Home made gluten free vegan fish cakes

Do you like the taste of fish but not want the cruelty to go with it?
I have created these delicious mouth watering vegan fish cakes for just that reason.

Ingredients
1 pack of vegan cod fillet defrosted (I got mine from loving hut)
5-6 medium size potatoes
1tbsp dried parsley
3tbsp gluten free plain flour
3-4 large spring onions
Gluten free breadcrumbs
2tbsp vegan spread (pure works well)

Makes approx 11 decent size fishcakes

* peel and chop the potatoes and boil for 15-20 mins
* drain the potatoes, add the vegan spread and mash, leave to cool
* chop the vegan fish and spring onions into small pieces and add to the potatoes along with the parsley and some salt and pepper
* shape into fishcakes and roll in the breadcrumbs.
* fry in a little oil until brown on each side

The perfect pastry

Ever dreamed of having the perfect crumbly sweet pastry but can't as you are gluten free, vegan or both?  Hate the horrible rubbery texture created from other recipes?  Here is your answer.  Delicious, light, crumbly sweet pastry that is entirely gluten free and vegan.  Tesco have mincemeat reduced to 30p so fill your boots people.  Embrace summer xmas !!!!!

Vegan gluten free sweet pastry

ingredients

100gm doves farm gluten free plain flour

50gm ground almonds

50gm sugar

75gm sainsburys free from spread

Now first and foremost the most important part, use a food processor.  It blends it into the perfect pastry without having to add much water.  Mix the flour, almonds and sugar together and put in your food processor.  Add the spread and blend on high until it has almost formed a lump.  Add a tiny bit of water (probably around a teaspoon is enough, be very careful not to add to much) and keep blending until you get a nice soft lump of dough.  Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 30 mins.  As it will be quite soft roll the pastry out between 2 pieces of greaseproof paper.  If making mince pies like I did use a well greased and floured tin and cook them for about 30 minutes at 200c.

Enjoy !!!

Thank you tesco!!!!

I never thought I would say thanks to Tesco for actually stocking more vegan products but perhaps they are turning a corner.  I recently found out they have started stocking the Food Heaven lemon dairy free cheesecake which is not only vegan but gluten free as well.  Having just polished off a 3rd of one (I know, you can call me piggy) I can definitely say it is super yummy and at £2.99 I am sure it will be a regular treat.

They have also started stocking the Bessant and Drury chocolate ice cream.  It is vegan and made with coconut milk so nice and healthy.  It is lovely and creamy and to be honest I think its one of the best chocolate ice creams I have ever tasted.  At £4.69 it isn't cheap, but worth it for a luxurious treat every now and then.

Why am I promoting these for Tescos you may ask?  Because quite simply I am being selfish, I love both of these products and if people don't buy them they will stop selling them.  Oddly enough I found both of them in the frozen free from section near the frozen veg and not with the frozen desserts.

Mediterranean risotto

This meal has become one of our favourites.  The chopped tomatoes really help to flavour the rice and the whole thing is just super yummy.

VEGAN AND GLUTEN FREE MEDITERRANEAN RISOTTO

350gm risotto rice
1.2 litres stock (vecon is a good vegan gluten free one)
1 aubergine
1 tin of chopped tomatoes 
100gm mushrooms 
150gm frozen peas
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
olive oil
pure spread
salt and pepper


-chop the aubergine into small chunks and lightly fry in a bit of olive oil. Take off the heat and keep to one side.  Alternatively slice thickly, cook them on a griddle then chop them up.
- fry the mushrooms in a tiny bit of oil or fry lite then set aside with the aubergine pieces.
- finely chop the onions and garlic and fry in about 25gm of pure spread until soft. 
- add the rice and stir well for about 1 minute
- add about a ladel full of the stock and simmer until mostly absorbed. Keep repeating until you have used about half of the stock.
- add the tin of chopped tomatoes and stir well.
- once the juice from the tomatoes has nearly absorbed start adding the rest of the stock a ladel full at a time, waiting for it to be almost all absorbed before adding more. Keep doing this until the rice is tender, you may not need to add all of the stock.
- add the aubergine, mushrooms and frozen peas to the rice mixture and keep stiring on a low heat for about 5 minutes.
- just before serving stir in another knob of pure spread. Top with grated cheezly

The almighty chocolate torte

Chocolate torte is no longer for the diary/egg eaters.  Imagine a lovely gooey chocolate torte, that has no flour and is vegan and gluten free?  Well here it is.

VEGAN AND GLUTEN FREE CHOCOLATE TORTE
Ingredients
200gm dairy free spread
200gm dairy free dark chocolate
150gm caster sugar
100gm ground almonds
1 tsp vanilla extract
50gm cocoa powder
5tbsp ground flax seed

- Grease a 10" round cake tin
- Mix the ground flax seed with 225ml boiling water, stir well and leave to cool
- Melt the chocolate and spread in the microwave then mix in the vanilla extract.
- Add the caster sugar to the flax/water mix and beat well.
- Add the sugar/flax mix to the chocolate mix and mix really well until combined
- fold in the cocoa powder and ground almonds
- pour into the cake tin and cook at 180c for 30 - 35 minutes
- When cool dust with icing sugar.
- serve with soya squirty cream and fresh fruit

I'm dreaming of an even healthier cookie

At the request of a friend who can't have too much oil in her diet, I adapted my healthy cookie recipe to be even healthier.  Still works really well and still yummy.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of fine oatmeal (finely grind up gluten free oats of you are sensitive)
• 1 cup chopped dates
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts
• 1/4 cup dairy free dark chocolate chips (I use these)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/3 cup soya/almond/rice milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 mashed bananas

This is really easy because you can just pop everything into a bowl and mix together.  No fancy instructions, just mix it really well. 
Line a couple of baking sheets with baking paper and drop cookie size blobs onto it and level out.  This recipe should make around 22 cookies depending on how big you make them.
Bake at 190c for 25 minutes.
Enjoy!!!

Ginger biscuits anyone?

Its been a while since my last post, I have been unwell, and although still not completely better, I am using cooking as my therapy (well that's my excuse anyway).  I really wanted to make some ginger biscuits, both me and hubby love a good ginger biscuit to dunk in a cup of tea but you can't find one vegan and gluten free.  I like playing around with ingredients to see what happens and this one came out great first time.

VEGAN AND GLUTEN FREE GINGER BISCUITS

50gm cornflour

75gm soft light brown sugar

75gm gram flour

75gm dairy free spread (I used pure sunflower)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp water

Mix all the ingredients (except the water) together until it resembles breadcrumb consistency.  Add the water and mix to form a dough.  Knead well to make sure everything is mixed in.  This will result in a fairly wet dough but don't worry about that.

Use gram flour to flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll out the dough to about 1/2cm thick.  Use plenty of gram flour to stop it sticking.  Use a biscuit cutter (shape is up to you) to cut the dough into shapes or rounds and place on a well greased baking tray.  Be careful when you are doing this as the dough will still be fairly wet so I use a blunt knife to help it along.

Pop in the oven for 20 minutes at 160 degrees C.

Once cooked leave on the tray for a few minutes to cool, then remove and place on a cooling rack.

WARNING - these biscuits are very moreish.........you have been warned!!!!