Sabayon

Okay, this is not a traditional sabayon/zabaglione recipe, which usually calls for sweet wine. But we don’t drink much in the Veggie Dyke household and I wanted the same flavour, so this is what I came up with.

You can either cook the mixture over a water bath, so that it stays liquid but also is safe to eat, or you can pour it over fruit into a lightly greased dish and bake it in the oven at 180 C for 6-8 minutes. If you do this, some of it becomes a lovely mushy solid, while the rest stays liquid. Either way, it’s lovely.

I recently served this over strawberries and I baked it in the oven for 8 minutes; it was delicious.

Ingredients:

3 eggs (I used the whole eggs, but some say you should just use yolks)

2-3 tbsp sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice, optional

Instructions:

1. Mix or whisk the eggs until light and frothy.

2. Add the other ingredients and continue to mix.

3. Cook briefly over a water bath or bake over fruit, or serve raw, if you know the provenance of your eggs.

Cinnamon Buns

This is a Scandinavian classic. When I was taking a French class, a Norwegian woman in the course brought these buns to our final session. She gave me the recipe and I fiddled with it and though my final product was not as fluffy as hers, it was still good.

If you want a Cinnabon-style bun, you can also make an icing for the top, but I think that’s overkill.

Ingredients:

4¼ cups flour

½ cup sugar

2 tsp cardamom

2 tsp cinnamon

14 g yeast

100 g margarine (or butter)

1½ cups milk (I used rice milk)

cinnamon filling:

75 g margarine or butter

¼ - ½ cup sugar

1/8 cup cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, sugar, cardamom, cinnamon, and yeast together.

2. Warm the margarine and milk together, then mix with the dry ingredients. Blend well.

3. Leave to rest for 45-60 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, make the cinnamon filling. You can vary the proportions here according to your own taste.

5. Roll the dough out. Spread it with the filling, then roll it up. Slice it into buns.

6. Let rise another 30-40 minutes.

7. Bake at 180 C for 10-15 minutes.

Potato Tart

This is somewhat like a gratin, except without the cheese. You can use regular milk/cream and add cheese, if you want, and you can vary the vegetables.

Ingredients:

6-8 potatoes

water

oil

1 onion

1-2 garlic cloves

1 fennel

1-2 stalks dill

cream or milk (I used rice milk and oat cream)

salt

pepper

Instructions:

1. Wash the potatoes and boil them for about 10 minutes in the water.

2. Peel the onion and garlic and dice. Slice the fennel too.

3. Slice the potatoes and layer them with the onion and garlic.

4. Intersperse the vegetables with dill, cream or milk, salt, and pepper.

5. Bake at 180 C for 20-25 minutes. Serve with a salad, if desired.

Savoury Carrot Pie

This can also be easily varied with different vegetables or different spices or herbs. I thought this worked quite well and was something different.

Ingredients:

1 onion

1-2 garlic cloves

oil

2 tsp honey

2-4 small potatoes

3-5 carrots

1 courgette, optional

milk or water

1 lemon

2 tsp cinnamon

2-4 stalks dill

filo dough

70 g hazelnuts or almonds, chopped

Instructions:

1. Peel and dice the onion and garlic. Soften them in oil in a large saucepan over low heat, then add the honey, so they caramelise.

2. Thinly slice the potatoes and add them to the pan. Chop the carrots and add them. Slice the courgette, if using, and add it too.

3. Add a little water or milk, cover, and cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring now and then. Add more liquid if the vegetables start sticking to the bottom of the pan.

4. Add the lemon zest and juice from half the lemon and the cinnamon. Wash the dill and snip it into the mixture as well.

5. Transfer the mixture to a food processor and blitz a bit at a time until it’s the desired consistency (some people like it smooth; I left it slightly chunky); you can also use a hand mixer.

6. Lightly oil an oven-safe dish. Spread 3 pieces of filo dough across the bottom, then top it with some of the carrot mixture. Squeeze a little lemon juice on top, then sprinkle with nuts.

7. Top with 2 more pieces of filo dough, then more carrot mixture, lemon juice, and nuts. You can do one more layer if you like or just do two. Top with 2 more pieces of filo.

8. Bake at 180 C for about 30 minutes.

Granola

I like having granola for breakfast, but most ready-made granolas include honey, which I am allergic to, or other items I don’t want to eat, plus they’re expensive. So I tried making it myself and it turned out quite well.

Ingredients:

1 cup dried fruit (raisins, apricots, prunes, cherries, etc)

water

1 cup nuts (I’ve tried hazelnuts and almonds)

2½ cups oats (or 2 cups oats, ½ cup quinoa flakes)

¼ - ½ cup seeds (I used pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds)

¼ cup sugar

½ tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup vegetable oil

¼ cup maple syrup (perhaps agave or honey would work as well)

Instructions:

1. Chop the fruit, then place it in hot water for 10 or so minutes, so it plumps up.

2. Chop the nuts. Mix them with all the other ingredients.

3. Make sure everything gets coated with the oil and maple syrup.

4. Put a piece of parchment paper or baking paper on a baking tray, then spread the oat mixture on it in a thick layer.

5. Bake for 20 minutes at 160 C, then rotate the tray, and bake for another 15-20 minutes.

6. Leave to cool, then break up the granola into whatever size pieces you prefer. Drain the fruit and add it. Store in Tupperware or similar.

7. Serve with milk, as desired.

Spicy Aubergine Stew

The spices and herbs here can be varied as you like – add more chilli peppers, if you want it hotter, or use garlic or cinnamon or mustard or anything else. The veg can be varied too. I served this over couscous.

Ingredients:

1 onion

oil

1 tsp sugar

2-3 tsp chopped ginger

1-2 tsp coriander (fresh, frozen, or dried)

1 chilli pepper

1 red pepper

2 aubergines

liquid (water is fine; I’ve used rice milk)

1-2 tsp dried mint

Instructions:

1. Peel and dice the onion, then sweat it in the oil in a large saucepan. Add the sugar after a few minutes.

2. Add the ginger and coriander. Wash and dice the peppers and aubergines and add them to the pan.

3. Add a little liquid. Cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring now and then. If it is dry, add some more liquid. You don’t want the veg to stick to the pan.

4. Season with the mint. Serve with rice or couscous, as desired.

Rhubarb Meringue Pie

This is delicious and looks gorgeous on a table.

Ingredients:

1 portion sweet shortcrust pastry (see previous recipes)

2 portions rhubarb curd (see previous recipes)

1 portion meringue (see previous recipes)

Instructions:

1. Roll out the dough and place it in a pie dish. Pre-bake for 5-10 minutes at 190 C.

2. Pour the curd on top of the pastry. Bake for 20-30 minutes until set.

3. Spoon the meringue on top (into any pattern or style you want). Bake for 10-12 minutes.

4. Let cool, then serve.

Meringue

You can bake this meringue into cookies or nests or you can spoon it on top of pie for a beautiful meringue topping. See the next post for an example.

Ingredients:

4 egg whites

160 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla, optional

Instructions:

1. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add the sugar and, if using, the vanilla, continuing to whisk.

2. Spoon onto a baking tray and bake into meringue cookies (or nests for fruit) or put on top of a pie and then bake for 10 minutes at 180 C.

Rhubarb Curd

This is like lemon curd, but with rhubarb (obviously). You can spread it on toast or you can use it in the forthcoming rhubarb meringue pie recipe. I’ve made this curd with orange juice or apple juice; I personally prefer the latter, but many people like the combination of orange and rhubarb. You can also experiment with other liquids and/or spices, such as ginger or cinnamon. A ginger, apple, and rhubarb curd I made was really lovely.

This recipe can be easily doubled and in fact should be doubled for the pie recipe.

Ingredients:

400 g rhubarb

30 g sugar

zest and juice from ½ orange or 3 tbsp apple juice (and thus no zest)

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp flour

Instructions:

1. Wash, trim, and chop the rhubarb. Toss it with the sugar and zest and juice.

2. Bake the rhubarb for 20-30 min at 190 C.

3. Blend it in a processor until smooth, then warm over low heat and let simmer until it thickens (10-20 min).

4. Leave it to cool. Mix about 1 tbsp of the rhubarb with the yolks and flour, then slowly add this mixture back to the rhubarb. Mix well.

5. Cool or chill, then use on toast or in recipes.

Vegan Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

We’ve been experimenting a lot with shortcrust pastries that don’t use butter. This is a good sweet dough. You can easily vary it by adding ground almonds or flavourings.

Ingredients:

200 g flour

110 g Cookeen

2 tbsp sugar

2-4 tbsp cold water

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour and Cookeen until the mixture is like breadcrumbs.

2. Add in the sugar and mix again. Slowly add the water and mix well.

3. Chill, covered, for 20-30 minutes, then roll out and use as needed.

Pine Nut Bread

I like to make this in little rolls. It’s great with butter or sunflower spread.

Ingredients:

5 cups strong white bread flour (about 500 g)

2 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp honey

4 tbsp sunflower oil

1 cup warm water (about 225 ml)

about 50-100 g pine nuts, to taste

Instructions:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add in the honey, oil, and water. Mix with a bread hook in a stand mixer or else knead on a floured surface. We mixed it in the mixer and then M kneaded it too.

2. Leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour.

3. Knead again. Separate into equally sized rolls. You can also make one large loaf.

4. Place 5-6 pine nuts in the centre of each roll. Fold the rolls over and place another 5-6 pine nuts in the centre. Then fold over again and decorate the tops with a few pine nuts. (In other words, you’ll end up with layers of pine nuts in the dough.)

5. Leave to rise another 20-30 minutes.

6. Bake for about 15 minutes at 200 C.

Chestnut Pancakes

Ingredients:

200 g chestnut puree

¼ cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2-4 tbsp sugar, to taste

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ginger

2 eggs

oil

fruit, to serve with it

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients but the oil together.

2. Warm the oil in a frying pan and fry the pancakes, a few at a time.

3. Serve with blueberries or other fruit.

Easy Lunch

I know this sounds a bit odd, but I had a leftover baked potato (already baked, I mean) and I didn’t quite know what to have it with. I sliced some beautiful fresh tomatoes and squirted a dab of mayonnaise on it and ground some black pepper on top, and it was really tasty! I’d recommend the combination.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

This makes one loaf or two small ones. I like to make small loaves so I can give them away as gifts. You can also vary it with dried cranberries or cherries and cocoa or other spices.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

3 tbsp sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp (about 4 g) active dry yeast

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

½ cup milk (I used rice milk)

2 tbsp butter (I used 1½ tbsp Trex, a butter substitute)

water

¼ cup raisins

another 2 tsp cinnamon

another 1 tbsp sugar (I used a mixture of white and brown sugar)

another dab of butter

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, yeast, and vanilla together. Add the egg and mix in a stand mixer.

2. Warm the milk and butter together, so the butter melts.

3. Blend the milk into the dry ingredients and mix well (for about 4-6 minutes). Leave to rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, boil the water and soak the raisins in it. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together.

5. Knead the dough and divide into two pieces, if desired. Shape each piece into a rectangle.

6. Sprinkle the rectangle/s with bits of butter, raisins, and the cinnamon mixture.

7. Roll the rectangle/s up and leave to rise for another 20-30 minutes in a warm place.

8. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 175 C.

Vegan Chocolate Ganache 2

I used this to top my vanilla cupcakes from the last post.

Ingredients:

90 g dark chocolate

1 tbsp coconut oil

1-2 tbsp rice milk (or soy or almond)

Instructions:

1. Melt all the ingredients together.

2. Cool slightly, then spread on cupcakes.