Going vegan- week 1

Nothing very interesting has been happening here in terms of eating. I've generally been cooking the same range of things and not eating out that much, which is pretty normal really. Anyway, for various reasons I thought that this month I'd try a 30 day vegan challenge. Veganism has always seemed a bit daunting, but after a bit of research it actually seemed pretty achievable. As I don't eat meat anyway, I didn't think it would be that much of a shock to the system and there seem to be a lot of vegan substitutes available too. However, most of these seem to be based on soy and as I didn't want to become one giant walking soy bean I tried not to go too crazy with these. As an additional factor, I've also been minimising the amount of sugar and processed grains I eat, so no relying on pasta or toast for dinner either.

So as I near the end of week 1, here's what I've been eating, some recipes, and some of my views on the vegan products I've purchased.

One thing I've realised about being vegan is that a bit of preparation is often key. So for workday breakfasts I decided on a sort of seed-enriched Bircher muesli with almond milk.

Bircher-style muesli (enough for around 4 portions):

4-5 tblsp coarse porridge oats
Around 50g Asda seed mix (containing pumpkin, sunflower, hemp seeds, and linseeds)
Around 50g Asda triple berry and seed mix (similar to the above but with dried cranberries, goji berries, and blueberries too)
2-3 tblsp chia seeds
Around 100ml, or enough to submerge everything, of Alpro almond milk

I put all of the above in a bowl and left it covered in the fridge overnight. The next morning I took out around a quarter, topped it up with some more almond milk and added some toasted coconut flakes and chopped up fresh strawberries. I have to say that this was very nice indeed. The almond milk was genuinely tasty, all the nuts and seeds meant that the muesli was flavourful as well as filling, and the bit of fresh fruit added some natural sweetness. I would definitely have this again.

I think I got a bit carried away with my work lunches (the fear of being hungry was strong). So I took in a carrot and brazil nut dip, peanut butter hummus, little gem and tomato salad, red pepper and celery sticks, and a couple of Carr's water biscuits with Vitalite sunflower spread. This was actually a bit much, but did facilitate grazing.

The carrot dip was inspired by this Vegan Society recipe, but here's my version.

Carrot and brazil nut dip (easily enough for 4):

4 medium carrots
Around 50g brazil nuts
1 spring onion
0.5 tsp ground cumin
1 tblsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Peel and chop the carrots, and either boil or steam until they are just cooked. Put in a food processor (yay for the Kenwood mini-chopper), roughly chop the spring onion and nuts, add the oil and cumin to the carrots and process until coarsely blended. I wouldn't normally use un-toasted spices, but in this case the hot carrots apply a bit of heat to the cumin and also soften the spring onion. Season the dip to taste, and leave to cool.

The hummus is adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe which replaces tahini with peanut butter. I blended around 1.5tblsp of crunchy peanut butter with one clove of garlic, a 400g tin of drained chickpeas, 2-3tblsp olive oil, and a similar amount of water to form a nice hummus-y texture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Again, this makes loads.

For dinner in week 1, I thought I'd go for a big one pot meal-type thing which would minimise cooking after work later in the week. Having decided on a chilli, this plan was a bit overly successful as I ended up with enough to feed at least 8 people. I threw in lots of spices and garlic with a tomato base, and used soy mince for texture and protein. I ate this with a guacamole, a sweetcorn salsa, and some tortilla chips. Here's my basic recipe, which can be easily tweaked depending on what you like or have available.

Mexican-style chilli (easily enough for 8):

454g bag of soy mince (I used the frozen one from Tesco, and left it to defrost in the fridge before cooking)
1 stick celery, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 green pepper, chopped into chunks
1 yellow pepper, chopped into chunks
Half a red pepper, chopped into chunks
5-6 medium chestnut mushrooms, quartered
1 medium onion, finely sliced
5 medium garlic cloves, crushed
1 bay leaf
210g tin of kidney beans, drained
400g tin of chopped tomatoes in tomato juice
1 heaped tblsp sun-dried tomato purée (I use the Gia brand)
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
2 tsp chilli flakes
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
3-4 tblsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to season

Sweat down the celery, carrot, and onion, with the bay leaf in the olive oil over a lowish heat. Once soft add the peppers, mushrooms, garlic, herbs, and spices. After a few minutes, stir in the soy mince, and after a bit more cooking add the tinned tomatoes and purée. I also half-filled the (now empty) tin of tomatoes with water and put that in too, but you might want to vary this depending on the chilli consistency your prefer. After adding salt and pepper, the chilli simmered for around 20 minutes. Add the kidney beans, check the seasoning, and simmer for another 5 minutes or so, or until the peppers are fully cooked.

Due to making so much of all the above stuffs, the weekend was mainly filled with eating the leftovers (I still had to freeze some of the chilli). But an excellent additional breakfast option was a raw chocolate CoYo coconut yogurt. These were genuinely delicious, and tasted more like a chocolate mousse really. As with the Bircher muesli, I'm sure these will be reappearing in post-vegan life.

Weekend dinners were a bit more mixed. One involving a tomato, fennel, and black olive stew, green beans with almonds and garlic, Linda McCartney sausages, and a salad of raw mushroom and jarred artichoke hearts was excellent.

Another involving cumin roasted cauliflower, courgettes with garlic and chilli, guacamole, and smoked tofu with caramelised onion was less good. All the bits tasted quite nice, but it was a pretty random combination which didn't really complement each other. Perfectly edible, but I have realised that beige and green is never the best look for an appetising dinner.

Overall week 1 of veganism went rather smoothly. I ate more beans and soy than I would normally, but probably also more vegetables. I definitely wasn't hungry, and certainly didn't feel I was missing out on anything. So pretty positive really. I can't say I feel particularly 'healthier' either, but that wasn't a particular aim and seven days of doing anything probably isn't going to have much impact. So anyway, onwards to week 2!

Fish fragrant aubergine and a Chinese feast

As I'm sure I've said before I really know very little about Chinese food. Of course I can stir fry stuff or chomp on sesame toast, and I have experienced the Indo-Chinese cooking that's produced dishes such as gobi manchurian. However it's only recently that I've had my horizons broadened about the regional variation present in Chinese cooking (thanks internet!) and learnt about some new ingredients too.
I think I first read about fish fragrant aubergine on Lizzie HollowLeg's blog. This is a Sichuan dish, that doesn't actually contain any fish, but is aubergine cooked in style that fish is often prepared in (apparently). It can sometimes also contain minced pork, but as non-meat eater Lizzie's use of tofu seemed like an excellent alternative protein. As I wasn't sure I'd be able to get all the ingredients she used, I also found a slightly simpler recipe from the writer and Sichuan food expert Fuschia Dunlop. So here's my recipe, which takes elements from both and omits the things I couldn't find in the shop.

Recipe (enough for four as a side dish with other things):
1 large aubergine
Enough sunflower oil to fry the aubergine
Around 10 ready-fried tofu pieces
4 cloves of garlic (turned into a paste with the ginger)
Thumb-sized piece of ginger (in a paste)
2 tblsp chilli bean paste (Fuschia also gives excellent advice on which chilli bean paste to go for, and I chose the Chuan Lao Hui brand)
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tblsp Chinese black vinegar
1 tsp granulated sugar
A few tablespoons of water
1 tsp cornflour (if needed)
2 spring onions, sliced
1 tsp sesame oil

Firstly cut the aubergine into fishfinger-sized pieces, and cook them however you prefer. I shallow fried them in a frying pan in a couple of batches, but you could deep fry, or even brush with oil and bake them. They do need to be cooked through though. Once the aubergines are done, put a couple of tablespoons of oil in a wok and stir-fry the chilli bean paste for a couple of minutes on quite a high heat before adding the ginger and garlic paste. If anything looks like it's sticking add a little water, and keep it moving. Then add in the tofu, aubergine, soy sauces, sugar and vinegar, stir well, and reduce the heat. Let it all simmer for a few minutes, and add the cornflower if there's lots of liquid (I didn't need to bother with this step). Cook out the cornflower, if you're using it, for a further few minutes and then stir in the spring onions and sesame oil, and take the wok off the heat.
And tah-dah, my first bit of Sichuan cooking was done!

I decided to cook the fish fragrant aubergine as part of a Chinese dinner with salt and pepper squid, Sichuan-style prawns (blog posts to follow), and some steamed green vegetables with sesame oil. But the aubergines would have been perfectly fine on their own with some rice. I really loved their spicy, succulent-ness with hints of sourness and sweetness.

It was also great to be able to cook with some unfamiliar ingredients like the chilli bean paste and black vinegar. I still don't know too much about it, but on the basis of this dish I think I might quite like Sichuan food.

Ottolenghi's black pepper tofu

London restaurateur and general veggie behemoth Yotam Ottolenghi's black pepper tofu recipe rapidly seems to have become a modern classic. It's appeared in the Guardian, on Masterchef, and has also been widely blogged (which is where I came across it some time ago). It's taken me the best part of a year to get round to making it, but the discovery of bags of ready-fried tofu in a local Chinese supermarket prompted me to finally give it a go.

The original Guardian recipe serves four and has a huge amount of chilli and black pepper in it. I have to admit that while I halved the amount of tofu, I more than halved the seasoning as I am a wuss. I also omitted the sugar in the Ottolenghi recipe and only used the one type of soy sauce, so in case you want my amended version here it is.

Recipe (easily enough for two):

350-400g ready-fried tofu
75g butter
6 shallots (finely sliced)
2 hot red chillies (seeds left in, and finely chopped)
Around 1.5tblsp ginger (crushed to a paste)
6 cloves of garlic (crushed)
Around 2 tblsp black peppercorns (crushed)
Around 5 tblsp good quality soy sauce (such as Kikkoman)
8 spring onions (each chopped into about 3 or 4 pieces)

Melt the butter in a wok or deep frying pan over a medium heat, and then add in the shallots, garlic, ginger and chilli. Once these are soft and a bit golden (around 10 to 15 minutes) add in the fried tofu, black pepper and soy sauce and stir everything around to heat up the tofu. Finally put in the bits of spring onion, stir and cook until these are just soft, and you're done.
I served this with some steamed green vegetables, dressed with a little sesame oil, but plain boiled rice would also be fab.

Do note that even with my slightly reduced amounts of pepper and chilli, this is still a bloody fiery recipe. It's incredibly tasty but my lips were tingling a good thirty minutes after we'd finished eating. But I think most of the heat is from the pepper rather than the chilli, so you do get a lot of flavour too, rather than just chilli burn. And that's what makes this such a top dish.
So a great quick dinner recipe (especially if using ready-fried tofu) and one that definitely combats the tofu is dull and boring brigade.

Ohn-no khao swè AKA Burmese coconut noodles from Meemalee's Kitchen

I've been meaning to make these Burmese noodles for ages now, ever since seeing it on MiMi's excellent Meemalee's Kitchen blog last year. The full recipe can be found here but as ever I adapted things a bit.
Instead of chicken I used ready-prepared deep fried tofu, and added some chilli flakes to the ginger/onion/garlic paste it's cooked with. And due to laziness I bought some chilli oil and used prawn crackers for the garnish (rather than deep fried rice stick noodles as MiMi instructs). I also forgot to add the thinly sliced shallots and lime before eating, but this can be entirely attributed to rushing to scoff my lovely smelling bowl of food. I hope MiMi forgives these dips in authenticity, but even so this was a totally delicious dish.
The noodles in their coconut broth were rich but not heavy, and the tofu provided a good contrast in texture. It was all lightly spiced but very flavourful, despite missing the garnishes which I suspect would have provided a touch of freshness too. This was also a really simple and straightforward meal to prepare and could easily be an after-work dinner.
I heartily recommend it, and will definitely be making it again- this time with full garnish compliance!