Category: Recipes
Mediterranean Veggie Wrap

Mediterranean Veggie Wrap

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I’m officially half way through the term and therefore half way through the year!! I have no idea where that’s gone, all I know is that it’s crazy hectic and I’m having the time of my life. At the moment I’m gearing myself up for a 12 hour get-in in the theatre where I’m working on a play right now. It’s going to be a long week of very little work, very little sleep, but lots of incredible theatre stuff – so quick, wholesome dinners are what  I need to focus on making otherwise I will 100% live off snacks. These wraps are so easy to throw together, can easily be taken to rehearsals/lectures etc and are much cheaper to make yourself than to buy from a sandwich shop!

Recipe

Serves 1

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 100g Halloumi
  • A few strips of Aubergine
  • 1/4 Red pepper
  • 1 Brown tortilla wrap
  • 1-2 tbsp Hummus

Method

  1. Put a large frying pan on a medium heat. Slice the halloumi into 1cm wide strips and then fry them in the pan for 2-4 minutes on each side until golden brown and crispy. Take the halloumi out of the pan and set to one side.
  2. Then take a peeler and make thin strips of the aubergine. Dry-fry the strips in the pan for 5-8 minutes, until softened and starting to brown. Leave to one side for later.
  3. Slice the red pepper into strips, then you’re ready to assemble!
  4. Put the wrap on a plate and spread the hummus evenly over it. Arrange the aubergine, halloumi and the red pepper on top (I find doing this in a line makes it easier to roll up!). Roll the wrap up and then serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Chocolate Tacos

Chocolate Tacos

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Food should be two things: fun and delicious. I know it’s cheesy but I generally think of these as the two most important factors when planning and designing my bakes. If it gets a smile or a ‘hmmhmmm’ it’s done the job! Of course ending up with something looking good is always great as well, but it’s food not a painting – if it looks bad it won’t be hanging on your wall for years reminding you how bad it looks. That said, these look flipping amazing (if I say so myself) and they’re not that hard to make – if you can make pancakes you can defo make these!

These also have the benefit of being personalise-able to your hearts content which automatically makes them good in my books. Serve them on a tray like this, or serve the shells with a variety of toppings for people to decorate themselves. The plus side of using chocolate as a base is that it’ll go with pretty much anything so get creative, think fruit, nuts, sauces, sweets, ice creams and anything else you could possibly want!

Recipe

Makes 5

Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients

For the shells

  • 50g Plain flour
  • 30g Caster sugar
  • 20g Brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp Cocoa powder
  • Large pinch of salt
  • 1 Large egg white
  • 1 tbsp Melted butter
  • 30ml Whole milk
  • A few drops of vanilla extract

For the filling

  • 50g Milk chocolate, melted
  • 100g Chopped hazelnuts
  • A few scoops of Chocolate ice cream
  • Double cream (or squirty cream)
  • Fresh fruit (I went for bananas and strawberries)

Method

  1. Begin by making the taco shells. Put the flour, sugars, cocoa and salt into a large bowl and whisk together.
  2. In another bowl put the egg white, melted butter, milk and vanilla and whisk together.
  3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk to make a smooth batter.
  4. Place a small frying pan over a medium heat. Lightly oil and then add about 1 tbsp batter to the pan. Smooth the mixture around the pan to make an even layer.
  5. Cook for a couple of minutes and then flip the taco over and cook for another couple of minutes on the other side.
  6. Cover a rolling pin in cling film. Take the taco shell out of the pan and carefully fold it over the rolling pin. Hold it in shape for about 10 seconds and then leave to cool whilst you repeat with the rest of the mixture.
  7. Once all your mixture is used up melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water.
  8. Dip the edge of one of the tacos in the melted chocolate and then dip the edge into a bowl of the chopped hazelnuts. Leave on a plate to set.
  9. When ready to serve put a couple of scoops of ice cream into each taco. Top with some squirty cream, fresh fruit, chopped nuts and any of the left over melted chocolate!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Strawberry Croissants

Strawberry Croissants

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With veganuary over now I’m in that weird period where I’m still adapting to the fact that I can eat pretty much anything I want! I’m also super looking forward to going back to unrestricted baking and being able to get experimental again. Even though I don’t have the equipment at Uni to be able to make everything I’d like to, or even the time for that matter, making super complex, tasty treats is so so satisfying and a great way to de-stress!

I made these over Christmas break when the only two things I was focusing on was cooking and catching up on my art course.  As holidays are the only time I have access to a sizeable kitchen I go a little crazy whenever I’m home and just cook non-stop, finally able to make all the things I’ve wanted to make over the past term! Recently in the food-sphere coloured croissants have started to become everyday (we even have pinstriped ones like these in college for breakfast now!) and as I’m a complete nut for food crazes I knew this was something I’d have to try myself. It does make the dough a little longer to put together as you have to work with two doughs instead of one, but as it’s a flipping long process anyway it’s worth it just to get the extra jazz hands moment when they’re made.

To get the pink colour in these I used some amazing gel food colourings that I got for Christmas. You can of course get normal ones from supermarkets, but I’d really recommend getting some of these if you want to get good results. They’re way more concentrated than the cheap stuff, meaning you can add less and still get a bright colour without affecting the consistency of your mixture! You can buy them in specialist food shops or on Amazon as I did, and you can get so many colours for a fairly low price (also as you’re only using a little bit at a time they’ll last you a long time!) You can even use the colours to paint on the outside of the dough once it’s rolled up so you could make rainbow croissants (I’m thinking Pride week) or paint them with specific colours (for a match or party etc)!

Recipe

Makes 25

Time: 3 hours plus chilling and baking time

Ingredients

For the white dough

  • 250g Strong white bread flour
  • 100g Plain flour
  • 30g Unsalted butter
  • 25g Caster sugar
  • 5g Salt
  • 8g Fast-action dried yeast
  • 1/2 Egg
  • 55ml Milk
  • 100ml Cold water
  • 200g Unsalted block butter

For the red/pink dough

  • 250g Strong white bread flour
  • 100g Plain flour
  • 30g Unsalted butter
  • 25g Caster sugar
  • 5g Salt
  • 8g Fast-action dried yeast
  • 1/2 Egg
  • 55ml Milk
  • 100ml Cold water
  • A few drops of red gel food colouring
  • 200g Unsalted block butter

To Decorate/Fill

  • 75g Strawberry jam
  • 1 Egg, beaten

Method

  1. Begin by making the white dough. Put the flours and butter into a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flours until crumbly.
  2. Mix in the sugar, salt and yeast and then add the egg, milk and water and stir together until a smooth dough forms.
  3. Turn the dough out onto a worktop and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and stretchy.  Wrap the dough really loosely in cling film and then leave to rise in the fridge for 24 hours.
  4. Do the same for the red dough, this time adding the food colouring in at the end. Then rest it the same as the white dough.
  5. Now  you’re ready to laminate the dough. Take one of the blocks of butter out of the fridge and place it between two sheets of cling film. Bash it into a 12cm square and then place it back into the fridge to firm up. Do the same for the other block.
  6. Take one of the doughs out of the fridge. Roll it into a 25cm square that’s 1 cm thick. Place the butter in the middle so it’s corners hit the centre of the sides of the dough square (a diamond in a square).
  7. Fold the dough up around the butter like an envelope and then roll the dough out into a 22 x 40cm rectangle.
  8. Fold over one third of the dough, and then the top third down to cover it. Wrap the dough in cling film and then chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Do the same with the butter and the folding for the other dough.
  9. Once the dough has chilled take it out of the fridge and roll it out again to make a rectangle again. Repeat the folding and chilling process and then repeat this twice more. Do the same for the other dough.
  10. Wrap the two doughs very loosely in clingfilm (so they have room to rise) and then leave in the fridge overnight.
  11. Now shape the dough. On a lightly floured surface roll one of the doughs out to a 31 x 41 cm rectangle. The dough will resist being shaped but just keep going and you’ll get there. Put the dough sheet to one side and then repeat with the other coloured dough.
  12. Place the red dough on a lightly floured work top and brush it lightly with some water. Then put the white dough on top and roll the sheet out into a rectangle 31 x 81 cm.  Trim the rectangle down to make a neat 30 x 80 cm rectangle.
  13. Cut the rectangle in two to make 2 rectangles 15 x 40 cm. Take one of the rectangles and cut a little notch every 10cm along one edge. Then measure the other edge: cut one notch at the first 5cm, and then cut a little notch every 10cm.
  14. Take a knife or a pizza cutter and cut diagonally between the notches to make a series of triangles 10cm at the base and 20cm high. Repeat with the other rectangle of dough.
  15. Take one triangle and stretch it a little to make the dough taught. Then put a little blob of jam at the wide base before rolling up the croissant from the wide base to the point. Place the croissant onto a lined baking tray with the join underneath. Repeat until you’ve used all the dough to make some croissants.
  16. Cover loosely in clingfilm and then leave for 2 hours to rise and double in size.
  17. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Take the beaten egg for the decoration and lightly brush it over the pastries. Then bake the croissants in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and risen. Leave to cool a little before eating!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

 
Baked Potatoes with a Chickpea Curry

Baked Potatoes with a Chickpea Curry

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ONE DAY MORE!! (You could say the musical bug has bitten me hard in the past few days) Just one more day until I can return to the blissful lands of cheese, chocolate and scrambled eggs. I’m so so set for a good mac and cheese right now! I’ve really enjoyed being vegan, and despite the awkward repeats of ‘I’m sorry, I’m a vegan’ at almost every offer of food, it’s been a fun challenge. However with the frenzy everyday life and the challenge of eating in college, come the 1st Feb I’ll be reverting back to vegetarianism.

With things past comes things learnt, so here’s the 3 most important things I’ve learnt from my vegan month:

  1. Chickpeas are life – I definitely couldn’t have lived without these this month! From hummus, to aquafaba to straight old chickpeas in something like this, they’re a real useful staple in a vegan diet – especially as they’re so versatile.
  2. Flavour is underrated – I’ve also found that it’s really important not to compromise on flavour just because you’re limited to plants. So often I was eating bland vegetables with hummus and pita bread, which whilst delicious does lack an oomph of flavour and it made meals really dull and limp. This does use a lot of spices, which I understand that if you’re on a budget you might not be able to get them all, but even some pre-made spice mixes and paprika can be a really good way of getting flavour punched into your meals.
  3. Food food and more food – Most importantly this month I had to remind myself just to keep eating and that there was a lot more out there that I could eat than I originally thought (Oreos and Jelly Tots are vegan – take note!). In the first few days I was either starving or living on carbs, but neither made me feel at all satisfied. But as soon as you’ve found your niche in the vegan food world you forget your restircted diet and just start getting on with life!

Recipe

Serves 2 (plus extra chickpea mix!)

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 2 Large potatoes
  • 2 tbsp Oil
  • 1 Onion
  • 9 Garlic cloves
  • A thumb sized piece of root ginger
  • 1 tbsp Ground coriander
  • 2 tbsp Ground cumin
  • 1 tbsp Garam masala
  • 1 tsp Ground paprika
  • 2 tbsp Tomato puree
  • 800g Chickpeas
  • 400g Chopped tomatoes
  • 100g Creamed coconut
  • 100g Spinach to serve

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 200˚C. Microwave the potatoes for 15 minutes on a high heat and then put them into the oven for about 30 minutes until crispy on the outside.
  2. Now make the paste for the curry. Peel and finely chop the onion. Then put the oil and chopped onion into a pan and fry for about 8 minutes until softened.
  3. Spoon the mixture into a food processor and add the peeled garlic, peeled ginger, and ground spices. Then add the tomato puree, onions and a pinch of salt and blitz to a smooth paste.
  4. Transfer the paste back into the pan and cook for a couple of minutes over a medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
  5. Add the chickpeas and the chopped tomatoes. Stir to mix and then leave to simmer for about 5 minutes.
  6. Add the coconut and 2 tbsp water and simmer the mixture for another couple of minutes.
  7. Serve with the baked potato and spinach!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Kat’s Vegan Chocolate Cookies

Kat’s Vegan Chocolate Cookies

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In true Oxford style term is getting insanely intense and stressful; I have this toxic habit of over-committing myself and yet still being surprised when I suddenly hit a wall of stress a few weeks later! On the plus side I’m having a blast and loving every second, but as there’re no signs of anything quieting down in the near future I’m gonna have to keep relying on snacks to keep me going. One of my main go-to mood boosters are cookies because they’re so easy to snack on during rehearsals and they give a much needed sugar kick. I have this one friend who’s obsessed with cookies in a way worryingly similar to that of a crack addict – which I guess just goes to show how perfect they can be for stressful times! – and whilst I’m not quite that bad I’ll still never say no to a decent cookie.

This recipe was given to me by my friend (and fellow vegan for 1 week) Kat (hence Kat’s vegan cookies). I’ve never really used coconut oil before as it’s a bit on the pricey side to be a student staple, but it gives these a really gorgeous moistness and a slight coconut creamy overtone that works beautifully with the chocolate. Another wonder of pretty much any biscuit mix is that you can freeze the dough so you can bake however many you need whenever you need them. I find freezing batches of this cookie dough in large ice cube trays is perfect, because then you can just pop out however many blobs of dough you need as and when you need them.

Recipe

Makes 18

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 112g Coconut oil
  • 70g Brown sugar
  • 70g White sugar
  • 1 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 125g Plain flour
  • 80g Cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • ¼ tsp Salt
  • 1 tbsp Dairy free milk (e.g soy or almond)

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Then line two trays with baking paper.
  2. Cream the coconut oil with the sugars, using a wooden spoon in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Then Add the vanilla and mix it in.
  3. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet and then mix everything together until a soft crumbly dough forms.
  4. Add the dairy free milk and then mix again until the dough forms a smooth ball.
  5. Roll the dough into balls and place them on your lined baking trays, making sure they’re well spaced so they don’t spread into each other.
  6. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, until they’ve spread an are starting to crisp at the corners. They’ll firm up as they cool so you want the middle to still be a little squidgy.
  7. Take out the oven, leave to cool and then enjoy!

Thanks for reading!
Emma x