Vegan Cauliflower Rice Sushi

Let me start by saying I love me some sushi, and I’m somewhat of a sushi snob; I won’t touch it if it doesn’t taste delicious! That said, I’m always open to trying new things, so when I came across some recipes for cauliflower rice I thought, what the hell, let’s make some sushi with that! Turns out, rice made with cauliflower is freakin’ awesome and works wonderfully in sushi! Even for this sushi snob 🙂 For this hand-roll I used marinated flat mushrooms and avocado but you could put any of your favourite additions in there.

Makes: 4 hand rolls

• 1/2 head of cauliflower, broken in pieces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 nori seaweed sheets
• 1 avocado
• 1 large flat mushroom
• A dash each of soy sauce, oil and balsamic vinegar
• Sushi ginger, soy sauce and wasabi for serving

Begin with the rice. Place the cauliflower florets into a food processor and pulse until you have a fine, rice-like granules. It won’t take long!

Now, heat the oil in a small pan and throw in the ‘rice’. Mix to coat in the oil and cook for about 7 – 8 minutes until it softens slighty. Put to the side.

Now slice the mushroom into longs strips and place in a shallow bowl. Drizzle with some soy sauce, oil and balsamic vinegar and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Slice your avocado in the meantime. Cook the mushroom in a pan over medium to high heat for a few minutes until soft. Set aside.

Now it’s time to assemble! (Sorry, but how gorgeous is that ‘rice’?) Making sure that the rice stays slightly warm will help it stick to the nori better. Start by spreading a layer of rice over the nori sheet, leaving a space at the front and back. Now lay over the avocado and the mushroom slices.

Roll up and cut in half! Serve with ginger, wasabi and soy sauce. Give these a go, I’m sure you’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was!

Easy Vegan Burritos – Vegan MoFo

As this post goes live, I’ll be living it up in Venice with two of my best mates! I’ll try and take photos of all the delicious Italian cuisine I’m sure I’ll be scoffing my face with. But for now, we do Vegan Mexican style! This recipe is one of my go-to lunch or dinners because its easy, cheap and incredibly tasty. As always, feel free to mess around with the ingredients, otherwise, why mess with perfection!

There is really no specific recipe here folks, just the usual suspects

• Tortilla wraps
• Organic black and kidney beans
• Brown rice (I used left-over turmeric rice with chickpeas)
• Onions
• Cumin, coriander, chilli powder, garlic and salt and pepper
• Avocado
• Tomatoes
• Vegan cheese if you please

For anyone in the UK, these organic beans from Sainsbury’s are the bomb, so much nicer than the tin stuff :). I fried up some onions with the spices and then added in the beans with some fresh parsley.

Any rice is fine, but I just used up some left-over rice I had made with turmeric, lemon and chickpeas.

I put the avocado down first, so it sticks to the tortilla, then the rice, beans, cheese and tomato. Finish with some salt and pepper, roll up and you’re ready to go!

 

A Vegan Approach to Eggs on Toast – VeganMoFo

A fellow blogger (who has a great film blog, check it out) asked me for a recipe for my egg sandwich. I can’t say no to making one of my favourite dishes, so I complied! Instead of making this the way I usually do, which is on fresh bread with salad and vegan mayo, I actually turned it into more of a breakfast meal with muffins and sautéed spinach. I have used a product here called The Vegg which is a vegan egg yolk and if you can’t get your hands on it, then this dish is still awesome, but if you can I highly recommend it. The flavour is so spot on, your taste buds will be thinking that you’re done with your vegan days!

Makes: Enough for one

• 1/4 pack of firm tofu
• Tumeric
• 2 tablespoons prepared Vegg
• A handful of fresh spinach
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 english muffin
• Salt and pepper

Method:

First, you must drain and press you tofu. See here for the best way to do this, but only press for about 10 minutes, you still want a little bit of moisture to help give it that eggy texture. Now slice the tofu in half lengthways and using a glass, cut two round slices out of the tofu.

Sprinkle each round with a little tumeric and rub in gently.

Now heat some oil in a pan on medium-high and cook the tofu until slightly browned on each side – around 5 minutes each. Just before they are done, add to the pan your washed spinach and allow to wilt.

Toast your muffins and layer the sliced avocado on top, then the spinach and tofu. Carefully carve out a small part of the centre of each tofu round and gently pour in the Vegg yolk, allowing it to cascade over the tofu and spinach, like a good yolk should 🙂

Now finish it off with some salt and pepper and dig in! This is perfect for an easy breakfast or weekend brunch.

Tofu Cutlet & Roasted Veg Sandwich – VeganMoFo

As promised! So if you saw my last post, I know you’ll just be dying of impatience, desperately wanting to see what it is that I used that lovely pressed tofu for! 😉 Well here it is – a sandwich! But this ain’t no ordinary sandwich folks, give it a go and you’ll see why.

Makes: 2 sandwiches

• 4 slices of nice crusty bread (I used a walnut bread, so good!)
• 1 block firm tofu, drained and pressed and then cut into four pieces
• Approx. 3/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 zucchini, sliced thinly lengthways
• 1 yellow or red pepper, sliced thinly
• 1 tomato
• 1 avocado
• Salt and pepper

Method:

Start with the veggies. Pre-heat the oven at 200C/400F/gas mark 6 and line up your sliced zucchini and pepper on a baking sheet. Brush with a little olive oil and place in the oven for around 10 minutes or until they soft and brown around the edges.

Like this!

Now, lay out a layer of cornstarch on a plate and place a slice of the tofu on it. Coat all the tofu pieces with plenty of cornstarch and set aside – there is no need to dredge them in milk first as the natural moisture of the tofu will suffice. Sprinkle them with a little salt.

Heat about two tablespoons of oil in a pan on medium to high heat. Fry the tofu on both sides until golden brown. This may take about 7 or 8 minutes on both sides, just watch them carefully. The coating will become lovely and crispy.

When they are done, cut each piece diagonally so they fit better on the sandwich.

You can see here the benefit of pressing the tofu before-hand. It remains firm through cooking and when you bite into it, the texture is just perfect! Now you’re ready to assemble!

Start with the veggies…

…and then the tofu cutlets…

…then the tomato and avocado! Sprinkle with salt and pepper and you’re done.

I’m telling ya… crusty bread, creamy avocado, crispy tofu, juicy veggies – try this today!! Happy Vegan MoFo-ing everyone!

Vegan Burger Series: Episode One – Falafel with Avocado Cream & Tahini Mayo

Welcome to episode one! I’m very happy to start this burger exploration with you, my hungry readers! Upon becoming a vegan, many of us presume we must forego our once cherished greasy bundles of goodness such as the blessed burger and remain content with the pathetic, flimsy veggie versions usually on offer at the local pub, (which, by the way, will contain egg as a binding ingredient). But with a little know-how and some help from our friend, the trusty bean, anyone can throw together a burger that is delicious, sumptuous, healthy and as greasy as you want baby!

For the first burger, I have taken inspiration from a great vegan chef called Chloe Coscarelli, who made some cute little falafel sliders with a tahini dressing. You can make these as big or small as you like and include different toppings, but the avocado and tahini go particularly well here.

Makes: Four large or about six smaller patties.

• 1 can chickpeas, reserving a small handful for the avocado cream (you can cook dried ones as well)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 small onion
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• A BIG bunch of both fresh parsley and coriander
• Salt and pepper
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 cup chickpea flour (sometimes called gram flour)
• Burger buns and fresh tomato for serving

For the avocado cream and tahini mayo:

• 1 avocado
• A small handful chickpeas left from can
• A bunch of fresh parsley
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• The juice of one lemon
• 2 tablespoons water

By the way, I forgot to include the flour and tahini in this shot 🙂

Method:

Throw your chickpeas, peeled garlic, onion, cumin and salt and pepper into a food processor and pulse until roughly blended. You’ll need to scrape down the sides. Now add in the fresh herbs, oil and flour and blend until you have a nice thick texture, but it will still be fairly moist. Place into a bowl and if you need, add a little more flour to help the mixture bind as you form them into the patties. Make them small or big as you prefer. In a flat frying pan, heat about half an inch of oil over medium to high and add in your burgers. Cook for about 4 -5 minutes on both sides and once they are on their second turn, press them gently to make them flatter if you need. They should turn a nice dark, golden brown and smell divine!

For the avocado cream, simply add to your processor the avocado (without skin of course!), the remaining chickpeas, parsley and 1 garlic clove and blend until smooth. For the tahini mayo, drop the two tablespoons of tahini into a small bowl with the lemon juice and water and whisk with folk until you have a creamy consistency.

Now the fun part! Follow the photos for assembly: Toast the bun, add the burger, then the avocado, then a slice of tomato and finish with the oozy, lovely tahini mayo!

Final step = Devour

Avocado Cupcakes with Avo-Lime Frosting

I’ve been inspired recently by another awesome blog called Big Vegan Affair where the cookbook, ‘Big Vegan’ is explored (explore is right, this book has over 350 recipes, some very daunting!). I received this book last year as a gift and have not used it as much as I would like. So today I chose to delve in and give these avocado cupcakes a whirl 🙂

I have usually been quite hesitant to use avocados in sweet desserts, but now that I have…I’m never going back! Try it out for yourself, the buttery texture of the avocados goes great in the batter and also in the icing 🙂

Makes: 12 Cupcakes

• 1¾ cups all-purpose plain flour
• 2 teaspoons lime zest
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup mashed avocado
• 2 tablespoons veg/canola oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup non-dairy milk (I used Almond)
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting:

• 1/2 cup mashed avocado
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice
• 2 cups powdered/icing sugar
• Extra milk if you need it for thinning

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and line a muffin tin with 12 liners. In a large bowl combine the flour, lime zest, baking powder and soda, and salt. Puree the avocado in a bowl or blender then mix in the oil. Stir into this the sugar then the milk, lime juice and vanilla. Stir this liquid mix into the dry ingredients and mash-up any lumps.

Pour the batter into prepared liners and bake for about 20 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean (or until the middle of the cupcake springs back when pressed). Let the cupcakes cool in the pan.

To make the frosting, mash the avocado with the lime juice in a medium bowl until smooth then stir in the icing sugar. (I used a hand blender here). Cover and put in the fridge until cupcakes are cool and ready to be frosted. Once they are, spread about a tablespoon of icing/frosting on each cake. You can store these in the fridge in a sealed container and when ready to eat, bring to room temp.

Let me know what you think of them. I love how you can really taste the avocado in this recipe and mixed with the zesty lime, ah! It’s heaven 🙂