Notes from a vegan picnic

At the start of the month Amelie had a picnic to celebrate her birthday and it was a BONANZA. I was running preeeety late by the time I got to the park, having decided to make homemade pizza and guacamole with pomegranate seeds half an hour before the picnic started. But it didn't matter- there was a feast to get through...

Amelie and Ruth had made falafel, potato salad with purple potatoes and vegan soy cream, homemade hummus with homemade tahini (mind blown), hard lemonade (it involved gin) and a whole lot of other stuff I can't remember, probably because of the hard lemonade. Joe and Becca made some amazing cous cous salads and an aubergine and tomato sort of stew with so much olive oil it was the richest, tastiest thing I think I've ever eaten at a picnic.

We finished with a gluten free, vegan birthday cake made by Ruth. Happy belated Birthday Amelie!!

Marinated aubergine and Monday night feasts

Last Monday I made a vegan, gluten free feast for my friends Amelie and Ruth, after deciding Monday nights should be more like Friday nights and include wine and lots of food.

As ever my portion control was out of control and I made far too much, but it meant I could also do lunchboxes for everyone for the next day. Over night the marinated aubergine got even better, while using a salad with shredded cabbage meant it didn't go soggy with all the oil and dressing mixed in. Monday night feasts make everything okay!

For the marinated aubergine I adapted a recipe from Turntable Kitchen. With this I added spicy potato cubes, roasted butternut and acorn squash with rosemary, shredded cabbage and spinach salad, chipotle refried beans (recipe to follow this week!) and sauteed green lentils with leeks. While all these dishes may sound a little summery, they're all made from seasonal vegetables so make a nice break from stews, pies and soups!

Makes enough for six as a side dish

Ingredients
2 medium aubergines, sliced 5mm thick
Handful chopped parsley
Juice 1/2 lemon
Oil to roast
2 tbsp capers
Seasoning

Preheat the oven to around 200 degrees celsius. Take a large roasting dish, cover the sides with oil and seasoning, and place in the sliced aubergine. Drizzle with a little more oil and then cover with foil and roast for around 20 minutes. In this time mix together the lemon juice, a little more oil, salt, pepper and capers. Once the aubergine is soft and cooked through, pour into a mixing bowl along with all the roasting oil, and stir in the dressing, finishing with the chopped parsley. Leave to cool until the rest of the meal is ready, then serve with a little more parsley if you fancy it.

Amelie's two sauce pasta

To borrow a phrase from Brian Cox, I am not being unduly hyperbolic when I say that Amelie's two sauce pasta is the stuff of legend round the few weird streets of London where I live. People have been known to cross rivers (mostly the Thames), climb mountains (mainly the steps to Amelie's old flat) and brave the two-for-£5 merlot from the local offy to get their hands on a bowl of this stuff.

It may not sound like much, but when it's been left to simmer and there's 1kg of pasta boiling on the stove, somehow it just becomes the tastiest thing ever. Doused within an inch of its life with olive oil and more garlic than truly decent, this is a rich, vegan supper and can easily be made gluten-free with the addition of GF pasta.

After nearly a year of pestering, Amelie finally gave me the recipe for the two sauces last week. Since then I've tried three times to recreate it, and barely come close. So the photos here are of Amelie's two sauce pasta, and Amelie's unadulterated recipe. Because there's no way I'm about to tinker with it.

For 4 people:

2 carrots (not too big)

2 onions (red or white)

2 tins of plum tomatoes (not chopped)

6 cloves of garlic (AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE) 

Good chilli (doesn't have to be spicy, it needs to have a nice chili taste) (I used piment d'espelette powder which I steal from my mum's shop. It's delicious because it gives a nice strong taste of chili without making it super spicy)

N.B.: if you use fresh chili, do not chop it as it will be too spicy (i.e. arrabbiata) Use one or two whole chili instead, and leave it in the saucepan til you serve the pasta.

Thyme

Tomato paste (optional)

Olive oil, of course - half a bottle if possible.

Basil

Start by chopping the onions, carrots, basil stems and garlic. Heat the oil in a saucepan and once it's hot, add the onions, basil stems & thyme and let the onions sweat for a bit.

Add the finely chopped carrots, the garlic and the chili and let it cook for around 10 minutes. You could also add a tablespoon of tomato paste. Add salt. Once the carrots are cooked, add the tomatoes and half a tin of water (or a bit more, depending on the thickness of the tomato juice).

DON'T crush the tomatoes yet. Let them cook nicely.

Put the lid on the saucepan but don't close the whole thing, leave some steam out. The tomatoes need to cook for 15-20 minutes, then they'll be easy to crush. After you crushed the tomatoes, the sauce will have to reduce a little bit as you will release some of the tomatoes' juice (sounds gross).

Put it on a very low heat, with the lid covering 3/4 of the pan...and leave it like this for up to 30 minutes.

It doesn't have to cook for ages and it's quite nice when you let it 'rest' for a bit before serving.

Don't forget to add salt and pepper and a SPLASH of olive oil. You could add some more chili powder too.

Voila!

Add the chopped basil leaves at the end, on the plate (and some olive oil).

OR make a pesto - olive oil, basil, 1 clove of garlic, almond or pine nuts depending on how rich you are, salt and pepper. N.B.: I don't recommend making pesto with cashew nuts...that's like fusion food gone too far.

One of the most important things about this recipe is to make sure the onions and carrots are well cooked and that the onions/carrots/garlic/chili/thyme mix is really tasty on its own. 

In spring/summer you could replace the carrots with a red pepper - yummy!

Maltby Street Market and spicy squash soup

On Saturday, against my toes' better judgement, I braved the freezing winds with Keelan and Naomi to visit Bermondsey's Maltby Street market and the Ropewalk. Plenty of black filter coffee, stall holders with battery-heated socks and a swift trip to the Kernal Brewery's store meant we were able to stand the cold for a grand total of one hour before heading to the Design Museum to defrost our fingers. 

Still shivering the day after, I made this spicy squash and potato soup with plenty of chili for a perfect snow-day lunch. I didn't manage to save any of the soup back (there seemed to be a continuous depletion of stocks throughout the afternoon...) but this would be great to freeze and defrost for lunches midweek.

Serves about six, or enough for a lot of lunches!
Ingredients

600g potatoes, peeled and chopped
350g squash, peeled and chopped
1 large onion, diced
2 chilis, chopped
1 tsp marjoram
400ml vegetable stock
2 tsp chili flakes (plus a little more for seasoning)
Glugs of vegetable/olive oil
salt
pepper

Sweat the onion in a large pan with the oil. Add in the marjoram, fresh chilies and dried chili flakes. Prepare the vegetable stock, then add the potatoes, squash, seasoning and stock to the pan, and bring to the boil.

Allow to simmer for around 30 minutes, until both the squash and potato are completely cooked through.

Turn off the heat and use a hand blender or mixer to blend the soup to a rich consistency, leaving it as chunky as you like. I added about 200 ml of water at this point to thin it down a little.

Bring back to a simmer, add pepper to taste and you're done.

A year in vegan meals

A year today I decided to try being a vegan for a little while. In January I read 'Eating Animals' and mostly ate a lot of chickpeas.

February meant my first vegan birthday cake, made to order by my long-suffering Mum. Thanks Mum!

Before I signed up to Growing Communities, I had to track down all my vegetables and fruit myself. So March was full of trips to the market.

Easter came around and I cooked the first of many vegan feasts for my family- roasted tomato soup, spring vegetable pie and mash potatoes.

In April I got down to veganising some of my favourite recipes from Wahaca and discovered Leffe is vegan. Big revelation.

I also managed to sign up to Growing Communities, the best thing I've ever done for my eating habits. I had to start scouring cook books to find ways of using all the new and unheard of vegetables we are given each week, and of course began taking A LOT of photos of fantastic vegetables.

In May I went to my first BBQ as a vegan and seemed to start a lentil burger factory. I also made carrot cake and lots of cups of tea for best friends.

Discovering apricots in the fruit bag one night in the park, and working out lunch box recipes to make on Sunday evenings.

In June I went on my first holiday as a vegan, to Krakow. I ate a lot of fruit, crisps and bread...

... but when I came home the vegetable bag had been transformed by all the gorgeous summer produce- I carried on making a lot of lentil burgers and sweet potato wedges for my family.

In July I picked edible flowers to add to salads and perfected a brownie recipe, which I will probably rename Gone in Sixty Seconds for 2013.

I also popped over to help my friend Alice at her tomato stall, and experimented with Bundt tins and Sunday baking like a woman possessed.

August meant lots of late night dinner parties and Mexican food, like Thomasina Miers' black eyed bean soup.

 September saw the last BBQ of the summer and the first squash soup...

...While October bought granola and more pumpkins than I knew what to do with!

The roasts began in November, my main objective being to use every shelf in the oven and every ring on the hob. I also made some ludicrous brunches and drank a lot of cava. But you already knew that.

The farmers' markets were in full bloom with all of November's produce, like the endless rows of apples at Borough Market. I made sweet potato and red lentil soup to combat blustering bike rides.

And finally it was December. When, with the help of a small army, I managed to cook a seemingly never-ending gluten-free Christmas dinner, and average at least four roast dinners a week.

So so long 2012 and Happy New Year to all my readers! I can't wait to see what 2013 holds for Guac & Roll.

A vegan, gluten free Christmas

Happy Christmas everyone! Here are a few photos from the gluten-free, vegan Christmas dinner/marathon I cooked with Naomi and Mark the other day. After five hours of cooking we'd used every pot and saucepan in the kitchen (my daily aim) and concocted up a feast of proportions we're still working through.

We started with salted popcorn and mulled cider to help fuel snowflake making, A Charlie Brown Christmas watching, and obviously, quite a bit of cooking.

  

Here's Mary Berry's chestnut and apricot stuffing, adapted using vegan margarine and gluten free, vegan ciabatta rolls.

You don't need turkey to have cranberry sauce (it tastes amazing with basically everything we cooked) so I made my own from scratch, just heating cranberries with sugar, a little orange zest and ginger. Based on a BBC recipe, I made this the day before and left it to thicken over night in the fridge.

Instead of one key dish to replace the meat, we had about twelve. Above are the mushroom, leek and wild rice tarts I made with gluten free flour and ground almonds for the base, taken and adapted from this recipe by Vegerrific.

Amongst a ton of other treats I'll have to blog about another time, Mark and Naomi bought some of the best beer I've ever tasted from The Kernel Brewery in Bermondsey.

Along with everything else we also had hasselback potatoes, cabbage, cavolo nero, butternut squash roasted in spices, balsamic shallot gravy, roasted parsnips, purple carrots, onions and apples with rosemary and mashed potatoes.

                                     
By the time we were ready to serve I couldn't fit everything on my plate and had to go for two rounds (convenient).

So until next year folks, have a wonderful Christmas!

Gluten free, vegan shortbread

One thousand and one apologies for going a little quiet on the blogging front for the past few weeks. The irony is I don't know if I've ever been cooking, baking, concocting and sampling more! My laptop's bookmarks are now just full of vegan holiday recipes, while my camera has taken on an extra layer of icing sugar dust that won't budge. However, while the baking subsides a little I will be posting plenty of Christmas and winter solstice recipes here.

First up is this vegan, gluten free shortbread recipe- this would be perfect to make for any gluten free-friends you have as a homemade present, or even to have ready to stack up at your desk to try and speed up those last few days of work (and how they drag!!)

I adapted this recipe from an American one I found by Char's Kitchen. I chose to use Doves Farm Gluten Free bread flour as it comes with Xanthan Gum in the blend, which you need for this recipe. If you have a preferred GF flour then just use that but with 1/2tsp Xanthan Gum to every cup of flour.

NB: The photos here of the finished biscuits are just half the final batch.

Ingredients
340g vegan margarine/butter such as Vitalite
About 2/3 cup of icing sugar
2 cups of Doves Farm Gluten Free White Bread Flour (plus about another cup for rolling and dusting the biscuits)

Instructions
Cream together the margarine and sugar, then sift in the flour and mix until the mixture is fluffy.
Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This helps the flour firm up a bit and makes it much easier to cut out shapes like hearts and rabbits, as otherwise the mixture does break easily.

Once the mix has chilled, pre-heat the oven to around 175 degrees Celsius. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and add more flour to knead. It will feel quite soft at first but add a little more flour at a time until it goes a little firmer.

When you're happy with the texture, roll out into around 1cm thickness and cut out with biscuit cutters. Use a spatula to transfer the biscuits to a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.

Bake for around 10 minutes- you want the biscuits to stay pale and not colour. Move to a baking tray and allow to cool for 10 minutes, when they will also harden.

Polenta paradigm shift

You know what they say about inheriting your parents' fears? Well polenta used to be one of mine. After the amount of trial and errors I'd seen at Sunday lunchtimes, I steered clear for five long years, not knowing quite what I was missing out on. Never quite salty, flavoursome or set enough, it seemed like polenta was just not one for me.

However. This all changed last Sunday, when I found this recipe from Skinny Jeans Food- although I couldn't follow it exactly (I have no idea where to find a jar of veganaise for starters) I used it as inspiration for brunch with Liz and Sabrina and it was YUM. Mixed with Sabrina's Ultra Super Food Rainbow Salad, the polenta was absolutely scrummy, gluten free, and so easy to handle on a Sunday morning when most things (ie the London Undergound) are not so easy to work with.

nb. As Skinny Jeans Food mentions- the lemon in the polenta won't effect the taste, just makes it so much more brighter and sunny-looking, always a bonus on a dreary Sunday.

Serves four (obviously, generously)
Ingredients:
1.6 cups of polenta
2 cups water
1 cup almond milk
1.0 cup of vegan margarine (such as Vitalite or Pure)
Juice of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt

100g per person of mushrooms
100g per person of cavolo nero (or kale, spinach, greens would also work)
Handful of pine nuts
1 chopped onion
2 chopped garlic cloves
Glugs of olive oil

You can make the polenta way before time and just heat it in the oven once you're ready to cook the mushrooms and greens.

In a saucepan, place the polenta and almond milk in, along with the water, and allow to heat through until it thickens. This could take anything up to 10 minutes so just be patient and keep whisking. Once you can see the bottom of the pan by stirring the thick mixture, turn off the heat and add the margarine, salt and lemon juice. Pour into a heat-proof dish and allow to cool.

Sweat the onion and garlic in a pan for five minutes, before adding the chopped mushrooms. Try to use a large pan where the mushrooms wont sit on top of each other, as this makes them go soggy.

Whilst waiting for the mushrooms to cook, heat a saucepan without any oil and toast the pine nuts- this will only take 2-3 minutes. Set aside.

Once the mushrooms are browned, add the cavolo nero and any seasoning. Finally plate up with chunks of the polenta and pine nuts on top. A salad is great to add to this dish to counteract the oil and lighten up the polenta, or just a few grilled tomatoes and black coffee.

Gaspacho Gazpacho

There are very few occasions in life when I can be bothered to blanch tomatoes. But gazpacho is one of them. Actually I can't think of any others.

After a scorching day full of comic book shops and iced coffees with Naomi, the only thing we could think about making was gazpacho. Nigel Slater, as ever, came to the rescue. We just simplified his recipe for The Guardian, which you can read here. The most important thing for gazpacho is to give it time to cool down! I leave it in the freezer for ten minutes or so, and then add an ice cube if you still think it needs it!

Ingredients
Six tomatoes (Yes, we used ten- I suppose just allow 3 tomatoes per portion)
1 onion, diced
Half a cucumber, chopped small
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp caster sugar
Juice 1 lime

Boil the kettle and cut a small cross in each of the tomatoes. Add to a saucepan and heat with the boiling water until you can start to see the skin come off the tomatoes. Run them under cold water and peel off their skins, then chop and place back in the saucepan (off the heat).

Add the oil, onion, cucumber, spring onions and garlic. Using a hand blender or food processor, mix the soup until it's at your preferred consistency. 

Finally add the vinegar, any salt, pepper you think it needs and caster sugar. I also add lime juice to mine here. If you want to eat ASAP, then bung in the freezer for a few minutes and add a few ice cubes as we did- if you've got plenty of time, cover and sit in the fridge until needed.