Recipe: Vegan Valentine’s Cheesecake

Evenin’ all! Hope you’re sitting comfortably because I have a mildly interesting yarn to spin ye afore we get on with this year’s Valentine’s recipe!

Many, many moons ago (it was 2010 actually) I had stayed up all night to watch the General Election.  Depressed by the results and in dire need of some sugar, I decided I wanted some cheesecake, but there was none to be found.  So out of the pitiful contents of a ten-student flat kitchen I created my own.  It was pretty good and it hit the spot, even though I was so sleep deprived (I worked night shifts at the time so I’d been awake for about 48 hours) that I thought Eamonn Holmes could see through the TV into my bedroom.

Over the months I refined and tweaked the recipe until it was so good, word got about and a student website asked me to write it up for their recipe blog.  I duly obliged and subsequently got pretty annoyed when they edited it massively to the point of contradicting some of the things I had said in the recipe!

Not satisfied that this bizarrely edited blog was the only version of my cheesecake recipe out there, I sold it to a publishing company I had worked with a couple of times before, who were thinking of putting out a cook-book.  Thanks to non-disclosure agreements, and the fact my hard drive corrupted with the original recipe still on it, the only way I could share my creation was in an edible format.  Still good, but I wanted others to be able to re-create my chocolatey bounty.

Fast forward a few years and the publishing company had gone under, relieving me of my contract.  Not only that, but the recipe I sent to the student blog, the one that had been on my corrupted hard-drive, mysteriously re-appeared in my Dropbox one afternoon.

Now that I had the chance to share my cheesecake with y’all I started to wonder whether or not I could improve on the recipe in time for Valentine’s Day.   Then I hit upon the idea which, oxymoronic though it may sound, ended up tasting pretty great.  Vegan Cheesecake.

Ingredients: Serves 8-12

For the base

12 vegan digestive biscuits (I used Sainsbury’s Sweetmeal Digestives)

4 tbsps coconut oil

50g caster sugar

1 tbsp cocoa powder

For the topping

340g of vegan cream cheese (I used two packets of Sainsbury’s Deliciously Free From Cream Cheese)

100g icing sugar

100g caster sugar

8 tbsps coconut oil

4 tbsps vegan chocolate spread (I used Essential Organic Dark Chocolate Spread)

To make the base, crumble the biscuits into a bowl.  To make them into crumbs you can bash them with a potato masher or the flat end of a rolling pin, mash them with a fork or get your blender going, it’s up to you!

 

When they’re nice and crumby, add the sugar and cocoa powder and stir well.  Melt the coconut oil on the stove or carefully in the microwave, unless you’ve set up kitchen in the middle of Mordor and it’s melted anyway.   Stir the melted oil into the biscuit mix.  Take a spring-bottomed cake tin and spoon in the mixture, pressing it down with the back of a large spoon until it’s smooth.  Pop it in the fridge to set.

Now for the topping.  In a clean bowl mix together the soft cheese and the caster sugar.  In a separate bowl cream the coconut oil and icing sugar together.  It helps if the coconut oil is slightly softened but not runny, again setting up kitchen in Mordor may help here but remember to watch for marauding orcs! If that sounds like too much trouble you can of course give it a quick round in the microwave.  Add the icing sugar slowly, a teaspoon or two at a time, until the mixture is soft and fluffy.  Congratulations, you just made vegan buttercream!

Add this to the cheese mixture and stir well. Finally, add in the chocolate spread.  Thanks to the unpredictable nature of coconut oil, your mixture may be a little lumpy, if this is the case grab your hand blender and start mixing! Take your biscuit mixture out of the fridge and carefully pour the chocolate cheese blend on top.  Leave to set for one to three hours.

I don’t have any pictures of the cake after I took it out of the tin because it got…eaten! As a variation you can break up some cinder toffee or honeycomb on top which gives it a nice texture.

Full disclosure: You may have to play around with the amount of coconut oil in this recipe before you get the right consistency.  My topping was perfect but my base was a little to crumbly.  tasty, but deconstructed.  But better to have a crumbly bottom that’s accessible to vegans (ooh, matron!) than a firm one that isn’t!

Review: Quorn Vegan Fishless Fingers

Buena Serra my little huevos! Some of you might have seen that Quorn has recently expanded its range of products to include a vegan line, including Vegan Fishless Fingers.

I was pretty keen to try them out when I first saw them on supermarket shelves.  Because I was brought up eating fish, and occasionally get aquatic cravings, fake fish products are one of my most sought after veggie substitutes.  VBites  do a pretty good range (their Fishless Steaks are incredible) and Fry’s do a Battered Prawn-Style product which is very nice.  Unfortunately, it stops about there.  Although Linda McCartney used to do Scampi-Style and Battered Prawn-Style products they were both discontinued, which is a real shame as they were delicious.  It seems like there just isn’t the same demand for fake-fish as there is for fake-meat, maybe because a high proportion of meat substitutes are bought by meat eaters because of the health value, and fish is healthier to begin with? I’m just speculating.  On to the Quorn review!

I tried cooking the Fingers two different ways.  Firstly on the grill, as an accompaniment to chips and peas for dinner.  They tasted good dunked in some tartar sauce, although my grill left them a little squashed (I use a George Foreman. All five of George Foreman’s sons are also called George. FACT).

The second time I cooked them in the oven to use in a sarnie and the results were slightly better, although they took a little longer to cook.  They taste very similar to the VBites ones; they’re tasty but they’re not especially fishy.  However, I would choose them over VBites as the crispy coating is better and more reminiscent of actual Fish Fingers, they come frozen so are easier to keep and I think they’re slightly larger, but without both to hand I can’t make a proper comparison.  The real clincher for Quorn though is the fact you can find these on most larger supermarket shelves and VBites, particularly their fish products, are still a bit tricky to come by.

I’ll be back next time with my Valentine’s Baking Blog 🙂  In the mean time, get some fish-free goodness in your life, yo!

Recipe: Veggie Carbonara

Góðan dagin! Today I’ve got a quick and simple recipe for a delicious vegetarian Spaghetti Carbonara.  I used VBites Meat-Free Streaky Rashers, but you could use Quorn or any other brand.

Ingredients (serves 2-3 people)

125g of spaghetti or your preferred pasta

1 small onion

2-3 cloves of garlic

2 eggs, lightly beaten

4 tbs of double cream

55g of hard vegetarian cheese, grates

4-6 rashers of facon

Handful of chopped mushrooms

Olive oil for frying

Salt, pepper and herbs for seasoning

Method (takes 15-20 mins)

First get a pan of water boiling for the spaghetti.  A good trick for cooking this is to take the pasta in your hand and twist so that it falls in the pot in a spiral shape.  This way it will naturally slip into the water as it cooks so you don’t have to wait for it to soften. Jamie Olive taught me that trick.  Well, he didn’t teach me personally.  I saw him do it on’t telly. Shame Jamie Oliver is a twatty prick or voted for UKIP.

Wah, I voted for Brexit and now my businesses are failing 😥

While the pasta is cooking, slice the onion very finely and fry it for a few minutes until it begins to soften.  Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes more.

Add the mushrooms to the onion and garlic and cook for a further five minutes.  Slice up the facon into strips and add to the pan, frying for a few minutes more.

While this is cooking, beat together the eggs, cheese and cream in a jug.  Add any seasoning to taste.  Take facon mixture off the heat (so the egg doesn’t scramble too quickly) and stir in the cream mixture.  Let the heat of the pan cook this through for a few minutes.  When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add to the creamy facon mixture.

Full disclosure: When I cooked this up for the blog I forgot to a) add the cheese to my cream and b) take my pan off the heat.  So mine looks like more of sticky mess than yours will!

 *blog reader’s voice* But why didn’t you just cook it again?

Pff, you think I’m that professional? Plus, look at that thing! You think my arteries would stand me cooking it more than once every few months? Chegg on!

Anyway, when you’ve stirred the pasta into the mixture in a much less terrible way than I did, it will be ready to eat! I served mine with some garlic bread for extra anti-vampiric protection.

A quick and delicious pasta dish for a chilly February night 🙂 I’ll be back soon with some exciting product reviews and some seasonal bakes! Good night and don’t let the Jamie Olivers bite x x x

National Curry Week at Sainsbury’s

Did you know? Last week was National Curry Week (10th-16th October).  I generally don’t need any excuses to talk about (or eat) curry but I thought I’d use this as a good opportunity to tell you about something lovely that transpired between myself and Sainsbury’s a little while ago.

Sainsbury’s is my local big supermarket and they have a good range of own brand ready-made curries which my man-chap and I will occasionally buy.  However, when we went in last month we noticed that they’d re-vamped the range…and removed all the vegetarian options!

I’m used to lots of ready-made food not having veggie options, but Indian food is normally quite a safe bet and removing all the veggie options seems particularly weird when you remember that India has the lowest rate of meat consumption of any country in the world.  So I got on Twitter.

Luckily Sainsbury’s were very nice about the whole thing and got a product request placed for me.  Lo and behold, when I went in a few days later:

They had them in stock! Since then I’ve tried both the Vegetable, and the Channa Masala, which are new to the range.  The Vegetable Masala is nice but a little heavy on the peppers for my liking.  However the Channa Masala is really excellent and makes a nice change from the curries you normally see as part of a ready meal range.  Good on you Sainsbury’s for making the change!

Do the new Sainsbury’s range of veggie curries sound good to you? Why not let me know on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/500ThingsToDoWithFacon , Twitter https://twitter.com/500FaconThings and now we’re on TUMBLR! http://500thingstodowithfacon.tumblr.com

Quorn Soups: Review

Quorn recently announced they were adding two new products to their ever growing Vegan line-up: Red Thai Soup and Moroccan Soup.

And here they are…

Image courtesy of: https://www.facebook.com/Quornfoods

I love soup, and although I tend to make my own from scratch if I can, ready-made fresh soup is a good alternative if I’m in a hurry.  Plus, as I’ve been meat-free my whole life I’ve never tried a meat soup, so I was quite intrigued to find out what these Quorn ones were  like.

I tried the Moroccan soup first.  It was pretty tasty, but very similar in taste and style to stews I often cook at home, so I probably wouldn’t rush out to  buy it again.

I bought the two soups at the same time, so I froze the Red Thai one to eat at a later date.  This may have been a mistake, as when I went to get it out of the freezer a few weeks later, I realised it didn’t actually say anywhere that you could freeze it, I’d just assumed.  Woops!  I also had to defrost it in a bit of a hurry, so the Quorn pieces disintegrated a little bit but it still tasted really good.  I don’t do a lot of Thai style cooking at home and this soup had a really good blend of heat and flavour, so I can see myself trying it again in the near future.

Do the new Quorn soups take your fancy? Why not let me know on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/500ThingsToDoWithFacon , Twitter https://twitter.com/500FaconThings and now TUMBLR! http://500thingstodowithfacon.tumblr.com

 

Recipe: Veggie Rocky Road

Bonsoir my little cosmonauts! Today I’ve got a really easy but super lovely veggie recipe for you guys: Rocky Road.  This is a recipe I often turn to if I need a simple, but effective dessert to bring to a party or as a birthday gift. It’s also really easy to adapt to people’s personal tastes, I’ve made dark chocolate and ginger versions, a cherry version and a white chocolate and strawberry version.  The basic recipe is one I’ve adapted from a cook book I’ve had ever since I was a kid, which is the DK Children’s Cook Book.  It’s really great for basic, start off point recipes, although it does have tendency to refer to us as, ‘vegetarian friends.’  Because vegetarians don’t buy cook books, obviously.  Ahem.

Ingredients

100g milk chocolate

15g dark chocolate

115g butter

225g digestive biscuits

30g raisins

55g dried apricots, chopped

2 tbs double cream

75g vegetarian marshmallows (I used Freedom Vanilla Mallows)

Method

Firstly, take a piece of foil and line  a cake tin completely.

Next, break up the chocolate into small pieces, add the butter and cream and stir over a low heat until it has all melted.

Whilst that is melting, break up the biscuits into a large mixing bowl.  I always find the best way to do this is to mash them with the flat end of a rolling pin or a potato masher.  You could also use a hand mixer or blender.  But never put the biscuits in a plastic bag and hit with a rolling pin because very often the bag will break.

Add the raisins and apricots to the biscuits crumbs.  Chop about two thirds of the marshmallows in half and add them as well.

By now your chocolate mixture should be melted and runny and look like this:

Pour it in to the biscuit mixture and stir carefully, to avoid crushing the fruit and marshmallows.

When it is all combined, spoon carefully into the prepared tin and press down firmly with the back of a spoon.  Add the remaining marshmallows as decoration by pressing them gently into the top of the cake.

Leave to chill in the fridge for at least two hours.  I actually took mine out a bit sooner and it was fine, just a little crumbly.

There we have it! A quick and easy veggie Rocky Road!

Fancy submitting me a recipe challenge or just want to rant about your soggy facon?  Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/500ThingsToDoWithFacon , Twitter https://twitter.com/500FaconThings and now TUMBLR! http://500thingstodowithfacon.tumblr.com

Review: Alpro Go On

Earlier this week I received a free sample of one of Alpro’s newest products, a Go On pot in exchange for a review.  According to the blurb, these are a delicious, dairy-free, plant based alternative to strained yogurt.  They come in three flavours: Mango, Passion-Fruit and Blackcurrant.

I went for the passion-fruit, as that’s one of my favourite flavours.  The top layer of yogurt was very thick and creamy, but I didn’t particularly like the taste of it on its own. When I mixed it in with the passion-fruit at the bottom though it tasted very nice.  The whole dessert has a very goodconsistency and even though it had been sat in my fridge for a couple of days it hadn’t separated like some soy yogurts do.  One the whole, I didn’t like it as much as I do some of the other Alpro desserts but it made for a nice breakfast and I wouldn’t mind trying the blackcurrant flavour at some point.

You can buy the Go On pots in Sainsburys, Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado.

Fancy submitting me a recipe challenge or just want to rant about your soggy facon?  Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/500ThingsToDoWithFacon , Twitter https://twitter.com/500FaconThings and now TUMBLR! http://500thingstodowithfacon.tumblr.com

A Quick Catch Up

‘Ello there Facon heads! It’s been a while.  Unfortunately I’ve had a few real life things pile up on me recently, including, but not limited to my Masters degree, working full time while trying to do my Masters Degree and then developing a chronic illness whilst trying to work and do my Masters degree.  Phew!

I’m happy to say now I have a little more free time on my hands so I can update more regularly, hurrah!

I’ve not been Veggie idle in the last few months though, oh no! I’ve been doing plenty of baking, including this big lovely hommity pie which you might have seen on my Twitter.

(If you’re not following me on Twitter, why not? Get on it!)

The Great British Bake Off is back, so I’ve been doing some weekly themed bakes, which so far have included Jam Doughnut Muffins, with my home-made Summer fruit coulis filling, and Cider Apple Cake.  It was my birthday recently as well, so I baked a batch of kleinur and one of my favourite bakes, Chocolate and Beetroot Brownies, find the recipe here.

‘What are kleinur?’ I hear the non-initiated of you cry, somehow, through my laptop screen.  Kleinur are traditional Icelandic doughnuts, made with yogurt and flavoured with cardamom.  I first made them for Eurovision, and was a little wary as I’d never deep-fryed anything before, but they turned out really well.  I froze half the dough and used it several months later, and they still turned out great! If you fancy trying your hand at them, the recipe I used is here.  I actually used Skyr in mine, which is a specialist Icelandic yogurt you can sometimes find in larger supermarkets, and then used the rest to make Skyrkaka, which is a sort of Icelandic cheesecake.

Speaking of my birthday, I was also lucky enough to receive three lovely big bags of Freedom Mallows which are one of my favourite veggie sweets.  At the moment the mini ones are mostly going in hot chocolates, just like the one I show you how to make here but I’m planning a vegetarian Rocky Road for tomorrow’s Bake Off, so some of them will go in there, although I suspect many more of them will just go straight in mah mouth!

I hope this rambly blog post in some way goes towards explaining and excusing my absence over the past couple of months.  I will be back soon with my long overdue Scandinavian recipe post, in the mean time don’t forget you can now keep up to date with me on TUMBLR!  Until next time…

Fancy submitting me a recipe challenge or just want to rant about your soggy facon?  Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/500ThingsToDoWithFacon , Twitter https://twitter.com/500FaconThings and now TUMBLR! http://500thingstodowithfacon.tumblr.com

 

 

 

 

May’s Veggie Haul

‘ello there Facon fans! Today’s blog will be all about the awesome Bristol eateries I’ve visited over the last couple of weekends and I’ll show you some of the veggie food I bought in my new favourite shop the Bristol Sweet Mart!

First up is Afendi on Cheltenham Road.  They serve authentic Lebanese and Mediterranean cuisine, and while the menu is not 100% vegetarian they have a plethora of meat-free treats on offer.  As I was with a group we ordered a selection of mezzes to sample; I can particularly recommend their foulmedamas (broad beans cooked in lemon juice and olive oil) and their fatayir spinache (pastries with spinach, onion, lemon and sumac).  I really want to go back and sample their desserts.  Rose-water and pistachio custard? Get in my face.  They also do food to take-away, they were nice enough to package up some of our left-overs for us, and although they don’t serve alcohol you are welcome to bring your own booze.  The staff were also super friendly, so I would highly recommend them!  

Website

Facebook

Twitter  

Next up is The Greenbank, in Easton.  Like Afendi it doesn’t have a wholly vegetarian menu but has plenty to offer, including vegan pizza dishes.  I had the mushroom pizza, which was very nice.  The pub also has a great ambience and serves a mean G&T.

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Also in Easton is Matter WholeFoods. This is a volunteer run shop which sells organic fruit and veg and a range of healthy, vegan wholefoods.  I was actually there for a private party so I didn’t get to sample what they had on offer (although I did get some yummy vegan birthday cake) but I look forward to heading back for some fresh grub in the near future!

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Finally we have Easton’s Bristol Sweet Mart which as I mentioned earlier may well be my new favourite food shop.  It has the most incredible selection of fruit and veg, spices and herbs, vegetarian and vegan products including sweets, and foods from dozens of different cuisines.  It was very reasonably priced, especially for a health food shop. Below are some of the things I bought…

I tried the althaea tea earlier today and it was very lovely, sweet and delicate.  I’ve not tried the damask rose yet, but as I’m a sucker for anything rose-flavoured I’m sure I’ll love it.  Not certain what I’ll do with the lavender flowers yet, but I know I’ve got a lavender shortbread recipe somewhere that might be due an airing!

The yoghurt Sesame Snaps were a present for my other half (I’m not keen myself, but they’re great for his lunchbox).  The mini-marshmallows are by Freedom Mallows, one of my favourite vegan treats and amazing in a hot chocolate.  I’ve not tried the Biona sweets yet, but I love their jelly dinosaurs, which I review here so I’m sure they’ll be great.

This was a bit of a nostalgic purchase for me.  When I was growing up a vegetarian family friend would always cook me these for dinner if I went over to her house.  Plus they just work great in any pasta recipe!  Bristol Sweet Mart is the place to be 😀

Website

Facebook

Twitter

That’s all from me for now, but I’ll be back soon with a some Scandinavian-inspired veggie recipes (a trip to Ikea just before Eurovision does that to a girl).

Fancy submitting me a recipe challenge or just want to rant about your soggy facon?  Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/500ThingsToDoWithFacon and Twitter https://twitter.com/500FaconThings

 

Recipe: Vegetarian Quiche Lorraine

Good morrow to thee, fair veg heads! Today’s recipe is a vegetarian version of something I’ve always wanted to try my hand at making: Quiche Lorraine.

Damn straight.

Obviously my version uses a meat substitute instead of bacon.  This time I tried something new, Tofurky’s Smoky Maple Bacon Style Soya Rashers.  When I first got them out of the packet I was a bit freaked out because they didn’t really look pink and bacon-esque like I expected.  The texture is also very different to other types of bacon substitutes, it’s more crunchy and reminded me of a nut cutlet.  However, it tastes good and works really well in both the quiche and the sandwich I had for breakfast this morning.  I also think this quiche would taste great with VBites or Cheatin’ Bacon Style Rashers.  But enough about my preferred types of facon.

I adapted this recipe from one I found in my Dorling Kindersley Children’s Step-By-Step Cookbook. Feel free to mock that, but it’s actually a pretty good source for simple, great tasting  recipes, although it does make the cardinal error of referring to vegetarians as ‘your vegetarian friends.’  Because vegetarians don’t own cookbooks and instead pluck our recipes straight from the crunchy granola lentil knitting cloud world from which we all inhabit.  Or something.

It’s quick and easy to make, and could be made even quicker if you bought your own pastry or ready-made pie crust.  But it’s really not much of a hassle to make this one.

Serves 4/Cook Time Approx 40 mins

Ingredients

115g (4 oz) plain flour

30g (1 oz) butter

30g (1 oz) vegetable fat or shortening

2-3 tablespoons water

300 ml ( 1/2 pint) double cream

2 eggs

Pinch of salt

85g (3 oz) vegetarian cheese (I used cheddar)

115g (4 oz) vegetarian bacon substitute

You will also need some dried beans, rice or equivalent, to blind bake the pastry

Method

Heat your oven to 200 C/400 F/ Gas Mark 6.  Cut up the butter and vegetable fat into small pieces and place them in a mixing bowl with the flour and salt

You can either rub the fat and flour together by hand or you can use pulse with your  food processor, or hand blender like I did, until it looks like breadcrumbs.

Next, slowly add the water and stir using a round-tipped knife until the mixture comes together as a soft ball of dough.

Sprinkle a little flour on a flat surface and roll out the dough into a thin circle, large enough to cover your chosen quiche tin.

Gently lay the pastry in the quiche tin, press it into place and trim the edges.  No you can’t see a picture of my patchy pastry case.  Chegg on! Next, line the pastry with foil or baking parchment and fill with your baking beans or rice.  I used rice

Hey look you can even see a tiny bit of my awesome hoodie in that picture.  Cooler than my pastry skills by far.  Bake the pastry case for fifteen minutes, then remove from oven and carefully take out your foil and rice.  Dispose of these once cool.

Whilst your pastry is baking, make a start on the filling.  Slice the facon into small pieces and cook according to packet instructions. Break the eggs into a jug and beat together with the cream.  When your pastry case is cooked, spread the facon evenly across it, then pour the egg and cream mixture over the top.  Cover with grated cheese and bake the quiche for twenty five minutes.  It will be firm, and the cheese melted and crispy.

Wahey! I served my quiche hot with some salad and focaccia bread.  It can also be eaten cold, if there’s any left…

 

Always match your spotty tablecloth to your spotty plates.

Hope you enjoy this recipe and I’ll be back with more soon.  Until then, facon on!

Fancy submitting me a recipe challenge? Want to rant about your soggy facon or why only certain types of Haribo are veggie (WHY???) Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/500ThingsToDoWithFacon and Twitter https://twitter.com/500FaconThings