2023 Vegan Storecupboard Challenge

Sun_Addict

I’d like to dip into this challenge as I’m 90% vegan. Not eaten meat for well over 30 years and not touched eggs, milk, butter and margarine since I was 5 (a VERY long time ago 😆). I get a lot of my vegan recipes from the Deliciously Ella app but there are lots out there. I have an extensive stock of various vegan store cupboard items that I definitely need to use up before they go out of date so hoping to get some inspiration. Mr SA is a diehard carnivore so the vegan cooking is just for me, although he did express an interest in my mushroom nut roast yesterday as he thought it smelled delicious. 

KajiKita

leftatthetrafficlights said:

Just an additional- I've just made red lentil pancakes stuffed with leftover pasta sauce and it was lovely! 

Red lentil pancakes- makes up to 6 depending on preferred thickness:
soak 1 cup red lentils in 2 cups water for 3-4 hours. Blend the lentils and soakwater until smooth(I have a high powered blender but as long as you give it a bit of time a normal blender will be fine) then cook as normal pancakes. 

Pasta sauce was made from onions, garlic, courgettes, tomatoes and basil cooked then blitzed to which I added caperberries and chopped black olives.  

Lay a pancake on a plate, spoon the pasta sauce on one third of the pancake then roll.

Pancakes are absolutely dirt cheap to make and you could fill with anything really - chilli, bolognese etc - and if you really want to you could sprinkle some vegan cheese over the top and grill until melted. 😁 

This is *just* the sort of ‘real’ cooking / food I am looking for. Soooo stealing this ….! 🤩😊👏😂 Thank you 😀

KK

KajiKita

Small update from me.

Mr KK started to prep for improving the lighting in the cellar for me this afternoon. He’s realised that if he just unclips the cable and relocates the fluorescent tube we have above and slightly behind the shelves I am trying to use, to the wall at right angles to the shelves I won’t be working in shadow anymore  - yaay 😊 He’s promised to do this job first thing tomorrow and then I can get stuck in to sorting that whole area out and making it usable!

KK

leftatthetrafficlights

@Sun_Addict welcome aboard! 😁 

@KajiKita - that's brilliant news that Mr KK has worked out how to sort your lighting! 🙌 it makes life so much easier when you can see what you have and organise it to suit you! 😁 

Today we're eating the bubble and squeak that I made a couple of days ago- I'll have mine with cranberry sauce as for me that is the only way to eat it! 😋  

Next on the list will be the roasted cauliflower with lemon caper dark speckled lentils and harissa hommous- I'll put the recipe and method up when I make it 😁

KajiKita

Good morning @leftatthetrafficlights 😊 I’m very chuffed that he come up with this as head space is so restricted there (it’s more of an undercroft than a proper cellar but still a useful space) and the only other options were spots we would have to duck and dive around. I’m looking forward to the roasted cauliflower recipe …. <rubs hands in anticipation> 😊

I’m on leftovers today too. At lunch today I’m going to slice and fry up a couple of stuffing balls, along with half a packet of vegan bacon that got slung in the freezer a few days ago after lunch then, along with a small tin of plum tomatoes and the heel of a loaf liberally spread with marmite peanut butter 😊

Dinner tonight will be another piece of the Christmas vegan wellington that I picked up on Christmas Eve from M0rrisons - not amazing but better than last year’s effort. (As an aside, I shall be booking 3 days leave some time in December next year to make myself a Christmas dinner centrepiece from scratch, rather than having to rely on supermarket bung-in-the-ovens for a change). We will have that either with HM potato salad (using up the last of the spring onions) or frozen chips and salad (using up the last of the spring onions! 😂). 

KK 

gill5blue

Brilliant challenge.
I do a list now and again but I think I will update it monthly.
I have done a list before and put the 'syn' value next to the items for my slimming world journey, and it helped my choices.
I am out today but looking forward to creating my list tomorrow.
good luck all.
gill5blue

Sun_Addict

@KajiKita is the wellington the frozen one? If so let us know what you think of it as I have one in my freezer. Morrisons sent it me by mistake a few weeks ago, I’d ordered beer battered cod for Mr SA and got this instead, it wasn’t even a sub 😆

PurpleJay

@KajiKita I made the Bosh mushroom wellington for the second year running and it is truly delicious. Last year I made it in advance on christmas eve but this year I made it on the day. We had brunch about 10.30am and then around 12 I made the wellington and prepped the veg for after our dog walk. It was easy to pull everything together once we got back. I am only cooking for 2 and there are 6 good portions so we had it again yesterday with leftover veg and chips and there is still 2 portions left. 

Here is the recipie. 

https://www.bosh.tv/recipes/bosh-classic-mushroom-wellington

jokono

I went through the cupboards yesterday, binned some 🤭 and updated the inventory in my post on the first page. We'll check the freezers tomorrow. I wanted to mark in red what I need to use asap but annoyingly I couldn't find a way to change the text colour. 

The red lentil pancakes sound very interesting, I think I'll make some for lunch tomorrow. Also looking forward to the roast cauliflower, I love cauli in general. I've been through the previous posts - I finished the 2022 one and still reading the older one - and there's lots of amazin inspo there. I notice your recipes are varied and very elaborate, you must love and enjoy cooking. For me it's more like a chore, my go to meals are savoury oats for breakfast (I rarely have breakfast though), beans and greens on jacket for lunch and rice with dal/curry for dinner.

I have 12 packets of tofu I need to use by April, someone had loads of 12pk cases was giving away on olio. It says 'silken tofu firm' on it, I thought silken was not firm? Anyway, I found your millet and tofu bake at the beginning of the old thread, I will make that soon and see how firm (or not) the tofu is.

leftatthetrafficlights

Welcome @gill5blue and @PurpleJay! 😁 

@jokono - I do love cooking 😁 I find it very relaxing and I love being creative in the kitchen so it's never a chore for me...

Silken tofu is not firm - some are firmer than others but definitely not the proper 'firm' stuff - it's best used for desserts/sauces or, my personal favourite,  tofu scramble 😁 If you have room in your freezer, don't be afraid to freeze it - it actually does very well and the texture firms up a bit so may be better if you're attempting to bake it 😉 The best tofu for firmness is the Tofoo brand - I love it and it really keeps its shape! 

@KajiKita - my 'go to' solstice centrepiece used to be portobello mushrooms wrapped in filo pastry - wipe the mushroom then cook for 5-10 minutes in vegan butter. Lay out a few leaves of the filo pastry and place the cooked mushroom cap down in the middle of the sheets. Add a dollop of stuffing in the centre of the mushroom then a spoonful of either cranberry sauce or redcurrant jelly on top of the stuffing. Bring the sides of the filo up around the mushrooms and twist. Brush the pastry with vegan butter and bake for around 20 -25 minutes at around 170- 180. Serve with the usual veg.