Spicy Chick'n and Chorizo Stew

I'm posting a lot of recipes with mock meat at the moment because it's been really convenient while I've been with family over the holidays. Will probably be back to the basics soon now that I'm back at home and on a budget.

I made this just after Christmas with the leftover veg and it was ace. There are a fair amount of ingredients as I chucked pretty much whatever I could find in there. You can make this as big or as small as you want, so I wont be putting exact measurements.

• Onion, chopped
• Garlic, minced
• Olive oil
• Root Veg (I used carrots, parsnips and potatoes), chopped into bitesize chunks
• Mock chicken and chorizo (I used Redwoods), chopped
• Handful of rice
• Vegetable stock
• Chilli flakes
• Bouquet Garni
• Hot pepper Sauce, I used just a splash
• Salsa
• Salt and Pepper
• Dumplings (optional)

1. Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the onions until soft.
2. Add the rest of the veg, garlic, chick'n and chorizo and fry until the veg is soft. About 5 minutes.
3. Add enough stock to cover the vegetables, add the bouquet garni, and a pinch of chilli flakes. Simmer for 15 minutes
4. Add the dumplings, salsa, rice, hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper and simmer for a further 20 minutes.
5. Serve

A Tasty Way to Start the New Year - Fried Chick'n

"fucking delicious" and "orgasmic" were the compliments of two very impressed friends who tried this last night. We managed to finish off half a pan of the stuff while we attempted to make caramelised bananas. It was a good meal.

I used Asda's meat free chicken pieces for this, but you can use whatever fake chicken you want, or try tofu.

• 2-3 cups fake chicken, cut into bitesize pieces
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp mixed herbs
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• Splash of liquid smoke

1. Mix together the flour, salt, paprika, herbs, pepper and nutritional yeast and set aside in a bowl
2. In another bowl have the soy milk
3. Dip the chick'n into the flour mix, into the soy milk and back into the flour mix, rolling until covered in the coating before setting to one side.
4. When all the chick'n is coated heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the chick'n pieces.
5. Fry until golden brown and crispy. Splash the liquid smoke over the chick'n and fry for a few more minutes before serving.

This stuff even tastes great cold. I'm thinking of making fried chick'n sandwiches to take to uni with me.

Apologies for the bad quality photo. I forgot to take a photo while I was out in the kitchen.

Chocolate Yule Log

These should be mandatory at Christmas. This was delicious and relatively easy to make. Just a bit time consuming. I recommend doing it with a friend :D



For the Sponge:

• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 tbsp vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Sift the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.
3. Mix together the wet ingredients, except the vinegar and mix into the dry.
4. Stir in the vinegar, pour into the tray and put into the oven as quickly as possible.
5. Bake for 25 minutes.
6. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, use the parchment paper to roll the sponge up. Set it to one side until it has cooled down completely. Don't stress over any cracks.

For the Frosting:

• 1/4 cup shortening (known as cookeen or trex in the UK)
• 1/4 cup soy butter
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp soy milk.

1. Mix it all together until you have a thick and creamy frosting. Set aside until the cake is ready.

For the chocolate topping:

• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 8 ounces dark chocolate
• 4 tbsp maple syrup

1. Heat the soy milk in a pan until its nearly boiling.
2. Take off the heat, add the chocolate and maple syrup and stir until dissolved.
3. Set aside until cool and really thick.

To assemble the rest of the cake:

• When cool, unroll the cake carefully and evenly slap the icing all over it.
• Roll the cake off the parchment and onto a plate before covering with the chocolate topping. If there's any cracks you can just fill them all with icing.
• Cover with decorations if you're feeling fancy (we did marzipan shapes) and serve!

Vegan Thanksgiving!

Being from the UK I don't usually celebrate Thanksgiving but we had three American friends round for a Thanksgiving meal last week. I have no idea what thanksgiving is really about, but any excuse for a feast is fine by me. I spent a total of 6 hours straight shopping and cooking for the meal so have a few recipes to share with you. I would have more but we made lots of things that I didn't get a picture of because we were all too busy devouring everything.

The one piece of advice I can give to anyone who celebrates Thanksgiving for the first time is....eat through the pain.

Our menu for Thanksgiving was:

• Tofurky
• Mashed Potato
• Mashed Sweet Potato
• Squash
• Stuffing
• Green Bean Casserole
• Wine Glazed Brussel Sprouts
• Pumpkin Bread
• Cranberry Sauce
• Pumpkin Pie
• Apple Pie
• Ice Cream

all washed down with Mulled Wine and Cider!

Here are the recipes for the Green Bean Casserole and the Wine Glazed Brussel Sprouts.

Green Bean Casserole

• 340g Green Beans
• 1 tbsp Salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 280g button mushrooms
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• Splash of wine
• 3/4 cup soy milk
• 1 large pack of breadcrumbs
• 1 large onion, chopped
• Black Pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 180C
2. Start off by adding the tbsp of salt and green beans to boiling water. Boil for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. While the beans are boiling chop the mushrooms into bitesize pieces
4. Heat the oil in a large pan and add the mushrooms, garlic and cayenne pepper. Fry until the mushrooms are soft and juicy.
5. Stir the cornflour and wine into the stock before adding to the mushrooms. Simmer for 2 minutes.
6. Add the soymilk and simmer for 5-10 minutes until thick. Stir in the green beans and pour into a casserole dish.
7. Fry the chopped onion in a little oil until golden brown.
8. Top the casserole with breadcrumbs, onions and black pepper before baking for 20 minutes.

This casserole was so good I'm thinking of making this at Christmas. Last night I made the filling for this casserole and stirred it into pasta and it worked really well.

Wine Glazed Brussel Sprouts

• 2 lbs brussel sprouts
• 1/2 cup wine
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp cornflour dissolved in water

1. Put the wine, water, maple syrup and soy sauce into a pan and bring to the boil.
2. Add the brussel sprouts and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Stir in the cornflour mix and simmer for another 10 minutes before serving.

If I can find some photos I'll try and post the recipe for the pumpkin bread this week. It was awesome.

Anyone want a free Graze box?

These boxes are ace. You order them online, pick what foods you'd like to try, choose what day you want to receive it and it comes along in the post to your house or where you work. I've had four of these now and they're a lot of fun. I've used them as snacks throughout the week or as lunches when I'm too busy to make my own and want something a bit healthier.

To make sure I got a vegan box I had to go through all the products and bin everything with yogurt or honey on it, but there weren't many products with it in so it wasn't too much bother.

They have stuff from fresh fruit, olives, nuts, seed mixes to Japanese rice crackers. There is a fair amount of packaging but it's all recyclable.

Anyway, here is the link if you would like to order a free box. It gets me £1 off too, which is always nice. If I remember correctly it will try to make you order 2 boxes (one of which will be free) but you can always push back the second or just cancel it.

Clicky clicky:

http://www.graze.com/p/WGHMGPZ.

Quick Update on my lack of...updates..

I've wanted to post some recipes recently but life has suddenly got ridiculously busy with weddings (..resulting in me getting bitten by a horse >_<), lots of university deadlines, filming extra projects outside of my course and me attempting to cling onto my sanity and allow myself a smidgen of a social life outside all of this.

The good news is that on the rare occasion that I've had time to cook a proper meal I have been taking photos so when all of this work is over I will have lots of things to share. I'm going to be realistic and say that I hope I'll be back early December for Christmas updates. I'm planning to make Christmas gifts so expect a post or two on that, and of course vegan Christmas food!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've never known life could be this busy XD

Lime Coleslaw Salad

A lovely friend of mine brought me a jar of Nayonnaise from the US so I thought I'd make something with it, rather than wasting it all by slopping it over anything I can find (yes, it really is that good)

Lime Coleslaw Salad

• 225g shredded purple cabbage
• 225g shredded white cabbage
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 1 cup coriander, chopped
• 6 spring onions, sliced
• 1 chilli, finely chopped
• 100ml olive oil
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• Juice of 2 limes
• 5-6 tbsp vegan mayonnaise

1. In a large bowl combine the cabbage, carrot, coriander, spring onions and chilli. Toss to combine
2. Mix together the olive oil, soy sauce and lime juice in a jug and pour over the salad
3. Stir in the mayo depending on your tastes. I like quite a lot in mine. Serve!

This makes a hell of a lot of Coleslaw with lots of leftover cabbage, so I reccommend doubling the recipe and forcing all your friends and family to eat it...or plan some meals around all the leftovers, whatever suits you.