Saturday 30 June 2018

Burrito Salad

Degrees are still way up in the 20Cs, and what better than rattling up a salad - especially burrito style!

Burrito Salad
(Serves 3-4)


140g cooked rice
400g can black beans, rinsed
200g can sweetcorn, rinsed
2 large tomatoes, deseeded and finely chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 baby gem lettuce, finely chopped
30g fresh coriander, finely chopped

For the dressing:
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 green chilli (or a splash or sriracha sauce)
1 tbsp olive oil
150ml unsweetened plant based milk (I used oat milk)
1 tsp maple syrup or agave
1 tsp garlic powder
Salt and black pepper to taste

- Start by cooking the rice, and leave it to cool whilst cutting the vegetables. Once cooled, fold it all into the rice and stir well.

- For the dressing, simply have it all in a small blender, and blend until smooth. Pour over generously and stir to combine.

There is so much dressing in this salad and it tastes divine! So you could easily serve some garlic bread with it for mopping, scrumptious!

This is what I call a proper dinner for a hot sunny day, or as a healthy lunch, I had it as both to be honest, and it wont be the last time - already craving it!


Original recipe by the Bosh! plant based cook book, I swear I am going through every single recipe in that book! I hope you don't mind, hehe!

xox J

Tuesday 26 June 2018

Middle Eastern Pizza

It's Summer, you're feeling a little lazy, but you wany pizza so bad - and you want to be healthy at the same time: contradiction central, however I miiiiight have a recipe that will tick a few of those boxes.

We're talking pizza, but with a home made wholemeal dough, you gotta put some elbow grease into it, but then you can relax with a refreshing drink whilst the dough is rising. And the combo of these veggie toppings work SO well together - I promise you!

As far as additional toppings, you can use homemade vegan pesto, hummus, vegan-style mozzarella.... But personally, I loved this just on it's own!

Middle Eastern Pizza
(Serves 2 hungry people, or 4 with a side salad if you want to be good!)


Ingredients
For the dough:
500g strong wholemeal bread flour
1 sachet dry fast-action yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
340ml water at 37C (if you drip a drop of it on your wrist, you shouldn't be able to feel it - that's what they taught us in primary and secondary school in home ec! :D)

For the sauce (This is SO tasty by the way!):
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
Small handful fresh basil, roughly torn
1 tbsp olive oil or rapeseed oil
200g tinned tomatoes (or about 2-3 fresh ones, chopped)
1 tsp red wine vinegar (you can also use white wine vinegar, or cider vinegar)

Toppings:
50g artichokes in oil, finely chopped
1 roasted red pepper from a jar, or a handful of those tiny peppers for a bit of a kick, finely chopped
6 mini plum tomatoes, finely chopped
6 sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained and finely chopped
1/2 red onion, finely sliced

-Start by making the dough: have the flour in a large baking bowl, add the yeast and the salt and stir well to combine. Make a well in the middle and pour in the lukewarm water. Stir with a wooden spoon until it comes together - then flour your work surface and tip the dough onto it. Knead it for about 10-15 minutes until beautifully elastic. Oil the baking bowl, put the dough in, cover with cling film and leave it to rise for an hour.

- In the meantime, make the sauce; put all the ingredients in a little mixer and blitz until smooth, set aside for assembly.

- Once the dough has doubled in size, knead for a further minute, divide into two, and wrap in clingfilm, leave to rise for a second time for 15-30 minutes (it's worth it!). Now chop your vegetables whilst you wait. I placed all of mine in a bowl and stirred so it was ready to be evenly drizzled over the dough as soon as it was ready!

- Pre-heat the oven to 250C, rolle each piece of dough out into a thin pizza base, pour over the sauce evenly out all the way out to the edges, drizzle with vegetables (and vegan mozzarella - if using) and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

- Once it's done, top with your favourite topping or enjoy on its own!

I hope you love it as much as Kev and I did! I had a couple of slices with me for lunch the next day, and it was delicious, mmmm....


I hope you are having a good week so far! Here in Glasgow the weather's heating up again and I am just getting better after having a ridonculous Summer cold, but I was back at badminton last night - which was awesome!

xoxo
J

Original recipe from Bosh! Plant based cook book

Sunday 10 June 2018

Scrummy Aubergine Burgers

Hi all!

I hope you're having a lovely weekend so far! It seems forever since my last post, but life has been a little busy as of late! Today my dad is coming to visit, so that'll be awesome! I'm gonna bake some bread later on, as I am sure he will be famished after the journey....

But now - Let's talk burgers!

Normally I am not a fan of aubergine, but when cooked until soft, smokey and lush: I'm all for it!

Scrummy Aubergine Burgers
(Makes six smaller or four big burgers)


Ingredients
100g bulghur wheat, dry
250ml water
1 vegan stock cube
400g aubergine, cut into dice
2 tbsp oil (such as sunflower, where there is no prominent flavour)
60g walnuts
40g fresh spinach, chopped
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 more vegan stock cube
1 small tsp cinnamon
100g quick-oats

To serve: buns, or pitta, lettuce or spinach leaves, salsa, or ketchup and vegan mayonnaise, etc! So much to choose from :D

- Start by cooking the bulghur wheat in the 250 ml water along with 1 stock cube.

- In the meantime, pre-heat the oven at 225C, and tip the chopped aubergine on a baking tray, drizzle with the oil and bake for about 30 minutes, at the halfway point, turn the pieces over.

- Dry-toast the walnuts lightly until aromatic, this shouldn't take more than a minute or two, then chop them roughly and set aside.

- Now, mix the cooked bulghur, aubergine, walnuts and spinach in a large bowl. Use a stick blender and blend until you have a rough mixture, then stir in the remaining stock, lemon, cinnamon, and oats - plus a little salt and pepper.

- Fry them in a little oil, until crisp and serve up with your favourite accompaniments!

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did! Have a fantasmical Sunday!

xox J


Original recipe from Kjøttfrie burgere <3