Veganuary recipes

vegan pistachio pesto pasta with grilled courgettes

This delicious, nutritious and healthy Vegan Pistachio Pesto contains 5 ingredients and only takes 5 minutes to make! It’s a great versatile dish and can be served with pasta, bread, grilled vegetables, potatoes and salads. The addition of Pistachios adds an extra hint of sweet and rich flavour to this simple yet delicious gluten and dairy-free pasta dish.

INGREDIENTS

Basil

Borna foods pistachio nuts

Garlic

Olive oil

Salt

Black pepper

You can add Nutritional yeast (if you like it cheesy)

METHOD

1. Blend all the ingredients in a blender or food processor of your choice. 

2. Mix with cooked (always al dente) pasta, grilled vegetables and set aside for a few minutes. Serve.

Enjoy!

Vegan Creme Brûlée with Natvia

This creamy vanilla creme brûlée is completely guilt free.
 Made from ingredients that are sugar free, dairy free and vegan!

INGREDIENTS (serves 6)

1 tin of Coconut Milk

1 Vanilla Pod or 2 tsp

Vanilla Bean Paste

300ml Almond Milk

6 Sachets of Natvia

3 Tbs Corn Flour (cornstarch)

3 Natvia sachets

Toppings: Raspberries, berries or mint leaves (optional)

Essential Items: Kitchen torch (You can use a grill), Ramekins, Clingfilm, Whisk, Saucepan, Bowl

METHOD

1. Heat the coconut milk in a saucepan with the vanilla paste or pod (seeds).

2. In separate bowl mix almond milk with corn scratch and 6 Natvia sachets (till all pups dissolved).

3. Add almond milk  mixture to the hot coconut milk and whisk on a low heat until the mixture is thickened. This will take about 3/4 minutes.

4. Pour the mixture into the ramekins. Leaving about 1cm till the top.

5. Cover with cling film and let it set in the fridge for 3 hours.

6. Sprinkle Natvia sugar over & blow torch to caramelise.

7. Add additional toppings such as fresh berries to put those finishing touches to your creme brûlée.

Vegan & Gluten Free Focaccia Bread

 In our opinion, vegan focaccia bread should be 3 things; crunchy on top, chewy on the inside, and delicious! This focaccia bread can be made to accompany a selection of cheese, cured meats, hummus, fresh vegetables and olives to remind you of those long summer nights.

Trust us, this vegan gluten-free and dairy-free focaccia bread is perfect as a starter or a snack or simply just because…

INGREDIENTS

500g gluten-free flour ( we used chickpea)

1 ½ tsp salt

7g sachet fast-action yeast

325ml Luke warm/room temperature diary free milk ( we used soya)

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling

A few stems of rosemary

Red onion

Sea salt, to serve (optional)

Olive oil to drizzle

METHOD

1. Put the flour into a bowl and mix in the salt. Mix the yeast into 325ml the dairy free milk. Add the yeast mixture and oil to the flour, then mix well with your hands. When most of the liquid is incorporated, use your hands to bring all the ingredients together into a ball of dough.

2. Lightly dust a work surface with flour and tip the dough out. Kneed the dough by pulling and stretching for 10 minutes. Try to kneed in as much air into the dough as possible. Put the kneed dough into an oiled bowl, cover with a little more oil and a tea towel or cling film. Leave to rest for 1 hour in a warm place until doubled in size.

3. Once rested, tip the dough onto a lightly dusted work surface and gently stretch the dough out onto a baking sheet until it’s about 20 x 30cm. Leave the dough to rise about half as high again, approximately 30-40 minutes in a warm place, covered with a tea towel or cling film.

4. Pre-heat your oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. When the dough has risen, press your fingers into it gently to make some knuckle sized holes. Place the rosemary and sliced red onion to the top of the focaccia. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for about 15 mins, then remove from the oven.

Once baked, lightly drizzle with a bit of olive oil and salt if desired. Enjoy!

Passion fruit vegan meringue tart

There are 3 stages to the recipe, with 3 separate different layers but it's not that complicated at all. Don’t be afraid of making it if you don’t have a blowtorch for the meringue, I didn’t check mine before I made the meringue and ended up using the oven grill! (Yes that’s the solution if you want to make something like this). 30 seconds under the grill can replace your blowtorch. I used a small metal tart basket 8″ to make the crust but if you have smaller or bigger pan just multiply or divide the ingredient measures by 2.

For the crust

INGREDIENTS

1 3/4 cup almond flour

3 pitted Medjool dates

3 Tbsp coconut oil

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 175C. 

2. To make the crust mix all the ingredients into a food processor.  Pulse several times until the mixture resembles wet sand.  Don’t worry if it’s a bit sticky. 

3. Pour the crust mixture into a lightly greased tart pan, press well.  Poke some holes through the crust with a fork.

4. Bake at 170C for 8-10 minutes until fragrant and slightly golden.  Remove and cool completely.

For the curd

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup (120 ml) lemon juice

1/2 (170 g) honey (depending on how sweet you want it)

1/3 cup (40 g) cornstarch (or arrowroot powder)

Pinch of salt

Pinch of turmeric

1/8 cup (20 g) coconut oil

2 passion fruits

METHOD

1. In a saucepan, combine the lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch and salt. Cook on medium-high heat, with constant stirring, until thickened. Remember that once it’s cooled down it will get thicker as well so don’t leave it alone!

2. Add a pinch of turmeric to get the golden colour.

3. Remove from heat and mix in the coconut oil (you also can add coconut cream if you want it to be creamy)
While warm, pour the curd onto the tart base and allow to set for approximately 30 minutes in the fridge.

For the vegan meringue

There are quite a few different ways to make it, this version is not too complicated and worked well.

INGREDIENTS

400 g can of chickpeas – you just want the liquid from the tin

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

2 table spoon of sweetener Stevia

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

METHOD

1. Using a high speed mixer, beat the chickpea water (aquafaba) , add the cream of tartar and stevia .

2. It can take up to 7 minutes to get the right consistency so don’t worry if you can’t see the fluffy meringue after 2 minutes.

3. Once soft peaks appear, use a piping bag (a sandwich bag with a hole at the tip is a good substitute) or a big spoon and spread it over the tart with little peaks.

4. Finally, preheat oven to 220C-250c grill , once heated, place the meringue tart under the grill for 15-30 seconds. The length of time depends on the power of the oven and colour you want to achieve.

5. Remove from the grill, allow to cool and add some edible flowers or lemon zest on top, or leave it plain and serve immediately…

Words and photography by Jelena Fairweather