Recipe: Veggie Chicken Bhuna with Saag Paneer and Mushroom Pilau Rice

December 14, 2015 | facon500

Evening chaps. Today’s recipe comes straight to you from my shiny new kitchen, in all it’s under-illuminated (two of my bulbs had blown) glory!. It’s for a delicious vegetarian curry which I based on these two recipes, although it’s obviously a strictly veggie version of the latter, with Quorn Chicken Style Pieces in place of the meat, served with mushroom pilau rice. It takes a bit of time and effort, but it’s totally worth it and probably beats what you’d get down your take-away, unless you have a super-rad and vegan friendly Indian round the corner, like I do.

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

For the bhuna

175g (approx half a pack) of Quorn Chicken Style Pieces (or your preferred meat-free chicken substitute)

Half a medium onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon ginger

2 ripe tomatoes, diced

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon chilli powder

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon Patak’s (or your preferred brand) mild curry paste

cooking oil

For the saag paneer

750g fresh spinach leaves

1 teaspoon cumin seed

1 teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoons ground coriander

250g paneer cut into cubes

1 teaspoon garam masala

4 tablespoons double cream

1-2 teaspoons lemon juice

cooking oil

For the mushroom pilau rice

150g rice

300ml vegetable stock

Half a medium onion, sliced

6 mushrooms, sliced

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground coriander

cooking oil

IMG_20151026_192438496

Method: Takes 30 mins

Take one of your sliced onion halves and fry it gently in a medium sized saucepan until they begin to soften. While that’s cooking, take a large frying pan and dry fry the cumin seed, cinnamon and coriander for the rice, until it becomes fragrant. Then, add a little oil, the rest of the sliced onions and the mushrooms and stir until they are well coated in the spices and starting to cook. Add the rice and stir until it turns transparent. Pour on the vegetable stock, stir once, then cover and leave on a low heat until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is soft and cooked, about fifteen to twenty minutes.

While the rice is cooking, add the garlic and ginger to the rest of the onion, add a little hot water until they are covered and simmer gently for five minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, curry paste and Quorn pieces and cook on a medium heat for ten minutes until the Quorn is cooked al the way through. If the sauce becomes to thick, add a little more hot water and stir well to incorporate.

While the bhuna is cooking, wilt the spinach by blanching in hot water and drain well. Add the wilted leaves of a food processor or blend with a hand blender until you have a smooth paste. Heat a little oil in a frying pan, add the spices and fry for a few minutes. Add the spinach and cream and continue cooking for a few more minutes, before adding the cheese. Cook for a further two to three minutes until it is all heated through.

IMG_20151026_202456149

Hmm that picture is refusing to turn around and I have no clue why. Oh well, you didn’t come here for professionalism and good photography, right?

Anyway, that’s my recipe for a mini-Indian, vegetarian feast, hope you enjoy!

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

Review: Veg Fest Bristol 2015 and Glastonbury Festival 2015

July 10, 2015 | facon500

Gott kvöld! Here’s my review of two wonderfully veggie-friendly events, Veg Fest Bristol 2015 (May 23rd to 24th) and Glastonbury Festival 2015 (June 24th to 28th) handily packaged together for your predilection and enjoyment. Travel-sized, if you will, for your convenience. If I was my real size, your cow here would die of fright! Anyway, obscure Disney references aside… VEGFEST Aaaaaah….remember last year when I had a bit of an angry rant about the ticket price and then had a bit of a mini-barney (marney?) with the organisers on Twitter? No? I do. Anyway, I do genuinely think three pounds isn’t a bad price, when you get so many free samples, entrance to lots of talks and some music to boot. I was going to grumble that you don’t get a programme included in that, but I see from the website you could have downloaded one for free before the event. If I were ever that organised.
The sun shone happily down on us this year (I attended on the Saturday) which had the unfortunate side-effect of making some of the tents unbearably humid. Sitting outside with a glass of strawberry juice from the Rejuice stand was perfect though. When I’d cooled down enough to explore the tents however, I found myself, like last year, a little disappointed that the event didn’t live up to the heady heights of the 2013 one. Once again there was a distinct lack of “fake meat” style products, an over-abundance of stalls selling cakes or chocolatey products and most of the names I’d enjoyed in previous years (Need Sweets, Goody Good Stuff, Vegusto etc.) were absent. I also feel, and this is something I’ll probably explore more fully in a later blog post, that the event has become much more of a vegan life-style fair rather that somewhere to just buy great veggie food. This would be fine, I think, if I were a vegan or looking to become one, as Vegfest undoubtedly had a great selection of talks and stalls pertaining to a vegan way of life. As a vegetarian who has no strong intentions of becoming vegan in the future, however, I felt rather pressurised by the whole affair. And if you’re reading this and thinking, “huh, well then why did you go to a vegan festival?” my point is that in the previous years I’ve been ,it never felt like there was such a heavy handed emphasis on converting all of the attendees to veganism. Having said that I did of course try and purchase some lovely items while I was there.

Yaoh Hemp

I swung past the Yaoh Hemp stall to take advantage of their two-for-one offer and picked up some blueberry and some mango lipbalm. Still one of my favourite beauty products, totally natural and some of them even have SPF 15 as well, so it moisturises while it protects.

Ananda Foods

I picked up some delicious raspberry mallows from Ananada’s, who are one of my favourite veggie mallow people. The new flavour was just as tasty as the old ones I’ve tried before (I recommend the peach in particular).

Loving Hut Express

I got hold of some amazing vegan fish and chips from these guys. It was seriously good. I’ve had veggie/vegan fish before, with varying degrees of success, my favourite being VBites’ Fishless Steaks but never freshly battered fake fish (fash?) and chips from a stall. Would definitely recommend.

Bristol Cider Shop

Always a pleasure to buy cider from these chaps, they’re super friendly and their cider is damn tasy. ’nuff said.

GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL

As always, Glasto is a sweet and sexy haven for veggies. Although there are a few dedicated meaty food stands, most offer up a fine selection of meat and/or dairy-free goodness. Despite this, there are some calling for the festival to return to its roots by becoming purely vegetarian again. I’m not super sure how I feel about this. It would be fantastic for me and thousands of other veg-heads of course, but at the same time I believe people should be able to have a choice about their diet and restricting almost 200,000 people to a week without the food they want to eat could be considered a bit controlling. Similarly the continuation of dividing food into normal/veggie camps has got to stop, it just alienates those of us who have chosen a certain diet or way of life from the rest of society. How ’bout the festival quietly goes veggie without any promotion, and see if anyone notices? Having said that, shouting about it being a purely veggie festival would certainly deter the sort of knob-heads who think you need to eat meat with every meal.

And this is becoming a far more ranty blog than I expected. Huzzah!

Truly Crumptious

Discovered these lovely ladies last year and loved their crumpets so much we had to go back for more! Multiple times in fact! And once we even bumped into Ian off of the Bake Off, although I resisted the urge to ask if he was gonna throw his crumpets into the bin.

We had some fantastic crumpet toppings, including garlic butter, and brie with chilli jam, and the van also does cracking coffee! They’re super green too, check out their page for more details and if you see them at a festival go tuck in!

Wide Awake Cafe

Another favourite for a couple of years now, the Wide Awake Cafe sits at the top of the Pyramid Field and has a great selection of teas, coffees, veggie breakfasts and main meals. As well as visiting them for brekkie I tried their vegan duck wrap with home-made blueberry chutney, whilst watching Patti Smith rock out with the Dalai Lama, while Maisie “Arya Stark” Williams bought a burger nearby. And that was a bit surreal. But the food was just plain great.

Veggies

If you fancy an ethical sos-mix roll and a chat about local environmental campaigns, then Veggies is the stall for you! They do a great veggie BLT too!

Of course that’s just the tip of the Glasticeburg. There were far more lovely places to eat and drink, especially in the Greenpeace fields, than I possible have time to write about here, and even more that I haven’t tried yet. But then, there’s always next year….

So until next time mitt lítill sauðfé!

Recipe Challenge: Coq au Vin

May 21, 2015 | facon500

Bonsoir mes petite choux fleurs! So, a little while ago, I was contacted on this blog and challenged to try and create a veggie Coq au Vin. I’m never one to back down from a challenge, so I gave it my best shot, and my recipe is below. I based the dish on this recipe from the BBC (true fact: James Martin once bumped into my Dad and said, “don’t you know who I am?”) and I think it turned out pretty well! It also takes much less time to cook than the meaty version, huzzah! Unfortunately, although I have a nice shiny smart phone at the moment, I accidentally deleted all the pictures I took, which is probably for the best anyway, ‘cos I’m a pretty rubbish food photographer. Onwards!

Serves Two

Cooking Time: 30-40 mins

Ingredients:

25g butter
100g shallots, peeled and quartered
4 garlic cloves, crushed
100g facon, thoroughly defrosted (I used Quorn Bacon Style Slices)
A large pinch of dried thyme
200g button mushrooms
400ml red wine
400ml veg.stock (I used Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon Powder)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp Henderson’s Relish (optional)
200g Quorn Chicken Style Pieces (or similar alternative)
Handful fresh, chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to season

Method
Gently melt 20g of butter in a large pan. Add the the shallots and cook until just browned, then stir in the garlic. Add the facon and thyme and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add the mushrooms, turn up the heat and add the red wine, veg. stock, tomato purée, vinegar (and relish, if using). Add the Quorn chicken pieces, bring the sauce to the boil and then simmer gently for about 15 minutes.

Bring the pan back to the boil and cook for a few minutes more until the sauce has thickened slightly.

Add the parsley and the last of the butter. Season to taste and serve with crusty bread.

And there you have it! Quick and easy veggie Coq au Vin! Let me know if you try it out, and I’ll see you in my next blog post. It’s Veg Fest in Bristol this weekend, so I hope to have lots of new products and recipe idea’s to share with you all soon!

Blog: Veggie Valentine’s Baking

March 1, 2015 | facon500

Bonsoir my little Cosmonauts! In today’s blog post I’m going to be sharing with you the veggie treats I cooked up for Valentine’s Day, with two adapted recipes and one brand new recipe of my own in the offing! As they say in la belle Iceland þurfum við að tala um það? I didn’t think so.

I started off with some cheese straws. I find quite often the store bought ones use Gruyère, which normally isn’t veggie. I used Red Leicester in mine instead, but you can use any strongish tasting cheese, provided it’s rennet free! This is a recipe I adapted from The Veggie Student Cookbook (Hamlyn), which I highly recommend, regardless of your academic status and dietary preferences. It’s chock full of good recipes, even if it is a little patronising at the beginning telling you how to fit in with your horrible, obviously carnivorous house-mates, and you can grab it on Amazon for a PENNY. Blimey.

For Twenty-Five Cheese Straws:

150g plain flour

50g butter, softened and cut into cubes

2 eggs

75g of your preferred veggie cheese

Optional: a sprinkling of herbs or sesame seeds on top, for an extra burst of flavour

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 200C (400F/ Gas Mark 6)

Rub the flour and butter together in a large bowl until it resembles breadcrumbs. Separate one of the eggs. Add one whole egg and the yolk of the other to the mixture, along with the cheese. Mix until it forms a dough.

Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface, then roll it out to about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thickness. Cut into strips and place on a greased baking sheet or, if you’re lucky and got a silicon baking mat from John Lewis in a Secret Santa once, you can use that.

Brush with the remain egg white and, if you like, sprinkle with herbs or sesame seeds. Pop in the oven for fifteen minutes or until golden and crispy.

Perfect with a nice tub of hummus!

I also made up a batch of my Veggie Sausage Rolls, the recipe for which can be read here.

My third recipe is an adaptation from The Cookie and Biscuit Bible (Herne House) which is a great buy if you’re into baking, although you will have to be wary of some of the American measurements, if you’re a Blighty lass like myself. They’re called Savoury Cheese Whirls in the book, but I prefers to call them Cheese and Marmite Pinwheels, cos that’s what they are. Although I actually buy store-brand “Yeast Extract” whenever I can because Marmite is owned by Unilever and Unilever test on animals, but that’s up to you of course! Likewise whether or not you use store-bought or home-made puff pastry. I made my own, but that’s cos I’m a glutton for punishment.

Makes 12 Pinwheels:

250g puff pastry

1 tbsp Marmite

1 egg, beaten

50g of your preferred veggie cheese (I used cheddar this time)

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 220C (425F/Gas Mark 7)

On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out into a square approx 30 cm/14 inches each way. Well, not diagonally, that’s not how shapes work. You know what I mean. Spread the pastry with Marmite leaving a 1 cm border around the edges. Sprinkle the Marmitey pastry with cheese, then brush the edges of the pastry with the egg. Roll the pastry up tightly into a spiral, Swiss-Roll style. Cut into thick slices and lay on a greased baking tray. Brush each slice with the remaining egg and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Honestly, they don’t photograph well, but they do taste great. And they’re super-easy and quick to do too! If you have your pastry ready you can have pin-wheels in just twenty minutes! Bonus.

My fourth and final recipe was an attempt to re-create something I sell at work, veggie style. For those of you that don’t know anything about my personal life, I work in a coffee shop that also sells baked goods. Probably our most popular product is a Cheese and Bacon Wrap and obviously this being 500 Things to do with Facon, I had to make my own version, just to see what the fuss is all about. They’re quick and easy to make too!

For Eight Cheese and Facon Wraps:

150g puff pastry

Eight slices of facon (I used Quorn Meat Free Bacon Rashers-fresh, not frozen)

50g cheddar cheese, cut into thin slices

One egg, beaten

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200C (400F/ Gas Mark 6). Roll out your pastry onto a lightly floured surface to about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thickness. Cut into eight squares of approximately equal size and attempt to fold in a slice of facon in a classy elegant way as demonstrated by the second set of pictures on this website. Fail and instead manage to insert some facon in between some flaccid triangles of pastry like this:

Place on a greased baking tray and brush with the beaten egg. Bake in the oven for eleven minutes. Remove from the oven and add a few slices of cheese to each wrap, then bake for a further three minutes until the cheese is melted and golden.

Eat while still warm from the oven, all the time nodding sagely and going, “yeah, now I see what the fuss is all about,” because they might look a little pants but honestly they taste great and for a first attempt, I was pretty pleased with how they turned out!

That’s my little smorgasboard of baked delights there. Can anyone top that for a bit of Valentine’s Day veggie bakery? Let me know and I’ll see you soon with some more facon themed rambling. Takk takk!

Review: Viva’s Incredible Vegan Christmas Show

January 22, 2015 | facon500

…and some other post-festive newsage.

Welcome, welcome to another year at 500 Things to do with Facon! I’m going to kick off the new year (I say kick-off, we’re three weeks in. Is it even acceptable to say “Happy New Years” when you bump into people at this point?) by reviewing the food show I went to before Christmas, telling you all about some of the lovely veggie treats I got gifted at Yuletide and letting you in on some of my plans for the year ahead at the 500Facon HQ :p

So the event in question was this

Image courtesy of http://www.viva.org.uk/veganchristmasshow

I actually only found out about it the day before when Roy, who is a cosmic hobo who knows the secrets to all free events in Bristol, told us it was happening. But there seemed to be a good turn out so it was obviously well advertised, and just slipped under my veggie radar (Vadar?). There was a very friendly atmosphere and lots of free tasters, although there were a too few angry “be a vegan because you’re killing hundred of tiny fluffy animals everyday you MONSTER” type posters, but you kind of get those at every veggie event and I’ve learnt to just ignore them. Remember folks, it’s up to an individual how they choose to eat and no-one should be forced into following a diet through guilt. Just because I eat dairy doesn’t make me a bad person. Tiny, passive-aggressive rant over. On to what I got my sweaty mitts on…

Top left there is Cherub Bellissimo Dairy Free Parmesan. I find it really hard to get hold of veggie parmesan and when I do, it’s normally in a big, expensive block that goes off before I can use it all! I got hold of this little tub at the Ananda Foods table for only £3.49 and I’ve been putting it on all my pasta since. It tastes just like the real thing and I’m really looking forward to using it in some baking before too long.

I also picked up a “Grab Bag” of peach marshmallows from Ananda Foods, which you can see on the bottom left there, in my classic “too much flash was used in this photo” style. What can I say, their marshmallows keep getting better and better. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen regular marshmallows that are peach flavoured, but it’s a really delicious combination.

Next to the parmesan you can see my Freedom Mallows. I loved their stuff for a long time, but I’d never seen a bag of Micro Mallows before. They were vanilla flavour, in pink and white which looked very pretty. I decided they would be best used in a couple of mugs of hot chocolate, as you can see…

My only quibble is that they stuck together quite a bit in the bag. But then, really, who can eat just one marshmallow? Not this intrepid blogger being! I was gifted a packet of strawberry ones for Christmas as well. I had vague plans of making them into vegan rocky road but I unh…ate them. Woops!

The little box down at the bottom of the picture which is super-white (thanks, terrible camera flash) is courtesy of Hipo Hyfyrd, who make wonderful vegan chocolates and are not to be confused with these hippo chocolates…

I still have nightmares about that giant hippo. Anyway, Hipo Hyfyrd had lots of free samples to try, including salt and pepper truflles which were a bit odd and some lovely lavender ones which I bought. Actually I really wanted the rose ones, ‘cos I dig anything flavoured with rose but they’d sold out. Luckily you can get them through their website.

Next to that you can see a pack of Goody Good Stuff Sour Mix and Match. I think by now if you follow this blog you’ll know how much I love their stuff. I even got two packets of sweets as a Christmas present. Much love Goody Good Stuff, always. Deep joy.

Just above that you can see my very first packet of Biona Organic Jelly Dinos. I’d tried lots of Biona products before, but never any of their sweets and these appealed to me straight away being a) sour and b) dinosaurs even though that’s not what I do, right?

They weren’t quite as sour as I’d hoped, but they were very nice and fruity to the taste. Mine also went a bit odd and soggy but that might because I kept them in the fridge. Or because my house is damp. But they were pretty good and I’d recommend trying out any of their other products, as they ‘re all very high quality.

The last two items were both Christmas presents. Vegan chocs courtesy of Cocoafeliz are on the top right. These were very reasonably priced and came in a range of adorable shapes. I got a bag of Star Wars themed ones and a bag of rabbit-shaped ones and while I didn’t try any for myself, the word from my friends who did was very positive! I also got a pair of bamboo socks from the folks at Hempish as another gift, the recipient of which informs me that they’re very cosy. And speaking of Christmas, there’s just time enough to show you the mince-muffins I made this year, as a nice alternate to mince pies

I say time like time exists in this virtual blog world. But somehow or other I’m all out of it, so it’s beholden for me to say adios for now. We’ve got lots of great stuff coming up including a new recipe challenge (coq au vin) and some quick and easy cheese and facon snacks. Until next time my little pamplemousses!

Ananda Foods

http://www.anandafoods.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/anandafoods

https://twitter.com/AnandaFoods

Freedom Mallows

Home

https://www.facebook.com/freedomconfectionery

https://twitter.com/freedommallows/

Hipo Hyfryd

http://www.hipohyfryd.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/hipo-hyfryd/138927486120062

Tweets by hipohyfryd

Goody Good Stuff

https://www.facebook.com/goodygoodstuff

Tweets by GoodyGoodStuff

http://goodygoodstuff.com/en/

Biona Organic

http://www.biona.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/BionaOrganic

Tweets by BionaOrganic

Cocoafeliz

http://cocoafeliz.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cocoafeliz/441957812613214

Tweets by CocoaFeliz

Hempish

http://www.hempish.com/index.php

Tweets by HempishPlus

Exmoor: The Good, the Bad and the Vomit Inducing

November 5, 2014 | facon500

…and a general ramble about some new kitchen shizz I got.

Evening chaps! Your intrepid blogger lady is back at Uni and has found her time to blog about facon sadly decreased. But never fear! Facon will find a way, as the little known saying goes and thanks to my anthropological expedition around Exmoor, I’ve got some Somersettian/Devononian (delete as appropriate) wisdom to share with y’all!

Thems be my purchases of the week above 🙂

So on the Monday I went a’wandering around Minehead and while I won’t bore you with the intimate details of my research I can recommend Minehead Cider: The Real Cider Company. Not only were they generous with their free samples, always a plus point, they sold a variety of the ever-fabulous Lyme Bay Wines and a wide selection of ciders, natch. Actually I don’t think they sold Natch. Pictured are my bottle of lovely, sweet Rosehip Wine and some Minehead Company Cider, which was so good it had already been drunk by the time I took this picture. Would you believe.

In Appledore, which weirdly enough was less apple-y than Minehead, I visited the delightful Johns of Appledore. They are crammed full of local produce, as well as friendly staff. I went for the brownie of the day, which was far and away one of the best I’ve ever had, and a perfect cup of green tea. My take-away purchases were both courtesy of the South Devon Chilli Farm, who had a lot of their stock available to buy in the shop. I got some Chilli Drinking Chocolate for myself and some Extreme Bhut Jolokia Sauce as a gift. I’ve been assured that the latter, which I was too wimpy to try, is suitably spicy, while the chocolate tastes perfect swirled into a glass of hot milk, especially now WINTER IS COMING. If you’re living South of King’s Landing you can probably just ignore that.

You’re not wrong Ned.

The squash in the picture is a little pattypan I picked up in Bideford, at their sustainable gardening project Grow @ Jigsaw. There were loads of lovely plants to see and plenty of fresh veg to purchase as well. I roasted my squash with a little olive oil, then stuffed it with Quorn mince and veg. And it were proper bo!

I also visited the wonderful Cafe Collective, which serve a wide range of veggie food. I sampled their mozzarella, tomato and pesto platter, along with a dirty chai, but I could have gone for half a dozen things on the menu, it all looked so good!

On the final day of our expedition we took a jaunt round the Exmoor National Park, stopping for lunch at Watersmeet, which got described by one of my comrades as, “the Shire meets Rivendell.” This Ringer concurs.

I mean, yeah, look at this glorious fucker.

We had lunch at the National Trust cafe, which does a smashing butternut squash and ginger soup, and is happy to cater for veggies or those on a gluten-free diet. In fact their soup was so good, I bought this book while I was there, so I could learn how to make it!

A steal at three quid, I think you’ll agree :p

So that’s the good part dealt with. The ugly and vomit inducing of the title? Cast your peepers over this…

That’s the Exmoor White Horse Inn, which looks pretty nice from the outside, no? And blimey, the website does a good job of poshing it up! We were actually staying in the Exford YHA just down the road, and I have absolutely no complaints against it, great place to stay. But as we didn’t have food provided for us there, we trooped off to the pub for dinner. The first night they served me a mushroom risotto which was….okay. They chucked in a load of free roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings for some reason and I never turn down a free Yorky! They kept advertising that it was “Pie Night” on our final night so this pie fan eagerly ordered the veggie option, a cheese and vegetable one. When it arrived though it unh…it wasn’t a pie. It was just some veg covered in a weak cheese sauce. No pastry. I pointed this out to the waitress and she asked me what I’d expected, as it was the veggie option. Because pie’s aren’t veggie? I reminded her that it was still listed as “cheese and vegetable PIE” and she stormed off, came back with a cold, thick piece of pastry crust which she slapped on my dish and walked off. Needless to say, I didn’t eat much of it. There ends my tale, or rather it should, had I not woken up in the middle of the night with what little dinner I’d eaten making itself well known to me via an extended stay in the bathroom. Yeah. Several of the other people in my hostel complained of similar symptoms. Also the pub supports fox hunting. So there’s that. Shit food, shit ethics. Nice surroundings though!

So that’s Exmoor. In terms of more recent culinary experiences I was gifted with a copy of this…

Oh Gregg. It’s actually very good, as the recipes are (puportedly) devised by Gregg they’re fairly simple and well laid out, with an excellent section at the back about how to make culinary standards like meringue and custard. I tried making the pumpkin pie for Hallowe’en.

You can see it here on the left next to Arthur, my pumpkin, who generously donated half his head for the pie filling. I was very pleased with how it turned out: it was my first time making the dish, trying a recipe from the book or making pastry in my new food processor, but all three went swimmingly. Too swimmingly, one might say. Not me though. I’ll be back soon, someone’s just challenged me to a veggie coq au vin…

John’s of Appledore http://www.johnsofinstow.co.uk/

South Devon Chilli Farm http://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/

Grow @ Jigsaw http://www.westwardhousing.org.uk/grow-jigsaw

Cafe Collective https://www.facebook.com/collectivecafe

Watersmeet http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/watersmeet/

Exmoor White Horse Inn http://www.exmoor-whitehorse.co.uk/

Recipe: Toad in the Hole with Onion Gravy

September 30, 2014 | facon500

My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles and Proudfoots. I’m watching the Lord of the Rings, can you tell? Anyway, here’s a fantastic and easy recipe for a vegetarian version of Toad in the Hole. I’ll also show you how to make a delicious home-made onion gravy, but if you’re short on time, you can easily substitute a shop-bought version instead.

Serves 2. Time: 55 mins – 1hr

Ingredients: For the Toad in the Hole

Four veggie sausages of your preferred brand. I used Quorn’s “Chef’s Choice: Best of British”

100g plain flour

One egg

250ml of milk and water in equal amounts

Pinch of salt

Oil for frying

For the gravy

One large onion

500ml vegetable stock (I always use Marigold Low Salt Vegetable Bouillon Powder)

1 tbsp plain flour

1 tsp sugar

Oil for frying

Optional: Veggie gravy granules to thicken, 1tbsp Hendersons Relish….more on that later!

I served my toad in the hole with mixed veggie and crushed garlic potatoes. Of course, you can serve your taters any way you want. Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew….

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Place the sausages in a baking-dish or casserole and drizzle with oil.

I don’t really know why I felt the need to take a picture of this, but there we go…

Putthe sausages in the oven for 10 mins. Meanwhile, make the batter. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and crack the egg into it. Add 2 tsps of the milk and water and beat until smooth.

Gradually add the rest of the liquid and beat until bubbly. When the sausages are done, remove from the oven and pour in the batter. Immediately put it back in the oven and cook for a further 40-45 mins, until the batter is risen, crispy and brown.

While it cooks, prepare the gravy. Chop the onion into small chunks and mix in a small bowl with the sugar and a drizzle of oil until well coated.

Spread the onions out onto a baking tray and place on a low shelf in the oven with the toad in the hole, for 20mins until they’re caramelised and black around the edges.

Heat a little oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the flour and stir for five minute until a thick roux has formed and the flour is cooked through.

Add the caramelized onions and, if using, a drop of HENDERSON’S RELISH.

BEHOLD ITS NORTHERN GLORY!!!

Right, for those of you of the more Southern persuasion, allow me a minute to talk to you about the glory of Henderson’s Relish. It’s a lovely, spicy sauce, brewed in Sheffield which you can add to any number of dishes. It tastes quite like Worcester Sauce and can be used in any recipes containing this instead ‘cos unlike it anchovied brethren, Henderson’s is both veggie and vegan! And Sean Bean is a fan. So…there you go. But if you haven’t got any handy, the gravy still tastes great without it 🙂

Slowly add the stock to the pan and stir until thick.

If you prefer a thicker, darker gravy then feel free to add in some gravy granules. I use Bisto Favourite Granules, which are vegetarian.

Keep it on a low heat until the toad in the hole is done.

Serve with the accompaniments of your choice and pour on plenty of gravy!

Now, I’m off. If anyone needs me, I’m taking the hobbits to Isengard. Ciao!

For more on Henderson’s Relish and why it’s basically the best thing ever, visit their website www.hendersonsrelish.com

Recipe: Moroccan Style Quorn Tajine

July 24, 2014 | facon500

Greetings folks! Here’s a recipe for a delicious Moroccan style tajine (or tagine if you prefer) that’s served with buttery cous-cous and a yoghurt dressing. It’s rich with spices, packed full of super veggies, and best of all it takes far less time to cook than the traditional meat version! The best meat substitute to use is Quorn’s Lamb Grills, but I have a hard time finding these, so I’ve used their Chicken Pieces instead. You could also ditch the meat subs and the honey, to turn the tajine vegan.

Serves 4, prep 10 mins, cook 50 mins

For the tajine

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp honey

(I also added a tbsp each of harissa and epices-rabelais, but these are optional)

1/2 onion

2 cloves of garlic

2 sweet potatoes

500g passata

500ml vegetable stock (you will obviously use Marigold Boullion as it’s the best one…)

1 pack Quorn Chicken Style Pieces

1 can chickpeas

350g dried apricots

200g sun-dried tomatoes

Oil for frying

For the couscous

240g dried couscous

Knob of butter

For the yoghurt dressing

250g natural yoghurt

1 tsp dried mint

1 tsp dried parsley

Method

Firstly heat a little oil in a large saucepan or casserole with a fitted lid. Add the spices and fry for a few minutes until they’re aromatic. I find it handy to give the oil a little taste at this stage, just to gauge the overall heat. If it’s too hot, you can always add a little more honey than I do.

Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry for about ten minutes, or until they’re nice and soft. Chop the sweet potatoes into rough chunks and add to the pan. Make sure your pieces of potato aren’t too small, or they’ll go all soft and mushy in the sauce.

Fry for five minutes until well coated in spices then add the passata, tomato puree, honey and vegetable stock. Bring to the boil then simmer for ten minutes. Add the Quorn pieces, cover and cook for a further ten minutes. Add the chickpeas, cook for another five minutes, then add the apricots and sun-dried tomatoes.

Now cook the cous-cous by covering it with boiling water and stirring over a gentle heat until the water has absorbed and the cous-cous is soft. Add the knob of butter to the pan and stir until it has melted into the cous-cous. Make the dressing by adding the dried herbs to the yoghurt, and serve immediately with the tajine and cous-cous.

Et voila, you have one delicious tajine! Let me know if you like the recipe in the comments below, and I’ll see you soon for more meat-free madness!

Review: Glastonbury Veggie Food 2014

July 10, 2014 | facon500

Hello peeps! It’s time for my annual review of the food at Glastonbury and by annual I mean I did one last year and now I’m doing one again. Not strictly limited to breakfasts this time either, oh no…

Glastonbury festival is one of my favourite places to eat, there are tons of dedicated veggie and vegan food stalls and cafes, loads of amazing tea and cider to try and you can even eat for free in a few places, like the Hari Krishna tent. I really don’t think you can underestimate how excited the food there makes me. Food>Skrillex. Having said that I obviously didn’t visit every one of the hundreds of places to eat over the course of the weekend, so here are a few of my faves.

Truly Crumptious

Truly Crumptious, who you may remember me raving about last year, are a bunch of lovely folk who cook up home-made crumpets in a vintage caravan which are served with a variety of toppings, both sweet and savoury. I tried goats cheese and beetroot chutney, and veggie sausage, brie and chili jam, which were both delicious. They also make a cracking chai late which, like all their foods, can be made vegan. All of their produce is organic or locally sourced and in 2013 they won the Green Traders Award for Energy Efficiency at Glastonbury. Their food is great and their customer service is excellent.

Wide Awake Cafe

Another favourite from last year, the Wide Awake Cafe is tucked up at the top of the pyramid field, perfect for a lazy veggie breakfast. Their full menu includes veggie burgers and hot dogs, curries and chilies, and a selection of toasties and sandwiches. Their full English breakfast, which was just as good as I remembered it, comprises sage and marjoram veggie sausages, baked beans, grilled mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, hash browns and buttered granary bread. All this and a cup of Pukka Three Mint tea and I was almost ready to face the muddy onslaught!

I also had some lovely tea courtesy of Tea Vintage, a 1940’s style travelling tea room. They mix their own blends and I can happily recommend their Bakewell Tart Rooibos and their Apple Elderflower Green.

Hurly Burly

The Hurly Burly is a festival cafe who serve up tasty food that is ethically sourced, and they have a wide range of veggie food on the menu. All their cutlery and plates are biodegradable too! The veggie breakfast that I sampled came with two delicious fake meat sausages (which definitely win my fake sausage of the festival award btw, if such a thing ever existed), leeky scrambled eggs and crushed potatoes, washed down with a cup of Earl Grey, hot. It got very cramped inside the tent as it started to rain outside but the atmosphere was never less than enjoyable.

Biblos

I know Biblos well cos they’ve got a restaurant in Stokes Croft, Bristol, which is where I live in case you didn’t know/want to bring me cake. They serve up a healthy, home-made blend of Middle Eastern and Caribbean cuisine, with lots of veggie and vegan options available, locally sourced and seasonal whenever possible. I normally go for one of their excellent halloumi or falafel wraps but at the festival I went for a falafel salad box instead and was a little disappointed. I wanted a higher falafel to salad ratio and a bit more dressing. Next time I’ll stick with one of my faves.

Paellaria

I had my eye on this place ever since I first saw it on the Wednesday night, not just because I love paella, but because as well as traditional meat and vegan options, you could order a half-meat/half-veg version called a bi-ella. Yeah, I’m a sucker for a good pun! Anyway, I ordered their paella de verduras, which did not disappoint, as well as some mixed olives and some lovely fresh lemonade. All very tasty, naught like a pre-Metallica paella, as I’m often heard to say…

Anna Mae’s Mac and Cheese

My last meal at the festival,(not counting some hurried garlic bread on the way out…) came courtesy of Anna Mae’s Mac and Cheese, whose grub came from their excellent “Cheezus Loves You” 1950’s style trailer. They also have a 1986 GMC Vandura called Burt Reynolds, so if that’s not going to swing it for you, I don’t know what is. As well as some delightfully punnily-named meaty pasta, they also serve straight up, classic mac ‘n’ cheese, which I enjoyed whilst watching Clannad. As you do.

I also had some great African mezze courtesy of the Moorish Food stall but try as I might and despite repeated recommendations from fellow festival goers on blogs and what-not, they don’t appear to have any online presence, which is shame. They had a couple of stalls throughout the site, served me the best cup of mint tea I think I’ve ever had and had a very reasonably priced veggie mezze platter with tabouleh, stuffed vine leaves and fried bread, among other things. Ah well, now they’ll never know I’ve recommended them!

That’s my review over for another year then, if you’re heading to any festivals this summer be sure to check if any of these guys are putting in an appearance. I’ll be back with another recipe oh so very soon…

Truly Crumptious:

http://www.trulycrumptious.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/TrulyCrumptious

https://www.facebook.com/truly.crumptious

Wide Awake Cafe:

https://www.facebook.com/wideawakefestivalcafe

http://www.wide-awake-cafe.com/home-wide-awake-cafe.html

Tea Vintage

https://www.facebook.com/TeaVintageTeaRoom/

Hurly Burly

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hurly-Burly

http://www.thehurlyburly.co.uk/

Biblos

http://biblos.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/biblos_ltd

https://www.facebook.com/biblosuk

Paellaria

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paellaria/

https://twitter.com/paellariauk

Anna Mae’s Mac and Cheese

http://anna-maes.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AnnaMaes.Streetfood

https://twitter.com/Anna_Maes

VegFest Bristol 2014: A Review

May 31, 2014 | facon500

Howdy y’all! It’s time for my annual review of VegFest Bristol!

Now, I’ll be honest with you, this year’s festival was a bit of a disappointment compared to last year’s, and not just because of the weather. First up there was the entrance fee which had been hiked up from er…nothing, to three pounds. (EDIT: VegFest have just assured me that it was actually two pounds. Ah…memory like a sieve me. Rose tinted view of the past. Or something.) Granted, that’s not a lot but when you consider that a) I’m an impoverished writer and b) they also wanted me to pay a quid on top of that for a programme, which was also free last year, it seems a bit cheeky. What exactly was I paying for? There were no live bands on during the day, those in the evening cost an extra tenner anyway, and aside from a couple of talks there wasn’t much going on. Harrumph! But…I hear you cry, didn’t you get your money back in the form of free samples? Well, here’s my other point of contention. There were barely any meat substitute stalls at all! Where were VBites, Redwood and Wheaty? Fry’s and Vegusto both had vans selling hot food, but nowhere you could buy their products to use at home. And what of my Bristol faves, Pepeneros and NeedSweets? Not a pip! Sigh. Meat substitutes get such a bad rep it was a real shame not see more of them at one of the most prominent veggie events. The whole thing seemed to have been taken over by cakes and chocolate. And I like cakes and chocolate, don’t get me wrong. But I was counting on VegFest to keep me in fake fish and frankfurters for a few weeks and sadly on that score it did not deliver.

Now. Grumps over. Let’s see what I did like. ‘Cos it was still quite a lot 😉

I’ll start with the two lip balms.

Image courtesy of http://www.yaoh.co.uk/catalog/yaoh-hemp-seed-balm-pi-29.html

They’re from Yaoh Ltd, one of my favourite companies cos they’re Bristol based, organic, vegan and their hemp lip balms are just divine. I got blueberry, and strawberry and cream flavours as it was two for one and I can literally never own too many lip balms. Never.

The box of beers is from Samuel Smith.

Image courtesy of http://www.samuelsmithsbrewery.co.uk/cherryfruitbeer.html

These were actually a present from my manchap, cos he’s nice like that. After a quick tasting session and a nice chat with the chaps running the stall, I settled on strawberry, raspberry and apricot beers. All bar two of their products are vegan, they’re all brewed using natural ingredients and are free from sweeteners, colourings and preservatives. And they taste great. Oh, and it’s Yorkshire’s oldest brewery, so there’s that as well, fact fans!

I should also give a quick shout out to the Bristol Cider shop, for providing us with many a pint. Not pictured. You know, for obvious reasons.

The little bag is full of delicious Freedom Mallows, which I bought from the Vegan Tuck Box.

Image courtesy of https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10155187_694214323971928_2106425552_n.jpg

I’d tried the vanilla flavour ones before, but I’d never seen the strawberry ones for sale anywhere, so naturally I snapped them up. They are definitely some of the best vegan marshmallows I’ve had, they melt really well into hot chocolate for one thing…

Valentine’s and Vegan Hot Chocolate

and the strawberry ones have a lovely fruity taste. Will definitely be buying next time I see them!

We had some lovely free samples of chocolate courtesy of Aneesh Popat and Acorn Vegetarian Kitchen. The latter also treated us to some pickled radishes, much nicer than that sounds, and some chai sherbet, which was just bloody delicious. Sadly they didn’t have anything for sale, which is a shame, I would definitely have got some sherbet! They did give me some free radish seeds though, so I can grow my own. Hopefully a more successful endeavor than Chivey Chase, who got eaten by slugs. Your task for the week is to come up with a suitably radishy pun for me.

Next up, my first ever Wagon Wheel, thanks to Ananda Foods!

Image courtesy of http://www.anandafoods.co.uk/store/c5/Round_Ups%21.html

I’ll be honest, I’ve tried Ananda Food’s marshmallows in the past and I wasn’t super impressed, they weren’t quite chewy enough and they didn’t really melt. HOWEVER. The free samples I got given at VegFest tasted better, with a much chewier consistency so I am very much up for giving them another go sometime soon. And their wagon wheels, or Round Ups, were really, really good!

And look, they even have “Eat Me” written on the back, Alice in Wonderland style! They have just the right blend of chocolate, biscuit, strawberry jam and marshmallow. Highly recommended!

Finally! What could that massive green sack at the back be full of? I shall tell you. Gumminess. Yup.

Image courtesy of http://goodygoodstuff.com/en/products/

Five pounds worth of delicious gummy sweets, courtesy of Goody Good Stuff! I had a lovely chat with the staff as well 🙂 If you want fat free, meat free, dairy free, alcohol free, gluten free, egg free, nut free, soy free and (blimey) gelatine free chewy sweets then Goody Good Stuff are the ones to go to! The sack contained little packets of Cola Breeze, Koala Gummy Bears, Sour Cherries and Summer Peaches. I totally haven’t nearly eaten them all *looks around suspiciously*.

And that’s it for this year’s VegFest haul! Sadly not as meat-subsitutey as I would have liked, but full of veggie goodness none the less. I’ll see you soon for more meat-free recipes!

Bristol VegFest

http://bristol.vegfest.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/vegfestuk

Tweets by VegfestUK

Yaoh Ltd.

http://www.yaoh.co.uk/index.html

https://www.facebook.com/yaohhemp/

Samuel Smith Brewery

http://www.samuelsmithsbrewery.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Samuel-Smith-Brewery/112587618756565?fref=ts

Tweets by samsmithsbeer

Bristol Cider Shop