Vegan Recipe of the Week - Roasted Pumpkin Seed Pesto

This week it is Halloween and you may be carving a pumpkin or two in your house. If so, keep all of those seeds you scoop out of the middle and make this gorgeous Roasted Pumpkin Seed Pesto. Above I have tossed it through some spaghetti with vegan chorizo and Vegusto cheese, served with fresh basil and a side salad.

Here's what you will need (serves 4):

70g pumpkin seeds - shelled

2 Tbsp of grated vegan parmesan

2 tsp olive oil for roasting

2 cloves of garlic

20g basil leaves

30g parsley leaves

2 Tbsp lemon juice

80g olive oil for the pesto

salt to taste

Method:

Preheat the oven to 140C/Gas mark 1. Line a baking tray with tin foil.

Place the pumpkin seeds in a bowl, stir in the olive oil and salt to coat and spread out on the baking tray. Bake for around 15 minutes until they begin to pop. Remove from oven and leave to cool on the baking tray.

Combine the cooled pumpkin seeds, parmesan and garlic in a food processor for around 20 second until ground. Add the basil leaves, parsley, lemon juice and olive oil and pulse for another 30-40 seconds and combine to a coarse paste. 

Transfer to a bowl, taste and season with salt as required. Serve over hot pasta and grate fresh vegan cheese over the top.

Eat and Enjoy!

This keeps in the fridge for 48 hours.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Vox Reviews...October's UK Vegan Food Swap

This month is my third month taking part in the UK Vegan Food Swap. As usual the lovely ladies at tohappyvegans.com paired us up with our partners. This month I sent my parcel to Ben and he said that he loved to cook, so I sent him the ingredients and a recipe for Roasted Pumpkin Seed Pesto - the recipe will be available on my blog next week if you fancy trying it out for yourself.

As well as the ingredients for the pesto, I sent Ben some Frank Bars, Liquorice, Vegusto Cheese and Cofresh Lentil Chips.

My sending partner this month was a lovely lady called Jade. Jade sent me some fab goodies, some which I love and some which I have never tried before, which is exciting. We have also decided to remain pen pals which is great - vegan food and vegan friends - my two favourite things! :-)

Here's what I received in my package from Jade:

First I got a lovely card with a detailed letter introducing Jade and the choices that she sent me. It was very thoughtful and kind.

Next I got some sachets of miso soup - perfect for a quick lunch on the run.

The next item was a lovely choc orange bar from Morrisons, this tasted just like Terry's Chocolate Oranges from my non vegan days - lovely!

The next items I opened were some snack bars and hummus chips - great snacks for nights in by the fire or to keep in my bag when out and about.

My next treats were fruit based - healthy and tasty. Orange flavour raisins and some Bukhara raisins. Yum!

I had a selection of fruit and herbal teas:

Next I had some chocolate treats - handmade vegan chocolates and some chocolate strands for baking and on vegan ice cream.

I got some satay cooking mix which I can't wait to try with some tofu and rice.

And my final treats were these animal biscuits and wasabi chips:

I haven't tried all of my treats yet but the ones I have tried were lovely - so another successful swap this month, I'm already looking forward to the next one. Thanks to Ben and Jade and to tohappyvegans for organising it.

If you haven't signed up to the swap yet and would like to do so, please click here to sign up.

I hope to see some of you at the West Midlands Vegan Festival this weekend in Wolverhampton and it's not too late to email me for the meet up. If you fancy joining us for a drink please email veganvoxblog@gmail.com. I will be sending out details of the meet up tomorrow by email.

Have a great weekend.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Raw Almond Cookie Bites and Pt.2 UK Vegan Food Swap

This week's Vegan Recipe of the Week is not one of mine. This recipe was sent to me in my August UK Vegan Food Swap parcel by the lovely Chrissie, who is a raw wholefood vegan. She sent me all of the ingredients and a hand written recipe along with a raw snack bar, vanilla chai tea, some gorgeous vegan soaps and a tea towel. This was all packaged up in a nice glittery box chosen by her daughter, and a lovely note card. I felt very spoiled. I was looking forward to making the cookie bites as I have never made a raw dessert recipe before.

So here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of unsoaked almonds

1/4 cup of unsoaked walnuts

pinch of salt

1/3 cup unsoaked pitted dates

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 cup dried cherries

1/4 almond ground almonds or almond flour

     

Method:

Put the almonds, walnuts and salt into a food processor with the s-blade and process until coarsely chopped. 

Add the dates and almond extract and continue to pulse until the mixture begins to stick together. Don't over-process.

Add the cherries and pulse again briefly then transfer to a bowl.

Roll 1 tbsp of the mixture in your hands to form a ball and roll in the ground almonds before placing on a plate. Repeat until you have used all of the mixture.

Put the plate in the fridge for at least an hour until chilled and set.

Eat and enjoy!

These Raw Almond Cookie Bites keep well in the fridge for up to a week and are delicious. So thanks to Chrissie for the recipe. I can't wait until next month's food swap! You can read about the box I sent out in Pt.1 of this blog post here.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx