Stuffed Tomatoes

September 8, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

A while back I asked my friend on Facebook to come up with three cheap ingredients and I’d make a simple, healthy meal out of them. The first person to post was my friend Pete. He suggested that I make something out of twigs, leaves and water in traditional vegan style. Of course he was joking and subsequently posted tomatoes, pine nuts and tofu. What a great combination! Tofu is rammed full of protein and calcium, pine nuts have loads of vitamin E and tomatoes have loads of vitamin C. A healthy and affordable combination.

I went to Asda and brought two pack of beef tomatoes. They are currently out of season so they cost more than I was hoping. I also brought just one pack of silken tofu. I already had a bag of pine nuts at home. They are the expensive part, but once you buy some you will find many uses for them and they last for ages. Total basic ingredient cost approximately £6.80 and that will feed two people for lunch or four people for a starter.

Turn on your oven and heat to 200 degrees.

Now the problem i have is that on it’s own, tofu tastes of NOTHING. I figured most people would have garlic, onions and turmeric in the house, so I’m allowing them as ingredients because they are store cupboard staples. (If you don’t have them, they are pretty damn cheap from any local corner shop.)

First things first; chop the onion and a couple of cloves of garlic and place in a hot pan with oil of your choice. I used sesame seed oil for some extra flavour.

Stir lots and then place about half of the bag of pine nuts into the pan.

Stir some more and then turn the heat off.

Next job is to prepare the tomatoes. Slice the tops off quite thinly and place to one side. (You’ll need them later.)

Now slice a deep circle around the center of the tomato and scoop out with a knife or a spoon. (I used a bit of both.)

Once you have completed this, place on a baking tray upside down to allow any extra fluid to drain away.

Place any leftover tomato center that isn’t part of the hard core, into the pan with the pine nuts etc and turn the heat back on.

Cut open the pack of silken tofu and squeeze into the hot pan. Mix well and then add a good sprinkle of turmeric. You can also add any other condiments that you have laying around here. Soy sauce, salt or black pepper would go really well and give it some extra flavour.

Mix everything really well. Then turn your beef tomatoes over and fill with the warm tofu mix. Then place the lids you chopped off earlier on top.

I also sprinkled a bit of olive oil over the top here so they would bake more quickly, but this is optional too.

Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Serve as a starter with some rocket salad or as a lunch on it’s own. Two will most certainly fill you up.

Enjoy! 🙂

Vegan Camp Risotto

August 21, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

This post is inspired by the lack of vegan camping friendly recipes throughout the online world. It’s really easy to make tasty meals on a camping stove if you are able to get hold of fresh ingredients. Let’s face it, unless you are wild camping you are most likely at a festival or a camp site which will have a shop. You can always bring fresh ingredients with you too.

This is an old recipe of mine that I’ve never written down. The particular measurements for this are larger than normal because I made it for a communal meal with lots of other people. (This is something we often do at Vegan Camp.)

Let’s start with ingredients:

3 organic vegetable stock cubes
A whole tub of garlic paste
4 red onions
Watercress and spinach salad bag
2 bags of Arborio rice
1 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc white wine
½ a bottle of crisp cider
A whole pack of button mushrooms
A whole bunch of fresh parsley
A big dollop of vegan butter (Also not shown. Perhaps I had, had too much Cornish cider already?)
Some rapeseed oil

Now here comes the method in my madness:

Place a dash of oil into the pan and heat on full for about a minute, then turn the heat right down.

In the meantime, chop up the four onions and place in the hot oil. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Get your little sister to stir the onions whilst you chop up the mushrooms and add them to the pan.

Then in goes the big dollop of vegan butter. Make sure you stir well and then turn up the heat for about a minute whilst you chop the parsley.

Add the parsley, stir and then turn the heat right down again.

Now add the two bags of rice and mix through so they are totally covered in all the flavours you’ve been busy creating.

Now add the stock cubes and pour about a glass of wine into the pan, constantly stirring. When it seems that the liquid has been absorbed, add some more wine. Rinse and repeat until the whole bottle has vanished into the void of rice.

Spoon all of the garlic into the mix and keep stirring.

Turn up the heat and then prepare your salad, adding whatever fresh stuff you have around. I added a cucumber on top. It doesn’t need a dressing.

Turn the heat back down and keep stirring. Add some fresh water if the rice becomes too sticky.

Give the pan a quick sniff to see if it’s alcoholic enough. If not, add all of the cider and mix through.

Serve at an epic communal meal, run from all the wasps who want to eat said communal meal…then enjoy!

(Cook time approx 35 minutes)

G’s Cafe Bude

August 13, 2013September 13, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

Vegan Camp this year was held in a camp site about five minutes outside of Bude, in Cornwall. We are often not very hopeful of finding restaurants or cafes in the remote villages and towns that usually surround camp, but this year we did.

Our first dealings with G’s was after I had seen the group communal meal menu, that was organised for later in the week. It was raining pretty hard outside and I really couldn’t be bothered to cook, so I convinced my little sister Charlotte and my partner Mykey to have breakfast out in Bude. The cafe wasn’t very hard to find and had clearly marked outside that it had vegan options available.

Mykey and I ordered two pots of tea (with soya milk) and Charlotte ordered a soya hot chocolate.

Mykey also took a hell of a lot of photos of us messing around. *STANDARD*

The cafe was clean, tidy and not very busy when we first arrived however customers seemed to start arriving around 10:30. The atmosphere was lovely and the staff were very knowledgeable and friendly.

We of course could not help ourselves and had to order the biggest breakfast on the menu. It was called, “The Veggie Ansom.” At £8.95 you certainly got value for money. The breakfast contained, two Redwood’s sausages, two rashers of Redwood’s bacon, three hashbrowns, two slices of toast with soya butter, baked beans, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms. Charlotte had a smaller version, but couldn’t finish it so we ate the rest of her’s too. I’ve not had a breakfast like that for years. A proper holiday treat and absolutely exceptional. We revisited once more for breakfast and once for lunch with sandwiches (spaghetti for Char) and scones and jam with redbush tea. I also haven’t had scones in years because I am rubbish at baking.

The staff began to know us by site and always asked how we were and if we were enjoying ourselves.

The best night for food however was when the whole of Vegan Camp went to G’s for a communal meal. The owners and staff really pulled out all the stops.

To start Mykey had a creamy mushroom bruschetta. (Closed cup mushrooms with red onions, port, soya cream and herbs £4.95.) I had a carrot, orange and ginger soup. ( served with warm bread £3.80.)

Both dishes were full of flavour and tingled the taste buds. We’ve eaten in more expensive restaurants that have not served us starters this good.

Do you know what else is great about G’s? They have an alcohol license and sell traditional Cornish vegan cider. 7.3% I’ll have you know! 🙂

For the main course, Grandma, Mum and I had the lentil and butternut squash tagine (served with salad and cous cous £7.95.)

Grandma doesn’t do peppers, but she ate this lot. In fact she wolfed it down the same as my mum and I. It filled us all up, but was light enough to leave space for a pudding.

Mykey and my Dad had a falafel and hummus wrap (served with mixed salad and sweet potato fries £7.25.) Mykey described this dish as, “a massive tortilla stuffed with everything. Yum!” I tried a few bites and I was blown away with the textures and flavours in my mouth. Who ever thought something so simple could be so tasty?

Then oh my goodness, there was pudding. A rare treat for my family of vegans who are constantly trying to stay fit and healthy.

My mum and dad had the summer pudding (served with soya ice cream £4.95.)

I’ve never eaten summer pudding before, but I was so happy when loads of berries came flowing out of the middle when I nicked a spoonful from them.

Mykey had an ice cream sundae with summer fruit (£4.95) I thought it was a little basic for the price, but it tasted great none the less. An improvement could have been some chocolate sauce or even some chocolate chips. 😉

I think I had the best pudding of all; dark chocolate and ginger torte with ice cream. You can see the look on my face as I’m eating it, that I am enjoying it beyond words.

This place is a must visit. Thank-you for making our holiday…and the extra 2 kg on our waistlines. See you soon!

9.5/10

Golden Aubergine with Greens and Potato Gratin

July 31, 2013July 31, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

This is a veganised version of Jamie Oliver’s 15 minute meal, “golden chicken, braised greens and potato gratin.” I could well have used some seriously decent mock chicken from Veggie World, but I firstly intended to do this with tofu. I looked in the fridge, the cupboard and the freezer and I had absolutely zero tofu, so I decided to go with an aubergine. If you are serving this for more than two people, use more than one aubergine.

Prep:

Boil the kettle

Pans out

Oven pre-heated to 200 degrees

Food processor setup

Ingredients:

800 g potatoes (I was lucky enough to have some that a work colleague had grown.)

Vegetable stock powder (or crumbled cube)

1 red onion

Rapeseed oil

Dried sage

A can of reduced fat coconut cream

Nutritional yeast

1 aubergine

Dried rosemary

Sea salt

Pepper

Frozen peas

Frozen runner beans

Method:

Finely slice the potatoes in the food processor.

Then tip into a pan and cover with the hot water from the kettle. Leave on the heat, but do not allow to boil over.

Peel the onions and also put through the food processor.

Place in a high edged roasted dish and sprinkle with oil, stock, salt and pepper. Place this on the hob and turn up the heat, adding a dash of water to stop it from burning and then after you have stirred it thoroughly, turn the heat off.

Slice the aubergine and place in a hot pan with a tablespoon of oil. Season with salt, pepper and rosemary.

Leave for a few minutes and flip occasionally to allow both sides to brown. The aubergine will absorb the oil pretty quickly, so I added a dash of water here and there to keep it cooking without burning. You can turn the heat down and allow this cook whilst you get on with other things now.

Drain the potatoes well in a colander, then pour into the tray with the onions and turn the heat back on whilst you mix everything together.

Pour over the coconut cream and a generous sprinkle of nutritional yeast. Turn the hob off and pick tray up with an oven glove and place on the top shelf of the oven for 10 minutes.

In the meantime you can continue flipping your aubergine slices and adding water if needed.

Now you should use the rest of the water in the kettle to steam your peas and runner beans for about three minutes.

Drain your peas and beans and season with herbs of choice. I used dried chives.

Serve up and enjoy this creamy delight.

Jamie Oliver reckons this meal is 600 calories. I’d say take away the single dairy cream and the fried chicken and it’s down to 450 – 500 calories. An ideal lunch or pre-17:00 meal. Enjoy!

Creamy Chic Pea Salad

July 30, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

This is a leaner version of a creamy chicken salad, especially if you can get reduced fat vegan mayonnaise. I used to really enjoy creamy foods before I went vegan, so it was great news to me that this can be achieved with lower fat, high protein and by not harming any animals. What a result ay?

Ingredients:

* Two romaine lettuces.

* Fresh or tinned pineapple cut into triangles.

* Half a jar of reduced fat, egg free mayonnaise. (If you can get garlic mayo, even better.)

* Fresh or dried parsley, chopped finely.

* A large handful of walnuts

* A can of chic peas or 300g of sprouted chic peas.

Method:

Rinse the chic peas under the cold tap

Add the mayonniase

Combine together with a spoon or a fork and add in the parsley.

Leave to stand for a few minutes to allow the flavours to mix. In the meantime chop your romaine lettuce using scissors if possible to trim the leaves down to a reasonable size.

Place the lettuce on a plate, then spoon the creamy mixture on top. Now grab your pineapple and walnuts and sprinkle over the top. How easy was that? Dig in!

Asian “Sea” Tofu With Sticky “Rice” and Steamed Greens

June 10, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

This was my first attempt at the 15 minute meals and it really set me on the right path. This will serve four people if you’re not someone who needed to eat two portions….well just because I did so 😛

Ingredients:

2 Limes

A bunch of fresh coriander

2 spring onions

1 red chilli

3 cloves of garlic

A finger sized root of ginger

Half a head of cauliflower

Half a can of coconut milk

A good quantity of pak choi

One sheet of nori

Sesame seed oil

2 large packs of tofu

Method:

* Drain both packets of tofu and press any excess water from the remaining curd.

* Slice into chocolate bar sized chunks and then slice 1/2 way through four times along. In these slits, place some torn nori. This will give the tofu it’s ocean type flavour.

* Place into a baking tray, cover liberally with sesame seed oil and place in the oven for 15 minutes on the highest heat possible.

* In the meantime, chop up 3/4 of the bunch of coriander, the 2 spring onions, the red chilli, the garlic, the ginger and the lemon grass. Place this in a pestle and mortar and crush until it looks like this:

(You can use a food processor, but I used the pestle and mortar because that’s what Jamie Oliver used.)

* Leave this to one side so the flavours can infuse.

* Grate the cauliflower (food processor is best) and place in a pan with the coconut milk. Allow this to simmer until you are ready to plate up.

* Elsewhere you will need a pan of boiling water. Drop the pak choi into this for approximately 3 minutes so they start to soften, then remove and drain.

* Dish up and sprinkle the remaining coriander over the top of the dish. Enjoy!

Chorizo “carbonara” with catalan market salad

June 4, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

I’ve placed the word carbonara in speech marks because on the Jamie Oliver page there is a massive argument about it not really being a carbonara because it doesn’t conform with the traditional Italian perception of that dish. Personally I don’t care what conforms to what norms. I didn’t event this recipe, but what I can tell you is that it was bloody delicious and nutritious.

I fed this to my fussy eating vegan parents, brother, grandmother and little sister and they all very much enjoyed it. It however took me 20 minutes because I had to double the quantity of pasta due to the amount of people I was serving. The recipe below is the quantities for 4 people.

Ingredients

For the salad
25 g pine nuts
2 green chicory
2 clementines
100 g baby spinach
4 sprigs of fresh mint
45 g vegan cheese
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon agave nectar
For the pasta
320 g wholemeal dried penne
70 g vegan chorizo (My parents live in the middle of nowhere so I had to improvise and use Redwoods sausages with lots of chilli.)
½–1 fresh red chilli
2 teaspoons of dried rosemary
olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
2 heaped tablespoons vegan soya yoghurt
juice of ½ a lemon

Method

Ingredients out • Kettle boiled • Large frying pan, medium heat • Large lidded pan, high heat

START COOKING

Toast the pine nuts in the frying pan for a few minutes, tossing often

Put the pasta into the lidded pan, cover with boiling salted water and cook according to packet instructions

• Finely slice the stalk ends of the chicory and click apart the upper leaves into a serving bowl. Peel and finely slice the clementines, add to the bowl with the baby spinach, then pick over the mint leaves. Shave over a tiny bit of vegan cheese and scatter with the hot nuts.

In a cup, make your dressing with the vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and agave nectar, then season to taste and put aside.

Finely slice the sausages or chorizo, chilli and rosemary and put into the frying pan with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and a pinch of pepper, then squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher and move everything around until lightly golden.

Place the lemon juice, soya yoghurt and remaining finely grated vegan cheese together in a food processor and blend until it looks like the below image. I also added some nutritional yeast for extra cheeseyness.

Drain the pasta, reserving a cupful of the starchy cooking water. Toss the pasta into the chorizo pan, remove from the heat and mix well with the creamy sauce, loosening with a splash of cooking water, if needed, then season to taste

Dress and toss the salad, then serve with the pasta

Then me and my Mummy went out for a walk to burn off the extra calories! (Approx 600 per serving which is fine if you are training or if you are not trying to lose weight. Otherwise do what I did and have loads of salad and only a little bit of the pasta.)

Sausage gnocchi with warm spring greens & bean salad

June 3, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / 2 Comments

I started this on Facebook, but I wanted all you guys here to see it too.

I was off sick from work for a little while so I sat and watched Jamie’s 15 minute meals because his recipes are often easy to veganise. I then set myself a challenge to veganise every recipe in the book that goes along with the series and do it all in under 15 minutes.

This particular recipe was what I made the very first time that Mykey came over for dinner. I had to modify the recipe slightly because he is allergic to hazelnuts and soya yoghurt and I didn’t have any kale. It was also the first time he tried gnocchi so I took a bit of a risk and it went down an absolute treat. I’d even be tempted to say it was exquisitely delicious….. oh whoops! I just did! 🙂

Ingredients:

* 4 vegan sausages. (I used Fry’s because I think they are the best and hold their shape very well.)

* 2 teaspoons of fennel seeds.

* 2 teaspoons of dried rosemary.

* 125 ml of red wine (I used a merlot from Co-Op.)

* 200 g tenderstem broccoli

* 700 g passata

* 400 g gnocchi

* pack of vegan bacon. ( I used Redwoods.)

* olive oil

* 40 g walnuts

* 1 teaspoon of maple syrup

* 200 g fine green beans

* 300 g spring greens

* 1 1/2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar

Ingredients out • Kettle boiled • Large casserole pan, high heat • Small frying pan, high heat • Large lidded pan, high heat

START COOKING
Cut the sausage into chunks and place in the casserole pan with the fennel seeds and rosemary.

Finely slice the bacon, put into the small frying pan with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and the walnuts and cook until golden, then add the maple syrup and remove from the heat.

Line the beans up and cut off the stalks, then put them into the large pan, cover with boiling salted water and the lid.

Cook for 4 minutes, then add the greens, tearing up any larger leaves.

Pour the wine into the sausage pan and let it bubble away while you check on the beans and greens.

If done, use a slotted spoon to transfer them to a colander to drain, leaving the pan of water on the heat.

Tear the broccoli tips into the sausage pan, then slice and add the stalks, along with the passata.

Add the gnocchi to the pan of water the greens were cooked in and pop the lid on.

Mix the olive oil, vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper in a serving bowl, tip in the drained greens and toss to coat, then scatter over the crispy nuts and bacon.

When the gnocchi have been floating for a couple of minutes, drain them and toss with the sauce.

Season to taste and serve in the pan, or on a nice platter if you have such things. I had a plate. Haha!

…..and that was what won his heart. 😉

Raw Millionaire’s Shortbread

May 30, 2013July 8, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

Another great raw treat which is also great for pre and post workout food. I took this to the gym with me and about 15 people tried it seemed very impressed.

I first heard of this delight at a vegan potluck when my friend’s daughter Amy made a batch. Her’s were much more eye pleasing and tasted just as good. Unfortunately I don’t think I’m ever going to be good at making food look professional, but I’m learning with time.

Biscuit Base

Ingredients:

A large handful of dates
A large cup of almonds (preferably soaked for 12 hours and then rinsed)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Grind all ingredients in a blender until the mixture is sticky and has the consistency of crushed digestive biscuits (similar to a traditional cheesecake base). Grease a dish with coconut oil and then press the mixture into the dish, packing it tight.

Caramel Layer

Ingredients:

Half a jar of light tahini
Half a small bottle of maple syrup
Two tablespoons of coconut oil
1tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Topping

Method:

Blend all ingredients until smooth and then pour over the “Biscuit” base. Put dish in freezer for around 15-20 minutes to allow the “caramel” to set.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp raw cacao (or unsugared coco powder)
2 tbsp agave syrup
3 tsp coconut oil

Method:

Simply put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix by hand. The mixture starts to set quite quickly, so it is a good idea to put the bowl inside a larger bowl filled with hot water to keep it soft. Once your “caramel” has set, pour the chocolate on top spreading it evenly and then return your shortbread to the freezer to set. Once the chocolate is hard, remove your Healthy Millionaires Shortbread from the freezer, cut in to squares and serve!

Raw Coconut & Date Cookies

May 29, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

These cookies were a hit with everyone who ate them and we will definitely be making them again. They are stocked full of good carbs such as dates and bananas, so they are great to eat about an hour before exercise. They are also jam packed with protein from the flax and pumpkin seeds. Combine that with the good carbs and you also have a great post workout snack too, or you can just have them as a cheeky dessert.

We decided to make these cookies raw because we love raw food. It’s always so full of flavour and the health benefits are enormous. For example when you cook food, you denature (destroy) the enzymes contained within that food, some of which are very beneficial to your health. Also with green vegetables, the vitamins and minerals contained within them tend to be water soluble, so if you cook them in water you will lose a lot of nutrition. (Personally I prefer to roast, dehydrate or eat all of my veg raw.)

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas.

A large handful of pumpkin seeds, chopped coarsely.

200 grams of milled flax seed.

200 grams of shredded, unsweetened coconut.

8 dates, chopped and depitted. (We buy ours with the pits already removed.)

3/4 bottle of agave nectar

2 tsp. cinnamon

Method:

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients. We used a potato masher. Be patient with this because it can take a while to get to the right consistency. It was a workout making these cookies in the first place.

Make into cookie shapes and place on grease proof paper on a dehydrator tray. (If you don’t have a dehydrator you can now choose to bake for 15 minutes or you can eat them just as the dough.)

Dehydrate for approximately 15 hours if you want them to still be slightly soft and gooey inside.

Queer Vegan

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

protein

Stuffed Tomatoes

Vegan Camp Risotto

G’s Cafe Bude

Golden Aubergine with Greens and Potato Gratin

Creamy Chic Pea Salad

Asian “Sea” Tofu With Sticky “Rice” and Steamed Greens

Chorizo “carbonara” with catalan market salad

For the salad

For the pasta

Method

Sausage gnocchi with warm spring greens & bean salad

Raw Millionaire’s Shortbread

Raw Coconut & Date Cookies