Cashew and mushroom pilaf

Cashew and mushroom pilaf

Serves 2

Ingredients:
60-100g brown or basmati rice
1 onion, chopped
1 tblsp oil
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp salt
1 chopped bell pepper (any colour)
50g cashew nuts (raw)
100g mushrooms, sliced

Method:
Rinse the rice well, then cook in plenty of water, on the stove top or in a rice cooker or steamer until just cooked, slightly al dente if preferred.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, then add the onions and cook until softened and transparent, and just starting to caramelise, stirring occasionally. Add the crushed garlic and stir in for a minute, then add the spices and salt, and stir quickly to combine.

Stir-fried collard greens with onions and garlic

Stir-fried collard greens

Serves 2-3 as a side dish

Ingredients:
- 1 bunch of collard greens
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 2-3 cloves garlic (optional)

Method:
Wash the collard greens, and chop off the thickest part of the stems stems. Place them on a chopping board, and roll them together then slice across, so as to make strips. These can be any thickness, but I prefer about 2-3cm slices.

Place the greens in a pan with boiling water, and simmer for a few minutes. This is to remove any bitterness. Drain them and keep them warm in the pan.

Chickpea and spinach curry

Chickpea and spinach curry

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
1-2 tblsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced or chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp dried ginger
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp garam masala (or curry powder)
1 small can (approx 140g) tomato paste or puree
400-500g cooked or canned chickpeas
100-200g fresh (or thawed frozen) spinach
water as needed

Method:
Fry the onion pieces in hot oil in a saucepan until they have become transparent, then add the garlic and stir for a minute or two more. Turn the heat down, then add the spices and salt and stir for about a minute, then add the tomato paste, chickpeas and spinach and stir well to coat. Add the aquafaba (chickpea cooking water), rinsing out the tomato paste can if necessary, or extra water as needed, so as to just cover the chickpeas.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
2 ripe avocados
20g cocoa powder
40g dark chocolate (dairy-free if required)
2 tblsp soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
about 50ml nut or coconut milk

Method:
Melt the chocolate gently over a pan of hot water or in the microwave, stirring until it's just melted, then cool slightly.

Carefully cut open the avocados lengthways and remove the stones. Scoop out the flesh with a spoon and place it in a food processor or blender. Add the cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla and salt, and about half of the milk. Process until smooth. Don't be too concerned if it looks rather a vile colour at this stage.

Now use a metal spoon to fold the chocolate gently into the avocado mixture, with a little more milk if it feels a bit too stiff. When it's well combined, place in a suitable sized bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour or two.

We find that it goes very well with seasonal fruit such as strawberries or sliced peaches.


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With a dairy-free husband and son, I have been trying various dairy-free mousse recipes. And I came across a recipe for chocolate avocado mousse on the Chocolate Covered Katie blog and elsewhere. I have to admit that it didn't really appeal, but then avocados were in season, on sale ridiculously cheap, squashy enough that they had to be used within a few days.

So I tried it. Comments on a different recipe for this, using only cocoa powder, said that it was a bit dry and too strongly cocoa-flavoured. So the first time I used only dark chocolate - twice as much as in this recipe - and it was good, but a bit too sweet.

I don't use agave syrup so I substituted soft brown sugar and used a bit more nut milk. Doubtless very high fat, too. The picture shows the colour before I folded in the chocolate... and it's worse if, as above, you use cocoa powder in the first part as well.

The second time I made this, I used honey, as we're not vegans, and slightly less milk. I also tried using cocoa powder AND dark chocolate, as in the recipe above. And doubled the quantities, as there were five of us. We made it stretch over two meals. We thought it worked very well, particularly served with fresh strawberries.

My favourite home-made dairy-free milk for cooking is cashew milk, but this could be equally good with almond milk or coconut milk. Canned coconut milk would add some extra creaminess if you like a faint coconut flavour in chocolate desserts. If you're not vegan, you could probably use regular milk.

The great thing about this kind of recipe is that you can adapt it to your tastes. Avocados come in different sizes, so if, when you taste it, it's not chocolatey enough, just add a bit more cocoa powder. If it's too thick, add some more milk. If it's not sweet enough, add a little extra sugar.  If you don't like the appearance in a dish, drizzle over some melted chocolate, or scatter chocolate chips, or desiccated coconut, or slice strawberries.

And it's fun to challenge your guests to guess what the ingredients are...

Guacamole

Guacamole

Makes 1 -2 cups, depending on size of avocado(s)

Ingredients:
1-2 very ripe avocados
1/4 onion, finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 tblsp lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika or cayenne, to taste

Method:
Run a knife around the avocados from top to bottom, both sides, to open them. The stones should pop straight out. Using a spoon, remove all the flesh from the skin and place in a bowl. Mash roughly. 

Add the other ingredients, and stir to combine.  Keep refrigerated, and serve as a side dish to - for instance - chili, fajitas, or enchiladas. Can also be eaten as part of a salad, on bread, or in baked potatoes. Or by the spoonful...

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I don't know why I didn't start making guacamole years ago. We were introduced to it when we lived in the United States over twenty years ago. I knew that avocados are considered healthy, full of healthy fats and vitamins, but on their own I find them a bit bland. And although I tried a few guacamole recipes over the years, I didn't much like any of them, and they seemed extremely complicated.

Besides, I found it so difficult to know when was the right time to use avocados. Too hard and they won't mash (that's what happened with most of my attempts). But I didn't want them to be so soft that they were rotten, either.

I now realise my problem: I was thinking of them as if they were regular fruit, where over-softness is a bad sign. With avocados, so long as they still smell good and don't have too many black patches on the outside, the softer the better if you're going to make guacamole. Even black skin isn't necessarily a problem so long as they smell and taste okay; if there are black patches in the flesh, either mix them in or discard them.

So, given a very ripe easily mashable avocado (or two), you can use the above basic recipe, or adjust to suit your tastes. If you don't like raw onion, miss it out. Sometimes I chop mine in the food processor to make it very fine, but if you're eating the guacamole in baked potatoes (something I would recommend highly as an alternative to butter or spread) finely chopped is fine.

If you like a more garlicky taste, add an extra garlic clove. If you want a more lemony flavour, increase the amount of lemon juice, and perhaps add half a teaspoon of dried coriander. If you don't want the tomatoes, miss them out. If you'd like it to have more of a kick, add some chili flakes. If you don't want even a mildly spicy taste, don't add cayenne or paprika.

Indeed, every ingredient other than the avocado is optional - but mashed avocado on its own is not guacamole, and doesn't need a recipe.

Peach and tomato salad with feta

Serves: 2-4

Ingredients:
1 small onion, thinly sliced
250g tomatoes
250g ripe peaches
1 tblsp olive oil
1 tblsp lemon juice
1 tblsp honey
30g feta cheese (dairy or otherwise)
salt and pepper
dried (or fresh) basil to garnish

Method:
Wash the tomatoes and peaches, and cut them into wedges, placing them in a serving dish with the thinly sliced onion pieces.

Mix the olive oil, lemon juice and honey, and pour over, tossing the main ingredients until coated and well-mixed. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Chop the feta cheese into small chunks, and place in the middle, then sprinkle with basil.

Serve immediately.

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I knew I had several peaches in the fridge, which weren't going to last much longer. I'd frozen lots of them, and wondered idly if I could use them as part of a salad. A quick online search led me to a recipe entitled Summer peach and tomato salad which sounded ideal, since I also had a couple of biggish tomatoes, and plenty of onions. I didn't have red onions, as the recipe suggested, but that didn't worry me. 

Since my onions were large, I only used a half one, cutting very thin slices and then cutting those again. I was seriously dubious about mixing onions with peaches but I've learned, over the years, that the most unusual of combinations can work. Maybe. 

I actually included about 300g peaches, using up the ripest ones. The original recipe talked about a specific kind of tomatoes, and asked for both beefy ones AND cherry ones. I simply had two ordinary tomatoes so used those. 

I nearly always use lemon juice rather than vinegar, as I prefer it and it's more nutritious, and I misread the teaspoon of honey as a tablespoon... but I put it together, and tried it cautiously. It was absolutely delicious! Quite sweet, but the tartness of the feta offset that perfectly. We had a lettuce salad with it, and some other vegetable chunks, but we kept going back for more of this. The onion gave a crunchiness and extra flavour that somehow enhanced it. 

I'm sure it would serve four people if it were part of a big meal,  but two of us nearly finished it by ourselves. This is one we are definitely going to repeat, so long as peaches are in season. 

Chocolate chip cookie cake

Makes one 18cm (7 inch) cake

Ingredients:
250g cooked chickpeas
150g soft brown sugar
50g oats
2 tblsp apple sauce OR aquafaba
1.5 tblsp olive oil OR coconut oil
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
0.25 tsp salt
0.25 tsp bicarbonate of soda

85g dairy-free dark chocolate chips

2 tsp cocoa powder and water to mix (optional)

Method:
Drain the chickpeas, whether home-cooked or canned, reserving the cooking water (also known as aquafaba) if you plan to use it in this recipe or elsewhere.

Put the chickpeas in a food processor and set to high speed for about thirty seconds, until the consistency is approximately that of hummus. You can use a stick blender to puree them more at this stage, if you wish, adding the apple sauce or aquafaba to make it slightly less dry.

Add all the other ingredients except the chocolate chips to the food processor, and use a low or medium speed to blend them well together.

Stir in the chocolate chips, then place in an 18cm (7 inch) greased and/or lined cake tin, preferably one with a loose base. If you want a more chocolatey centre section, put about three-quarters of the mixture in the tin, pushing it to the edges. Then mix cocoa powder in a small bowl with a little cold water, until it forms a slightly runny paste, and stir that into the remaining mixture. Place it in the middle of the tin, then smooth the top so it's even.

Cook for about 25-30 minutes at 180C until the top is firm but still pliable. Leave to cool in the tin.

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I had never heard of a chocolate chip cookie cake (or, indeed pie), although apparently they're well-known in the US. Traditional ones, it seems, have a pastry crust, and contain flour, butter and eggs rather than chickpeas, oil and apple sauce. They are highly calorific, and not suitable for vegans, nor for those who are gluten-free or dairy-free.

I first came across the wheat-free vegan variation, called 'deep dish cookie pie' on the 'chocolate covered Katie' blog. It sounded wonderful, but also huge. I didn't have a 10-inch (25cm) deep cake tin, either. So I did a rough calculation and decided that my convenient 18cm pan would be about right for half the quantity. That's the amount given, converted from cups to metric weights, above.

My first attempt didn't look much like the mouth-watering photos on Katie's blog, but it tasted very good. And was even better on the second day. To our way of thinking it was more a cake than a pie; pies, by my definition, contain some form of pastry. But that's merely semantics.

So I decided to try making the full recipe (ie double my version) for my second attempt, dividing it between two 18cm pans, to share with some friends. Since I’d soaked and cooked some chickpeas the day before, I decided to use aquafaba rather than apple sauce, as I didn’t want to have to cook an apple on a hot day to produce just a couple of tablespoons of apple sauce. It worked perfectly.

My food processor is fairly basic and it was difficult to get the chickpeas to a puree. The first time I used my stick blender as well, as suggested above, but the second time I didn't bother as it made a lot of extra mess.

It was fine from my perspective, and for those of us who like chickpeas; we couldn't taste them, but there was a hint of chickpea texture here and there. Those who don't like chickpeas may find that disturbing and prefer them more thoroughly blended.

I started wondering about adding cocoa powder to one of them, then decided to make a smaller chocolate section in the centre of each.  I weighed about 400g of the mixture into each of the tins, smoothing it out and hollowing the centre slightly, then I mixed cocoa powder with water to form a paste, and stirred that into the rest.

It didn't look particularly pretty, but it worked well. It still doesn't look like the recipe I've adapted, but the taste is still amazingly good, with a fudgy texture ... and we think it's even better when it's been refrigerated overnight.

Important note: if you're vegan or strictly dairy-free, you will need to check the ingredients in the chocolate chips to ensure that you can eat them. Many dark chocolate chips are free of dairy products, but some of them contain traces of milk. If you are coeliac, check the baking powder too, as some brands can contain small amounts of gluten.