Mum2VeganTeen

This was the best cake I ever made according to my boys.

It’s like a Bakewell tart but in a cake format. Really easy to make and nobody would guess its vegan. It’s everything good about cake – soft, fruity, moist, crumbly and deliciously nutty.

The ingredients are quite simple as all measure 150!

I made a couple of mistakes – we’d run out of baking paper, I was determined to make the cake anyway & was not gonna queue up at the shop! So I just greased the bottom of the tin with the veg spread. Then we were so excited about the cake I forgot to remove the bottom of the tin lol 😂 anyway the cake was still amazing it can’t not taste good!

Cake Ingredients

150g vegetable spread

150g caster sugar

150g flour

1tsp Baking powder

150g ground almonds

1tsp vanilla essence

150 ml warmed soy milk

1 /2 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar

2 tablespoons 7 up or sprite

3 tablespoons black cherry jam

150g fresh cherries, pitted and halved

100g flaked almonds

For the icing

50 g icing sugar

Juice 1/4 lemon

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4.

Base line a 23 cm (8½-9½in) spring clip cake tin with baking parchment.

Beat the vegan butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds, baking powder lemonade & vanilla extract together.

Mix the warm milk in a bowl with the bicarbonate of soda, then add the apple cider vinegar. Beat all the ingredients together quickly. – The mixture becomes frothy & bubbly (will help the cake rise in place of eggs)

Fold the milk mixture into the batter.

Spoon half of the batter into the lined cake tin and smooth it over.

Dot the jam, a teaspoon at a time over the batter.

Scatter fresh cherries on top.

Drop spoonfuls of the remaining batter over the cherries to cover it.

Scatter the flaked almonds over the top and bake for 45-50 minutes until well-risen and golden brown.

Cherry almond cake bake (vegan dairy-free)

Leave to stand for five minutes in the tin then remove by running a knife around, unclip and slide the cake onto a wire

For the icing, mix the icing sugar and lemon in a bowl stirring until smooth and thick.

Drizzle over the cooked cake.

We had this whilst it was still warm with some vegan Whipped spray cream. It was equally nice chilled the next day with a nice cup of tea!

There’s some really good vegan plant based meat replacements. I wanted to do something a bit different as we often make spaghetti bolognese or lasagne & my boys have never like shepherds pie – in fact my son labelled my attempt as ‘Shepherds Cry!’

This was a nice alternative; crispy, sweet & savoury dish like a Chinese takeaway. Just Marinade the plant beef with the ginger & spices before frying.

Ingredients

• 200 g Plant based Minced Beef (there are lots of brands for this particular one we used Viv era)

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

• 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger

• 1 teaspoon dry chilli flakes (or to taste)

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce

• 2 teaspoons Chinese 5 spice

• Tablespoon lime juice

• 1 x Spring onion chopped

• 200 G – of your preferred Fresh Veg chopped (Peppers, Beansprouts, Baby Corn , carrots are nice )

• Fresh Coriander

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

• Rice or noodles to serve

Instructions

Mix the garlic, ginger, chilli flakes, Chinese five spice, soy sauce & lime with the plant beef and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or large frying pan.

Add the beef mixture and fry, stirring regularly until it gets very brown and crispy.

Add the spring onions & stir fry for a minute.

Add the fresh vegetables & fry for 3/4 minutes.

• You may need to add some more tablespoons of soy sauce and water (it is meant to be crispy & not much sauce but you don’t want the mixture to be too dry.

Add a sprinkle of the coriander.

Serve with noodles or steamed rice. This would also be nice sprinkled over a salad.

I made these chocolate chip cookies in honour of National Biscuit Day yesterday -29th May with a donation to The National Guide Dogs for the blind – Virtual Tea-party.

These delicious cookies are so easy to bake & can be enjoyed by vegans & non vegans alike.

(Makes around 20)

Ingredients

250 G Flour

200g Margarine or vegan butter

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

100 g Brown sugar

100 g granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tbsp Non-dairy milk

150 g Dark chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Tip the dairy-free margarine, sugars and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt into the bowl and beat everything until thoroughly combined and almost smooth.

Add the and soya milk and mix again.

Mix in the chocolate chips.

Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours (or the freezer if you can’t wait that long lol)

Use an ice cream scoop or two dessertspoons to drop neat mounds of dough onto the lined baking trays allowing plenty of space between the cookies as they spread during cooking.

Bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking trays.

These cook quickly – they will look underdone and liquidy but when they cool down they firm up.

Perfect with a nice cup of tea!

This is a really nice recipe my son was impressed he said he fancied a Chinese takeaway but no need as i cooked it myself from scratch and took less than 30 mins. The perfect ‘Fakeaway’! It was everything you expect from this classic Chinese dish; crispy, tangy and sweet!

Ingredients

• 1 pack vegan chicken nuggets – Quorn or we used Linda McCartney Southern fried vegetarian chicken.
• 1 Tablespoon Vegetable oil.
• 1 large onion – peeled and chopped into large chunks
• 1 red pepper – chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 1 yellow or green pepper – chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 2 cloves of garlic – peeled and chopped
• 1 tsp minced or grated ginger
• 227 Can pineapple pieces – cut into chunks
• (You can add additional vegetables if you like – I put in some chopped leek & Chinese cabbage – this is optional)
• ** optional sesame seeds**
• Salt & pepper to season
• Cooked white rice, to serve

Sweet & sour sauce

• 2 tbsp dark soy
• 3 tbsp vinegar (malt, white wine or apple cider vinegar are all ok)
• 3 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 2 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water, to thicken

Instructions

• Cook the Vegan ‘chicken’ according to instructions.

• Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan until very hot.

• Add the onions, cook for 3 minutes, stirring until they start to soften.

• Add the peppers and cook for another 2 minutes.

Onions & Peppers

• Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute.

• Add the soy sauce, Vinegar, ketchup, sugar & pineapple including some of the juice.

• Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and leave it on a low temperature so it’s just simmering.

• Add the cornflour & water mixture this will thicken your sauce and give it a nice gloss, simmer for 2 minutes stirring through.

• Transfer the cooked vegan chicken to the pan with the sauce and toss to coat. (I cut my vegan chicken into smaller pieces first)

• If you have the sesame seeds (we didn’t) sprinkle over

• Serve with rice.

Enjoy!

We discovered that Biscoff biscuits are naturally vegan so I thought I would try to make a luscious dessert with them.

A simply delicious no bake Biscoff cheesecake with mandarin. Unbelievable that it’s dairy free – plant based & vegan.

I thought I would try mandarins to compliment with the caramel flavour of the biscoff, as well as have some fruit lol. An orange caramel delight.

The biscoff spread is also dairy free and amazing – it’s basically a creamy caramelly paste made from biscoff biscuits.

I had to adapt my recipe purely because the biscoff biscuits I bought – went missing as my teenagers had already eaten them before I started making the cake!! (I replaced the base with digestive biscuits)

Aldi actually do a good knock off – their caramelised biscuits I used for the topping.

Luckily enough I managed to rescue most of the jar of biscoff spread as they had started to spread it on their toast! (They never usually eat toast that’s how good the spread is!)

INGREDIENTS

The base

• 250 grams Biscoff Biscuits
• 75 grams vegetable spread (we use Flora)

The biscoff cream filling

• 1 pot (200g) vegan cream cheese, (Violife)
• 25 g Caster Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Biscoff Cookie Spread
• 150 ml plant based Double Cream (alpro)
• Small tin Mandarins

** Optional To decorate **

Vegan Whipped Cream Spray Can (Food Heaven)

• Few Biscoffi biscuits to decorate.
• 25 grams (1/4 cup) Biscoff Biscuits crushed (sprinkle over)
• 1 tablespoon biscoff spread – gently heated – to drizzle over the top

INSTRUCTIONS

• Lightly grease an 8 inch springform baking tin with vegetable spread and line the bottom with baking or parchment paper.
• Add Biscoff Cookies to a food processor and blend until they resemble fine crumbs. (Or Crush them in a bag with a heavy object like a rolling pin.

• Pour melted vegetable spread over the crushed biscuits and mix until it looks like wet sand.

Biscuit base

• Pour the biscuit mixture into prepared tin and press down gently using the back of a spoon to form an even layer. Pop in fridge.
• Add cream cheese, sugar and biscoffi spread to a bowl and beat until smooth.

• Whisk the double cream with an electric whisk in a separate bowl for a few minutes until it’s really thick.
• Gently fold the double cream into the biscoffi & cream cheese mixture.
• Spread the cheesecake mixture evenly over the biscuit base.
• Drain the mandarins before placing a few over the top.
• Decorate with the optional decorations.
• Chill for a few hours in the fridge or if you’re in a hurry the freezer! ( I think the mandarins are even nicer almost frozen)

Enjoy!!

This classic Thai curry is so simple to make – takes minutes and tastes amazing.

I definitely recommend using Fresh Vegetables & herbs in this curry which compliment the delicately spiced more-ish lightly spiced coconut sauce.

You can make this as a simple vegetable curry however I added Vegan chicken (Linda Mcartney- Pulled chicken) You could also use Tofu.

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

5cm piece ginger, grated

5 tbsp Thai red curry paste ** (check the curry paste depending on the brand as some contain fish sauce) we used Blue Dragon ** ( or homemade recipe below)

2 Tbsp Soy sauce

Juice of 1/2 lime

1/2 Red, Yellow & Orange bell pepper , deseeded and diced (or just use Red bell pepper)

200g Vegan chicken

Can of coconut milk

½ vegetable stock cube (to make 75ml stock)

200 g Fresh Vegetables of your choice good ones are (Sugar snap peas, baby corn, green beans, mange tout, Chinese leaf cabbage)

1 tsp brown sugar

Handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Steamed rice, to serve

** Optional – I like to jazz up the rice by adding some grated carrot, crushed nuts, & finely chopped spring onion & coriander)

** Optional You can make your own Red curry paste: Blitz the following ingredients in a food processor:

4 Red Chillies, 4 teaspoons Red Chillies, 4 teaspoons coriander seeds, 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, 4 stems lemon grass, 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, 4 shallots, 6 cloves garlic, grated zest and juice of 2 limes, 2 spoons paprika.

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the onion. Cook for 3 minutes.
2. Add the garlic, ginger, and red curry paste. Cook for 1 min.
3. Add the red pepper, vegan chicken .
4. Continue to cook for 2,3 mins, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the vegetables stir through & cook for 2 minutes.
6. Add the Soy sauce, lime juice & teaspoon sugar.
7. Pour the coconut milk and vegetable stock into the pan.
8. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 5/ 10 minutes.
9. Remove the pan from the heat, Scatter with coriander and serve with rice.

It’s hard to believe this delicious dessert is vegan & dairy free! It’s long been a family favourite and I’m happy to have ‘veganised’ it. It tastes just as good! Bananas, caramel, biscuit & cream it’s a winning combination!

Ingredients

The base

• 225 g Biscuits (We used Ginger Biscuits which are naturally vegan depending on the brand – check the packaging but you can use plain digestives)
• 100g Vegetable spread

The Caramel filling

**Cheat** You can cheat like i did when I discovered Betty Crocker Salted Caramel Flavour Icing!! – naturally vegan & – ready to spread straight out of the container!!

Or make your own:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan spread
• 1/4 cup coconut milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

The topping

• 2 ripe bananas
• 150 ml Vegan Double Cream (Alpro)
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• 50 G Dark Chocolate

Instructions

• To make the base, butter and line loose-bottomed tin with baking parchment. Put the digestive biscuits in a plastic food bag and crush to crumbs with a rolling pin or similar object.
• Melt the vegetable spread.
• Put the biscuit crumbs in a bowl and Mix thoroughly with the melted vegan butter until the crumbs are completely coated.
• Tip them into the prepared tin and press firmly down into the base .
• Chill in the fridge for 1 hr to set firmly.
• For the caramel sauce – you can spread the Betty Crocker ready made icing over the base. Or:
• Bring brown sugar, vegan butter, and coconut milk to a gentle boil and cook until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat; add vanilla extract.
• Wait for it to cool before spreading evenly over the biscuit base.
• Slice & layer the banana over the caramel.
• Whisk the vegan double cream & icing sugar until it’s a thick consistency.
• Place the whipped cream over the bananas.
• Grate the dark chocolate over to finish.

Chill for an hour & serve!

Enjoy!

Hummus is such a delicious dip it even has a day dedicated to it! Today May 13th is international Hummus Day!!

Also a bonus as it is a naturally vegan recipe!

This Middle-Eastern Dip is fresh, healthy simple & easy to make within minutes, it tastes so much better than shop-bought that it’s worth the extra effort to make yourself.

I use a can of chickpeas but you can used dried ones if you follow the pack instructions before use.

You can make it with or without tahini (I couldn’t get any but it still tastes amazing without)

Ingredients

1 x 400 g tin of chickpeas

1 small clove of garlic: crushed/ chopped or grated

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons olive oil

( 1 tablespoon tahini) if you can source.

Salt & pepper for seasoning

(Optional teaspoon baking powder)

Garnish options:

• Tablespoon of olive oil drizzled over the top

• Fresh Parsley or Coriander
• Chopped olives
• Paprika
• Chilli flakes
• Toasted pine nuts

Directions

The first step is optinial if you have time;

1. Drain & boil the chickpeas with the teaspoon of baking powder for 20 mins. – The powder reacts & boiling them results in a smoother softer consistency.
2. Mix the chickpeas (either drained from the can – or after cooled down from boiling. With the – garlic, lemon & olive oil, tahini & seasoning.
3. You can use a handblender or food processor to blend until it’s a thick, creamy consistency. If you want to make it smoother add a tablespoon or 2 of water as you go along.
4. Put in a bowl & garnish with your preference – paprika, herbs, olive oil etc.

Best served with – Raw vegetables – Carrot, Pepper, cucumber or with flatbread, warmed Pitta-bread, breadsticks or crisps!! Yummy hummus.

Fab for a special breakfast or brunch. You’d never be able to tell the waffles are vegan! We topped with fresh fruit, syrup & whipped cream.

We were very excited a few weeks ago to discover plant based single cream and even more excited now to have discovered Plant based Double Cream! This one was Elmlea. It’s a real game changer!! I Can’t wait to try some more recipes with it.

We whisked it the same way you would normal double cream – until it’s a thick consistency – you can add a spoon or 2 of icing sugar if you want to sweeten it a bit.

This recipe makes 4

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 cups of non-dairy milk

4 tablespoons of vegetable oil

2 teaspoons of baking powder

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

2 tbsps sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 pinch of salt

(Optional – I added a mashed banana)

Instructions

1. Grease the waffle iron with vegetable oil and turn it on.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl.
3. Add the plant milk, vegetable oil, apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract to the dry ingredients
4. Whisk the mixture by hand until its a smooth batter
5. Pour the batter into the waffle iron according to its instructions.
6. open the waffle maker only when they are ready! The best way to tell is when steam stops coming out of the waffle iron.
7. Open the waffle maker slowly to allow them time to release.
8. Whilst you are cooking more waffles place them on a baking tray in a low oven until you are ready to serve them to keep them crisp & warm.

These waffles came out perfectly crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Enjoy with your favourite toppings!

This is a great tasting easy go- to recipe for a simple stir fry which you can adapt according to your taste or ingredients available. It’s also quick to make – literally throw the ingredients in the pan.

The sweet chilli sauce & soy sauce are the key ingredients. I always have a bottle of each in the cupboard & you cannot go wrong it’s a winning combination of flavours! Salty, sweet & spicy but not too hot, the kids love it!

We were having a ‘cheat day’ so used a pack of ready mixed Vegetable & Bean sprout Stir Fry.

You can use any fresh vegetables you like – Carrot, broccoli, cabbage, peppers, beansprouts are all great – make sure you chop them into small pieces.

We used ready to Wok Noodles. You have to check the noodles are vegan as I’ve made the mistake of buying noodles that couldn’t be eaten so avoid Egg noodles!! These ones are rice noodles so they’re ok & we tried curry flavour one which was nice.

If you don’t have noodles it’s equally nice with rice. You can jazz up the rice a little by adding some finely chopped spring onion, chopped coriander, grated carrot & crushed peanuts!

Ingredients

3 tbsps Soy Sauce

3 tbsps Sweet Chilli Sauce

1tbsp Tomato ketchup

200g No Chicken – chicken substitute- tofu, Seitan or we used Linda Mcartney Frozen pulled chicken. (Half a pack)

Vegetables of choice (about 4 cups) or ready pack

2 tbsps oil

2 garlic cloves, sliced

2 teaspoons grated or dry ginger

1 or 2 tablespoons water.

Salt & pepper to season.

150 g noodles

(Optional – fresh chopped coriander)

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in wok or big frying pan.
2. Add the vegan ‘no chicken’ , heat for couple of minutes or according to your pack instructions.
3. Add the onion garlic stir for a minute
4. Add the vegetables – stir fry for 3 or 4 mins. You can add a tablespoon or 2 of water so they don’t stick.
5. Add the ready to wok noodles (or pre-cooked noodles) stir through for a minute.
6. Add the soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, ketchup stir through and heat through for a couple of minutes. (You can add more of the sauce if you like – just up by 1 tablespoon of each of the chilli & soy sauce)
7. Sprinkle with the fresh coriander to serve.

Enjoy! This is one recipe you will try again and again!