Lazy Sauerkraut

Recipe for 2:

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 500g of sauerkraut (£1 for a kilo in Sainsburys, Polish section)
• 2 Vegusto pepper sausages (£3.59 in WholeFoods Market)
• French version: add some vegan bacon!
• Ukrainian version: add some carrots!
• 6 Charlotte potatoes
• Optional: some Juniper berries, crushed
• Optional: Dijon mustard and vegan spread
• 1 tsp of vegetable oil

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In a saucepan, cook the potatoes, peel them and leave aside. In a frying pan, heat the oil and grill the sausages until golden brown. Add the sauerkraut and Juniper berries and cook for a few minutes. Add the potatoes to warm them up and serve.

 

Guten Appetit!

 

Lazy Pesto Lentil Pasta

 

Recipe for 2:

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: under 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 150g of red lentil pasta (£3 for a pack in any organic shop)
• 250g of sugar snaps
• 4 tsp of tomato sauce
• 4 tsp of vegan pesto sauce (£2.50 at Sainsburys)
• Some chili flakes to sprinkle

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In a saucepan, bring the pasta and sugar snaps to boil and simmer for 10 minutes (if instructions on pasta pack longer, cook the sugar snaps separately to keep them crunchy)

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Drain them well and add the sauces. Mix well and serve. Sprinkle the dish with chili flakes.

 

 

Potato Duo and Fennel Mash

A mix of sweet, spicy and aniseed flavours. Perfect as a side dish.

Recipe for 4 servings

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Health bonus: Fennel is one of your weight loss best friends! Low GI, antioxidant, anti inflammatory, immune system booster, colon health

Ingredients

• 250g of Maris Piper potatoes, diced
• 500g of sweet potatoes, diced
• 1 medium sized fennel, chopped
• 2 tsp of vegan spread
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• Chili flakes to sprinkle

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Bring all the vegetables to boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain well.

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Mix with the spread and seasoning and grossly mash the mixture.

Serve with some vegan chicken pieces, some roasted mixed seeds and a green salad.

 

 

Creole Risotto

Broccoli and coconut dip risotto. Delicious!

Recipe for 4 servings

Preparation: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 250g of broccoli
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tsp of olive oil
• 200g of brown rice
• Half a glass of white wine
• 3 tsp of lemon juice
• 1l of vegetable stock
• 20cl of coconut cream
• 2 tsp of Cajun mix or creole spices
• Salt and pepper

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In a saucepan, steam the broccoli until tender and leave aside. In the meantime, prepare a litre of vegetable stock. In a casserole dish or cooker, fry the onion in the olive oil until tender.

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Add the rice and stir for a few minutes. Pour the wine and lemon juice, stir for 2 minutes and season. Gradually add the stock and stir regularly. The cooking time will be as per instructions on your pack of rice. Brown rice usually takes 30 minutes. The risotto is ready when the rice is cooked and there is no more stock in the pot.

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Stir in the coconut cream and spices and finally add the broccoli. I prefer to serve the Cajun coconut cream aside.

 

 

Creole Flan

Coconut, pineapple and cinnamon flavours for this light dessert.

Recipe for 8 servings

Preparation: 10 minutes

Cooling time: 2 hours in the fridge

Ingredients:

• 500ml of almond milk
• 2 tsp of Agar agar flakes
• 50 g of cane sugar
• 20cl of coconut cream (shake well first)
• 4 pineapples slices, grossly blended
• Cinnamon to sprinkle

 

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In a saucepan, pour the almond milk, the agar agar and the sugar. Stir once and bring to boil on low to medium heat. Leave to boil for a few seconds and turn the hob off.

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Add and mix the coconut cream and finally stir in the pineapple. Pour in ramekins and put in the fridge. Leave to cool for a couple of hours. Sprinkle with cinnamon to serve.

 

 

Winter Veg Crumble

In order to avoid eating the same thing over and over again this winter, I decided to revisit an old sweet classic, the crumble.

Recipe for 6 servings

Preparation: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 + 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 big Maris Piper potatoes, diced
• 2 big sweet potatoes, diced
• 2 big carrots, diced
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 100g of breadcrumbs
• 50g of flour of your choice
• 3 tsp of olive oil
• 2 + 2 tsp of soya cream
• 2 + 2 tsp of Dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper

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Preheat the oven at 180°c. Bring the vegetables to boil and simmer for 15 minutes. In the meantime in a large bowl, pour the breadcrumbs and flour, and stir in 2 tsp of oil, cream and mustard.

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Drain the vegetables and put them back in the saucepan. Add the other half of the cream and mustard, mix well and grossly mash. Season as per taste. Pour in an oven dish and press the breadcrumbs mix over the vegetables. Bake for 20 minutes.

 

 

Express Spelt Pancakes

A quick and easy must-have recipe in all kitchens. Simple and tasty. Less is More!

Recipe for 6 pancakes

Preparation: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Breakfast must!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of spelt flour (any flour is as good i wanted to avoid wheat)
• 1 sachet of baking powder
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of almond or oat milk
• 2 tsp of rapeseed oil
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• (optional: fresh blueberries)

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Heat your non stick frying pan on medium/high heat (for reference, I have a ceramic hob and I put it on at 7 out of 9)

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In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the milk, oil and vanilla extract whilst stirring.

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Pour a ladle worth of batter at the centre of the pan and flip over when the pancake starts bubbling. Serve with ice sugar, agave syrup, spread and jam or fruit. These pancakes can also be served with savoury dishes.

 

Happy animal loving Pancake day!!

 

 

 

Cajun Pulses Stew and Cornbread

To continue on my travels in Louisiana, I present you a lovely and spicy bean and pea stew with home made cornbread. Perfect winter dish!

Recipe for 4 servings

Preparation: 10 minutes

Total cooking time: 55 minutes

Health bonus: protein booster, anti inflammatory

Ingredients:

The stew:

• 2 cups of red kidney beans (washed and soaked)
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 1/2 cup of green peas (frozen)
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 100g of tomatoes, chopped
• 3 tsp of tomato sauce
• 3 tsp of Cajun mix
• 600ml of vegetable stock
• 2 tsp of corn flour

The cornbread:

• 2 tsp of apple cider vinegar
• 2 cups of almond milk
• 1 1/2 cup of cornmeal
• 1 cup of corn flour
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• Salt
• 3 tsp of sugar
• 4 tsp of vegetable oil

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Preheat the oven at 200°c. In a large bowl, mix all the corn bread ingredients in the order above. Spread in an oven dish and bake for 40 to 55 minutes according to your oven power.

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Whilst the bread is baking, in a large sauce pan or stew pot mix all the ingredients and pour the stock. Bring to boil and simmer for 55 minutes, stirring regularly. Add some water if needed.

 

 

Agave and Mustard Glazed Vegetables

A winter favourite of mine, so easy to make and to go with a nut roast on a Sunday or with a couple of sarnies for lunch at work!

Recipe for 2

Preparation: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of seasonal vegetables (winter favourite: parsnips, onions, carrots and potatoes) all diced or cut as you wish
• A few garlic cloves, left whole
• 2 tsp of Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp of agave syrup
• 1 tsp of chili flakes
• 3 tsp of olive oil
• 3 tsp of lager
• 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp of rosemary
• Salt and pepper

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Preheat your oven at 200°c. In a large bowl, mix the oil, mustard, syrup, spices and herbs and the lager. Season to taste.

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In an oven dish, place all the vegetables and pour over the mixture. Stir the veggies well so they all get marinated in this sauce and grill for 50 minutes, stirring halfway through.

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Serve with a ciabatta sarnie composed of vegan pesto and vegan ham or hummus, black olives and spinach leaves. Delish!!

 

 

Galette des Rois pour Tous!

A very old French tradition. It used to be royalist (The cake would hide a bean and the servants each would have a piece of the cake. The one servant who did get the bean would be King of the Day and the royalty would obey their orders. Or beat the guy to death more likely…) Nowadays, we eat the galette on the first weekend of January and tiny toys replace the bean. I hate tradition and I eat it all year long! The main ingredient of the galette was so far BUTTER. But que nenni! I made the vegan version of the galette and as an expert of it, I can guarantee IT TASTES 100% THE SAME!! Long live the Vegan King!

 

Recipe for 8 people

Preparation: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 Jus Rol puffy pastry sheets (Sainsburys does its own vegan brand too)
• 200g of ground almonds
• 100g of brown sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 tsp of almond extract
• 3 tsp of rapeseed oil
• 40g of cornmeal
• 20cl of soya single cream (+ 2 tsp to brush the pie with)

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Preheat your oven at 190°c. Apply the first pastry sheet onto your pie dish and pick it with a fork.

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In a large bowl, mix the sugar, oil, extracts, cornmeal, cream and almonds until you obtain a thick paste. Spread over the puff pastry, place your toy and cover with the second pastry sheet. Brush the top with a tsp of soya cream for a golden effect.

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Bake for 30 minutes or so, until golden. Take off the oven and brush again with the last stp of soya cream.