Tag Archives: Vegan

Oatmeal Crackers with Mixed Seeds

16 Thursday Jan 2020

Posted by in Snacks and Tapas, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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These taste better than any crackers that you buy in the supermarket. They’re crispy but moist and full of the nutty flavours of the seeds. I have to thank Rowena for inspiring me with her version of seeded crackers into having a go at creating my own. Perfect for serving with dips for a light supper or lunch, last night my friend John and I had them with a bean hummus, aubergine pate, guacamole and a tomato salad.



150 grams medium ground oatmeal – you can used rolled oats but the crackers have a better texture and hold together better with ground oatmeal

50 grams sunflower seeds

50 grams flax seeds

50 grams green pumpkin seeds

40. grams sesame seeds

1 level teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

250 – 350 ml water

Mix all the dry ingredient together

For the liquid, you can substitute some or all the water with vegetable stock or when I made the crackers yesterday I used the gooey liquid from my jar of beans and some water.

Mix the olive oil into the water and add the whole lot to the oat and seed mix. Mix well. It will be quite wet.

Leave for an hour or two until the liquid has been absorbed.

Put the oven on to warm at 180C or 150C fan

Spread the mix onto an oiled shallow baking tray into an even layer about 1/2 a centimetre thick. If the layer is too thick the crackers will take longer to cook and will not be crisp. I used a round shallow tin of 30cm diameter the first time I made these and an oblong tin 25 x 35 cm the third time and they came out perfect, however the second time I made them an had them in a smaller tin they were too thick and soft.

Mark out where you want the crackers to break with a knife.

Bake for about 45 minutes until a crisp golden brown.

Let them cool in the tin before removing them and breaking them up. They will keep for several days if kept in an airtight jar or tin.

VARIATIONS

So far the variations that I have successfully tried are, the addition of chopped sun dried tomatoes, using the oil that they were in instead of the olive oil in the recipe. Adding dried fruit and nuts is good. I’ve added a tablespoon of Panch Poran spices, and the same of desiccated coconut and coconut milk as the liquid to make an Indian version, omitting the olive oil as the coconut milk has plenty of fat in it.
For the crackers illustrated below, I used some leftover home made beetroot soup as the liquid and added a tablespoon of caraway seeds. They taste lovely😋

Do share your own successful variations on this recipe, I’d love the hear what you come up with.

Pickled Salad

14 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by in Preserves, Starters, Techniques, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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This fresh light salad can be made with many different vegetables depending on the season, I will give you the recipe of exactly what I put in this time, and at the end of the recipe a list of the other vegetables that like this type of marinade. The salad is made in a large glass jar which is put on a sunny windowsill for a couple of days to lightly ferment and tenderise the vegetables. The fermentation also adds to the prebiotic qualities of the vegetables.


50 grams sea salt

20 grams sugar

750 ml water

400 ml cider vinegar

romanesco cauliflower – cut into smallish florets

carrots – peeled and very thinly sliced

radishes – very thinly sliced

Spring onion and garlic – sliced diagonally

mustard seeds

In a large jug, mix the water and vinegar with the salt and sugar. Stir well.

Layer the vegetables in a large jar adding a sprinkling of mustard seeds as seasoning with each set of layers.

Push the layers down to compact the vegetables and then see if you need more layers. Once the vegetables soften they will naturally compact down, so it’s a good idea to firm them down at this stage.

Once the jar is full, add the brine and vinegar, fill to the top of the jar.

Stand the jar in a container to catch any overspill of liquid. You will need to put something in the neck of the jar to weigh down the contents and stop them rising above the liquid. I use a small round plastic container to fit inside the jar neck, and a jar of beans as the weight.

Place the whole contraption on a sunny window sill for 2-3 days to ferment. The vegetables will emit bubbles of gas as they marinade, which will push some of the liquid out over the top of the jar, hence the need to have a container to catch the excess.

Once the bubbling has stopped remove the weight, top up the jar with the overspill liquid and more of the brine mix if necessary. Put the lid on the jar. Wash the outside of the jar.

Leave the salad to continue marinating in the fridge for a couple more days and then it will be ready to eat.

The salad will keep for a couple of weeks, so doesn’t need to be eaten all in one sitting.

Other vegetables that can be used for this salad are: white cabbage, Chinese leaves, red peppers, bean sprouts, cucumber and courgettes, broccoli and white cauliflower. The spice and seasoning can be varied too, I used mustard seeds to complement the cauliflower. Dill is traditional in Eastern Europe, coriander, caraway seeds, fresh herbs, citrus peel. If you want to give the salad a more oriental flavour, then add fresh ginger, lemon grass and chilli….and maybe a splash of Nam Pla. Have a play with flavours and see which ones you like!

Sweetcorn Fritters with Pickled Salad

14 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Starters, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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Not much is better than a sweetcorn fritter. They can be made with several types of flour, although I prefer them made with either buckwheat or chickpea four, which add protein to the dish. The addition of onion and garlic gives a more savoury taste to balance the sweetness of the corn, and of course a little finely chopped fresh chilli goes well.


Per person

50 grams flour – buckwheat/chickpea/wheat

90 grams sweetcorn – either cut straight from the cob/ frozen/or tinned – keep any liquid from the tin

10 grams green pumpkin seeds

1 teaspoon finely chopped onion

1/2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

salt and freshly ground black pepper

oil for frying

Mix the flour with the sweetcorn, pumpkin seeds, and onion and garlic.

Add enough water, including any water from the tin if using tinned corn, gradually to make a thick but spreadable batter.

Season with salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a frying pan until quite hot then add a tablespoon of the batter to make a smallish fritter. I like to make a trail one to check that the batter is not too thick or thin. If the batter is a bit thin there is no problem adding a little extra flour at this stage to thicken it up. Likewise add a small amount more water if it seems too thick.

When you are happy with the consistency of the batter, go ahead and make several smallish fritters.

When the critters are brown and crispy on one side, turn over and cook the other side. Once done remove and drain excess oil onto kitchen paper.

Red Winter Salad

03 Friday Jan 2020

Posted by in Food for One, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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For this salad hot stock is added as a dressing which blanches/cooks the ingredients and helps combine their flavours. This jewel bright salad has a Christmassy feel for me, with it containing cranberries, pomegranate and apples.

Enough for 4 portions

1/2 a medium sized red cabbage

sea salt and black pepper

250ml unseasoned vegetable stock

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

40 grams dried cranberries

1 pomegranate

1 red apple

2 tablespoons of olive oil

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

Start by slicing the cabbage as finely as you can. If you have a mandolin use that.

Put the cabbage in a large bowl and sprinkle over the salt and pepper. With your hands crush the seasoning into the cabbage breaking it up a little as you go. Leave to soften for half an hour.

Put the coriander seeds in the stock and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and leave to steep for half an hour.

Once the cabbage and the stock have steeped, continue finishing the salad.

Remove the seeds from the pomegranate and add to the cabbage together with the dried cranberries.

Cut the apple into small slices and add to the salad.

Dress the salad with the oil and vinegar. Mix well.

Bring the stock back to a boil and pour over the salad. Mix well.

The salad is ready to eat, but will taste even better the next day. If you store it in the fridge, get it out early enough to let it come back to room temperature before eating.


Buckwheat galette with artichokes

12 Thursday Dec 2019

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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The tender new season artichokes are now on sale at the market which made me think to cook this dish.

Per person

2 rounded tablespoons buckwheat flour

6 tablespoons vegetable stock

2 artichokes

olive oil

salt

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Firstly prepare the artichokes. The tough outer leaves and the stem will need to be trimmed off, but as the artichokes are tender right now you don’t need to take too much off. When I think I have taken enough of the leaves off to get to the tender ones, I take off an extra one and bite into it to see if it is fibrous or not.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Cut the top of the leaves off the artichokes and discard, then slice the artichokes thinly and immediately toss into the frying pan.

Fry the artichokes for about ten minutes, tossing from time to time, until just cooked then turn off the heat. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Put the oven on at 175 C to warm up.

Make the batter. Add the stock to the buckwheat flour gradually to make a smooth batter.
Season with salt and pepper.

You will need a shallow tray the right size to take the batter in a thin layer.

Put a tablespoon or two of olive oil in the tray and put in the oven to heat up to almost smoking point as you would if you were making Yorkshire pudding.

Once the tray is heated up, remove from the oven and quickly pour in the batter, scatter over the artichokes, and put back in the oven.

Bake for 8 – 12 minutes until light brown and crispy round the edges.

Serve with a mixed salad.

Roast potatoes with chestnuts, wild mushrooms and crispy sage leaves

11 Wednesday Dec 2019

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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Here in arid southern Spain we don’t get the lovely range of autumn wild mushrooms that appear in other parts, but occasionally Rovellones, members of the Cep family will be available in the market. I used these for this dish, any well flavoured mushroom will work.
As mushrooms don’t keep, I washed all of them, cut them into cubes and fried them in a little olive oil the day I bought them, so for this dish they were already precooked.

Per person

40 grams mushrooms

60 grams chestnuts

150-200 grams small new potatoes

12 small sage leaves

olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Put the oven to heat up at 175 C

Scrub the potatoes and cut them in half lengthways. Sprinkle some olive oil on an oven tray, add the potatoes, season and put in the oven for 10 minutes.

Cut the chestnuts along the curved top and put on a tray in the oven to roast and open.

After 10 minutes turn the potatoes over and add the prepared mushrooms. Put back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

As soon as the chestnuts are open and soft, check them after they have been in the oven for 15 minutes, remove them from the oven and let them cool. As soon as they are cool enough remove the chestnuts from their shells and take off the brown skin.

Heat oil in a small frying pan and when hot add the sage leaves. Cook for about 3 minutes until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a piece of kitchen roll.

Add the chestnuts to the potatoes, scatter over the sage leaves and put back in the oven for a couple of minutes to warm through.

Serve with a green salad.