Vegetarian Foods Archive

Anyone who has used spirulina will know why I describe it as velvet.  The powdered form is textually very velvety.  Anyway,  I only made these velvet green Spirulina  Flapjacks as I was wishing to use up my very large packet of Spirulina  and the one thing I was adamant I would not make was another darn groovy green Smoothie.  Blogosphere  and cookbooks gearing towards healthy eating are laden with Spirulina  Smoothie recipes, so I gave that a deliberate miss and went for something completely different. I have plans on making a Green Goddess Granola, but that is on the back burner for other far more creative greeny bites.   Unlike other spirulina recipes that are super duper healthy: no butter, no sugar - this flapjack is made with both butter and sugar.  I have shared a link below of a healthier, vegan and raw version below, if you want to check it out.  Surprisingly, I actually liked these, but I don't often make the same fl...

Have you noted my absence?!   I haven't had Internet since Friday thanks to BT, until this evening when I got in from work.   I made these vegan coconut macaroons at the weekend.  With St Patricks day nearing us, I decided to add a teaspoon of  spirulina   to half of the mixture. Although they turned out looking good and held well, they lacked sweetness. Of course, you could make these with matcha too.   I promise to share the recipe in not too long, just need a little more tweaking before I am happy with it.  

Nothing supernatural about this quiche, its really just a Broccoli Quiche on a green pastry base.  The shortcrust pasty is naturally dyed green with the addition of spirulina powder to the dough; and the eggy filling.  Well I steamed some broccoli and blitzed half of it with the milk, then poured it into a bowl and whisked it with the eggs and poured it over the pastry case that had been lined with the remaining broccoli heads and doused with some Welsh cheddar cheese.  At one point during the cooking process, I actually panicked and thought the quiche was not going to set but fortunately it did.  This Broccoli quiche was packed with lots of flavours.  Even the spirulina powder in the shortcrust pastry imparted its sea earth flavours.  Its just a  shame the photograph here doesn't pick up the green in pastry, though I must admit it is a little scorched here and there.  Here's a song by the Jamaican Reggae Band The Dread & Terrible called...

This marigold yellow pasta with marmalade coloured roasted peppers and butternut squash was lunch for work - twice, last week.   As I was tucking in, it got some of my colleagues all intrigued and curious 'Gosh, that pasta is glowing'. The pasta is simply infused with turmeric powder.  I've also tried this method with beetroot See HERE .   Although I have used ready made penne pasta here, you could easily make vegan Turmeric pasta from scratch too, just add a teaspoon or half to the flour when your mixing and kneading.  Anyway, the turmeric pasta on its own was a bit bland, so I decided to make make a vinaigrette dressing for it with some Blood Oranges that were mingling with the lemons in a bowl. The Blood Orange Chilli Oil was spicy and quite tasty elevated by the addition of my bottle of Welsh Blodyn Aur Rapeseed Chilli Oil.    Of course, you can make your own Chilli Oil at home and I probably would had I grown my own chillies, but sometimes whe...

Another cake to enjoy with a cuppa tea if you so wish. I won't fib, this is really a Lemon Poppy Seed Drizzle blinged up.  The Lemon is replaced with seasonal Blood Oranges and the Poppy seeds replaced with the trendy chia seeds.   After all chia seeds are the new poppy seed! I am not going to give you a recipe either, just adapt a recipe you already have for a Lemon Poppy seed cake with the ingredients mentioned above.  Saying that though I did not adapt the vegan Lemon Poppy Seed cake recipe on my blog , but adapted a different one - still vegan.   The blood orange icing glaze was a pink from the freshly squeezed Blood Orange, its just a shame that is not picked up in the photograph.   I've made this cake in a loaf tin here, but it could easily have been an 8 inch round cake tin.   Whilst the cake is cooling, I tend to poke a few holes with the skewer to allow the icing sugar glaze to seep though, a bit like Lemon Drizzle cake, but this ...

These are British style flapjacks enhanced with turmeric, apricot and mango pieces.  I don't have breakfast during the working week, so a banana, flapjack and coffee are what gets me to lunch on a working day and today was no different.   I make flapjacks all the time and vary them wit different dried fruit or fresh seasonal fruit.  Recently its been strawberry flapjacks  with strawberries from the garden, but I wanted to experiment a little.   Turmeric seems to be trendy at the moment, so I thought I would chuck a teaspoon into my flapjacks just for a change.  Not only were the oats a golden autumn yellow, the turmeric also imparted its flavour and that was okay with me as I don't mind turmeric, but D was not overly keen on having these particular ones for his breakfast, saying that his preference was the other ones I usually make.  He thought these were more suited for a snack. These Turmeric Flapjacks are so easy to make vegan, just replac...

Ah its the start to the weekend and in contrast to the past couple of days that called for bowl food, this late afternoon the sun has come out all shining with an invitation to go out, doss and sit in the garden sipping something to welcome that chillax (chill and relax) Friday Feeling. Today for the crazy kids we have non-alcoholic cocktails aka mocktails and coolers .  This is no ordinary cooler, it is made from edible flowers and chia seeds.  This is a refreshing and lovely tasting still drink with a fantastic colour and a gentle sweetness.  I  had half expected the chia seeds to be suspended in the air, but they sunk to the bottom.  I am sharing this with     Sunday Fitness and Food Fitness  hosted by  Marathons and Motivation  and  Ilka's blog ;   and Munchies and Munchkins for  Eating Al Fresco  as I drunk one of these bottles of Summer Chia Hibiscus Cooler in the garden whilst weeding and picking some...

I have already mentioned in a previous post that I am having a thing about veggie meatballs at the moment.   This is my third dish featuring vegan meatballs in one month.   Before I went vegetarian, there were only a few meat dishes I would eat: chicken wings to hush my mother from nagging me for not eating meat when I was growing up under her eyes, minced meat samosas and meatballs.  When I left home for University, I did not miss meat dishes and accidentally found myself becoming a vegetarian, these days my diet is probably 95% vegan, so I guess I am veganish - but not vegan at all as I still eat cheese and consume a little milk and eggs on occasion, mostly in recipes.  For some reason these crisp sienna coloured 'meatballs' have been calling my name and I am so pleased in the knowledge that I can make my own , but there are also some good brands out their, that all you have to do is defrost them and pan fry in a little oil.  The veggie meatballs that ...

Like the   vegan and vegetarian meatballs , I am having a thing about fudge at the moment. In recent days, I have made beetroot fudge, chocolate fudge and now these vegan tiger orange coloured Sweet Potato Fudge Bites with Cacao Nibs.   This recipe comes from Kari's blog Bite Sized Thoughts .  I have a number of recipes bookmarked from Kari, one of which is this  Sweet Potato Fudge  bookmarked since I saw it and one she showcased when she was doing a bit of fundraising. I had good intentions of following her recipe for this Sweet Potato Fudge to the gram, but as the weight of my baked sweet potatoes were a little more, I decided to increase some of the ingredients a little. I also replaced the lacuma powder with maca powder as that is what I had in my cupboards.  I picked up the maca powder when it was on offer along with some cacao nibs a year or so ago and have been looking for ways to use both.  So even with my little tinkering, ful...