the fiber, nutrition and lowering the GI index of the cake. Plus it taste bloody good. Here is the recipe my friends.. 

Tiny Banana's! The whole bunch fits in my hand

 Banana Roll Cake with cashew and walnut cream

Ingredients

Cake

125g wholemeal self raising flour

100g plain self raising flour

3 tbps maple syrup

3 tbsp vegtable oil (or any flavorless oil)

2 tbsp of brown sugar (you may need to change this according to the sweetness of your bananas)

1/4 cup coconut milk (or any vegan milk substitute)

2 cups of mashed very ripe banana

pinch of saltheaped tsp of cinnamon

-Sieve your flours, the salt and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl, set aside.

- In a separate bowl combine all the other ingredients and mash together. Taste and see if your banana's need more sugar or not.

The bad boy pre-oven

- Add your wet mixture to the flour and fold together. The less times you fold through the mixture the lighter your sponge will be.Line a tray with grease proof paper and spread mixture out evenly. Bake at 180 degrees till cooked (about 15 mins) 

- When cooked remove from oven, and lift out using the grease proof paper and trim the edges. You may need to cut the top of the cake to make a thinner sponge depending on how thinly you spread your mixture.  Whilst warm roll into a log shape and leave to cool in this position (this will help when re-rolling it up with the filling later)

Cashew and Walnut Cream

1/3 cup walnuts

1/3 cup cashews

4/5 small dates

1 tbsp of maple syrup

- Soak your nuts in water for 3-4 hours

- Drain the nuts and place in a blender along with the dates and enough water just to barely cover the other ingredients. Blitz till a smooth cream is formed.

- Remove from blender and stir in maple syrup

Assembly

Chopped walnuts

Cinnamon

-Roll your sponge out flat again and spread a layer of your cashew and walnut cream. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

-Carefully roll back up your sponge

- Decorate with remaining cashew and walnut cream, chopped walnuts and a sprinkling of cinnamon. 

Voilaaaaaaa