The perfect ‘no bake’ summer dessert. Crunchy biscuit base, sweet caramel, banana and cream. Yum!
Having experimented making different versions of vegan banoffee pie, this is my favourite iteration.
The biscuit base in pretty standard; the McVities digestive biscuits are accidentally vegan.
I was surprised how much I like the date caramel. It’s delicious, easy to make and good for you. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it.
The Elmlea plant double cream makes an excellent whipped cream. Top it all up with dark chocolate shavings and you have a winning dessert.
Tag @apinchofzing on Instagram if you make this dessert or leave a comment below to let me know what you think 😊
Ingredients
Biscuit base
400g Digestive biscuits
50g melted vegan spread
Date caramel 8-10 Medjool dates
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
Method
1. Use a food processor to pulse the biscuits to a breadcrumb consistency. Pour in the melted vegan spread and combine well. Press the biscuit mixture into the base of a 9 inch cake tin/dish and refrigerate.
2. To make the date caramel, start by soaking the dates in boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove the dates from the water and save the liquid. Add the dates, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt to a blender and whizz until smooth. If the caramel is too thick, you can add some of the liquid the dates were soaked in, to thin it out. 3. To make the whipped cream, add the double cream, sugar and vanilla extract to a bowl and whisk until thick.
4. Time to assemble the pie. Spread the date caramel over the biscuit base. Place the banana slices on top of the caramel. Pipe the whipped cream on top of the banana layer and grate the dark chocolate over the cream.
5. Place the pie in the fridge and leave to set overnight before serving. Enjoy!
Too good not to share, this vegan egg mayo is legit; it tastes like the real deal, but it is cruelty free.
I know it’s hard to believe, but you can make eggless egg mayo in 5 minutes. It’s actually quicker and easier to make than the traditional egg mayo because you don’t have to wait for the eggs to boil. The secret for the eggy taste is the black salt, also know as Kala Namak. Yes, it’s as easy as that. I found the black salt in an international food shop, but I am sure you can also find it online. Top tips: > the colour of the black salt is not actually black, it looks like regular white salt. > black salt is not that salty, so make sure to add regular salt to this dish, in addition to the black salt. This is now my favourite way to use tofu, so give it a go and let me know what you think. Enjoy!
Ingredients 1 pack of silken tofu 1 pack firm tofu 1 generous teaspoon Dijon mustard 1 generous teaspoon whole grain mustard 3-4 tablespoons vegan mayo 1/2 teaspoon black salt (Kala Namak) 1 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 tablespoon chopped chives (optional) Salt and pepper to taste
Method Crumble the firm tofu with your hands in a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix using a wooden spoon, until you get the texture of egg mayo. I like to add rocket and water cress to my sandwich. Even better on sourdough bread, because everything is better with sourdough bread. You don’t need to press the tofu for this recipe.
It may not sound like much, but this sandwich filler is super easy to put together and tasty. Very simple, so don’t cut any corners, every ingredient is important.
The inspiration comes from Romania, where this is fairly common.
To make it even more special, try having it with some fresh sourdough bread. Like many others, I got into sourdough baking during lockdown number 2 and have been eating more sandwiches.
If you are looking for something different to put in your sandwich, give this a go. Enjoy!
Ingredients 2 cans sliced mushrooms in water
1 bunch of dill (chopped)
4-6 tablespoons vegan mayo
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
1. Drain the sliced mushrooms and add to a medium size bowl.
2. Mix in the chopped dill, mayo, salt and pepper. Taste and season again if needed.
3. Enjoy with fresh sourdough bread.
” my vegan journey started long before I even realised; it started by going vegetarian “
I’ve been reflecting on my vegan journey for a while and what better time to write about it than Veganuary? I have split my vegan journey into two major stages: ‘Going vegetarian’ and ‘Vegetarian gone vegan’. This blog post is about about the first stage of my vegan journey: going vegetarian. I hope this blog post will give you the confidence to start or continue your own vegan journey.
I believe my vegan journey started long before I even realised; it started by going vegetarian. At that time I was about 18 years old and living in Romania with my parents. The decision to stop eating meat seemed odd to everyone around me. Saying that back then the idea of being vegetarian was not popular is an understatement: I knew no other vegetarians, the food in restaurants was not labelled as vegetarian and the concept was completely alien. Even more, the Romanian culture revolves around slaughtering and consuming animals at every meal and for all major religious celebrations like Christmas, Easter etc. The only saving grace was that for lent Christians in Romania were supposed to stop consuming any animal products, going practically vegan for weeks at at a time as dictated by the religious calendar.
Why did I go vegetarian? In my mind I just had enough of consuming dead corpses. The idea of eating animal flesh was not appetising, to put it gently. Not to mention that as a child I had witnessed my fair share of animals being slaughtered for food right before my eyes; acts of cruelty that I can’t get over. I think this had been playing on my mind for a while, until one day when I had the confidence to say ‘no more’ in my head (I didn’t go out shouting about it to anyone). It was not a memorable day, it all happened gradually. I started eating less and less meat, until one day when I didn’t have any and that day turned into a week, that week turned into a month and that month turned into years. When I went vegetarian I didn’t know how long I would be vegetarian for, I did what felt right at that time. I didn’t make any commitments about being vegetarian and I wasn’t particularly vocal about it. I did it for myself and I didn’t feel that I had to justify it to anyone else.
My family and friends were not particularly supportive; everyone thought that I was just going through a phase, but they respected my decision. For all I know they could have been right, it could have all been just a phase. I didn’t know how my vegetarian journey would pan out, but I was determined to take it one day at a time. At that age I was able to cook for myself, which helped, and my mum who did most of the cooking was very accommodating.
A massive turning point in my vegan journey was moving to UK to study when I was 21 years old. Here I found a world where being vegetarian was fairly common and met other vegetarian people for the first time. There was greater choice of vegetarian food and I didn’t feel like the odd one out anymore. Living in UK made my life as a vegetarian easy, I fitted right in and felt supported to continue with this lifestyle choice. I never looked back, until the day I considered going vegan, which was about 10 years later. More about this milestone in my vegan journey in a future blog post.
Lessons learnt I will end this self-reflection with the main lessons learnt during my vegan journey so far: Don’t be afraid to start. Start thinking about it. Start trying vegan/vegetarian dishes or products. Allow yourself to be curious. Do what works for you. There is no right or wrong, it’s your journey. You may start with baby steps, or go cold turkey. Go back, go forward, you are in control. No strings attached. No pressure. This lifestyle change can be daunting. What if you can’t do it? But what if you can? Focus on what you can do, rather on what you can’t. Can you eat more veggies? Can you eat a vegan/vegetarian meal a week? It may take you a year or 10 years to go vegan, or you may never go vegan, but you may incorporate a lot more plant based meals in your diet. Either way, you have nothing to lose, you may just improve your diet and save some animal lives along the way. Reflect “Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.” Vegan Society definition of veganism. You are not alone. Connect with others and go through the journey together. There are so many vegan/vegetarian groups and communities which will support you through your vegan journey. Try some of the recipes I share on my blog, you are guaranteed to at least have a tasty meal, no strings attached 🙂
Creamy, delicious and easy to make: vegan walnut pate!
This is an amazing recipe from exceedinglyvegan. I have made it several times and it’s a keeper.
It even made it as a starter for my family’s Christmas lunch and it was a real hit. My family couldn’t believe the pate was vegan and I had several requests for the recipe. That’s a win in my books!
If you are looking for a truly tasty pate for a starter or to put in your sandwich for lunch, give this a go!
Method
1. Use a food processor to whizz all the ingredients until you get a smooth texture.
2. Pour the mixture in a small pot and cook on medium heat, constantly stirring with a spatula to prevent it from sticking. Cook for a few minutes until the consistency changes to a paste.
3. Transfer the hot mixture to a dish or silicone moulds. Make sure to spray the moulds with oil in advance, to ensure you can easily tip the pate over once it sets. Alternatively, you can also set the pate in ramekins and serve it like that. 4. Allow the pate to set and cool in the fridge for 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!
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