Chappatis

Chappatis

Fabulous chappatis

Ingrediants

250g chappati flour ( wholemeal or white )

2 Tbs oil

2 pinchs of salt

120ml of water

Method

1. Sift together the flour and salt  into a bowl.Stir in the oil and water and bring it together into a dough. Put it onto a lightly floured surface and knead until firm and eleasticy.

2. Divide into 8-10 balls, roll as flat as possible with a rolling pin.

2. Heat a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Cook the chappati on both sides you can ose a little oil or not whichever you prefer. Make sure the chappati is golden brown, you can let it get some dark spots also. They will puff up and you can press them down with a spatula. About 1 minute on each side. You can sprinkle with a little oil after cooking.

water and oil

The dough

After kneading

Make into a sausage

The dough balls sectioned off

 

 

Place in the pan and wait till the top forms bubbles

When bubbles form flip over

Flip over several times for even cooking

My chappatis aren't nice and round but are fabulous tasting none the less

green lentil and dal curry with golden raisins

Slowcooker malawi toor dal and green lentil curry.

lovely tasty curry

Ingrediants

2 cups malawi toor dal oily (500g pack)

1 cup of green lentils

3/4 cup of golden raisins

1 400g can of tomatoes

2 tsp onion powder or 1 onion chopped

1 1/2 tsp ginger or 1 inch of grated fresh

1 tsp of turmeric

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp of hing

2 tsp garlic powder or 4 cloves of fresh grated

2 heaped tbsp of balti curry paste

1/3 cup ground almonds

3 tsps of tomato puree

1 1/2 tsp of salt

1/2v tsp coarsely ground black pepper

2 3/4 pints of water 

Loving Dal

Method

1. Put all spice powders into a small bowl and set aside.

2. Add the rest of the ingrediants straight into the slowcooker except the water. Add the spice powders.  Stir thoroughly.

3. Add the water and mix thoroughly again.

4. Pop the lid on and cook on low for at least 5 hours. You must check every hour or so to make sure that there is enough water and it's not too dry. Different slowcookers cook slightly quicker or slower. If you need  to add more water use boiling water, a little at a time.

5. You will know its ready when it has thickened and the lentils are soft. I personally still like the lentils to be present and not too mushy.

6. You can either have this with rice or with chappati. 

yummy spice blend

 

 

 

Everything ready for the water

lid on and onto low

Thick and lovely dal

Beetroot cake of choccyness

Beetroot Chocolate cake

The beetroot cake iced x

Ingredients

180 gr all purpose flour
240 gr sugar
75 gr cocoa powder
20 gr baking power
250 gr cooked and grated beetroot
220 ml corn oil
1 cup vegan milk

Beautiful finely grated beetroot

Cake tin greased and cocoa powder coated

 I just used a basic vegan margarine icing for the middle and top x 

Method:
1. Pour the dry ingredients into a bowl (flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder) and mix well.

2. Place the liquid ingredients and the grated beetroot in another bowl. 

3. Combine them all together and pour the mixture into a cake tin, which has been greased and coated in cocoa powder. 

4. Bake in preheated oven set at 180 degrees for 40-50 min. Do the toothpick test, if it comes out clean its ready. 

5. Leave to cool completely before removing from the cake tin. Cool on  wire rack. Its a very moist lovely rich choccy cake. I cut mine in half through the centre to ice the middle and jazzed it up with pink and sprinkles.

Sifting the flour

Everything mixed

Give it a good mix

The finished cake

Fifi's wonderful photo of my pink hands

The moistness of the beetroot cake

 

fitzy style seitan sausages

 Fitzy's seitan steamed sausages

SEITAN SAUSAGES

Dry ingrediants
1/2 cup soya flour
1 3/4 cup vital wheat gluten flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried thyme 
2 tsp garlic granules
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper


Wet ingrediants
1/4 cup dark soya sauce
2 tbs of soya sauce 
1/2 pint of water ( little more if the mixture is too dry )

Spicey Goodness

 Method

1. Add all the dry ingrediants into a large bowl and mix well with a whisk so that everything is mixed evenly.
2. Using a jug add all the wet ingrediants, you can use the same whisk to make sure everything is mixed well.
3. Make a well in the centre and mix quickly until a hardish wet dough is formed, will look ugly and stringy but persevere.
4. Break off 12 9-10 inch pieces of foil, you will need about 12 pieces to roll up the sausages.
5. Cut the large lump of seitan dough into 12 pieces, you can also just use your hands to break off 12 pieces. Roughly the same size.
6. Stretch out one piece into a long thin sausage, the mixture will be tough so just do it roughly. Lay it on the foil in the centre at the end.
7. Take the end and roll the sausage mixture to form a log, put your hands either side of the sausage and press the mixture into the centre then twist the ends firmly pressing towards the sausage and twist until both ends are sealed. Lay into the steamer and continue making the sausages. 
8. Put the steamer on for 40 minutes, this will cook the sausages through. Once cooked take out the foil ( make sure they have cooled slightly ) and store them, eat them or freeze them. You can oven cook them or fry them etc its up to you x

spice mix

Dry Mix

Wet mix

Foil at the ready

12 same size pieces

stretched onto the foil

Rolled inside foil

twisting in the ends

Steamer first rack done

Sausages are on

The finished sausages after removing the foil

peanut butter fudge

Quick and easy peanut butter fudge

butterfly fudge

Ingrediants

3/4 cup of soya margarine
3 2/3 cups of icing sugar
1 cup of peanut butter

Method

1. Lightly grease a 9x9 inch baking dish.
2. In a saucepan over low heat, melt margarine. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter until smooth. Stir in confectioners' sugar, a little at a time, until well blended. Pat into prepared pan and chill until firm. Cut into squares or shapes.
Eat with caution!

Yummy seitan ribz

Seitan Ribz with yummy bbq sauce

This is a go to recipe for me from the greatest blog Fat free Vegan Kitchen by the wonderous Susan Voisin. Its so easy and so worth making.

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/05/barbecued-seitan-ribz.html

So delicious!

Ingrediants

1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika ( i use one )
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons tahini or other nut butter
1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke ( can be bought on amazon or ebay )
1 tablespoon soy sauce
about 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce (see some suggestions below)

Instructions

1.Preheat the oven to 350/180 and lightly spray an baking dish with oil. 
2. Mix the first 5 ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix the water with the nut butter, Liquid Smoke, and soy sauce and add it to the dry ingredients. Stir to mix well and then knead lightly in the bowl for a couple of minutes.
3. Put the dough into the baking dish and flatten it so that it evenly fills the pan. Take a sharp knife and cut it into 8 strips; then turn the pan and cut those strips in half to form 16 pieces, you can also use kitchen scissors.
4. Put in the oven and bake for 25 minutes ( some may puff up during cooking! ).
5. Take them out of the oven and marinade them in the bbq glaze or sauce, making sure they are thoroughly coated. I leave mine for at least half an hour. You can also leave them in the fridge overnight.
6. Heat either a griddle pan or a large frying pan and cook the seitan on a medium high heat turning frequently until little blackened edges appear. When ready do one last coat of the marinade and leave in tin foil to remain hot.

Crispy polenta with chives and garlic

Crispy Polenta with chives and garlic

Wonderful stuff

Ingrediants

21/2 cups of quick cook polenta ( merchant organic is great )

1 cup Unsweetened Soymilk
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
8 cloves of garlic grated

bunch of chives finely chopped

2 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp ground black pepper

Enough olive oil for frying

Nice and thick polenta

Method

1.In the sauce pan, combine everything, except the Soya milk.

2.Bring contents to a boil, whisking constantly for 2 minutes. Add the soya milk and stir with a wooden spoon with a long handle as it will spit like larva. For about another 2 minutes. Wait until its thick and hand to stir. Taste now and see if it needs more salt and pepper.

3. Line a baking tray with foil and spray with oil. Pour the polenta in and smooth it flat all the way upto the edges. I made mine about an inch high.

4. Leave to cool in the fridge. Once ready and fully cooled cut into triangles or circles.

5. Put some oil in the frying pan about a tablespoon and fry the polenta on both sides until golden brown and crispy. Drain on a kitchen cloth or kitchen paper.

Sprayed tray

You can leave this to cool before the fridge, cover with clingfilm in the fridge

polenta triangles

The finished result

Speedy lentil and Tomato sauce

Speedy Tomato and Green lentil Sauce

The sauce of deliciousness

Ingrediants

2 carrots

2 sticks of celery

3 garlic cloves, grated

1 tbsp of olive oil

handful of fresh parsley

1 onion, finely sliced

2 tbs dried basil ( you can use fresh )

3 fresh tomatoes

1 cup of green lentils

2-3 tbs of tomato puree

1 tsp of sugar

1 tin of plum tomatoes

1 crust of brown bread ( I used a polish bread brown crust )

salt and pepper to taste

Give it a good stir regularly

Method

1. Chop the carrots, celery, fresh tomatoes and fresh parsley ( it will be chopped in the processor ) so just rough. Throw it into the food processor and blitz it. 

2. To the saucepan add 1 tbs of olive oil and the onion. Fry until browned. Add tin of tomatoes and break them up with a wooden spoon against the side of the dish, and the tomato puree ( add more if ou like a more tomato flavour). Add the sugar. Add the lentils, vegetable and parsley mix. Put a lid on and let it cook for about 8 mins, checking to make sure the lentils haven't stuck to the base.

3. Whilst this is cooking blitz up our bread in the processor and then add it to the sauce to thicken it. Stir through.

4. Cook for another 10-15 mins covered or until the lentils are cooked through and the sauce has become rich and thick. You must make sure that you check it regularly and give it a stir so that it doesn't stick.

5. Serve with some pasta with a sprinkling of vegan cheese.

The finished thickened sauce