Spring into Action - Part 2 - Meditteranean Chickpea Spread

I don't know about you but I'm getting pretty fed up with this weather. Were almost in June and I'm not feeling the Summer at all. Where I live in the Midlands its either raining or cold (I've even put the heating on at night!)

I thought if Summer isn't coming to me I'll go to Summer and I set to in my kitchen to make a summery sandwich spread. Before I transferred to a vegan lifestyle I used to love the Mediterranean Cheese Sandwiches I could buy at work. You can't get more summery than the Mediterranean can you so I thought I would try a vegan version. 

I was very impressed with this spread and I'll even go as far as saying that it beat the Mediterranean Cheese Sandwiches from work - hands down! These are far more healthy too even if they do use a little vegan mayonnaise. The spread can be made in minutes and it will easily feed 4 hungry people in some form of sandwich.

Ingredients
I Tin of chickpeas
½ Red pepper, finely diced
1 Stick celery, finely diced
4 Spring onions, finely diced
15g Nutritional yeast
Salt & Pepper
1 Tbsp vegan mayonnaise

Method
Rinse the chick peas well with cold water and pat dry. Transfer to a bowl and mash with a fork.

Add the red pepper, celery, spring onions and nutritional yeast and mix until well combined.

Add the salt and pepper to taste. Finally add the mayonnaise and fold through the mixture.

Use the mixture to spread onto bread to make sandwiches or spread onto flour tortillas to make wraps.

You can add more vegetables if you like and the spread would go further but I liked the ratio above, just enough to taste the summer!

Jasmine x

Specials Board: Courgette & Lemon Spread

Courgette & Lemon Spread & Vegan Mofo Day 13

This really was a work in progress recipe! You know those times when you make something and it tastes good but it jut needs that something extra? Well, this was one of those times!

The recipe started out as a courgette houmous, which turned into a courgette butter, which finally transformed into the courgette & lemon spread it is today. On the plus side while I was tweaking the recipe I did have some good ideas of what else I could do with my courgettes, so watch this space......

The ingredient list is the full list of everything I used and I have described my tweaking at the end of the method. You could omit the garlic if you wanted a more sweet spread but I thought the garlic gave it the depth. If you're not a massive lover of garlic halve the amount.

You can see how much tasting I did as the top photograph shows the jar almost empty compared to the photos below. I must admit I did keep going back for another helping!

Ingredients
150g Courgette, halved and sliced (I used a yellow one)
1 Garlic clove
10g Cashews
2 Tsp Tahini sauce
½ Tsp Turmeric
½ Lemon, rind only
Juice of ¼ of Lemon

Method
Cook the courgette in 2 Tbsp of water over a low heat until you can just about pierce it easily with a knife. Don't overcook the courgette you need a little bite to it still.

Drain the courgette and pat dry with kitchen towel. Transfer to a blender and add the rest of the ingredients. Blend until you have a smooth spread. 

My first attempt just used the first five ingredients and although it was tasty, (I went back for seconds so it must have been) I thought it was missing that punch! Enter the lemon zest. I sprinkled a little zest onto bread topped with the spread and took a bite. That was getting close.

I took a quick snap and thought that the taste didn't match the colour, after all we do eat with our eyes, so I added a touch of turmeric. I didn't want to effect the taste too much so it was just a sprinkle at first. I liked what the turmeric did for the taste and the colour so I added a little more. The final touch was adding the lemon juice, this gave it that zing!

Normally I wouldn't share a recipe until I have finished tweaking but as it's vegan mofo I thought what the heck I'll give you a glimpse in to what I get up to in my kitchen.

As I was tweaking more ideas flooded my head and I can't wait to get back to the kitchen and start experimenting. Tomorrow is going to be one heck of a party in my kitchen!

Jar almost full of the courgette houmous/butter

After numerous helpings & a lot of bread eaten!

With a dusting of lemon rind. That gave me the idea for the finished recipe

The finished article - but look how much I had eaten!