Vegan Toad in the Hole

Toad in the Hole is my favourite meal in the world, so I wasn’t buying the idea that batter needs eggs to be batter.

After the resounding success of making a batter that consists of only two ingredients (yes, only TWO), I’m wondering if eggs were superfluous all along.

Note: when I had a search on the web for vegan toad in the hole recipes, most of them used an egg replacer, but in my opinion egg replacers are expensive and not using them has never seemed to affect my culinary creations. My advice would be: if a recipe suggest egg replacer, just don’t bother using one and see how it turns out.

So, this recipe is really quick, really simple, and requires a total of five ingredients you probably already have around the house, plus a couple of spices (if you have them), and just salt and pepper if you don’t.

I’ve now made this three times, and the third time I made it for my omnivorous family, as I convinced them through the medium of photography and enthusiasm how amazing the recipe was. I think they enjoyed it, and my only piece of info for meat eaters reading this is: the flavours and textures are a little bit different to traditional toad in the hole, but if you go in and try it without any preconceptions, you’re definitely going to enjoy it.

So without further ado, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• A handful of chopped mushrooms (enough to fill the base of whatever oven tray you are using – choose the size of your tray based on the number of sausages you’re cooking)
• 1 chopped onion
• 70g Self raising flour
• 120ml Dairy free milk alternative (I’ve tried soya and almond and both have worked really well)
• 4 vegan sausages (Linda McCartney’s plain sausages are vegan – when I went into the supermarket the other day they were selling them for less than half price and I scooped about 12 packets into the trolley in one go – they are really versatile, make great sandwiches, and can be used as meatball alternatives for pasta sauces and stroganoff)
• Rosemary
• Salt & pepper

Method

Heat oven to 220 degrees, gas mark 7.

Chuck the onions, mushrooms and sausages into your baking tray, splash a good amount of oil over them and pop into the oven for about 10-15 minutes, until the oil is really hot.

While it’s cooking whisk the flour and milk together just like you’re making pancake mixture. The mixture should be quite thin and runny, so if it’s a bit gloopy keep adding milk until it’s the consistency of double cream.

Add some salt and pepper and chopped rosemary if you have it (I was given a rosemary plant as a Valentine’s present – way more useful than roses and hopefully shouldn’t die as quickly) to your taste.

When you think the oil is hot enough, pull the tray out the oven, pour the batter mixture over the sausages and veg, and get it back in the oven as quickly as possible.

Cook for about 25 minutes and don’t take it out of the oven during this time or it won’t rise. Check it at this point – I’ve had some trouble with the bottom not being cooked while the top is burning, and I think this might be because my oil wasn’t hot enough. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that even when the top has burnt it’s still completely yummy, so don’t stress too much.

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The mushrooms and onions are a really nice non-traditional touch to this meal and are like little surprises when you get to the bottom. The meal is good with gravy but also on its own with some fresh veg.

I really recommend trying this recipe out – it’s one of those satisfying vegan AND indulgent meals that people not in the know don’t realise exist.

We finished this meal off with ripe mango and Alpro vanilla yoghurt!

A sojourn to Spain

Disclaimer: I didn’t manage it.

Positive: am vegan again now back in England.

In actual fact, being vegan was manageable all the way through France. I ate bread, jam and vegetables. Not a very varied diet but a diet nonetheless.

The cows were angry because they knew I’d be eating cheese (although these cows actually seemed kinda happy, just annoyed that we were disturbing their family photo shoot).

My big test came on our first night in Spain, when everyone wanted to go out for dinner. We ended up at a lovely little pizza place by the sea, and while I could have asked for a pizza without cheese, I think I was just so tired from the drive and so hungry that my craving for cheese overrode all else.

Throughout the rest of the holiday, I really struggled with finding a variety of anything vegan in the shops, although my saving grace was the lovely market in Vinaros full
of fresh, local fruit and veg.

The local Carrefour supermarket had half an aisle of soya milk, which was cheap and really useful, and while I wasn’t strictly vegan, I didn’t eat any eggs or any product with egg in it (aside from some croissants my friend left that were going to be thrown away anyway). Therefore, the only dairy product I actually ate was cheese, with the rest of my diet being made up of pasta, potatoes and sauces with lots of fresh veg and olives from an incredible olive store at the market (when my friends had ice-cream I had sorbet – watermelon sorbet is incredible).

I didn’t actually take a picture of the sorbet, but here is some sorbet blended with ice – yummy 😀

I was a little disappointed in myself at the time, but having analysed my diet I don’t think I was that bad, and I do have a weakness for cheese that is really hard to subdue in countries like Spain and France when they have such a massive and varied selection!

It hasn’t been that hard to get back to vegan since being home, and I’ve bought some lovely stuff that you just can’t get in the rest of Europe, such as basil tofu, Linda McCartney sausages and burgers, etc, etc.

Last night I even made vegan banana muffins!!!! (separate post to come later, but that was very exciting).

Vinaros seafront from the harbour wall

So all in all, being vegan abroad is quite hard, especially when you love cheese as much as I do, but I’m definitely of the opinion that cutting down on your normal dairy intake is almost as valuable as cutting it out completely, and would be more realistic for a wider group of people.

Certainly this would have been harder if I’d not had my own kitchen, and when I go to Amsterdam in a few days I think I’ll find it harder as I won’t have time to prepare my own pasta sauces, etc, but we will see.

Adios!

Pyramids: the journey continues

Today I was practically force-fed a shot of the most atrocious vodka in the universe, more akin to paint-stripper than any vodka I’ve ever tasted. Unfortunately, it was so disgusting that I took a swig of the closest drink to me which happened to be tea made with normal milk.

Alas, I have failed.

Only kidding, minor setback and it was a complete accident so I’m not too worried.

Today I pretty much just ate Oreos, BECAUSE THEY ARE VEGAN YAY.

My ma sent me a link about vegan weight loss, which says that it’s pretty natural to lose weight when you first become vegan (though that probably goes without saying), but that a lot of the time new vegans end up feeling really tired because they’re not getting enough of the right food groups. So it gives you a handy link to the Vegan Food Pyramid (oooh).

Fun fact: I went to the pyramids in Egypt and the smog was so thick around Cairo that we didn’t actually see the pyramids until we were pretty much underneath them. It was as though they had just emerged from the ground and towered above us.

Anyway, not those pyramids, this one:

image: http://www.vegancoach.com/vegan-food-pyramid.html

Now that I have more time I’ll try to follow this to make sure I’m getting a decent and well-balanced diet. That’s the thing people worry about most when I tell them I’m trying out veganism – they don’t think I’ll be able to maintain a healthy diet. Ironically, because being vegan means you have to plan meals and cook more, I’ll probably be much more healthier than when I was veggie.

A final note: I was sad that I won’t be able to join in the BBQ fun this summer, but I found that Linda McCartney does two different types of veggie sausage that are completely vegan. Tonight I had rosemary and red onion sausages. Excellent!