Brunch Burrito

October 10, 2016October 10, 2016 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

I’m a big fan of jack fruit and this recipe is perfect for it. A burrito needs to be flavoursome and filling. Jack fruit takes on any flavour you give it but like tofu, doesn’t taste of anything on it’s own. Let’s pack in the herbs and spices!

Spice mix

1 tsp dried chilli
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp smoked paprika
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp cumin

Make up your spice mix and place to one side.

Filling

1 onion, chopped
2 peppers, chopped
1 small tin of sweetcorn, drained
100 grams of cooked brown rice (cook this yourself first if needs be.)
1 avocado
Juice of half a lime
Salt
Half a tsp of dried chilli
BBQ sauce
1 tin of jack fruit in salted water. (Do not get the one in syrup.)
Pack of wholemeal tortillas

Method

Dry fry the onion and peppers until they start to soften.
Add the sweetcorn and brown rice to the pan and mix in.
Turn heat to low and stir every couple of minutes.

Now it’s time for the jack fruit. I warn you if you haven’t used it before, it’s some weird stuff. Drain the can in a sieve. It should look like this:

Weird huh?

Pull it apart into shreds and add to the pan. (This can take some time if you haven’t done it before.)

Add your spice bowl and mix in.

Keep the heat on low, stirring occasionally.
Now let’s make some awesome mashed avocado! Peel the avocado and mash with the chilli, lime and salt to taste.
Heat yourself a tortilla in the microwave or in the oven.

Mash some avocado onto your warm tortilla then place the filling along the middle. You may wish to add some sauce now too. I used Levi Root’s BBQ sauce.

Wrap into a burrito by folding both ends in. Then slice down the middle to make it more manageable to eat.

Eat that baby warm. I managed two before I was stuffed up to my eyeballs.

Variation: Don’t add the jack fruit until wrapping burrito. Make sure you give it some flavour though. 😉

Where do I get jack fruit?

You’ll often find jack fruit in Asian supermarkets and the world food isle of the bigger chain supermarkets, depending on where you live.

Vegan Poached Egg

April 14, 2015April 14, 2015 / Frankie Mouche / 2 Comments

As someone who has been vegan for near on a decade, I’ve never really missed eggs. It’s only because a newbie vegan said they were missing them, that I even considered making them.

I can’t take all the credit for this. I got a lot of inspiration from the internet on ways to make this actually happen.

Also because of where I live, lots of fancy ingredients just aren’t available here. I wanted to make a poached egg any one, anywhere could make. I’m also unable to eat the Vegg due to production methods. (Made in the same factory as crustacean products which I am allergic to.) With that in mind, here are the ingredients for the yolk:

120 ml water

1 teaspoon of vegetable stock powder

1 teaspoon of cornflour

1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric

2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast

1/2 a teaspoon of English mustard

1/2 a teaspoon American mustard

1 tablespoon of vegan butter (I used Vitalite.)

Blend everything in a food processor, except the butter and pour into a hot pan. Turn the heat off and melt the butter into the mix straight away. Drain into a small bowl and leave to cool.

Ingredients for the white:

600 g of firm silken tofu

3.5 tablespoons of arrowroot powder

2 teaspoons of vegan gelatine powder (I used vegan non-sweetened powder.)

1/4 teaspoon of salt. (If you can get black salt, even better.)

Blend all the ingredients until entirely smooth. Now get your poaching device and fill it with the white mixture. Make a well in the middle and fill with yolk. Depending on the size of your device, 1 or 2 heaped teaspoons. Cover the yolk with white until it isn’t visible and drop device into boiling water.

Cover the pan with a lid so the top is also cooked. (For about 15 minutes.)

The first egg was actually crap. Why? I put the yolk in whilst it was still warm.

The second one I thought I’d cracked (no pun intended) so I served it on spinach, maple bacon and an English muffin. It fell apart because I only cooked it for 8 minutes.

Then I made this little diamond. 15 minutes, gently simmered and lovingly turned onto a plate without breaking.

The yolk is thick and mustardy, just like a chicken’s egg. The white is soft but bouncy. It’s also not as fatty as an egg because you are not adding much fat, but it is still high in protein and B12.

I left some of the 6 I made, in the fridge and heated one up for later. Although it fell apart a bit, it was very tasty with a home grown herby freekah salad.

I hope this helps anyone craving chicken’s eggs as a new vegan and changes the lives of those of us long term vegans who never dreamed this would be possible.

(N.B I know it doesn’t look pretty. What do you want? A perfect vegan egg? Hahahahhaaha! 😛 )

Super Secret Scrambled Tofu Recipe: The Best You’ll Ever Have!!!!

January 30, 2014 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

I think people are a bit lost when it comes to tofu. It’s this white squishy block which doesn’t taste like anything. I saw an episode of Come Dine With Me once and a vegan guy on there served his dinner guests raw tofu and avocado. What the hell was he thinking? YUCK!

The number one rule is flavouring: herbs, spices and marinades are the best but sauces, bread crumbs and oils can also be great too.

On Facebook I’m constantly raving about how amazing Mykey’s scrambled tofu is, so I finally caught him in the act on Sunday morning and took some pictures.

First let’s get these ingredients down:

A large handful of fresh baby leaf spinach (frozen is far too watery.)
6 large button mushrooms
Tumeric
Black salt (not essential but will make the tofu smell and taste more like egg.)
Terriyaki sauce
1 pack of chilled firm tofu (not silken)
A dash of oil
Wholemeal sourdough bread to serve
Nutritional yeast

Method:

Heat the dash of oil in a frying pan.

Slice your mushrooms and place into the pan, stirring every minute or so.

In the meantime, drain your tofu over the sink.

When the mushrooms have begun to soften, add the tofu by squeezing it through your hands so it crumbles. Break any extra bits up with your mixing spoon.

Now add about a tablespoon of powdered turmeric, a glug of teriyaki sauce, two tablespoons of nutritional yeast and two pinches of black salt and mix together.

Add your spinach and mix in until wilted.

Now you can turn off the heat whilst you wait for you bread to toast.

Spread generously with vegan butter, add tofu and then get it all in your face, with ketchup.

Oh and be careful, other’s in your house may want some too! 😛

Seriously Tasty Time Saving Porridge Topper

November 10, 2013November 10, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

Oats are amazing! They are great for the bacteria in your gut, give you loads of energy, keep you full up and are loaded with fiber. Being vegan I don’t really need to worry about fiber because everything I eat has it in, but you can always do with more right?

Mykey and I live a very hectic lifestyle. We are guardians to five cats and one very lively American Bulldog called Bailey. We also work full time and train twice a day everyday at the gym. A little while ago I decided we needed to cut down on the amount of time we spent getting ready in the morning for work, so I came up with this great time saving idea that gives porridge an extra health boost and tastes great.

I make up a jar full of super foods that I then sprinkle on top. Before I used to spend and extra twenty minutes in the morning making sure our breakfasts were as packed with nutrients as possible. Now I stick my spoon in my jar and throw it on top of my bowl of oats, before smothering in soya milk and sometimes heating in the microwave.

Yum!

The jar lasts about a month if two of you are eating porridge everyday for 5 out of 7 days a week. I also like to put different things in it each month, but this month I’ve gone with flaked almonds, pecan nuts, pumpkin seeds, dried goji berries, shredded coconut, walnuts, milled flaxseed, chia seeds and if I put anything else in there, I can’t remember!

Enjoy! 🙂

Savoury Breakfast Pancakes

July 16, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

Mykey and I have recently taken so eating low fat, minimal ingredient pancakes one day a week. We often have ones stuffed with fruit, for example today I have blueberry pancakes. We actually mixed the blueberries in the batter and it came out an absolute treat. It also fuelled my gym work out perfectly. I’m hoping to move away from wheat pancakes soon and experiment with rice flour etc.

On Sunday we had a busy day planned. A baking hot car boot sale and then the rest of the day doing the garden so having a very large breakfast was certainly on the cards. (We burnt it off, don’t you worry!)

Ingredients:

Self raising flour 250g
Oat milk 500ml
Two rashers of Redwood’s tempeh bacon
Half a can of reduced sugar and salt baked beans (or your own home made version if you have more time than we did.)
Two cloves of garlic
A large handful of fresh babyleaf spinach

Method:

Mix the self raising flour with the oat milk until you get a thick batter like mixture. Add more of each ingredient as appropriate.
Leave to sit for 1 minute.
Pour a teaspoon of rapeseed oil into a hot pan and make sure it runs over as much surface as possible.
Pour about half the mixture into the pan and leave to cook until the edges start to change colour and bubbles appear in the middle and then flip and repeat on the opposite side.
Place on a plate whilst you prepare the second pancake.
Once both pancakes are cooked, start heating your beans and gently fry your baby leaf spinach with the garlic and tempeh bacon until soft.
Pour over the top of the pancakes and sprinkle with some nutritional yeast for extra flavour and nutrition.

23 Breakfast Ideas

June 11, 2013June 11, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

People often ask me what I eat for breakfast. I have a standard 14 things that I rotate on a regular basis, but I’ve also included some extra not as healthy, possibly treat meals as well. Vegan breakfasts are some of my favourite recipes because they are so healthy and you can have lots of good carbohydrates because you will burn them off throughout the day. All of my healthy breakfast ideas are under 400 calories. The unhealthy ideas…..well I don’t even want to think about it. That’s why they are occasional treats and not everyday meals.

Healthy, low calorie, low fat, high nutrition.

Mixed fruit with plain yoghurt and milled flaxseed. (Mix it up. I like oranges, apples and bananas, but occasionally I’ll use mangos, kiwis and dried apricots.

Fruit smoothie. (Bananas and raspberries are good here mixed with water or oat milk.)

Green smoothie. (Lots of spinach, banana, blueberries, barley grass powder, Spirulina with water or almond milk.)

Peanut butter on wholegrain toast. (100% peanut, peanut butter. Be careful because lots of brands contain extra oil, sugar, salt and fat.)

Scrambled tofu. (My recipes goes as follows: a whole block of tofu, mushrooms, onions, garlic, spinach, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, black pepper, black salt (if you can get it.) and turmeric. Peas, sweetcorn and grated carrot are also good additions.)

No egg omelette ( Recipe to be found http://mouthwateringvegan.com/2012/06/17/vegan-cheese-omelette/ …..I do mine without cheese and often stuff it with mushrooms and spinach.)

Porridge with mixed nuts and flax, covered in rice milk.
Avocado and tomato on wholegrain toast.
Protein pancakes (Wholemeal flour, soya milk, scoop of vegan protein powder. Whisk and place in a pan at a high heat. Serve with almond butter, apple chunks and raisins)

Apple and oat bake. (oats, chopped apple, molasses, nuts, seeds, not from concentrate apple juice, mix together and bake.)
Mushrooms sauted with spinach with a grilled tomato and half a can of no added sugar and salt baked beans. (Or you could make your own.)
Breakfast burrito! (scrambled tofu with added beans, herbs and spices in a wholemeal tortilla.)

Wholemeal bagel with homemade butterbean pate. (Cooked butterbeans, garlic, parsley and a dash of hemp oil blended into a paste.)

Two bananas smooshed up with two teaspoons of cashew nut butter.

Now the not so healthy, but utterly delicious breakfast ideas.

Crumpets with strawberry jam. (To try and be good, you could go for the made with 100% fruit jam and not use vegan butter….but then is it still a treat?)

Full vegan breakfast: wholemeal toast with vegan butter, potato cakes, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, scrambled tofu, vegan sausages, vegan bacon, hasbrowns and bubble and squeak. (No I couldn’t find the exact picture anywhere so the below image is just generic!)

Vegan sausage sandwich with mustard and ketchup.
Large vegetable samosa.

Vegan French toast. (http://www.holycowvegan.net/2010/09/eggless-french-toast.html)

A big tub of vegan fruit yoghurt.
Vegan cheese on toast

Breakfast muffin (Think fast food breakfast. Vegan cheese, vegan burger patty, possibly vegan bacon.)

Reuben. (vegan meat slices, saukraut, mayo etc. It’s an American dish and I love it!)

Thrive Banana & Coconut Pie (Raw)

April 17, 2013April 22, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

This is something that Mykey made me whilst I tidied the house. It made enough for me and him to have it as a post workout protein cake for a week. I apologise for American measurements. He kind of made it up as he went along and it came out great.

Crust:

1 cup hemp protein powder
1 cup dates
1/2 cup coconut, shredded
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp fresh ginger

Filling:

2 bananas
1 pear
1tbsp fresh ginger
1/2 cup coconut
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup macadamias, soaked
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/2 tsp salt

Procedure

Make crust by putting all ingredients into food processor and processing until dough like. Remove and spread out onto a pie plate, pack down. Put all filling ingredients into food processor and process until creamy. Fill pie crust by evenly spreading out filling. Put in the freezer for about 60 minutes.

Don’t forget that because this is basically a raw dish, it’s very nutrient dense whilst lower in calories. Eat raw food and clean whole foods often to obtain maximum level of health.

Green Goddess Smoothie

February 20, 2013February 20, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

This is a very simple smoothie recipe that I eat on an almost daily basis. It is full of protein, b12, iron, vitamin c and potassium. I use it as a pre and post workout food. You can also add and subtract ingredients as you see fit without altering the flavour too much. (Be careful about nutrition though.)

Ingredients:

2 bananas

A handful of fresh baby leaf spinach

A sprinkle of spirulina

A sprinkle of barley grass powder

A scoop of raw hemp protein powder

A large glass of non-dairy milk such as hazelnut milk or you can use water.

(When I’m skint, I make it with just bananas, hemp protein and water.)

Method:

Blend until smooth.

The great thing about this recipe is that you don’t need a high powered, super expensive blender. I have a five year old Kenwood and it does just fine. It’s approximately 300 calories a serving so you can also have it as a full meal and I often do that too.

Vegan Low Calorie, Low Fat Pancakes

February 12, 2013February 12, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / 4 Comments

Most people are under the impression that you can’t have pancakes that aren’t laden with eggs, milk and white processed flour. One of the first things I did when I went vegan in 2006, was to make pancakes. The floury and stodgy 900 calorie delights, smothered with golden syrup. If that’s what you want, I can give you the recipe right now:

Flour

Soya milk

Oil

That’s it. Whisk it up and fry in some olive oil. Then you can cover it in any sugary delight you like.

Personally I like my food to be full of nutrients and low in fat. If you’re like me, the below recipe adapted from Brendan Brazier’s Thrive book will be right up your street.

2 dates
128g blueberries
340ml non-dairy milk
240ml water
68g buckwheat flour
43g quinoa (cooked or sprouted)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Mix all the ingredients together in a food processor and either fry in olive oil for a couple of minutes on each side, or bake in a warm oven for 20 minutes.

For 2 pancakes that’s a total of 227 calories and 4 grams of fat. Enjoy!

Queer Vegan

Food, fitness and culture from a queer, vegan, metal head.

Breakfast