Herbivores' Heaven

Vegan MoFo may be over, but I’ve still got one more post in me!  In November while I was doing the rounds and checking out all the exciting vegan blogs participating, I decided to try out some of the recipes I came across.  I usually cook more from cookbooks than from blogs, so it was nice to have a change.  Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of great recipes to try and I think I made a respectable number of them.  Have a look!

These breakfast potato nests from Tartes and Recreation were such a little treat!  The original recipe calls for a spiraliser, but I just used my rather savage julienne peeler and got some nice little matchsticks.  The nests formed beautifully, and were good and crisp.  I used little cherry tomatoes rather than normal sized ones, because I was worried about tomato juice making the nests a bit too soggy.  I also just scattered on the nutty topping (I made almond parmesan rather than walnut, because that’s what I had in) at the end.  They were delicious!  Not that much effort in the morning, and definite wow factor when you serve them – I hadn’t told Dr HH what I was making, and his face just lit up when he saw them!

From Walks, Talks and Eats I made this easy potato-carrot soup.  It was everything I expected:  hearty, filling and, of course, easy.  I partially blitzed the soup at the end to make the broth a bit thicker, but I kept most of the good chunks of veg too.  It was a good simple soup!

I also used the spinach dhal recipe from the same blog.  Doesn’t it look so healthy and inviting?  Unsurprisingly, it was delicious.  And best of all, it calls for frozen spinach – good news for me, as we have just added fresh spinach to the list of things that are unavailable at my local supermarket.  I’ll definitely make this again.

From Green Gourmet Giraffe I tried this vegan avgolemo, a Greek rice and lemon soup.  I cooked the rice separately, to avoid it soaking up all the broth from the soup.  It was unlike any soup I’ve had before, and it was delicious!  The miso/tahini combination is one of my all time favourites.  This was filling and wonderful.

One Raw Bite is one of my favourite blogs, so I had to feature one of Jennifer’s recipes.  I made this corn chowder, and I loved it!  I’ve made a lot of corn chowders, and this one managed to stand out.  The sweet potatoes were a really great touch.

This cream of cauliflower soup was from Plant Based Living and I made it into more of a cauliflower cheese soup by adding loads of nooch.  I also increased the quantities, because I wanted two days’ worth of packed lunches, not just one hearty mug.  I think my tinkering with the quantities wasn’t quite right, because it was a bit thinner than I would have liked, but it was creamy and nice.  It looks a bit green in this photo, but rest assured, it was lovely and cream-coloured in real life.

From justbloggs vegan I made the easy, storecupboard version of tomato soup (there are two options linked here).  I added some oregano, and it was absolute perfection.  I’ve made a lot of tomato soups, but never thought to chuck in a handful of red lentils – this was definitely a winning idea!

I also made the Bonfire night vegan chilli from the same blog.  It was delicious!  I rarely buy mince, but it was a good indulgence and it gave a really nice texture to the chilli.  The real highlight was the mushroom, though – of course!

The easy red curry from Neat & Nutritious just called for red curry paste, and fortunately I still had some in, so I thought why not?  I used onion, carrot and cauliflower for my veg, and added some tofu as well to get a bit more protein.  The ingredients lists cashew butter, but the recipe instructions call for raw cashews – I stuck with the butter, which gave it a really nice creaminess.  The dish was as I expected:  simple and delicious.

I’ve recently fallen madly in love with mac’n’cheese, so I was keen to try out some recipes from the vegan community.  This recipe from Vegful Life has a cauliflower twist and it’s a good ‘un!  (Apologies for the rubbish picture.)  The cheese sauce was creamy and flavoursome from the cashews and cauliflower, and it was nice and easy to make.  I think it probably needs a little something to make it sing – like the spicy chickpeas from Vegan Bowl Attack – but that’s a minor quibble.

I also made the macaroni with chickpea sauce from Afrovegan.  I added quite a bit more nooch to make it taste more like cheese and less like chickpeas.  It made a good thick sauce, and was really easy to throw together on a worknight.  We served it with a few chilli flakes and basil leaves.

And, yes, another one!  This was the baked guacamole mac’n’cheese from Lisa’s Project: Vegan.  It’s a combination I had never heard of, but, unsurprisingly, it worked beautifully!  It even looked a little festive, with the green tinge and red tomato slices.  I had some almond parmesan leftover from another dish, so I scattered it on top, and thought it a very good addition.  Dr HH doesn’t really care for big slices of tomato, but even he loved this.

I was amazed by this vegetable pot pie with biscuits over at I Love Vegan, so I had to give it a go as well.  Mine doesn’t look as attractive as the original, but it was delicious!  The recipe for calls for tempeh bacon, but I just sliced up a packet of smoked tempeh and I think it did the trick nicely.  I also added a little more stock to help the potato to cook.  My scones weren’t evenly sized because, for shame, I don’t have any round cutters here.  And I didn’t brush them with melted spread because I was too hungry, dammit!  Still, everything was so hearty and flavoursome.  We both really enjoyed eating this.

I didn’t really know what a Philly cheesesteak was, but nevertheless I decided to attempt Ichiban Vegan‘s chipotle portabella cheesesteak burritos.  Portobello mushrooms are a precious commodity here (or at least, my local supermarket doesn’t sell them), so I used regular mushrooms and supplemented them with some seitan to get that steaky vibe.  I thought there was no way the sweet potato cheesy sauce would be as vibrant as in the original post, but I was pleasantly surprised!  I’m glad I stuck with the mushrooms, as they added great earthiness and contrasted nicely with the sweet potato cheese (which was amazing, by the way).  It made a really delicious dish.

It’s a hearty, protein-rich veggie stew from Go Vegga, using Linda McCartney mince instead of TVP because I had it in, but otherwise following the recipe.  I was wary of including the whole cherry tomatoes, or as Dr HH usually describes them:  little pockets of napalm.  I added them, and they were indeed very hot – but a fun addition.  We both really enjoyed this stew.

I also made this quick and easy curry from Flicking the V’s.  Joey’s Vegan MoFo recipes were aimed at students:  fast, cheap, filling food.  This curry ticked all the boxes!  The beans were a really good addition, as I rarely add beans to a curry.  This was good and healthy.

Kimmy from Rock My Vegan Socks posted this roasted Brussels sprouts, chickpeas and rice dish to fit the prompt about a food she used to hate but now loves.  I share her feelings about Brussels sprouts, once the scourge of my Christmas dinner but now something really delicious.  This was a really easy dish, and despite my worries that it was a bit too simple (no spices, just oil, garlic, salt and pepper for seasoning), it worked beautifully.  Cooking the rice in stock really helped to add flavour too, so don’t skip that!

And a couple of sweet things:  these chocolate almond dates seemed like a good simple snack from The Secret Formula.  I hadn’t expected them to be quite so delicious, though:  they were really moreish.  I’m sure you can imagine how the gooey date elevates this from a simple fruit and nut combo.

And finally, a quick and easy dessert from Little Vegan Bear (quick if you don’t include time to set).  This raw chocolate avocado mousse was creamy and delicious.  It was really thick, possibly more of a pudding than a mousse.  I did not put as much effort into my presentation as LVB did, but it was just as delicious, I’m sure!

Thank you to all of my fellow Vegan MoFo’ers for sharing recipes and products and posts galore in the last month.  As nice as it is to have more free time again, I’m really going to miss your daily updates.  Let’s do it again next year!