French toast recipe

By Caitlin, Vegan Pledge Buddy 2011 & 2012

Vegan French toast is really easy to make (perhaps easier than traditional French toast!).  Rather than messing around with eggs, all you need for vegan French toast is bread, soya milk, sugar, flour and any spices you like (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.). Mix the ingredients together (apart from the bread) and then soak your bread in the mixture and you’re good to go. But if you're up for something a little different, this twist on traditional French toast is delicious and easy to make! 

Chai concentrate makes 3 cups

Ingredients:

• 7 chai tea bags*
• 3 cups water
• 3/4 cups sugar

Put the water and tea bags in a saucepan on medium high heat, and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Remove from the heat, remove the tea bags, add sugar and mix.  Now you have chai tea concentrate. You can mix this with equal parts soya milk to make chai.

*Natco brand chai tea bags can be purchased fairly cheaply in bulk from Asian supermarkets.

Chai French toast

Ingredients:

• Bread, preferably stale (your favourite kind of bread – white or wholemeal – will work)
• 1/2 cup chai concentrate
• 1/2 cup soya milk
• 2 tablespoons flour
• Vegetable oil or vegan margarine

Heat your oil or margarine in a frying pan on medium heat. Mix the chai concentrate, soya milk, and flour together in a large bowl. Dip the bread in the mixture and then put one or two pieces of dipped bread in the frying pan (depending on how big your frying pan is). Cook until browned slightly on the bottom and then flip over and cook until the other side is browned. Serve with maple syrup, powdered sugar and/or fruit.  

Vegan Cookbooks

By Cameron, London Vegan Pledge Buddy 2009, 2010, 2011; now mentor for the Vegan Easy Challenge back home in Australia. 

There are so many great vegan cookbooks coming out these days it is hard to keep up. I wanted to talk about two of the best vegan cookbook authors who have so far published 17 wonderful cookbooks between them.

Robin Robertson has written 9 cookbooks and counting. Amongst these is my favourite cookbook, Vegan Planet. Inside are 400 recipes grouped into various categories like desserts, sweets, salads, baked goods, pastas, etc. 

I have much prettier cookbooks and others with both really complicated recipes for gourmands and really simple intro to cooking ones. The reason Vegan Planet is my favourite is because the recipes are in that great middle ground; they are interesting without requiring a whole day dedicated to preparing them. And the best testament to a cookbook is that many of the recipes are ones I cook again and again in my daily life. Here is a quick list of some that have a place in my regular repertoire:

~ Indonesian Inspired Tempeh Stew

~ Roasted Root Vegetable Chilli

~ African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew 

~ Spiced Banana Pancakes. 

Vegan Planet is also the cookbook that I first used to make a pizza base, and sushi, so it has a special place in my taste buds.

The second is Isa Chandra Moskowitz, perhaps the most famous vegan cookbook author in the world. I first became exposed to her through the great show Post Punk Kitchen. Isa, along with her sometime co-author Terry Hope Romero, has authored 8 iconic cookbooks. I was lucky enough to have her first Vegan with a Vengeance given to me, which she followed up with Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which may very well have started the whole vegan cupcake revolution. 

Isa's latest cookbook, Veganimicon, is one of the must-have books for vegan cooks, offering a compendium of interesting and healthy recipes, with helpful 'icons' to help quickly identify whether the recipes are soy-free / gluten-free / ready in under 45 mins, etc. It also includes friendly tips about 'stocking the Veganomicon pantry', kitchen equipment and other handy things like 'how to cook a grain'. 
This book is the source of another of my favourite dishes: Braised Seitan with Brussels, Kale and sun-dried tomatoes, as well as a fabulous tofu ricotta recipe, which goes beautifully in the Lasagne Marinara with Spinach.

So there you go, grab Veganomicon and Vegan Planet (or Robin Robertson's latest cookbook with 1000 recipes in it) and you'll have a world of delicious food at your fingertips that should keep you and your lucky dinner guests well catered-for for years to come.

You can read more by Cameron on his website at camerongreen.org.

7-day Meal Plan Part Three: Dinner ~ including Easy Pizza Recipe!

Compiled by Clare from fairfoods.org.uk, caterer at the Vegan Pledge 

7 evening meal ideas

1- Traditional night

Vegan bangers, mash and gravy with steamed broccoli and peas.

2 - Mexican night

Burrito with freshly cooked refried beans with lettuce, tomato, avocado and seasoning in a wrap.

Quesadilla - place thinly sliced vegan cheese and tomato between two wheat tortillas making a sandwich (no margarine is required). Toast on both sides in a dry frying pan, then cut into quarters.

Serve with rice and salad.

3- Italian night in

Pasta with broccoli, mushrooms and olives or other favourite veggies in your favourite pasta sauce (most are vegan but check the ingredients).

Or make your own pizza simply and easily: recipe at the end.

4 - Italian night out

At Pizza Hut the pan pizza, mia, Italian and Tuscani pizza bases are all vegan if you ask for them without cheese. Their website has allergy information that lists the items suitable for vegans.

At Pizza Express the pizza base and tomato sauce is suitable for vegans. Create your own pizza by removing the cheese and adding an extra topping. Some restaurants are happy to add vegan cheese to your pizza if you supply it.

5 - Chilli night

Home made shepherd's pie 
using pinto bean chilli 

Make a quick chilli with frozen veggie mince, a can of tomatoes, a small can of kidney beans, plus any other vegetables you fancy. Add chilli, marmite and cocoa powder to taste, plus a pinch of cinnamon. Serve with rice. If any is left, use as a topping for baked potato the next day. 


The same basic veggie mince and tomato sauce base can be used for spaghetti bolognese, lasagne and shepherd's pie (leave out the chilli, cocoa and cinnamon).

6 - Indian night

Do you fancy takeaway, shop-bought or from scratch? There are plenty of choices. Indian takeaways tend to have a good choice, but check that your dishes are cooked with vegetable oil rather than ghee (clarified butter). There are a number of shop-bought curries, from Innocent 'Veg Pots' - six out of the 8 are vegan - to Sainsbury's own and more. Or, choose your favourite recipe and enjoy with rice.

7 - Chinese night

Stir-fried mushroom, beansprouts, red onion, spring greens and marinated tofu with rice noodles and soya sauce.

Quick and easy crusty pizza recipe

Photo by fairfoods.org.uk

1. Mix 90g tomato puree, 3 tbsp olive oil and ¾ tsp mixed herbs together (and give it a mix again just before using).

2. Mix 100g vegan cheese and 3 tbsp soya milk in a blender or mash together with a fork until you have a paste (or use 100g melting cheezly, sliced).

3. Split a large vegan ciabatta in half and spread tomato mix onto the top of each, followed by cheese mix. Add your favourite pizza toppings: sweetcorn, tomato, olives, red onion, red peppers, pineapple, vegan sausage, chilli etc.

4. Bake at 220C for 10-15 minutes.

Easy vegan recipe - soups!

By Asa, Vegan Pledge Buddy 2012!

One of my favourite easy vegan meals is the general ‘soup’. Unfortunately it is a bit tricky to offer soup at the two Pledge days – even more dishes! – so we don’t. For that reason it seems appropriate to say something about this magically quick meal.

Soups are easy to make and are perfect for old tired vegetables. My most basic recipe would be ‘fry some onion (in pieces or rings) in oil, perhaps with some garlic, and/or ginger, and/or cumin, caraway/cinnamon/cardamom/curry powder/paprika – basically any spices you like on low heat. If you leave it for a while it will caramelise – nice! If you want herbs, I normally add them later on.

Rinse/peel/cut other vegetables in pieces – you could use any root vegetables, courgettes, peppers, spring onions (they can also be added from the start), cauliflower, leek, broccoli, spinach, potatoes, red lentils, split peas, green or yellow, beans from cans...

Add stock (boil water in your kettle and add to the stock before adding to the pot – even quicker), then add vegetables in or

der of how long they need to simmer; so root vegetables first, wait for a while and then the other ones. Spinach only needs a few minutes, same goes for beans from cans. It also depends on how big pieces you’ve cut them in. If you add lentils or split peas they will need to simmer for quite a while (20-45 minutes depending on, check the packaging!); if you don’t, it’ll be quicker. But you can just leave it on the stove and get on with other stuff, it’ll take care of itself!

The beauty of this is that you can finish off by blending it all, in which case it does not matter if the vegetables are overcooked :-) Normally I really don’t like overcooked broccoli e.g., but when blended it all comes together... Blend as long as you like or just for a minute and leave chunks. Then season with salt and pepper and perhaps more spices. Enjoy with a piece of bread!

This web site has many other recipes for vegan soups, all with pictures:

http://www.veganfamily.co.uk/soups.html