Posts

Healthy Vegan - Caribbean Coconut Vegetable 'Rundown': Squash, Peppers, Sweetcorn and Greens

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I've read about 'Rundowns' in a number of my vegetarian cookbooks, to name a few:  Delicious Jamaica ;   Caribbean & African Cookery , and  The Rasta Cookbook ,  but never got round to making any of the recipes in these cookbooks at home.   But when I saw it on the menu at a restaurant in the big, bustling and diverse city of Bristol, England, I just had to have it.   We went there a couple of years back with friends from Brittany.  I had the Rastafari Rundown with butter beans, corn cob, greens carrot, sweet potato, herbs, coconut milk served with Rice'n'peas and fried dumplings.  It came in an oval shaped enamel pot.   It was my first time and it was really good.  However, the second time we went there, it was not so good - the rice was not good at all and sadly the dumplings were stale, we never went back again.  Anyway, a 'rundown' is a method of reducing coconut milk slowly to achieve a thick creamy sauce, it is usually cooked with meat, fish

Healthy Vegan - Chickpea, Potato and Mango Chutney Filo 'Samosa' Pie

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This Chickpea, Potato and Mango Chutney Filo 'Samosa' Pie is ultimately a vegetarian samosa Not traditional triangular shape, but more of a round pie wrapped up in a paper thin filo pastry and then baked in the oven, not deep fried.  It has comforting mashy potatoes, nutty chickpeas and green peas.  There is also some fenugreek in this to give it a curry hint and a couple of fresh green chillies (with seeds of course - I like it spicy) and finally some mango for a little sweetness. Y ou could make your own mango chutney, but honestly there are loads of good brands out there that you don't have to.   These  Chickpea, Potato and Mango Chutney Filo Pastry Pie   were  very filling, but like any good samosa it needs minty or coriander chutney or a raita of sorts to accompany it.  I made a simple home-made minty tomato salad with it, which worked really well.   The prompt for today was make/eat something inspired by a book or movie.  One movie that I really, really like

Healthy Vegan - Retro Vegan Hand Raised Pie for Sharing

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Yesterday's prompt was reach out! make a new vegan friend and tell us about it.  Its one of the reasons I am participating in Vegan Mofo and for me that is reaching out.  Saying that its also nice to be reacquainted with Rose from Dandylion Vegan Blog and if I had to tell you about a lovely vegan friend, there are quite a few in my real life and quite a few that I have met on blogosphere, so to single one out would be unfair. I love them all in different ways, they know who they are.   And today's prompt is most retro recipe.  I have a couple of recipes that I consider to be retro on my blog, some are vegan like this Lemon Cherry Tofu Cheesecake and this  Chilli Chocolate Tofu Cheesecake , but many other retro recipes are vegetarian.  Some of course can easily be veganized like this retro Kiev's , but instead I am sharing these two rather large vegan Hand Raised Pies, its irrelevant what is in these vegan pies, its more about the size, because this time size does matte

Healthy Vegan - Blueberry Apple Galette

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I love this photograph taken by my husband in my first year of blogging.   The blueberries which are cupped beautifully in the hands of my nephew are from my garden which makes this picture even more more memorable for me.  So back to 2015, and I am pleased to say that half of the blueberries in this Galette are homegrown, and the other half are from the  Fruit Machine.  The size of the blueberries from the grocery van and mine were vast.  I had some apples at home, as you can see they have shrivelled, but the end result of the galette was oozy luscious blueberry kiss.  The galette is not the neatest I've ever made, but it was like a sugary cosy blanket for the fruit inside.  D has requested that I make it again, I shall - just with different fruit.  You may be interested to note that around this time last year I shared this  Wild Blueberry Swirl Bundt Cake  for Vegan Mofo, so with the prompt being blue - I thought why not share it again.   If you look close, you can j

Healthy Vegan - Three Pea Tagine with Cherry Tomatoes

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These days, I don't have much energy to cook from scratch when I get in from work unless its something like pasta such as  Spaghetti dish, but strangely enough I did actually make this Three Pea Tagine after work in the late evening.   I was rather surprised that I had both the energy and the inclination.  This was one of those days, when i decided to myself that I was not going to plonk myself in front of either the computer or sofa and instead use those couple of hours a little more usefully, then laze.  Other than making couscous, grub was made and it was plenty to last us two days if not more.   Its actually a relatively easy recipe, after sauteing the onions, garlic and spices, you could happily leave it for 40 - 45 minutes for the yellow split peas to cook in the vegetable stock, then stir in the remaining ingredients such as chickpeas, raisins, green peas, cherry tomatoes which happen to be home gown for 10 minutes and its pretty much done.  Its not like a risotto wh

Healthy Vegan - Kitchen and Cookbook

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I have been working this weekend, so you will have to forgive me with what is going to be a short post on two subjects I quite like - my kitchen and cookbooks.   In the past five years, I have lived in three different places and therefore cooked in three different kitchens.  The first was in my flat when I lived in Glasgow.  I had a really tiny eclectic kitchen which I absolutely fell in love with. I made a little film of it before  packing up for our inevitable move to Wales. Then we had  the kitchen in my rented abode;  and finally our new place also in Wales, it's not my dream house or my dream kitchen - but it is home and its where I want to be most of the time.   So I share with you a glimpse of my kitchen from the hallway.  Some posts you may be interested in reading that are related to  my new Welsh kitchen and more recently  vegan month in my kitchen .  I do have to point out, although I have started to get back into cooking again, I have come to realise that I am not

Healthy Vegan - Surprise Vegan Eats

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The prompt today gave me the chuckles ' Share something vegan (and delicious, duh) with a non-vegan'.  Well I am the non-vegan here participating in Vegan Mofo and everything I have been making this month has been vegan and pretty delicious.  But I haven't kept it all to myself.  I have been very generous with my kitchen experiments taking some of my edible creations to family and some into work and sharing with friends and colleagues, some are vegetarian, but most are omnivores.   H ere are some dishes that I have recently shared with non-vegans and non-vegetarians in my life. First up is an  Ethiopian and Ertirean inspired Zigni Broth  based on the more familiar D'ba Zigni.  This one has sweet potatoes and spinach. It was the first time some of them had tried an Ethiopian and Eritrean food and like me were surprised at how spicy it was.   Next we have a vegetarian chilli.   You can't go wrong with a vegetarian chilli with family and friends, and then g