Archives for category: Lunch

Lunch at a new Indian Restaurant

November 7, 2013 //

I heard via Facebook that a new Indian restaurant has opened up in my student stomping ground of Newington in Edinburgh and that they do great vegan food. So I felt duty bound to explore and suss them out!

Bindi (in what used to be Anna Purna) is on St Patrick;s Square and is a Gujarati Indian restaurant – totally vegetarian and there is a huge amount of choice for vegans, either meals that are already vegan or that can be adapted. I was really impressed and will certainly head there again with my family.

I opted for the Thali main which is a dish of many parts – a Daal soup, 2 curries (mine were cauliflower and an aubergine and spinach) roti flatbreads and basmati rice. All of these were delightful – the rice was probably the fluffiest I have ever had and the roti were really good.

Whilst waiting I was given a plate of puri (a fried flat bread) and chutneys which were really tasty. The coriander one was really fresh and zingy and was accompanied by a sweet tamarind chutney and a firey lime pickle.

Price wise the food is really good value – the Thali costs £5!

I definitely recommend a visit.

Find them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BindiEdinburgh?ref=ts&fref=ts

Tags Bindi, curry, Indian

Categories Curry, Lentils, Lunch, Restuarant

Vegan boys hit York (again!)

October 13, 2013 //

So yesterday I met one of my best mates in the beautyfull city of York. We walked, we talked, we (tried to) set the world to rights and we ate!

York is home to the wonderful Goji cafe and Martin and I had lunch there.

http://www.gojicafe.co.uk/

For mains: Martin had the stir fried rice with smoked tofu and I had the Indian platter.

and to follow I had the Lava Java coffee cake and Martin (who doesn’t really like desserts!!) had the chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream.

We returned later in the day to get takeaway – Martin bought some cake (allegedly for his wife!) and I got a smoked tofu and veg wrap and a piece of quiche (yes, vegan quiche!) for the train home.

Utterly delicious food and a fab day!

Who says vegans don’t get to eat great food! If you’re ever in York do pop into Goji – you will not be disappointed.

And then, to cap off a great day, on my way home I discovered that Hobnobs nobby flapjacks are suitable for vegans…cue happy dance!!

Tags cake, Flapjack, Indian, lunch, York

Categories Cake, Lunch, Restuarant, Tofu, York

Veggie burgers, pasta sauce and scones.

April 12, 2013 //

Last week the family and I were back in my homeland of Wales and a regular haunt of ours is the fabulous Great Oak Cafe in LLanidloes. It is a vegetarian cafe and does a good variety of vegan nosh. I have always loved their veggie burgers and was delighted to discover they are vegan. They come with some salads and I was especially pleased that the coleslaw and Waldorf salad come with egg free mayo. Happy Andrew.

You will by now, of course know of my penchant for chocolate and cake so when I discovered they had a vegan chocolate cake on the menu….well it would be rude not to! Even happier Andrew.

Should you ever visit the treasure that is Mid Wales do make sure you pop in to the Great Oak.

Tonight called for a simple and quick supper – pasta was the order of the day and I was delighted recently to discover that Sacla’s Italian tomato and olive stir through sauce is vegan.

I have always loved a good fruit scone and saw a recipe that I just had to try out. With a low expectation for success (given that I have struggled with nonvegan scones in the past!) I gave these a go and was blown away by how awesome they are. They need to be a little sweeter in my opinion, but they are light and airy and delicious, especially warm from the oven with a good raspberry jam!

Makes 6 – 8 large scones

125ml soy milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
320g plain white flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
5 tsps sugar
65 g vegan margarine

Add the vinegar to the soy milk and leave for a few minutes to thicken slightly
Mix the flour, raising agents and salt in large mixing bowl and mix with a whisk (I do this rather than sift) to incorporate lots of air
Add sugar
Rub marg into the flour mix until it looks like breadcrumbs
Mix gently again with a whisk
Make a well in the middle of the mixture
Add most of the milk and gently stir the flour in with a fork. Only add the rest of the milk if the resulting dough looks a bit dry
Handling as little as possible pat the dough into a ball
Turn out onto a well floured surface and flatten the dough gently to 1 inch thickness
Cut out 6 scones with a large, sharp cookie cutter
Pat the scraps together to make another scone
Place on a greased and floured baking tray
Brush the scones with soy milk

****Update – I forgot to mention that as I like fruit scones I added a handful of raisins just after mixing in the liquid!

Bake in the top of an oven at Gas mark 7 (220C) for 10 – 15 minutes until golden.

Tips for well risen scones:

Get air into the mix – sift a few times or mix with a whisk
Mix the liquid in slowly with a fork
Handle the dough as little as possible – don’t roll it with a rolling pin but gentle press it down
Use a sharp cookie cutter and try to minimise dough scraps as reshaping these will result in scones that do not rise as well

Tags Chocolate cake, Pasta sauce, Scones, Veggie burger

Categories Cake, Dinner, Lunch, Restuarant, Scones

Simple supper – Roast veg tart.

March 22, 2013 //

Tonight I fancied some carbohydrate based comfort food but not anything too stodgy, something quick and easy yet tasty too!
The result – a yummy Roasted vegetable tart served with potato wedges. Just what the doctor ordered for a cold Friday evening.

Roast a load of veg of choice in some olive oil, salt and pepper. I used an onion, half a butternut squash, a courgette, half an aubergine and a red pepper. I roasted for about 40 minutes at Gas mark 7

Roll out I block of puff pastry (Jus Rol is vegan) to cover a baking sheet. Score a rectangle 5 cm in from the edge
Bake at Gas 8 for 10 – 15 minutes until lightly golden
Squash back the inner rectangle (so you make a large vol au vent case!) and spread something like pesto onto this. I used a jar of Sacla sun dried tomato and garlic pasta sauce.
Spoon and spread out the roasted veg onto the tart base and bake again for another 10 minutes watching that the pastry edges don’t burn!

Last week I visited Henderson’s at St Johns http://www.hendersonsofedinburgh.co.uk/st-johns.php with Lucy for lunch. I had a delicious Smoked tofu and white bean stew which I am going to have a go at making this week.

Tags Roast veg tart, Smoked tofu and white bean stew

Categories Dinner, Lunch, Restuarant

Vegan boys hit York and Nutty Treacle Tart

February 17, 2013 //

Yesterday I had an awesome day. I caught a 7.30am train to York to meet a Facebook friend I have never met in real life before but have grown very close to over the last year. Martin and his wife Debbie travelled up from Solihull and we met up in York train station. Debbie spent most of the day in and out of shops whilst Martin and I talked, set the world to rights, drank coffee, talked, did a bit of sight seeing (York Minster is wonderful) and talked some more.

It also gave us the opportunity to sample some of the vegan delights of this wonderful city. We met up with Debbie at El Piano – a wonderful Tapas bar which just happens to be vegan and it was great. http://www.el-piano.com/ A really vibrant and colourful restaurant situated only minutes from the Minster. I had one of their “Platos principales” where you choose 3 main dishes and it comes with rice also. I opted for the chilli sin carne, dhal and veg pie with gravy. All were thoroughly delicious (although, for my taste the chilli could have been hotter) It was really nice to go to a restaurant and not have to enquire what on the menu was SFV (suitable for vegans!)

After this we were stuffed so decided to not have a dessert but their sweet offerings looked marvellous. So after our visit to the Minster we went to Goji cafe http://www.gojicafe.co.uk/ again only a stone’s throw from the Minster. Here I sampled their very fine chocolate and vegan ice cream – utterly scrummy.

What a great day was had!

Today I made the first sweet treat from my new cookbook “Divine Vegan Desserts” – Nutty Treacle Tart (originally Walnut Treacle Tart – but I only had mixed nuts so I amended the recipe accordingly. I also substituted oats and plain flour for oat flour and agave syrup for rice syrup)

Pastry
100g plain white flour
20g rolled oats
140g wholemeal flour
pinch of salt
130g non dairy spread (I use Pure Sunflower)
2 – 4 tablespoons cold water

Filling
50g non dairy spread
1 tbsp molasses
125ml maple syrup
125ml golden syrup
60ml agave syrup
grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
100g chopped nuts
1 apple (skin on) grated
150g wholemeal bread crumbs

Preheat oven to Gas 4

In a food processor combine the flours, salt, oats and spread until it looks like breadcrumbs. Then add 2 tbsps cold water and whizz again until it forms a ball of pastry – you may need more water.
Wrap in cling film and place in fridge for 1/2 and hour
The pastry will not roll out so slice it up and place on the bottom of a quiche dish or loose bottomed pie dish (9″ diam) and push together using the back of a spoon. Use more slices of the pastry to line the walls of the tin and press with a spoon again. Trim any rough edges.
Bake in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes until it looses the “raw” look but is not browned. I didn’t use any baking beans for this but you could if you wanted.

Melt the syrups and spread together over a gentle heat.
Mix the other ingredients together then combine with the melted syrups.
Pour into the pastry case and press down gently.
Bake for a further 20 – 25 minutes – cover with foil if the pastry edges look to be browning too much.

Serve warm with with soy cream or vegan ice cream

Tags lunch, Treacle tart, York

Categories Cake, Chocolate, Lunch, Restuarant, Treacle tart, York

A Glasgow lunch and carrot cake and not a horse in sight!

February 10, 2013 //

Today I was over in Glasgow for the next module of my mindfulness training course and I popped into Grassroots http://www.grassrootsorganic.co.uk/ and got a take away lunch. They do a wonderful range of organic wholefoods, loads of vegetarian stuff and a good range of vegan food too! I was in heaven. As it was a cold, wet and windy day I chose a hot vegan sausage roll followed by a smoked tofu, sweet potato, red pepper and red onion chutney sandwich – oh my!

On Friday I made a carrot cake – now I must make a confession here: I am a carrot cake connoisseur (snob!) – I love carrot cake BUT I have certain standards. A good carrot cake (in my oh so humble opinion) must be moist, well spiced, contain nuts and sultanas and have a cream cheese based icing! It has long been my ambition to do a good veganised carrot cake and having lost my best ever carrot cake recipe (reward for its return) I chose to use the Beetroot Seed cake recipe from NIgel Slater’s Tender Vol 1 and not only veganise it but erm carrotise it too!

So, here we go:

Grease and line a 9 inch square tin
Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4

100g wholemeal SR flour
125g white SR flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice (may increase this next time)
180ml sunflower oil
225g brown sugar – I used demerara
3/4 cup plain soy yogurt and 6 tbsp cornflour (egg replacer)
200g grated raw carrot
juice of half a lemon
75g sultanas
75g mixed seeds – pumpkin, sunflower, linseed
75g chopped mixed nuts – I used hazelnut, walnut and brazil nut

Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl
Beat oil and sugar together until well creamed in another bowl
Add yogurt and cornflour to the oil/sugar
Add carrot, lemon juice, sultanas, seeds and nuts
Fold the dry flour mix in until thoroughly mixed in

Pour into tin
Bake for 50 – 55 minutes until a skewer comes out clean
Leave for 20 minutes to cool in the tin the turn out onto a wire rack

For the icing

1/2 a tub of Tofutti smooth “cream cheese”
4 tbsp icing sugar (give or take – I judged this by taste and consistency)
Juice of half an orange – again judge the consistency.

Ice and eat!!

Tags Carrot cake, Sandwich, Sausage roll

Categories Cake, Lunch

Lunch out and Beetroot seed cake

February 2, 2013 //

On Thursday I was in Edinburgh picking up some supplies from the fabulous Real Foods http://www.realfoods.co.uk/ and I popped into the equally fabulous Henderson’s http://www.hendersonsofedinburgh.co.uk/ for lunch. 🙂

The main course was nut burger with large spicy potato wedges and a chilli mayo and to follow I had their scrumptious cherry pie with soya cream.

If you’re ever in Edinburgh a visit to Henderson’s is definitely to be recommended!

As it’s the weekend I decided to do some baking today. At a meeting of our local Transition group this week a friend had made a Beetroot seed cake from Nigel Slater’s “Tender” vol 1 which she had “veganised” which I absolutely adored so I had a go at that myself.
Now, some folk are a bit put off by “beetroot” and “cake” in the same sentence but let me assure it is awesome – think carrot cake but, well, with beetroot!
The recipe uses eggs which I replaced with soya yogurt (1/4 cup = 1 egg) and 1 tbsp cornflour per egg

SR Flour 225g
Bicarbonate of soda- 1/2 tsp
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Ground cinnamon – 1 tsp
Sunflower oil – 180ml
Light muscovado sugar – 225g
3/4 cup plain soya yogurt and 3 tbsp cornflour
Raw beetroot – 150g
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Sultanas – 75g
Mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, linseed) – 75g

For the icing

Icing sugar – 8 tbsp
Lemon juice
Poppy seeds

Set oven to gas 4/180C
Grease and line the base of a 2lb loaf tin
Sift all dry ingredients into a bowl
Beat sugar and oil until well creamed then add the yogurt and cornflour
Grate the beetroot coarsely and fold into the oil/sugar
Add lemon juice, sultanas and seeds
Fold in the flour mixture

Pour into loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes
Cover with foil and bake for a further 20 – 25 minutes

When done (a skewer should come out clean) leave in tin for 20 minutes then turn out onto wire cooling rack

Mix icing sugar with enough lemon juice to make a thick but runny icing and pour over the cake allowing to run down the sides if you wish
Sprinkle with poppy seeds

Tags Beetroot seed cake, Henderson's

Categories Cake, Lunch, Restuarant

Festive treats (and no chocolate in sight!)

January 2, 2013 //

Sorry for the delay in posting Christmas recipes but I have been away for a few days and am now back at the laptop.
We like a nice meal on Christmas Eve which needs to be fun and light and easy to prepare so I made Lentil and Cashew cakes with a pineapple and chilli salsa – they were delicious!

Ingredients:

1/2 onion, chopped
Olive oil
125g/generous 4 oz red lentils
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
250ml/9 fl oz vegetable stock
100ml/3 fl oz water
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
100g/3 oz fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs
50g/2oz roasted, salted cashews
Salt and pepper

Salsa:
½ fresh pineapple (or tinned)
½ red pepper
1 tsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
½ red onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp lime juice
3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
1/2 chopped fresh chilli (optional)
Method:

1. Prepare the salsa first, so the flavour can develop while you make the lentil cakes:
Peel the pineapple and remove all hard cores and ‘eyes’. Chop the pineapple and pepper into small cubes and combine well with the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Chill in the fridge until needed. (I added some pomegranate seeds as I had some in…yummy addition!)

2. For the lentil cakes: chop the cashew nuts roughly and set aside.

3. Sauté the onion in a little olive oil until softened.

4. Rinse the lentils under running water and add them to the onions, together with the spices, vegetable stock, water and garlic. Season with pepper and a little salt. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes until the lentils are soft and the liquid absorbed. Stir occasionally at first and then continuously to stop the lentils from burning. Take from the heat and allow to cool down.

5. Mix in the breadcrumbs and chopped cashew nuts and adjust the seasoning to taste. As the mixture cools it will thicken up and be easier to shape. Add more breadcrumbs if needed.

6. Form eight little cakes with slightly wet hands and place them on a non-stick baking tray. Brush the top side lightly with vegetable oil and place under a preheated grill. Turn once and brush the other side with a little oil and grill until golden brown.

7. Serve hot or cold, together with the salsa.

I found this recipe at http://www.vegetarianrecipeclub.org.uk/

For the centre piece of my Christmas lunch I made a Hazelnut and Cranberry Roast en croute which was delicious and totally festive. I had some reheated for New Year dinner and it was even better if that is possible – the flavours seemed to have developed and melded.

For the Filling:
2 tbsp oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
225g spinach, washed and chopped
100g roasted hazelnuts, finely ground
100g ground almonds
100g breadcrumbs
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp shoyu
2 tbsp tahini or peanut butter
300ml light stock (bouillon powder)

For the Cranberry Layer:
50g sultanas soaked in a little brandy
150ml water
225g cranberries
175g sugar

1 pack of vegan puff pastry (Jus rol)

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Make the filling first: Heat the oil and fry the onion until soft. Add the spinach and fry for 3 minutes. Mix the nuts, breadcrumbs and herbs together in a large bowl. Add the shoyu and tahini/peanut butter and enough stock to give a moist texture. Season to taste and allow to cool.

For the cranberry layer: Put the sultanas in brandy, water, cranberries and sugar into a saucepan. Bring to the boil and cook, covered until the cranberries pop (about 5-10 minutes). Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Roll out half of the pastry to cover a baking sheet.
Put the nut/spinach mix into the centre of this leaving maybe 7cm bare pastry all around.
Put the cranberry mix on top of the nut mix (I had too much so used the rest as a cranberry sauce)
Use soy milk (or other milk of choice) to wash the bare pastry then put the rest of the pastry (rolled out) on top of the cranberry/nut filling and press the pastry edges together.
Pierce with a fork and wash with more milk.

Bake at gas 7/8 (220C) for 25 minutes until piping hot and the pastry has browned nicely.

Recipe adapted from this: http://www.recipes.vegsoc.org/recipe.aspx?cId=572&cTheme=&cMenu=0&keywords=cranberry++hazelnut&andor=all&submit=Search

I served with roasted potatoes, carrots, parsnips, stir fried sprouts (I am not a total philistine Martin!) some vegan gravy and it was amazing! This may well become the traditional Festive meal for me!

Tags Festive hazelnut and cranbery roast, Lentil and cashew cakes

Categories Christmas, Dinner, Lunch

Yummy lunch and new shoes!

December 7, 2012 //

Yesterday I headed into Edinburgh to finish off my Christmas shopping and treated myself to lunch at Edinburgh Larder http://www.edinburghlarder.co.uk/– actually I had enough points on my loyalty card that it was pretty much paid for!
They do a fabulous vegan plate loaded with a variety of goodies and served with delicious bread.

I was particularly taken by the chick pea salad in a spicy (cumin and turmeric I think) dressing. The hummus as always was great.
To follow I had a large americano and one of these:

If you are ever in Edinburgh I thoroughly recommend a visit here!

Ok – so I know this is supposed to be a vegan food blog but I had to tell you about my new shoes. A pair of trainers from Vegetarian shoes http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/ that are all vegan (apart from those made from recycled tyres as tyres are technically not vegan…. something to work towards!)

And with only 18 days to go until Christmas I had better get planning my vegan feast!

Tags lunch, Shoes

Categories Chocolate, Lunch, Shoes