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Vegan Christmas Lunch
What’s your favorite thing to cook?
With a daughter who has been vegan for over a decade and a son who is vegetarian when they come over for Christmas the entire family goes vegetarian. With some planning it works: a nut-roast, a rich gravy and lots of roast veg and green veggies.
The Vegan Weekly Shop
This covers meals for a five day though missing the porridge oats. Breakfast is either porridge with soya milk, grated cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup or spinach and cherry tomatoes on toast. Lunch is often an Asian soup based on coconut and yeast flakes in a vegetable stock with garlic, ginger, and any combination of veggies: carrots, cauliflower, brocoli, mini corn. Evening veggie burgers made in a variety of ‘flavours’ with chutnies made from dates, or sun dried tomatoes, or pasta and pesto. Pesto typically basil based, but often might include avocado. Parmesan replaced successfully after much trial and error with a mix of roast pine nuts, pistachio and cashew nuts put through a spice grinder with yeast flakes.
Experimenting with recipes from a number of books – some more challenging than others.
Veggie Burgers
Christmas Veggie Burger
A slight adjustment to some of the ingredients here give it a Christmas flavour.
Seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Cardamon
Tumeric
Chilli (depends)
Corriander (fresh)
Thyme (fresh)
1 cup Mushrooms
2 medium Aubergine
2Leek
1 Celer rib
1 Red Pepper
3 Cloves Garlic
1 cup of pearl barley
1 tin of chickpeas or 1 tin of Kidney beans
1/4 / 1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon of Marmite
3 cups Panko breadcrumbs
(Optional chestnuts)
1) Bake the aubergine and mushrooms wrapped in tin foil with sprigs of Thyme. 30-45 mins ’til the aubergine is a soft pulp.
2) Meanwhile, slowly cook celery and leek until soft, then add garlic.
3) Carefully bake a cup of mixed nuts: pistachio and pine nuts, or hazlenuts.
3) Cook pearl barley – cover in water, bring to the boil and simmer for 25 mins.
4) In a food mixer, pulp chickpeas, flour, baking powder and aubergine pulp and mushrooms. Add Veggiemite.
5) Grind the nuts ’til fine then add to the food mixer.
6) Season the mixture: salt, pepper, Tumeric, Cardamon, Coriander, Chilli …
7) At this point the mixture is ‘prepped’ and can be set aside.
8) When you are about to cook mix in a generous quantity of Panko or other crisp breadcrumbs.
9) Fry until both sides are brown then cook through in the oven for 10-20 minutes.
Mind Bursts 