Wednesday 26 June 2013

Doughnutsssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
Inspired by my friend and fellow vegan Cassie {TeaBeardsandCake} I bought a 6 hole doughnut oven pan from Amazon and used this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie to make vegan krispy Kreme doughnuts!
 
I was kind enough to test out the first batch on my omnivorous family, who absolutely loved them!
 
I am not the best person to be a critic of doughnuts, as in my 7/8 years of being vegan I've only had 3 doughnuts and 2 were from this batch!
 
The only other doughnut I have had was on my first visit to Ms Cupcake in Brixton, where I waited for one to come fresh out of the fryer and it was warm and deliciously sugary! Mmmm!
 
I checked with my family and they said you cant really tell that these are baked and not fried, they aren't as oily as fried would be but they are perfectly sweet and soft.
 
 
On my second attempt I threw together a chocolate icing {seen above}, which was so delicious and even after a few days {how did they last that long?} they still tasted amazing, the chocolate icing seems to melt more into the doughnut! Definately my favourite.
 
In my trials I realised the way to add sprinkles to an iced doughnut isn't to throw tiny colourful sugared balls all over you kitchen, but in fact to cover a plate with sprinkles and press recently iced the doughnut into them, who knew!?.  
 

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Chickpeas & Avocado Caesar Salad and Sprouting Seeds

 
I saw Post Punk Kitchen's recent post on a very vegan Caesar salad, and realised my fridge was loaded with chickpeas and avocado that needed eating, I took this as a perfect opportunity to actually follow a recipe (I like to improvise too much) for once!
                 
 
I’ve never made a dressing with Tahini and was so surprised how it easy it was to thin the tahini with water, I added the mustard and garlic (losing friends because I added too much) the dressing had a very rich nutty taste. Actually the garlic flavour had really mellowed by the following day.
It inspired me to dig out my Appetite for reduction and start making more of my own salad dressings.
The salad came together really easily and the Tahini is really nutty, the chickpeas were out of a jar, yum! It also made a tasty lunch the next day and my work colleagues didn't notice the garlic.
 
 
 
At my local corner shop, they sell a lot of ethnic foods, mostly Indian and Asian, the other day I was picking up Rose water, dried chickpeas and Thai green curry paste (HOT) for my friend when I spotted Chickpeas in a jar!
When I spent a month in Rome I became totally addicted to jarred chickpeas. I could scoop a spoon full out onto my salad and add some raw garlic and Italian extra virgin olive oil and lunch was sorted.
So of course I bought a jar, in fact they were the same price as a can of chickpeas, but they taste so much better! They are really well cooked and soft enough to eat straight up.
Plus you can reuse the glass jar as storage for dried cupboard stables, or even for sprouting seeds.
This leads me nicely onto...sprouting seeds! With said dried chickpeas, I got out my Bio-Snacky Germinator and began socking my chickpeas ready for sprouting.
I’ve read that sprouted seeds and beans are really good for you, because they are easier to digest and have lots of healthy happy stuff in them. I have a lot of seeds and pulses I can sprout at home.
I did read somewhere that you should boil the chickpeas for a few minutes before you consume them.
 
Soaking the Chickpeas before the sprouting starts!

Please comment on this blog post if you love sprouting!