This Co-op recipe is one of the tastiest pilau rice dishes I have ever come across and it’s really quick and easy to make. The raisins and caramelised red onions add a sweet contrast to the spices and, because the spinach is only added at the end, it stays a dark emerald green and retains all of its goodness.
I don’t know about you, but I always like a big thick wedge of crumble above any baked fruit – it’s just not decent otherwise. This recipe has been taken from bbcgoodfood.com and altered to make it vegan, with both oats and desiccated coconut added to achieve a light and crumbly texture. The sultanas absorb the apple and pear juice when it’s baking in the oven, which makes them super delicious.
Golden brown texture like sun.
Ingredients:
3 Braeburn apples
2 ripe pears
Handful of sultanas
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
For the crumble:
175g plain flour
110g demerara sugar
110g Pure Sunflower Spread (cold and cubed)
2 tablespoons oats
2 tablespoons desiccated coconut
(1) Heat the oven to 190ºC / Gas Mark 5 / 375 F
(2) Core and peel the apples and pears. Chop them up into 1½ – 2cm chunks and mix in the sultanas. Place into a 23cm ovenproof dish that’s at least 5cm deep and gently flatten down (to make sure the crumble doesn’t go through any gaps).
(3) Put the plain flour and sugar into a bowl and rub in the cold, cubed Pure Sunflower spread until it’s like breadcrumbs. Then mix in the oats and desiccated coconut with a spoon.
(4) Spread the crumble mixture over the fruit.
(5) Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.
Serve with soya custard / single cream made with soya or oats /vegan ice cream.
If you’re planning a trip to Cineworld in Glasgow city centre, and you feel a bit peckish before or after the film, head to The Flying Duck – it’s a stones throw away from the cinema. Go down the steps into their dark, softly lit basement bar and venture into the cave of the seitan masters.
Here is the Zero to Hero and OG Quarter Pounder.
Now seitan is a difficult thing to get right, but if it’s done properly, boy is it tasty. Seitan is made from wheat gluten. In the wrong hands it can be like chewing on a piece of old rubber. Thankfully, The Flying Duck know what they’re doing with the stuff and their burgers are definitely the best (unless you have gluten intolerance). Don’t worry, they also have burgers made from jackfruit and beans etc. I would prefer if they offered homemade chips with the skins on, but this is a minor quibble when their burgers are this good.
These brownies won’t be around for much longer.
And after a satisfying burger frenzy, treat yourself to the chocolate brownies. We felt obliged to quickly wolf them down in order to prove how lovely they were. Nuff said.
In the lead up to spooky Halloween now is the time to take full advantage of all the fresh pumpkins available. I can’t remember where I found this recipe but it’s been a regular on Rooting Aboot’s table for years. Sometimes we have vegetable spring rolls with this soup but a thick piece of bread dunked into it will suffice.
Two bowls of sunshine.
20ml vegetable oil
25g Pure Sunflower Spread
1 garlic clove, chopped
4 shallots, chopped
2 small red chillies, sliced diagonally
15g Blue Dragon Thai red curry paste (or more if you like it spicier)
15g fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 stick lemongrass
500ml vegetable stock
350ml coconut milk
500g pumpkin (or butternut squash), peeled, seeded and diced
Heat the oil and vegan spread in a pan over a low heat.
Add the garlic, chillies, ginger, lemongrass and shallots and gently cook until they are soft. This only takes a few minutes so be careful not to burn them.
Then add everything else, bring to the boil and simmer for ten minutes (or till the pumpkin is soft).
Take off the heat and blitz with a blender until smooth.
My extra tips for this recipe: Blue Dragon’s Thai green curry paste can also be used. Morrison’s supermarket sells frozen ginger cubes in their freezer section, which is so handy when making spicy food. In Glasgow, we are also blessed with really brilliant Indian mini-markets specialising in spices etc and they often stock frozen ginger too.
Ice cream parlours used to be as attractive to vegans as getting a pin in your eye. They were places we just had to walk on by. They were dead to us. Well, not anymore. Loop & Scoop have come to our frosty rescue.
They are the first ice cream and churro bar in the UK and their parlour is a bright, welcoming space with plenty of seats upstairs in a mezzanine area. More importantly, they always have SIX different vegan ice creams and/or sorbets on offer at any one time. These are kept in a separate freezer on their own (directly opposite the window) and away from the milky stuff. Just ask the staff and they’ll direct you to heaven.
The Vegan Choconut loop and scoop with chocolate ice cream and orange sorbet.
The churros (a fried dough pastry) are vegan anyway, but Loop & Scoop make them soft and doughy on the inside and crispy on the outside. I personally recommend the Vegan Choconut loop and scoop: a large hot churro covered in dark chocolate glaze with chopped nuts and two ice cream scoops of your choice. It’s your pot luck which flavours are available on the day but the Biscoff, Turkish Delight and Dark Chocolate are really top notch and they’re very generous with their scoop sizes too. What more can I say?
There is often the misconception that being vegan must be expensive but it’s easy enough to keep your oxters fresh and clean without costing the earth.
With plant-based lifestyles gaining a much higher profile in recent years many high street shops have been taking note. One of my favourites is Superdrug. They sell vegan shampoos, anti-perspirants, toothpastes, bath and shower gels /creams, facial lotions and potions etc etc etc. Most of these products are very reasonably priced and Superdrug regularly have special offers.
Scotland can be a harsh place in autumn and winter but with their skincare ranges for both men and women, we can all slap it on.
When I was in there last weekend I noticed vegan labels have been placed directly underneath many products so they’re now really easy to identify. It’s such a relief not having to read all the ingredients on the back like a complete nerd.
“We campaign to end factory farming. Farm animal welfare and wellbeing is at the heart of all we do and all we do is founded on scientific fact. Our supporters are pivotal to the success of all our campaigns. Find out how you can help and join us in actively seeking global reform for billions of farm animals suffering around the world…”
For the past twelve months they have been running the ‘End the Cage Age’ campaign with petitions targeting UK agricultural ministers and asking for a ban on cages to be debated in Parliament.
Now they’re calling on the European Commission to ban cages for all EU farm animals. If you’d like to add your name to the petition, please click on the link below:
This Indian Shepherd’s Pie recipe was taken (and adjusted to vegan) from Anjum Anand’s 2008 book called ‘Anjum’s New Indian’. This book revealed to me the secrets of how to create and cook proper knockout vegetable curries from scratch because it’s the spices, and their combinations, that’s key.
Just what you need on a cold, rainy night.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 black cardamom pods
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
10g fresh ginger, peeled
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon ground coriander
¼ – ½ teaspoon red chilli powder
1½ teaspoons ground cumin
1½ teaspoons garam masala
One pack Waitrose Vegan Grain Mince (240g)OR a 50/50 mix of pre-cooked puy lentils/chestnut mushrooms OR 50/50 mix of pre-cooked green lentils/chestnut mushrooms
1 vegetable stock in 100ml boiling water
1 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
Handful of frozen peas
350g potatoes, peeled and chopped
Vegan spread and soya milk to add to mashed potatoes
Boil potatoes until soft. Drain and mash with some vegan spread and soya milk until smooth. Set aside.
Heat the oven to 190ºC / Gas 5 / 375ºF
Heat the vegetable oil in a large non-stick saucepan and add the black cardamom pods. Cook them for 30 seconds then add the chopped onion and cook until golden brown (5-10 minutes).
Use a blender to make a paste with the ginger and garlic (add a little water to make this easier).
Add all the spices and ginger/garlic paste to saucepan. Give it a good stir and cook for one minute.
Then add the vegan mince and mix well for two minutes.
Now add the vegetable stock, Worcestershire sauce and tomatoes. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add a bit more boiling water if it’s too thick. If it’s too runny, leave the lid off and evaporate some of the liquid.
Take off the heat and add the frozen peas. Carefully remove the cardamom pods. Add some salt to it, if you prefer.
Place the spicy mince into an ovenproof dish and top with the mashed potatoes.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 20-30 minutes at 190ºC / Gas 5 / 375ºF until hot and bubbling.
Please Note: Rawnchy has now closed the cafe/shop at Georges Cross and moved to Dennistoun in the east end of Glasgow.
Just in case you miss the odd Twix, Bounty or Snickers bar have no fear. A little café called Rawnchy at Georges Cross makes the vegan equivalents and much, much more. They also create raw vegan cheesecakes and usually have a choice of at least three whenever we’ve been there. You can order some for special occasions too. All these treats are made with wholesome ingredients and the owner now sells her wares in Edinburgh and the west coast (see stockists on the website). Have a rose, lavender or turmeric latte to wash it all down with. See the photo if you don’t believe me.
Pretty in pink.
This cute little café has soft glowing fairy lights with lush green plants hanging from numerous shelves, and on rainy afternoons in Glasgow, it feels dreamy and slightly otherworldly, or maybe that’s just the healthy sugar talking as it courses through my veins.
My mum recently made a vegan Grasmere cake. I’d never heard of such a thing but scoffed a few slices nonetheless (won’t go into detail about how many).
Don’t fret about my cholesterol Mrs Read just give me the cake.
Mum’s numerous cookbooks are often made up of recipes cut out from newspapers and magazines that have been collected and compiled over a lifetime with the useless ones being ejected and the successful ones kept. These tomes are a treasure trove and many can easily be converted into vegan versions. Expect more of these gems in the coming months.
My version.
My tips for this recipe: I’m not keen on mixed spice so I substituted this with half a teaspoon of ground ginger and about seven ground-up whole cloves. Make sure to finely grind the cloves so you don’t get hard bits in the cake. This gives it a warming kick and the smell coming from the oven was amazing. I used Pure Sunflower Spread and soya milk (sweetened) replaced the cow juice. Regarding the fruit, I made it with 175g of sultanas and 75g of raisins (just because I had some spare in the cupboard) and it baked fine. They become very plump and succulent.
Leave the raw mixture covered for a minimum of three hours and use a big tin because this one is a heavy brute, as my mother will concur (it’s her handwriting on the recipe).
ROOTING ABOOT: Voyage to Veganism 