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!

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!

Retro Saturday - Bean & Mushroom Pasta

Once again today's theme is Retro Saturday, where you dress up and veganise your favourite meal. I've always been a lover of pasta and whilst I was vegetarian I loved visiting Italian restaurants and devouring the creamiest pasta dishes. In the 25 years I was vegetarian that was a lot of visits to Italian restaurants. Since turning vegan, January 1st this year I haven't visited an Italian restaurant once, what can you eat as a vegan that you can't cook up at home just as delicious if not more so?

Today's recipe is creamy, without cream, extremely easy, quick and very tasty; even 5 meat eaters lapped it up when I cooked it up one camping trip.

I haven't posted many pasta recipes before, which is strange as I'm always cooking them as they are so easy and so quick to rustle up. Everyone will have something lurking in their store cupboard or fridge which can be transformed into a pasta dish. The two previous pasta dishes I've posted are garden pasta, which was rustled up from veg grown in the garden, hence the name and soba veganaise, which is a great recipe to use when you need to use up your vegetables lurking in the bottom of your fridge. Anyway on with today's recipe. 

Bean and Mushroom Pasta 
I am still harvesting green beans, from my garden, not many I grant you but they keep coming!

Ingredients
150g Green beans
150g Mushrooms
1 Onion
1 Courgette (optional)
2 Spring onions
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Tbsp Flour
1 Tsp Vegetable bouillon powder
500ml Soy milk or other alternative
2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast
2 Tsp English mustard
1 Tsp Dried parsley
½ Tsp Dried thyme 
400g Pasta

Method - serves 4-5
Prepare all the vegetables so you're ready to cook, top and tail the beans and cut to 5cm lengths, slice the courgette, spring onions, mushrooms and onion.

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and add the pasta of choice, cook as per the packet instructions. Drain just before you add the sauce.

Saute the onion until translucent about 5 minutes, and add the beans, continue to saute stirring regularly so the vegetables don't stick to the pan. Add a little water if they start sticking. After 5 minutes the beans should start to become tender so add the mushrooms, courgette and spring onions and saute for another 2 minutes.

Sprinkle the vegetables with the flour, herbs and vegetable bouillon powder (I use Marigold Swiss vegetable) and stir to combine. Continue to cook for about 30 seconds whilst turning the mixture with a spoon.

Add the soy milk slowly, a bit at a time, continually stirring until the mixture becomes sauce like thick. You may need to add more soy milk or not as much it depends on the age and type of the flour you are using. Add the mustard and stir through, then the nutritional yeast and stir again. 

Season to taste and tip in the drained pasta a little at a time and stir to incorporate the sauce and pasta. Serve with salad or as I did with a side of runner beans! I actually cooked the sauce at home and boxed it up. Then all I needed to do was cook the pasta at the camp site, heat up the sauce and combine - easy! The bottom photo was the left overs after first helpings, but as soon as I'd taken the photo the saucepan was gone and the 'leftovers' were on plates being gobbled up!

Retro Saturday - Bean Risotto

Today's theme is Retro Saturday, where you dress up and veganise your favourite meal. Before going vegan one of my favourite meals was risotto, but unfortunately the risotto's I was accustomed to were laced with butter, cheese and cream! 

Since going vegan and finding out different ingredients such as vitalite (a vegan margarine), nutritional yeast which gives a cheesy taste and vegan white wines I can make a risotto taste divine. All you need to do is add the vegetable(s) of choice. 

I've featured a few risotto's on this blog over time, including broccoli & cauliflower risotto and roast dinner risotto. I've also got a mean recipe for mushroom risotto which I'll post soon, but today I'm going to share with you my bean risotto. Yes bean risotto, green bean risotto. I believe you can make any type of risotto you just need a spare 20 minutes that's all!

Ingredients

600-700ml Vegetable stock
50ml Vegan white wine
Splash of olive oil
1 Onion - finely diced
2 Cloves of garlic - crushed
2 Cups of green beans thinly sliced
2 Cups of risotto rice - I use arborio rice
½ Cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 Tbsp Vitalite

Method

Fry the onions and garlic for about 5 minutes, until onions are translucent.

Add rice and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes adding salt and pepper to taste.

Add 50ml of vegetable stock and bring to the boil, stir until stock has been absorbed by the rice.

Pour in the wine and stir, cook for about 3 minutes to evaporate the alcohol.

Add the vegetable stock a little at a time, stirring occasionally, letting the rice absorb before adding any further stock. Repeat a further two times then add the thinly sliced green beans.

Continue adding the stock a little at a time and after about 20 minutes you should have used most of the vegetable stock.

Add the nutritional yeast flakes and stir thoroughly to combine, add a little more stock if the mixture feels to thick (or warm water if you have used all your stock).

Take the pan off the heat and stir in the vitalite very fast, this creates a creamy texture.

Serve at once. If there is any left over it will keep in the fridge but when you come to reheat you will need to add a little hot water to thin the mixture.