Quick & Easy Sausage Casserole

I really don't know what's happening with this weather! We finally managed to get a week of the sun coming out albeit still a little cold. So, I started wearing my summer wardrobe and went bare legged for the first time this year, and yes on some days I wish I hadn't I was freezing. But I figured we're in June and soon the longest day will be upon us and I thought the dresses need to come out of the closet sometime! But wait Saturday was so darn miserable, it rained constantly all day and the temperature dropped I don't think I've ever been this cold in June. 

I needed some comfort food, and I needed it to be quick and easy as I had a lot on. So I gave myself 40 minutes to come up with something comforting and healthy. This recipe worked a treat, packed full of veggies and it really can be on the table in under 40 minutes and that's including all the prep. Yay!

Ingredients - Serves 4 people

6 Vegan sausages ( I used Linda McCartney sausages) 
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Onion, diced
2 Sticks celery, diced
100g Broccoli, cut into small florets
½ Red pepper, cut into strips
½ Yellow pepper, cut into strips
3 Cloves of garlic, minced
2 Sprigs rosemary, finely cut
4 Sprigs thyme, stalks removed
1 Tsp Balsamic vinegar

150g Mushrooms, diced2 Tsp Smoked paprika
1 Tbsp Flour
1 Tin chopped tomatoes
500ml Vegetable stock

Method

Turn on your oven to a medium temperature.

Prepare all your vegetables.

Place the vegan sausages in an oven proof dish and place in the oven, while you cook your vegetables, around 20 minutes.

Add the olive oil to a large saucepan and heat before adding the onion and celery. Sauté for 5 minutes or until the onion is translucent.

Add the broccoli and sauté for another two minute, stirring all the time. Add the peppers and sauté for another 3 minutes.

Add the garlic, rosemary and thyme and stir to combine, then add the balsamic vinegar. Continue  to sauté the vegetables and herbs for another minute stirring all the time.

Add the chopped mushrooms and continue to sauté for another 5 minutes or until the mushrooms have released their liquid into the vegetable mix.

Add the smoked paprika and stir to combine. Add the flour and stir to combine, the mixture will become quite stiff as the flour soaks up whatever vegetable juices are in the pan. Sauté for 1 more minute to cook out the flour.

Add the chopped tomatoes and stir through, the mixture will still be very thick. Add the vegetable stock a little at a time, stirring all the time and bring the mixture up to a boil. The mixture will now be a lot thinner.

Remove the sausages from the oven and cut each sausage in half. Add the halved sausages to the pan and reduce the heat so the mixture is simmering.

Cook for a further 10 minutes to thicken the sauce before serving.

Serve in bowls with a garnish of chopped chives for a warm and comforting klunch or serve with mash potato and more vegetables for a hearty dinner.

Tofu Thatched Pie

Hands up who loves tofu? Me, me, me!

I love it, in fact I will never tire of tofu! Its so versatile, I use it to make both savoury and sweet treats; mousse, cake frostings, cakes, oat bars, and for savoury everything from stir-fries, crumbled to add texture or just grilled. Check out my recipe page for more tofu recipes and I've even added a tofu board to my pinterest if you're looking for tofu inspiration.

I fancied a comforting dish for dinner tonight, so before I went to work I took out a block of tofu from my freezer, knowing that when I got home it would have defrosted and I could magic the block into a comforting dish for dinner.

When I got home I was in a real need for something comforting to eat after the day I'd had! I'm thankful that cooking after a long day at work is relaxing for me, it's a great stress buster too! You should see me stirring and chopping! Hee hee hee :o)

If you are a regular reader you will know that I love the texture of frozen and defrosted tofu, it almost looks sponge like and it crumbles fantastically after the water has been squeezed out, another stress busting action! :o)

What's better than a mash potato topped pie for comfort food? This is my take on a cottage pie without harming any cows. I call it tofu thatched pie due to the fact that the bottom layer of the pie is tofu based and the top layer of mash potato is ridged, well that's my reasoning and I'm sticking to it.

Ingredients  

500g Potato, diced
Splash of Almond milk
Knob of Vitalite
Salt & pepper
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Onion
2 Celery sticks
1 Red pepper,
1 Parsnip
1 Carrot
50g Kale
1 Tbsp Soy sauce100g Mushrooms, diced
1 Block of frozen & defrosted tofu, crumbled
1 Tsp Vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 Tsp Mushroom ketchup
1 Tsp Dried thyme
1 Tsp Garlic powder
½ Tsp Dried cumin
3 Tsp Vegan gravy granules
250ml Vegetable stock

Method
First boil your potatoes until cooked, drain and leave to steam in the pan to remove excess moisture. Add a splash of almond milk and a knob of vitalite, salt and pepper to taste and mash. Put to one side why you make the pie filling.

While the potatoes are cooking, add the Worcestershire sauce and mushroom ketchup to a bowl and stir in the thyme, cumin and garlic powder. Add the crumbled tofu and mix so the tofu soaks up the liquid and is evenly distributed. Set to one side to marinate.

If you have a food processor, use it for speed unless you are extremely fast at chopping. A food processor makes light of all that chopping. Add the onion and celery to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped.

Add to a pan with olive oil and sauté for 5 minutes, whilst this is cooking use the food processor to chop the red pepper, carrot and parsnip. Add to the onion mixture and sauté for another 5 minutes.

Add the kale to the food processor and pulse until chopped. Note: I removed all the thick stems before I weighed the kale. Add the kale to the pan with the soy sauce and give everything good stir, if the vegetables are sticking add a splash of water too.

Add the mushrooms, and stir through and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Transfer the marinated tofu to the pan and stir to combine. Next add the gravy granules to the mixture and stir to combine thoroughly. Pour in the vegetable stock and stir through. Simmer for 5-10 minutes or until you have a loose mixture, but not too runny.

Spray an oven proof dish lightly with oil and add the tofu mixture. Top with the mashed potato and using a fork draw ridges in the potato topping.

Bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes or until the mash potato has browned.

Serve with vegetables and onion gravy.

Jasmine x

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!

Thankful Thursday - Vegan Swap Box & Moussaka

It's Thankful Thursday again and the last one of Vegan Mofo, so I thought it was appropriate to do a post on my fantastic Vegan Swap Box I received earlier this month from Heather. 

It was A-M-A-ZING! It was full of vegan goodies which I'm working my way through. If you've not heard about the vegan swap box before take a trip over to To Happy Vegans who organise the whole thing (unfortunately for UK residents only, but I have heard there is other swap boxes organised in other countries). Every month you are assigned a partner to send a parcel of vegan goodies to and in return you receive your own parcel of vegan goodies. It's really good fun and every month you get a parcel to open up and the contents are a complete surprise! Try it and see what you get.

I was lucky enough to get Heather again this month, Heather sent me my last parcel in July (I didn't participate in the August swap box as we were on holiday). Funny enough I got the same person to send to as I did in July, Michaela from Miss Chaela Boo. I'll let you know what I sent to Michaela in tomorrows post.

Don't worry there's a recipe of sorts too! But first here is what Heather sent to me:

• Co-op After Dinner Mint Thins
• Sweet Freedom Choc Shot
• Yu! Jus Fruit Mango
• Hapiness is Homemade Organic Desiccated Coconut
• Naked Noodle - Sweet & Sour Flavour
• Cooks Coatings for Roasties
• Pureety Gourmet Tangy Tomato, Black Pepper & Thyme Marinade
• Itsu Miso Soups x 3
• Jamie Oliver Pink Himalayan Salt
• Greenfields Ras Al Hanout
• Tyrrells Habas Fritas - Fried Broad Beans! YAY more beans!

As you can see a real good selection of vegan goodies, aren't I the lucky girl! I was chuffed to bits with the parcel including something bean like and I've used some of these on top of my leek and runner bean soup as croutons! Yummy!

I've never tried pink himalayan salt before, I know, I know where have I been! That's what I love about the vegan swap boxes you get to try stuff you've never had before. The Naked Noodles were enjoyed for lunch at work and I was pleasantly surprised with them. I've tried Sainsbury's own brand of something similar and I was bitterly disappointed with their version. I shall look out for the Naked Noodle brand as it's good to have as a standby lunch at work when you've forgotten to bring your own packed lunch!

I've not yet tried the miso soup, again this is a brand I've not seen before, but I love miso soup! I've not yet tried the roasties coatings either and I'm thinking maybe this Sunday, I'll try it out on my family. I think the marinade will be fabulous over tofu and can't wait to try this. I'm also thinking of making a bean tagine to use the ras al hanout, I have so many ideas and not enough time! 

The Co-op Mint Thins were a lovely surprise! It's my sisters birthday on Saturday and we're all going to Mum & Dads on Sunday for lunch so the Mint Thins can be enjoyed by all, I'll make sure I get my fair share though! Heather told me that she's addicted to the Choc shot and every time she goes into the kitchen she eats a teaspoon of it. Well Heather, I'm addicted now too! I've not had chance to use it on anything and I've been doing as you do and sneaking a teaspoon of the gooey chocolate sauce every time I make a cup of tea! I've not seen this before so I'm hunting it down, drop me a line and tell me where you get yours from.

The mango pieces didn't last long either they were gone the day after I received the parcel and enjoyed as a work snack. I'm planning to do some baking once Vegan Mofo is finished and the desiccated coconut will be used then.

All in all I think you'll agree and absolutely fabulous vegan swap box! Thanks Heather I love it!

You'll note that I mentioned that I'll also share a recipe (of sorts) with you today and I'm using some left over from yesterdays meal. As I have no freezer and I'm the only vegan in this household (although Marco is heading that way, he loves his veggies) I only made one portion of the aubergine and bean rolls which meant I had a lot of the aubergine, mushroom and butter bean filling left. I also still had some of the sweet potato "cheese" sauce left over so I put my thinking cap on and decided there was only one thing for it a moussaka.

All I did was slice up another aubergine, yes I bought another one! This is progress! Give an oven proof dish a quick spray of olive oil and add a layer of aubergine slices. Top with some of the aubergine, mushroom and butter bean filling and repeat finishing with a third layer of aubergine slices. Top with a layer of the sweet potato "cheese" sauce and then a layer of thinly sliced potatoes. Finish with another layer of the sauce and bake in a pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are soft.

I served mine with chips (naughty I know) and peas, and I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed it. I even went back for another taste as I couldn't believe how good it tasted. I will make this time and time again, its that good!

Apologies for the photo, it doesn't do the dish justice at all, but I was way too hungry and way too excited to try the moussaka, to faff around with photographing it! 

In other news, my sister won a cake decorating competition today! Yay! Go sis! I shall ask her if I can publish a photo of the cake and share it with you all. It was fantastic and shaped like a watering can, yep 3D and all!

Work With It Wednesday - Aubergine & Bean Rolls

I honestly can't believe how quick Vegan Mofo is going, but I must admit I am shattered, cooking a new recipe and posting it every day takes its toll. Especially when you work full time and you don't get in till late. Today I wanted to finish early so I could get home and do a little experimenting, but as always that didn't work out! Today's recipe was just thrown together but I'm so pleased with the results.

As today was the last "Work with it Wednesday" I decided to put the three ingredients I didn't like (which I have written about on previous "Work with it Wednesdays" posts) together in one recipe. As a recap the three ingredients are Aubergine, Butter Beans and Peanut Butter.

What on earth could I make with these three ingredients, I needed to bring out the big guns. Enter the food processor. I was making it up as I went along, but thankfully I weighed every ingredient and wrote everything down. I even used left overs from a previous recipe, which is always good to do as I hate throwing food out.

I remember reading about  a post from another Vegan Mofo blogger a while back, who visited a restaurant and had aubergine rolls stuffed with a walnut mixture. I'm sure it was in Germany and I'm pretty sure she also posted a photograph of some very cute puppies, but I could be mistaken. Apologies but I can't remember who it was, if its you, thank you, your post must have stuck in the back of my head and tonight the aubergine came to life!

Ingredients - serves 4-6
1 Onion 
3 Cloves of garlic
Olive Oil
2 Large Aubergines
200g Chestnut mushrooms
1 Tin of butter beans
1 Tbsp Peanut butter
50g Breadcrumbs
20 Basil leaves

3 Tsp Balsamic Glaze
1 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tsp BBQ sauce

Method
First roughly chop the onion and peel the garlic, add to a food processor and process until finely chopped. Add a little olive oil to a pan and saute for 5 minutes.

Whilst the onion is cooking, finely slice length ways one of the aubergines and set aside, you should get at least 16 slices. With the other aubergine, cut it into cubes and add to the food processor and process until finely chopped. Add to the onions, stir and saute for another 5 minutes.

Next wipe the mushrooms clean and dice, add to the food processor and process until finely chopped. Add to the onion and aubergine mixture, stir and saute for another 5 minutes. Add the teaspoon of peanut butter and stir to thoroughly combine.

Next drain the tin of butter beans, add to the food processor and process until pureed. Add to the onion, aubergine and mushroom mixture and stir to thoroughly combine.

Stir in the breadcrumbs, finely shred the basil and add to the mixture along with the balsamic glaze, soy sauce and BBQ sauce, stir to combine thoroughly. The mixture will be fairly wet, cook for a further 5 minutes in order to lose some of the moisture.

Meanwhile fry the aubergine slices in a  little olive oil for 2 minutes each side until golden brown but still pliable. Add a teaspoon of the mixture to each aubergine slice and roll. Place the rolls in an oven proof dish and bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.

As I said above I also used some leftovers, this was some sweet potato 'cheese' sauce I made two days ago for "Mac 'n' Cheese Monday". I poured the sauce over the aubergine rolls (about 3 tablespoons for each 4 rolls) before putting in the oven.

The verdict, absolutely delicious and a recipe which I will make again, I might even add another tablespoon of peanut butter and I never thought I would hear myself say that! The Vegan Mofo "Work with it Wednesdays" have been a roaring success and I have found food which I previously disliked and turned them into foods I now enjoy.

TV Tuesday - Bridget Jones Diary Movie

Once again today's daily theme is TV Tuesday, where you cook a meal from a movie or TV show.

Today I have chosen the one and only Bridget Jones Diary. Everyone must have seen this movie, but if you haven't its a film about Bridget, an average woman struggling with her age, job, having no boyfriend and her weight. (Remember the big pants scene?) One New Year she makes a resolution to take control of her life and records each day in her diary where she has to tell the truth. The film has some quirky, eccentric, charming and disreputable characters throughout and poor Bridget is stuck in the middle. She is a 32 year old woman who just can't seem to find the right man, is gaining weight and keeps making an idiot of herself at public events! The movie is a lot of fun and every girl can find a similarity with Bridget and if not they're lying! 

My favourite scene is where Bridget takes her date home the charming Daniel and he discovers her enormous pants! Very funny!

My favourite quote is related to the recipe I'm going to recreate (but hopefully mine won't be blue)! 

Bridget: How's it look?

Mark: Uh, great. It's, um, blue.

Bridget: Blue?

Mark: No, but, blue is good. if you ask me there isn't enough blue food.

Bridget: Oh, shit! It must be the string.

Mark: Oh, it's string soup?

Bridget: What are we going to do about this dinner, then?

Mark: We have blue soup to start, orange pudding to end, and, well, for a main course you have uh, congealed green gunge!

The blue soup was actually leek and potato soup, but I'm replacing the potato with yep you've guessed it beans! Two types of beans, butter and runner beans. Green is a better colour for food then blue wouldn't you agree?

This recipe is super easy!

Ingredients
400g Leeks
Splash of Olive Oil
500g Runner beans, top, tailed and cut nto pieces, about 400g once prepared
1 Tin butterbeans - drained and washed thoroughly
1½ Litres Vegetable stock. I used Marigold Bouillion powderSalt & Pepper

Method
Slice the leeks and saute in the olive oil until the leeks are soft, about 5 minutes. 

Next add in the runner beans and saute for a further 5 minutes. 

Pour in the stock and add the butter beans and bring to a simmer. Add the salt and pepper to taste and cook for around 15 minutes. 

Remove from the heat and let cool for a while, before transferring to a food processor to blend. 

Transfer the blended soup to a clean pan and gently reheat before serving. I enjoyed mine with a lump of crusty bread, delicious.

New book
I have heard on the grape vine that a third Bridgett Jones book will be released 10/10/2013 and it is set in present day London and represents a totally new phase in Bridget's life and its called mad about a boy. 

Bridget is older, she is still keeping a diary, but she is also immersed in texting and experimenting with social media, with an emphasis on 'social'! I for one can't wait to see what mishaps she gets up to. Think about it Bridget drinking and texting = madness!

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.

Sleepy Sunday - Green Bean, Mushroom & Cherry Tomato Pancakes

Sleepy Sunday in my eyes is all about having a lie in and chilling NOT being jumped on at 6:00am by a dog possessed! I'll let Marco off this once as he's not been very well, although the sweet potato seems to be doing the trick, well, either that or the tablets from the vet!

So my Sleepy Sunday turned into an early rise and I was starving! A quick tour round the veg patch gave me another 100g of purple and green beans. This was definitely the last haul, although there were still a few flowers on the plants, so maybe it's not the end just yet. I decided to leave the masses of runner beans on the plants until later in the day, when I will be ready to make soup for the week ahead. Recipe will feature on Tuesday.

A quick raid of the fridge demonstrated that quite a few things were getting near their shelf life or past their best including some cherry tomatoes. I wondered what I could make with these two ingredients, then I remembered discovering the greatest love affair in food heaven, green beans and mushrooms, so now I had three ingredients.

After some deliberation I decided that I would have a go at making pancakes as I thought it fit the Sleepy Sunday theme quite well. Even as a vegetarian I didn't eat eggs, jut the thought of them turned my stomach so I haven't had pancakes for quite some time. Even oat cakes remind me of eggs and I can't eat them so this was going to be a test.

Ingredients - Serves 2
60g Flour 
10g Soya flour
10g Nutritional Yeast
450ml Almond milk
Olive Oil
100g French green/purple beans
200g Chestnut mushrooms
200g Cherry tomatoes
Handful of basil
Salt & Pepper

Method
First prepare your vegetables by topping and tailing the beans and slicing, quarter the tomatoes and chunk up your mushrooms! Turn your oven on to a low heat, so you can keep your pancakes warm as you are making them.

Put the nutritional yeast flakes in a food processor and blitz until fine. Add the two flours and give the processor another whiz to combine the ingredients. Add 400ml of the almond milk and process to make a smooth batter. Set aside while you make the filling.

Add a little olive oil to a pan and saute the beans for 3 minutes, then add the mushrooms and cook for another 3 minutes. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes break down about 5 minutes, stirring regularly so the mixture doesn't stick to the pan. Add the remaining almond milk and simmer for another 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and scatter with the basil leaves.

When the filling is almost done, heat a drop of olive oil in a frying pan (non stick is best) and add about 3 tablespoons of the batter. You will start to see little air bubbles in the surface of the pancake and this is when you need to flip it over and cook the other side for two minutes. Remove from the pan to an oven proof plate and pop in the oven to keep warm while you make the remainder of the pancakes, you will get 4 pancakes. Spray the pan with a little olive oil before adding the next batch of batter.

To serve, place a pancake on a plate and top with the filling, then place another pancake on top and add more filling. Enjoy.

These did still remind me of eggs but I did eat them, if I were to make them again I would add more almond milk as I think the batter was a little stodgy for my taste.

On the harvesting front, I have been a lucky girl, this week I have been given free produce too, so not only did I bag a bargain yesterday, but I have been given a bag full of lettuce from my Mums garden, cheers Mum, and I have been blessed by a visit from my gardening angel. After reading my blog and seeing that I was using tinned beans my gardening angel gave me a bag of borlotti beans from her allotment. So I am trying to create a recipe which showcases them. As I need to soak them over night I think this will be a task for next weekend! Thank you my lovely gardening angel.