“Don’t you miss cheese?” “Oh my god, I couldn’t live without cheese?” “My life is cheese”.. these are just some of the utterances you get when you tell someone you don’t eat dairy anymore.  Much better are the astonished faces you see when you confirm that no, you don’t miss it.  Don’t get me wrong, cheese is a delicious substance filled with many intricate flavours, however now it’s gone I’m really not altogether fussed on it’s absence.  I’ve moved on to far greener pastures.

What I do miss however, is a good béchamel sauce layered with pasta and bolognese sauce in a delicious English disruption of an Italian classic.  There’s something so comforting about a well cooked lasagne, at least for me.  It reminds me of childhood and general happiness as it’s always been a familiar face on my Mum’s kitchen table.  Now thanks to the trusty help of the ever faithful cashew nut, and the forever ever trusty Oh She Glows, magic has happened.  Lasagne has returned to my life in an, only slightly less than, mystical way which i’m very happy to share with you as I think pretty much everyone should eat this.  All the time.  If I had the time and the energy I would eat this every other day, however as I have neither this has gone into rotation as a solid Sunday dinner and is a great replacement for my Mum’s béchamel laden cheese/meat fest.

This recipe actually came together fairly easily, once we’d worked out the flavours and textures we wanted included it was simply a case of plotting the most structurally sound order in which to layer! As a side note, in doing my research for this I finally discovered the difference between lasagna and lasagne - for anyone interested lasagna is the singular sheet and lasagne is obviously the plural.

If you’re wondering whether you really need to soak the cashew nuts, trust me, unless you want a crunchy completely unsatisfactory experience - soak them.  I speak from experience.  In terms of the other ingredients, lots of other things would work in this - I would consider trying leeks, chard or even aubergine (though that’s a tad overdone isn’t it?)  You can also use your own tomato sauce, or store bought if you’re really not bothered, this is just a nice way to incorporate lots of fresh ingredients directly.

Give it a go, you won’t look back.

Recipe

Cheeze Sauce

Borrowed from here, minus the Basil.

1. Drain and rinse soaked cashews. With the food processor turned on, drop in your garlic cloves and process until chopped. Add in the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed.

Lasagne

1-2 Large Sweet Potatoes

1.5 Cups Red or Dead Pasta Sauce (I like to make mine at the same time the potatoes are baking)i

1 large, or 6 baby, Courgette sliced lengthways

250g Chestnut Mushrooms, Sliced

1-2 Handfulls of Baby Spinach

1 Pack Wholewheat/Spelt Lasagna sheets

Extra Nutritional Yeast

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°c

2. With a knife pierce or cross the Sweet Potatoes and place on baking tray in oven for 40-50 minutes

3. Once potatoes are soft to the touch, remove from oven and let cool

4. In a large baking dish, place a bottom layer of courgette slices, ensuring that it is relatively even and flat, add enough red sauce to mostly cover.  Place layer of 3 lasagna sheets and spread cheeze sauce on top until covered.

5. Place layer of sliced mushrooms in the same way as the courgette slices, again ensuring relatively even and flat . Repeat sauce, sheets, and cheeze.

6. Remove sweet potatoes from skin and with a cutlery knife or spoon, spread evenly across surface of the lasagne and place spinach on top.  Cover entirely in lasagna sheets ensuring no gaps.

7. Use the rest of the cheeze sauce to cover the lasagne, sprinkling additional nutritional yeast on top to ensure crispness.

8. Bake in oven for 35-45 minutes depending on crispy top preference.

9. ENJOY

I’ve recently realised the beauty of a weekend morning brunch which isn’t in direct relation to a horribly drunken Friday evening. Introduced to me by the lovely Maya, my new favourite spot and home of our brunch club is No67 at the South London Gallery. 

Located a short bus ride (or equidistant walk if you’re feeling for a perambulate) from Camberwell and Peckham the cafe has plenty of seating in both it’s two indoor dining rooms, front garden and piece de resistance - the back garden.  Covered in perfect leafy green foliage, warm sunlight hits it’s two tables at around 11.30am and there isn’t a better place to sit on a weekend morning.  If the weather isn’t suited to al fresco dining, the back room has beautiful steel-framed floor to ceiling windows which offer a perfect view of the aforementioned vegetation.

The menu though slightly (read: very) short on vegan options, only holding one labelled main and side, is at least delicious.  The House Beans in Pepper Stew on Sourdough aren’t your average Heinz on sliced white.  These chunky butter beans arrive at the table glistening with goodness.  Sat on top of two perfectly toasted pieces of sourdough, the warm and spicy sweet tomato sauce is the perfect morning kickstart.  In happy news, if you ask you will find that the Bubble & Squeak is cooked in oil, not butter - as are the roast mushrooms.  So the menu opens up a little with a variety of side offerings.

I’m also reliably informed that the non-vegan options are delicious too, with the granola yogurt receiving a special mention.

To accompany your meal, the only option is to order yourself a Mimosa (it’s the weekend), and if you’re lucky it won’t just include traditional orange juice but a hint of blood orange sweetening things up.

Find you way there with the help of Google Maps!

Legend has it that chili originated in the Wild West, when cowboys camping out would cook up their dried meat in a mixture of broth and chili peppers to make a simple meal for themselves that was nicer than chewing on jerky.  This recipe has absolutely no similarity to any of that excluding it’s name.  It is however absolutely delicious and combines a whopping 9 vegetables so it kind of goes without saying that it’s also infinitely better for you.  Plus it's topped with crunchy roast sweet potatoes.  Things get pretty decadent vegetable wise.  

If you follow the Instagram account (and if not, why?!) you may have got an inkling that in our house we like our food with a south of the border vibe.  Weekend lunches usually consist of a giant bowl of guacamole and some pitta chips with an icy beverage and it certainly doesn’t have to be a Tuesday for it to be Taco day around here.  Smokey flavours coupled with spice and the zing of lime juice is our jam.

As a result of this unbridled passion I’ve tried many different vegan/vegetatrian chilis and as much as I’d like to say otherwise, they all pretty much suck.  They usually involve a meat substitute and end up just being completely texturally unappealing with the unwelcome addition of huge chunks of vegetable in them which, when bitten into, completely overpower the overall flavour of the dish (looking at you green pepper.)  Thus, I’ve come to the resolution that the best course of action is to dice all the vegetables into the same size.  This ensures they cook at the same speed and provides a decent overall texture and flavour experience, which I guess is kind of what you want from food.  The icing on the metaphorical cake in this situation is the sweet potato.  Used as a topping the trick is to keep the cubes small so they caramelise quickly and become a sweet and salty crunchy dream.

I recommend serving this either on top of a bed of spinach and brown rice, or even better making tacos.  In fact, definitely make tacos.  Either way guacamole should definitely be involved (recipe here) and it’s fairly easy to whip up a salsa with some tomatoes and lime juice in a food processor, if you’re looking for a decent set of salsa recipes check out the Thug Kitchen cookbook which is fucking great.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Red Onions

3 Garlic Cloves, Large

2 Sticks of Celery

1 Red Pepper

1 Green Pepper

1 Large Carrot, Peeled

1 Red Chili

1 Tbsp Tomato Paste

2 Tbsp Cumin

1 Tbsp Ground Coriander

1/2 Tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 Can Chopped Tomatoes

2 Tbsp Tabasco

1 Tsp Liquid Smoke

1/2 Cup Water

1 Can Red Kidney Beans

1 Can Black Beans

1 Large Sweet Potato

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celsius.

2. Heat 2 Tbsp of the olive oil in a large pan or crock pot over a medium high heat. Whilst the oil is warming up, dice all vegetables to roughly the same size (as in the picture somewhere above).

3. Add the onion, garlic and celery to the pan cooking for 3-5 minutes until the onion is translucent, stirring to ensure it doesn’t burn.

4. Add the peppers, carrot and chili and continue to cook for 5-10 minutes until the peppers have softened slightly.  Add the tomato paste to the pan and let it cook off slightly and coat the vegetables.

5. Add the cumin, coriander and cayenne to the pan and cook until the spices become aromatic.

6. Add the tomatoes, tabasco, liquid smoke, water and beans and bring to a boil before reducing to a simmer and partially cover.

7. Whilst the chili is doing it’s thing, peel the sweet potato and cut it into roughly 1.5cm cubes, place in a baking dish and coat in the remaining olive oil and season.

8. Place sweet potatoes in the oven and let cook with 30-35 minutes until crispy

9. Remove chili from the heat and plate, topping chili with crispy sweet potato bites. (or if you’re taking my taco suggestion seriously, which you should, just whack them in the taco)

I never really liked picnics, they conjure childhood memories of plastic ham, dropping chocolate bars in sand and lots of insects.  However, when you decide to hike for an extended period of time passing through nowhere to purchase any food and tasked with a partner whose anger grows the lower their glycemic index gets, you’re left with little other option.

Realising this I set about to create and pack something that I would actually enjoy - essentials foodstuffs included avocados, sweet potatoes, greenery and something sugary to appease the aforementioned hunger anger.  Test driven on a cliff overlooking the sea this weekend, this is definitely a goer and I would heartily recommend it as a base for future picnic goers.  The menu consisted of a Sweet potato, guacomole and coleslaw sandwich, the Oh She Glows Speedy Three-Bean Salad, a broccoli and pea green salad adapted from this book and a variation on these chewy peanut butter cookies.

The Sandwich - Make sure you have a great crusty loaf on hand for this.

Makes 2 large sandwiches

Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

1 Large Sweet Potato, Peeled

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 Tsp Salt

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C.

2. Put a large pan of water on the stove on high heat, to boil.  Whilst it’s heating up, slice the potato into rings around 2cm thick.

3. Once the water is boiling add the potatoes and let boil for 3 minutes.

4. Drain the potatoes and let them steam and cool so that they dry out a little.

5. In a greased baking tray, lay the potatoes out flat with enough room that they aren’t touching each other and drizzle the olive oil and balsamic vinegar over them.

6. Sprinkle the salt and place int he oven for 20-25 minutes until they have started to crisp, without burning.

7. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Guacamole - The key to a good guacamole is the balance between it’s acidity and it’s creamy texture, once you’ve worked you’ve perfected your recipe you’ll never buy it again.

Ingredients

1 Medium Avocado, ripe (keep the stone handy)

Juice of 1/2 a lime

1/4 Medium Red Onion, diced

1/2 Red Chili, diced

1 Small Clove Garlic, minced

Salt, to taste

Method

1. In a bowl half mash the avocado and pour over the lime juice and let rest for a couple of minutes.

2. Once the acid in the lime has to got to work on the avocado, mash it further and add the onion, chili and garlic.

3. Taste and add salt and extra lime juice as needed.

4. To keep overnight, wedge the avocado stone into to the guac and refridgerate in an airtight container.

Coleslaw - This coleslaw is incredibly simple, but in all honesty I’ve found over complicating it makes it taste strange, rather than good.

Ingredients

1 cup white cabbage, diced

1/2 Large Carrot, peeled and diced

1/4 Golden Delicious Apple, diced

1/2 Cup Veganaise

2 Tbsp Cider Vinegar

Salt, to taste

Method

1. In a bowl mix the cabbage, carrot and apple.  When dicing these endeavour to get everything roughly the same size.

2. In another small bowl whisk together the veganaise, cider vinegar and a little salt to your preference.

3. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix.

Assembly

To assemble spread the bottom of your sandwich with the guacomole, add your preferred amount of sweet potato slices and top with coleslaw!

Speedy Three-Bean Salad

Head over to Oh She Glows to get the recipe for this, the only adjustment I would make is halving the amount of Dijon mustard as otherwise it can overbalance the recipe a little.

Broccoli and Pea Green Salad - This salad is crunchy, refreshing and has a nice asian twist.

Salad

1/2 Tbsp Chia Seeds

1/2 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

200g Tenederstem Broccoli, sliced

1/2 cup Frozen Peas

2 handfuls Spinach

25g Watercress shoots

Dressing

Juice of 1/2 a lime

2 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil

1.5 cm piece of Ginger, peeled and grated

Method

1. Heat a small frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the Chia seeds and Sesame seeds, tossing until toasted.  Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

2. Bring a large pan of water to boil and blanch the broccoli and frozen peas for 2 minutes.

3. Drain the vegetables and rinse with cold water to arrest the cooking process.

5. In a small bowl whisk the lime, sesame oil and ginger until mixed.

4. In a large bowl combine the all the dry ingredients and drizzle the dressing over, tossing to coat.

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies - Based off this super simple recipe at One Green Planet, I made a few adjustments.  Check out the original and the Frontier Daydream version below!

Makes 16 Cookies

Ingredients

1 Flax Egg (1 tablespoon Flax Seed + 3 tbsp warm water)

1/2 cup Mashed Banana

1 Cup Smooth Peanut Butter

1/2 Cup Coconut Sugar

1 Tsp Vanilla

3 Tbsp Almond Milk

1/2 Tbsp Salt

1/2 Tsp Bicarbonate Soda

1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Cup Coconut Flour

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.

2. Make your ‘egg’ by combining 1 tbsp of ground flax seed and 3 tbsp of warm water.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes until it’s gelatnized.  Meanwhile prepare the rest of the dough.  In a large mixing bowl, combine mashed banana, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla.  Mix well using a fork or whisk.  When your flax egg is ready, add to the bowl alongside the milk.  Mix to combine, throw in the salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and flour.

3. Mix very well using a wooden spoon, ensuring there are no clumps of dry ingredients.

4. Spoon balls of cookie dough onto a non-stick baking sheet, and flatten gently with a fork.  Bake at 180 degrees for 10-12 minutes until they look firm and golden.

Now get on your way, find a good view and sit back and enjoy!

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It was in Spring last year that I watched Vice’s short documentary on the Daquiri culture found in New Orleans.  I’d always liked Daquiris, Saturday brunches after big nights out are regularly started with a banana daquiri, but I hadn’t ever realised that pretty much anything frozen with booze in it could share the same name, and it was that that made me crave something I hadn’t had in a long time - an original daquiri.

Legend goes that the Daquiri was invented in the early 20th century by Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer, in Santiago, Cuba when no other ingredients for an afternoon cocktail were on hand.  The original recipe only called for rum, citrus and sugar, a vigorous stirring and a glass of packed ice.  In the 1940s the popularity of the Daquiri exploded through America, due to rationing on whiskey and vodka and trade through the Caribbean opening up meaning an endless supply of rum.  It should also be mentioned that this was writing legend Ernest Hemingway’s favourite drink.

These days anything that’s put in a blender with rum, ice and an assortment of fruit is pretty much designated as a frozen daquiri.  Whilst all those are delicious, there’s something about the combination of lime, sugar and rum on their own that I find a thousand times more refreshing.  Now, my daquiri is certainly not one for the tradionalists.  For one, I don’t use sugar but instead sugar syrup.  This is pretty much a timesaving measure, and when it’s a 25 degree day and all you want is icy drunken goodness all adherence to tradition goes out of the window.  I also choose to use a golden rum instead of a white rum, purely out of preference - I’m sure you could sub in whatever you wanted, even something spiced and disgusting and it would still come out pretty great. 

Before I get into the recipe I want to throw out a recommended purchase which is certainly great for making daquiris but will also make your general cooking life easier.  Hand Lime Squeezers (as seen a couple of images above) are the best things ever for juicing a lime.  Simply slice that bad boy in half and crush straight into the glass!  They also come in lemon and orange sizes, so if you really feel like it you can collect the whole set.  You can grab them from catering equipment supplies like Nisbets for around £5.99 - get yours here.  An ice crusher would also definitely come in handy.

So here we go - the most refreshing cocktail on the menu. The Daquiri.  Serve in a short glass!

Ingredients

Juice of half a lime
2 oz Golden Rum

0.5 oz Sugar Syrup

Crushed Ice to fill glass

Method

1. Juice half a lime straight into your glass

2. Add 25ml of sugar syrup

3. Add 100ml Golden Rum

4. Pack glass with crushed ice

5. Stir and try not to drink the whole thing instantly, like I do.

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The French call the tomato ‘pomme d’amour’, the apple of love, and these juicy red badboys are good for you in a fuck tonne of different ways.  Full of vitamins C and E and rich in antioxidants they help prevent heart disease, support bone health and are known for their anti-cancer benefits (specifically combatting prostate cancer, which understandably I think we would all like to avoid).  

You can make a load of great things with these tasty morsels from a biting and refreshing Panzanella, to a nourishing soup to a truly killer Bloody Mary.  Today we’re going to focus on one of our kitchen staples - The Red or Dead pasta sauce.  

Being a young couple working in the city, getting up early and coming home (at times, very) late, our household eats a reasonable amount of pasta.  To avoid boredom and insanity we try and change it up quite a lot, through experience we’ve found it's really convenient to have a decent base sauce from which to build from and this is our go-to.  From it I’ve been known to construct the likes of lentil bolognese and lasagna, however to be honest it’s pretty damn good on it’s own.  The trick is letting the vegetables char in the oven just enough so that you get a hint of charcoal flavour through the dish.  It’s quite variable so feel free to throw in what you have the fridge, celery and carrots work particularly well and a handful of mushrooms never goes amiss!

We make this at least 4 times a month, and I’ll often stockpile a batch or two in the freezer making those late night home cooked dinners just that little bit easier!

Red or Dead Pasta Sauce
Makes 3 Cups | Serves 4

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time 1 hour

Ingredients:

12 Tomatoes, sliced widthways

2 Red Peppers, quartered

1 Red Onion, quartered

1 Courgette (or zucchini for our friends across the pond), trimmed & sliced lengthways

5 Garlic Cloves, Large

3 Tsp Salt

5 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 Cup Basil, packed
500g Wholewheat Spaghetti

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

2. Across 2 large baking dishes, spread the vegetables making sure each has enough space (it can be a tight squeeze, this is just to maximise surface area for char), place the garlic gloves, skin on, anywhere you like

3. Drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle the salt over the vegetables

4. Place in oven at 200 degrees for 45-50 minutes, until a decent char has appeared on the onion, tomatoes and peppers.

5. Place a pan of salted water on the stove on a high heat to boil for the spaghetti.

6. Remove from oven and let sit until the garlic cloves are cool enough to handle, once you can pick them up squeeze them into the blender followed by all the vegetables.  I like to add around 1/3 of the olive oil and cooking juices from the dish.  Add the balsamic vinegar and basil.

7. Add the spaghetti to the pan.

8. Puree for around 30-60 seconds, depending on the consistency you’re looking for from your sauce.  Test and adjust the vinegar and salt to taste.

9. Once the spaghetti has cooked, drain and return to the pan.  Add around half a cup of the sauce to the spaghetti and stir to coat.

10. Serve piled with the rest of the sauce on top.  I recommend then covering liberally in Nutritional Yeast for an excellent cheesy topping.

You seemingly can’t swing a bag of beans without hitting an independent coffee shop in London these days, which is certainly a great thing considering the watery brown sludge the major high street chains serve.  The hardest part now is choosing exactly where to get your caffeine fix from and the choice then comes down to proximity, though I would certainly go out of my way to grab a coffee from the second oldest working Gaggia in London.

Located in a small railway arch on Voltaire Road, immediately to the right of the Clapham High Street Overground entrance, Doctor Espresso - Mama V’s serves up delicious hot (or if you ask nicely, iced) cups of java.  Beginning life as an espresso machine servicing workshop in 1987, owner Russel Kerr opened the first Doctor Espresso caffe in Putney with it's second outpost being today’s stop  - Mama V’s.

It doesn’t take much detective work to figure out that the aesthetic of a place is just as important to me as anything else and upon entering I wasn’t disappointed!  Entering under the beaming neon logo we were greeted by a gorgeous bar of wood and glass bricks flanked by two leafy green plants, and the aforementioned Gaggia shining proudly on the counter in the afternoon sunshine.  A recessed chrome frame sofa full of curves sits in the corner not occupied by the bar and a row of seating faces out of the glass windows looking onto the street, however being that it was a sunny day once we’d placed our orders (one soy latte and one iced black americano) we decided to retire to the outside seating area.

After a short wait grabbing some Vitamin D from the Easter sunlight, soundtracked by the growl of a blender, I was in proud possession of the best iced americano I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting.  A thick crema coated the top, whilst the drink itself had a lovely rich flavour with none of the biting acidity that’s so often the case with many iced espresso drinks.  I have it on firm authority that the Soy Latte was also absolutely delicious.  There was also a nice selection of pastries on offer, however they looked pretty resplendent in their dairy content so we didn’t partake, but if that’s your jam I think you’d be pretty satisfied.

Work out your route to Dr Espresso Mama V’s via the power of Google Maps here.

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