So the boy made pulled pork last night and was all excited to have a sandwich for lunch. He wanted me to make some coleslaw to go with it so I obliged using this recipe as a guide. Though I used curly leaf cabbage because that is what came in my veg box this week and egg free mayonnaise. Also I added in some alfalfa sprouts.
The question was – what should I have on my sandwich?? Being a vegan the pulled pork wasn’t so much an option but I wanted something along the same lines…. Then it hit me – BBQ tempeh! I hadn’t made it in years but it’s so tasty on a sandwich!
Just cube the tempeh and pop it under the grill until it’s crispy. Mix around with your favourite BBQ sauce and serve on a bap.
Cover the bottom of a small pot with water and put it on to boil.
add in one medium cubed sweet potato
Use the food processor on pulse until it’s all small bits if you have one – otherwise just cut everything small with a knife and mix in a serving bowl.
1 red onion
1 large jalapeño
large bunch of coriander (cilantro)
Now scoop half of that mixture out and add it in to the sweet potato on the stove. When it is soft, turn it down to low.
Back in the food processor add in:
1 tomato
Now scoop it all out into a serving bowl and add in:
half a teasoon salt
a tablespoon lime juice
Stir and leave to the side – this is a traditional Mexican Pico de Gallo – fresh salsa!
Back to the pot on the stove, add in:
one can black beans
1 tablespoon cumin
half teaspoon garlic salt
Now heat up your tortillas, use whichever kind you like; flour, soft corn or hard corn.
Slice an avocado and you’re ready to serve; taco shell, black bean mixture, avocado slices & pico de gallo. YUM!
I’ve been vegetarian for years and years. I stopped drinking milk over 10 years ago. I can hardly stomach an egg. My favourite place to get sweets in London is a vegan bakery. So you would think a suggested diet shift to vegan +fish for health reasons shouldn’t have been too daunting… but the cheese! shock! horror! how would I live without cheese?! Champagne cheese fondue & hot salsa cheese dip are 2 of my signature dishes. I take a cheese board on the terrace very seriously. I’ve been know to accompany the boy to a fancy schmancy meat-tastic restaurant and be thrilled to have just wine & cheese – LOTS of wine & cheese.
But cheese free was the way it was going to have to be, so I did it, and to my surprise it was a lot easier than expected. Looking back now it really strikes me as a bit like an addiction; at first it was so so so difficult, I wanted it all the time, if I saw it or smelled it I was literally drooling. 3 weeks later it was like it was never there.
So now I’m fine, I don’t really even want the cheese any more and the one time I cheated and had some I felt like I was going to throw up and die so I don’t foresee cheating being an issue. For the most part I decided I wanted to experiment with new dishes rather than try to replace bits of the things I used to make regularly. I actually found it to be a bit freeing in terms of creating new and interesting combinations.
But every once in a while I just want that comfort food that I’m used to, which inevitably ends up being cheese based; pizza, lasagne, mac-n-cheese, etc. So for those rare occasions I’ve started experimenting with some vegan home made cheeses.
I finally found a cheese that it versatile, quick to make & melts (kind of). I got the recipe from a blog that I didn’t previously know but will definitely be going back to visit again soon!
My favourite things about this cheese:
you can add various flavours
you can pour it directly on for pizza, lasagne, mac-n-cheese
you can put it in the fridge to harden & then it shreds!!
top tip – put it in the freezer for even easier shredding
it melts (kind of) & browns
After months of going without I finally had a vegemite & cheese toastie today! I was a late 20’s convert to vegemite so I’m not really brave enough to go it alone on a plain piece of toast. I had been missing it quite a lot and finally tried it today with the cheese from the fridge that I shredded and then popped it under the grill. YUM! here are a few photos.
If you’re local to Kentish Town forget about all those other posh, expensive, organic (and not so local) delivery veg box schemes and get yourselves signed up to VEGBOX!
They source only locally produced food and deliver to just a few locations in Kentish Town. You make your way to one of the locations on Wednesday afternoon/evening and pick up your glorious, massive amount of veg in a reused carrier bag.
It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s fresh, it’s yummy & they are serious about this being a local operation. I love the fact they don’t even waste resources on cardboard boxes or carbon delivering to every single address. They have addressed all the issues I had with the other schemes, some of which I didn’t even know I had until I saw the alternative.
Just to add to their down to earth credentials, they are not for profit. Everything left over will be invested in the organisation and local growing projects (up to the members to decide which ones).
I may have had a bit too much to drink last night while “testing” out my birthday present from the boy; see beautiful decanter and glasses in the photo below – LOVE.
For the record that £7.99 bottle of pinot tasted like it set me back at least £17! I’m pretty sure the “too much” came when we decided to try the 2nd bottle, but that’s besides the point. The actual point is that my head felt a bit rough this morning and par for course all I wanted was pizza… pizza and cola. There is something about me and hangovers and bad food – normally I’m not a junk food type person but the day after a good night it is all I crave.
Problem is since going vegan a few months ago I can no longer just hop on the internet in the middle of the day and get a hot, greasy, pizza delivered to my door. Which in reality is probably not so much of a problem. I’m actually working on perfecting my dough so then I can keep a few on hand in the freezer for occasions like this. I’ve got a decent liquid “cheese” recipe I’ve been using and it tastes remarkably like actual pizza once you load on some yummy, home made tomato sauce and lots of toppings.
Here’s proof:
Recipes for all coming soon – once I perfect that damned dough! Actually trying out a new harder “cheese” that I can then shred on lasagne this week as well so it’s definitely still a work in progress but certainly does the trick.
But, I digress, point is today I was hungover which meant I was craving naughty food and I can’t have naughty food so I had to substitute. Not that we had that much to work with, today is also our local vegbox delivery day so it’s all a bit bare in the kitchen. We did have a half a can of mixed beans in the fridge, some of my very own salsa in the cupboard, 2 small avocados ripening in a paper bag and some soft corn tortillas in the freezer. I’ve taken to keeping some of those lovelies on hand as of late. Due to health issues I am no longer eating anything with vegetable oil or deep fried so no more store bought tortilla chips for me. But I’ve found a solution – simply cut the soft corn tortillas into triangles and pop them under the grill for 2 minutes, sprinkle with a bit of salt and voila!
So I made myself some tortilla chips because a taco didn’t seem naughty enough :) I also put the beans in a pot on the stove with a spoon of salsa and a sprinkle each of cayenne pepper, garlic salt & cumin – squashing them a bit as they warmed up into some lovely chunky refried beans. The avocados I mashed into guacamole with a sprinkle of salt, a spoon of salsa, and a couple drops of lemon juice from the handy plastic lemon I keep in the fridge.
BOOM! Lunch is served:
Tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole & refried beans – see it feels naughty when you eat it – but it’s not! Protein – check, healthy fat – check, some spice to clean the haze from my hungover head – check. Oh and it’s delicious and took about 5 minutes to prepare.
Well some of us have had a very naughty new year so far….
I didn’t even bother making a new year’s resolution
I haven’t posted on this website since last year (and it’s almost February)
I have so many photos of glorious food on my iPhone meant for posts I can’t even remember what’s what
Instead of hunkering down and writing said posts about said food I’m looking for a way to post a photo album
It’s been so long since I tweeted I couldn’t even remember my password
But it’s been fun… the boy and I have been on a relative bender since December – that’s what happens when one of you is looking for work and the other has always worked from home – I used to be an extremely self-motivated go getter, not so much these days.
Every day is a new day though, and today, 29 January 2013, 2 days after my 34th birthday, I’m back!
So to celebrate (and beg for forgiveness for ignoring you) I’m having a SALE on my cookbook! Yayyyyy SALE!
For those of you who don’t know; it’s full of a cross section of recipes including hot & sour vietnamese soup with prawns, mexican beef enchiladas, chicken penne in a creamy vodka pink sauce & blackened steak salad with blue cheese dressing.
Sounds run-of-the-mill you say?? Well the trick is that at the top of each recipe I tell you a few simple substitutions to make the meal suitable for a vegetarian, vegan, lactose intolerant or gluten-free dinner guest. BOOM! All your dinner party problems solved. All your “trying to eat healthy but my husband/wife/kids don’t want to” problems solved. All your “trying to feed my special needs child/loved one with cancer/ms/cf/heart disease etc the healthiest meal for them but I don’t want to eat that way” problems solved.
Buy it here! It’s a steal at £16.79 for 65 full colour pages and a photo of EVERY SINGLE RECIPE.
So buy it, review it, tweet it, love it. Here’s to all your healthy eating aspirations in 2013!
Mostly I write about cooking at home but we all have to get out of the kitchen sometimes!
This evening I head over to Sushi Samba London to check it out – desperately hoping for this weather to clear up so I can have the above view with my dinner. They have a fantastic variety of food to suit all palates!
As someone on a restricted diet don’t get discouraged and assume you can never eat out again, a place like this with fusion dishes and a long list of small plates is the easiest to order from. There is no “main course” which must include some kind of meat, starch and veg – all the little side dishes add up to a a great meal with no one ever even noticing you haven’t had any meat, dairy or gluten!
After dinner we’ll be hitting up The Cellar Door which, if you’ve never been, is a must do! This fabulous little burlesque club is located in a former public toilet which used to be frequented by none other than Oscar Wilde on some of his more dubious outings. The cocktails are divine, performances up close & personal, and they even serve snuff with a little plate, card & straw!
I’ve been following the revamp of the Kings Cross Canal Area since it began, at fist signing up for info on the new flats being developed, taking a stroll to see the work, keeping up to date with when things were opening. It just always seemed like it could be such a lovely area. And I’ve really got a soft spot for Regents Canal.
Well finally it’s here – the beautiful Grannary Building (pictured below) is redone and ready to go and Caravan has moved in – their second site after the raging success of Exmouth Market.
I couldn’t possibly be more excited to head over there on this sunny Friday afternoon, expect some better pictures on twitter from the road. My biggest decision in life right now is whether I want to try prosecco on tap or a frozen margarita.
Don’t even get me started on the food – the menu sounds tantalising with small plates such as:
Summerhimu blue cheese, figs, vinacotta & truffle oil
Baked cauliflower, smoked San Simon, breadcrumbs & sage
Burrata, heirloom tomato & olive oil
Goat’s curd, nectarine, braised onion, pine nuts & cress
or the pizza with fresh mozzarella made on site!
I have high hopes for the Caravan and the Kings Cross Development. We might even manage to catch some of the “science for the post petroleum future” installation taking place at The Filling Station in the same area. Filling Station also has a bar, homeslice pizza and Shrimpy’s; a fully loaded and apparently spectacular restaurant. Enjoy your weekend all!
The other night when I made the vegetarian lettuce wraps I cooked way too many rice vermicelli noodles so I put them in the fridge to use for later. All week I’ve had such an easy job of making quick and easy lunches with them I’m thinking about making it a habit to have some cooked and ready to go.
I did a cold noodle salad with tamari, sesame oil, sesame seeds, grated carrot & spinach the other day and today I’m having (pictured above) barely warmed swiss chard with pine nuts, almond slivers, poppy & sesame seeds and a bit of tamari – it’s one of those dishes where you can actually feel how healthy it is.
I love how chard tastes like earth, kind of like beets, or beet root, but I’m getting off topic now.
We tend to BBQ whenever we have that chance, which may sound funny coming from a vegetarian, but as I say in my cookbook: BBQ is a vegetarian’s best friend! Most of the side dishes are vegetarian anyway and there is a ton that you can throw on the grill as a veggie head, my favourite lately is a “burger” of grilled halloumi & portobello mushroom with pesto – super yum!
Just recently with the fabulous weather we’ve been having (ironically rain dumping down outside just as I write this) we’ve really amped it up on the grilling! In the last week we’ve bbq’d thursday dinner, friday dinner, saturday breakfast, sunday lunch & tuesday dinner! It’s fantastic being able to cook and eat outside but there’s only so many portobello mushrooms a girl can have so what, might you ask, have I been eating? Well let me tell you about it…
Saturday breakfast started it all, as 3 of us sat around pondering life in a hungover haze – we wondered; since half of our grill is a cast iron griddle, could we cook eggs on it? I decided we could, the boys had their doubts, I was right (as usual).
On the grill side we cooked up some potato waffles, veggie quorn sausages and a pot of beans as well as toasted bread. On the griddle side we did mushrooms with worcestershire sauce and the eggs. And a fabulous practically full english was served without hardly even entering the kitchen.
So sunday as we sat around wanting some food and not wanting to go out or cook anything in the super hot kitchen we decided why not grill some lunch? We ended up having a to die for Mediterranean feast! (Pictured at top of post)
It all starts with the roasted pepper – my big trick is that you MUST keep it whole while roasting, this keeps those ever important juices inside and is what really gives it that roasted red pepper flavour. So we stuck a big red one on the grill side and let it blacken a bit as it cooked – after everything is off the grill take the pepper and break it over the rest of the grilled veggies and that juice come out all over them, then just pull out the middle seedy bit by the stem and tear it into strips.
Aside from that we also had sliced green courgette (zucchini) on the grill side and mushrooms, onion & sweet potato chips (fries), on the griddle side – everything gets a good lashing of sea salt and olive oil. Cherry tomatoes thrown on the grill at the end with some turkish bread & all served up with a bit of greens.
I had some yoghurt & mayo in the fridge so I made up a couple dips to go along with it all. A horseradish mayo, a basil mayo, and a ranch dressing. Using more yoghurt than mayo for both the “mayos” really cuts down on the fat and the ranch is actually a packet mix from america I’m afraid so all you Londoners reading this there really isn’t a great easy substitute. Add a bit of lemon juice and just taste as you go along for the mayo dips.
Finally last night was beautiful and warm and we thought why not give it a go again?! So we made vegetarian lettuce wraps (made famous at american restaurant p.f. changs recipe here)
This was definitely the most challenging yet, what with all the bottles needed for all the sauces I felt like I was bringing the entire kitchen outside with me but it was still nice to cook under the sky. I made the sauce and ripped up lettuce leaves at the table and the boy grilled up some mighty fine tofu blocks with garlic, onion, ginger, water chestnuts & bamboo shoots – including slowly adding the cooking sauce.
When we first bought this grill which is half griddle I was envisioning halloumi and veggie skewers that don’t fall through the cracks, the boy was envisioning fried onions to go on his sausage but I think it’s safe to say we both got more than we bargained for.
What are your favourite, and most random, from the grill meals??
