BEST VEGAN PIZZA

Ingredients

Pizza Dough:

4 cups Strong White Bread Flour
Pinch Sea Salt
1 & 1/2 cups Luke Warm Water
2 tsp Active Dried Yeast
2 tbs Filippo Berio Olive Oil – http://www.filippoberio.co.uk

Tomato Pizza Sauce:

2 Shallots, chopped fine
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes
1 tbs Tomato Puree
1 tbs Unrefined Caster Sugar
Splash of White Wine Vinegar
1 tbs Fresh Thyme

‘Mozzarella Cheese’:

1/2 cup Cashew Nuts, soaked in boiling water for at least 15 minutes
1 cup Soy Milk
1 tsp Tideford Organics Miso Paste – http://www.tidefordorganics.com
1 tbs Nutritional Yeast – http://geni.us/nutritionalyeast
4 tbs Tapioca Starch – http://geni.us/pry4
Pinch Sea Salt & Pepper
1 tbs Fresh Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpPs8uqGRQE

LEMON AND MERENGUE PIE

Ingredients

Pastry

2 cups/250g plain flour
1 cup/125g icing sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 cup/125g Vegan margarine
1-2 tbs Cold Water

Lemon Filling

1 tin of Coconut Milk
2 tbs Fresh Lemon Zest
Juice of 2 Lemons
1 & 1/4 cups/280ml Almond Milk
4 heaped tbs Corn Starch
5 tbs Unrefined Caster Sugar
1/2 tsp Ground Turmeric (optional, gives the tart a yellow colour)

Meringue

1 cup/235ml Chickpea Water
1/2 cup/60g Icing Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum

Method

Pre Heat your oven to 180deg celsius or gas mark 4 and grease a medium sized loose bottom tart tin.

For the Pastry, sieve the flour and sugar into a large bowl, add the vanilla essence & cubed cold margarine.

Using your hands combine the mixture until it starts combining.

You may need to add a couple tbs of water to bring the mixture together. This can be made in a food processor if you are short for time. Once the mixture is in a ball, wrap in cling film and place in the refrigerator until cold.

Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll to 1/2cm thick & carefully line your tin. I rolled my pastry on greaseproof paper, this made it easier when transferring to the tart tin.

Trim any excess pastry & cover the centre with greaseproof paper and weigh down using baking beans. Blind bake for 6 minutes before removing the beans and greaseproof paper to bake for an additional 6 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

Carefully place the cooked tart case on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Lemon Custard filling.

Heat the coconut milk with the lemon juice & zest in a medium saucepan gently over a low heat.

In a mixing bowl combine the almond milk, cornstarch and sugar and whisk until completely incorporated.

When the coconut milk is hot, pour in the milk mixture from the bowl into the saucepan. Whilst still heating whisk until the mix starts to thicken. Add the turmeric if you want a bright yellow colour. Don’t worry it doesn’t spoil the flavour.

Continue to whisk for 2 more minutes until the mix is super thick.

Carefully pour the lemon filling mixture into the tart case. Neatly spread the mix out using a stepped pallet knife. Then place clingfilm directly over the lemon filling making sure theres no air pockets. Its very important to directly cover the filling with clingfilm as this stops a skin forming which eventually will crack & doesn’t look good.

Place the tart in a fridge to completely set for at least 3 hours.

Before serving, make your meringue.

Using an electric whisk. Whisk the ingredients in a clean bowl. Until you have stiff peaks.

Pipe the meringue on to your tart. I lightly toasted my meringue by using a blow torch however this is optional.

Enjoy.

Lemon Thyme & Smoked Chilli Dough Balls with Dip

Bread Dough

4 Cups of Strong White Bread Flour
Pinch of Sea Salt
2 tsp of Yeast
2 Cups of Luke Warm Water
2 tbs of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Glaze

2 Tbs of Olive Oil
2 Tbs of Almond Milk
2 tsp of Agave Nectar

Topping

Tsp of Smoked Sea Salt
Tsp Dried Garlic
Tsp of La Chinata Smoked Chilli Dulce (Sweet)
Few sprigs of Fresh Lemon Thyme

Roast Tomato & Pepper Dip

3 Red Pepper
6 Ripe Tomatoes
4 Shallots, Cut FIne
1/2 Cup Unrefined Caster Sugar
1/4 Cup White Wine Vinegar
Pinch of Salt & Pepper

Method

First up the chutney dip, which can be made well in advance.

Pre-Heat your oven to 180 Degrees.

Place the peppers on a baking tray and bake for 30 minutes until they are slightly charred. Meanwhile, prepare the tomatoes. Lightly scoring a cross on the bottom of each tomato, then plunge them into boiling water for 1 minute, then straight into ice cold water. Peel the skin off the tomatoes & discard.

When the peppers are cooked and still hot, put them in a plastic sandwich bag and leave to cool. Once cool, take the peppers out of the bag, then deseed. Once deseeded using the back of your knife peel/scrape off the skin and discard.

Chop the tomato & pepper flesh into even size pieces then add to a heavy bottom saucepan with the remaining chutney ingredients. Place over a very low heat with the lid on for around 1 hour or until its thickened nicely. Store in a clean sealed container.

On to the Dough Balls!

Mix the luke warm water with the yeast & olive oil. Leave for around 10 mins until slightly bubbly.

Meanwhile, Place the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle then add the water & yeast mix. Stir until the mix starts combining. You will have to get your hands involved..But its worth it!!
Once everything is together, place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Now its time to knead.

So roll up your sleeves and work that dough. You want to knead for around 10 minutes. The dough should be smooth and quite elastic after the 10 mins.

Put the dough back into the mixing bowl this time make sure you have light oiled the bottom and sides of the bowl.

Place a clean damp towel over the top of the bowl and leave somewhere warm for around 1 hour or until its double in size.

After an hour, remove the dough from the bowl. It should feel beautiful and light. I love this part. Knock the dough back and knead for around 5 minutes.

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, in the middle place a lightly greased ramekin, this will eventually be the place for your chutney pot.

Cut the dough into approximately 25 even sized pieces, I used my weighing scales and made sure each piece was 35g. Roll each piece into a ball, the best way of doing this is by placing one hand on top of the dough ball on the surface, applying pressure & moving your hand in a circular motion.

Neatly place the balls around the ramekin. Once complete, place the damp tea towel over the top and leave the dough somewhere warm to double in size. This should take an hour.

Mean while mix together the glaze ingredients & prepare the toppings.

After an hour, using a pastry brush, brush the glaze over each dough ball and sprinkle over the toppings.

Bake for around 40 minutes in a 180 degree oven. Once baked and slightly cooled remove the ramekin from the middle and place in your pot of chutney.

Serv

Chorizo Seitan Sausages

Chorizo Seitan Sausages

Wet Ingredients;

1 Onion, chopped evenly
2 Cloves Garlic, chopped evenly
1 & 1/4 cups Vegetable Stock
1/3 cup Dried Porcini Mushrooms
1/2 cup Chickpeas
3 tbs Tomato Puree
1 tbs Soy Sauce/Tamari
1 tbs Tideford Organics Brown Rice Miso
1 tbs Filippo Berio Chilli Oil
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
6 tsp Smoked Paprika, purchase here – Buy it here!
1 tbs Fennel Seeds
1 tbs Hot Smoked Chilli Flakes

Dry Ingredients;

2 cups Vital Wheat Gluten, from amazon – Buy them here!
1/2 cup Gram (Chickpea) Flour

Caramelised Cider Onions

2 Large Onions
2 Tbs Filippo Berio Organic Olive Oil
1/2 cup of Vegan Cider
1 tbs Raw Cane Sugar
Pinch Sea Salt & Pepper

Method

Mix the hot vegetable stock with the Porcini Mushrooms and set aside for 5 minutes for the mushrooms to rehydrate.
Sauté the Onion & Garlic until softened and lightly golden.

Once you have sautéed the onion and garlic add it to a blender, with the remaining wet ingredients plus mushroom & stock mixture. I used my Nutrininja for this. Blitz until smooth.

In a large mixing bowl add the Wheat Gluten & Chickpea Flour. Add the Wet mixture  to dry and quickly stir with a spatular until everything is well combined. You will then need to use your hands to knead the dough. Knead the dough for around 10 minutes.

The tougher you are when needing the more of a bite/meat like texture your sausages will have when cooked..So be firm!

Once kneaded, let the dough rest for around 10 minutes.

Portion the dough into approximately 8 pieces, I weigh each piece to make sure all my sausages are a similar size. Aim for around 110g.

Pre heat a large saucepan filled half way high with water. Bring to a boil. Then turn the heat down low, so that the water is at a rolling simmer.

Prepare 8 pieces of foil shiny side up approximately 25cm long. Add a little bit of oil to the shiny side. Individually roll each piece of dough into a sausage shape with your hands then roll up in the foil. Twist each end and set aside. Do this for the rest of the dough pieces.

Then finally, wrap tightly each sausage individually in cling film.

Add the sausages to the saucepan water, pop the lid on and allow to cook for 50 minutes. Don’t let them boil, just at constant slow simmer. Give them a little stir every now and then.

Meanwhile make the Cider Onion’s & prepare the rest of your hot dog garnishes.

Finely slice the onions, and pre heat a non stick frying pan. Add a little Filippo Berio Oil, then the onions plus salt & pepper, allow them to caramelise and go nicely golden. Then add a good glug of cider & the sugar. Turn heat low and allow to continue to melt & caramelise. Stir often for about 4-5 minutes. Then set aside ready to serve.

After 50 minutes, check the sausages are firm, give them a squeeze. If they feel quite soft put them back in the water for an additional 5-10 minutes. If firm remove from the water.

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before carefully peeling off the wrapping.

Pan fry in a non stick frying pan for around 10 minutes until nice and golden. If you don’t want to cook them you can freeze them & they can even be cooked on a bbq!

Serve the sausages inside the hot dog buns with the onions and sauces. Try out my home made ketchup recipe which can be found in my Vegan ‘Fish & Chips’ video!