A vegan meal: 'cream' of Mushroom soup and Spinach, coconut and sweetpotato stew

 The weather was fresh but sunny, a relief after a week of rain and dreariness to have a walk to the allotment. We picked the spinach and peppers to go into the Spinach, coconut and Sweet potato stew.

We made our own Khorma Paste, although it took a little time to turn it into a paste with a pesstle and mortar, the end result was lovely.

 

For soup we made a Vegan mushroom soup, which was easy, creamy and very tasty. Rather than wine, we used some sherry and switched plain flour for the corn starch.

Thai inspired food with a hint of British Cuisine!

As the butternut squashes have now been harvested, it is time to do something nice  with them.

We chose to make a Thai inspired butternut squash soup 

and as a main meal, brussels sprouts in a thai peanut sauce with rice

 and a salad with fresh carrots, peppers and stuffed nasturtiums and home made egg free mayonnaise.

   

 How to lay a table, Simone is giving a demo

Kale & Broccoli salad, pumpkin Soup

 With the kale growing so well, and the broccoli ready too, this salad was a must.

Haruna, Ai, June and I enjoyed it very much. So many wonderful vegetables in it to make our lunch.  

Together with the leek and pumpkin soup topped with mushrooms, thyme and chives a great meal for an autumnal afternoon.

Chickpea brownies

 Today we harvested Amaranth seeds for microgreen sowing next week,

 

planting of broadbeans and some elephant garlic. We harvested the rocket 

for the delicious leek and rocket soup 

1 leek finely chopped

3 shallots finely chopped

2 medium potatoes chopped

4 handfuls rocket (roughly chopped)

1 litre vegetable stock

1/3 cup (non)dairy cream (vegan version)

1 tablespoon mustard

1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

Fry the onions and leek then add the potatoes and stock and simmer until the potatoes are soft

Finally add the cream, rocket, mustard, pepper and nutmeg

Blend with hand blender until completely smooth

Ingredients for the topping

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 thinly sliced cucumber

1/2 tsp sugar

3 tablespoon dry roasted pine nuts

Mix sugar and salt and pour over the cucumber

Serve the soup, garnish with a little cucumber mix and pine nuts

and then the total surprise for all

to enjoy was the chickpea chocolate brownie with yoghurt and raspberries.

Ingredients

1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed

2 (chia) eggs

1/2 cup cacao powder

3 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 tsp coffee grinds (optional)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

In a food processor blend all ingredients (apart from Chocolate chips)

Add the chips, pour batter in a prepared baking tin and bake 20mins on 180C (or until inserted knife comes out clean)

Allow the brownies to cool for at least 20minutes before cutting up and serving. Try pulling a dollop of cherry jam and yoghurt on top

Asian Inspired menu: Sweet & Sour vegetables and Kanten dessert

 Due to Covid we had some cancellations, so the with our small group we managed to take advantage of the lovely weather we walked to the allotment to pick the peppers (red, orange and green) to go with the carrots harvested from the home garden. 

The sweet & Sour vegetables with the  chinese 5 spice went well with the rice.

And the fresh taste of the Kanten made a lovely end to our lunch.

We had a enough for Hiroe to take a couple of dishes home to share with her children, for whom this was their favourite dessert.

Lazy Dough & Raspberry Jam

 Surprisingly we had a load of raspberries even after such a lot of rain. So before they would go mouldy, they were picked and turned into some delicious jam. Both Keiko and Mayoko managed to take a jar back to their families.

Due to the rain, the Spinach and potatoes that were harvested from the allotment, before the ladies arrived and was turned into a  Spinach & Potato coconut curry. We used the lazy dough recipe to make some coriander flat bread to go with the curry.

All in all an other lovely morning with friends