Poppy seed muffins and... Xmas dinner...?

This is a very tasty lemon poppyseed muffin from Vegan with a Vengeance. I had wanted to try out this recipe for ages but for some strange reason had found it extremely difficult to track down any poppy seeds to buy anywhere, so when I was in Marks and Spencer with my mum a few days ago and finally spotted a bag of poppy seeds for sale, I knew what I was going to do with them!
Redwoods' celebration roasts aren't just for xmas! I never did post a photo of the one we had for our xmas dinner in my xmas post, but here's a belated one now, seeing as how I picked up a bargain-tastic reduced to clear roast for just £2.19 (they're normally a pricey £5.19) in Holland and Barret yesterday.

I served the roast, which contains vegan "turkey" slices, and "sausages" wrapped in "bacon" alongside sage and onion stuffing balls (from a Morrisons' value range box of stuffing mix that you just add water to), baby new potatoes and brussels' sprouts. Tasty even in the middle of March!

I've got a lovely bunch of coconut-ty food!

To bring to the Yahoo! Scottish Vegans' group potluck tomorrow! There's some of my coconut sandwich biscuits...
Vegan With A Vengeance's Coconut Heaven Cupcakes... Since I'll be getting there by a shoogly bus they'd probably end up a mess if I iced them beforehand, so I nicked the ingenious idea of bringing them un-iced with the icing in an icing syringe from Annie who done this at the last potluck.
I also made a huge, double-sized, pot of korma so that Jay and I could have a portion each for our dinner, and I could bring along the rest, since everyone else would be getting korma and Jay wanted some too!

I served it here with coconut rice(Sorry to disappoint everyone reading this for a preview, the rice was just for us because I don't think it's safe to reheat rice? I didn't want to risk poisoning anyone!) based on the recipe in Alternative Vegan.

Being vegan needn't be expensive!

...And a perfect example of a tasty, healthy, balanced and inexpensive vegan meal is this Venn Pongal, pictured above with a side of Basic Brocolli, both from Dino Sarma's book Alternative Vegan. (He recommended this recipe amongst others himself on his recent blog and podcast on "I'm Broke food"! Worth a listen if you're skint... or even if you're not.)

I think a lot of people have this misconception that a vegan diet is expensive to follow, and this just isn't true. Sure, some ready made vegan products, like the Grassingtons foods which I recently reviewed, can be quite pricey, but I tend to see these things as a treat to splash out on occasionally rather than everyday foods. Obviously if you ate stuff like that every day it would soon add up.

Vegan basic essentials such as legumes and grains are about the cheapest things you can buy! The cheapest way to buy them is dried in a bag- I mean, you can pick up a kilo bag of lentils in most which will make several meals foraround a pound, often less! Even if you buy the more expensive tinned legumes, which are handier if you're in a hurry, you can pick up super-duper bargains like a 15p tin of red kidney beans from most supermarkets' basic ranges, or deals like 3 tins of beans for £1.

I was shopping with my mum last week and she spotted expensive ready made chilli con carne, and I commented that I could make a whole pot of my vegan version myself for round about £1!

Don't let this financial climate put you off going vegan if it's something you've been thinking about- ditching the animal products might even save you a few quid!

How to be a Vegan Junk Food Junkie.

The Seitan Cutlets from Veganomicon make great burgers. I've served them up in traditional white, sesame seeded burger buns, and had them with lashings of Reggae Reggae Sauce. Yum.Up next in the vegan junk food post, I made a mushroom and pea curry using Yeung's concentrated Chinese Curry Mix, which tastes just like the stuff you get in Chinese Take-aways. (Please note- while some chinese take aways' curry sauce can be vegan, many others aren't and may contain meat stock or milk so do be sure to ask first. Or alternatively, just do what I've done here and mix some up at home!).
This was really easy- I just threw 250g sliced mushrooms, 3 chopped medium onions and a drained and rinsed tin of peas into the curry sauce mix and simmered for a few minutes, then served it over (nice, healthy!) brown rice. If I was going to be really naughty I could have fried my rice as well... hmm, I think I'll try that next time...


Last but not least, here's a close up shot of some amaranth with lashings of maple syrup. I'd never heard of amaranth before going vegan, but it's a super-nutritious grain which is high in protein and minerals, and makes a rather nice cereal. It's quite nice, and like a much smaller version of quinoa.

Vegan Haggis Fritters!

Here's some traditional Scottish artery clogging yumminess (Trust me, they tasted a lot better than they look in the photo!). Jay and I love the haggis fritters in Stereo, so I fancied trying to make some myself. I made the haggis fritters using a ready-made Simon Howie vegetarian haggis, cooked it in the microwave and left it to cool, then shaped handfuls into fritters, dipped them in Lelly's famous recipe batter, and shallow fried at a medium-high heat for 10 minutes.

Served with roast potatoes, and Tesco's own brand (radioactive-looking) mushy peas.

Potluck preview... plus some Scottish Shortbread!

I've been in the kitchen baking some goodies for tomorrow's Yahoo! Scottish Vegans group potluck. There are mini crusty sesame rolls (I used the French Baguette recipe from Garden Of Vegan, divided it into roll sized pieces, and rolled them in sesame seeds), Blueberry Jam Donut cupcakes(the Jelly Donut cupcake recipe from Veganomicon, using Hartley's Blueberry jam) and some shortbread, using a recipe I experimented with....

Scottish Shortbread

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1 tsp vanilla essence
tiny drop of almond essence
pinch of salt

-combine ingredients into a dough
-press dough into a greased9x9 sandwich tin
-using a knife, mark into bars so it's easy to break later, and using a chopstick or skewer, press a pattern of dots into shortbread(see photo).
-bake at 200C for 10-12 mins, then leave to cool before serving

Pictures that might make you hungry, and a creamy mushroom sauce recipe

This tasty little treat pictured above is a Delightful Date Square from How It All Vegan. Very easy and tasty, and the authors noted that all the dates and oats provide plenty iron...! Thanks, that makes me feel better about digging in, then! :)
Garlic Granary Bread! As Peter Kay would say, it's the future! I photographed this because it looked particularly pretty and appetising. The Granary Cob was from Morrisons' bakery- there aren't any ingredients listed on it but I quizzed one of the in-store bakers and he assured me it was vegan. I just make the garlic marge freestyle by getting enough Pure marge that would give each slice a thick coat, and mixing in a few clove-sized squirts of garlic puree, plenty sea salt, and a pinch of black pepper and basil.
After a healthy watercress salad starter, I made a rich and not quite so healthy entree of my creamy mushroom pasta(recipe below) and (since I'm taste-testing my way through all the vegan items in the range!) a Grassingtons Chicken-style fillet in tomato and herb marinade, which was delicious but quite pricey and small. We thought it was quite "meaty", though I've not eaten meat in about 15 years, Jay in about 3, so we're not sure whether it'd fool an omnivore, but who cares? It was tasty for what it was. 3/5, only losing points for price and stingy portions!

Creamy mushroom sauce

(serves 1-2)

150g mushrooms, sliced(I used button, but most varieties would do I think)
15g vegan margarine(I used Pure)
1 clove of garlic, crushed (or equivalent garlic paste)
8 tbsp soya cream(I used Granose Soya Creem)
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of salt
pinch of black pepper

- fry the mushrooms and garlic with the margarine in a pan over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes until cooked through

-add the soya cream, nutmeg, salt and black pepper, and simmer for a few minutes, then serve