Harissa explosion salad

What I really love about this salad is that each mouthful is an adventure in texture, conducted while taste buds are thoroughly stimulated.

You need:

·         One pickled red pepper, diced

·         As many jarred mushrooms as you can handle (the ones in oil)

·         A sprinkling of toasted sunflower seeds, then some more

·         Two handfuls of lettuce, finely shredded

For the dressing:

·         An almost empty jar of harissa – about a teaspoon left

·         Olive oil to fill the jar (about a tablespoon and a half)

·         A dash of vinegar (about a dessert spoon and a half)

Serve with:

·         Cous cous bake

·         Hardy bread

Ok, so here’s what you do – spread the lettuce over a plate and add mushrooms, pepper, and most of the seeds. Add the liquids to the harissa and shake up. Pour some dressing on it and mix it up well. Sprinkle the remaining seeds over the salad, serve with cous cous bake and bread and enjoy!

~Gwen

Dara's Sandwich no. 6: BBQ crispy tofu & seweed with pineapple relish

There was some questionably old tofu in the fridge. It smelled pretty funky, so I wanted to cook the hell out of it. I fried it up in small pieces with some garlic and onion and a bit of bouillon. Inspired by my mother's love of using local Atlantic dilisk seaweed in sandwiches, I added some of that. And a tasty new pineapple relish, topped with some barbeque sauce. It was quite something!

- Dara

Quick Tomato Soup/ Berlin Skipping

 

On the way to breakfast at my friends I couldn't help but stop off at the skip. It's sort of an addiction. I was pretty late for breakfast, but from the above skip haul, I whipped a quick and easy tomato soup for lunch. I basically chopped up all the tomatoes and simmered them with some garlic, basil and oil. And the freshly baked rolls from the skip went perfectly. This is basically my favourite way to cook, when the skip decides what I'll be preparing.

- Dara

Creamy Mushroom Tart / Skipping in Dublin

I went skipping in Dublin recently. There was a lot of food in the bins, but this is all we could carry.

Among the skipping haul was a box of mushrooms, double cream, butter and pastry. Inspired by all these ingredients, I decided to make a creamy mushroom tart.

I fried the mushrooms in some of the butter with plenty of garlic. I was bold and I added some salt. Once they were cooked to my liking/ patience, I added in the carton of double cream and let the mixture cook and thicken for a few minutes.

While all this was happening, I pre-heated the oven and flattened the pastry out in a baking dish (I'm lying, I just threw it in the oven - I despise waiting for pre-heated ovens). After the pastry cooked a bit, I took the pot of creamy mushrooms and spread it evenly over the pastry. I popped this in the oven for a bit until the pastry was crispy.

I also made some garlic bread with some skipped ciabattas. I cut them into slices and spread the butter on them, then rubbed in some diced garlic and threw them in the oven. Delicious. Watch yer heart.

- Dara

Vegan Banana Ice-Cream

Time for another skip tip! If you go skipping/ dumpster-diving a lot, you're bound to find lots of bananas. I love bananas. They're great in cereal and smoothies. Sometimes they can be brown and squishy and some people don't like that. But, don't throw them out! They're perfect and sweet like this for ice-cream!

Peel them and put them in a container, then place them in the freezer. And the next time you feel like some vegan ice-cream, simply put them in a blender with a few spoons of soy milk and blend it all up until it's smooth. You can also add some cinnamon, and even cocoa powder to make chocolate banana ice-cream, if you like!

- Dara

Rice + Parsley Pesto

I was at a friend's house a while ago and they had a rather large amount of parsley. And I hear parsley has a rake of vitamins. So, this happened.

 

I blended up the parsley in a pot with some garlic, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast and possibly a bit of balsamic vinegar. Some pepper also. Maybe you want to add salt, if you like it. I warmed it all up in a pot, but not too hot as I didn't want to kill the vitamins. I wanted to get that vitamin C in 2 me.

My friend made the rice part of the meal, first frying the uncooked rice in oil to get more flavour out of it (this was news to me). Then they added water to cook it. And also some onion, garlic, and bouillon powder.

The bread is there as I found a couple of loaves in a skip the day before, but it contrasted perfectly with the sloppy components of the meal.

- Dara

Hanging Bottle Herb Garden

Inspired by this photo, I have decided to create a hanging herb garden on my living room wall. Filling the base with gravel (for drainage)  then covering with top soil should do it.

As well as herbs, small lettuces could be an option. Do you have any ideas which other plants could thrive like this?

Using Stuff Up: One

Using stuff up is one of my preferred ways of cooking. Especially if I'm a guest and cooking at somebody's house. I never feel bad about using ingredients if they 'need to be used up'. Same reason I like skipping. And it means I don't have to make big decisions about what to buy and deal with that horrible ordeal. So, this is one of those and I don't have a name for it.

The base for this was the end of my rocket pesto pasta. It was quite oily but there was a lot of flavour there. So I wanted to expand on it and make it something different. I threw in a lot of things that were around me and I'll try to recount them, mostly.

I chopped up the leftover, oily spaghetti pasta and heated up the pot. There was some really stale bread that needed using up, so I broke it up and stirred it around in the oily mixture, adding some tahini and some old juice that may not have been so nice to drink but worked to offset the bitter-but-creamy tahini and softened the bread. I threw in some tomato puree, some chopped carrots, possibly some vinegar and maybe nutritional yeast. I'm not sure. It's a bit of a blur. But I enjoyed it more that the original pasta. Don't follow this as a recipe. Just use stuff up.

It's fun to use stuff up.

- Dara

Skipped Rocket Pesto

I'm in Vienna at the moment. With a friend, I found two packets of organic rocket (or ruccola in German) in a skip near an eco shop. The ruccola was on the way out, so I decided to make rocket pesto, so it would last a few days longer.

 I washed then sliced up the ruccola finely and add lots of diced garlic, oils (olive, peanut, and pumpkin seed), lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a few finely diced capers for extra flavour. I left it overnight to let the flavours get to know each other. Then, when the time came to feast (it is always time to feast), I just stirred it in to some nice brown organic (or bio as they say here) pasta.

I used 500g of pasta and it was still rather oily. I'd recommend bread for soakage. Afterwards I turned the remainder of oily the mixture into another meal, which you can see in the next post. Hope to see you there. Goodbye for now.

- Dara

Seaweed Burger with Fried Cabbage and Mushrom mix and a Tahini and Miso gravy.

One morning, after more than enough beers the night before, a vegan woke up with a bacon craving. This is the story of what happened next…

First I scrubbed, chopped and boiled some potatoes. It’s tempting to dice them into small pieces so that they cook extra quickly, but this means that they get a bit watery, so have a bit of patience and make them Aunt Bessy sized. If you’re making this, have a beer while you’re waiting for them to cook– the cheap Caribbean kind is best for breakfast.  Finish your beer as the skin on the potatoes starts to detach itself from the flesh and then drain them well. Mash them up without adding any extra liquid. If you’re making this in a state like me, then some extra liquid to yourself, liquid of the watery kind. Some fruit juice too. One hair of the dog is just right: any more and you’re just delaying the inevitable.

While this was happening I soaked some dried mushrooms and fried some finely diced onion until it was soft and browning then added a load of garlic. In the same water as the mushrooms I soaked some dulce and cut them up roughly with scissors, then heated up the whole lot and when it came to the boil added some TVP. The right amount is the amount that soaks up pretty much all the water after a few minutes. Next I threw in a lot of nutritional yeast and then mixed the whole lot up with the potatoes. Knead in a bit of flour, and that’s a dough/burger mix.

Then I really had some fun: I covered a plate in flour and made patties in my hands before covering them in a coating of flour and piling them up. After so much effort it was a satisfying moment to see a pile of burgers, uniform in size, and begging to be fried.

While they fried in much more vegetable oil than I would normally use, I finely chopped up some savoy cabbage, mushrooms, garlic, ginger and a little fresh chilly and stir fried that in toasted sesame oil. At the end I added a significant amount of honey and tamari, which bubbled up satisfyingly.

To make the gravy I poured some boiling water in to the a jar of light tahini which had just a few spoonfuls left, then stirred in some miso. Lazy gravy. Nutrient packed gravy. Tasty gravy.

So! After patting the burgers with kitchen towel I served them up with the veg and sauce.

Because they were so labour intensive to make I made a batch and froze some. These were cooked by spraying with oil and grilling, and the freezing melded the flavours and made them much more mellow and with a more consistent texture. They reminded me of fish cakes. If you’d prefer a bit of bite then keep decent chunks of mushroom and seaweed.

Much. Much. Better. Than. A. Bacon. Sarnie. 

Carrot, Cabbage, Dulce and Ginger Miso soup with Crispy Tofu and Pak Choi

 Crispy topping:

Half a packet of plain firm tofu, cubed into about 3.5mm cubes

Enough tamari for the tofu to soak up nicely

Two teaspoons of dried ginger powder

Toasted sesame oil, enough to cover the bottom of your best frying pan

About the same amount of pak choi as tofu, sliced into thick enough slices to keep a good bite

A subtle squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Soup:

½ an onion, finely sliced

4 small carrots, or 2 big ones, grated

A large fist sized amount of cabbage

A handful of dried dulce seaweed, soaked as per instructions on packet and sliced thinly

A bit more than an inch of fresh ginger

A tablespoon or so of genmai miso

Marinade the tofu pieces in tamari and ginger powder for at least 10 minutes. If you want extra crispiness then squeeze as much water out of the tofu first. Some people use elaborate contraptions of tea towels and heavy things. I used my hand.

Fry this on a medium heat, ideally using a pan big enough for the tofu cubes to not be touching its little tofu neighbours. It should get nicely crispy after ten minutes or so.

Boil the onion and carrot in plenty of water until it’s soft and has exciting looking orange foam.  Add the cabbage and seaweed and let them soften too.

At this point, throw in the pak choi with the tofu and give it a shake. I see you baby.

Take away a bit of the water and mix it with the miso. Mix it up until it’s dissolved and pour back into the soup just before eating time. Boiling miso reduces its nutritional value, which is something really rather special, so I advise you keep as much of it as possible by avoiding boiling miso. Some people claim that miso reduces the risk of high blood pressure, although it’s pretty salty so you’d have to conscious of sodium intake in the rest of your diet. I used genmai miso which is made from brown rice, and has a nice sweet flavour which goes really well with the ginger here.

Shake your tofu and pak choi some more and when it’s crisped to perfection sprinkle just a bit of lemon juice over it.

Mix the miso stock into the soup, ladle it out and top with crispy tofu and pak choi.

 

“The best soup I’ve ever had.” Ian Cole, 22 March 2012, 7.19pm.

“Pretty good for a using-things-up soup.” Gwen Rowland, 22 March 2012, 7.20pm.

Yes, I’m smug about this one. Try it and you’ll see why.

Store Cupboard Risotto – Spinach, Mushroom, Butterbean and Brazil Nut Rice. Also: The wonders of a freezer.

More than once my kitchen has been referred to as a health food shop: it is pretty well stocked. I don't think this is overly luxurious, I think it makes my life a lot easier when I come in tired from work and haven't had a chance to plan a meal and buy fresh ingredients for it. This recipe's ingredients are all things that can be kept for a long time and can be used in so many different ways. I recommend that you challenge your definition of ‘stock essentials’. Goodbye sliced bread and frozen chips, hello canned spinach and frozen rice.

This recipe involves:

Olive oil

Garlic (NEVER run out of garlic. This is an unimaginable situation.)

Frozen sliced mushrooms

Dried mushrooms

Vegetable stock powder (again, ABSOLUTE essential)

Canned spinach

Oat cream

Frozen brown rice

Frozen butterbeans
Grated brazil nuts

Freshly ground black pepper

Fry crushed garlic in olive oil for a few minutes, then add the mushrooms (having soaked the dried ones first). Stir in some veg stock when they’re soft then add the spinach, oat cream, rice, butterbeans and brazils. Keep it simmering until you can’t bear it anymore. Stir in the pepper then serve with a bit of grated brazil nut on top to make it look fancy.

Sure, this would be amazing made with fresh ingredients, but sometimes a busy life means a lack of fresh ingredients. Fortunately, a busy life can still be once with tasty and interesting cooking in it.

A word on freezing: make friends with your freezer. Frozen foods are truly  liberating for someone who follows a diet which makes eating out a little difficult sometimes. I’ve recently acquired three whole shelves of freezer all for myself, which means that I can have plenty of choice at any time, and can cook large batches of foods to access in the future. This means less time spent waiting for things to cook and more time being spontaneous. Pulses are perfect for this – cook three saucepans at once then freeze them in portions which can be thrown into sauces where they’ll defrost in minutes. I’ve been experimenting with freezing sauce bases too: curries, chillies, herby sauces… To my mind a sauce base is a load of flavours to which you just add some sort of liquid ingredient, e.g. water / tinned tomatoes / plant milk / peanut butter etc.

The frozen rice in this recipe above is just that: a portion of boiled brown rice frozen in a sandwich bag. It’s good to label foods with a date, as bacteria can still multiply at those temperatures, just at a much slower rate than at room or fridge temperatures. Rice should be cooled very quickly and put in the freezer as soon as it is lukewarm because it can harbour a particularly nasty type of food poisoning which is really best avoided. Some people avoid it by doing things like cooling rice by spreading it on a baking tray or running it under the cold tap. The number of times I have survived reheated rice not treated in any special way demonstrates that this is probably unnecessary, but just be extra careful whenever using pre-cooked rice.

Lovely bags of frozen foods in my freezer

My freezer contains:

• ·         Lots of packets bread and crumpets that were reduced to 10p each in a supermarket I am ashamed to have a slight fetish for. Oh, ASDA, delight of the yellow label whore. *sighs*
• ·         Frozen berries – perfect for smoothies, and MUCH cheaper than fresh
• ·         Smilies (Just like potato waffles, you can cook them in the toaster and they’re oh so satisfying with baked beans at the end of a night out)
• ·         Sauce bases
• ·         Tofu. As plain tofu is so much cheaper than that with stuff added, I like to add my own stuff en masse then freeze it in bite sized chunks. After being frozen, tofu’s texture alters considerable to be harder and more chewy. I guess this is due to it losing water. I love the way it comes closer to resembling meat in bite and mouthfeel, but some people prefer to keep away from meatlike foods… It’s a matter of opinion. Try it and see what you think
• ·         Sorbet
• ·         Processed things, e.g. mushroom kievs, nut cutlets (Good Life, excellent company)
• ·         Linda McCartney’s veggie sausages (£1 for 5 in Iceland. Go Iceland!)
• ·         Portions in sandwich bags of various pulses and grains. Most plain for cooking with at will, some in sauces so that they can be taken out of a morning and eaten at work for lunch. Chickpeas for batches of hummous is particularly exciting
• ·         Frozen veg. My favourites are peas, spinach and mushrooms
• ·         Ice. It’s a sad day when you make a gin and tonic and there’s no ice. It’s also a good way to fill your freezer cheaply if you don’t have food in it. This keeps the freezer’s energy usage down as there’s less airflow when you open the door which means less need to cool down the freezer each time you open it
• ·         Herbs. All right, I admit it: this is a lie. But I fully intend to freeze some fresh herbs and use them in cooking soon. My mission in the next few months is to get good at herbs. Bring it on basil! Come on coriander! Stand back sage! I am ready to take you all on.

So what do you use your freezer for?

Eating out in Edinburgh: The Scottish Parliament

Sometimes eating out as a vegan can get tricky, but sometimes it's wonderful and you get something specially made. Some of the best places to go are catered events held by very conspicuously inclusive and PC organisations. Not only do you get something interesting, but you get your own plate of it while everyone else has to politely fight over something which might be chicken, but equally might be cheese. The Scottish parliament is a prime example. Just look at this plate of canapes:

• Polenta towers with beetroot
• Butternut squash with creamy coriander and plum fans
• Sun blushed and cherry tomatoes with red pepper and olives on cocktail sticks mush
• Lettuce boats stuffed with avocado and onion

I'd vote for whoever made these! 

Vegan Breakfast Roll

I'm not sure how widespread this is, but in Ireland breakfast rolls are quite popular. There was even a song about it that was somewhat popular. Normally they're filled with bacon, sausages and pudding. Maybe eggs. So it's a hash brown and ketchup roll for anyone following a vegan diet. That's nothing to turn your nose at, it's actually pretty good. But I thought I'd try a fancier one.

 

This is beautiful! It consists of; Fried Cabbage (with Frank's Hot Sauce & Nutritional Yeast), Linda McCartney Veggie Sausages, Sliced Cooked Beetroot, Tomato Relish, and Lovage, served in a baguette. A great way to start a day. If you're not in a rush.

- Dara

Celebrated Granola

Granola would be nice. But organic granola is expensive. And ethically-sourced, organic granola is very expensive. Ethically-sourced, organic, sugar-and-honey-free granola? Forget about it, pal. What are you, a celebrity? Are you celebrated? You're not? No fancy granola for you. Have our sugary, unethical granola or get lost. That's the way things are. Don't get clever.

But help is at hand, in the form of your cleverness. Yes, that's right. You always knew granola was over-priced. But you accepted it because the packaging is pretty and partially transparent and you can see the clusters and so it must be worth five times its weight in oats. Not so. Give your own granola a try. You can source all the ingredients locally and to your preference, so you know exactly what's going in.

Instead of refined sugar, I mixed barley malt syrup and some other natural sweeteners (I had some maple syrup to hand - hey, big spender!) with some oats and vegetable oil. I threw in some sunflower seeds and nuts (and a hint of some spices) and mixed it all up till I got a cluster-like consistency. Or something close to it. Spread this evenly on a baking tray and bake for a while till you're happy. Just in general. It's important to be happy. Then check on your oats. They're done! Great. Add some raisins to the mix (don't bake them as they'll burn) and bam. You have a lovely granola. Serve as a cereal or with yoghurt or just on its own and realise that you are happier than any celebrity. You have just made your own granola and that is to be celebrated.

Home-made Granola and Soy Milk

- Dara

Climate Week - Competition

Just in case you didn't already know, this week is climate week. YAAY! Big up the awareness raising. They've got loads going on, so check it out.

Kassie, who is one of the people organising the week, very kindly responded to my email and we are now on their list of blogs.

Something that may interest the free food fans amongst you is a competition to win a hamper of sustainable goodies from Tescos. Think of it like skipping, but without leaving the comfort of your own home...

What you need to do is register a meal that is low carbon. Low carbon meals include those made from locally sourced ingredients, those made from leftovers, or those which are low in meat and dairy. If you need inspiration just scroll down ;-)

Enter here:
http://www.climateweek.com/eat-low-carbon/register-your-low-carbon-meal/

And check out the other recommended blogs here:
http://www.climateweek.com/eat-low-carbon/food-blogs-we-like/

Spinach and Tomato Tart (Vegan Pizza)

I miss pizza sometimes. Friends in places like San Francisco do not understand this, as they have things as amazing as vegan pizzerias there. I was a bit shocked. However, I am in Ireland. So, I'll have to make my own. I'm reluctant to call things like this a pizza. Vegan-phobic people then pounce on it as a fake, a poor replacement for the real thing. 'Vegan pizza,' they'd say, 'No. You can't have a pizza without cheese because you just can't and if we start challenging everything where would we be? You'd drive yourself mad.' That kind of thing. So, that's why I'm calling it a tart, mainly, with vegan pizza in brackets.

 

Spinach and Tomato Tart (Vegan Pizza)

It's very easy to make. The prep time is about 5 - 10 minutes, and cooking time is about 10 - 15 minutes. I mixed some strong white flour with organic olive oil and water and made a nice dough. I was hungry, and so dispensed with the traditional addition of yeast and the subsequent hour or so for it to rise. I rolled the dough out thinly on a floured board, then placed it on a baking tray (a good trick is to put it on the tray before adding the toppings - it's harder to keep it all together when it's overloaded), and pre-heated the oven.

I made a quick tomato sauce from tomato puree, olive oil and oregano and spread it on the base. Then I made the thing that goes where the cheese would normally go (not a replacement, mind you). I blended up lots of baby spinach, some olive oil, nutritional yeast, capers and a bit of crunchy peanut butter. And I threw in some other things I had to hand till it tasted nice. I think there was carrot. There was definitely Frank's Hot Sauce. Always.

Being silly, I put all the toppings on before I added this spinach-sauce layer. Underneath it and unseen there sits; onion, pepper, sweetcorn, tomato, and thickly-sliced (cooked) beetroot, which gives it a nice bite. I threw on a few cashew nuts and a bit of rocket to top it all off, and threw it in a hot (not cold - fool me once) oven till I was satisfied and could wait no more (about 10 - 15 minutes). It was surprisingly good and I ate the whole tart (pizza) at once. I say surprisingly, as I often do in these entries, as cooking for me and Gwen is always an adventure. Generally it turns out pretty well. Rarely do you get lost in the woods without a map and get eaten by a bear. And certainly not this time.

- Dara

Ginger Chocolate Cake

Better than non-vegan chocolate cake. I swear on my next meal.

First I mixed the dry ingredients: 1 and a half cups of flour, a third of a cup of sugar (white makes a lighter cake, brown makes a tastier one), a teaspoon of baking powder and a third of a cup of cocoa.

While I was doing this, my willing helper grated three inches of fat ginger stem using the fine side of the grater. He then picked up the solid mulch, squeezed it hard in his man hands and threw it away. Other ways to do this include using a muslin cloth to strain off the liquid, but I prefer my way.

Adding water to the ginger juice, I brought its volume up to a cup and added that to the dry mixture. Next were a third of a cup of sunflower oil and a tablespoon of cider vinegar. Yes, vinegar. Don’t diss it till you’ve tried it.

This was baked in a greased pie dish (in the absence of a cake tin) in a medium heat oven for about half an hour – until a knife came out clean.

After cooling it I covered it in organic dark chocolate and left it on the side to be discovered with delight.

Toasted Walnut Bread with Basil

Wow, just wow. Maybe my favourite way to eat bread, and that’s really saying something. It’s a sort of bruschetta. With the nuts and the basil it’s reminiscent of pesto, so if you’re a pesto fan give this a go pronto!

Walnut bread is easy, easier if you have a bread maker: it is normal bread with crushed walnuts in it. This one had walnut oil too, but that’s just showing off.

So! Grill a a doorstop piece of bread – the difference in thickness will make for different textures as you get through the slice. If you’re a fan of loaves with straight edges then you could always even it up by slicing a doorstop in the opposite direction. It just means you have to eat two slices, but trust me, you will anyway.

When the toast is golden and crunchy on top rub a clove of garlic over it, then rub a few basil leaves on. Sprinkle over some olive oil, salt and pepper and there you have it – a mouth watering delight.

Apologies for the photo – the glare was intense and I couldn’t see what I was doing.

Lemon Pesto Dressed Broccoli with Olive Tofu

Now then, this won’t do much for debunking the myth that vegetarians only eat greens and tofu, but it happens to be one of my favourite light meals.

When I want to get my broccoli on, I steam a whole head – including the peeled stems – and add lemon juice and salt to it. In my opinion, good quality broccoli needs little more, but I am a broccoli head. Sometimes I have to be careful not to steam my own head. *Titter* This version is a little more elaborate – the lemon juice had hemp oil and veggie pesto added to make a tangy dressing, and just before the broccoli was cooked, I threw some cubes of olive tofu into the steamer to heat them up. Man, I love this olive tofu: it really makes giving up cheese a lot easier. I thoroughly recommend you explore this savoury soya delight: http://www.veggiestuff.com/acatalog/taifun-organic-olive-tofu.html

High in protein, low in carbs and fat. Which means you get to have cake for pudding. Score!