Vegetarian Foods Archive

So its Friday the 13th and I thought I would show food considered to be a little freaky by non-vegan and non-vegetarian - Seitan pronounced Satan. I've been ravenous recently, wanting to get my gnashers into something of substance and rip and tear it.  Perhaps its the change of weather; or maybe i am just watching way too much of The Walking Dead series.  We started watching the series on DVD Halloween weekend and are now on series 4, so no spoilers please!   Over the weekend, I made this mock 'meatloaf' with vital wheat gluten.  I was a little heavy handed with the fennel seeds.  We have had it various ways over the week including today, but the most enjoyable was when a slab of it was seared on both sides and served with horseradish mash, greens and home-made brown gravy.  The rest has been good for cold sandwich fillings, Yes we Brits do like our sandwiches.  The seitan slices were quite succulent and not at all dry like much of the p...

I have been oggling Adam Sobel's Maple Mustard Glazed Seitan Strip s for a few good months now.  The awesome recipe can be found in his cookbook Street Vegan.  Every time I have gone to make these vital wheat gluten seitan breakfast strips, I have noted ingredients missing from my kitchen, first it was mustard, then tofu and then celery! Well this weekend, I was determined to make them and ensured I had every thing I needed to create them in my kitchen.  I do like to dabble with recipes, but sometimes I have to respect the recipe author and follow the recipe word for word and I pretty much did here.  By the way this is the second recipe from the book, I made Adam's French Lentil Soup a little while back.  From the photograph, the Seitan strips appear too dark, but these are a little naughty as these have been shallow fried before being coated in sweet grainy mustard glaze.  There is also a hint bitterness from the molasses.  I liked how the musta...

I am going to tell you something about myself whether you want to know it or not.  I don't like new potatoes that much.  I find them a bit dull, unless dressed up in a potato salad or cooked this this, pan-fried or roasted in the oven.   I made this Spanish style dish of Patatas Bravas last week after coming back from  Hay on Wye For those of you who read my blog regular, what I didn't tell you in that blog post was we had a light lunch at a little tapas place - I am not food blogger who reviews, but it was fine - we had string beans in tomato sauce, halloumi, traditional and beetroot hummus, good bread and olive oil for dipping and a side of olives.  D said you should do this kind of tapas style food more often, its easy peasy.   That evening when I got home, I flicked through my heavy copy of  1080 Recipes  republished in 2007 , a cookbook that was hailed as the bible of traditional Spanish cooking since it was first published over 3...

This vegan Halloween Orange Lentil Pasta with Red Devil Pumpkin Sauce was made a few days ago, when surprisingly I had some energy in me when I got home from work to cook. I had baked the fresh pumpkin in the oven the evening before, so all I had to do was scoop out the slushy orangy pulp for the Red Devil Pumpkin Sauce; and cook a packet of Profusion Red lentil Fussili pasta that's been in my kitchen cupboards for a few months.  Every time I laid eyes on it, I knew it was destined for a Halloween Pasta Bake. I served the Orange Lentil Pasta smothered in Red Devil Pumpkin Sauce and served it with homemade vegan Chorizo sausages  which are laid out here coming out of the ceramic pumpkins mouth like puke, but that is optional.   Even though presented it looks quite impressive for a Halloween dinner table, I have to admit, I was not overly keen on it.  Perhaps it was the powdery nature of the pasta that also lost its vibrant orange colour upon cooking; ...

These little cute pumpkins may be perfect to adorn any kitchen table or mantle piece, but come to slice them and they are quite resistant little things.  These mini pumpkins known as munchkin pumpkins were very hard to slice, but I persevered and then scooped out the seeds for the garden birds. The hollowed out mini pumpkins serve as fantastic bowls that you can take straight to the table, no washing up to do either, something that my husband appreciates as he does most of the dishes in our home. You can stuff mini pumpkins with all manner of things, such as the vegan Spanish style chorizo, chickpeas and kale that I made.  It was very nice too.  One of my favourite long term food blogger extraordinaire and Queen and inspirational kick starter behind UKs  Underground Supper Club scene  Ms Marmite Lover aka Kerstin Rodgers has some wonderful suggestion on  How to use squash and pumpkins . Vegan Mof o prompt is Autumn Fall Traditions.  I tend to ...

Wales is still not popular for its vegetarian cuisine, its often seen as the land of Welsh lamb, cockles and mussels,  faggots  - a Welsh meatball made from offal and meat off-cuts.   But what many people do not know is St David, the Patron Saint of Wales was a vegetarian.  I speculate, but its possible that St David may actually have even been a vegan as he only ate bread, vegetables, herbs and only drank water.   The green green lush land of Wales has also given us leeks and laverbread. Laverbread or 'bara lawr' as it is known in these part of the Welsh valleys.  Laverbread is not actually a bread, its a seaweed, that is cooked down to a jet green paste famously described by the acclaimed Welsh actor Richard Burton as ' Welshman's caviar '.  Laverbread is often enjoyed with shellfish, buttered toast or as Laverbread Cakes .   The best laverbread comes from  Selwyn's  who are based on the beautiful shores of the Gower Peninsula....

I've featured vegan Welsh Faggots on my blog i n the past, but have always wanted to enhance them textually and visually.  I was able to do this a few days ago for our homely St Davids Day Welsh Vegan Menu with the addition of another Welsh delicacy Laverbread.   For those of you not  from Wales and not familiar with Welsh faggots, well in a nutshell  Faggots were traditionally made with the innards of pigs. The pate like mixture was then wrapped in the lacy casing of the animals caul and oven roasted slowly.    I remember reading a while back, that the Welsh faggots is what haggis is to the Scots and is often referred to as Welsh Haggis in some par ts of Wales.   There may be some truth in this as  The Scotsman  also make reference to haggis being popular in the Welsh Valleys of Wales, but they still credit the Scots for the haggis jokingly writing that a Scottish haggis escaping to Wales in 1690, hence its popularity in Wales. ...

Wonderful regular and loyal readers please do not be concerned I have not become 'a meat and two veg' person overnight. This 'Steak' may not look it, but it is 100% vegan it is made with vital wheat gluten (seitan) and jackfruit. I have been wanting to make S eitan Steaks   again for a while and as much as I enjoyed them in the past I found the texture too firm, as well as a little dry.  Then I remembered a while back seeing a few recipes that incorporated jackfruit and seitan together.  I thought this made sense in relation to adding stringy texture to the seitan, but wondered if it also added moisture and decided to have a go at making them. The finished result was amazing to look at.  I have never in my life eaten a meat steak, but this visually mimicked the real stuff, it was kind of freaky.   Then I tasted it.  It tasted amazing, not at all dry.  In fact it was very moist and the addition of the BBQ sauce on top was not necessary, but it add...

I have not spent much time in the kitchen recently, as I want to rest at the weekends and be proper lazy.   So I share this  Pomegranate Molasses Bulgar, Chickpeas, Red Chard and Vegan 'Lamb' aka Seitan that I made from scratch a few weeks ago, when I had energy and inclination to both potter and experiment in the kitchen.  The pomegranate molasses gave that sweet twang. chickpea always give nuttiness, but so did the Bulgar.   Its nice warm, but its also good at room temperature as a salad, but do keep the mock lamb sitting on top, so not to go too soggy from the red chard, which by the way from the garden plot. The seitan mock lamb was surprisingly succulent and so much superior than those from the supermarket.  In fact I wish I had made this seitan mock meat for my vegan Plum and Lamb Curry . I am sharing this  Pomegranate Molasses Bulgar, Chickpeas, Red Chard and Vegan Seitan 'Lamb' Sa lad  with   Kahakai Kitchen ; and My Legu...

Here is my first ever attempt at Seitan Roast with Stuffing.     A celebratory Seitan Roast with Stuffing to be served with all the vegetables you find at Sunday Roast Dinner.  Talking of celebrations, let me wish all my readers  A Happy New Year - 2018.    I must confess, I am so glad to see the back of 2017 and am genuinely excited at 2018. 2018 will be a year of change for me and a year of new beginnings, but more about that later.  I have been playing around a lot with seitan recently and have been pleased with the results. This Seitan Roast was enjoyable, but it was not perfect.  If you look closer the  vegan filling made from onion, breadcrumbs  and rosemary get a bit lost. This Seitan Roast with Stuffing was enough for 8 - 10 servings.   I will be making this Seitan Roast with Stuffing again and next time, I will add some green and red to the stuffing so that it is more standoutish.  Also I will upg...

One of the most popular recipes on my blog is the vegan Chorizo sausage s made with vital wheat gluten.  Since vital wheat gluten is a lot more accessible now and stocked by many health food stores across the UK, I have been making it every year , but this is not to say that we indulge in faux meat all the time, we actually don't, as I still find the texture of faux meat unusual.  However, saying all that I do like to experiment and those of you who know me now through blogging, will know that I do enjoy experimenting in the kitchen with new ingredients, but always with fruit and vegetables The recipes makes six vegan chorizo sausage s and we often consume them all before the week is over incorporated into different meals. Here is the first, vegetarian Chorizo Hand Pies as it has feta cheese in it.  My vegan readers can of course substitute the salty feta cheese with an alternative .  I have served it here with some green salad and grated beetroot. Her...