Everyone Loves Houmous

I don’t know about you but I find I am at my most creative in the kitchen when my purse is empty and all I have to work with is what I have in the house (the longer I have to go without buying fresh ingredients the more creative I get). For this reason I always have dried beans and lentils in the cupboard along with plenty of dried herbs and spices, and a bottle of lemon juice in the fridge. One thing I’ve recently started doing is freezing vegetable waste (peelings and the like) in a bag to use to make vegetable stock which in turn is frozen until I need it. (Thank you Thug Kitchen for that idea!) Today has been one of those days where I haven’t been able to go grocery shopping since before christmas and I really really want some snacks. I had a bar of dairy-free 70% dark chocolate that had bloomed past being edible as is so that was melted down and mixed with some vegan puffed rice to make crispy cakes, then I whipped up some oatmeal cookies using the porridge oats and whole wheat flour I had sitting at the back of the cupboard. Finally, I made this simple and lower-fat version of houmous which uses vegetable broth to replace most of the oil.

Simple Lower-Fat Houmous

1/2 cup dried chickpeas
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 garlic clove, finely diced
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup cold vegetable stock
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Veggie Barley Stew with Cheezy-herby Dumplings

It’s less than two weeks until christmas, the ground is frosty and the air is crisp. I’m trying to keep my Christmas binge to Christmas Eve, Day, and Boxing day this year so I’ve been looking at coming up with warming, filling, yummy meals that feels luxurious but are still low in fat. If you want to reduce the fat in this recipe further then skip the dumplings. This serves 4 with the dumplings or 3 without them.

2 medium onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 large carrots, sliced
2 large parsnips, sliced
1 medium leek, sliced
1/2 whole swede, diced
175g Pearl Barley, rinsed
1 ltr vegetable stock
1 tbsp shoyu
1 tsp miso
1 tsp dried Thyme
1 tsp dried Parsley
1 Bayleaf
1 tsp vegetable/olive oil

Dumpling Mix:
100g Self-raising Flour
50g vegetable suet, grated
50g vegan cheese, grated
2 tsp rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp dried thyme, lightly ground
2 tsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 tsp fresh chives, chopped

Delicious Parsnip Soup

This recipe came about because I had some vegetables that needed to be used up and I had quite a few parsnips. I had made parsnip soup before but this has got to be the tastiest version I’ve ever had!

Parsnip Soup

5 parsnips, peeled and diced
1 small carrot, peeled and diced
1 small onion, peeled and diced
1 medium leek, roughly sliced into rounds
1 small to medium potato, peeled and diced
1 large clove garlic, roughly chopped
1.5 ltrs vegetable stock
1 tbsp olive/rapeseed oil
2 tsp dried mixed herbs
Sea Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Easy Peasy Potato Cheesy!

This is a recipe for a delicious cheesy flavour dip made from potatoes. Yes, you did read that correctly POTATOES! I found a recipe for potato based cheesy dip by accident and have now developed my own version. I wish I had bookmarked the page but unfortunately I didn’t however full credit for the initial idea goes to that person!

Potato Based Cheesy Dip

500g Potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup olive/rapeseed oil
1-2 cups nutritional yeast (adjust to taste)
1 tsp mustard powder (or 1/2 tsp english mustard)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper (or more for a bit more kick)
1 cube vegetable stock

Low-Fat Veggie Pasta Sauce

This is probably the easiest pasta sauce I have ever had but stills packs a flavourful punch.

1 medium bell pepper (any colour), roughly chopped
1 medium carrot, roughly chopped
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 stick celery, roughly chopped
3 fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 tin tomatoes
1 vegetable stock cube
1 large courgette, sliced into rounds and quartered
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp olive oil
Salt & Fresh black pepper to taste