Tag: recipe

Slow Cooked Reggae Reggae Pulled Jackfruit 

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Now this recipe has been doing the rounds for a while, I keep drooling over versions of it on the vegan forums and I just knew I had to have a go of doing a version myself.

Everybody needs a sunny Friday recipe, something that you can dance around the kitchen listening to radio 6 with a beer whilst you cook it. Something simple, easy, delicious and can either line the stomach for a night out or put you in a satisfied stupor for a night in front of the telly. This is my Friday recipe. 

First of all, what the hell is a Jackfruit and where on this earth would I buy one?? 

Well if you have ever had a baby you might recognise the jackfruit as one of the fruits your babies size is compared to in the womb by pregnancy apps but a featus size comparer is not the only hat that this versatile fruit can wear.

A Jackfruit is a tropical fruit that is used in Asian cooking, the young green fruit is savoury and the mature fruit is sweet like a mango. 

It is well known for being able to soak up flavours and having a meat like texture when cooked. These qualities really do make it ‘the jack of all fruits’. (I’ll show myself out).

You can buy it fresh or canned in syrup, brine or water.  For this recipe you will need it canned and in either brine or water. (You can use a fresh one but that takes the recipe from Funtime Friday to Fafftime Ain’t No One Can Be Arsed With That Day, and the syrupy one is just too sweet).

You can usually buy tins in Asian Supermakets but be careful to buy the right one. 

  
I bought mine from the Alternative Stores vegan supermarket in Palmersville.

Ingredients 

Two tins of young green jackfruit

Reggae Reggae Sauce

Red Chilli

2 teaspoons of brown sugar

2 teaspoons of liquid smoke

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon cumin

2 cloves garlic

1 stock cube

Method

Take jackfruit out of their tins, drain and rinse them.

Cut the core off each segment and if you can be bothered deseed them.

 

 
Once this is done put all the ingredients except the Reggae Reggae sauce in the slow cooker and cover with boiling water, you want enough water to cover then about 1cm.

Put on low and leave for 4 hours. (You can also do this in a pan for about 30 mins)

Once the jack fruit is softened take out of slow cooker with a ladle, draining away any excess liquid. 

Place on foil covered baking tray and spread out, pulling apart with two forks until it resembles pulled pork. Pop in the oven at 180 for 15 minutes.

  
Take out the oven and cover in Reggae Reggae sauce to taste. 

Put back in the oven for a further 10 minutes. 

Once out the oven serve as you would pulled pork. It’s lovely in a sandwich on its own, or in a tortilla with homemade guacamole and rice. This is how I had it yesterday. I also had a beer or two. Hmmm Friday’s!  

  
   

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Uplifting Miso Soup For A Protein Packed Snack Or Light Lunch

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When you’re feeling down there’s  nothing quite like a bowl of Miso soup to warm up your cockles and make you smile again. It has the ability to comfort me to the very core and I will quite often make this as a mid afternoon snack on dreary admin days, or if I’m feeling poorly I’ll drink it from a cup on the sofa,  it’s such a quick pick me up, with no prep and hardly any cooking time.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can add or omit ingredients to suit your needs. I’ve put the quite filling version here suitable for a light lunch, but if you’re after a quick snack just omit the noodles.

Ingredients 

1 dessert spoon of Miso paste  

 
1 handful of dried seaweed (chopped)

 
1 handful of spring onions (chopped)

15mls of soy sauce

150g of firm tofu

100g of buckwheat noodles 

Method

Put miso paste and soy sauce in a pan with the noodles and enough water to cover noodles.

Drain tofu and chop into regular squares

 

Cut up dried seaweed with scissors and chop spring onions with knife.

Place these into the pan and simmer until the noodles are soft.

Stir and pour into a bowl

Find a big cardie, close the curtains, find a cat to sit next to and enjoy.
  

No Babe Rice Paper Bacon

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I never realised before I became vegan that the word ‘bacon’ could actually be an entire argument. Then suddenly after becoming vegan everyone seemed to be using it, someone would ask how my veganism was going, I’d say ‘well thank you’ and they’d say ‘yeah but bacon’. 

I believe in my reasons for turning vegan, I truly care about animal welfare and I don’t want to be an active part in an industry that enslaves and tortures animals anymore. I just don’t. HOWEVER, I am a rational human being and I understand that this is not everyone’s choice, and though I would love the world to hold hands and decide that seeing as we have the technology and the ability to live a full, healthy and happy life without the mistreatment of animals then why wouldn’t we, I can see that this is very unlikely to happen any time soon. I am not offended by meat eating, there’s no need to hide it or be defensive of it, I ate meat for years and years and I understand that it’s delicious, but get this SO IS VEGAN FOOD. I just ate chocolate spread out of the jar with a spoon (I’m hungover and it’s a Sunday, so sue me) and it was amazing, AND no cows had to have their babies taken away from them to make it, extra delicious! There’s no need to justify choices, I’m really not arsed what other people do, but bacon is not an argument. 

Except maybe this bacon. This bacon is a genuine life changer! LIFE. CHANGER. 

Please let me introduce you to 

‘No Babe Rice Paper Bacon’

Life changer.

Ingredients 

2 sheets of  Rice paper (the kind you get in the Asian Supermarkets to wrap up spring rolls, for those of you in Newcastle you can get this from the one opposite The Gate)

2 tablespoons Nutrional Yeast 

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon of oil of your choice (I like olive)

1 teaspoon of liquid smoke (I got this off amazon)

Method 

 

Cut the rice paper into strips

 
 

Get two strips of rice paper, put it together and put in water for about 3 seconds, then squeeze the water out of it with your fingers while pushing two pieces of paper together to create one.

  

Get the other ingredients and put them together in a bowl, mix well.

  
Dip the rice paper in the marinade and cover both sides

 

Place in non stick frying pan and fry on both sides for 1 minutes, turning with fork.

   
Transfer bacon to grill rack and oven cook on 180 for 12 minutes or until crispy.  (It’ll make your house smell all bacony too!)

 
Serve however you wish but you can’t go wrong slapping it on some bread with some Tommy K.

 

Bish, bash and  bosh! ‘No Babe Rice Paper Bacon’. Yum!!! 

Easy, Slow Cooked Silken Tofu, Chicory and Coconut Chowder

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I gave this to my husband for the first time last night and when I asked if he liked it he said, ‘but we eat this all the time!’ I’m taking that as a success because I did use to make fish chowder all the time, and it means he can’t tell the difference! 

This is such an easy recipe and is a great way to start getting used to working with silken tofu which can be pretty intimidating if you’ve never used it before. 

Ingredients 

300g of organic silken tofu 

25g of creamed coconut

1 head of chicory

1 carrot

1 leek

2 medium potatoes 

Half a small head of cauliflower

As much frozen sweet corn as you like

Boiling water to cover

1 onion

1 bay leaf

1 veggie stock cube 

To serve (optional but recommended)

1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast.

1 teaspoon of vegan spread (I have a soya one but any will do) 

Method 

Drain then hand blend the tofu until smooth don’t worry if it all falls apart in your hands when taking it out of the packet, that’s ok it’s going to be blended anyway. 

Chop up vegetables to desired size but keep them uniform so they cook evenly ( I prefer smaller chunks in chowder)

Add all ingredients (except the ones to serve) to the slow cooker and cover with boiling water, stir ingredients until evenly distributed in slow cooker.

Turn on slow cooker and cook for about 6 hours or until  vegetables are soft but not mushy. (Different slow cookers have different strengths, I have a crock pot and I need to put this recipe on high but that’s because my slow cooker is old and I use it all the time. If your slow cooker is new you might prefer to put it on low)

 Serve in bowls with nutrional yeast and vegan spread. 
Yummy!!