Vegan Halloween

Yesterday was my first Halloween. We were supposed to go to a party but the party ended up being cancelled. It was also the first day since daylight savings ended and we were not at all prepared for the lack of sun at 4pm. So we got comfy at home, watched some Skins and I made a nice simple Halloween dinner with some inspiration from Morrisons (the original link to their Halloween treats seems to have died overnight).

Spicy Blood & Guts Soup*

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp paprika

1 sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 potato, peeled and diced**

2 leeks, thinly sliced

 500ml tomato juice

1 can of crushed tomatoes

salt & pepper

Heat the oil in a large soup pot on a medium high heat. Add the onion and stir for a couple of minutes until translucent. Add the sweet potato, potato and spices and fry for a few minutes. Then add the other ingredients and bring to the boil. Then simmer for 35 minutes.

To make the soup smooth you'll need to either put it in a food processor or blender or get one of the amazing stick blenders that I got for my birthday and you can blend it right in the pot!

Once it's smooth add salt and pepper to taste and serve with the spooky witch finger bread below!

 

* I had intended this to just be Blood Soup but it didn't quite have the colour (it was the missing beetroot I forgot to get... it needed beetroot for the colour).

** If you have beetroot and want to get the blood colour use a 300g can of chopped beetroot, drained, here instead.

Cheesey Witches' Fingers Bread

300g flour***

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

50 g vegan butter

75g finely grated vegan cheese

1 tbsp flaxseed + 3 tbsp of water (or equivalent)

8 tbsp milk

1/4 capsicum/pepper (yellow or red)

Preheat the oven to 200C and line some trays with baking paper.

Rub the flour (+ baking soda & powder) and butter together with your fingertips until you have something that looks like breadcrumbs. Add the cheese and stir. In a separate bowl beat together the flaxseed mixture and the milk and add it to the dry ingredients to form a dough. Knead the dough a little and then roll it into a ball.

One at a time, pull off pieces of the dough (about the size of a ping pong ball). Roll into a round ball and then roll out into a long finger-length stick. Place on the baking tray and repeat. Once you have rolled them all out pinch two knuckles in each one and then get a sharp knife and make some cuts across each knuckle (take a look at the picture of the cookies below to get the idea).

The final step is to cut the capsicum/pepper up into little triangles for the nails. Then just place them on and stick the fingers in the oven for 15-20 minutes. When they are done, let them cool and serve with the Spicy Blood and Guts Soup!

*** I used wholemeal/wholewheat flour for both the bread and the cookies simply because I ran out of plain flour. I don't think it makes much of a difference except that wholemeal is a bit better for you!

Almond Witches' Fingers Cookies

 3/4 cup vegan butter

1 cup icing/confectioner's sugar

1 tbs flaxseed + 3 tbsp hot water

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 cups flour

2/3 cup almond meal (ground almonds)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 dozen blanched almonds

Beat together the sugar and butter. Then add the liquid ingredients. Finally add the dry ingredients to form a dough. Then follow the same instructions for the bread above only this time put a blanched almond for a fingernail. 

These cookies taste great with coffee!

Choc Chip Cookies

I've mentioned them before but it just occurred to me, as I went to find the recipe on this blog (as the cookbook it comes out of is somewhere in a box on a boat on a very large ocean), that I've never posted the recipe on here. So here it is: the yummiest choc chip cookies I've ever tasted.
 

Choc Chip Cookies 

  

adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking

2 1/4 cups plain flour*

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup of vegan butter**

3/4 cup of white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

2 tsp vanilla extract

egg replacer for 3 eggs (inc water)***

1 cup semi sweet choc chips

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)**** 
 

Preheat oven to 190C. Whip the egg replacer until thick and creamy in a small bowl. Whip together sugars and butter in another bowl with vanilla extract. Add egg replacer mixture. Mix flour, salt and baking soda in another bowl and then add to the wet mixture. Once it is combined and nicely moist add the choc chips and nuts (if using). Spoon onto lightly greased baking trays and cook for about 10 minutes.
 

Notes: 

• Be careful once you take them out of the oven to cool and are transferring them to a wire rack: the melted chocolate can be quite hot.
• The dough is quite tough to handle, especially once you've put the chips and nuts in. At the moment I'm making do but once my mix master gets here it will be doing this heavy work.
• The cooking time really depends on your oven. My old oven use to take 20 minutes and this one takes 10.  The cookies don't go too golden so don't be deceived but they should develop some colour.
• Everytime I've cooked these they have come out a different shape. Depending on what type of butter I use normally determines if the cookies will spread a lot or not (Nuttelex = spreading!). Also, if your oven is too hot they will spread and if it is not hot enough they won't.
• Practise makes perfect: use your normal oven with the ingredients you typically use and practise, practise, practise!

* Wholemeal (wholewheat) flour also works well and is much better for you I am sure! 

** Yeah, this is a lot of butter. Don't eat all of the cookies and blame me for weight gain! Also, see notes above about effects of different butter.

*** I'm just using flaxseed now (1 egg = 1 tablespoon flax seed with 3 tablespoons water). In Australia I was using Orgran No Egg and I think in the US Ener-G Egg Replacer is the popular option. See the boxes for equivalence. Just be careful because the flaxseed uses more water than the others so you might need to add a tiny bit more flour to compensate. The dough should be quite wet and sticky but you don't want it too sloppy.

**** I use walnuts although have used peanuts successfully with this recipe in the past.

A Vegan Christmas: Part Four (final)

Well Christmas day was a bit hectic. Brett was working downstairs from 5am until 1030pm (after heavy Christmas Eve drinking at the Pacific Hotel) and we all helped out during the day although by the afternoon my brother and I were screaming at each other and so I went upstairs to prepare dinner for the arrival of the Welch family.

I made more gingerbread (using a wine bottle as a rolling pin). The gingerbread is fantastic.

Gingerbread Cookies
from The Joy of Vegan Baking

advanced prep required

3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup marg (at room temp)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp egg replacer powder (don't mix it with water)
2/3 cup golden syrup (original recipe has unsulphered molasses but gs works fine)

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Set aside.
In another bowl beat together marg and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg replacer powder and golden syrup and beat for another minute. Add flour mix and beat until you have a smooth dough. You may need to add 1-2 tbspns of water to get right consistency.
Divide the dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1hr (preferably overnight).
When ready preheat oven to 180C.
Roll out the dough to a 6mm thickness one at a time leaving the second in the fridge (although if you've left it overnight you can take them both out) onto lightly floured surface. Keep turning the dough as you roll. I found it easier to work with the dough as it gets warmer but if it's too warm to keep the shape of the cookie then stick it back in the fridge for a bit.
Cut out the cookies using cookie cutters and transfer to lined baking trays/sheets. Bake until they begin to brown around the edges.
Remove from oven, let cool on baking tray for a few minutes then transfer to wire rack.

I made the usual potato salad and Chang's Noodle Salad to go with everyone's ham and chicken (which I did not eat). I made sticky date pudding for dessert which Uncle Shane loved so much he now swears I cannot be my mother's daughter (Mum can't cook). Geoff and I made vegetable and seasoned tofu kebabs (on sticks) which were yummy. And I received many, many presents so all in all it was a pretty good Christmas.

Siena Cake recipe to come.