Saturday, June 21, 2008

Carrot and pancakes

Here is a carrot cake recipe I made yesterday. The cake is a little crumbly when you cut it, but it is still very delicious.
Here is the link: http://www.vegancampaigns.org.uk/resources/recipes/swCarrotCk.html

Here is my pancake recipe.

Batter:
2 cups SR flour
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons egg replacer
2 tablesppons sugar
mixed spice
2 1/2 cups of rice milk (or any vegan milk)

Mix the dry indredients together then whisk in the milk.
Set aside while you get your pan etc ready.
Pour 2/3 ladlefuls of batter into a hot oiled pan and cook on either side until golden.

Serve with maple syrup, lemon and sugar, fruit or whatever.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Blueberry muffins


I bought a tin of blueberries, but then had no idea what to do with it. So it had to be muffins in the end. These were easy to make and I used some vanilla instead of lemon juice (I had none left!).




PS. 400 F is 200C

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Vegan lasagne



Well here it finally is. I make my own lasagne sheets but feel free to use store bought ones, they work just as well. The pasta recipe is as follows:

Pasta recipe

Ingredients

225g plain flour
2 rounded tbs soya flour
3tbs olive oil
water

Method

Mix the dry, then add the oil and enough water to get a nice smooth dough. Put in the fridge for about an hour.

I use a pasta machine to roll out the dough but you could still use a rolling pin.

This pasta can have cooked spinach or tomato paste added for colour or try adding some basil or oregano to the mix. You can use this for ravioli, fettucini or any other shapes you like.


Lasagne sauce

This was a bit tricky to write down as I just know what to do in my head and by looking and tasting the sauce as I go. It is a close as I can manage, but if you have made a bolognaise sauce before just use that. Be warned this makes a huge lasagne but I freeze the leftovers, they are so handy to have in the freezer.

Ingredients

1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 large onion, peeled and diced
mushrooms, halved then sliced
1 capsicum, any colour, deseeded, and chopped
spinach, chopped

(note: feel free to add or remove any veg you prefer. Some diced celery would go nicely in here too).

1 400g can of tomatoes
Tomato paste (I use an entire 170g tin, but you could use less)
olive oil
approx 1 cup red lentils
vegan stock (I will use up to 3 cups)
garlic
seasonings of your choice: I use oregano, basil, about 3 bay leaves, a little rosemary and some pepper. You could add some salt but because my little girl eats it I think that the stock gives enough salt)

Method

In a large pot saute the onion and carrot in some olive oil until they are soft
Add garlic and mushrooms and saute for a minute
Add lentils and some stock so the lentils have something to absorb and stir for another minute
Add the tomatoes, the tomato paste, the rest of the stock and your herbs/seasonings, and stir it well till it is all combined and starting to boil.
Add the spinach and cover.
Simmer covered until the spinach has wilted then uncover a give it a good stir.
Simmer uncover until sauce is the required consitency, about 15 mins. You do need to stir it regularly so the lentils don't stick to the pan.

"Bechmele" Sauce

This is really just a plain white sauce, it is most important for the very top so it gets crispy as we are not using cheese.

Ingredients

2 tbs vegan margerine
2-3 tbs plain flour
About 2 cups Rice milk (or any milk, it really doesn't matter)

Method

Melt margerine in a saucepan
Remove from heat and add flour stir vigorously til combined
Return to the heat and cook this "dough" for about 1 minute
Remove from heat and gradually start adding the milk, blending the flour mix well at each addition of milk till all the milk is added.
Whisk to get the final lumps out and return to the heat.
We need to thicken this up so try to bring it to the boil but you will need to whisk it almost contstantly so you don't get any lumps.
When sauce is required thickness remove from heat.
If sauce is too thick add some water, too thin? Add some cornflour mixed in a little water and return to the heat to thicken.

Assembly

If you've made lasagne before you already know this bit.

Simply add some tomato sauce to a baking dish (It needs to be a big one)
Then a layer of pasta (no need to cook it)
Some of the white sauce
Then keep going in this way till your dish is full. Make sure you leave enough white sauce for the top.
Finish with a white sauce layer and drizzle some oil (I use sesame) over the top to help give you a lovely golden brown top.
Bake at 190C for about 1/2 hour.
Let sit for a little bit when its done as it is super hot.
Enjoy with a salad, garlic bread or as is.

Lemon poppyseed muffins


I've been hanging out for muffins and finally found these. They were super easy to make. I added an extra spoon of lemon juice and I think that they could do with a little less poppy seeds, but they were still yum and my little girl loved them too! As for the egg replacer, any brand will do, I used Orgran .


The recipe was from about.com. Here's the link: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/veganmuffinrecipes/r/lemonmuffin.htm