Vegan recipes

Daughters have decided to become vegan, I know this place will have some good recommendations for vegan recipes or cookbooks, let’s hear them.

I made courgettes with lentils for lunch. It was lovely 🙂

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/oct/04/nigel-slater-recipes-berries-with-rose-geranium-sugar-and-courgettes-with-lentils

Some good stuff in the Bosh book:

…but they do use very lengthy descriptions for dishes that (once you’ve made them) turn out to be quite simple.

Disclaimer: I am not a vegan, just virtue-signalling 😉

Ingredients:
700g Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes (ish)
1 large onion
1 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 – 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper – depending how hot you like it
1 tin chopped tomatoes
100ml vegan yogurt
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
1 pint water

Chop the onion moderately fine. Heat 5 tablespoons oil in a large pan or casserole dish (the oval Le Creuset are spot on). Fry the cumin seeds for a couple of minutes – don’t let them burn. Add the onion and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger and two tablespoons of water, and fry for another three minutes. Add the tomatoes, turmeric, and cayenne, cook for another 3 minutes, Mix the yoghurt and the flour and stir into the pan, followed by the pint of water. That’s the sauce done, leave to cook while you fry the sweet potatoes.
Peel and chop the sweet potatoes, and fry in the remaining oil. When they are just soft, and maybe browning a little, add to the sauce. Simmer for 12-15 minutes. Garnish with parsley or fresh coriander and serve with rice or naan bread.

Some nice recipes here: https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com

These are bloody lovely: https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/vegan-seitan-steak/

And we use this a lot https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-green-roasting-tin/rukmini-iyer/9781910931899

And for a damn tasty, quick curry: https://www.hairybikers.com/recipes/view/sweet-potato-saag-aloo

anna jones eg modern way to eat, modern cooks year

Not all vegan but most are and nearly all the remaining are easily adaptable

+1 for the Bosh book. I’ve made loads of things from there and they are all easy and delicious. It’s a good starting point.

Another +1 for Bosh. They’ve also got a YouTube channel for visual tips!  Meera Sodha has loads of vegan recipes on The Guardian website. Quite a lot of Szechuan recipes are vegan,  plenty of curries too. Hugh Fearnley Whittingbollocks has two books called Veg, and Much More Veg that are pretty good.

These are bloody lovely: https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/vegan-seitan-steak/

Ooh nice one! I’m gonna try this. My number 1 advice, get a plugin for your browser which just pulls the recipe out of the page – for some reason vegan recipe writers want to write their life stories alongside the recipes.

+1 on the HFW Much More Veg

we use it a fair bit (occasionally adding cheese or fish to be contrarians)

Isa does it

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Isa_Does_It.html?id=uafHAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y

The bolognese sauce is a hit with us

Happy pear and deliciously ella are my go to sources of vegan recipes. Both awesome.

Thug Kitchen is great if not a little sweary, we use it loads at home. Also Hugh’s veg books.

This chilli is amazing:

https://www.brandnewvegan.com/recipes/soups/best-damn-vegan-chili-ever

Just dial back on the chilli powder. To taste.

I’ll also post a red lentil bubble and squeak pie and a frankly stonking cheatburger recipe when get a mo

*bookmarked.

Top tip: Don’t get suckered in by all the meatalike stuff as ‘staples’, instead focus on a plant-based wholefood menu. Also – Hindu recipes are most often vegetarian and can easily be adapted to be dairy free also. Indian food is incredibly tasty. Lentils and rice (together) offer complete proteins if you include both in your diet. Dahls and rices are an excellent staple.

To reaffirm some from above, our go-to recipe books are

Meera Sodha’s Fresh India and East. My favourite from East is the Okonomiyaki, which I even managed to get the three-year-old to eat.

Also we cook a lot from the Green Roasting Tin. It’s not all Vegan. Depending on your girls’ stance, they may be open to the odd bit of cheese, maybe not. FWIW we cook with meat maybe once a week, veggie or vegan the rest. We;ve massively reduced the amount of meat we cook but not removed it entirely. Dairy has been harder to remove but we’ve swapped about least half of our milk consumption for Oat milk.

Deliciously Ella has been pushed to the back of the shelf by these two. We also love Made in India (also Meera Sodha) but that’s not Vegan. Buy it for yourself and cook the Railway Curry. Amazeballs.

The Dirty Vegan has some good recipes. These may be of some use.

https://www.standard.co.uk/shopping/esbest/food-drink/cookbooks/best-vegan-cookbook-a4319176.html

https://www.facebook.com/yumveganrecipes/

https://www.facebook.com/DomesticGothessUK/

If your daughters like curries a lot of receipes are / can be made vegan and green lentils are a great alternative for mince meat (eg spag Bol, chilli etc. )
Hellman’s vegan mayo is a thing of beauty – vegan cheese however remains Satan’s very own creation imo

green lentils are a great alternative for mince meat (eg spag Bol, chilli etc. )

Just as another option for this, I pulse chickpeas in a food processor for another mince meat alternative.

Haven’t bought a cookbook for years until recently but Veganomicon was a great one. The one I got was Prashad by the owner of the Bradford restaurant of the same name – vegetarian but all of the recipes are easilt adapted.

When I was first vegan at 17 or 18 my auntie got me depressingly-monikered ‘The Single Vegan’ which kept me alive given I was flatsharing and would’ve lived off chips and beans otherwise.

What was good about it was they gave you a list of staples and spices to buy, then a weekly shopping list and told you what to make each day, things to soak or whatever for tomorrow. The only problem was it was American and used a few ingredients you couldn’t get in the North in 1992. No doubt out of print now though.

Meera Sodha is good

Scrambled tofu. Fry leeks or onions. Add turmeric. Mash up block tofu. Bung into fried stuff together with soy sauce and mustard. Stir, heat, serve with potatoes, veg, toast, baked beans, whatevs man.

Veg & bean curry.

Pasta & vegan pesto. Sling in some veg and a can of chickpeas.

Bean & veg stew with dumplings (veg fat obvs).

The frozen falafel (“me too” iirc) you can microwave in a min & serve with salad, tahini and some flat bread.

Pasta sauce – basically fry up some garlic onions peppers, add tin chopped toms, 1tsp marmite 1 tbsp peanut butter, add veg/beans to taste.

Rice ‘n’ Dahl

Slice up a bit of tempeh, microwave-marinade in soy sauce or sherry, dip in flour & fry

HTH

Hail Seitan! This vegan kebab recipe is really good.

https://www.dirtyvegan.tv/2019/03/03/doner-kebabs-with-pink-pickle/

Brilliant, cheers all. Loads to go at there.

David Attenborough has a lot to answer for, telling impressionable teenagers to eat more plant based diet. 🙂

I’ll second Thug Kitchen as well – the black bean, butternut squash and sweet potato enchiladas are a thing of wonder.

My advice, at least to start with is to keep it simple.

An easy dinner would be garden salad or pumpkin soup (with roasted seeds) followed by braised carrots and brocoli with a bit of olive oil and fried sliced garlic drizzeled on top. Roast peaches and coconut milk for dessert (you can thicken the coconut with agar powder to get a whipped cream consistency).

Not a vegan or veggie but have a few veggie/vegan meals a week.I use the Dirty Vegan book which so far has been good for us, but alot of the time I just make our usual meals (usual Bolognaise, chilli, curry, fajita’s, cottage pie type stuff) and substitute meat for quorn/chickpeas/pulses/chunky veg/Halloumi (not the vegan option of course). Cant tell the difference really for meals like that.

As promised:

Gourmet cheatburger (vegan)

I’ve been messing with Linda’s burgers for about a year or more because the texture and juiciness is great, – but we both prefer more flavour/felt they are under-seasoned so…

(Makes 2 burgers)

Ingredients:

2 x ‘Make No Bones’ brioche bun (cut in half). – Waitrose do a 4 pack for £1.30
2 x Linda McCartney Vegetarian 1/4lb Burgers ( £2ish from frozen sections. They are vegan, just don’t pick the mozzarella ones by mistake)

2 topping variants here:
1 large onion thinly sliced and fried/caramelised
2 x medium portabello mushroom caps cooked and seasoned.

OR

1/2 a fresh onion diced v small
fresh salad leaves and tomato slice
——————————————————————————

1 x tablespoon purified coconut oil for cooking in pan (if cooking in oven see Note)

Super Sekrit Marinade/flavour:

1 x teaspoon Heinz BBQ sauce
1 x teaspoon garlic powder/granules
1/2 x teaspoon good strong smoked paprika. Buy this bagged from wholefood shop or else a decent imported tin such as El Avion. Worth having in the house.
3 x teaspoons of balsamic vinegar
Ground salt and black pepper to taste
^ Add all these flavourings into a cup and stir well until a uniform paste

To cook:
Put oil and the frozen patties in warm non-stick frying pan or skillet on LOW/med heat
Spoon half of the marinade and divide between each burger (leave the other half for the other sides). Spread this evenly over entire burger with spatula or butter knife

Cook gently for 4-5 mins as the marinade soaks into the top, then flip them over. Repeat process, adding/spreading the rest of the marinade again to the top of the burgers. Flip once more and cook for a few minutes, flipping them until evenly cooked through. Don’t burn the marinade.

Note: You can do this in the oven, and they do plump up more that way. Just add the marinade the same and cook about 15 mins either side on 180. No need for oil, but again, a good quality purified coconut oil does add fat and extra yum. Throw some crinkle-cut chips in there too, why not? 😎

When patties are cooked through and both sides browned then place directly on the brioche buns. Now top with either:

Fried onions and grilled/fried portobello
OR
Chopped fresh onions, salad leaves and tom slice.

Optional burger relish (not essential but it’s really worth it):

(In cup) combine the following:
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Tablespoon of Hellman’s Vegan mayo
Tablespoon of tomato ketchup
Teaspoon of mustard
1/2 teaspoon of dill (either dried or chopped fresh)
Mix well and dollop on burger.

Cheese options?

If you fancy a ‘blue’-cheese flavour go for thin slice of Violife feta block
If you fancy a smokey cheese go for a slice or two of Applewood (brand) vegan cheese (Waitrose, Sainsburys etc). Just add slices onto the hot cooked patties and leave for a few moments.

Chilli options? Jalapeno slices (pickled) or a dash of green tabasco goes well right on/in the patties.

Cucumber options? Sliced cornichon, or dill-pickled cucumber slice. What you like.

Am working on a lentil and buckwheat pattie from scratch. It will be healthier and the taste/texture is really promising, but it’s not quite there yet and does use egg whites atm, so will just leave this ‘cheat’ one here until.

Any feedback/hacks/changes welcomed 👍🏼

This is what you want. If you want to try before you buy then check out her Guardian column archive on line.

+1 for the Dirty Vegan.

His portions are massive as well which works for me!

Also this book:

Eat and Run by Scott Jurek.

Interesting life story and some great recipes from someone who burns a lot of calories.

I’d second the suggestions above – Bosh recipes are simple although their order of processes is often a bit odd. Get your kids cooking – my eldest cooked the Bosh Easy Peasy Pasta recipe for our tea last night.

for some reason vegan recipe writers want to write their life stories alongside the recipes

All cooks do this – you can’t copyright a recipe, but you can writing about it.