Month: February 2021

In my pre-vegan days, I used to make cheese muffins all the time for parties, weekends and just-because-I’m-hungry days. They were so dairy heavy that I thought I’d never be able to match them with a vegan version until I made these! This vegan cheese and spinach muffins recipe makes about 16 so plenty for everyone to get tucked into as they didn’t last the day in our house!

For the vegan cheese and spinach muffins;

Ingredients

300g shredded spinach, immersed in boiling water for a couple of minutes to soften

400g self raising flour

4 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

325ml plant milk

50ml sunflower oil

Flax egg for binding – this is 1 tbsp flaxseed plus 3 tbsp water, chilled in the fridge for 10/20 minutes

100g grated cheese, I used Applewood smoked

1 tsp salt

Method

In one bowl, mix together the flour, nutritional yeast and salt.

In another bowl, mix together the oil, plant milk, and mustard.

Combine the two bowls of wet and dry ingredients and add in the cheese and spinach. Spoon the mixture into muffin tins and bake for 30-40 minutes at 175 degrees. The bottoms can take a bit longer to cook, so check that they’re firm-ish before removing from the muffin tin – they do firm up once left for half an hour or so, but you don’t want them too soggy!

Sour cream

Ingredients

200g raw cashews, soaked overnight

160 ml water

Juice of 1 lemon

Teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Teaspoon salt

Method

Very simple – just put all the ingredients together and blend!

Serve the vegan cheese and spinach muffins cut in half with the sour cream.

If you like these, try our cheesy vegan puff pastry bites.

This vegan potato and spinach pakora sandwich definitely isn’t the healthiest vegan meal out there, though it does contain spinach which is a great source of a number of vitamins, magnesium and iron. I made this after a bike ride in the freezing January Edinburgh winter, and it was exactly what I needed to warm me up. It’s a bit of a messy fiddly sandwich to make as it’s battered, but worth the effort.

Ingredients

Batter

250g chickpea (gram) flour

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

175 ml plant milk

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp fresh coriander

Tsp salt

Pinch bicarbonate of soda

Filling

300g new potatoes, peeled, boiled and riced or grated

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp cumin

3 tbsp chopped spinach

2 tbsp chopped mint

1 tsp salt

1 lime

Plus 6 slices of white bread.

And handful of spring onions to serve.

Method

First make the filling by combining the potatoes, chilli, cumin, spinach, mint ,salt and lime.

Next ,make the batter by putting all of the batter ingredients into a food processor. You can mix by hand in a bowl too, but a food processor ensures a better distribution of the ingredients. The batter should be the consistency of runny cream – add more water if it isn’t.

Heat some oil on a medium heat in frying pan. Dip one slice of white bread in the batter, covering both sides, and drop in the pan.

Fry on both sides till golden, then press filling onto one side of the bread.

Repeat with another slice of bread – cover in batter, fry on both sides, then add filling.

Press the two slices of bread, topped with filling, into a sandwich, and fry for a further two minutes.

Cut in half and eat with spring onions on the side!

If you like this, try our vegan cheese and spinach muffins with sour cream recipe.