Suma Bloggers Network - Homemade Vegan Cheese x 3

How do you start a post when you've been off line for nearly 2 months? 

Dive straight into the recipe or in this case recipes, I'm a little late posting my Suma recipe due to circumstances out of my control but better late than never eh?

Suma Recipe - Homemade Vegan Cheese x 3

This is my third recipe for the Suma Bloggers Network, please check out my other two recipes; Vegetable Tagine and Blueberry Cheesecake and the other bloggers recipes, there are lots of tasty creations waiting for you to try.

Suma is the UK's largest independent whole food wholesaler/distributor and are a workers' co-operative committed to ethical business. They have a fantastic range, everything they sell is vegetarian and many products are vegan.

When I first transferred to a vegan diet I thought I would miss cheese the most, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't. There are many vegan cheeses out there in case you do miss the taste but its far more rewarding to make your own. You can play around with flavours there is no limit, whatever flavour takes you fancy.

I decided to make three different ones with the ingredients that I chose from Suma. Two spreadable and one you could slice.

The herb cream cheese uses cashew nuts, the cheddary cheese uses almonds and the third which is baked uses almonds too, although you would never know.

Herb Cream Cheese

Ingredients
100g Cashew nuts
400ml Water
2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast
½ Tsp Onion granules
½ Tsp Smoked garlic granules
½ Tsp Herbamare
2 Tbsp Fresh herbs, finely chopped
I used parsley, coriander and basil (predominately basil)
1 Garlic, crushed
60ml Almond milk (unsweetened)

Method
Soak the cashew nuts in the water overnight and then drain well. Add the drained cashew nuts to a food processor with the remaining ingredients and blitz to a thick paste.

Add the mixture to a small bowl lined with clingfilm, press the mixture down and fold over the clingfilm adding a weight to the top. Place in the fridge for 4 hours or over night and remove the herb cream cheese from the bowl and the clingfilm to a board.

Spreadable Cheddary Cheese

Ingredients
75g Ground almonds
2 Tbsp White miso
25g Nutritional yeast
¼ Tsp Turmeric
1 Tsp English mustard
½ Tsp Smoked Garlic powder
½ Tsp Herbamare
200ml Almond milk 
1-2 Tbsp Agar agar

Method
Add the ground almonds, miso, herbs & spices and 100ml of the almond milk to a food processor and whiz to a paste.

Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and whisk in the remaining almond milk.

Sprinkle over 1 Tbsp of the agar agar and slowly bring the mixture to a simmer. When the mixture starts to bubble, the agar agar will have melted a little and you can stir it in. Let the mixture simmer for 10-15 minutes.

If the mixture is still a little thin, add the remaining agar agar and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool. Transfer to the fridge and let set before turning out onto a board.

Baked Almond Cheese

Ingredients
1 Lemon - juice only - about 45ml
2 Tbsp Olive oil
120g Ground almonds

1 Garlic clove

1 Tbsp Nutritional yeast

40ml Water

Method
Place all the ingredients into a food processor and whiz until you have a thick paste. Spoon the mixture out onto a piece of clingfilm and wrap tightly shaping into a circular mound.

Place in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up a little more. Spritz a baking dish with olive oil and turn the 'cheese' onto the dish, removing the clingfilm.

Bake in a moderate oven for 15-20 minutes until a crust has formed.

Slice and eat with crackers.

So, if you're spending Christmas with loved ones who aren't vegan, why not make and take your own cheese board. You don't have to be vegan to enjoy delicious food.

Back again soon

Jasmine x

Specials Board: Homemade Tomato sauce

Yesterday I posted my recipe for two squash cannelloni which used my homemade tomato sauce. This is my basic tomato sauce recipe, which I use all the time. Its great with spaghetti no-bolognaise, as a pizza sauce, with pasta and basil or on its own. Yes I've been known to put a dollop on my plate just as it is! 

Now, I like my tomato sauce thick, if you like yours a little thinner just add vegetable stock to thin it down to your desired consistency. You shouldn't lose any flavour but if you do add a squirt of tomato puree and top up with the herbs and spices. If you want your tomato sauce more creamy, add almond milk and/or cashews, remember though the cashews will thicken the sauce when left in the fridge.

I also like my tomato sauce with a little kick to it but if you don't like a little heat omit the chilli flakes and the black pepper. The sauce isn't spicy hot, it just has a warmth to it, with a little after kick, actually more like a gentle nudge!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to use my home grown tomatoes in this recipe as all I have is green tomatoes! I have made it before with home grown tomatoes and if you have a good blender you may not need to skin the tomatoes either.

Ingredients (makes 1.4 Litres) 
1 Tbsp Olive oil
2 Onions, chopped
2 Garlic cloves, chopped
1 Pepper, chopped
2 Tsp Mixed herbs
1 Tsp Paprika
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Black pepper
½ Tsp Chilli flakes
1 Tin chopped tomatoes (or fresh if you have them)
500ml Tomato passata
1 Tsp Sugar
1 Tsp Red wine vinegar
150ml Almond milk

Method
Fry the onions in the olive oil until translucent, then add the garlic and fry for another 2 minutes. Add the pepper and fry for another 3 minutes.

Add the mixed herbs, paprika, chilli flakes, salt and pepper and stir to combine everything. 

Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato passata and bring to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes or until the mixture has reduced a little.

Add the sugar and red wine vinegar and simmer for another couple of minutes.

Transfer to a blender and add the almond milk. Puree to a smooth sauce and transfer to a clean saucepan. 

If you like your sauce thinner add vegetable stock, taste and adjust the seasoning to suit your taste.

Without vegetable stock the sauce if fairly thick and if used in an oven baked pasta dish you will need to use the same measurement of vegetable stock to tomato sauce.

Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas? Spending time with family and friends is what Christmas is all about for me. Times full of fun, giggles and games, lots of them! From Charades to Caption it, from New Market to Tsuro, and of course for our family, the whistle game, so many times it has made us laugh, and when I say laugh I mean LAUGH!  Of course there is also the food and the drink, and probably too much of both. Christmas food to me is everything from sprouts, chestnuts, parsnips to Christmas cake, after dinner mints and lots more chocolate!

We spent Christmas at my parents house with my sister and her fiance and we had none stop fun, in fact I can't believe how Christmas day just flies by, before we knew it, boxing day had appeared and we were still playing charades!

So what did the Christmas dinner bring for me? Well I was meant to take a photograph, but unfortunately when it came too dinner I was so desperate to tuck in that I forgot all about it! We started with the Chestnut and Mushroom Soup, but instead of using the vegan cream I used rice milk to make it a little less rich. My main dinner was heaped high with veg from the parsnip and butternut bake to a serving of sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, mash potato, roast potato, stuffing and a field mushroom wellington, which I found on the BBC Good Food website. However, as always I completely changed the recipe to my taste, of course the cheese was removed and replaced with a little of the mushroom and chestnut soup, I swapped the spinach for kale and the egg wash for a wash of rice milk. The verdict - delicious! There was way too much food on my plate, I couldn't face a dessert!

Some of you will have noticed that I haven't mentioned presents yet. We decided as a family that this year we weren't going to go mad, previous years we have been known to spend hours opening gift after gift, a little extravagant to say the least. So this year we bought practical gifts, tickets to shows or events so we had something to look forward to and homemade gifts.

I want to focus on the homemade gifts that my sister and I made each other. My sister made me a vegan hamper which was full of lots of gorgeous and scrummy food and drink. It included a Christmas cake, strawberry chocolate cupcakes, date truffles, peanut butter & chocolate cookies and a bottle of limoncello. Delicious! The peanut butter & chocolate cookies were the first to go, and that surprised me, as regular readers will know I'm not a massive fan of peanut butter, but times are changing!

My gifts focused on upcycling and I made my sister a cake stand, which you can also see in the photograph above, with an orange chocolate cup cake and a bracelet made from her favourite colour, green ribbon and coke can ring pulls, yes really! 

I love receiving handmade/homemade gifts and I also had another fabulous homemade gift from my gardening angel, raspberry vodka, which is delicious!

Homemade Coleslaw

Today is just a quick post. I can't believe how busy I have been this week, time has just flown by.  I've been enjoying salads this week for lunch due to the weather being a little warmer. Now, lets not get carried away we're not talking shorts weather here, but the winter coat may get put back in the wardrobe. Weather reports suggest tomorrow is going to be warm and sunny! I won't get my hopes up, the weather seems to change from one extreme to another at the moment.

Today's recipe is homemade coleslaw and its super easy and quick to make and it beats the shop bought dairy version anytime!

Ingredients
1 Onion
1 Carrot
¼ Red cabbage
Salt & Pepper
Vegan Mayonnaise

Method
Finely slice the red cabbage and onion and transfer to a bowl. Grate the carrot and add to the bow. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add about a tablespoon of the vegan mayonnaise. Stir to combine making sure everything is evenly covered. Add more vegan mayonnaise if you think the mixture is a little dry for your taste.

 I used the vegan mayonnaise (solesse mayonnaise) that Hannah sent me last month in the vegan food swap box and I was pleasantly surprised. Last time I'd tried this mayonnaise I didn't enjoy it. but its amazing how your taste buds can change.

I received my vegan food parcel today too! Yay! I will post what I received from Finola soon. I'll also post what I sent my food swap buddy, Stephen too.