We have a big patch of sage growing in our garden in Cambridge. I have never used sage much in cooking, but knew that it worked really well in pasta. This vegan lemon spaghetti with chickpeas and sage is an easy to throw together vegan lunch or dinner that really brings out the flavour of the sage. The quantities below make two large bowls.
Ingredients
1 can chickpeas, reserving the chickpea juice (aquafaba) too
6 fresh sage leaves
4 tbsp aquafaba
100ml vegetable stock
Pinch salt
Tsp dried sage
Juice of 2 lemons.
250g spaghetti
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
Method
Cook the spaghetti to your taste.
Heat the olive oil in a wok and add the garlic. Fry for a couple of minutes.
Add the aquafaba and stock, dried sage, the sage leaves and the chickpeas. Simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes.
Add the spaghetti and the lemon juice to the wok and combine with the chickpea sauce, then serve!
These vegan choc chip cookies are one of my easy go-to recipes when I feel like something baked that’s delicious and easy to make. This recipe makes 12 – 14 cookies.
Ingredients
150g vegan butter (I used Pure)
150g caster sugar
150g brown sugar
200g plain flour
Tsp salt
80g ground almonds
100g bag of Dr Oetker chocolate chunks or other dairy free chocolate chips.
Method
Pre heat the oven to 180 C.
In a bowl cream together the sugars and butter.
Add the flour, salt and almonds to make a dough, then the chocolate chips. Add a little warm water if needed to shape the dough.
Form the dough into small balls and cook on a baking sheet for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and put on a cooling tray and leave to cool down – try to resist the temptation to eat them while warm – unless you like them extra gooey of course 🙂
There’s something about food eaten outside that just makes it taste better – especially vegan camping food! And luckily for vegans, going camping and cooking outdoors doesn’t need to mean that you’re stuck at the side of the campfire with a lettuce roll while everyone else tucks into BBQ’ed sausages and burgers. Here are three recipes for vegan camping that need only a campfire and a little prep – happy camping 🙂
Tacos
Ingredients
1 box vegan tacos
Grated cheese – we used Applewood smoked
Iceberg lettuce
180g dried lentils, soaked overnight
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 litre vegetable stock
1 white onion
2 cloves garlic
Method
Chop the onion and garlic and heat some olive oil in a wok over a medium heat.
Add the onion and garlic and fry til starting to brown.
Add 1/4 of the veg stock and the lentils and simmer till the stock has been absorbed. Repeat until the stock is finished and the lentils are almost cooked.
Add the chopped tomatoes and simmer for another ten minutes.
Spoon the mince into the tacos with the lettuce and cheese.
Peanut butter curry
Ingredients
Tin chopped tomatoes
Tin coconut milk
Tin chickpeas
1 head broccoli, cut into small stems
4 tbsp peanut butter
Half litre vegetable stock
Handful coriander
1 chopped white onion
2 minced cloves garlic
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
250g basmati rice
Soy yogurt to serve.
Method
Heat some vegetable oil in a wok. Fry the onion and garlic till they are beginning to brown.
At the same time, cook the basmati rice in a pot with a teaspoon of vegetable stock powder in the water.
Add the coconut milk and vegetable stock, the ginger, turmeric, cumin and paprika, the peanut butter, and the broccoli and chickpeas. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring regularly.
Add the chopped tomatoes and simmer for a further five minutes.
Garnish with coriander and serve with the cooked rice and some vegan yogurt on top.
Mexican salad
This can be prepared mostly beforehand if easier – keep the avocadoes and the tortilla chips until you’re ready to eat, then chop the avocadoes, open the tortilla chips, and add them to the dressing and salad
Ingredients
2 corn on the cobs
Packet vegan tortilla chips
15 new potatoes, peeled and boiled
3 ripe avocadoes
2 limes
100g finely chopped coriander
Method
Cook the corn and allow it to cool. Slice it off the cob and into a bowl.
Cut the new potatoes into quarters once boiled and cooled, and add to the corn.
When ready to eat, open the avocadoes. Scoop out the flesh of one and add it to the juice of the two limes and half the chopped coriander to make a dressing.
Chop the other two avocadoes into cubes and add to the salad.
Add the dressing, and garnish with the rest of the coriander.
It took me a while after turning vegan to figure out omelettes, and I had a few disasters on the way. The secret is using gram flour and a little kala namak salt to give that omelette-y texture and taste. This courgette and chive vegan omelette is made with courgettes in the batter, and also topped with grated courgette, lemon and chilli, adapted from one of my favourite summer pastas.
Makes one large omelette.
Ingredients
65g gram flour
1 tsp kala namak
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp chives
1 grated courgette
1 lemon
1 tsp chilli flakes
3 fl oz plant milk
Plant-based yoghurt to serve
50g rocket to serve
Method
Combine the gram flour, kala namak, nutritional yeast, chives and half the grated courgette with the plant milk. Add more plant milk if the batter needs it so it’s runny enough – you want a pourable batter.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the other half of the grated courgette in a pan with the chilli flakes for 3 minutes till slightly golden. Squeeze the lemon over the top. Set aside.
In the same pan, heat another tbsp oil and pour in the omelette batter. Fry on both sides until golden.
Top the omelette with the fried courgette, yoghurt and the rocket.
If you’ve never tried vada pav before, you’re in for a massive treat. The Indian version of a British chip butty, it’s a spicy ball of battered potato served with green chutney in a morning roll. I first tried one of these at Dishoom in Edinburgh, and spent a LOT of time thinking about how to make my own from that day! The asafoetida is a key ingredient but a little more difficult to find in shops – you may have to order it online or buy from your local Asian food store. It’s definitely worth it though as it gives the potato such an intense flavour.
Makes 5 vada pavs
Ingredients
1 morning roll
(For the vada pav)
600g potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed or riced.
Tsp mustard seeds
Tsp asafoetida
Tsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
Tsp garlic puree
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
225g gram flour
4 fl oz warm water
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
(For the chutney)
200g coriander
Juice of one lime
Half an avocado
Tsp chilli flakes
Tsp garlic puree
Tsp salt
Method
First, make the chutney by blending the coriander, lime, avocado, chilli flakes, garlic puree and salt.
Boil the potatoes and mash or rice them once cooled.
Make the batter by adding the gram flour to the water, turmeric and salt.
Add the asafoetida, mustard seeds, garlic, chopped coriander, turmeric and salt to the potato mash.
Add 2 teaspoons rapeseed oil to a pan and let it heat up.
Spread the rolls with the green chutney.
Shape the potato mixture into balls then dip them into the batter, then into the hot frying pan, rolling the balls around so they are fried and golden on each side and heated through to the middle.
Add to the roll and enjoy with a squeeze of lemon.
This vegan stuffed avocado filled with mashed chickpea and lemon is a really simple lunch or starter that takes minutes to make and is surprisingly filling.
Ingredients
2 ripe avocados
Half a can of chickpeas
Juice of half a lemon
Tsp salt
Handful black sesame seeds
Method
Cut the avocados in half, scoop out the flesh and place in a bowl. Keep the skins.
Drain the chickpeas and put half the can in the bowl (you can mash up the other half with mayo and lemon to make vegan ‘tuna’ mayo!)
Add the salt and lemon and mash the chickpeas together with the avocadoes. The skin of the chickpeas will come off as you do this so pick the skins out of the mixture.
Scoop the mixture into the avocados and top with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of black sesame seeds.
This spicy green vegan coriander soup can be put together really quickly and is delicious on its own or with steamed bao buns. It’s full of flavour and goodness with antioxidants and vitamins galore, but low on calories.
Ingredients
40g spinach
40g coriander
40g mint
5cm ginger, grated
1 litre vegetable stock
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp sesame oil
Plus you’ll need a blender.
Method
Heat a tbsp sesame oil in a wok and fry the spinach, coriander and mint for three minutes.
Add the ginger, chilli flakes and salt and fry for another minute or so.
Take off the heat and add the stock, then blend to make a creamy soup.
Smoked salmon and sour cream blinis were one of my favourite things before I went vegan, and something I didn’t think it would be possible to recreate. But as I’ve said before, EVERYTHING can be veganised – so here for your enjoyment is the recipe for these vegan smoked salmon blinis with sour cream!
I recommend making the smoked salmon a couple of days ahead to give it plenty of time to marinade.
For the smoked salmon
Ingredients
2 large cooked carrots, dunked in icy water after cooking then peeled into strips using a vegetable peeler
2 tbsp dried seaweed flakes – I used kelp
1 tbsp dill
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp liquid smoke
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
Method
Marinade the carrot strips in the seaweed, dill, lemon, liquid smoke, olive oil and soy sauce in a sealed container such as a tupperware box in the fridge, making sure that they’re all coated in the mixture.
For the sour cream (blender required)
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!
For the blinis
Ingredients
1 flax egg – 1 tbsp flaxseed and 3 tbsp warm water, mixed and refrigerated for 10-15 minutes.
250g mashed potato
150 ml plant milk
100g plain flour
Pinch salt
Lemon and dill to garnish
1 tbsp olive oil
Method
Heat up the olive oil in a pan. Drop a tbsp of the mixture in the hot oil to form a blini. Fry on both sides until golden then serve with the sour cream, smoked salmon and garnished with lemon and dill.
This vegan Turkish delight toast is made with home made pistachio and rose butter. I spread it on home made pumpkin and chia bread, but it’ll taste amazing on anything. It does have a very intense rose flavour, which you can dial down by reducing the amount of rose essence if you prefer – it really does taste exactly like Turkish delight spread on toast!
You’ll need a blender for this recipe.
Ingredients
200g shelled pistachios
1 tsp rose butter (or half a tsp for a less intense flavour)
4 tbsp warm water
3 tbsp golden syrup
Method
This is the easy part – add all the ingredients to the blender, and keep blending, stopping to scrape down the sides if needed, until you have a smooth, sticky green nut butter. Add a little more water if it’s too thick. Spread on toast and enjoy!
I first tried making polenta years ago and found it really bland and tasteless and was put off making it again for a long time, until I tried making these. The secret is to mix the polenta and water with other flavours when you’re cooking it – these vegan tomato polenta fingers are delicious topped with olives, salad and some grated vegan cheese, or dipped in houmus – plus they’re really easy to make! They look a bit like fish fingers when they’re cooked – and they’re great hot or cold.
Ingredients
150g polenta
1 pint hot vegetable stock
4 medium fresh tomatoes, chopped
Tbsp olive oil
Salad, olives and grated cheese to top (I used Applewood smoked)
Houmus to dip – this recipe is amazing if you’re making your own.
1 small loaf tin
Method
Saute the tomatoes over a medium heat for five minutes, then blend in your blender.
Add the hot veg stock to a pan and bring to the boil. Add the polenta and tomatoes and stir over a medium heat until the polenta is very thick and creamy, stirring regularly the whole time it’s cooking. You’ll know it’s ready when you can stand the spoon up in it.
Pour into a loaf tin and refrigerate for an hour.
Then heat up a griddle pan with a tbsp of olive oil. Cut the polenta into fingers and fry on each side for a couple of minutes. Now it’s ready to serve!
