Chocolate and Beyond

Recipes: A Home-Made Hummous That I Actually Like!

Can a vegan food blog can exist without its own hummous recipe? I don't think so. And it's taken me years of making and experimenting with hummous (or however you prefer to spell it, I know everyone has a different way!) to finally perfect a home-made recipe that I really like.

So often I have bought supermarket tubs of the stuff, and wondered why my version was never quite as good. I have made so many batches of hummous over the years that I was becoming resigned to never quite being able to get it right, and yet it *should* be such an easy thing to make (but then,  I never especially followed a recipe).

However finally, this is it. And I have a secret ingredient, which is sumac. If you don't know this middle-eastern spice, it's fairly sweet and tangy, a little reminiscent of sweet paprika, but not quite the same. It has more of a citrus edge to it, and it makes a very delicious addition to give a subtle flavour to a standard home-made hummous.

Recipes: Gingery Pineapple & Melon Quinoa Salad

 

If we had a summer in Britain, then this fruity, gingery and zesty quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") salad would be the taste of it. While we don't have that much sunshine here, let's make believe while eating this.

Packed with health and vitality, this Gingery Pineapple & Melon Quinoa Salad is extremely versatile. It makes a wonderful gluten-free addition to any buffet table, can be eaten as a filling main course (bearing in mind also that quinoa is a complete protein), and is a good side salad to be had at vegan barbecues.

If you don't know how to cook quinoa, it's pretty simple as it's just like cooking rice, really. You need to put in a double the quantity of water to quinoa, and cook for about 15 minutes (keeping an eye on it) until the water is absorbed and the germ separates from the seed.

Recipes: Rich Chocolate Lime & Rum Cake

This is sooooo good! And I am not even that much of a chocolate cake fan - really! It is decadent, gooey and truly divine - a rich and fudgy tasting sort of cake that would suit any special occasion. Although why not do like I did, and bake it for absolutely no occasion?

This cake came about simply because I had some limes that needed using up, and when I was wondering what else might go with the lime, I looked in my booze cupboard and found the rum. Bingo. A taste of the Caribbean in a chocolate cake. Especially since I decided to use creamed coconut (the hard block type) in the topping. Although to be honest, you can't taste the coconut all that much, amidst the overall 'death by chocolate'.

And no one would ever know it was vegan. Unless you told them. And then they still probably wouldn't believe you. I love proving to people that dairy and egg-free baking is not only possible, but can actually give better results. Yet if there are people who need convincing, then this is the cake to be convinced by.

Recipes: Perfect For Tapas - Vegan Chorizo Spanish Tortilla

Does this look like an 'eggy' slice of tortilla, or what? Eating this, I think I have died and gone to vegan tapas heaven. Yes, I am pretty damn impressed with this Spanish 'omelette' that I have made, even if I say so myself.

I bet that if a non-vegan came round for a glass of rioja, and a 'little bite' of this, they would have no idea they were being served vegan food (unless they knew I was vegan, of course). Really - it is that good, and so similar to the traditional version (at least, the traditional version that you would get on your plate in the UK! I know in Spain it wouldn't have quite the veg in like this), that any vegan eating this would probably chuck it right back at me for thinking it was not vegan.

How To Make a Rustic Vegan Cheese Board

When I first became vegan, one of the things I wondered was what I would serve in place of the cheeseboard at dinner parties. That was, of course, after my initial "How will I ever do without cheese?" concern - the thing that every vegetarian says, and that you find out isn't that difficult once you've been vegan for a couple of weeks.

Now, I'm all for showing people that being vegan doesn't mean giving up anything - it actually means gaining so much, as you end up exploring many new flavours and foods (it is a real myth that vegans have a limited diet - they probably have a far more varied diet than most meat-eaters, certainly from what I remember when I ate animal produce).

Recipes: Lemon Rosewater Cupcakes with Rosewater Buttercream Frosting

As well as being utterly and unashamedly girly, these gorgeous little cupcakes are really soft and moist, with just the right amount of rosewater and lemon to enjoy the different flavours, but not too much to be over-powering. And the vegan Rosewater Buttercream Frosting tops them off beautifully - a tangy, lemony, perfect complement. Not forgetting the fluttery rose petals to decorate.

My Lemon Rosewater Cupcakes came about after I'd been exploring a large Indian supermarket in Manchester's Rusholme area the other week, finding some bottled rosewater (there were several brands to choose from), as well as bags of dried rose petals. I knew straight away they could be used to produce a wonderful cupcake.

I had in mind the birthday of a young vegan lady that I know, in order to give myself a reason to try them out. I suppose I could have been really self-indulgent and made them for simply for me, but I really love baking treats for the people in my life who appreciate them.

Recipes: Easy Mixed Vegetable Pakora

I make vegatable pakora often, because they always go down well at parties. Everyone loves fried food, don't they? And I swap around the vegetables I use, depending on what I have in at the time.

This I call the 'easy' version, because the spices used most people tend to have in their store cupboard (if they like cooking). Sometimes I go really wild and add some fenugreek or even fennel seeds, as well as extra chilli.

These are best eaten fresh and hot. They soften up as they cool down, although are still good, and so make a suitable packed lunch item or for picnics.

Recipes: Vegan Barbecue Chilli Cheese Burgers

We haven't had much of a summer here in the UK, although a few occasional squeezes of sunshine have given us some minor barbecue-ing opportunities. And it looks like we may actually have a hot weekend ahead of us! So these very 'meaty' Barbecue Chilli Cheese Burgers are the perfect food for a vegan bbq, or to make and take to a friend's.

Thanks to the wheat gluten flour, the Barbecue Chilli Cheese Burgers will really hold their own on a grill without any fancy tricks or superglue. And their texture is so chewy and 'meaty' they will definitely satisfy. They just love to be eaten in burger buns with vegan mayonnaise and good old tomato ketchup. Or a tangy tomato relish would be great with them, too, as well as some grated vegan cheddar.

I have been on a quest to make a really excellent vegan burger because once I became vegan, I realised a lot of the commercial veggie burgers I used to eat were no longer suitable for me, since they often contain milk or egg (Quorn, for example, is not a vegan brand as it uses egg).

Recipes: Gluten-Free Coconut Macaroon Slices

Mmm. I am eating one of these yummy, almond and coconut slices right now as I type away, washing it down with a cup of tea brewed just the way I like it, and I have to say, I'm feeling rather pleased with myself. 

Firstly, just because they are quite delicious. Secondly, because they do not taste like a 'gluten-free version' of anything that should have had standard flour in - they are softly-textured, tasty cake bars in their own right, and I'm only pointing them out as 'gluten-free' for the sake of people who are looking for these types of recipes.

I do like to experiment with gluten-free baking because of my dad not being able to eat gluten, and I had some coconut flour in that I had picked up cheaply from the local Indian supermarket, as well as some brown rice flour that I hadn't opened yet. So I decided to try using the two flours to make some quick, tea-time treats.

I have to say, these delectable slices turned out to be really good (otherwise, I suppose I wouldn't be blogging about them)! They don't fall apart as some gluten-free cakes can do, and they are moist with a wonderful melt-in-the-mouth texture. And not too almondy - the flour and flaked almond topping is enough of a hint, so I chose not to add almond essence.

Recipes: Cauliflower Cheeze Wonton Bakes

These rather splendid-looking cheesy tasting bakes were one of the buffet highlights at last week's family afternoon tea that I catered for. I'm glad to report that they were a real winner, everyone loved them and they were also pretty filling.

They were a bit of an experiment - I'd seen the wonton case idea somewhere on the internet a while back and had stored it in my brain for future access. When it came to planning what I was going to cook for the party, I decided now would be the time to try something out with them. A bit risky, but I was reasonably confident I could pull it off :)

I've always loved cauliflower cheese growing up, and I had a cauli that needed using, so I decided to do a vegan party-food take on it. But I have to say, if you are someone that hates cauliflower cheese, don't be put off making these. My son hates it too, but loved these!

And they really did look the part on the table, with their fluffy, golden tops and crispy cases. They were a real centrepiece.