Catering for a Yoga Retreat

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of going to work as a private chef on a Yoga Retreat in Worcestershire. The brief was to produce three meals a day for ten women, using as many organic ingredients as possible. All the food was of course vegan. I had a wonderful time in the kitchen and the event gave me the opportunity to showcase some of the dishes I’ve been working on over the last few months.

It was also amazing to practice some yoga with the inspirational Leela Miller, of Tri Yoga, London.

Many thanks to The Organic Fresh Food Company of Lampeter in Wales for their assistance in my very large order of organic produce (all of which was fantastic!).

Gazpacho

Salad Boats

Summer Veg Broth

Salad plate

Rosemary Focaccia

Ready for dinner

Red Onion Relish

Savoury GF Muffins

A thank you

Flatbreads with Cumin

Bulgar Salad

Buckwheat Pancakes

Bread selection

Homemade Bread Rolls

Affinities Cake

Cooking Pineapple and Cocnut Curry

Teaching chapati making

Vegetable Kebabs

Tamarind Tempeh and Mushroom with Creamy Polenta

Tamarind and Mushroom Tempeh with Creamy Polenta

Tempeh is a curious ingredient – but when you have the know-how, it is one of the purest ways to enjoy the health benefits of the soya bean. Here is a simple and tasty tempeh recipe, served with creamy polenta.

Impulse Foods make several varieties of organic tempeh, including garlic and herb, which I used for this recipe. One of the tricks with tempeh is to marinade or cook it in other strong flavours, like tamarind, tamari, garlic and ginger, so it soaks up and stores them within it’s hearty texture.

The rich and dense tempeh is served here with a creamy polenta to contrast, which is also incredibly quick to whip up. They compliment each other very well. I’d recommend experimenting with tempeh first, learn how you like to cook it. It’s a complicated taste that not everyone will like, but you may love.

Viva!’s Vegetarian Recipe Club has some other serving suggestions, in addition to this recipe.

Tamarind and Mushroom Tempeh with Creamy Polenta
Serves 2
Preparation/cooking time 30 mins

Tempeh
1 tbsp olive oil
½ red onion, finely chopped
1cm of ginger, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 pack tempeh with herbs and garlic (or plain), cubed
200g/7oz mushrooms, sliced

Sauce
2 tsp tomato puree
1 tsp tamarind paste
½ tsp malt vinegar
1 tsp tamari or soya sauce
2 tsp olive oil
½ tsp brown sugar
Pinch all spice
Pinch medium chilli powder
Pinch ground black pepper
100ml boiling water
Splash red wine (optional)

Polenta
150g/5oz polenta grain
300ml water
300ml soya milk
Pinch of dried mixed herbs
Salt & pepper

1. Fry the onion, ginger and garlic in a large frying pan in the olive oil, for two minutes. Add in the tempeh and continue to cook for a good 5 minutes. Turn the tempeh cubes over so they start turn golden on all sides.
2. Add in the mushrooms and continue to fry everything for a few minutes until they begin to soften too. Add a touch more olive oil if the mix is too dry.
3. Place all the sauce ingredient in a bowl, adding the boiling water on top as the last step. Stir it in gradually to help the tamarind paste melt and everything combine. Now pour this mixture onto the tempeh & mushrooms.
4. Turn down the heat and allow everything to simmer in the sauce, for around 10 mins.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the polenta. Bring the water and soya milk to the boil in a medium saucepan. Add the polenta and stir continuously, allowing it to cook for just a minute (be careful, it does have a habit of bubbling at this stage). The longer the polenta is cooked, the quicker it will go firm – so the trick here is to just give it minute. Season to taste and sprinkle in some herbs.
6. Serve the tempeh & mushroom with the polenta, immediately. The polenta will go hard if left to go cold (it still tastes nice, but is better soft in this context). Enjoy with a generous blob of brown sauce!

Shopping Vegan in a Chinese Supermarket

Goods suitable for vegans from a Chinese supermarket

Becoming vegan led me to try out lots of foods that had been previously alien to me – especially opening up the world of Asian ingredients. No longer did Chinese food just mean sweet & sour veg, or Indian just vegetable curry.

One of the best things was discovering how to navigate my way around a Chinese supermarket. You might think such a place might not have that much to offer vegans – think again. There seems to be Chinese shops opening up in many towns and cities now.

Firstly, most have a good selection of tofu products, including silken, firm, battered and marinated and it tends to be a lot cheaper than an equivalent block in a health food shop, for example. This also applies to soya sauce, tamari, sesame oil and sushi seasoning – you get bigger bottles for much smaller prices.

Japanese ingredients in general, such as nori sheets, miso paste, sushi rice and kombu (seaweed) are much cheaper than in supermarkets and health food shops.

There are many more tasty things to try. Here’s a list of just a few;

• Deep Fry Tofu Cubes or Puffs
• Vegetarian Dumplings – Chive & Tofu filling is nice
• Fresh and dried Japanese Udon Noodles
• Steamed Buns – Bok Choy & Mushroom for example
• Inari Pockets – made of tofu skin, to be stuffed with sushi rice
• Vegetarian Duck (most sell frozen pancakes too, so you can make Mock Duck Pancakes with Spring Onion & Hoisin Sauce
• Instant Noodles, such as Ramen, with packet flavouring (make a quick meal, but they aren’t that healthy!)

Please be careful though – many things have fish flakes added to them – in particular some tofu products. Just because something is tofu-based doesn’t mean it’s always vegetarian or vegan.

Here’s a quick recipe to get you started, using some vegan-friendly ingredients.

Really Quick Asian Style Noodles
Serves 2
Preparation/cooking time 10-15 mins

Asian-style Noodles

250g/8 oz dried Udon Noodles or around 400g/14 oz if using fresh
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 carrot, grated
½ courgette, grated
100g/3.5 oz fine green beans, chopped finely
2cm fresh ginger, grated
2 sheets Nori, rolled and cut into thin strips
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp rice mirin (optional)
Chilli & garlic sauce to serve (optional)

1. If using dried Udon, cook them according to packet instructions (this is usually only a few minutes in boiling water). If using fresh, add in at step 3.

2. Heat the sesame oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add in the veg, nori and ginger and fry for 5 mins. Add in soya sauce and mirin and stir. Take off the heat.

3. Add in the noodles. Stir with a wooden spoon to mix in veg and sauce.
4. Serve immediately, with extra soya sauce and chilli & garlic sauce on the table.

Adding tofu pieces to this would also be really nice!

An Italian Vegan Dinner

Pasta with Garlic Courgette and Spinach and Broccoli Balls

I visited Southern Italy a few years ago and have been left with dream-like memories of the landscape, olive groves, wine and food. Wonderful varieties of pasta, served in many forms, dependent on the region and beautifully prepared vegetables, dished up in salads, dips, grills and in sauces to accompany.

As a vegan, lots of Italian fayre can simply be prepared without cheese. This rule follows in restaurants in this country – many pasta sauces can be served without parmesan or anchovies for example and pizza without mozzarella. We never do without.

A week or so ago I found myself in possession of a couple of hundred grams of spare breadcrumbs – so I Googled breadcrumb recipes and came across one from Antonio Carluccio, for Pasta with Courgette Sauce and Spinach Balls. It looked divine and I knew even though the balls contained egg and parmesan, I could easily veganise the recipe using Nutritional Yeast Flakes instead, to give a cheesy flavour. I also tweaked the recipe to suit ingredients I had in my fridge, including using both broccoli and spinach to make the balls.

Bon appetite.

Pasta with Garlic Courgettes and Spinach and Broccoli Balls
Serves 4
Preparation/cooking time 40 mins

Spinach and broccoli balls

250g/9oz of spinach leaves, washed thoroughly, tough stalks removed
250g/9oz broccoli, broken into small florets
1 tsp cornflour, mixed with 2 tsp water
Pinch nutmeg
1 clove garlic, crushed
110g/4oz fresh white breadcrumbs
50g/2oz nutritional yeast flakes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tbsp olive oil

Pasta sauce

8 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 chilli, finely chopped
2 courgettes, trimmed, finely grated
60g/2¼oz nutritional yeast flakes
salt and freshly ground black pepper400g/14oz rigatoni, cooked according to packet instructions, drained (reserve a few spoonfuls of the cooking water)

1. For the balls, blanch the spinach and broccoli florets in a pan of salted, boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Then place a lid on the pan and allow the vegetables to steam until soft. Then drain well.
2. When the veg have cooled, mash them together roughly using a potato masher, in a mixing bowl.
3. Stir in the cornflour, nutmeg, garlic, breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast. Season, to taste. Mix well until the mixture binds together, adding more breadcrumbs or more water, as necessary, to bind the mixture.
4. Roll the spinach mixture into walnut-sized balls and place onto a baking tray.
5. Cover the base of a frying pan in a thin film of olive oil. Heat gently over a low to medium heat.
6. When the oil is hot, add the spinach balls and fry for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until crisp and golden-brown all over. Remove from the pan using a slotted spoon and set aside to drain on kitchen paper. Keep warm.
7. Meanwhile, for the pasta sauce, heat the oil in a separate frying pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and chilli and fry for 1-2 minutes, or until softened but not coloured.
8. Add the courgettes and continue to fry for 3-4 minutes, or until they have started to soften.
9. Add the nutritional yeast flakes and season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix until well combined, then stir in the reserved cooking water from the pasta and the cooked, drained rigatoni.
10. Divide the pasta into flour bowls and top with the spinach and broccoli balls to serve.
    

Spicy Chickpea and Cauliflower Patties with Spring Onion Chapatis

Eat these little patties hot or cold; totally delicious served with dairy-free yogurt and sweet chilli sauce/or chilli and garlic sauce. Once you’ve made the chapatis you’ll never bother buying ready-made naan or Indian breads from a shop again. They are quick, simple and very tasty.

Spicy Chickpea and Cauliflower Patties
Makes 6-8 small patties, serving 2-4 people
Preparation/cooking time 30 minutes

1 tin chickpeas, drained
1/2 head cauliflower, broken into florets
2 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1-2 medium-sized red chillies, finely chopped
1 cm cube of ginger, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp asafoetida

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp gram flour
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil to fry patties

1. Bring the cauliflower florets to boil in a medium saucepan of salted water. Turn the heat down and allow to look for around 5 minutes, until soft, then drain.
2. Meanwhile, see how soft your chickpeas are from the tin. If they are slightly hard or small, boil them for 15-20 minutes to soften them up. One should be squashed easily under a fork.
3. In a frying pan, heat the oil then fry the onion, garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes, before adding the rest of the ingredients, apart from the flours and the second lot of oil. Don’t have the heat too high, or the spices will burn. Allow the ingredients to soften and brown lightly, before removing from the heat.

4. Place the chickpeas and cauliflower in a medium-sized mixing bowl, before adding in the onion and spice mix.
5. Mash all the ingredients together thoroughly using a potato masher. Stir in the flour to bring the mixture together to form a dough, which can be divided into 6-8 pieces and shaped into small patties.

6. If the patties aren’t sticking together very well, sprinkle in a teaspoon more of either flour and mix again.
7. Shape all your patties, then fry them on a medium heat in the oil, turning until they are golden on both sides.
8. Either allow to cool or keep warm in a pre-heated oven while you make the chapatis.

Spring Onion Chapatis
Makes 2 large or 4 small chapatis
Preparation/cooking time 10 minutes

1 1/4 cups plain flour or chapati flour
1/2 cup water
3 spring onions, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil

1. Mix flour, water and spring onions together in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon to form a dough.
2. Roll out the dough into one long ‘sausage’ on a floured worktop and divide into 2 or 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a circle with your hands, then flatten into chapatis (around 3mm thick) using a floured rolling-pin.
3. Heat the oil in a saucepan to a fairly high heat, before adding in each chapati and cooking in turn. They will start to bubble slightly and brown quite quickly, so keep an eye on them and turn promptly. They will only take a couple of minutes each to cook.
4. Serve the patties with a chapati and a yogurt dip or homemade raita, and with sweet chilli or chilli and garlic sauce.

 

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