Saturday 18 September 2010

Raw Vegan Banana Ice Cream

I've recently been given an ice cream maker and I've tried some recipes from the "Lick It" vegan ice cream book. The recipes I've tried have been pleasant but quite reliant on coconut cream as a core ingredient, which just makes everything taste like coconut, even the green tea icecream.

As an aside - the chocolate mousse recipe on this website actually makes a pretty good chocolate ice cream, you may need to thin it down with some cream or soy milk for it to churn properly though. 

So I have wanted to try and make a raw ice cream, similar to the Booja Booja ice cream, which we can't get in Inverness, probably a good thing as it was tasty but hella expensive, much like their chocolate, which winks at me from the top shelf of the health food shop every time I go in. This Banana Ice Cream is on the Channel 4 website and I'm looking forward to giving it a go tonight. I'll keep you posted as to how it turns out.

Thursday 9 September 2010

Vegan Society visit to Inverness, 23rd September 2010

Amanda Baker, PR and Media Officer for the Vegan Society UK will be coming to Inverness on the 23rd of September 2010 to do a talk on Global Food Security and Stock Free Farming.

It will be in the  Room 5, 1st Floor, Spectrum Centre, Inverness at 6:30pm.

It is set to be an interesting talk, particularly topical considering George Monbiot's recent article in the Guardian regarding "sustainable" meat eating. The Vegan Society have already issued a response to that article, that will hopefully be published on the Guardian website soon.

Thursday 29 July 2010

A long overdue review of the Corner Grill

The Corner Grill photo © Copyright Kenneth Allen and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The Corner Grill, 50 Union Street, Inverness, Highland IV11PX
01463 226 767

This is the usual haunt of Vegan Inverness. Having eaten at several venues since the birth of Vegan Inverness in January 2010, we breathed a huge sigh of relief (and loosened our belts) when we found this place. The front of house staff and chef are brilliant, always friendly and accommodating, put up our guestimate reservations and most importantly make delicious grub.

Since the beginning they've created inventive menus, giving us vegans a choice of 3 starters, mains and 2 puddings. After a chat with the friendly chef at the first meeting we threw down the gauntlet of making us a chocolate vegan cheesecake and incredibly, it has become a regular fixture on our vegan dessert menu.

The food seems to get more interesting and inventive, e.g. roasted vegetable sushi, courgette and puy lentil soup, sweet potato stew, chimichurri tofu... it is really refreshing to know that a chef sees vegan food as an interesting challenge and not a task that is to be dreaded.

sidenote - Surely vegetarians must be sick of the ubiquitous goats cheese and rocket salad you get on every menu?? Restaurants need to have the confidence to stand behind their vegan dishes and put them out there for everyone to try. I think that having at least one vegan main on a menu is not a big ask. I'm certain that many vegetarians and meat eaters alike will eat a vegan meal every now and then but just not realize it. It would be a refreshing change for everyone - it's just a tasty meal that just happens not to have meat, eggs or milk in it.

I've been vegan since 2001 and like many vegans I've had some shocking food in some apparently acclaimed restaurants despite calling well in advance(e.g. in Contrast, Inverness - still trying to forget that meal, filthy).

The food at the CG is as good as any veggie food i've had in London - really! and the atmosphere and service is much friendlier.

Anyway, enough gushing. I just wanted to write a little blurb to say thanks to the folks at The Corner Grill, we really, really appreciate your efforts, don't go changing (except perhaps putting a vegan main on the menu)!

~Karen for Vegan Inverness

Sunday 14 March 2010

Vegetarian Store in Nairn!


Sky Delights, 9 Leopold Street, Nairn, IV12 4BE. Tel: 01667 452874 

Went for a drive yesterday and decided to stop off in Nairn having heard of some vegan cheese paninis at a shop there. 

The owner Sam is a vegan and had originally intended to have a vegan cake making business but the lease on this shop came up, and the rest is history.

Lovely shop, bright and cheerful with some window seating. It did indeed have vegan cheese paninis amongst others, vegan carrot cake (yum), vegan marbled chocolate cookies, vegan tofu loaf and other yum things. It has a really impressive selection of organic products, including tofu from The Engine Shed.
We bought lots.

Highly recommended!!

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Chocolate mousse with amaretto

I had a daydream about chocolate mousse. I made one before with silken tofu and melted chocolate which was yum, but really heavy, and wanted to see if I could make it lighter and hey presto.

It wasn't a plan to put it up on the blog, but it was soo yum that I had to, so the photo isn't "styled" at all and doesn't really do justice to the accidental gorgeousness of this chocolate mousse. (I will put the photo up tomorrow! right now I just want to post the recipe as promised yesterday!)

Chocolate mousse
Serves 4

175g extra firm silken tofu (- essentially half a packet)
1 300g packet of CremoVita Organic Soya based whipping cream (I bought it in the Free From aisle in Tesco)
100g dark chocolate
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, then take off the heat.
Blend up the silken tofu until smoothish - then add the whipping cream.

(I did all this in the food processor as I haven't got an electric whisk, but I imagine pureeing the tofu then folding it into pre-whisked cream might give a fluffier consistency but this was still light.)

Add the sugar and blend until well mixed and air is incorporated, mixture should increase in volume.
Add the melted chocolate gradually, blending to incorporate fully. (I did this with the processor on, gradually pouring chocolate through the little funnel in the lid of the food processor).

Add the amaretto and give a final few pulses to incorporate.

Spoon mixture into serving containers and refrigerate for a few hours. Mixture will firm up.

Variations:

non alcoholic - add 1/2 tsp almond extract instead of amaretto, increase sugar by 1 tbsp, top with flaked almonds
alcoholic - instead of adding amaretto:
Black forest mousse - kirsch soaked cherries folded in before refrigerating
or - try rum soaked raisins folded in

Thought for next time: the cream at the top of a can of coconut milk has the same consistency as the vegan whipping cream, perhaps a choco-coconut mousse with coconut cream instead of the whipping cream, and some grated (vegan) coconut ice on top/desiccated coconut on top.

Hope it goes well for you too, I'd appreciate any feedback if you try this!

~ K

Saturday 27 February 2010

Vegan Pesto

Here is my recipe for vegan pesto. This is my go to recipe if I have some guests coming and I want to feed them something tasty that doesn't take ages!

I use this as a topping for pizzas, and in my roasted veggie pasta, the recipe for which I will post next.

The asterisk is for if you want to stretch your pesto out a bit further, e.g. to serve 4.

Vegan Pesto

ingredients
30g/one packet of basil (usually 30g in supermarkets for regular sized packet)
25g/30g rocket/watercress* (I use the rest as a salad for the meal)
1 clove garlic
30g lightly toasted pine nuts (heat them in a dry pan on medium, stirring regularly until golden)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 heaped teaspoons nutritional yeast (for that cheesy flavour)
1 tsp vegan Marigold Swiss Bouillion Powder (adds a cheesy flavour and replaces salt)

blend all ingredients together, until a slightly coarse paste is created. If blender is struggling to blend, add a touch more lemon or oil.

If not using straight away, store in fridge with a layer of olive oil over the top to keep it fresh.

Roasted Vegetable Fusilli with Vegan Pesto

Serves 4

Very easy and very adaptable.
If trying to economize, substitute pumpkin/squash for carrots and parsnips.
In summer, courgettes, summer squashes and peppers would be nice.
Seriously, just throw any veg that you like in.

It's autumn/winter here so I've used the following:

1 medium large butternut squash chopped into 2cm dice- approx 800g when peeled and seeded
1 large onion, chopped, roughly 1 cm dice
2 carrots, chopped, again 1cm dice
2 medium sized courgettes (ok, not sure how seasonal that is)
2 red/yellow bell peppers, seeded and chopped.
dice all vegetables approx same size - looks better and cooks more evenly.

2 tsp vegetable oil
salt and pepper

vegan pesto

500g fusilli (preferably wholewheat)

preheat oven to 180C

mix chopped squash, onion, carrots with oil and seasoning in a large deep sided roasting tin.
roast until soft - approx 20-25 minutes

Add bell peppers and courgettes and return to oven
meanwhile put boiling water in a large saucepan and add 1tsp salt.
Add pasta to boiling salted water, stir initially when water returns to boil to make sure pasta doesn't stick together.

When pasta is al dente, drain.
Take roasted vegetables out of the oven - peppers and courgettes should be just cooked.
Stir pasta in with vegetables in tray, try and incorporate the caramelized pan juices. Stir in pesto.

Serve with salad.