Wednesday, 22 June 2016

Vegan Dhansak Soup & Chapatis

Vegan Dhansak Soup & Chapattis


This soup is a random variation of veggie dhansak, using pretty much what I had in the cupboard! 
I didn't use measurements as I am more of a throw it in the pan sort of wimminz when it comes to soup, so any measurements are aprox (more or less to taste).

Spicy Dhansak Soup


Ingredients:

  • Red Lentils
  • 1/4 Pineapple
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 1 heaped teaspoon marmite ( or just use a stock cube - I ran out!)
  • 2-3 teaspoons Madras Curry Powder (possibly more - measurements out the window)
  • 1 Green Chilli ( I would have put more in but it was the last one :( )
  • 1 Onion
  • 1 small bag of carrots
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • Handful of Coriander Leaves
  • Oil for frying

Method:

Chop and fry the onion and garlic, then add the chopped carrots. When the onions and garlic and translucent, add finely diced pineapple and chilli. Then add the curry powder and red lentils, add a little more oil if it starts sticking to the bottom. Pour in hot water to cover a few inches above the mixture and turn the heat up. Add the marmite and bay leaves. When the soup starts to boil, turn down and cover with a lid. Leave for aprox 15-20 minutes then check to make sure soup isn't burning (lentils can stick to the bottom super easily). If all the water has gone add another couple of cups of hot water. At this point add the coriander leaves and taste to see if it needs any salt and pepper, and then season to taste. I used a hand blender to whizz my soup up, then serve :)

Alternative soup for fussy 4 year olds:

As my daughter doesn't like spice or most things, I made her a plain lentil soup in another pan. 
I used red lentils, carrots, a little  marmite (add a little stock cube if you have some), then just boil until lentils are cooked. This seems to be the only way she will eat lentils!!

Chapatis

I used a recipe online for the Chapattis, having never made them before! My partner brang home a bag of bread flour which had been slightly damaged so I decided, having a small amount of energy to make Chapatti's with Esme :) Esme enjoyed pretending to be Mary Berry whilst making these!

Recipe from: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/20005/wholemeal-chapattis.aspx

Ingredients:
(Makes 4)

125g Wholemeal Flour
1 pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
60ml Water

Method:

  • Sift together flour and salt (I missed the sift bit - just threw it in the bowl!)
  • Stir in the oil and water
  • Knead until dough like - add extra flour/water if necessary
  • Flour up a flat surface - a board/table etc.
  • Cut your kneaded dough into 4
  • Either stretch out the dough until very thin or use a rolling pin - actually no idea where our rolling pin is so Esme stretched them out thin
  • Heat frying pan on a med-high heat, I added a tiny bit of oil at this stage.
  • When hot, cook a Chapati for around a minute or two on each side - until a little golden (taste test to make sure it is cooked). Continue until all Chapatis are cooked.
  • Serve with soup!! Yumzords!!
Here is a video of my daughter Esme scoffing said foods!!:




Sunday, 12 June 2016

Vegan Sweet Scones Recipe

Vegan Sweet Scones Recipe

Recipe adapted fromhttps://emilycooksvegan.com/2012/05/28/summery-scones/




Summer is here! Yipppeee!! I mean *dies from the heat*. I am currently very very pregnant and the weather is melting me. MELTING!!

So it was half term and I had a sudden urge to bake. Trying to find something easy that my 4 year old and I could make. I am NOT a natural baker! When I was very young I used to bake constantly, and was pretty good at it! As I grew older I completely forgot how to bake, and now I am vegan I have to relearn everything anyway! 

Esme's dad was round so we all had a go, Esme is actually incredibly good at following the steps!! I was very impressed :) :)

I did alter a few of the ingredients as having pregnancy brain I did indeed forget some of the ingredients!! Here it is anyway :) :)

Ingredients

  • 350g Self Raising Flour
  • Pinch of Salt
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder
  • 85g Vegan Margarine
  • 3 Tablespoons Caster Sugar (I used maybe 2.5, I hate using the full amount of sugar in any recipe!!)
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract ( I forgot this, d'oh!!)
  • A good squeeze of lemon juice * This doesn't make it particularly lemony, if you want it super lemony I would add the zest*
  • 175ml of Soy Milk ( I used rice milk)
  • 85g Dried Fruit (I used Sultanas)
What you need to do!

  • Preheat the oven to 220 degrees (I just used the highest setting possible)
  • Grab a mixing bowl, pour in the flour, baking powder and salt, then add the marg. Get your 4 year old to rub in the margarine to the flour mixture until it is a crumb like consistency. Or all over the floor. 
  • Pour in the sugar and fruit and mixxx!! Or squish together in this case!!
  • Make a well in the middle of the mixture. Pour in the milk, vanilla and lemon and stir. In the recipe it says stir with a metal knife. In this case Esme squashed the mixture together with her hands, stopping every now and again to taste the dough.
  • Tip the mixture onto a surface and knead the dough into a ball. By this time Esme was more interested in eating the dough so dad stepped in!
  • Divide the dough into rounds, place on baking tray (with baking parchment - absolute washing up life saver!!) 
  • Brush with a little melted marg
  • The recipe now says to bake for 10-15 minutes, which I would recommend trying first if you don't have a weird oven like mine. However, my oven took 35 minutes, and I had to flip the scones over to make sure they were cooked all the way through. If in doubt poke a fork in the middle to see in the middle is still uncooked. I have the worst oven ever..
  • Take out the oven when cooked, put some delicious vegan cream and jam on, we had no cream so I just had marg and jam. 

 Finally, try and stop your 4 year old licking every single scone before anyone else has tasted them. ENJOY!