My Vegan Kitchen

The great thing about salads is that you don’t have to measure the ingredients (unlike baking).

You can grab a handful of this, and a dash of that; according to personal taste, and work with what’s at hand!

The important thing will always be the dressing. This is where the flavour lies.

For this salad, everything is raw apart from the vermicelli noodles.

Oh, and the roasted peanuts 😍

This salad is high on nutrition and chlorophyll-rich, which helps to keep the body alkalised. (An acidic body is an environment ripe for disease).

The roasted peanuts add texture and crunch..

For salad ingredients, chose from the following:

Vermicelli noodles, cooked and drained

courgette cut into fine julienne (use a mandolin if you have one)

cucumber cut into fine slices, also with a mandolin if possible

mixed lettuces and radicchio

spring onions, finely sliced

green chilli, chopped finely

loads of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

red capsicum, finely sliced

toasted sesame seeds

roasted peanuts

For the Dressing:

juice of 1 lime

1 garlic clove finely sliced

fresh ginger, sliced into julienne (very fine strips)

1 dessert-spoon coconut sugar (or use jaggery or any other unrefined sugar)

1 dessert-spoon tamari (or soy sauce)

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp chilli paste (I like to have sambal oelek on hand at all times)

1 tbsp peanut oil

Mix all ingredients together till well amalgamated (I know; I use that word alot)!

Et Voila; here is the flavour to dress your Asian Noodle salad..

  @thegastronomicalworkshop

Vegan rice balls with tomato kassundi!

I have used a ginger-cashew cream to bind these brown rice balls together. And served them on a bed of kassundi, sitting on an edible vine leaf..

These were scrumptious, and an exciting way to serve up plant-based party food.

Recipe:

1 cup cooked brown rice

Mix with the following

1 cup cashews, soaked in filtered water for 2 hours then drained

pinch salt

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 good handful fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped

1/4 cup roasted pumpkin

almond milk, if liquid is required..

poppy seeds for garnish

Blitz all the above ingredients in a blender. Pour the ginger-cashew cream into a bowl and add the cooled brown rice.

Mix everything together till you have a firm, well amalgamated mixture.

Form into balls and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Allow to set in the fridge.

 @thegastronomicalworkshop 

Can baked beans on toast be an exciting breakfast?

Damn straight! It's all about the salsa... Flavour, Flavour, Flavour!

The Chimmichurri Salsa .

To put this dish together:

1 loaf of fresh baguette, sliced on the diagonal and toasted in the oven (or use your toaster)

vegan butter for the toast

1 tin baked beans, heated in a pot on the stove

1 avocado, sliced on the diagonal

cherry tomatoes, halved

lashings of the chimmichurri...

fresh herbs, coriander is best!

Optional - sliced spring onions for garnish

I think you get how to assemble it?

 @thegastronomicalworkshop

These raw, vegan, gluten-free muesli bars are easy to make - dried fruit and various seeds bound together with a fruit paste (instead of using sugar).  

You can play around with the ingredients and quantities; this is not a temperamental recipe.  Enjoy!

Fruit paste

1/2 cup dates (or apricots would work too)
3 tbsp water
a squirt vanilla extract
pinch salt
1 tbsp orange juice
and the zest of 1 orange

Soak the dried fruit in hot water for 1 hour minimum. Use just enough water to cover the dates/apricots and leave to soak.

Next, add all the above ingredients to a food processor and blitz till smooth.

For the bars:

1 tbsp chia seeds soaked in 2/3 cup filtered water,  coconut water, or you could use chamomile tea for a more delicate result. You choose!

half cup pumpkin seeds
half cup sunflower seeds
half cup goji berries (or cranberries)
3 tbsp hemp seeds

1 quantity dried fruit paste (recipe above).

Stir all the ingredients together in a bowl. Mix thoroughly till well amalgamated.

Line a shallow baking pan with baking paper, and spread the mixture evenly to the sides.
If you place the pan in the freezer, the mixture will set and you‘ll be able to cut the block into bars.

Place the sliced bars on a dehydrator sheet; keeping them in the block format ie; don’t separate them out...

“Uncook”  the bars for approx 10 hours, turning half way through the process.

Dehydrator should be at 45 degrees celcius.
    

    @thegastronomicalworkshop