Asparagus and Cashew Nut soup

Asparagus and Cashew Nut Soup

Must admit I would not have come up with this soup if Lidl Ireland hadn’t had Asparagus on offer for €.49 a bunch which is just such excellent value. 

I probably wouldn’t have made a soup if I had just been cooking for myself but as I am catering for younger people who aren’t always very keen on some vegetables, soup was an excellent compromise and what an excellent compromise it was.  This soup is delicious, nutritious, and luxuriously comforting as well as being very easy.

Serves 4 medium bowls.  Easy recipe

 

Ingredients

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 bunch of asparagus

2 small potatoes

100g split red lentils, rinsed

Handful of cashew nuts

Cashew milk

Water

Salt and pepper

 

Method

Prepare your vegetable and add them to your pot along with the cashew nuts and lentils.  Add a pinch of salt.

If you are using an Instant pot, add enough water to almost cover the veggies and then set to High Pressure for 8 minutes.

If you are using a stove, add enough water to cover the vegetables.  Bring to the boil and then simmer until everything is cooked.

Blitz with a hand-blender until smooth and then add cashew milk to the consistency that you like.

Season to taste.

 

We had this soup with toast and salad.

Veganizing a recipe from the Aldi website - Banana and Oat Bread

I know everyone seemed to be making Banana Bread last year. I did a lot of baking at the start of the lockdowns but we didn't make banana bread.  We made cakes and cookies and crusty breads and we usually eat out bananas before they go brown. But I missed these three and I didn't want to waste them.

Yesterday we did our supermarket challenge in Aldi again and  I bought some dates there, I use dates a lot in cooking and baking and I wanted to try the Aldi dates.

I couldn't find a recipe on their website that was okay for vegans so I decided to take one and veganize it and also replace the sugar with dates.  Easy!  

Sugar Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free and Low Fat Banana Oat Bread

or

Delicious Banana Oat Bread

Ingredients

240g SR Flour

90g Oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

150g dates

boiling water

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

3 or 4 mashed bananas

1 dessert spoon maple syrup

2 dessert spoons of oil - rapeseed or sunflower

Glaze

Maple syrup

Equipment

Mini-chopper/processor for blitzing the dates

2lb loaf tin

Lining paper

Method

Turn your oven on to Gas Mark 4

Cover the dates with boiling water and leave to soak while you 

Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl

Mash the bananas with the vanilla essence, maple syrup.

Blitz the date and the water in the food processor

Add the dates to the banana mix

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the wet mix.

Mix well.  

Pour into the lined tin.

Bake for around 40 minutes.  Cook to see if it is cooked through with a skewer.  

Turn out from the tin and cool on a rack.

Glaze with maple syrup.

This slices well and is perfect with tea.

Suggestions:

If I make it again, I will add cinnamon and some nuts

Check out the Instagram reel here!

*Product Review* Aldi Sweet Potato Burgers

What an absolute delight to find good value, tasty vegetable burgers on the Aldi chiller.  

I picked up the Aldi 'the deli' Sweet Potato Burgers with Chunky Chickpeas, Sweet Potato and Fiery Indian Spices last week when I did the supermarket challenge -

212kcal per burger

4.2% fat

6.1% protein

look at that texture - perfect

and give it up for my chips! These are double cooked and baked in a teaspoon of oil

they weren't part of our list but I needed something like that for our fridge for the weekend.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much because I've been disappointed by veggie burgers so often over the last 40 years.  I wasn't expecting burgers that sell for €1.79 in a discount supermarket to rack up the positives with me  I also wasn't expecting the rest of the family to be impressed but how wrong was I.    These burgers got top marks from all of us;  they look great, have a lovely firm texture and taste delicious. 

We had them on our Saturday night junk food night but being one of your five a day and only 4.8% fat, do they really qualify as junk food?  No, I don't think they do!  Fast food but not junk food.

Well done Aldi!

We will definitely buy them again and we will be back to try the other flavour options on offer too.

5/5

 The Vegan Supermarket Challenge Week 2 

 TESCO

So this week, me @louisamoss and @yesdaveitsvegan did our supermarket challenge in Tesco!  I went to a store in north Dublin and Karen went to a store in Essex.  Both went around 9am, this morning, 4th March 2021

This is the list of things we managed to buy as a like for like

    

Which means that Ireland was 19% more expensive overall!

The biggest difference was on the Violife slices and the Wicked Pizza!

There were some items that we couldn't buy in both countries.  I picked up the Plant Chef Caesar Dressing but this was not available in the UK.  

We both managed to buy Hot Cross Buns that appeared to be suitable for vegans but in Ireland they were €1 for 4 buns and the UK was £1 for 6 buns.  So a bit more expensive in Ireland.

We have tried to select a variety of of foods to reflect what people might buy.  Must admit I am a bit shocked about the pizza and Violife price difference!

 Carrot and coriander soup

Serves 6, 13 minutes in the Instant Pot, QPR

30 minutes including prep time

Serves 6 medium portions or 4 large portions

8 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped

250g split red lentils, washed and drained

water

ground coriander

salt

coriander leaf 

A dessert spoon of olive oil if you wish

Add chopped onion, garlic, carrot, potato, salt and ground coriander to the IP and stir, add a little olive oil if you like.

Add split red lentils and 1.5 times as much water.  

Set IP to 13 mins high pressure.  QPR

Blitz with a hand blender.  Add seasoning, extra water and dried or fresh coriander leaf.

Enjoy <3

 Lentils with Orzo - Instant Pot detail at the end

Traditional Cypriot recipe given to my mum by a friend in Cyprus

Serves 4

250gr brown lentils, washed, soaked for 2 hours and drained

2 large onions, chopped

Olive oil - the recipe calls for 6 tablespoons

4 ripe plum tomatoes, peeled

1 litre of water

150gr orzo

salt and pepper

dried herbs of your choice

lemon juice to serve

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.

Cook onions until golden

Add tomatoes and cook for five minutes

Add lentils and the water and bring to the oil

Cover and simmer for 50-60 minutes or until lentils are tender

Add the orzo and seasoning.  Simmer for 20 minutes, adding more hot water if necessary to prevent sticking.  

Pour freshly squeezed lemon juice on to serve

Nice with shredded steamed or boiled cabbage

Instant Pot changes!

I used a dessertspoon of olive oil with the onion and garlic, whizzed 250g of cherry tomatoes in the mini chopper and added them with some salt and a little extra cold water.  I sauteed for a few mins on high.  Added the brown lentils and 1.5 times volume water and cooked at high pressure 15 mins.  Then added a little bit more water with the orzo and sauteed for a few mins then left it on keep warm with the lid on for 20 mins.  Perfect!

 Celeriac Soup

Souper for a dreary day!

1 celeriac, chopped

1 head of celery, chopped

2 granny smith apples, peeled and chopped

1 tin of butter beans, drained and rinsed

fresh parsley

salt and pepper

hazelnuts, a handful chopped and roasted

Prep time 10 mins

Instant Pot cook time 10 mins, allow 10 mins to come up to pressure

Serves 6, 156 calories per serving

This is a fab soup, rich in Vitamin K and B6.  No oil added but some
fat derived from the yummy hazelnut topping.  This is a lovely, easy to digest, warm and comforting soup.  The butter beans give it a creaminess.

Add all of your veggies to the Instant Pot. Add enough water to come around 2/3 of the way to your veggies.  Add some Himalayan rock salt.

Set Instant Pot to 10 mins at high pressure.  Then do a QPR.

While the soup is cooking, toast your chopped hazelnuts in a dry frying pan. Set them aside to use as a crunchy topping on your soup. 

When your soup is cooked, whizz it with a hand blender in the Instant Pot. Add your chopped fresh parsley, adjust seasoning to taste.  Garnish with toasted hazelnuts

Enjoy!

Nutritional stuff

156 calories per serving

Each serving is rich in Vitamins B, K, A and C.  Good for folate, potassium, manganese and magnesium.

Hot cross buns, vegan style!

I bought Hot Cross Buns this year from Lidl. They looked vegan to me and tasted good but the ingredient list looked complicated. My mum and dad didn't buy any and dad tweeted at me at how yummy they looked so I decided to make him some!

Here's the recipe
450 gr plain flour
1.5 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons dried yeast (Doves is great and available in Super Valu)
3 teaspoons mixed spice
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon
75ml warm water
150ml warm soya milk
50 ml vegetable oil
160 gr mixed fruit
2 teaspoons milled linseeds mixed with 2 teaspoons warm water.

To make a glaze
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of water




Put the flour, salt, dried yeast, spice and cinnamon into a large bowl. Mix well with a spoon.
Add the mixed fruit.
Make a well in the centre of the dried ingredients and add the water milk and oil and the linseed mixture.
Mix well, mixture shouldn't be sticky. If it is add a little more flour. If it is too dry add a drop more milk.
Turn out and lightly knead.

Return to the bowl. Cover with a damp tea towel and place it somewhere warming for half an hour or so.

Turn the oven on to 220C.

It should have risen well in that time, knock it back, knead lightly and divide into twelve buns.

Mark a deep cross on the top of each bun.  I used two baking sheets, putting six buns on each sheet.

Bake for about 15 mins until lightly browned.

While they are baking make the glaze by heating a tablespoon of sugar in a sucepan with two tablespoons of water, heat on a medium heat until you have a clear syrup.

Brush the syrup on the warm buns.

Vegan Cook-Off #2 * Dublin * Friday 13th

Vegan Cook-off Competition Friday 13th February

Friday the 13th will be lucky for one person at the Vegetarian Society of Ireland’s cook-off competition! The second vegan cooking contest will fundraise for Focus Ireland and is being held in St. Andrew’s Resource Centre on Pearse St.

For €9, members of the public can sample both sweet and savoury vegan dishes and vote for their favourites to win. Food lovers have a chance to cook up a storm; you don’t need to be vegan to enter but all dishes must use vegan ingredients. Anyone interested in taking part can register atwww.vegetarian.ie.

VSI spokesperson, Louisa Moss said “The original cook off held four years ago was a great success and I’m excited this year that all proceeds will go to Focus Ireland to support them with the wonderful work they do for the homeless and those at risk in Ireland.”

Come along and discover the delights of vegan food!

For further information you can email vegantasticcookingcontest@gmail.com.

vegantasticcookingcontest@blogspot.com

The Vegetarian Society of Ireland would like to thank the Hopsack for part-sponsoring this event.

Vegetarian and vegan cooking

I have been a vegetarian, dairy and egg free mostly for most of my life. I do a lot of cooking. I have a lot of cookery books but I find that I don’t really use them any more. I learnt to cook with Rose Elliot’s Complete Vegetarian which I bought as a teenager; now I tend to rely on what ingredients I can source locally and cheaply. I tend to buy the ingredients then design the recipe around it. Which I suppose is what my grandmother would have done and the generations before her. Buy what is fresh and beautiful and good value for money and work from there.
To cook you need basic skills, basic kitchen equipment, an understanding of what tastes you like and what nutrition you need.  You don't need a stack of veggie cookbooks (although I confess I have a few!) and you don't need to buy expensive ingredients.
So here goes; I want to keep a record of what I am cooking and eating. How many recipes do I actually follow and does my food turn out ok. This blog is essentially for me to keep track of what I am doing foodwise but would of course, welcome any comm
Dairy Free, Egg Free, Cherry Free Fruit Cake

I made this dairy and egg free in the hope that my fussy 12yo would try it. No such luck! But it is quite nice.
Ingredients
240g plain or wholemeal flour (I used wholemeal;  you could use a bit of both if you like)
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons mixed spice
180g caster sugar
8 tablespoons of sunflower oil
500g mixed fruit (I used raisins, sultanas and mixed peel)
50g chopped nuts
30g soya flour
230ml cold water.
Flaked almonds to decorate top if you like.

Method
Preheat Fan Oven to 150C.  
Grease and line a deep, round 7inch cake tin.
Mix flour, baking powder and mixed spice in a large bowl.  Add the all of the other ingredients and most of the water. Mix well.  If mixture is too stiff add the rest of the water.  You need your cake to be of the consistency that you can spoon it not pour it.  Level top and sprinkle the flaked almonds on.
Cook for about 2 hours.  Check to see if it is ready by inserting a skewer.  If it comes out clean, your cake is ready if not put it back in the oven for a little bit longer.
When it is ready, leave it to cool for a bout an hour in the tin.  Then tip out and cool on a wire rack.