A wee bit of vegan haggis

It's this time of year that anyone you know who is Scottish, or has some Scottish heritage, or just fancies a mighty fine feast on a cold winters night, celebrates Burn's night. Held in memory of the poet, Robbie Burns, the evening has many traditions, including piping in the diners (if you happen to know anyone who plays the bagpipes of course!), drinking lots of whiskey and eating haggis.

When I was young, I used to think that haggis was a small furry animal, but actually its a mix of sheep offal mixed with onion, oats and spices, then stuffed in a sheep stomach and simmered in a pot for 3 hours. I have eaten it a couple of times in the past and its rich and seriously filling.
These days, however, being a plant based eater, haggis is generally off the menu, although vegetarian ones are sometimes available in the supermarket. On a recent trip to Edinburgh, however, we stopped at a fabulous vegetarian restaurant called Henderson's and my husband chose a delicious haggis dish. In fact it was so good, he decided to recreate it at home for a birthday dinner party the other week. Served with mashed tatties and neeps, it was our own little plant based Burns night supper, super tasty and super healthy.

Once made up, the haggis mix does look a little grey and unappealing, despite it's amazing flavour, and not having any plant versions of sausage skins to hand (are there any?) we decided to wrap it up in some filo pastry to create a haggis parcel. The contrast of the thin, crisp pastry and the soft, slightly claggy texture of the haggis worked fabulously. 

The combination of lentils, kidney beans, mushrooms and oatmeal means this dish is packed with protein and fibre, as well as magnesium, manganese and folate amongst other minerals and vitamins. Serve with mashed potatoes and swede for a nearly authentic plant based Burns night supper.

Vegan haggis (Henderson's of Edinburgh recipe)

75g chopped mushrooms
75g brown lentils
50g porridge oats
50g cooked kidney beans, chopped
25g non-dairy spread (Vitalite/Pure)
150g grated carrots
150g onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon tamari
1 tablespoon garam masala
salt and pepper
1 packet of filo pastry sheets.
First, soak the brown lentils for 2-3 hours to soften them and soak the oats for 1 hour before you start. When you're ready, heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onion until soft, followed by the garlic, garam masala and tamari. Season with salt and pepper.
Drain the lentils and add to the pan along with the grated carrot. Simmer on a low heat until the lentils are soft, stirring regularly to prevent sticking. You may need to add a little water to stop the mix drying out. Next add the mushrooms and cook until soft, followed with the kidney beans, the non-dairy spread and some more black pepper. Stir well to combine.
Finally, rinse and drain the oats and stir into the mix. This gives body to the haggis. If you are going to wrap your haggis in filo pastry, leave to cool. Otherwise, you can eat as it is.
Once the mixture is ready, lay out a sheet of filo pastry, leaving the rest covered with a damp tea towel so it doesn't dry out. Pop a couple of spoonfuls of the haggis mix at one of the short ends of the pastry, fold up the sides and roll into a parcel, sealing the end with a bit of water. You could make square parcels if you prefer - it will still taste delicious! Repeat the process until all the pastry sheets are used up, lay out on lightly greased baking trays and brush the top with some non-dairy milk to help them brown. Pop into a pre-heated oven at 180oC and bake for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is golden and crisp.
Serve with mashed potatoes and turnips or swede and enjoy a great imitation of "the great chieftain o' the puddin' race"!

Cupcakes - no other title is needed!

I have a great belief that there's always a time and a place for cake! I've always had a sweet tooth, and cake to me is the ultimate comfort food. Any type is good (except coffee cake - yuck!), but I do have a particular penchant for a might fine cupcake.
Cupcakes have really been in fashion over the last few years, and it's not difficult to see why - the recipes tend to be simpler than a whole cake, take less time to cook and you can have variety and creative fun with one batch of mixture. A phenomena originating in the States, cupcakes have actually been around since the end of the 18th century, although their popularity really kicked in at the beginning of the 21st. There's two theories about the name - that they were originally baked in cups, or because the ingredients were measured in cups as opposed to weight. Either way, cupcakes are definitely superior to our little fairy cakes!
Of course, eating a plant based diet means no eggs, one key ingredient to the standard cupcake recipe. But does this mean then end to cupcake delights? Thankfully not!

We have a baking guru in our house - Ms Cupcake! She has the most delicious recipes, along with other larger cakes, that never fail to produce gorgeously light, melt in the mouth cupcakes. And I have to say that my daughter makes much better cupcakes than I do - or maybe cake just tastes better when someone else has made them!
Vegan cupcakes are actually much simpler to make than standard ones - it's just a matter of mixing up your dry ingredients, then your wet and finally combining them together in one big whoosh. There's no creaming or delicate stirring - in fact, over stirring is a definite no no as it overworks the gluten in the flour, making the cake heavy and dense. A lightly stirred batter results in light, fluffy cakes, no need for the leavening action of eggs.
Eggs also act as a binding agent; curdled milk also works well, that's dairy free milk of course! Most of Ms Cupcakes recipes use cider vinegar to sour the milk; that doesn't work for me unfortunately as due to my yeast sensitivity, I have to avoid fermented items. Lemon juice works as well, and gives a slightly tart contrast to the super sweet cakey flavour.
My daughter is often found whipping up a batch of these chocolate cupcakes and I have to say they are amazingly light and delicious, so much so I bet you might even prefer them to the standard cholesterol laden butter version. The recipe is pretty much the same as Ms Cupcake with a couple of slight alterations, but still completely dairy free and seriously delicious - give them a go and see what your tastebuds think. And just a little thought to leave you with - there's a mint choc chip cupcake which is just amazing…..
Chocolate cupcake (enough for 12 large cupcakes)

200ml non dairy milk
4 teaspoon cider vinegar/lemon juice
170g self raising flour
30g cocoa powder
200g caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
80mls organic rapeseed oil
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
Buttercream icing
75g dairy free margarine (e.g. Pure, vitalite)
1teaspoon vanilla essence
375g icing sugar
20-30mls dairy free milk
Preheat your oven to 180oC and get your muffin tins lined with cupcake wrappers. In a small bowl, mix the non-dairy milk and vinegar/lemon juice together and put to one side for 10 minutes to let it curdle a bit. In the meantime, get a large bowl and mix all the dry ingredients together until well combined. Add the curdled non-dairy milk oil and vanilla and mix together with a metal spoon really quickly (about 10 seconds) until just combined - it will be a bit lumpy.
Tap the bowl on the worktop to release the bubbles and stop the raising agents working too quickly then dollop the mixture into the cupcake cases, distributing equally. Pop the trays in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or so. Remove from oven and lay on a cooling tray until they are completely cold.
In another bowl, whisk the margarine and vanilla essence together until creamy then add half the icing sugar. Once well mixed, add the second half and mix well, adding a little dairy free milk to soften if too stiff. Decorate the cupcake tops with the icing and sprinkles of your choice.

Gorgeous dairy free kohlrabi and potato gratin

I have an organic vegetable box delivered to my door Every week, a habit I started a few years ago, and one I even managed to continue in India (for some of the time anyway). The items delivered are fresh, seasonal and full of fabulous nutrients and free of nasty chemicals.

Sometimes, though, some of the items can be a bit of a challenge. Jerusalem artichokes are a nightmare, as none of the family can eat them without some seriously embarrassing results (we call them fartichokes!). Wild garlic leaves need to be avoided as I'm fairly dramatically allergic to them (odd but true). 

Recently, kohlrabi have been a feature in the box; odd knobbly spheres which look like they have fallen from outer space, they are delicious raw or cooked, and are surprising nutritious.

Although they look like a root veg, kohlrabi is actually a brassica; its a bulb at the base of swollen stem.  It has a crisp, fresh flavour and texture, similar to broccoli stem or young turnips. In fact, kohlrabi in German means cabbage turnip. Even though they do look a bit weird, they're really easy to prepare; if you have young, organic ones you don't even need to peel off the skin.

So what to do with it? Combined with grated carrots, grated kohlrabi makes a beautiful fresh, crunchy coleslaw with a slightly different flavour - add in a little thinly sliced onion and some toasted black mustard seeds, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds and it's coleslaw with different flavours and textures. Kohlrabi also works brilliantly with sliced potato to make a gratin - a dish that is not so easy to make dairy free, but with the help of a recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whillingstall, a good non-dairy milk and a bit of adaptation, anything is possible!

Gratin dishes are indulgently rich and creamy (and full of fat!) and definitely not dairy free! Whilst many non-dairy milks are great replacements for cereals and baking, I don't think they work so well in savoury dishes. Rice milk is too watery, almond milk too delicate and soya milk either too sweet or too strongly flavoured. The best one I've found is called Kara, or Koko (it's been rebranded). It's made from coconut milk but doesn't have a strong flavour and works in cooking pretty much like dairy milk; it's particularly good for making a white sauce.

I used Kara instead of cream in this gratin - you obviously get a thinner sauce so need less but it does add a certain creamy texture which would just be missing if you used vegetable stock only. Plus, the potatoes release some of their starch as they cook, adding to the 'creamy' texture. 

Make sure you use your kohlrabi leaves as well in this dish; they are packed full of betacarotene and B vitamins. The kohlrabi bulb itself has amazing amounts of vitamin C as well as B vitamins and a good amount of potassium, and of course it's low in fat, high in fibre and just generally good for you!

I had some nut cheese http://foodiesensitive.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/dairy-and-yeast-free-pizza-its-tasty.html made up in the fridge so used that for the topping, but you could just use bread crumbs* and dairy free spread if you don't have a cheese alternative to hand - it will still be gorgeous!
Dairy free kohlrabi and potato gratin 

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 onions sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, sliced
some dairy free spread for greasing
1 medium sized kohlrabi, finely sliced
1 large potato, finely sliced
1 teaspoon thyme
200mls dairy free milk
200mls veg stock
salt and pepper
kohlrabi leaves chopped
handful spinach, chopped (optional)
Topping:
70g bread crumbs (or alternatives)
20g butter
40g nut cheese (optional)
First, pre heat the oven to 190oC then heat the oil in a large frying pan and saute the onion with a little salt on a low heat until they are soft and slightly caramelised (about 12 minutes or so). Add the garlic and cook through for a few minutes but don't let it burn, then the kohlrabi, potato and thyme and cook for another 5 minutes. Pour in the veg stock and non dairy milk and cook over a medium heat until the fluid has reduced by half. Season well. Generously grease a large oven proof dish with the dairy free spread and carefully pour in the gratin mix. Blitz the breadcrumbs, non-dairy spread, seasoning and nut cheese (if using) together in a blender and sprinkle over the top. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or so until the gratin is bubbling and browned on top. 

Enjoy!!
* As I have an intolerance to yeast as well as dairy, normal breadcrumbs are a none starter, so I blitz up a wholewheat wrap or tortilla to make the crumbs. If you have a wheat allergy, there are gluten free breadcrumbs available on the market, or of course blitz your gluten free bread!

Scones - dairy free and delicious!

As I'm sure I've mentioned, being intolerant to all forms of dairy means I can't eat one of my favourite things - cake. Having a sweet tooth, it's something I look forward to, and relish, and yet unless I bake my own, it's something I cannot eat when I'm out and about.

However, to my delight, one of the things I have noticed since coming back to the UK, is that there are an increasing number of cafes that serve a dairy free option, which is most exciting (not so good for my waistline!!). But it really depends upon where I am as to whether there's a suitable sweet bite. Luckily for me, I live close to Brighton, a small city on the south coast of England that has a reputation as being a little alternative. There are now a number of cafes serving up vegan cake, so not only do I get a choice of cafe, but also a choice of cake!

There's also a fantastic whole food store, Infinity Foods, that not only sells fresh veg and dried products, but bread, cakes and vegan pizza! Recently, I treated myself to a giant dairy free scone. I have to admit I was a little dubious that it would taste as good as a traditional butter laden one, but that soon changed to delight - it was light and packed full of yummy scone flavour. 

I have a bit of a bad scone making history (my children regale with delight the time I used bicarbonate of soda instead of baking powder so the scones tasted of wee!!!), but was inspired to attempt to make my own again - both dairy and wee free!!!

One of the key things about a good scone is the lightness of texture, so I use self-raising flour and add some baking powder for extra lift. A delicate touch seems to be important too when forming and handling the dough; it seems to me that using dairy free margarine as opposed to butter is an advantage here as it is not quite as heavy.

Whenever I make individual scones, something seems to happen in the cutting process and the lightness and air just vanishes in a puff. Fumbling fingers are not good in this scenario. So to be on the safe side, I've found it best to make a single batch scone i.e: form the dough into one single round, half cut through to create sections and bake as a whole, cutting it into individual portions later when cooled. 

So here is my version of non-dairy scone suitable for afternoon tea - serve with dairy free spread and lashings of your favourite jam. 

Dairy-free scones

225g self-raising flour

pinch of salt

t

1 teaspoon baking powder

75g non-dairy margarine

25g caster sugar

75g raisins (if you want fruit scones0

100mls soya milk

teaspoon of granulated sugar

First, heat your oven to 220oC. Place the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl then add the margarine and rub in to make fine bread crumbs. Alternatively, you can pulse in a blender to get the same texture. Stir in the sugar and raisins, then add the milk a little at a time until you form a soft, kneadable dough. Knead gentle for a minute or so until everything seems combined, then form into a single batch. Using a large knife, cut through the dough half way, first down the centre, then at the sides to create 6 sections. Sprinkle with the granulated sugar and brush with a little soya milk and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes (if you're not vegan then brush with egg as it's a better glaze - soya milk doesn't brown as well). Once cooked, cool on a wire tray, then cut into individual portions when you're ready for afternoon tea! 

Yummy banana muffins two ways

I have a sweet tooth and just love cakes. Of course, every time I ate one it made me ill, so one of my first tasks when I discovered my milk intolerance was to find out how to make cake without dairy. It was actually quite easy as non-dairy spreads are easily available in the supermarkets - I used to buy Pure sunflower spread as it was light and didn't have a strong flavour, and is great for baking. And if milk was required, soya milk has a slight richness to it so works just as well.  The spread doesn't work quite so well as butter cream though, so a Victoria Sponge cake had to stay simple with just jam and a sugar dusting.
Coming out to India things became more complicated, and not just because I have the worst oven in the world that seems to emit more heat on the outside than inside. Mind you, at least it's gas, so when there's a power cut (a daily occurrence) the oven stays on! Butter is available in the shops, some forms of margarines but nothing dairy free. As there's only so many pots of Pure you can hide in your suitcase, I had to start investigating making cakes with oil. The structure of the cake is slightly heavier and tends towards greasy, but its a reasonable replacement.
One of my favourites is banana muffins. Bananas grow everywhere in Southern India - I even had a bunch hanging down in my garden the other day from the house behind. Unfortunately, they came and claimed them. Some are really small and sweet, others larger but equally tasty. It's easy to end up with a bunch ripe at the same time, so this is the perfect way to use them. I have two recipes - one with eggs, the other without so suitable for vegans or those with egg allergies.
Banana muffins version 1 (with egg)
3 ripe bananas mashed
1 cup of sugar (although if the bananas are really ripe, reduced sugar content as other wise just too sweet and of course it's healthier with less sugar!)
2 eggs
1/2 cup of oil (I use organic coconut oil but whatever you have - not olive oil though)
2 cups of flour (wholemeal is best - or atta in India)
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt (or less if you're not a salty person)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional but gives the added bonus of omega 3 oil)
All you need to do is mix together the sugar, oil and eggs until they are well combined then beat in the bananas. Stir in the remaining ingredients and add the walnuts if you're using. Spoon in to individual muffin papers or a greased muffin tin and bake for 30 minutes or until they feel cooked at 180oC. Pop the muffins out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack, then consume; perfect with an afternoon cup of tea!
Banana muffins version 2 (no egg)

Exactly the same ingredients as above but omit the eggs. This time, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Then add in the mashed banana and oil. The mix will be rather thick and dry, so stir in some soya milk, enough to give you a thick batter that doesn't stick to the spoon. Add in walnuts if you are using them. I also add a sprinkling of cinnamon and about 10g of flaxseed, blitzed in the blender to a powder. This makes them even healthier - flaxseeds are currently my number one superfood - will explain why on another post soon. If you are going for the flaxseed option, add in a bit more soya milk as flaxseed does make the muffins a bit more stodgy. Once everything is beautifully mixed together, fill your muffin cases and bake as above. These ones will be more dense than the eggy version but no less yummy. Try them out and let me know what you think.