Creamy Breakfast Scramble

Waking up late this morning (11:00am!!) I really craved a creamy, rich, meaty scramble (vegan style, of course) for my mid morning brunch. I had a quick look through my various new cookbooks and came up with an adaptation of a recipe from The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions. It is called the Spinach and Mushroom Tofu scramble - however I quickly realised I didn't have any spinach, mushrooms or tofu - so I quickly made up my own recipe inspired by theirs, with the ingredients I had in my kitchen (which was not many as spending Christmas away meant that we haven't got barely any food!)

I also am VERY EXITED because in this recipe I came up with my own creamy sauce which worked REALLY well with the scramble and gave it a thick and delicious taste! The recipe called for tofu and nutritional yeast which would give it the creamy, cheesy texture so I was forced to think up a new way to create the same effect... and this is the masterpiece that was created (if i may say so myself) ;)

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 6 (vegan) meat deli slices (like vegi - deli sage and onion slices) / 10 oz of tofu / vegan meat strips (e.g. vegi - deli chicken style pieces) / seitan strips etc. (some kind of vegan meat!) - In the picture I use turkey style sage and onion deli slices 
• 1 large tomato
• 2 medium carrots 
• 1 red onion 
• 1/2 a red pepper 
• 1 1/2 tsp mustard powder 
• 1 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast 
• 1/2 tsp of turmeric 
• 1/2 tsp of olive oil 
• 5 tbs of water + 1/4 veg stock cube 
• 60 ml of oat milk / other non-dairy milk 
• 1/2 tbs of cider vinegar 
• 1 clove of garlic / 3/4tsp of garlic granules
• 1 tbsp peanut butter / other nut butter  
• 1/2 tbsp of corn flour / tapioca flour
• 1/2 a mixed lettuce/ salad bag (baby spinach would also be a good substitute) 
• Salt + pepper  

Method 

1. Dice the tomato, onion and red pepper. Peel the carrots and then use the peeler to make very thin slices of carrots - then chop the wafer thin slices of carrot up into small strips. 
2. Heat the oil and water + veg stock in a pan over a medium - high heat. 
3. Once very hot add in the onion, clove of garlic and carrots and steam fry for around 4-5mins (or until the onion looks softer). 
4. Meanwhile mix up the milk, vinegar, pinch of salt and mustard powder and set aside. 
5. Add the pepper and tomato with the vegan meat of your choice + more water if it is getting dry. After around a minute add in the turmeric, salt and pepper, nutritional yeast and salad.
6. Add in the milk mixture + the peanut butter, garlic granules (if you are not using clove of garlic) and cornflour.
7. Stir for around 3 mins, until all thoroughly combined and the sauce is thick. 
8. Enjoy! 

Moroccan Winter Stew

This Christmas I have not been entirely vegan... I know... that's bad! All the chocolate, mince pies, ice cream and delicious christmas desserts is what really threw me off the vegan wagon. BUT from today onwards I will get back on track - and actually have been looking forward to it!
As a gift from my mother I now have an amazing vegetarian cookbook called Plenty (by Yotam Ottolenghi) which is one of the highest rated cookbooks - and to accompany that I also got a brilliant book called the Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions (so that all Yotam's recipes that contain non-vegan ingredients I can easily know what to sub in for them!)

So here is a recipe that I adapted from Plenty (it has been seriously adapted as I didn't have half the ingredients - but don't worry it is still seriously delicious!) I like it served with wild rice and homemade toasted rye bread.

Ingredients 

• 2 medium carrots
• 3 medium parsnips  
• 1 onion 
• 1 large pickled onion (not the small white ones, but the larger kind) 
• 1 cinnamon stick 
• 2 star anise 
• 2 bay leaves 
• 2 tsp olive oil 
• 1/2tsp ground ginger 
• 1/2 tsp turmeric 
• 1/4 tsp of paprika 
• 1/8 tsp chili powder
• 40g of pitted dried plums OR pitted dried apricots 
• 20g of raisins 
• 1/2 can chickpeas (+ THE WATER FROM THEM) (around 120g of drained cooked chickpeas) 
• 300ml + one veg stock cube 
• 500ml of water
• Salt + Pepper
• 2 garlic clove 

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius. Peel and cut the carrots and parsnips into small chunks. Also peel and cut the onion into strips.
2. Place the carrots, parsnips and onions into an oven proof dish. Stir in the water, spices and oil. Place in the oven for 35 mins. 
3. Take out of the oven and add in the chickpeas + their water, pitted dried plums/apricots, raisins and salt and pepper. Put back in the oven for another 10 mins. 
4. Keep back 100ml of the spiced water and pour everything else into the saucepan with the 300ml of vegetable stock. Also add 2 minced cloves of garlic. 
5. Boil until the vegetables are all quite soft but still have a slight bite (I don't like mushy vegetables!) - so around 15 mins. 
6. Serve with homemade toasted rye bread and/ or wild rice (I like it cooked in vegetable stock - I think it makes the rice creamier!)