Vegan Recipe of the Week – Chickpea, Spinach and Potato Curry

Vegan Recipe of the Week – Chickpea, Spinach and Potato Curry

(Serves 4-6)

This is a delicious low fat vegan recipe which I made using my Organic Veg Box delivery from Riverford. Read about them on my blog post here.

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp sunflower oil

1-2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

1 large potato or 3-4 new potatoes, cubed with peel on

400g can of organic chickpeas

400g can of organic chopped tomatoes

250g bag of organic spinach, shredded

Handful of frozen peas

1tsp ground ginger

0.5 tsp turmeric

0.5 tsp cumin

2tsp curry powder

3 tsp organic tomato puree

1 tsp of lazy chillies or a small red chilli chopped

Salt/Pepper

Water

Method:

Heat the oil in a large pan and cook the garlic, onion and chilli together for 5 minutes until softened.

Stir in the spices, curry powder, tomato puree and a little water to make a curry paste and stir into the onion mixture. Add the chopped tomatoes and simmer for 6 minutes to make a sauce. Stir occasionally.

Stir in the chickpeas in their water, the potatoes and frozen peas and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Next add in the spinach and seasoning and cook for a further 5 minutes until the spinach is cooked.

Serve with poppadoms, rice, and onion bahjis or as part of an Indian buffet as I did with this dish at the Vegan Summer Garden Party I went to. I ate some with the side dish Saag Aloo; click the green link for the recipe.

This dish serves 4 large portions or 6-8 smaller portions with other side dishes. The curry will keep for 48 hours in the refrigerator and can be frozen.

Come back next Tuesday for another Vegan Recipe of the Week.

Enjoy!

VVx

'The Ordinary Vegan' - Stagg Vegetable Garden Chili

Every Monday on Vegan Vox Blog I share with you everyday items from the supermarket which also happen to be vegan, yay! 

This week it is Stagg Vegetable Garden Chili sold in cans in the canned ready-meal section of most major supermarkets. 

Obviously, nothing beats a freshly-made vegan chilli cooked from scratch but sometimes you want something quick for lunch or a snack. This is great in that it is low fat, suitable for veggies and vegans and can be warmed up in a few minutes, taken to a festival or camping for a quick meal and is delicious served with rice or nachos! 

If home cooking is more your thing then come back here tomorrow for the Vegan Recipe of the Week!

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Vox Reviews... Riverford Organic Farm Boxes

A few weeks ago I signed up to receive Riverford Organic Farm Boxes delivered to my door. I waited until I'd had a few boxes so I could review them properly for you. The first good thing about the scheme is you choose how often you receive your boxes as well as which boxes you want or you can make your own. You can have the boxes delivered weekly, fortnightly, every 3 weeks or monthly. You can pause deliveries when you are away and add extra deliveries in when you are running low. So it's really flexible, which was a huge selling point for me. 

The fruit and veg are all organic and seasonal, with over 85% coming from local UK farms and orchards. The company have linked up with local farmers all over the UK so that you get the veg which is local to you and delivered fresh from your local farm. You don't need to be at home for the delivery, you can nominate a safe place, such as a side gate, porch or neighbour's house if you are not home, but you don't get to select the day of the week as they are delivered on a round so they tell you which day you will get your delivery. The money is taken from your account the day before delivery so you can cancel or add items up to 48 hours before your delivery and they collect your old box and bags for reusing and recycling.

I ordered the Organic Mini Veg Box for me and Mr Vox, but there are larger boxes available if you have a bigger family. You can order just veg, just fruit or a mixture of both in one box. There was plenty in the first box to keep us going for a couple of weeks - spinach, potatoes, carrots, savoy cabbage, onions, garlic and courgettes. It also came with a handy A-Z guide to storing and cooking the veg and some recipe cards.

Getting the seasonal veg rather than my trusty favourite veg from the supermarket, as well as being better for the environment and fresher, means I have had to be creative and come up with new and exciting vegan recipes to use my fresh organic vegetables which is a bonus. From this first box, I made the Vegan Lasagne, Vegetable Gratin, Saag Aloo and a Chickpea, Spinach and Potato Curry, Vegan Sausage and Savoy Cabbage Casserole as well as lots of tasty roasted veg wraps for Mr Vox's lunch box. Click on the green links above for the recipes.

In this week's box we had summer greens, courgettes, green onions, carrots, broad beans, spinach and potatoes and I also got a fruit box to try which included apples, pears, bananas, satsumas and nectarines. The boxes are a reasonable price, at just over £10 each and contained enough for the two of us for two weeks. I made use of the fresh food by preparing meals and desserts in a batch and freezing them in foil containers so we have ready meals over the next couple of weeks, including a gorgeous spiced pear crumble (recipe to come in a future blog post).

I had contemplated the veg box scheme for a while and always worried about not being able to choose my own veg, but so far I have been impressed with the taste, quality, freshness and inspired to make new dishes to share with you on this blog!

You can get more information or join the veg box scheme at riverford.co.uk or call 08456002311.

Just a note that Riverford do sell meat and dairy boxes as well and I know this may trouble some vegans who would rather not give their money to such companies, however I feel that it is a step better than using the supermarkets and as I live in an urban area, it is great to be able to eat freshly grown and picked organic fruit and veg. If anyone knows of a fruit and veg only supplier who do a similar door delivery scheme in the West Midlands who are more vegan friendly, please let me know by leaving a comment below.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Organic Saag Aloo

A couple of weeks ago I got my first organic veg box delivered to my home (more about this in a future post) and in the box were lots of baby new potatoes, onions and a huge bag of spinach. 

So I decided to try my hand at a favourite Indian side dish - Saag Aloo. I couldn't believe how easy it was to make, so this week I am sharing my recipe with you. I also ended up taking some along to my friend's vegan birthday party and everybody commented on how nice it was. Easy vegan Indian cooking! Simple.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp (T) sunflower oil
1 large or 2 small onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp (T) ginger chopped or 1.5 tsp (t) ground ginger
500g potatoes, diced with skins on
1 large red chilli, deseeded and sliced
0.5 tsp (t) each of cumin seeds, black mustard seeds and turmeric
1 tsp (t) garam masala or curry powder
200g spinach leaves
salt
water

Method:

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion, garlic and ginger and fry for 3-4 minutes.
Stir in the potatoes, chilli, salt and spices and stir fry for 5 minutes.

Add a little water, cover and cook for 10-12 minutes until the potatoes are soft.
When the potatoes are ready, wilt the spinach into the pan.

Serve as a side dish to your favourite vegan curry, rice and poppadoms, or as part of an Indian buffet of salads, vegan riata, pakoras, bahjis and samosas.

Check back next Tuesday for the next recipe from the summer garden party post - Chickpea and Potato Curry. 

Enjoy!
VVx

The Ordinary Vegan - New York Bakery Co Bagels

Every Monday on VeganVoxBlog is the feature 'The Ordinary Vegan' which showcases products which are readily available in everyday shops but happen to be vegan!

This week it's the turn of New York Bakery Co bagels. They are sold in all major UK supermarkets in a range of flavours such as Sesame, Wholemeal, Onion, Blueberry and Cinnamon and Raisin, as well as Plain and they are vegan and delicious. They are quite often on a 2 for £2 deal in Asda and Tesco and they freeze well so you can stock up.

My favourite flavour is the Cinnamon and Raisin which I toast and spread with a little Pure Spread or Tofutti Plain Cream Cheese. Yummy!

Pop back over to the blog tomorrow for a new vegan recipe and next Monday for another 'The Ordinary Vegan' post. Enjoy!

VVx

Cofresh Snacks - getting my vegan snack on!

Cofresh Snacks are available in most supermarkets in the UK in the world foods aisle, in mini-markets and corner shops, Home Bargains, Wilkinsons, most newsagents and in Indian food shops. All of the range is vegetarian and most of the range is vegan too. For my international readers their website says they are also available in the USA, Canada, Australia and parts of Europe.

I'm not saying they are good for you or healthy but sometimes a vegan just wants to get her snack on! Settling down to watch a film or having a quick snack in my bag when I'm out shopping, or just something quick in the freezer for dinner is always useful.

What I love about them is they are good value and found in most places in the UK, which is useful if you are out and need a quick bite.

They have a range of bars - peanut, pistachio and sesame seed to name a few.

They have large sharing bags of potato or corn snacks, such as Chilli Hoops, Jalapeno, Chilli and Lemon. These are also available in small individual bags in local newsagents and Nisa Local.

They sell bags of savory snacks with nuts such as Bombay Mix, Balti Mix and Vindaloo Mix. This pack is almost finished, I couldn't wait before taking the picture!

Cofresh also do a frozen foods range which includes Vegan Burgers, Spring Rolls and Samosas.

I haven't tried everything in the range yet, but what I have had, I have enjoyed. So thanks Cofresh for bringing vegan-friendly food to the mass market.

When I am not getting my snack on, I do love cooking fresh vegan food from scratch. Check out my blog every Tuesday for a new recipe.

Have a lovely weekend in the sunshine! VVx

Vegan Birthday Summer Garden Party

Yesterday was my wonderful friend Jay's birthday and last night she had her closest friends over for a vegan birthday party. Jay and her partner are really into raw vegan food and Jay rustled up some gourmet raw pakoras, a gorgeous summer salad, a courgette spaghetti with vegan pesto and a raw vegan cheesecake made with raspberries and cashew nut cheese. She also dehydrated some sweet potato and made some raw crackers! 

I brought along the cooked vegan food of my homemade saag aloo, chickpea and potato curry and poppadoms. The entire banquet not only was super healthy and vegan but all gluten-free as Jay's partner is gluten-free.

Who says being vegan, raw or gluten-free means you can't eat well and party? Not I!

I will put up my recipes for the saag aloo and chickpea and potato curry over the next two Tuesdays as every Tuesday is recipe day here on the blog.

If you fancy chatting to me about vegan food or anything else you can email me or tweet me. I also take part in #VeganHour on Twitter 7pm (UK) every Tuesday.

VVx

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Vegetable Gratin

Vegan Vox Vegetable Gratin (serves 4)

It's Tuesday, which means here at Vegan Vox Blog, it's recipe time! I posted this picture last week on Instagram and Twitter and had some lovely feedback, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you.

Ingredients:

2 medium courgettes (zucchini)

3 medium carrots (peeled)

6 baby new potatoes

6 closed cup mushrooms

vegan mozzarella

vegan parmesan

100g vegan butter

1 small onion

2 garlic cloves

400ml soy milk (or other vegan alternative)

3 tbsp (T) cornflour (corn starch)

1 tbsp (T) lemon juice

1 tbsp (T) nutritional yeast

pinch of nutmeg

salt

pepper

breadcrumbs (optional)

Method:

Grate the courgettes and peeled carrots into a dish, and finely slice the potatoes (unpeeled) and mushrooms.

In a large pan, melt half of the butter (I use hard Stork for cooking as I feel it behaves more like butter than soft spreads. Please note the soft Stork in the tubs is not vegan but the hard Stork in the foil packets is.)

Using this melted butter sauté the vegetables with some rock or sea salt for around 8 minutes until they are soft.

Put the remaining butter into another pan on a high heat and add the onion (finely chopped) and the garlic (crushed).

Sauté for 2 minutes until the butter has melted and the onions are transparent.

Add the cornflour and and stir to form a paste.

Add the lemon juice, soy milk, yeast, nutmeg, salt and pepper and stir with a whisk.

Reduce to very low heat and keep whisking until sauce has thickened, making sure not to burn the bottom of the pan.

Pour the vegetables and the sauce into an oven dish and sprinkle with grated mozzarella and powdered parmesan cheeses. You can also add a few breadcrumbs for a crunchier topping.

Place in a preheated oven at 170C/325F for 15-20 minutes until the top has gone golden and bubbly. 

Serve with a large green salad or some steamed green vegetables. Enjoy!

Please share with me if you have tried this recipe or a variation of it. Please follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Google +, Pinterest and Instagram. You can also follow this blog with Bloglovin'.

If you enjoy this blog, please tell your vegan or veggie friends to come over and have a look too and I would love to hear any comments or feedback or you can share your vegan recipes or food photos with me too.

VVx