Spiced Butterbean & Sweetcorn Soup

October 4, 2015 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

It’s certainly Autumn here in the Welsh valleys. I’m wrapped up nice and warm with a cup of tea whilst I write this.

With the cold in mind, I came up with a delicious and hearty soup to warm your cockles.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp of oil

1 onion, peeled and chopped

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1 can of chopped tomatoes (and then fill the can back up for a can of water to add too.)

1 can of sweetcorn, drained

A large handful of dry red lentils

1 tbsp of chilli flakes

1 tbsp of cumin

Salt and pepper to flavour

1 can of butterbeans, drained

A handful of fresh baby leaf spinach

A dollop of vegan mayo to cool if needed

Method:

In a large pan, fry the onion and garlic in the oil for approximately 3 minutes.
Add the chopped tomatoes to the pan, with all the herbs and spices, mixing well and keeping the heat medium.
Add the lentils and water and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
Now add the sweetcorn and butterbeans, mixing throughout.
Does it smell great yet? If not, add more herbs and spices to get it to your liking.
Turn up the heat for the last five minutes of cooking and add the baby leaf spinach.
Enjoy with a good dollop of creamy mayo, sour cream or your own homemade aquafaba goodness.

This dish is full of protein and will fill you up for sure.

Stuffed Sweet Peppers

July 24, 2015July 24, 2015 / Frankie Mouche / 2 Comments

I already know what you’re thinking. BORING! Everyone always makes stuffed peppers for vegans and it’s getting really old. Well think again! This is a revamped recipe that you’re not only going to want to eat yourself, but rustle up as a great starter for a main meal. One thing this dish isn’t is pretty. I suppose if you fannied around for a little while with some rocket, you could make a meaningful display, but I don’t have time for that sort of nonsense. 😛

Ingredients:

60 grams cous cous (2 servings)

Half a jar of sun dried tomatoes, chopped

Half a jar of artichoke hearts, chopped

1 vegetable stock cube

Wholemeal bread crumbs

Nutritional yeast

6 sweet long peppers of varying sizes

Method:

Turn the oven on. Slice your peppers down the middle. Season with a little salt and pepper, then place in the oven for 10 minutes to begin cooking.
In the meantime, prepare your cous cous as per packet instructions, mixing in a vegetable stock cube to give flavour.
Now add the sun dried tomato and artichoke to the cous cous. Don’t worry about any extra oil. It all adds to the Mediterranean flavour.
Remove peppers from the oven and fill with the cous cous mixture.
Top with a generous helping of nutritional yeast and bread crumbs for that extra crunch.
Place back in the oven for a further 10-15 minutes so the peppers can soften and the top can go crispy.

Serve as a light lunch with a salad or on it’s own as a starter.

Pan Fried “Duck” With Stewed Plums & Fondant Potato

August 24, 2014August 24, 2014 / Frankie Mouche / 2 Comments

Ok so this probably the most pretentious thing I have made. I was watching Saturday Morning Kitchen and some dude is pan frying a poor ducks breast to put in a salad. I’m like, SCREW THAT!! Let’s veganise this baby, for the animals, for your health and for the planet baby, yeah! See these ingredients! 🙂

4 Plums

2 large potatoes

1 vegetable stock cube

2 carrots

4 runner beans

2 tins of mock duck

Salt

Pepper

Rapeseed oil

Golden syrup

Method:

Firstly you need to do the potato fondants because they take about 35 minutes. Peel two large potatoes and core out a large cylinder.

Fry each end for about 3 minutes each in a hot, oiled pan.

In the meantime make up a pint of vegetable stock and pour it in a baking tray. Now place the two potato cylinders into that tray and place in the oven for 25 minutes.

Now slice the plums into quarters and boil for 10 minutes, before draining and frying with a large tablespoon of golden syrup for another five minutes. Then leave it to cool because that syrup is HOT!

Get your nicest non-stick pan, put a dash of oil in it, turn up the heat.

Open and drain your mock duck. Place the biggest, chunkiest bits in the hot pan and cover in salt and black pepper.

Turn once after 5 minutes.

Chop the carrots and runner beans. Place in a pan and boil for about 4 minutes.

Plate everything up in a way that please you. I did it in the most pretentious way I could think of.

The bearded one asked for a non-pretentious version so I gave him this:

I’d never made potato fondants before so this was a good experiment for me. The whole dish was divine and I managed to get everything to just the right texture. A dish to impress for sure! 🙂

Pasta Alfredo & Kale Pesto

June 19, 2014 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

Having a lovely creamy pasta with a salty flavoursome pesto on it, is something I’ve not had since I’ve been vegan, which is almost 9 years now. I decided to mess around with some ingredients and I came up with this:

Because the sauce is made from butter beans instead of cheese, it’s really filling. That protein certainly packs a punch! *flexes muscles* Kale is also a superfood and you should eat it every day, raw if possible.

Ingredients:

Pasta – I used Penne.

Alfredo Sauce

Vegan butter such as Vitalite.
4 cloves of garlic.
Sea salt.
Black pepper.
2 cans of butter beans, drained.
1 vegetable stock cube, undissolved.
Water as required from pasta.

Kale Pesto

A large handful of curly kale.
A large handful of raw walnuts.
Sea salt.
Rapeseed oil.

It’s best to start with the kale pesto so that it has time for all the flavours to infuse. Place the kale, walnuts and a sprinkle of sea salt into a food processor pulse blending whilst adding drops of rapeseed oil to gain the required consistency as pictured above.

Scrape out the pesto into a spare bowl and clean the food processor of all pesto flavours. You’ll need it for the next bit.

Get your pasta on to cook as per the packet instructions, drain and place to one side. (Try and keep at least a small glass of that beautiful starchy water. It will thicken your sauce.)

Chop and peel the garlic and fry gently in about two large tablespoons of Vitalite for 3 to 4 minutes. Once complete, pour the entire contents of the pan into the food processor. (Tip, keep tasting it to make sure it’s to your liking. My first batch was waaaaaay too salty.)

Now add the rest of the ingredients for the sauce and blend until you get a nice thick consistency. Place this sauce in the pan you fried the garlic in and spread out.

Now place the pasta in the pan and mix through. The pasta will start to absorb the sauce and reheat, however if it’s still too cold for your liking switch on the pan for a couple of minutes to heat through.

Season with some extra black pepper and the kale pesto.

This amount will feed four adults, easily. You’ll also have tons of pesto left over that will keep for up to week in the fridge.

Love and light! 🙂

Spicy Green Bean Noodle Salad

April 21, 2014April 21, 2014 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

This is kinda like a comfort food and salad all in one and it certainly hits the spot.

I think we should always aim to get the most out of each meal nutrition wise, but I was a bit short on the green stuff. So if you have a fridge or freezer full of greens, get them in there too. I’d recommend mange tout, broccoli or kale.

Ingredients:

Two large handfuls of green beans. (Mine were frozen.)
Half a cucumber, sliced thinly.

1 white onion, diced.
Half a packet of wholewheat spaghetti or rice noodles.
1 teaspoon of dried chili flakes.
3 tablespoons soy sauce.
3 tablespoons rice vinegar.
1 teaspoons agave nectar.
The juice of half a lemon.
3 tablespoons of toasted sesame oil.
2 tablespoons of flaked almonds or crushed peanuts. (I used almonds.)

Method:

Get yourself a large mixing bowl. Place the diced onion, chili flakes, soy sauce, rice vinegar, agave nectar, lemon juice, toasted sesame oil and almonds in the bowl and mix together with a fork. Place to one side to allow the flavours to infuse.

Get a large pan of water on the boil and place the spaghetti in to cook for about 10 minutes or whatever the packet instructions recommend.

In the meantime, steam the green beans for about 8 minutes.

Drain both the green beans and spaghetti and place in a large serving dish, mixing together.

Now add the dressing and mix through thoroughly.

Now add the cucumber and mix again. (You add the cucumber last so that it doesn’t go soggy.)

You can then season with whatever herbs you like. I used coriander.

There’s enough for 3 to 4 adults. 🙂

You can connect with Queer Vegan on social media too.

@QVegan

Facebook.com/queervegan

Mock Duck Curry

March 22, 2014 / Frankie Mouche / 5 Comments

I figured the other day that I’d not really done a half decent mock meat recipe on this blog. One of my favourite mock meats is duck. This is mainly because you can buy it outside of specialty stores and I have absolutely no idea what duck tastes like. I’d say that this tastes like a very savory braised tofu, which is great! Here’s my enthusiasm for mock duck:

Just kidding. 😉 I can show my appreciation on a far larger scale!

So here’s your ingredients list:

Enough basmati rice to feed two people.
A teaspoon of dried chili flakes.
Two cans of mock duck. (I picked these up from Holland & Barrett.)
Two tablespoons of mild curry powder.
A sprinkle of sea salt.
One tin of coconut milk.
3 cloves of garlic.
A tablespoon of vegan butter. (I used Vitalite.)
Two red onions.
Two large potatoes. (Which you can see in the picture, but I only used one in the end.)

Method:

Place the butter, onion and garlic in a warm pan. Mix until butter has melted and then turn the heat down to it’s lowest setting.

Add the chili, curry powder and salt and stir again.

Dice your potato and add that in, ensuring that it gets fully covered in the spices.

Now add the mock duck and coconut milk. If you have never cooked with mock duck before, you’ll notice it comes out of the tin looking like this:

Just chop it up into smaller chunks and chuck it straight in.

After about 20 minutes simmering on a low heat with the occasional stir, get your basmati rice on.

You’ll notice that the colour of the source will begin to change and it will begin to thicken. This is absolutely intentional. Nobody likes a watery curry do they?

After another 10 minutes your rice should be done, so drain it and serve with some fresh parsley and of course the curry, which by now has been slowly infusing for around 30 minutes.

Believe me this dish is so simple to prepare considering for the layer upon layer of flavour you get at the end of it. I hope you enjoy and please remember to share far and wide so Queer Vegan can get some exposure!

Love and light! 😀

Caramelised Red Onion Tarte Tatin

December 28, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

This recipe’s inspiration comes from a non-vegan. His name is Mat Follas. He has won Masterchef and also owns a restaurant down in Dorest.

Ingredients:

2 red onions, halved

4 tbsp caster sugar

2 cloves of garlic

250 g fresh puff pastry (in the UK we use Jus Roll)

Vegan butter alternative (I used Vitalite)

1 block of soft white Cheezley cheddar (by Vegideli)

1 carton of single soya cream (I used Alpro)

1 carton of plain soya yoghurt

1 tablespoon dried chives

Salt

Pepper

1 tablespoon corn flour

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 squirt of vegan mayonnaise

Method:

Heat the oven to 160C.
Place your chopped onion halves in a pan, add enough water to cover and then simmer for three minutes. Leave to cool for ten minutes.
Cover the base of a frying pan with the sugar, warm until just melted, then add the onions and cook for a few minutes until everything is caramelised.
Add a strip of baking paper to each hole in a muffin tin and lightly oil.
Fill each whole with some caramelised onions and some chopped garlic before placing a cutting of a puff pastry sheet on top. (Make sure you tuck the sheet into the tin and around the onions.)
Glaze each one with a bit of “butter” and place in the oven for 40 minutes.
To make the sauce, pour the single cream into a non-stick pot and turn up the heat. Now add your block of cheese chopped into smaller pieces and stir whilst it melts.
Next add the yoghurt, chives, salt, pepper, Dijon mustard corn flour and mayo. Now turn the heat off.
Pour into a food processor and pulse blend for a minute. Now is the time to add any extra salt, pepper or for extra creamyness, a dollop of “butter.”
Pulse blend for another minute.
Once the tarts are done, remove careful from the oven and place the right way up on your plate with a rocket salad and your cheese sauce.

I actually could not believe the flavours of this dish. I put the some tarte, some rocket and some sauce on my fork and it hit me in the face. Sweet, then peppery and then creamy. This dish is absolutely divine and whilst not the healthiest of easiest to make, it’s worth all of it just for that flavour.

Now check out the two styles of dish I did trying to be posh and shit!