re: love - and some Christmas recipes...

[Guest guest]

Thank you for that Aurelia! This is a good time of year to focus on love. I hope everyone has a great holiday season - it would be interesting to hear what you are all planning on eating. Here are a few recipes off our Christmas/Yule page at http://www.veganfamily.co.uk/yule.html

 

Hope they are of use,

 

Lucy

 

 

Creamy mushroom Puff

A third of a cup/60g/2oz of vegan margarine

4 tablespoons of plain white flour

1 onion

4 cloves of garlic, crushed or very finely chopped (this can be reduced or left out if desired)

3 cups of mushrooms, sliced

half a litre/500ml of soya milk

1 glass of white wine (or stock)

handful of chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

approx. 500g/18oz of frozen puff pastry (this even comes ready-rolled now for extra laziness!!!)

Melt the margarine and cook the onion and garlic in it for a few minutes and then add the sliced mushrooms and cook for a couple of minutes more. Add the flour and stir well. Gradually add the soya milk stirring all the time and then the wine and keep stirring on a low heat until the sauce thickens. Once thick remove from the heat and add your seasoning and the parsley. Allow to cool slightly while you prepare the pastry. Roll out into 2 wide rectangular shapes reserving some pastry for decoration. Place one sheet of pastry on a greased baking tray. Heap the slightly cooled sauce onto it leaving a space round the edges. Place the top sheet on and seal up the edges with some soya milk or water (fold over if needed). Make some small slits on the top of the puff and let your artistic side shine with the reserved pastry! I usually make holly leaves to place on the top but do whatever you like. Glaze with soya milk and then bake in a medium hot oven for about half an hour or until the pastry seems cooked (no soggy bits and nicely puffed up!)

Nice served with gravy, roast potatoes, stuffing, vegan sausages, cranberry sauce and vegetables of your choice - a feast!

 

Sage and Onion Roast Potatoes

 

4 teaspoons of dried sage or 8 teaspoons of freshly chopped sage

4 tablespoons of sunflower oil

1 finely chopped onion

4 tablespoons of medium oatmeal

Potatoes, peeled and cut to desired size (this coating is enough for about 4 or 5 lbs/2 or 3 kilos.)

salt to taste

Par boil the potatoes then just when they are beginning to soften remove from heat and drain. Place in baking tray and rub the coating all over them (careful!) - roast in a hot oven until nice and crispy (30 minutes plus). You might want to baste with a little more oil half way through for extra crispiness!

Variation: sesame roast potatoes - coat the potatoes in sunflower oil and plenty sesame seeds before roasting - this has a lovely flavour too.

 

Vegan Trifle

I loved this so much before I was vegan that I veganised it one year and it is excellent... you can leave off the 'cream' layer if you like but I think it makes it!

Make a plain vegan sponge and sandwich it together with jam. Slice it up and put it on the bottom of a trifle dish ( or other suitable deep dish) drain a tin of fruit and put on top of the sponge (or use fresh fruit. I like raspberries). Next make up a vegan jelly and pour on top of everything... leave to set. Make up custard with soya milk and pour that on top of the set jelly. Leave that to set. Now put on a thick soya cream made with...2 tbsp cornflour, 2 oz/60g vegan margarine, 1 oz/30g sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence and 1/2 pt/250ml/1 cup of soya milk... blend the cornflour with a little soya milk. Add the rest of the milk gradually and transfer to a saucepan. Bring to the boil gently and stir until the mixture thickens. Set aside to cool. Cream the margarine with the sugar until pale in colour. Beat in the cooled cornflour mixture a little at a time. Add the vanilla essence.

Put the cream layer on top of the chilled custard layer. Decorate with fresh fruit and then eat voraciously.

The cream can also be turned into brandy cream by adding a spoonful of brandy...serve with Christmas pudding.