Vegan meringues

When I was at the Kent Vegan Festival a few weeks ago, I did a double take on a stall that had beautiful mini meringues packaged up perfectly.

I was so confused.

How could you possibly make meringues vegan?

I went up to the guys behind the stall and asked them pretty much the same question.

Chickpeas – the guy said.

Chickpeas?! I thought.

But here’s the thing: it’s not even the useful part of the chickpeas. It’s the part that you throw away. It’s literally the useless part of the chickpeas that gets thrown down the drain.

Amazing. I had to try it. But I don’t have a mixer in my flat, and I couldn’t face the thought of whippin’ up that chickpea waste water by hand.

So when I popped in to see my parents last weekend I took it as the ideal opportunity to take over their kitchen and make meringues.

They turned out so great! They tasted just like normal meringues, they crunched just like normal meringues, and they were damn fine with fresh strawberries, just like normal meringues.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• The water drained from a 400g can of chickpeas (otherwise known as aquafaba)
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Whisk up the chickpea water until it’s turned white and forms stiff peaks (just like normal meringue – you know the drill).

Add the cream of tartar and keep whisking, then start very gradually adding the icing sugar until it forms shiny peaks, like this:

Gently stir in the vanilla and be careful not to knock out any air.

Very carefully transfer the mixture to a piping bag and pipe it out into nest shapes on your greased and lined baking tray.

Put them in in an oven at 110C for 2 hours and whatever you do, don’t open the oven while they’re cooking.

Tip: I tried to take them off the baking tray as soon as they came out of the oven (I’m too impatient) and thought that they’d stuck to it and that they were ruined. I then tried again five minutes later and they came off easily. Moral of the story: be patient.

I smothered mine in Alpro yoghurt and fresh strawberries and it was awesome.

P.S. While I was at it I made some hummus with the leftover chickpeas. I’ll post a recipe soon!

Vegan cupcake heaven

This morning I read an article about the rise of clean eating and it cited the fact that there’s been a 350% increase in the number of vegans in Britain in the past 10 years.

It almost seemed to be blaming the unhealthy fad of clean eating on the rise of veganism, and forgot to mention the other reasons that someone might convert to a plant-based diet.

It also suggested that a vegan diet was synonymous with a super healthy (but actually kind of unhealthy) diet.

I beg to differ.

And since pictures speak louder than words, I’m just going to show you a collection of vegan cupcakes I’ve made and bought over the past month. Because vegan diets don’t have to mean raw superfood diets.

Cupcakes are life.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BE6LBe1oPA9/?taken-by=samanthalhopps

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFHodNjIPHz/?taken-by=samanthalhopps

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFZseyjIPBT/?taken-by=samanthalhopps

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFeM7F4oPOH/?taken-by=samanthalhopps

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFodPjdoPIa/?taken-by=samanthalhopps

 

Giant oreo cupcakes

Peanut butter chocolate giant cupcake (filled with peanut butter) – so yum!

Salted caramel and strawberries & cream cupcakes from Ms Cupcake in Brixton

Vegan courgette cake with vegan cream cheese frosting

I remember staying with my grandma when I was a little girl, and she suggested we make a courgette cake.

At the time, I was shocked and appalled. I hated courgette, and I couldn’t understand why you’d put it in a cake anyway.

Until she pointed out that it was only as weird as a carrot cake, to which logic I had to submit.

And since then, courgette cake has probably been my favourite kind of cake (I’ve also tried parsnip cake, which is pretty damn awesome too).

I’ve made many courgette cakes myself now, all turning out perfectly, but all made with egg.

I wanted to try making my favourite cake vegan, so I combined a few different loaf cake recipes from across the internet, and decided to use banana and oil as my binding agents.

Although the recipe was delicious, it ended up taking absolutely hours in the oven, because I’d poured a massive mixture all into one tin.

I had to take it out after two hours, cut it in half, and then stick it back in the oven again.

The result: two very crispy layers, one of which ended up falling apart and having to be stuck together with frosting (not really a problem, depending on your viewpoint).

I thought it was a bit of a disaster, but when I took it into work the next day it was absolutely demolished, so I guess it turned out alright after all.

I’ve since made a few changes to how it should be cooked (in two separate tins right from the beginning) and that should help to avoid the architectural problems.

This was also my first attempt at cream cheese frosting, and it was excellent. I used tofutti cream cheese, but I’m sure any other cream cheese alternative would do just as well.

Vegan courgette cake recipe

Sweet potato, raspberry and cinnamon brownie (recipe to come)

It’s been a bit of a sugar-heavy couple of days. My friend Emma came to stay last night and during our 6-hour adventure around London we consumed the following:

• 2 vegan/gluten free cookies from Cookies and Scream at Camden Market
• 4 cocktails from The Gilbert Scott and 2 pots of smoked butter popcorn
• 4 mini cupcakes from Lola’s cupcakes (they do buy one get one free when they’re due to close for the night)
• 2 mojitos, 1 woo woo, 1 mai tai
• 3 scoops of ice cream from Gelupo on Cambridge Circus

We thought we were all sugared out, but then she made the mistake of telling me that someone had made her some sweet potato brownies and they weren’t very nice.

With 4 sweet pots about to go off in the fridge, we decided to give our own sweet potato-based confectionery a go.

Here was the result:

They weren’t at all what we were expecting, but they were pretty good all the same.

I have a couple of ideas for what could improve them, the main one being to shove in a huge handful of dark chocolate chunks.

So watch this space and I’ll update you with the new and improved recipe very soon.

In the meantime, here’s a cool picture of the mixture:

Scrambled tofu and avocado wrap

I went to a veggie cafe a while ago and they were offering vegan scramble as a breakfast option. I love scrambled egg so much so I tried the vegan alternative. I’ll be honest, it didn’t taste like scrambled egg, but it was completely yummy.

So, I decided to recreate it with my own lunchtime twist (basically shoving it in a wrap and adding avocado), but it’s also slightly curried, which was an accidental and yet very excellent decision.

Ingredients (for two people)

• 1 onion
• 350g pack of firm tofu
• lemon juice
• salt & pepper
• curry powder
• 2 wholewheat wraps
• 1/2 avocado
• grated Sheese (or other cheese alternative)
• Sweet chilli sauce

Fry up your onions in some oil and when they’ve gone translucent, chuck in the whole cube of tofu, and smush up with a wooden spoon or spatula until it resembles scrambled eggs. Cook for about 15 minutes, and season to taste with salt, pepper, lemon juice and curry powder (which makes the tofu a nicer colour and adds a really good subtle taste).

Microwave your wraps, chuck on the scrambled tofu mixture, layer with sliced avocado, and grate the Sheese on top. Putting it back in the microwave for a few seconds at this points helps the Sheese melt a bit more (note: I had strong cheddar Sheese and the flavour is seriously strong, so you only need a tiny bit of it!).

Smother in sweet chilli sauce and wrap up.

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

Live Below the Line: a vegan charity challenge

Howdy fellow vegetarians/vegans/blog readers alike!

I am very excited to tell you that I will be taking part in a challenge called ‘Live Below the Line’, from Monday to Friday next week, whereby I will be eating and drinking on £5 (£1 a day), in order to raise money for Action Against Hunger, a humanitarian organisation ‘committed to ending child hunger’ and providing long-term solutions to water and food supplies in communities across 45 countries.

The great thing about this challenge is that it almost necessitates a vegetarian or vegan diet because meat is so expensive, so it really encourages people to try a veggie diet for a while and see how they manage, as well as cutting down on meat consumption and realising that meat is, actually, a massive luxury for us privileged few in the western world.

I have not done any charity fundraising in a while, instead preferring volunteering, so I have set myself a modest target of £100. For those kind people reading this, I would be so so grateful for any donation, no matter how small, to help me reach my target for this wonderful charity.

If you’re interested, the link to make a donation is here: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/samhopps and it’s probably worth donating just to see a student not drink alcohol for a week!!

I’m really looking forward to this challenge and am looking forward to doing my bit for a great charity, and will keep this blog update with my progress throughout the week, including my shopping trip tomorrow!

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!