Vegan Recipe of the Week - Guest Recipe from Little Miss Meat-Free

For the first Vegan Recipe of the new year, I am very honoured to have a contribution from Little Miss Meat-Free (aka Katy). Katy is a passionate vegan home cook who enjoys creating dishes for family and friends. She also shares vegan recipes on the blog Little Miss Meat-Free. After living in south London for a few years, she has now returned to Yorkshire. You'll find Katy driving around in her beloved 'Mini' or baking a cake in her small kitchen. 

Katy's blog can be found at:

 

http://littlemissmeatfree.blogspot.co.uk

or you can follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Lilmissmeatfree

Borlotti Bean Bake with Winter Herb Dumplings

Nothing beats the aroma of winter herbs baking in the oven. Team this with seasonal vegetables and savoury borlotti beans for a true ‘comfort-food’ experience. Serve straight from the oven with fresh crusty bread.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the bake:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 large potatoes, cubed

1 onion, chopped finely

3 carrots, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

3 celery sticks, chopped

400ml water

1 tin Borlotti beans, drained and rinsed

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried sage

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp salt

½ black pepper

For the dumplings:

200g white plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

½ tsp dried sage

½ tsp dried rosemary

½ tsp thyme

250ml soya milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. In a large casserole dish, add the oil, potatoes, onion, carrots, garlic and celery and cook over a medium heat for 5-6 minutes.
3. Pour in the water and Borlotti beans. Stir in the cornstarch. Add the paprika, oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme, salt and black pepper and cook for 3 minutes.
4. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
5. In the meantime, prepare the dumplings. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, sage, rosemary and thyme in a bowl. Make a well and stir in the soya milk until it forms a thick dough.
6. Place tablespoon sized amounts of the dumpling dough on top of the casserole. Place the lid on the casserole dish and cook for a further 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Little Miss Meat-Free

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For more of my recipes, click here.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

The Ordinary Vegan - Pringles

The Ordinary Vegan is a weekly section of the blog which looks at ordinary supermarket and high-street products which happen to be vegan-friendly.

Now, when you think of vegan food, Pringles may not be at the top of your list, but these make a great snack to take to a party, when at the cinema or at a bar, which often sell the small snack size tubes. When there isn't much choice of vegan snacks such as in a pub, Pringles can be a quick fix. Not all Pringles flavours are vegan, but the great thing about Pringles is that they label all of their vegan and vegetarian varieties on the side of the tube, so it's really easy to see which varieties are suitable. Pringles are sold in all supermarkets, most newsagents and food shops in the UK for around £1.50-£2.00 for a large tube.

As well as their regular flavours, Pringles often bring out seasonal editions and limited editions for sporting events or Christmas. For example, last month they brought out two Christmas varieties of sweet Pringles, one of which was vegan - Sweet Cinnamon flavour. I was sent a tube of these in my December UK Vegan Food Swap box, however, I found the flavour very strange. It was like sugar and cinnamon on a ready salted crisp?!! Very odd indeed, but fun to try new vegan food out.

Some flavours which are currently labelled as vegan are:

Smokey Bacon

Original

Texas BBQ

Paprika

Sweet Cinnamon

Some vegans choose to boycott Pringles as they used to be owned by P&G, which as a parent company do test on animals, although Pringles themselves are not tested on animals, and the vegan varieties do not contain any animal ingredients. As of May 2012, Pringles are currently owned by Kellogg's. This is a quote from the Kellogg's website:

 "The Kellogg Company does not commission any research involving animal testing."

This is an ethical choice, and you have to consider that most shops and companies you buy from have some products which contain animal ingredients or are tested on animals. I believe that by buying vegan products from everyday non-vegan companies and supermarkets, we are showing these companies that there is a demand for cruelty-free products and this may encourage them to produce more vegan items and examine their other practices to make their other products appeal to vegetarians and vegans.

If you prefer wholesome, home-cooked vegan food, made from scratch, come back tomorrow for a very special Guest Vegan Recipe of the Week from Little Miss Meat-Free.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx