Category: Savoury Vegan Recipe

Warm Apricot & Ginger Rice Salad with Tamari-Splashed Garlic Mushrooms

imageThis was born on a very chilly, wet and windy July day a few days after I had finished a 7 day juice challenge. I had been having salads since, and this was my first fully cooked meal. I wanted something light but warming – it didn’t feel at all like summer – but we had a lot of summer vegetables and fruit so we decided to combine a little of both with some filling and nourishing basmati rice and served with large chestnut mushrooms lightly stir-fried with crushed garlic and tamari.

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Once the rice has been soaked for an hour, the preparation and cooking only takes about half an hour from start to finish.

All ingredients are organic and measurements are as always approximate.

Have a warm dish and a warm plate ready to serve.

Ingredients

1 Cup Basmati Rice, soaked for an hour, rinsed and drained. Cook as normal.

While rice is cooking, prepare:

1-2 or 3 thin slices of Ginger – depending how spicy you want it -chopped finely

1-3 Spring Onions, depending how big or small they are, sliced

5-6 Sugar Snap Peas or Mangetout, sliced

2″ of Courgette/Zucchini, chopped

Floret of Broccoli, thinly sliced

3″ of Carrot, shaved

1/2 Cup Sweetcorn

A few Small Broad Beans

3 Large Chestnut Mushrooms with Stalks separated per person, whole

1 Large Garlic Clove

2 Tsps Coconut Oil

Tamari

Black Pepper

Lightly toasted Pine Nuts

1 Fresh Apricot, sliced

A few Sprouted Mung Beans (optional)

Method

Just before rice is cooked:

Heat 1 Tsp oil each in 2 frying pans

In one, lightly stir-fry all the ingredients on the list up to the mushrooms.

In the other, stir-fry the whole mushrooms and stalks with a crushed clove of garlic and a couple of splashes of Tamari.

Keep everything slightly undercooked with a bite to it.

Place cooked ice in a hot dish and fluff it up with a fork to release the steam. Add some black pepper.

Lightly mix in the stir-fried vegetables, top with, mung bean sprouts, sliced apricot and toasted pine nuts. Place the garlic mushrooms on a hot plate

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The mushrooms have a salty, meaty texture giving you something satisfying to chew.

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Cauliflower Oats (Don’t Laugh, It’s a Thing!)

imageNo really.

I know, you thought courgette (zucchini) oats and beetroot oats were pushing it, but Rachel at Healthy and Psyched raised the bar considerably: she challenged me to try cauliflower oats and I am pleased to say I not only rose to that challenge, I reached the bar and leapt over it!

I know it’s weird, but if you change your perspective a little and see oats in the same way as, say, rice which you have either savoury (risotto) or sweet (rice pudding), or even a mixture of both – we put raisins or dried apricots in some rice meals – then it’s not quite so odd.

Not convinced?

Look at the photo, it’s sweet and fruity and has peanut butter too – I love cauliflower with peanut butter (we put it in a casserole with cauliflower and cashews) – and peanut butter goes well with banana too.

You can use whatever berries you want, Rachel used blueberries, I thought raspberries would go well but there was half a pomegranate to use up, so in it went. You could add cacao, if liked.

Cauliflower is a good source of B Vitamins, Magnesium, Vitamin K, Vitamin C; peanut butter and oats also have B Vitamins and protein and more magnesium in the oats – necessary for healthy muscles, preventing cramps, keeping you calm – and the nut milks are equally nutritious as well as sweet and creamy. Pomegranate is a nutritional superfood, with plenty of phytochemicals that help reduce blood pressure. The whole bowl is filled with dietary fibre.

Here goes for the  first attempt: All ingredients are organic (except pomegranate), vegan and gluten-free.

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Oats

3/4 Cup Boiling Water

1/4 Small Cauliflower, grated

1/2 large Banana

1 Medjool Date, chopped

1/2 Cup Tiger Nut Milk or Almond Milk (click links to make your own)

1/4 Pomegranate or Berries

1 Tbsp Peanut Butter

A few Slices of Banana to Serve

Method

Soak the oats in the boiling water in a saucepan for a few minutes while you prepare the cauli and get everything else ready.

Add the grated cauli, the banana, the chopped date and the milk

This bit is important:

Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, to ensure the cauli is cooked.

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(If you’d like it extra smooth, you could blend it with a stick blender)

Pour into a bowl either on top of frozen berries of your choice, or just add fresh berries, peanut butter and slices of banana for the topping in whatever fashion your creative juices dictate.

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It really works! Go on, who’s going to be first to give it a go? If it makes it easier, adding the cauliflower gives you 1 of your 5 a day veg and it is soooo filling – this bowl filled me up until mid-afternoon. It’s far more than I would normally eat that early in the day.

I said to my husband that there was enough for two, but he didn’t take me up on it, he suddenly remembered he had a bike to fix!

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Leslie Kenton’s Sandstone Loaf

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I first had this in the summer of 1986 when my friend and I discovered ‘Raw Energy’, the book and the philosophy. It was a beautifully sunny summer (remember them?) and we spent many days eating our raw creations in her garden – with the occasional glass of white! I think this may well have been the first thing I made with my faithful Braun Multipractic Food Processor, bought that summer and still going strong.

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I altered the amounts and some of the ingredients each time I had it, but this one is relatively faithful to the recipe, although I prefer more seeds to give it a bit more of a bite and we used coriander instead of parsley. Leslie often used to use vegetable bouillon powder in her raw savoury recipes, we didn’t have any so we improvised and used some dried King Soba instant organic miso soup! You could also use nutritional yeast.

You can make it as smooth or as coarse as you like, depending whether you would prefer it as a pâté or spread, or more like nut roast to have with salad.

(You could use almond butter instead of tahini for a slightly different flavour, but it would need to be fairly runny).

As always, the measurements are very approximate, you can never stipulate the size of a carrot for instance! So, go with what looks right and taste as you go along.

All ingredients are organic.

The recipe is Raw, Vegan and Gluten-Free.

Makes enough for 4 or 5 for a light lunch. Will keep about 3 days in the fridge and can be kept in the freezer too.

Ingredients

2 Chunky Medium Carrots, roughly chopped

1 + a half Celery Stalks (with leaves if they have any), roughly chopped

1/4 Cup Almonds + a few extra for serving*

1/4 Cup Pumpkin Seeds*

1/4 Cup Sunflower seeds*

1/4 Cup Mixed Sunflower + Sesame seeds*

Large Tbsp Tahini

1 Small Onion, finely chopped or a few Spring Onions

Handful of fresh Parsley or Coriander or herb of your choice

1 level Tbsp Organic Miso Soup powder or Nutritional Yeast or 2 Tsp Vegetable Bouillon Powder or 1 Tsp Chilli Flakes

2 Tbsps Grated Beetroot

Method

Process the carrots and celery until well homogenised. Set aside in a mixing bowl.

Finely grind the almonds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. Add to carrot mixture.

Coarsely grind the mixed sesame and sunflower seeds and add to mix with tahini, onion, fresh herbs, powder and beetroot.

Stir well, add seasoning to taste.

Spread in a square dish, press and smooth it down if you want a pâté or loosely roughen the mix if you want some texture.

Garnish with fresh herbs and almonds or toasted seeds.

Refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

I had it on a bed of mixed rocket salad with thinly-sliced cucumber and tahini/lemon juice/water dressing.

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*https://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Warm Rice Salad with Ginger, Dulse & Sprouted Mung Beans

imageRice salad, whether warm or cold, has long been a favourite in our house. It is quick – essential here! – nutritious and versatile: you can vary the spices or herbs as well as the vegetables.  If you keep until next day, heat it through thoroughly.

We use organic basmati rice. Brown rice contains B vitamins, protein and fibre. We always soak it for an hour and then rinse, to remove any arsenic (yes, most rice, even organic, contains a small amount of arsenic from the groundwater it was grown in – more or less, depending on where it was grown). Cook it according to your usual method, but don’t overcook it. It wants to be whole and nutty, not splitting or wet and mushy. If you overcook rice, it acts like sugar in the body and you lose many of the benefits of using wholegrain rice.

Dulse is a sea vegetable. These contain all 56 minerals and trace elements required by the human body for optimal functioning, as well as B6, B12, Iron, Calcium and are an important source of Iodine for a healthy thyroid.

Sprouted Mung Beans add protein, fibre, B vitamins and several minerals, as well as Vitamins C and K.

Ginger is anti-inflammatory and spring onions are prebiotics – they provide the nourishment that probiotics feed on to maintain a healthy gut.

Ingredients

1 Cup Basmati Rice, soaked and rinsed, then cooked in 1 and 1/2 Cups Boiling Water, about 25 minutes. Have a hot dish ready to serve it in so that any moisture disappears and fluff it up lightly with a fork.

1 Tsp Coconut Organic, Raw Coconut Oil

A couple of thin slices of Ginger, finely chopped

A few Spring Onions, depending on their size

2 decent-sized Mushrooms, whatever type you favour, or a few if small, chopped

A few Sugar Snap Peas or Mangetout, trimmed and chopped

A stick of Celery, with leaves, chopped – reserve half for the green salad

About Half a Small Courgette (Zucchini), chopped

Ground Black Pepper

A few splashes of Tamari – not too much because the Dulce is salty

Some Dulse, snipped into small pieces and soaked for a couple of minutes

A couple of handfuls of Sprouted Mung Beans

Method

  Very lightly stirfry all the ingredients adding them in the order listed, only adding the Dulse and Mung Beans when the rice is cooked and you’re ready to serve.

It takes only 5 – 10 minutes. Try not to overcook, you want some bite to the vegetables and you want to retain as many nutrients as possible.

Mix together lightly with the rice in a hot dish with a fork.

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Serve wth a green salad and a dressing of your choice, with humous, spicy cashew cheese or guacamole.

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Eat Your Greens! Light Summer Lunch

imageI usually have a juice or smoothie for lunch, but the shopping order had just been delivered and all this fresh salad was calling to me from the confines of the fridge: ‘Let me out, let me out!’ Well, it was a fine day for once even though the sun was still being a bit lazy, and I decided to let them out to play. It’s simple, light and tasty and may look like rabbit food, but it’s full of nutrients, including protein (even in the romaine lettuce!). I’ll be having this today having finished my 7 day juice challenge.

Ingredients

(All organic except the Tamari which is wheatfree)

1 large Romaine Leaf

on which lay

A Large Handful or 2 of Babyleaf & Rocket Salad Leaves

Sliced Ridge Cucumber

1 Thin Stalk of Celery + Leaves (chopped)

3 or 4 Sugar Snap Peas, sliced lengthways

4 Green Olives, pitted & sliced

Lightly Toasted Sunflower, Pumpkin & Sesame seeds splashed with Tamari

Clive’s Organic Humous with lemon*

Black Pepper

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Arrange to suit your artistic bent – digestion begins with the eyes – and eat at leisure, sitting down at the table. The more relaxed you are, the longer you sit, the more you chew, the more you will digest and absorb. Oh, and switch off the tablet and phone! (Yes, mum!)

*http://www.clivespies.com/

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Have You Tried Savoury Porridge Yet?

 

imageApparently, the latest health food trend is savoury porridge. Yep, that’s porridge with veg in. Weird, huh? Except that it’s not that weird. The Scots have been making their porridge with water and salt rather than milk and sugar since I don’t know when and I quite like it for a change. So when I saw Blogger of the Year Healthy and Psyched post a photo of her Zoats or Zucchini Oats, I decided to give it a go. We used her recipe as a template for the first try then we made another two recipes of my own. My husband wasn’t impressed! But he is a traditionalist and is very hard to shift when it comes to new culinary ideas. I liked them. They are extremely filling and satisfying, I didn’t need to eat again until halfway through the afternoon. Plus, you’re eating a portion of your day’s veg with your breakfast which gets your day off to a great start.

So don’t turn your nose up and click onto the next post. Give it a try at least once and stir up your breakfast routine a little! You don’t have to have it just for breakfast of course. It makes great comfort food on a chilly day. I promise you you can’t taste the courgette, it just adds a little texture and extra nutrients. It would be good for a weaning child, without all the extras of course!

Here’s the first effort:

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Oats

1/2 Cup Almond Milk (try making your own recipe here)

1/4 Cup Water

1/2 Courgette/Zucchini, grated

1 Tbsp Chia Seeds (optional)*

Optional Flavourings – Choose your own combination:

2 Medjool Dates, chopped

1 Tbsp Cacao Powder*

1 Dsp Lucuma Powder (it has a mild malted flavour)*

1 Dsp Açaí Powder*

1 Tbsp Coconut Palm Sugar*

1 Tsp Wheatgrass Powder if you want to go hardcore!

Dried coconut to sprinkle on top

Extra milk if liked

Methodimage

Warm the oats, milk, water and grated courgette in a pan, stirring

Cook for about 5 minutes until it starts to soften and thicken.

We then added a chopped Medjool date for sweetness, saving the other to put on the finished porridge, and cooked for a couple more minutes.

In went some chia seeds to thicken it up, for healthy fats and protein and because I like them, but you don’t need them. Add a little more milk or water if necesary.

Next was cacao powder – the original recipe uses a lot more than here, but I found it too much, especially first thing in the morning.

Pour into a bowl and top with your favourite fruit. We used Blueberries and Red Grapes.

Sprinkle with coconut and extra date, add a little more milk if liked.

….

I’ll post the next 2 recipes separately: you’ll never guess what’s in the first one!

To sweeten the pudding, here’s a classic sketch from the BBC series ‘Porridge’ with the late Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale. (If you’re reading via email, you need to click onto the blog).

*http://www.therawchocolatecompany.com/

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Quick Vegan Open Toasted Sandwich

imageThis is a quick light lunch or afternoon vegan snack that came about when we wanted to use up some slices of home-made chickpea, tiger nut and cornflour bread from the freezer.

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All ingredients are organic.

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Lightly toast 2 slices home-made gluten-free bread, spread with tahini, top with romaine, cucumber, spring onion, organic green olives, black pepper and a drizzle of tahini/lemon dressing (which I forgot for the photo).

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Tahini is made from sesame seeds, a good source of calcium and healthy oils. Chickpeas, too, are rich in calcium, iron and fibre. Spring onions and tiger nuts* are prebiotics, good for the gut. Romaine has protein and cucumber is hydrating, while olives have heart-healthy oil.

Overall, a very healthy snack and satisfying, too!

*http://www.thetigernutcompany.co.uk/

Organic Chickpea Flour & Cornflour from

https://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Lemon Tahini Pasta with Pine Kernels

imageA quick vegan and gluten-free pasta meal that’s ready in half an hour. You can use any easy-cook veg, we just used bits of veg that needed to be used up, and whichever is your favourite pasta.

Ingredients & Method

We used sliced spring onions, thinly sliced broccoli, sliced green beans, peas, mushrooms chopped into chunks, shaved carrot, courgette sticks.

These were all stir-fried in a little coconut oil while the pasta was cooking. We prefer Dove’s Farm Maize and Rice Gluten-Free fusilli, it cooks very quickly.

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We lightly toasted some pine kernels while the veg and pasta were cooking – actually, the first time they went from white to black in the time it took to check on the pasta, so keep an eye on them!

Make some lemon tahini dressing by mixing tahini with some lemon juice, water, black pepper and pink Himalayan salt. Tahini is subtle and you don’t want to overwhelm it with lemon juice, just a small squeeze is enough. If you want to enhance the lemon flavour, add some lemon thyme.

When the veg is cooked, mix in the tahini dressing and add to the pasta on a hot plate.

We snipped some chives over it because they came free with our organic veg box and needed using – plus it was too wet to go out and cut some lemon thyme!

Top with a sprinkling of pine kernels, serve with a green salad and more tahini dressing.

Done.

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Copyright: Chris McGowan

Too Hot To Cook? Simple & Spicy Summer Chickpea Salad

imageOn an overwhelmingly hot day, we had no will or desire for a cooked or complicated dinner. It was also midweek, so this what we cobbled together.

Chickpeas are good to have in the cupboard, so easy to use and a good source of protein, fibre, calcium and iron.

Cucumber is always cooling and hydrating and nicely offsets the hotter flavours of the spring onions, chilli flakes and black pepper.

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In a bowl, empty half a tin of Chickpeas, drained and rinsed.

Add about 4″ of ridge cucumber, chopped

2 Spears of Asparagus, chopped

Half a Stick of Celery, chopped

2 Spring Onions, sliced

 Some Chilli Flakes to taste or Fresh Chilli, chopped

Chopped Coriander

Black Pepper to taste

Mix together and add Tamari and Olive Oil Dressing

Serve on a bed of babyleaf salad on a large leaf of Romaine Lettuce.

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(Meg, Rufus, this one’s for you 😉)

Ps If you’re reading this via email, you’ll need to head to the blog to watch the video.

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Mixed Leaf Avocado Salad with Walnut & Raisin Slaw & Lemon Tahini Dressing

image OK. So I reckon we’ve had enough smoothies and sweet treats for a while, time we had some more green stuff on our plates.

It was an unusually hot and sunny Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK – we’re used to it raining cats and dogs when you’ve got a family camping/bbq /diy weekend planned. My husband had been painting the garage all day and was all hot and bothered. At 6 pm he downed tools and announced he wanted takeaway pizza and salad for dinner! I forewent the pizza part, but here is this evening’s salad:

Mixed leaves – I had lollo rosso, rocket, lamb’s lettuce and cos – with cucumber and celery

Walnut and Raisin Slaw – Grated Cabbage and Carrot with chopped spring onions, walnuts and raisins in a Lemon Tahini Dressing, and black pepper

Sliced Avocado

Sweetcorn

Drizzled with more Lemon Tahini Dressing, Pink Himalayan Salt and Black Pepper.

All the colours of the rainbow. Simple as.

Copyright: Chris McGowan