This is one of the easiest, freshest, most satisfying snacky sort of salads to whip up on a lovely day like today. 1 cucumber 2 scallions Handful of nuts Handful of basil leaves Chilli flakes Dressing: Always an easy one … Continue reading
I love a good sharing plate! Super quick rainbow salad and tofu quesadillas. The side salad contains red pepper, yellow courgette, bok choi, mango, halzenuts, red onion, pomegranate seeds and sesame seeds but the dressing is the clincher here. Newgrange … Continue reading
Ah simple toasties. I toasted arbutus bread topped with melted vegan mozzarella from the lovely Bob of little green leaf, tofu stripes and chopped asparagus sautéed in a pan after being marinated in a teriyaki dressing and finally my favourite … Continue reading
Oh pasta bake! The last week has been super busy so it’s nice to be back in the kitchen and not grabbing a random take away today. I made up a yummy tomato sauce with 2 tins of tomatoes, a … Continue reading
I love when an experiment goes right. These turned out better than I had hoped with just a few adjustments from my original plan. Prepared, cooked and served up in under 20 min too what nots to love. What you’ll … Continue reading
Snow on the way they say so a hearty bowl of creamy herby mushroom soup by the fire in my pjs was calling. Mmmm…. This is my super simple and favourite mushroom soup recipe. Enough for a few refills for … Continue reading
Epic open burrito station for brunch today. No recipe really just oodles of rainbow veg hanging out together. Tortillas topped with spicy broccoli rice, aduki beans heated through with a little drizzle of lemon and minced garlic, mushrooms, cherry toms, … Continue reading
Green craving this morning. A delicious juice of Celery Apple Cucumber Lime Ginger Sipping it with bursts of giggles after my friend sent me the picture below about checking line 2, page 117 of the book closest to you for … Continue reading
Picture perfect morning run earlier. Now it’s time to get my granola making on…. I panic if my jar is running low. My secret ingredient is… Leftover pulp from whatever juice I’m making. This morning it was apple, lime and … Continue reading
Who needs arancinis when you can make “AVOcinis” ha ha ha. I’d really love to think I invented this today but im sure there’s lots lurking online somewhere else too. Avocado stuffed with Moodley Manor bacon that I chopped up … Continue reading
Happy Friday everyone! Porridge in the mornings is a must for me. Aside from the contentment I get chopping and making things look pretty I just love my bowl of oaty comfort. Today’s combo is jumbo oats cooked through with … Continue reading
Stuffed peppers are in my top 3 lazy but delicious vegan dishes! No finesse required just pack in the filling and let the oven do all the hard the work. For the filling: Into a pan pop- 1 cup of … Continue reading
Who doesn’t lick their lips at the thought of a comforting dish of shepherds pie yumminess (veganized of course)The rain was pounding against the windows last night as I sat curled up in my pjs giggling with contentment as I … Continue reading
5 min Asian mix plate. Stuffed rice rolls drizzled with spinach pesto, mixed leaves and purple sprouts and a little bowl of sweet and spicy smoke tofu. Rice paper is just so delicate and lovely and perfect when you are … Continue reading
Delicious, lazy sharing plate of roasted and spiced chickpeas spiralized courgette, carrots and red cabbage in yesterdays pesto. It’s a real self service meal but tasty nonetheless.
Roasted chickpeas:
1 bowl of chickpeas
Pop into a ziplock bag and pour in your favourite spices.
I added coriander, all spice, sumac and chilli flakes along with a pinch of salt.
Zip and shake shake shake.
Onto a lined tray at 180x for 15 min or so.
For the veg:
Spiralize a courgette, carrot and a piece of red cabbage
Bathe it in lots of pesto and add the yummy spiced chickpeas.
I just served this up in a salad bowl along with a chopping board of sauces and leaves.
DIY vegan style!
Tortillas work great too but I just love cabbage leaves and bok choi with this. So light and fresh.
Love
Louise
x
I try as best I can to eat seasonal veg it’s seasonal for a reason and aside from tasting wonderful it just mirrors the feeling of whatever time of year it may be. Autumn for me always conjures up the … Continue reading
The rainy weather had me craving a little breakfast pot over a juice this morning. Doesn’t it look pretty! And so simple too.
The bottom layer is a delicious chia pudding.
I mixed a handful of chia seeds with a cup of almond and coconut milk, a squeeze of agave and a few drops of vanilla essence. Pop in the fridge overnight until it becomes gelatinous and yummy. I usually make enough that i can have it over a few days.
Middle layer: I blended 3 kiwis with a scoop of spirulina.
Top layer: I blended 2 plums with a scoop of acai powder.
I topped it off with pumpkin seeds, cacao nibs and rose petals.
Yummmmmyyy.
Have a wonderful day everyone
Love
Louise
x
1 cup of each of the following
Basmati rice
Mung beans
Lentils
Serve up with a nice chunk of bread and enjoy.
Love
Louise
x
Tonight’s din dins couldn’t be easier or more delicious. God bless you jus rol pastry!
How to:
Defrost a roll of pastry
Roll out
Spread with sweet chilli sauce
Top with 6 slices of Art of Zen Foods amazing Violife cheese slices. (Thanks art of zen for keeping me stocked up) Leave an inch or two at the sides and top to allow for excess bits popping out when you roll.
Top with coriander, crushed cashews, chilli flakes, parsley, chopped leeks, sprouts and red cabbage.
Get rolling! As tight as you can and then carefully cut into slices.
Pop onto a lined baking tray.
Into the oven at 200 for 15 to 20 min with 1 min under the grill at the end for extra browning.
For the dipping sauce:
Blend a handful of garden peas, garlic powder, salt/pepper and half of a large carton of soy yoghurt.
Voila!
I’m calling this a sharing plate but let’s be honest that’s unlikely to happen. Vegan heaven
Love
Louise
x
Soupy sort of evening! I do love my soups and it doesn’t get much more seasonal than mr. Pumpkin.
Prep the veg:
Peel, chop/slice a pumpkin, 2 potatoes, 2 or 3 small red onions, 2 cloves of garlic.
(Scoop out seeds from the pumpkin and set aside)
Pop all the veg into a heated and oiled pan and cook off for 5 min
Then into a pot and cover with veg stock until you cover the veg.
To flavour:
Salt/pep
Half a can of coconut milk
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Pinch of coconut sugar
A scoop of engevitas nutritional yeast flakes.
Boil, reduce and let simmer for up to an hour.
I used my hand blender to blitz into a delicious soup.
For the pumpkin seeds:
Seperate flesh from seeds
Pop the seeds into a pot of salted water. Boil, reduce, simmer for 15 min and drain.
Pop into ziplock bag and sprinkle in spice of choice
I used sumac. Smoked paprika is great too.
Onto a lined tray at 200c for 20 min along with a sprinkle of salt and olive oil.
Yum!
To pretty up the soup:
I topped it with parsley, chilli flakes, the spinach pesto that is making an appearance all week and the toasted pumpkin seeds.
A big slice of chunky bread (or two) for extra dip-ability!
Winter I’m ready for you. Yum!
Love
Louise
x
Time to do a pesto top up! This weeks “1 min to make” pesto is spinach and sunflower seeds.I picked up some beautiful spinach leaves in the market in the Ballincollig market earlier.
Into a blender pop a handful of spinach, a cup of sunflower seeds, 2 cloves of garlic, a generous glug glug glug of olive oil and season to your liking with salt and pep. Blend for 30 seconds or until smooth and delicious. Quantities above will fill two small Kilner jars shown in the photo.
Yumtastic!
Love
Louise
x
Roll out dough and place burgers slices/sausages around the perimeter of the dough. I splashed a tiny bit of sweet chill along the fold too and sealed!
Happy Halloween
Louise
If you’re trying to be good this week look away now… I said look away.. Don’t do it to yourself… You won’t be able to resist! I was craving something super bold and super sweet. I pottered around the kitchen … Continue reading
Quick and delicious pasta dish! My homemade ravioli plan went out the window when I spotted some leftover blackberry and beetroot tagliatelle in the press!
For the yummy sauce: (my favourite and so easy)
Into a blender pop –
A carton of soy cream
A handful of artichoke and sun dried tomatoes
(Set two or three of each aside to have whole in the dish)
A generous splash of wine which of course is optional but mmm mmm mmm….
2 cloves of garlic
A bunch of scallions
Season to you liking with salt/ pep and a little lemon juice.
For the pasta:
Boil a pot of water, add pasta pinch of salt and splash of oil and leave for 5-8 min.
Drain and add pasta to your yummy sauce along with half a block of grated violife mozzarella cheese.
Pop back on a medium heat until the cheese melts and the sauce is to your liking.
I topped it with some leaves, parsley and milled spicy pumpkin seeds (the seeds from the other night ground down, great for sprinkles)
Veg on the side:
I steamed some of the delicious sprouting broccoli I picked up yesterday in kinsale and then topped it off with chilli flakes, salt, lemon juice and grated rind.
Yay for quick and easy dishes!
❤️
Louise
A lasagne of sorts tonight. Colourful, nutritious and perfect raw or cooked. I opted for a baked version tonight as there was an ol’ Autumnal nip in the air.
How to:
The veg-
I thinly sliced a huge courgette (took photo then deleted it by accident boo) with my mandolin and used it as the pasta sheets.
I had left over Asian slaw from the other day that was perfect for using up (shredded red and white cabbage, green onions, carrots, mangetout) with sliced mushrooms and broccoli.
For the sauces:
The pretty green mix consists of peas, a splash of soy cream, clove of garlic and salt/pepper blended
The cheese mix is just as easy and delicious! Half a block of tofu, a quarter block of art of zen violife pizza cheese, garlic, nutmeg,
Cinnamon, splash of olive oil and salt/pepper blended.
Now the fun bit! Get layering….. Anything works with this recipes so don’t feel you have to stick to my choices. It’s great for using up leftovers too. I added some mixed herbs and chilli flakes too.
For the top layer use the rest of the violife cheese to grate over the top then into the oven at 180 for 35 min. Mmmm…
I served it up with a salad of mixed leaves, chickpeas, sugar snap peas, chilli flakes, lime zest and juice, olive oil, salt and pep.
Night night everyone! Sleep well
Love Louise
x
A few weeks back my boyfriend and I stopped off at a local restaurant and Dave slurped on the most delicious looking bowl of French onion soup! I won’t lie… I was jealous! it was just the sort of comfort food I was craving so I couldn’t resist making a vegan equivalent that evening.
Now true french onion soup connoisseurs will be shuddering at the thought of me using the name “French onion soup” to describe this pot… No beef stock, no gruyere, no dairy butter.. What is she doing…. So I will simply call it the easiest yummiest cheesy drunken onion soup you will ever make.
Here we go:
Melt 50g of dairy free butter and a glug or two of olive oil
Add a batch of onions (as many as you have or want in the soup) finely chopped (if you were to invest in one kitchen gadget let it be an mandolin it saves time, it’s fun and it makes you feel like you’re a kitchen pro ha ha)
Followed by 2 cloves of crushed garlic and then a generous squeeze of agave syrup.
Reduce heat and cook away until it caramelises.
Add a glass of white wine a veg stock cube crumbled and fill up with water.
Boil again and reduce to a simmer (ideally leave it do it’s thing for an hour or two but I was too
Hungry to wait)
Season to your liking with a generous amount of sea salt and pepper.
And serve up…. Mmm…
While I was grilling the bread I grated a generous amount of violife pizza cheese (thank you Art of Zen Foods for my amazing cheeses once again) into the soup and let it get gooey and sink.
Cut up a few slices of crusty bread and use a potato peeler to slices a few pieces of violife pizza cheese to pop on top. Onto the grill they go until melted and yum.
Sit them into the soup and it’s time to eat.
You could add some fancy leaves and spices but I think simple is best when it comes to this soup.
No it’s not on my top ten for healthy vegan dishes but it wins the top award for food hugs.
Love
Louise
x
I arrived back after a busy morning at my “I’m a little vegan” food stall craving a sweet and a coffee. Of all things to crave coffee is neeeeeever one of them but I gave in and created this little plate of deliciousness. Bliss.
I had a humongous bag of mulberries that a lovely friend gave me, some delicious bananas from organic republic, a leftover piece of tofu and a bit of chocolate sauce and ice cream from the other night. Yum!!!!
For the base:
I blitzed dried mulberries and coconut oil and flavoured with vanilla essence and agave.
For the filling:
I blended tofu, agave, some melted chocolate and a banana.
Press the mulberry mix into a lined pan and top with the filling and into the freezer it goes for an hour or so.
I prettied it up with a few slices of banana and raw cacao and served with a shot of espresso and agave, two scoops of dairy free vanilla ice cream and a squeeze of chocolate sauce (coconut oil and raw choc melted)
A plate of heaven.
Love
Louise
x
There’s something so comforting about a nice slice of fruit cake and a cup of tea but nicer still is a fruit cake that is rich and delicious but doesn’t require flour, sugar or plant milk.Almost sin free wiithout losing out on yumminess.
How to: Blend a cup of almonds until they are powder like. Combine in a bowl with your favourite fruits, seeds and nuts. I simply used what I had available. Sultanas, cherries, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds approx a cup of each but anything and everything works here. Figs, apricots, dates, hazelnuts and so on.
Add 3 teaspoons of egg replacer mixed with 6 tablespoons of water. 1/4 cup of agave syrup And a splash of gin (optional but gives it a little zing and oh my gin and I are great friends) Bake in the oven at 150c for 45 to 50 min. Remove, cool, cut and eat with your favourite cup of tea.
The perfect naughty but not so naughty tea cake.
Love
Louise
x
Beluga lentil cake with blackberry/beetroot tagliatelle, beet leaves and coconut sweet chilli sauce may sound super fancy and a tad complicated but I promise as with most of my dishes its quick and easy and pretty as a little vegan picture.
For the lentil cake:
Boil and drain beluga lentils and broccoli.
Blend with dillisk, salt, onion, pumpkin seeds mixed herbs and anything else that takes your fancy. I also added some ground flax seed and water to help it bind. Scoop into metal rings and onto a lined tray.
Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 min at 200c.
For the pasta:
Boil water, add a pinch of salt and drizzle of olive oil and pop in the blackberry and beetroot tagliatelle (15 min.) I normally try to make my own pasta but this was just too inviting at the market and was packaged up their in front of me. Scrumptious.
For the sauce:
Into a wok add a tin of coconut milk, grated ginger, squeeze of balsamic reduction, puréed garlic, generous glug of sweet chilli, agave syrup and a squeeze of lemon. I’m all about flavouring to your liking with these sort of sauces.
For the beet leaves:
Sauté in a little garlic and oil. Simple… They smell a little like rhubarb and are loaded with goodness. Great in salads too.
Time to eat! Yum
Love
Louise x
Who doesn’t love a little fritatta?! Even saying friiiitaaattta sounds wonderful. Here is my quick and super simple vegan equivalent.
Veg for the frittata:
Potatoes
Asparagus
Spinach
I boiled the potatoes and asparagus then added the spinach at the end.
Drain and mix with cheesy sauce
For the cheesy sauce blend the following
Half a block of art of zens violife dairy free pizza cheese
Half a block of tofu
A small carton of soy cream
Salt/pep. Flavour to you liking
2 cloves of garlic
A handful of mint
A cup of peas
Bake in the oven at 200 for 30 to 40 min.
I served it with a quick chop Asian slaw.
Red cabbage
White cabbage
Mangetout
Scallions
Carrot
Chives
And a squeeze of mango chutney.
Yummy yum yum
Love
Louise
x
Im a little vegan 