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Runner Bean & Rosemary Soup and Vegan Mofo Day 16

At the start of Vegan Mofo I posted a recipe using my runner beans, but I told you I was a bit disappointed with them as some of them were a little stringy, probably because my seeds are too old. If I'm honest it did put me off them a little although if I keep picking them regularly and when they are young they aren't stringy at all! But on the days where I have forgotten to harvest or have just run out of time I kick myself as one day too many on the plant they seem to become stringy. 

Today I had quite a handful and some weren't young enough for me to eat as they are. As I wondered what I could do with them, I hate to throw out (compost) good food, a light bulb went on above my head. Soup! I bet they would blend down nicely into a silky smooth soup and I wasn't wrong.

I decided to pair the runner beans with a herb and once again I decided this had to be rosemary. The fragrant smell of the leaves is almost like the plant is saying pick me, pick me! So I did!

Ingredients - serves 2 

 
300g Runner beans
(215g prepared weight)
1 Garlic clove
500ml Boiling water
2 Tsp Vegetable bouillon powder
1 Bay leaf
3 Sprigs of rosemary
2 Tsp Fresh rosemary, chopped
1 Tbsp Lemon juice

Method

Put the prepared beans and garlic in a saucepan. Mix the vegetable bouillon powder with the boiling water and pour over the beans and garlic. 

Add the bay leaf and prigs of rosemary. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf and sprigs of rosemary and transfer to a blender. Add 1-2 Tsp of fresh rosemary and the lemon juice and blend until silky smooth.

As I was blending my soup I also added a couple of teaspoons of the cream 'cheese' with rosemary that I made yesterday just to add a touch of creaminess.

Runner Bean Pie

Runner Bean Pie & Vegan Mofo Day 4

Firstly, apologies for the photographs, they really don't do this dish justice! It really was delicious, more so than it looks. Put it another way even though I've now got a freezer, I'm not freezing any as I'm going to take some to work tomorrow for lunch and save the rest for the weekend! I actually went back for seconds too!

My runner bean plants aren't thriving as they have done for the past few years but I think perhaps my seeds are a little too old. Four years ago I had an amazing harvest, I mean I was picking handfuls every morning, I was giving them away (no freezer in those days)! No beans were "stringy" and the taste was out of this world. I would literally eat bowls full of 'just cooked' beans with a splash of vinegar for lunch and dinner! The beans were that good that I decided to let some beans get really big and dry on the plant, once the harvest season was over. Once the beans had dried I removed the bean from the pod and stored in jam jars in a dark cupboard in my shed. The next season I used these beans to grow my next crop. I've been doing this ever since. Last year I did have an amazing crop but I did notice that if a bean was left on the plant for just one day more than I would have liked it did start to become a little stringy. AND there is nothing worse than finding a stringy bean on your plate! Trust me, it puts me right off!

This was my first harvest of the year and I must admit I did have to throw away a couple of beans. When I say throw away I mean on my compost, nothing gets wasted here! So next year I think I will treat myself to some new beans to sow. Unless anyone out there want to do a seed swap? Get in touch if you do!

OK So on to the recipe.


Ingredients
335g Runner beans, top & tailed weight (a good handful)
750g potatoes, peeled
350ml Almond milk (non sweetened)
1½ Tbsp Vitalite

250ml Water
75g Cashews
2 Tsp Porcini powder
4 Tbsp Nutritional yeast
1 Mushroom stock cube (I used Kallo organic)

Method

Cook the potatoes in boiling water until s knife pierces them easily. Drain and leave in the pan to steam dry for about 5 minutes. This removes the excess moisture.

Mash the potatoes with 100ml of the almond milk and 1 Tbsp of the Vitalite until creamy and lump free.

While the potatoes are cooking place the prepared runner beans in a pan of boiling water and bring back to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes, or until they are al dente, you don't want to cook them too much, they taste better with a little bight in my opinion. Drain and transfer to an oven proof dish.

Saute the mushrooms in the remaining ½ Tbsp of Vitalite for 5 minutes and transfer to the oven dish with the beans.

Add the remaining 250ml of almond milk to a blender along with the last 5 ingredients and blitz until you have a sauce like consistency. Don't worry if you think the sauce is too thin it will thicken up as it heats up. Pour the sauce over the runner beans and mushrooms and top with the mas potato.

Bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the potatoes are golden brown.

Now, don't judge me here, but I ate mine with baked beans! I don't know what it is but I love creamy sauces and baked beans together! If you don't agree with my taste buds then serve with extra vegetables.

Sleepy Sunday - Bean Potato Cakes

Today, I've had my first vegan mofo disaster in the kitchen! It had to happen today of all days too! I only had a small window of opportunity this morning to create another 'Sleepy Sunday' dish and I was all up for it. But I only had an hour tops to create something. We were going to Mum & Dads to celebrate my sisters birthday with a family meal, which I was really looking forward to it. But more about that later.

After checking my cupboards and fridge I came up with what needed using up more than anything and then figured out what I was going to do with it. I had some potatoes that had started sprouting and some runner beans which I'd picked earlier in the week that needed using up. I knew that the dish would have to be potato based and decided on a bean and potato cake. Easy heh?

This morning was a cold one and although the weather report was better for later in the day I needed warming up and what better way than to use some heat in your food. 

After mixing all my ingredients together I had a quick taste before the 'cakes' were formed and put in the oven, it tasted good and I had high hopes. That, my friends, was too good to be true and as soon as I opened the oven door my heart sank. I just had a tray full of gloop!

After re-forming the cakes, turning them over and returning to the oven I kept my fingers crossed. When I next opened the oven door I didn't have a tray of gloop just 5 blobs of gloop!

I will remake these again as they tasted so darn good but next time I might try adding a flax egg, adding flour, replacing the cheese with nutritional yeast or baking them in metal rings. The vegan cheese had melted causing the 'cake' to be a soggy mess. Here is what NOT to do!

Ingredients - Serves 5-6
400g potatoes
215g Spicy refried beans
180g Runner beans
80g Vegan cheese
2 Tsp Balsamic Glaze
Salt & Pepper

Method
Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes, the smaller the cube the quicker the cooking time. One cooked, drain and mash.

Add the tin of refried beans and mash again.

Whilst the potatoes are cooking, top and tail the runner beans and cut into small pieces. Add to boiling water and cook for 3-4 minutes, until a knife can pierce them but still leaves a bit of 'bite'. Drain the beans and add to the bean and potato mash along with the cheese.

Fold the mixture so everything is combined, then add salt and pepper to taste, and add the balsamic glaze. I'm using this quite a bit in my cooking recently but I find that it just perks up a dish and gives a tangy like flavour. Give the mixture another good stir so that everything is well combined.

With wet hands (maybe I should have used flour hands) form the mixture into 'cakes' I made 5 fairly big cakes but you could easily make bigger or smaller 'cakes'. Bake in a moderate oven for 15 minutes and flip the 'cakes' over before returning to the oven for a further 15 minutes.

I didn't take a photograph of the tray of gloop, I was frantically trying to recover the dish to worry about taking photos! But after reforming the 'cakes' they looked like this.

Bake for a further 15 minutes and after the second bake in the oven the 'cake' didn't look too bad.

Serve with baked beans or fried mushrooms. I served mine with beans as I'd used all the mushrooms up in yesterdays dish. But they would have tasted good with fried mushrooms.

After the 'cakes' had cooled the vegan cheese had solidified and you could pick them up as the were fairly solid. I'm guessing that once heated up they will return to gloop, ha ha ha. Must try harder.

I ran out of time to post this 'not to be tried recipe' this morning, so it's a little late in the day. We had a fantastic time round Mum & Dad's celebrating my sisters birthday and I was spoilt rotten. My sister had made me sweet potato balls (similar to falafels but no chick peas in sight) which were mighty tasty especially with a sprinkling of mint sauce on them. Hopefully my sister will give me the recipe, but like me she cooks from the heart and doesn't tend to write everything down. Perhaps she should start a blog to record her recipes, it's worked for me. For dessert my sister had made two apple and black current tarts, one vegan just for me. She tells me she made the pastry out of olive oil and I must say it was the shortest shortcrust pastry I've ever had. I was stuffed after my main meal so I only had a little bit, but I've brought some home to enjoy and she is going to freeze the rest for me.

Tune in tomorrow for the last day of vegan mofo, till then bye for now...................

Retro Saturday - Bean & Mushroom Wellington

Retro Saturday, what dishes does that conjure up for you? For me its the old favourites, the nostalgic culinary classics, a throwback dish from the 1970's! 

During vegan mofo I have made green bean risotto, green bean & mushroom pasta and bean stroganoff, to me all classic dishes but tonight I'm going all out there with a green bean & mushroom wellington, a real throwback from the 1970's! As you will notice my love affair with partnering green beans and mushrooms has not petered out! I'm still in the honeymoon stage!

This dish is so simple to make and only has 7 ingredients, yes only 7 ingredients (if you don't count the salt & pepper).

It is extremely easy to make too, and very tasty. With this dish you won't be in the kitchen for a long period of time you just throw the ingredients together and voila!

Ingredients
2 Onions, chopped
2 Cloves of garlic, finely chopped
300g Mushrooms, chopped
1 Tbsp Mushroom ketchup
2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast
30-40 Green beans, top and tailed
200g Ready made puff pastry

Method
First fry the onions in a little olive oil until soft and starting to brown.

Add the garlic and fry for a further 2 minutes. Next add the mushrooms and the mushroom ketchup and fry until all the liquid has reduced. Add the nutritional yeast and stir to combine.

Whilst the mushrooms are cooking, fry the green beans in a little olive oil until starting to brown. 

Roll out the puff pastry (you will need about two thirds of a pre-rolled packet. Top with the green beans, then the mushroom mixture, leaving about a 2cm edge.

Fold over the pastry to in-case the filling. Use a little almond milk to dampen the edges to help the two edges stick together. Press a fork around the edges to make a pattern and add some steam holes to the top of the pastry. 

Cook in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden. See I told you it was easy and quick. Now for the taste test..............................delicious!

Oh, one last thing HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sis!

Fry-Day - Bean Tempura

It's Fry-Day! Thank goodness and what a week it's been! We're in the final countdown of Vegan Mofo and I've thoroughly enjoyed taking part if a little exhausted at times!

Today I have another recipe for you, well if you can call it a recipe as its so simple! There's loads of recipes on the web for tempura batter, but I like to keep it really simple, the trick is to keep the oil hot, so don't over crowd the pan and keep the batter cold and as soon as the batter is made, use it!

I served mine with sweet chilli sauce, but once again I made far too much! I wonder what it tastes like heated up? Perhaps I'll make a salad with the rest!

Ingredients - Serves 4-6 as a starter 
85g Plain flour
15g Cornflour
½ Tsp Salt200ml Sparkling water
12 Green beans
8 Sugar snap peas
4 Runner beans4 Baby corn
2 Mushrooms


Method
Heat the oil to 140°C, I used a mini deep fat fryer, which is rarely used! 

Prepare all your vegetables top and tail the beans and peas, I kept my green beans and peas whole but I cut my runner beans into 5cm pieces, quarter the mushrooms and baby corn.

Ensure you're sparkling water is ice cold, I kept mine at the back of the fridge for a day, as I have no freezer. Sift the plain flour and cornflour into a bowl and add the salt. Slowly whisk in the sparkling water don't over whisk the batter a few lumps won't matter.

Coat the vegetables in the batter and add to the hot oil a few at a time, do not over crowd the pan as they will all stick together and the temperature of the oil will reduce.

Deep fry for 2-3 minutes and drain on kitchen roll. I kept mine warm in a low oven while I fried the rest. Serve with sweet chilli sauce. Yum!

Apologies for the bad photos, once again I was late doing tea so it was very dark.

Yesterday I said that I would share with you the vegan parcel I sent to Miss Chaela Boo, so here goes. In my parcel I included the following items:

• Pink Wafers
• Ruffle Bars
• Ruffle Fondants
• Nice & Nutty Pop Corn
• Graze Crunchy Basilico
• Tilda Mexican Chilli and Bean Rice
• The Food Doctor Cereal, Pulses & Beans Easy Grain
• Nible Wasabi Beans
• Homemade Runner Bean Chutney

There is always a packet of Pink Wafers in the biscuit tin at work, and I'm not alone in liking them! They bring fond memories back of Christmas as a child as they were always in the 'family circle' biscuit tin, does anyone else remember that?

I know Michaela loves her Ruffles bars and she finds them difficult to find in Cambridge and so a vegan swap box had to include them, but I hope I went one better as the shop in which I bought them also sold packets of small ruffle fondants.

I've not tried the nice and nutty popcorn myself yet, I should have bought two bags! I can see another trip to the farm shop where I bought them, which is not a bad thing in the slightest! I couldn't let the parcel go without including some bean items as 'everything bean like' is my vegan mofo theme! I hope Michaela enjoys them. I was a bit nervous sending a small jar of my runner bean chutney as I hadn't even tried it yet, it needs to be stored for at least a month before opening so that the flavours can mature. I hope Michaela likes it!

Mac 'n' Cheese Monday - Sweet Potato

Tonight I got that carried away with making a 'cheese' sauce with no cheese involved that I forgot about my "everything bean like theme"!

It wasn't until the sauce was made that I suddenly gasped in horror that there were no beans. A quick nip out to my veggie patch and 10 minutes later there was a saucepan of hot water cooking my runner beans. You can't get any fresher than that.

As you may remember Marco hasn't been feeling that well and I have been feeding him on sweet potato amongst other things. So tonight I set myself a challenge and decided I would make a cheese sauce out of sweet potatoes. The verdict? Not bad, if I say so myself. This sauce wasn't overly 'cheesey' but delicious all the same. Here's what I did.

Ingredients - The sauce makes enough for 4-6 servings of pasta

3 Sweet potatoes

1 Tbsp White miso
150ml Almond milk
250ml Rice milk
50g Nutritional yeast
1 Tsp English Mustard
Salt and Pepper
150g Runner beans-prepared
Pasta of choice

Method
First bring a large pan of water to the boil, peel and cube the sweet potatoes and boil until soft. Drain and set aside to cool.

Once cool, (I cooked mine the night before) tip into a food processor and process until smooth. Add all the other ingredients except the salt & pepper and process until you have a silky sauce. Transfer to a saucepan and warm over a low heat, stirring every now and again to stop the sauce sticking and burning to the bottom of the saucepan.

While the sauce is heating through cook the pasta in boiling water for 10 minutes, with 5 minutes remaining add the runner beans then drain once the beans and pasta are cooked.

Tip the sauce over the beans and pasta and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper, I love black pepper so won't state a quantity, just add to taste. I only cooked enough pasta for me so I enjoyed a lot of sauce. I have plenty left over so great for lunch, all I need to do is cook more pasta and beans. I may try the sauce on a pizza too.

Recipe note: When I make this sauce again I will serve it over pasta and sweetcorn rather than runner beans as I think it would work better.

Retro Saturday - Bean Stroganoff

You can't get more retro than a stroganoff in my book, so today I made a bean stroganoff with three beans. But before I give you the recipe let me tell you where I've been today. 

The small village where I grew up was holding a local food festival so I went along to show my support. I was told that it was a celebration of local food talent involving all sections of the community from near and far. There were tables full of local produce that had been grown by people from all ages, homemade preserves and flower displays. 

There was a lady there telling us all about hedgehogs and right up my street a vegetarian talk. Lance Bell, from the Vegetarian Society had been invited to give a talk on the benefits of being vegetarian. I was pleasantly surprised how many people attended. Lance, who is also a vegan gave a great talk on the social, economic and health benefits of being a vegetarian and the people attending were very interested in learning more about it. The approach Lance took was brilliant and he had people listening right from the start, people asked questions and we all had a fantastic time. It was a brilliant idea to invite Lance and include vegetarianism as part of the local food festival, a big round of applause goes to the organisers and of course Lance. 

At the end of the day there was an auction of all the local produce which was brilliant fun, I was outbid on nearly every occasion, but I'm pleased to report I did win two ball courgettes for a bargain price of 60p.  They were massive, see photo below, yes that's a ten pence piece! They will feature soon in a recipe, watch this space...............

Did I mention stroganoff? The green and purple french beans and the runner beans are out of my garden. I don't think the green and purple beans will be giving me any more food I think the harvest is over for them. On the other hand though, the runner beans are multiplying as I type. There is at least another 2 kilogrammes on my 6 plants, so I'm sure they will also feature in the remaining recipes for Vegan Mofo.

Ingredients
200g Green/Purple beans
200g Runner beans
250g Mushrooms
1 Red onion
2 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tsp Garlic puree
1 Tsp Dried thyme
3 Tsp Paprika
2 Tsp Garlic granules
1 Tbsp Flour
½ Tin of black beans
400ml Almond milk
125ml Soy cream
Salt & Pepper

Method
First prepare all your vegetables, cut the onion into half moon shapes, top and tail the beans and cut up into 3cm pieces and cut your mushrooms into chunks.

Fry the onion in a little olive oil for 3-4 minutes or until the onion is starting to go soft. Next add the green/purple beans and saute over a high heat for another 3 minutes.

Add the runner beans and continue to cook over a high heat for another 3 minutes. Next add the mushrooms and soy sauce, turn the heat down and cook for another 3 minutes.

Add the garlic puree and stir through the vegetables, then add the flour, paprika, garlic granules and dried thyme and stir to combine thoroughly. Slowly add the almond milk a little at a time, to prevent lumps. After adding ½ the milk add the black beans then the remaining milk and cook over a low heat until the sauce thickens, stirring regularly. This should take around 7 minutes. 

Slowly add the cream and stir to combine, do not boil as the cream may split. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with rice, pasta or as I did couscous.

Please excuse the mess I made of serving, I didn't mean to dribble the sauce over the couscous!

Mac 'n' Cheese Monday - Yellow Peppers

Summer is finally over boo hoo, the weather has turned and we are now experiencing rain, wind and colder temperatures. I'm trying to hold off with turning on the heating though, so more jumpers and more comfort food required!

The ultimate comfort food in my book is a "Mac 'n' Cheese" recipe, although I very rarely use macaroni pasta, its normally spirals!

Today's recipe for Mac 'n' Cheese was created using yellow ingredients to see if I could replicate the colour and taste of cheese. A hard call but I think it paid off. You'll have to let me know what you think.

Ingredients

15g Cashew nuts 
60g Ground almonds
1 Yellow pepper
2 Tbsp White miso
25g Nutritional yeast
150ml Almond milk
¼ Tsp Turmeric
1 Tsp English mustard
150g Runner beans
140g Dried pasta of choice

Method 2-3 servings

Add the cashew nuts to a blender and process until they resemble fine bread crumbs. I haven't got a vitamix or anything as snazzy (I'm saving up for it) so my food processor won't turn the nuts into a paste, but it doesn't matter if yours does, it would be better.

Meanwhile quarter the yellow pepper and put under the grill skin side facing up. Grill until the skin is blackened and put in a plastic bag for a few minutes. Remove and peel off the skin and chop the yellow pepper flesh.

Next add the ground almonds, yellow pepper flesh, white miso, nutritional yeast, almond milk, turmeric and mustard to the food processor and turn on the machine. Let it process the ingredients for a while until you have a smooth and silky sauce. 

Meanwhile cook your pasta shapes in boiling water for 10 minutes or as per the packet instructions. Top and tail the runner beans and slice into 5cm widths. With 5 minutes cooking time remaining add the runner beans to the pasta.

Drain your pasta and beans and add the sauce from the food processor to the pan and gently heat through. Add the pasta and mushrooms and stir through the sauce. Serve straight away.

I'm ashamed to say this but I have eaten every last bit! It tasted that good. What a fat piglet I am! If you have any left overs, you will need to add a touch more almond milk before heating as the pasta soaks up the sauce.