Menu planning - Vegan recipes
I have a daughter in law who cannot eat eggs or milk, so am always on the lookout for recipes that I can use when she is coming around. On Saturday we had 7 people to dinner, and I cooked cassoulet again. That is fast becoming a favourite meal for a crowd. I serve it in my big bessamer pot, and I like to make it in advance so the flavours can meld as it simmers slowly on the stove. This means I am not rushing around preparing dinner at the last minute. Alongside I served a big salad with spinach and a mix of tomatoes, cucumbers,red onion and chick peas marinaded in a lemony olive oil dressing. Of course there is bread to mop up the juices! Oh! and bubbly (not French my budget doesnt run to that,) and French red wine.
For dessert I had to do a bit of research and planning. I have had this recipe for vegan chocolate cake on my evernote feed for quite some time, and eventually tried it, and it is a keeper!
I did of course mess with the recipe a bit. I couldn't find applesauce so took some pears canned in their own juice, drained them and mashed them. I also used canola oil, instead of coconut, and used 1 cup of sugar instead of 1/13 cup. OH! and I also made half the frosting, didn't add the chocolate chips, and that was plenty! That recipe is a keeper.
Since I had the oven on, and you can always have more dessert, and I had just opened a can of chickpeas for the salad I decided to try cooking with aquafaba. For the uninitiated, this is simply the liquid from a can of chickpeas, and you will not believe it, but it whips just like eggwhite.
That in turn became those pillowy little cookies. :) Once again I didnt add chocolate chips, because quite honestly in my little town you are not going to get vegan chocolate chips, and anyway I think these traditionally only contain nuts. If you want to try the recipe it is here.
Next week the menu will be super healthy! (Oh there is one birthday, so maybe not!)
Since I had the oven on, and you can always have more dessert, and I had just opened a can of chickpeas for the salad I decided to try cooking with aquafaba. For the uninitiated, this is simply the liquid from a can of chickpeas, and you will not believe it, but it whips just like eggwhite.
i find vegan too hard but i'm not allergic to too many things, just dairy & the nightshade family
ReplyDeletethat chocolate cake looks divine! so do the puffy cookies! chickpea juice? who knew! I can still eat eggs so am good there
well done on the serving of vegan foods! thanx for sharing the recipes too! will have to try the chocolate cake, chocolate chips are just an extra indulgence which i used to replace with Flake, worked out just as good but have had the dairy allergy since the kids were babies, nearly 30yrs! mmm, would be nice to indulge in chocky cake again
great post
thanx for sharing
It really is a super easy one bowl recipe, but certainly tastes awesome. Oh I would find it very hard to give up the nightshades.
Deleteaquafaba - never heard of it and impressed with how it could become puffy cookies.
ReplyDeleteSo easy and tasty
DeleteMy son is vegan and I enjoy trying different vegan recipes. I have found plenty of really good ones on mindfood.com.au, nigella.com and minimalistbaker. Nigella has a great chocolate cake although I mostly us an old women's weekly chocolate cake recipe and sub the butter for nuttlex and use Orgran egg replacer which you can buy at the supermarket and soy milk. I also add a splash of vinegar as that was often use to replace eggs during the depression. Stacey at theveggiemama blog has a great vegetable satay recipe we have a lot and Emma at Mydarlinglemonthyme has a lot of recipes that are dairy and egg free (her recipe books are great). I knew about aquafaba but have yet to use it - I have heaps in the freezer ready to go!! I do not wish to be vegan but we are eating a lot of vegetarian meals now. There is a workshop here on the weekend to make vegan cheeses and coconut yoghurt but I prefer dairy cheeses and yoghurt. Vegan is certainly becoming very mainstream now. I'm inspired to use up some of my aquafaba now!
ReplyDeletejust realised your chocolate cake recipe is from minimalist baker!
Deletethanks for that I will look up some of those, a lot I know about already. I probably have vegetarian about three times a week. That vegetable satay recipe looks awesome. I hope you enjoy the cookies and use up some of that aquafaba. I never knew you could freeze it.
DeleteWow, I have to try those cookies, very interesting recipe. And the chocolate cake too of course :)
ReplyDeletethey were both very different recipes that i felt I had to try sometime, and I am glad I did!
DeleteMinimalist Baker is one of my favourite sites for vegan inspiration. Most of my cooking is wholefood, plant-based but I haven't bothered with meringuues but I might now, your aquafaba meringue cookies look good.
ReplyDeleteTracy, they were so easy and i heard about it ages ago, but was a bit skeptical, not any more!
DeleteI think you did well with the vegan meal. I am a vegetarian and love vegan food although I have to restrict my diet these days due to gut problems. That cake looks amazing. Ithink you can substitute normal choc chips with cacao nibs although they may be difficult for you to find. It is nice to know that people like yourself respect and cater for vegans. One usually finds that vegetarian and vegan food is quite lovely to eat. I admire your daughter in law for being vegan. I wanted to be totally vegan by the time I was 50 but it was too difficult to eat out, and now I have more problems lol. I am now in my 60s so that ship has sailed. You would be surprised the number of people who feel they can ridicule you just because you eat diffently to them. Some people are quite rude. I don't tell them to be vegetarian yet they feel they can be nasty to me. Very strange. Your post has made me hungry.
ReplyDelete