Pauper’s vegan pesto

Estimated cost: £1.80 for two person meal of pasta and pesto*

Pasta and pesto is my one of my favourite meals. It’s so simple, so quick, and so yummy every single time. You can buy it in a jar, but the vegan version (the same but without parmesan) is actually quite expensive, so I decided to see if I could make some of my own vegan pesto for a reasonable price.

There are two tricks I used to make this recipe cheaper than homemade pesto would usually be. Firstly, I used flaked almonds instead of pine nuts, because you pretty much have to take out a payday loan to afford pine nuts. I learned this trick because I was in a restaurant once and ordered something that purportedly came with pine nuts. When it came out there were no pine nuts in sight, so I asked the waitress if I could have some. She brought me out a pot of flaked almonds, presumably hoping I wouldn’t notice they weren’t actually pine nuts instead of just telling me they didn’t have any, but when I had them with my meal they actually worked really well as an alternative. Since then I have used flaked almonds with pasta-based meals on a regular basis. Secondly, I used frozen spinach to bulk out the basil: you can’t taste the spinach at all but it gives the pesto a nice texture and means you have to use less basil.

I didn’t use a recipe for this pesto, going entirely by taste – I would wholeheartedly recommend this as everyone has different tastes (more salty, less salty, more or less oily, etc), hence this recipe is simply designed to be a guide.

You will need:

28g pack of fresh basil

2 handfuls flaked almonds (I wouldn’t usually suggest buying pre-chopped things as it’s lazy, but these were exactly the same price as normal almonds, and you don’t want the brown skin in your mixture)

A good glug of olive oil (this is a big part of the taste so you need to use the right oil)

2 handfuls frozen spinach, thawed

Lemon juice, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

Put your pasta on the boil. While this is cooking, chuck all of the basil, almonds and olive oil into a blender and start to blend. Use enough olive oil to bind all of the ingredients together but not enough to make it runny. You’ll know what this looks like if you add the oil gradually. Add the spinach and continue blending, then mix in lemon juice, salt, and pepper to your taste. Drain the pasta and combine with the fresh pesto. The easiest and tastiest thing I’ve ever made!

 

*Estimated cost breakdown:

• In the interests of openness, this is how I’ve worked out my costing:
• Pasta (Tesco own brand) – 100g @ 75p/kilo = 7.5p (rounded up to 10p)
• Basil (Sainsbury’s) – 80p packet
• Almonds (Sainsbury’s) – £2.20 pack – I think I used about 40p’s worth of this pack
• Olive oil (Aldi) – around £2 for massive bottle – I estimate I used about 20p’s worth
• Lemon juice, salt and pepper – these were in my cupboard already so I’ve attributed 10p to these as they are used sparingly)
• Spinach (Sainsbury’s) – £1 per pack – 2 handfuls @ 20p

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!