Chocolate pudding, tofu salad, beetroot salad

I made this chocolate pudding.  I liked the look of it at least partly because it's a vegan pudding that doesn't even mention it's vegan.  And I'm really into pudding, of the gloopy American definition, at the moment.  And it is really quick and easy.  And with chocolate and spices and sweetness, how can one go wrong?

3/4 cup sugar
1 pound silken tofu
8 ounces high-quality dark chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon chili powder, or more to taste

In a small pot, combine sugar with 3/4 cup water; bring to a boil and cook until sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly.

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until completely smooth, stopping machine to scrape down its sides if necessary. Divide among 4 to 6 ramekins or glasses and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings (I made about 1/4 of the recipe and it went into 3 small ramekins, which would be enough for a sweet.  I have trouble using good chocolate for anything other than eating out of the packet...

Note: I found a subtle powdery edge from the spices that slightly detracted from the silky texture, so tried it another time with only the vanilla.  The texture was definitely better but the other tastes are nice too.  Seb definitely preferred the spicy one, and I think I could go either way depending on my mood.



Delia's silken tofu with chilli and spring onion

I have been making variations on this Delia recipe (from Vegetarian Collection) for years.  It's quick and easy and super tasty - the texture contrasts are really good, and the tofu absorbs so much exciting flavour.


~3/4 box silken tofu
about 6 spring onions
~3 tbsp chopped coriander
toasted sesame seeds
~3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
~2 tbsp soy sauce
~2 tbsp groundnut or other light flavoured oil
~1 tbsp sesame oil

Put tofu in a fairly large, shallow serving dish and chop into ~2-3cm cubes.  Chop spring onions: cut off the white part into ~4cm lengths, then slice these lengthways to make long thin pieces.  Chop the rest of the spring onions in little cross sections as normal.  Sprinkle the cross section spring onion, the coriander and the toasted sesame seeds over the tofu.  Other green stuff can be good here too - steamed broccoli and/or sugarsnap peas, bean (or alfalfa, clover etc) sprouts, cooked edamame (especially broccoli).  Put sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce across the top.  Put the oils in a small saucepan and heat til almost steaming.  Add the lengthways cut spring onions and fry til they are quite well-browned and crispy.  Pour the oils and crispy spring onion bits over the top of the tofu dish and serve immediately.  Keeps for lunch the next day OK too, although it looks significantly less pretty once you mix it all together.  The soy / sesame / chilli / tofu combination is just so good.

Also made this marinated beetroot salad.

a couple of salady recipes

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/18/beetroot-saffron-rice-recipe-ottolenghi?intcmp=239

was good but not great

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/25/quinoa-fennel-salad-recipe-ottolenghi

was very tasty

About 70ml olive oil
3 medium fennel bulbs, thinly sliced
1 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp cider vinegar
Salt and black pepper
150g quinoa
300g broad beans (fresh or frozen)
1 green chilli, deseeded and chopped
1½ tsp ground cumin
25g chopped mint
25g chopped coriander
25g chopped dill
3 limes
Pour 50ml oil into a large sauté pan, add the fennel and cook on low-medium heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden and soft. Add the sugar, vinegar and some salt, and cook, stirring, for two minutes, then lift from the heat.
Pour the quinoa into a pot of boiling water and simmer for eight to 10 minutes. Do not overcook it – taste to make sure it still has some bite. Drain into a fine sieve, run under cold water, shake to remove excess liquid and add to the fennel.
Throw the beans into a pot of boiling water, cook for a minute, drain and refresh. Press the beans gently to remove their leathery skins, then stir into the quinoa, along with the chilli, cumin and herbs, and season.
Take the limes and, using a small, sharp knife, trim off their tops and tails. Now cut down their sides, along their round curves, to remove the skin and white pith. Over a small bowl, remove the segments from each lime by slicing between the membranes. Squeeze any remaining juice over the segments.
Cut each lime segment into three and add it and the juice to the quinoa salad. Add the remaining olive oil and taste, adjusting the seasoning as necessary and possibly adding a little more olive oil if it seems a bit dry.

(used edamame and adapted herbs)

Banana Coconut Macadamia Cake for Nik's Birthday (and back-up green cakes)

In the lab, everyone is responsible for the next person's birthday after theirs.  My birthday was a month ago, and Nik's was today (the next one).  Nik bakes amazingly beautiful cakes so I was a little concerned about how mine would turn out, especially since I haven't done that much vegan baking yet.  This was a largely successful experiment...

Banana coconut macadamia cake
(based on the how it all vegan banana bread recipe posted here)

4 mashed ripe bananas (3)
1½ tbsp lime juice (1, lemon juice)
3/4 cup canola oil (1/2)
3/4 cup sugar (1/2)
2 1/4 cups plain flour (1.5)
3/4 cup desiccated coconut (1/2, wheat germ)
3/4 tsp salt (1/2)
3/4 tsp baking powder (1/2)
3/4 tsp baking soda (1/2)
splash of coconut milk (fake milk type) (none)

Grease and line two 9 in cake tins. Heat oven to 375F. Mash bananas then mix with wet ingredients. Sift dry ingredients together. Mix wet into dry, then add to tins. Bake for ~30 minutes.


Made 1.5 times more than a standard quantity as I wanted a deep cake. On reflection, this was perhaps a mistake, but it did look quite impressive once dressed up. The recipe was lovely and simple, and tasted really banana-y, but it was quite crumbly. Perhaps my changes to the recipe were to blame?


Coconut frosting
(from chef chloe here)
(enough for 12 cupcakes?)  

½ cup refined coconut oil
2 teaspoons flavouring (lime juice in this case, vanilla would be an alternative)
4 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup non-dairy milk (coconut)
food coloring
Beat coconut oil and flavouring then powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until desired frosting consistency.

I could only get unrefined coconut oil, don't know how different they are.  It was quite solid and I had to warm it a little to be able to beat it.  Mashing it with a fork seemed to be a good way to go.  It was pretty tough to get all the sugar in and I found it better to add coconut milk alternately with the sugar to get good consistency.  It came out really good in the end.  This is pretty much the only fat I've ever been tempted to eat out of the jar!  And this may well have been the best frosting I have ever made!

I spread some frosting on either side of the middle of the sandwich and then put chopped macadamia nuts in between and sandwiched it.  Then I spread the rest of the frosting on top and covered the top with chopped macadamia nuts.

The amount of frosting I had was enough for the middle and top of the cake and the holes in the fairy buns...


Green (tea) fairy cakes

Took chef chloe's recipe as a basic cupcake.

1 ¾ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup veg oil
1 cup fake milk (used coconut)
2 tbsp green tea
1 tbsp lime juice

Preheat oven to 350F. Lined a 12-cup cupcake pan with brown paper cups. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in large bowl. Combine oil, milk, tea, and lime juice in separate bowl. Add wet to dry and mix thoroughly.  Add a little green food colouring to make more green.  Distribute evenly in pan and bake for 10-15 minutes or until toothpick come out slightly crumby/clean. Let cool and decorate.


I made nine into fairy buns with some of the coconut frosting described above, with a little green tea and a little green colouring added - cut an inverted cone out of the top, removed and put about a teaspoon of frosting into the hole, then cut the cut-out piece in half and replaced on top to look like little wings. The curved cut edges go towards the middle.

The other three I mixed up a little water icing with icing sugar, green food colouring and water, then iced the tops and added some shredded coconut to look pretty.

They looked good and tasted pretty good too but didn't really taste like green tea. I could try using green tea instead of milk, and/or using matcha powder, which would probably give a stronger flavour and colour (although Sarah says you have to be careful not to use too much and make it taste bitter).

Bean Chutney

This (by Nigel Slater @ Guardian) is just like the one I made with Patrick according to his mum's recipe - my first ever chutney...


Makes approx two jars.

2 onions
150 ml medium malt vinegar
8 allspice berries
1 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp yellow mustard seed
750 g runner beans
1 tbsp English mustard powder
2 tsp grain mustard
2 tsp turmeric
150ml cider vinegar
200 g granulated sugar
1 heaped tsp salt
250g tomatoes
28g cornflour

Peel and finely chop the onions, put them into a medium-sized saucepan with the malt vinegar, allspice, coriander and mustard seeds. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

String the beans, removing the stalks. Thinly slice each bean, cutting diagonally to give fine shreds about 4 or 5cm long. Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the beans and cook for a full minute. Drain and set aside.

Mix the mustards, turmeric, sugar, salt and half the cider vinegar in a small basin. Dice the tomatoes then add to the vinegar and onions, stir in the beans and mustard mixture then add the remaining cider vinegar. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes, stirring regularly. The beans should be tender, but still bright in colour.

Remove 2 or 3 tbsp of liquid and use it to mix the cornflour to a paste. Stir gently back into the beans. Leave to simmer for a minute or two until the mixture has thickened slightly. Ladle into warm, sterilised preserving jars and seal.

Banana pancakes

From here.

Makes 2 or more servings
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 banana, mashed
1 1/4 cup soy milk
1 tbsp sugar
sliced fruit (garnish)
maple syrup (garnish)
In a medium bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together. In a small bowl, mash the banana with a fork and add 1/4 cup of milk, mixing together until there are no lumps. Add the banana, sugar, and the remaining milk to the dry mix and stir together until "just mixed". Portion out about 3/4 to 1 cup of batter onto a hot non-stick pan or a lightly oiled fry pan and cover with lid. Let sit on medium heat until the center starts to bubble and become sturdy. Flip pancake over and cook other side until golden brown. Repeat process until batter is gone. Garnish with fruit and maple syrup.

I made a blueberry compote (frozen berries heated with a little maple syrup and maybe cinnamon too) and maple syrup.  Maybe good with thinner batter for less American pancakes...

Bran muffins

(makes 12, very generously filled in my muffin tin - I can only just fit it all in)

3 cups bran
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp molasses
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cup water
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 cup raisins or dates

Oven 350F.  Mix in bowl the bran, flour, soda, baking powder,.  Add sugar, molasses, oil, water, vinegar, raisins.  Mix.  Put in muffin tins and bake 35-45 min.


Made with a mixture of fine wheatmeal I thought was coarser and more like bulghur (from the Russian shop - label was in Russian, in my defence) and blended-up oats.  Was good - I quite enjoyed the texture from the meal, and they seemed really quite light, in a way - the least heavy vegan baking I've done so far.  I used a mixture of raisins and cranberries and it was good.

This recipe came from somewhere on the internet.  I think it may have originated from the How it all Vegan! cookbook, which is totally on my want list.


Edit 2012/08/27: I made these again recently.  This time I used carob molasses instead of regular blackstrap, and added some cinnamon and sesame seeds.  Still used a mixture of ground-up oats and the ground-up fine bulghur, and used raisins.  They come out very robust but I quite like it.  They aren't very sweet - I might add a little more sugar another time (I served them with strawberry jam on the side).  Would also consider using brown sugar, and/or increasing the molasses a little: I liked the carob molasses but could have used more for a stronger taste.  Also considered using mulberry molasses instead.  Could have added more sesame seeds (prob used ~1tsp - they were a little lost) / sprinkled some on top.

Baked squash, corn and exciting sauce

The first time I made this Seb said it was the most exciting thing I had ever cooked!

Basically from here.

This is great with warmed corn tortillas. Serves four to six.

1 squash (butternut or red onion), weighing around 1 kg
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cobs of corn
2 cloves garlic, peeled and very finely chopped
2 red chillies, very finely chopped
200g goat's cheese, crumbled with your hands (or chopped) (did not use)
Juice of 1 lime
1 handful chopped coriander leaves, to garnish

For the dressing
80g pumpkin seeds
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 tomatoes (green ideally, but not to worry if you can't get hold of any; or tomatilloes)
2 green lettuce leaves (romaine or cos), chopped
1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
2 green chillies, roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly milled pepper

Peel and deseed the squash. Chop the flesh into 1-2cm chunks, tip into an oven tray, toss in olive oil, season and roast in a medium oven (190C/375F/gas mark 5) for about 30 minutes, until starting to brown and just cooked through.
While the squash is roasting, cook the corn in boiling water for about 10 minutes. Drain, refresh and leave to cool a little, then cut the kernels from the cobs.

Take the squash out of the oven (leave the heat on) and toss in the chopped garlic, chilli and corn kernels. Transfer the lot to an ovenproof serving dish and return to the oven for five minutes.

Meanwhile, make the dressing by dry-frying the pumpkin seeds over a medium heat for five minutes, until they are toasted and have popped. When cool, tip the seeds into the jug of a liquidiser, add all the other dressing ingredients and blend, adding a little water to take it to a pouring consistency.

Fold the goat's cheese into the squash and corn mix, and return to the oven for another 10 minutes or so, until the goat's cheese is hot.

To serve, squeeze lime juice over the pumpkin mix, drizzle the dressing over, season to taste and sprinkle with coriander.

I tend to downregulate the chili and garlic in the sauce a little (or just modify to suit the spiciness / sizes I have).  I also used sunflower seeds instead of pumpkin sometimes, or a combination of.  Left out the goat cheese.  Used frozen, briefly defrosted and refreshed, sweetcorn instead of fresh.  Used any kind of squash.

It is yummy.  Even just the squash roasted with corn and garlic and chili is very simple and tasty.

Beetroot, avocado and edamame salad

Staying up all night to catch a flight.  Thought I may as well use the time to fill in some recipes I've cooked in the last little while and will definitely be doing again.

This one is basically from here.

Serves four to six.

4 medium raw beetroots (around 350g in total)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil, plus a little extra to finish
½ tsp sugar (or sub sugar and chilli sauce for sweet chilli)
1-3 tsp savoury chilli sauce or paste (Tabasco type thing - or sub sugar and chilli sauce for sweet chilli)
1 tsp salt
black pepper
2 medium avocados, peeled and thinly sliced
10g coriander
10g mint
20g pea shoots (or lamb's lettuce)
150g broad beans, blanched, refreshed and skinned (or frozen edamame, quickly blanched and refreshed)

Peel the beetroots and slice them very thinly, around 2-3mm thick – if you have one, use a mandolin. (If your beets are large, halve them after peeling, then cut into slices.) Put the beetroot in a pot with plenty of boiling water and simmer for three to five minutes, until semi-cooked; it should still be crunchy. Drain and put in a large bowl.

Add the red onion, vinegar, oil, sugar, chilli sauce, salt and pepper to the beetroot bowl and toss everything together gently. Leave for 10-15 minutes, then taste and see if you want to add more sugar, salt or vinegar.

Finally, add the beans, pea shoots or leaves, herbs and avocado and serve/eat.


I have adapted and made various variations.  Usually use edamame beans, slice beetroot with a peeler (like the texture better thinner), substitute sweet chilli sauce for the sugar and chilli... Any kind of salad leaf for the pea shoots and any combination of mint/basil/coriander/parsley for the herbs.  Made quite a lot - half would be plenty but I guess more always gets eaten...

First Sunday in January

Using stuff up before going on holiday...

Made veg stock.

Also celeriac lentil salad:

Celeriac lentil salad @ Guardian

80g hazelnuts
200g puy lentils
700ml water
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 small celeriac, peeled and cut into 1cm chips
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp hazelnut oil (didn't have - used more olive instead)
3 tbsp cider vinegar
6 tbsp fresh mint, leaves picked and washed (used some dried from fridge instead)
Preheat the oven to 140C/275F/ gas mark 1. Scatter the hazelnuts over a baking tray and roast in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, set aside to cool down, then chop roughly.
Put the lentils, water, bay leaves and thyme sprigs in a small saucepan. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the lentils are al dente, then drain into a sieve. Remove and discard the bay leaves and the woody sprigs.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, bring plenty of water to a boil, drop in the celeriac, along with the lemon juice and some salt, and simmer for 12 minutes, or until just tender. Drain.
In a large bowl, mix the hot lentils (make sure they don't cool down - lentils soak up flavours much better when they're piping hot) with the olive oil, two tablespoons of the hazelnut oil, the vinegar, a few grinds of black pepper and plenty of salt. Add the celeriac, stir, taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.
If you're serving this straight away, stir in half the mint and the hazelnuts, then pile in a big heap on to a suitable serving dish. Drizzle the remaining hazelnut oil over the top, then garnish with the rest of the mint and nuts.
If you're planning on serving it cold, wait for the lentil and celeriac mixture to cool down, taste again, then make a final adjustment to the seasoning. Add the rest of the hazelnut oil, the mint and the nuts just as you do when serving it hot.

Was pretty tasty.  Liked the other one I made better (with the crisp celeriac and sweet apple), but this was good too, and quite different.

Then baked a turban squash whole as it was too tough to cut uncooked.  Stabbed it quite a lot as I thought it might explode.  Baked at 350F for about an hour.

Squash puree

With nutmeg, almond milk, fake butter and s+p.

Squash, sweetcorn and ginger soup

Fried an onion, garlic and ginger in olive oil.  Added baked squash (scraped out of shell) and 900ml of veg stock.  Cooked a little to defrost stock, then added couple of handfuls frozen sweetcorn.  Cooked 5 min or so, then allow to cool a little, seasoned, and liquidised.  Added some almond milk.  Taste to check seasoning.