The Vegan and Vegetarian Secrets Blog …

I’m going through a sweet-tooth stage at the moment so thought I’d share one of my yummo ‘healthy’ vegan recipes with you today.

 Veg-Recipe of the Week – ‘Beetroot & Apple Salad’

•  2 cups freshly grated red beetroots (or white if you can get them)
• 2 large apples grated (for extra sweetness use fiji apples)
•  4 oz soy sour cream
•  1/2 cup sesame seeds (or substitute with your fave seed/s)
•  1-2 Tbs Rice or Agave Syrup

How to Prepare…

Grate beetroot & apple into a bowl; mix well with the soy cream. Roast sesame seeds gently in a small, dry pan. Remove pan from heat and add the rice syrup, which will liquefy and coat the sesame seeds.  Mix in with the salad.

** this is quite a sweet tasting dish, if you prefer to make it less sweet use granny smith apples instead of red apples **

P.S. Red beets are high in vitamin c and iron.

I’ve been asked by many people recently to upload my recipe for a black forest inspired style strawberry cake – raw foodie of course. It’s just a simple yet different twist on the usual black forest cake made with cherries, but when cherries are in season be sure to use them as this cake is amazing with either cherries or strawberries alike.

If you don’t have all the ingredients raw style, then this cake will work just as well if you only have say ‘roasted’ almond butter in the pantry or rice milk in the fridge. By all means experiment and make it as raw or un-raw as you like. Either way it tastes great!

It’s one of my favorites and so here it is…

This raw food cake is created in layers.

First Layer:

• 1.5 – 2 cups almonds
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• Agave nectar (to sweeten a little)

Second Layer:

• 1 – 2 medium avocados
• 4-6 dates, pitted and soaked
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• Agave nectar to sweeten
• 1 tspn Vanilla

Third Layer:

• 1 cup strawberries

Fourth layer:

• 2 cups cashews, soaked
• 2 dates, pitted and soaked
• 1-2 cups water

Method for putting it all together:

First Layer:

1. Combine the first layer ingredients in a food processer and combine together until crushed and smooth like, if it’s too dry add a tiny bit of water or almond milk until you get the desired consistancy.
2. Next remove from processor and mold it into a cake tin (I use a cheescake tin so I can easily remove the cake once it is fully set but I have also turned this recipe into a pie on occassions too – it will work both ways brilliantly).

Second Layer:

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
2. Spread this mixture on top of the first layer.

Third layer:

1. Slice the strawberries and layer them over the second layer – or if desired you can crush them up instead of slicing them.

Fourth layer:

1. This is were you will make the cashew cream frosting. Place half the water into a blender and slowly add the cashews in batches. Add water as needed, until all of the cashews are gone.
2. Add the dates and blend until smooth (remember to soak dates you can put them in warm water for a few minutes to soak them or soak them for a few hours if you have time).
3. Spread the mixture over the top of the third layer.
4. Put in the fridge to set.

Then once set add more strawberries or other fruits and mint leaves to garnish.

Here’s one of our favorite smoothie recipes, so if you are craving a big fruity hit of mangoes then why not make a delish quick and easy snack out of  Mangoes, may we suggest a Smoothie.

It’s healthy, wholesome and delicious.

Why not go make one now, here’s all you’ll need…

• 1 medium-sized mango
• Dash of agave nectar or maple syrup (optional)
• 1 banana
• ¾-1 cup soy/rice/almond milk 

Blend mango, banana, nectar and dairy-free milk in a blender or processor until a smooth consistency is achieved. Ice cubes can be added or you can even use a frozen banana or two to make a thick shake mango smoothie.

Enjoy!

For the host, there are often many options regarding vegan cupcakes. Usually if you live in a large city, you’ll be able to find a few restaurants, cafes and cake parlours which make vegan cupcakes. A quick check on an internet search engine will help you find any of these caterers in your area. These sorts of places (especially caterers) can often work with you to create exactly what you want, whether that be a five-tier of cupcakes with detailed white frosting for a wedding, or an array of flavours for a large party, though restaurants often don’t customise cupcakes, either because they can be very busy, or don’t do catering/special orders.

If you want to make vegan cupcakes yourself, you can easily just use a regular cupcake and frosting recipe and veganise the ingredients (eg. using soy milk instead of dairy milk, egg substitute instead of egg, and vegan butter/margarine instead of dairy butter). If you’d rather not veganise a recipe yourself, give this one a go. You might want to experiment with the measurements of each ingredient to tweak the recipe to your liking, but use this as a fairly clear guide.

Ingredients…

• 1 tablespoon apple cider
• 1 ½ cups milk (try soy or rice milk, flavoured if you like)
• 2 ½ cups flour
• ½ cup cocoa powder (optional; for chocolate cupcakes)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sugar (bearing in mind to use white sugar refined in Australia as many overseas producers refine their sugar with bone char; this is not vegan)
• ½ cup oil (choose the type of oil you use, just make sure it’s suitable for cooking. eg. no flaxseed oil!)

Method for cooking…

1. Preheat your oven to 180° Celsius.
2.  Stir apple cider and soymilk in a bowl. The mixture will curdle; this is normal and should be happening.
3. In another bowl, stir the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
4. Stir the vanilla extract and oil into the apple cider and soymilk mixture.
5. Combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients in one bowl. Beat with an electric hand-held beater or by hand.
6. Pour the mixture into a muffin tray. Approximately ¼ cup of the mixture should be poured into each muffin mould in the tray. For larger cupcakes, pour ½ cup of mixture into each muffin mould, but use a larger muffin tray.
7. Bake for approximately 20 minutes. If you can smell the cupcakes, check that they aren’t browning. If they are; they’re most likely ready.
8. Allow the pan to cool before removing from the oven.
9. Remove cupcakes from the muffin tray and place on a wire rack to cool.

If you want to add icing to your vegan cupcakes, then give this little recipe a try.

Vegan Cupcakes Frosting (Chocolate)

Ingredients…

• ¼ cup vegan butter/margarine
• ½ cup shortening
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¼ milk (try soy or rice milk)

Mixing it all up …

1. Cream the butter/margarine and shortening. Make sure they have mixed well.
2. Add cocoa powder and mix well.
3. Add sugar in ½ cup portions and beat well, adding a splash of soy/rice milk each time.
4. Add vanilla extract and beat until mixture is well mixed and fluffy.

If you don’t want your frosting to be chocolate flavoured; just leave out the cocoa powder. The recipe for frosting will still work fine; it will still be sweet and tasty, just not chocolate flavoured.

Vegan Chocolate anyone? . . .

We’ve been keeping ourselves pretty busy hidden away in the vegan secrets kitchen experimenting and developing heaps of new exciting chocolate recipes recently, so we thought we’d give you a sneak peak at just some of the decadant goodies we’ve come up with to date.

These secret vegan and/or raw food chocolate recipes will be released in due course within our divine new ‘Vegan Chocolate Cookbook’ when we launch it hopefully closer to Christmas time. So keep an eye out for notice of that one, as this book at this stage will be in full color with photo’s of most of the recipes as well as full ingredients and cookign or un-cooking methods plus extra tips and tricks to create the perfect chocolate treat for all those vegan or raw foodie-chocoholics out there.

In the meantime if you’d like to contribute a chocolate treats recipe that is either a raw foodie recipe or not – please do contact us for more details about this, we are open to adding a few extra recipes into the cookbook, obviously we would happily make it worth your while if you have any exceptionally devine chocolate recipes, with your very own free copy of the final book once it’s launched. (Only the actual submissions that actually make the cut into the book would be-eligible for this deal however).

We do like to over-deliver afterall

As most vegans may be aware, food colorings are not necessarily vegan – in fact in most cases they are not. So it’s a wise vegan who will either source out 100% animal-free versions (from good quality vegan or health stores) or make their own food colorings from natural fruits and vegetables easily at home. And today Jane, the allergy food awareness expert from Hullabaloo Foods in Tasmania, Australia has passed on her knowledge for the perfect mix to make your own food colors.

Here are some of Jane’s recipes for the perfect food colors: 

Red / Purple.  Gently simmer raspberries, blueberries or mulberries in water for 30 minutes. Once cooled you will need to sieve it twice. First time you can just use the metal and squish the fruit to get the most liquid out.  Second time around lay two sheets of cooking muslin (or a tea towel) over the sieve. Pour the liquid in but don’t’ squeeze – just let it drip at it’s own pace. Cover with a third sheet as this will take 12-24 hours. Once all of the liquid is through return to a clean saucepan and simmer to reduce to a thick liquid. Store in fridge or freezer. Your color will vary depending on the type and ripeness of the berry.

Pink – Beetroot Juice much easier but watch out for the taste. Drain a tin of beetroot. Simmer liquid slowly to reduce volume and increase colour strength (note from Rebecca, I have personally and successfully used freshly squeezed beetroot juice for pink coloring – you only need a tiny few drops and you don’t get a beetroot taste like one would usually suspect).

Yellow – Turmeric with a little hot water, use sparingly as the taste of the turmeric will persist. For a more expensive solution you could use real saffron.

Brown – Cocoa powder, carob powder and Parisian essence make a soft brown but will all add the relevant flavour. You could also caramelise some sugar and then add to the icing mix.

So if you are wanting to make organic natural food color alternatives just try any of these super easy ideas for that perfect frosting to top off your next batch of vegan cupcakes.

P.S. If you are wishing to make green colors, simply put one of the following… ‘celery, brocolli or spinach’ (any green vegetable will work wonders actually) through a juicer and you have three wonderfully vibrant green color variations to choose from too.  

This would have to be one of my all time favorite raw food vegan pie recipes, unfortunately I can’t take credit for the recipe but I can take credit for making it and taking it along to any party’s I go to – everyone is always very surprised at the multi-layer style and taste of this pie. Here are just some of the words used by others to describe this taste sensation: ‘devine, creamy, gorgeous, I love it, teach me how to make it’ and with rave’s like that it should be one of those raw pies you should keep on file to send people to heaven every once and a while at any kind of gathering or dinner party you go to.

I usually change the ingredients to what fruit is in season at the time, sometimes add fresh mint or essence into the chocolate candy layer and use my own almond, coconut and date basic pie base crust (as I am somewhat addicted to almonds) but other than that I base it on the recipe I found here on the Raw Inspiration Blog.

If you want to wow your friends and family with a healthy, guilt free dessert then why not give this raw pie a try – you will honestly feel like you’ve died and gone to heaven with the first bite!

For those who have been following the Vegan Secrets blog for a while now you may already be aware that we like to experiment and make homemade chocolates, raw foods and anything that’s ganna spark those taste-buds to the next level. Well we’ve done it again … and this time with some raw food vegan chocolate lemon bars (and these truffle-like chocolate bars are some of our BEST vegan ones yet), unfortunately for you we are keeping this recipe a secret for now but thought we’d spoil you with a sneak peak at it at least. A feast for your eyes is better than nothing right!

(Hopefully we’ll be putting together our ‘best of the best chocolate recipes’ in a ’special edition’ recipe book during the year so that all those Vegan Chocolate-Freaks out there can indulge even more in their food of choice – so stay tuned in for that one folks).

Here’s another yummy picture of just one of our recent ’Homemade Vegan Chocolate’ experimental recipes. This recipe is just a simple version of the raw foods chocolate recipe we posted a little while ago.

The only major difference is that with this vegan chocolate recipe we produced our own homemade raw almond butter and used this as the base for the chocolate, then we added some raw macadamias, sun-ripened sultanas and freeze dried strawberries – all wonderful flavors together when smoothered with freshly made raw vegan dark chocolate.

 I’ll leave you with this great Veggie QUOTE from ‘Howard Lyman, (Mad Cowboy – author):

“To consider yourself an environmentalist and still eat meat is like saying you’re a philanthropist who doesn’t give to charity.”

Hi folks, this is just a quick update about the ‘vegan soup recipes book’ I talked about a few weeks back.

This new recipe book is just about finished and we will be launching it very soon. So keep an eye out for the launch date and/or future updates here on the Vegan Secrets Blogroll.

And here’s a sneak peak for you . . .