Weekly Vegan Recipes - Week II
So this is way overdue, and should have gone out on Monday...but life got in the way and last minute shoots and editing meant I didn't take the time to sit down and write this up!
In hindsight, I should probably write each recipe every night as I make it... OH WELL!
But here we go.. SECOND week of Veganuary recipes coming for you! This week was really good.. we started off with some easy soup, because you do not need to overcomplicate Monday nights and then got a little bit more adventurous, and ended the week with a super fun Sushi Night - which I recommend you start planning asap. Friends, MYO (make your own!) veggie sushi, card/board games, cocktails, GO!
I hope this format is useful and easy to understand/follow when you need to make the recipes, let me know if you have any suggestions!
Homemade Bread + Winter Veggies Soup
Bread
Ingredients (1 big loaf or 2 medium loaves) :
- 750g bread flour (wholemeal or white)
- 7 g quick bread yeast
- big pinch of salt
- 500 ml of warm water
Method :
- Grab a big bread bowl (big enough to knead the dough in there!) place your flour in there, and add your quick yeast + big pinch of salt. Mix it up.
- After you've mixed it up, add in your warm water (warm is very important! cold water will kill the yeast)
- Once the flour and water are roughly combined and forms a dough ball, start kneading (I knead in the bowl because.. less cleaning up, but you could transfer it to a clean floured surface if you prefer)
- Knead for 10 whole minutes, using the simple stretch and fold technique, go at it, don't be shy! After 10 minutes your dough will feel bouncy to the touch.
- Keep the dough in the bowl, and place it in the warmest spot in your house covered with a clean damp tea towel, and leave it to rise for about an hour.
- After an hour the dough will have doubled in size and be all bubbly and beautiful! Do a little happy dance!
- Knead the dough back down to a ball (no need to knead..((WHAT)) for a long time!) Oil up your bread tin(s) and place the dough in the tins to rise again in the warm spot. The second rise won't take as long (30/40min depending how warm it is), watch the dough, once it has doubled in the tin again, pop it in the oven (don't let it rise for too long or it might drop)
- place the tins in a 180C degrees fan oven for 40 minutes. The bread is ready when it's golden and sounds hollow when you knock it..
- Take out of the tins immediately to cool down. Congratulate yourself and take a moment to appreciate the wonderful smell taking over your kitchen.. YOU MADE BREAD
Winter Veggies Soup
Ingredients :
- Half a butternut squash
- 4 small carrots
- 1 stalk of celery
- 1 leek
- 1 big pot
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 cube of veggie stock
Method :
- Peel your veggies, and cut them all up into medium chunks. Don't worry too much about size.
- Start by sauteeing your onions, celery and leeks in a little olive oil until golden and soft.
- Add your tsp of cumin (optional but I think it goes well with squash and carrots)
- Add in the rest of the veggies to brown for a couple of minutes. Add in your garlic too.
- Now pour boiling water into the pan, until the veggies are almost covered but they're still poking out a little and not floating around (does that make sense?!)
- Add in your veggie stock at this point, and let the soup simmer for 20ish minutes or until all the veggies have gone soft (test by poking a knife through them)
- Once the veggies are cooked, set aside for a few minutes to cool down a bit before blending.
- Put your veggies and liquid into your blender, I do this in two batches because it's hot and you want to be careful - don't burn yourself (hand blender in the pan works too), blend until smooth!
- I served this with our warm delicious bread with vegan butter and marmite (sorry for all the marmite haters!), a dollop of Oatly creme fraiche (coconut milk, the canned type, would work so well too!)
Notes: This soup recipe work with just about any veggies you want to combine, the method is the same! Soup is SO easy to make, there's just no excuse to buy it from the supermarket :) It makes the perfect lunch to take with you as well..!
"Chorizo" Spice Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms + Sweet Potato Mash
Ingredients :
- Stale bread
- 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
- 4 small sweet potatoes
- 1 big normal potato
- 1 red pepper
- 1 red onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 4 pieces sundried tomatoes
- half stalk of celery
- 4 large portobello mushrooms
- vegan butter
- vegan "cheddar cheese" (optional)
- 1/4 of tamari
- 1/2 lemon juice
- Olive oil
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
Method :
- Start by blending in your pieces of stale bread with the nutritional yeast and a pinch of salt into your blender until you have fine crumbs.
- Peel and cut up your potatoes into medium chunks. Steam until soft. Put aside.
- Wash and prep your portobello mushrooms. In a bowl mix in your tamari, lemon juice, and 1 crushed garlic clove. Pour that mixture over your mushrooms on a plate, make sure the mushrooms are all coated and absorbing the liquid. Let marinate while you're making the rest.
- Place your pepper, red onion, garlic, sundried toms, celery, 2 cloves of garlic all roughly chopped into your food processor, and pulse until the consistency is not mush but still has a bit of texture with small pieces.
- Place the red pepper mixture into a pan with a little olive oil, and start browning a little until soft. Season with salt and pepper, and add all your spices! Cook for a few minutes.
- Start stuffing! Place your portobello mushrooms tops down, and stuff them with the red pepper mixture evenly. Grate your vegan cheese over if you're using any, and then your bread crumbs.
- Place the mushrooms into a 180C fan oven for around 35 minutes (put the rest of the breadcrumbs into a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and pop into the oven for a few minutes, they'll go all golden and delicious to sprinkle over anything.. or eat by the spoonful... keep in air tight jar)
- Rince your food processor and place your potatoes in there, with a dollop of vegan butter, a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Mix until nice and smooth! (you can also mash it by hand.. but I'm lazy!)
Courgette Fritters
Ingredients :
- 4 medium courgettes
- 2 tbsp of ground flaxseed
- 40 g of plain flour
- 20g of polenta or cornmeal
- 1/2tsp of baking powder
- 1 handful of finely chopped chives
- big pinch of chopped fresh dill
- 1 tsp of ground nutmeg
- 1 small can of sweetcorn
- vegetable oil
- optional : vegan feta or my almond feta, recipe in my instagram highlight in the app!
Method :
- Wash your courgettes, and grate them roughly. Place in a colander. Sprinkle a big pinch of salt and mix it through. You want to get as much excess water out. So let the courgettes sit there over a sink or a bowl. The water will slowly draw out while you're prepping the rest.
- Make 2 flax eggs. 2 tbsp of ground flaxseed with 6 tbsp of cold water. Let it sit until it gets thick (takes about 5 minutes!)
- Place all your dry ingredients in a large bowl: flour, polenta, baking powder, nutmeg with your dill and chives.
- Add your flax 'egg' (once it has thickened) to the bowl
- Add 1 small can of sweetcorn (170g approx) to the courgettes in the colander, and squeeze it all to get as much water out as possible.
- Add in the courgette to the flour mixture bowl, and mix it all up until its all combined!
- Optional: I added 1/2 cup of almond feta (recipe in my highlights on Instagram! you can see it under my bio on the app)
- Now you'll want to shallow fry the fritters over medium to high heat in sunflower/vegetable oil. for around 5 minutes on the first side (until brown and crispy) and 2 to 3 minutes on the other side! Don't fuss over how they look/sizes etc.
- When they look all brown and crispy, place them onto kitchen roll to get some excess oil out!
- Serve them with a simple salad, and a spicy yogurt sauce (unsweetened plant-based yogurt, with a dollop of sriracha, squeeze of lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste!) and have seconds! and maybe thirds!
Notes: letting the courgette sit and get as much water out as possible, is essential. Otherwise, they'll be soggy! This was our favorite recipe last week, making it again very soon! (this was adapted from this lovely recipe!)
Banana Nicecream + Rawnola + Fruit
Ahhh nicecream! Who doesn't want icecream for breakfast?! This is more of a summer breakfast staple for me, but once in a while I crave it and it hits the spot. So much so I had it twice last week...
I've shared this recipe before, you can find it over here! I made it plain this time, and didn't add the peanut butter. I had mine with rawnola (favourite recipe by Loni Jane) and a drizzle of almond butter one day, and the next I had it with fresh mango and passion fruit!
Veggie Sausages + Mash
This was a random Thursday night dinner, no recipe needed really! But I thought I'd share to give you some meal inspiration - even if they're dead easy!
This was simply leftover mash (from portobello mushrooms night!) and some Linda Mcartney red onion sausages with a side of salad topped with the spicy yoghurt sauce from fritters night.
These sausages are seriously the best veggie sausages in my eyes! The first time I had them at a cafe last year, I had to ask the waiter if they hadn't messed up my order and gave me pork sausages.. it was strange when you haven't eaten meat in a while!
Veggie Sushi Night
Again this is not a recipe, but more of an inspiration meal! We had Freya and Adam (and Molly!) come over last Saturday for a sushi and games night! Appropriately, Freya bought a card game over called Sushi Go!
We made a big batch of sushi rice (2 boxes - in hindsight, 1 and 1/2 would have been plenty for 5 people) we simply followed the pack instruction for the cooking and the seasoning, although we added about half of the seasoning they recommended.. but taste and see! (you'll need white rice vinegar!) It's a lot easier than you think, don't be intimidated by sushi!
Then we laid the table with a selection of fillings : tamari and garlic marinated mushrooms, crispy smoked tofu, red and yellow pepper slice thinly, cucumber, cavolo nero (a great addition!), avocado thinly slice and drizzled in lemon juice, spring onions, some black sesame seeds, some wasabi, sriracha mayo, and nori sheets!!
You'll need bamboo mats to roll the sushi, we had a couple and passed them around :) This was such a fun evening, we had cocktails and everyone made their own sushi as they wanted, and we ate until we rolled under the table (sushi is SO filling!) and played cards late into the night.
