A wonderful festive meal made in no time.

Last week Julie asked when we could make a festive meal. I was not planning to do this quite yet, but seeing the first red pepper and spinach in the allotment made me think of the vegetable loaf we made a few years ago and was put in my first cook book.

The carrots and the potatoes too came in handy as they were roasted whilst the puff pastry loaf was getting ready in the oven.

We made some vegannaise (using aquafaba) which was used in the loaf.

Later the chickpeas and broccoli from the allotment were turned into creamy broccoli and chickpea soup.

This time we had a full house with 8 adults and baby Tomo after the meal we walked to the allotment and harvested some raspberries and beetroot to take home.

Christmas vegetable loaf, lemon cheesecake mousse and biscotti

For our mains we made a vegetable loaf, tasty easy and a nice centre piece for a festive table.
We mixed 1/2 red pepper, 1 garlic clove, 1 lemon zest, 85g spinach, 35g pitted black olives, 55g feta cheese and 115g mozzarella cheese and 2tbsp mayonnaise.  Mix all together and put in a puff pastry loaf.
    




We had a busy but lovely day today.  Angeles and here nieces Sara and Irene came to help and were in charge of he

lemon cheese mousse with aqua faba Yumi worked hard to whip the aquafaba into peaks whilst Irene and Sara prepared the base for the cheesecake mousse.








We went to the garden and picked the last of the raspberries as topping of our dessert.

Asako and Sayaka made Vegannaise as we had aquafaba (chickpea brine) left  and we need some for the vegetable loaf.

3tbsp chickpea water
1 tsp mustard
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tablespoon maple syrup
 3/4 - 1cup rapeseed oil

Add the aquafaba, mustard, salt, apple cider vinegar and maple syrup to a jug. Blend on high with an hand blender until frothy.
Measure the oil in a liquid measuring cup and with the blender on its highest speed, slowly stream the oil in over 1-2minutes, moving the blender up and down to incorporate a little air towards the end.



If it ls looking to thin add a little more oil, the more oil you add, the creamier, thickener and denser the texture will become.  Taste and adjust flavour as needed.

As a lovely treat to go with a cuppa we made some Vegan Cranberry almond biscotti
Mairead was in charge and showed Irene and Sara how it is done.

After all this hard work, we set down and enjoyed a lovely festive meal.

this post was first published on 16/11/2018