Chocolate and Beyond

I've Signed Up to 'Live Below the Line' on £1 a Day for Action Against Hunger

Could you live on just £1 a day? The figure (well, $1.25 to be exact) was set by the World Bank as being the definition of 'extreme poverty'. Right now, around 1.4 billion people globally live in such extreme poverty. Think about it. Imagine having to pay for EVERYTHING out of £1 a day?

But what I've become conscious of lately is that hunger is a growing problem even in places like the UK. I have been reading the incredibly inspiring and also, in parts, heart-breaking blog of A Girl Called Jack, who has to survive on a £10 per week food budget. I found out that author, Jack Monroe, was participating in the Live Below the Line challenge - where you agree to live on £1 a day for five days, to get a (very) small sense of what extreme poverty feels like, and to raise awareness for it. So I decided to sign up myself.

Recipe: Spaghetti Alla Carbonara Vegan Style

Oh my, oh my, oh my. If you have been craving a serving of thick, creamy, pasta stodge, and haven't quite managed to find that in vegan form yet, then this Spaghetti Alla Carbonara Vegan Style is just the thing that you have been looking for. The essential vegan comfort food, very tasty, and very filling.

I have been itching to make an animal-friendly version of this dish, which normally contains ham or pancetta. Not that I ever ate it all that much, at least not with the pig flesh, though I probably had veggie adaptations. However, I just love creamy pasta (who doesn't?!), and sometimes a big, heaped serving of the stuff is just what you need to fill your boots. And if you want a quick, impressive supper in less than 15 minutes (other than the time for the cashews to soak), then this is your pick.

Recipes: Black-Eyed Bean, Celeriac & Wild Garlic Burgers (Gluten Free)

Are you are forager? If so, get out and start harvesting the wild garlic that is in season right now! It won't be around for much longer, and gone by June, but you can still find plants that are ripe for picking. I am lucky enough to have abundant access to wild garlic via my parents garden, which is overgrowing with the stuff. And I can't believe it has taken me this long to actually bother using it.

The leaves are edible as long as they are healthy-looking - though they turn more bitter once lots of flowers start appearing, you can still eat them if you don't mind the taste. In some recipes, bitterness of the later season leaves is not likely to come through - it would be more noticable eating in a salad. But if you find a crop of them, you may as well just pick and see what you think.

Recipes: French Green Olive Vegan Tapenade

In France, among the gastronomics, there is debate as to whether tapenade was traditionally always a vegetarian (though I say, vegan) delicacy, rather than the fishy version. And Monsieur Rémy Pierre, olive grower and tapenade-maker in Octon, in the Languedoc, insists that this is the case.

Of course, many people will know tapenade as having anchovies in it, but these little fishes escape their deaths in the tapenade promoted by Rémy Pierre, and the recipe given by little old moi in this post. I whizzed up this simple tapenade for a vegan potluck evening, and along with some organic breadsticks (made with olive oil, of course), it was a tasty dip and accompaniment to the rest of the meal.

Recipes: No-Bake Raw Brownie-In-A-Jar for Truffles, Spread & Sundaes (Gluten-Free, Vegan, Versatile!)

I dreamed up this recipe and idea! Yes, I actually conjured it in my sleep! I was dreaming about whizzing nuts and cocoa in a blender with some oil to make a nut-choccy sort of spread, reminiscent of Nutella, and it turned out super-tasty. So the minute I got up, I tried it out while I was making my first cup of tea of the day!

Okay. So the end results are not really like a creamy, chocolate spread, as my dream intended. It has turned out more like a thick, spreadable brownie, hence the name, but very versatile. Yes, you can use this as a spread for toast, crumpets and sandwiches - it's dense, but delicious. Just gooey, sticky, sweet, chocolately, nutty heaven, really!

Recipes: Spinach & Tofu Ricotta Tart

This Spinach & Tofu Ricotta Tart is such an easy peasy and delicious way to knock up dinner for guests or for your family. It was one of my offerings to take to the latest Manchester Vegan Potluck that I went to last weekend. The potluck has become one of my favourite monthly events, and why wouldn't it be? There is a table laden with sensational and inventive vegan food, rustled up by the many talented cooks that attend, and you get to try it all, for free! And usually, there is so much food that I sadly don't get to try everything.

This month's event was a Mediterranean theme. Because of the Easter weekend, there weren't as many of us as usual. BUT it was still wonderful - with many dishes to try and I managed to get a bit of everything this time, with seconds on a few. Anyhow, as I say, this tart was one of my contributions.

Recipes: Vegan Coconut Creme Easter Eggs

I'm so excited to be posting this recipe! It's my vegan contribution to Easter - Coconut Creme Easter Eggs which are a scrumptious but easier version of creme eggs, made with a coconut ice type filling (which isn't really a creme at all! So I'm using artistic license a bit to say 'creme'!), rather than a fondant one (like there is in Cadbury Creme Eggs). I was inspired after reading the Hannah Banana Bakery Vegan Creme Egg Tutorial, which shows how to make the fondant style of egg.

However, not having everything in that I needed, but itching to use my new Easter egg mould, I decided to come up with something else. Also - I wanted to make something that would be simple to do with children, too. And this most definitely is - the eggs were great fun to have a go at, and I'm sure little kids would love making them as much as big kids like me.

Recipes: Versatile Vegan Cheezy Dijon Sauce (Low-Fat, No Dairy, No Palm Oil, No Cholesterol!)

Perfect for pasta, gnocchi, vegetables, jacket potatoes or anything else where you're looking for a yummy-tasting, cheese-style sauce, this one fits the bill. It's got the tanginess of Hollandaise (and is quite similar, I think), and my guest last Friday night said she thought it tasted just like it had cheese in it. Result!

It hasn't even got vegan cheese in it, actually - I've used other ingredients to create the flavours (inspired by Ann Gentry's cashew cheese, which I make for my vegan cheese boards). So I was chuffed my guest enjoyed it so much. And in experimenting with this sauce, my goal was to make a roux (which traditionally is made with flour and butter) that didn't involve vegan margarine as a substitute for butter.

Recipes: Pan-Fried Gnocchi with Mushrooms, Cherry Tomatoes & Spinach

I love to eat this Pan-Fried Gnocchi with Mushrooms, Cherry Tomatoes & Spinach for a quick supper and when I'm stuck for imagination on anything else. Also - as I tend to always have mushrooms and tomatoes in the refridgerator, and frozen spinach in my freezer (and I usually have a pack of gnocchi in my cupboard), it's one of those 'end-of-the-week' meals that can be pulled together when I've almost run out of everything else.

The beauty of this dish is that it looks lovely on a square plate, haha (doesn't all food?) so for presentation marks, it is good for dinner guests (but it is also tasty), and yet you can rustle it together in a matter of 10 minutes. It also tends to please many palates, there's nothing too challenging or weird here, and like many of my recipes - you can get the ingredients in one shop, at your local grocery store.

Recipes: Very Berry No Bake Vegan Cheesecake (Gluten Free)

Gorgeous, tempting, sinful and, um, even gluten free. How can that be? Well, with a nut blend for the base, no biscuits or flour were used in the making of this cheesecake, and cashews and vegan cream cheese are the main ingredients for the filling. Yes, here we have my first ever attempt at a no-bake vegan cheesecake, and it was so heavenly (even for an athiest like myself), I decided I could post my recipe up right away.

I would say the flavour is a little lighter than the traditional cheesecakes I remember. You could adjust the tofu to cashew ratio for more 'cheese' element, but I did really like it like this. Very soft and smoothly textured, creamy, and just enough zestiness from the lemon.Next time I make it, I'm going to make it an extremely lemony cheesecake I think, and add much more lemon juice and maybe some essence.