Vegan Recipes

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena goes well with fruit, and there is also a Balsamic cream you can buy which is less expensive and ideal to decorate plates.

Nothing better than a colourful fruit plate for breakfast, dessert, or snack! 

Strawberries, nectarines, pears, blueberries and kiwi fruit, a drop of lemon juice and some coconut water. No sugar. 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I am addicted to my new Nutribullet, made many smoothies so I'll post a few of my favourites in the next few days, starting with: 

Baby spinach, kiwi, coconut water

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

In New Zealand it is still plum season in the Oratia orchards! But is it so hot that plums don't last long after picking, so I had about 1 kg that was far too ripe and soft for eating. I washed and then put the plums in a pot with a little water and boiled them, then I strain them to discard stones and leftover skin and tasted the paste. I usually add 50-60% of sugar (I don't like the 1kg fruit for 1kg sugar ratio they do in NZ), but this paste was already sweet! So I added just 2 tbsp of brown sugar and a pinch of citric acid (as a preservative) and, fearing that the jam wouldn't set, 1/3 tsp of agar agar. If I were to keep this jam longer maybe I would have added more sugar, but I only made 5 small jars and two are gone already!

This dessert is perfect after a Japanese meal, maybe not a traditional Japanese dish (I invented it, after all, like most of the recipes in this blog) but it taste great and and it is made with only two ingredients: persimmons and agar agar (and a little water). So it is sugar free, gluten free and vegan! All you need to do is peel two persimmons and cube them. Put the fruit in a blender with a just enough water to be able to blend it. Mix half tsp of agar agar powder with 50 ml of water and add to the persimmon 'smoothie'. Put everything in a small pot and bring to the boil. Simmer for just one minute then pour into a mould (rectangular is better). Let it cool down and cut into slices.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

"Vegan baker Goose Wohlt coined the term aquafaba ("bean liquid") to describe the liquid, which French chef Joël Roessel discovered could be used in recipes much like egg whites."

Source; Wikipedia

Not confident enough to try a single Pavlova I made two disks, plus some little ones to see how they baked. I had the oven on first very hot, and the at about 75°C fan for about three hours, actually more, it seemed to take forever! In the meantime I also whipped some coconut cream (Vegan Pavlova, remember?), I find that the Family Choice coconut cream has the thickest cream of all, in fact so thick that you don't need to refrigerate the can first, and can use the liquid a the bottom of the can to thin it down. I added a tsp of golden syrup (Maple syrup is good too) and a few drops of vanilla, and then set the cream aside in the fridge.

Jam made with plums from Oratia. I removed the stone and cooked the plums with a little water and some jam setting sugar (this was a present, and I wanted to try it). The NZ jam tradition seems to be 1kg of sugar for 1 kg of fruit (or even more sugar if you make raspberry jam) for an Italian this is too much. I go for 40 to 60%, with the latter being my preference if I need to preserve the jam for a long time (it helps agains botulin). You can taste the fruit better with less sugar :-).

And our cats, Nikita (left) and Marameo (right) are also enjoying the last of the sun, sleeping outdoors all day long! Marameo is 18 now, an old lady cat 

 After the green juice of the previous post here is a smoothie, and the kids made it: melon, natural apple juice, banana and apricot, decorated with borage flowers (edible).

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

With summer here it is easy to make juices and to eat more raw food.

Green juices are the best, of course, above celery, cucumber and green apple, light and refreshing.

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

This is perfect if you:

A: follow a raw diet (or don't know what to give to a raw eater/vega/gluten free/allergic/etc.)

B: prefer fruit to dessert (i.e. no time to make dessert)

C: want to lose weigh or to eat breakfast all day long

D: are in love! (BTW, this is perfect for St Valentine!)

All you need is a knife and a hear shaped cookie cutter. 

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini

Yes we should all eat more raw fruit and vegetables! This smoothie is super easy, for 4 glasses use 2 bananas, two cups of baby spinach leaves, one cup of blueberries and 2 cups of natural apple juice (from Oratia).

Do you like fresh juices and smoothies?

 Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

You just need two ingredients: 2-3 bananas, sliced and frozen, and 2 punnets of strawberries, cut and frozen. It is actually better if both the banana and strawberries are quite ripe - jam quality!

Freeze the fruit for a few hours (one day is better) then put in the food processor and blend. Eat immediately. Healthy and yummy!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©