2023 Vegan Storecupboard Challenge

KajiKita

I have been down to the cellar (aka The Shop! 😂) to ferret out a jar of plum jam, made by my MiL from our plums to have with my breakfast. I can report that it is lush ❤️

KK

KajiKita

Made a chickpea flour pancake for dinner, with poppy, cumin and chia seeds and after the batter soaked for an hour or so, added some chopped homegrown shallots 😊 Served it with chopped, fried, left over chestnut mushrooms into which I mixed grated smoked tofu to which I added a little miso. Had all that with tinned plum tomatoes on the side. Really nice 😊 

The good thing about all this is that I have nearly got to the end of my chickpea flour and it’s still in date! (That doesn’t keep beyond date - I find it goes rancid.) Quite chuffed 😊

KK

Sun_Addict

I’ve got a bag of chickpea flour to use up, might need to check the date 😬

weenancyinAmerica

My problem is that I don't like any foods - I have a terrible time cooking. I am very interested in vegan recipes, but I just can't make myself prepare much. If I have oatmeal for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and a jacket potato with something on it, I have reached my limited. What would you recommend for someone who is just beginning to cook vegan meals?

Sun_Addict

weenancyinAmerica said:

My problem is that I don't like any foods - I have a terrible time cooking. I am very interested in vegan recipes, but I just can't make myself prepare much. If I have oatmeal for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and a jacket potato with something on it, I have reached my limited. What would you recommend for someone who is just beginning to cook vegan meals?

I would say have a look at the Deliciously Ella website to get a few ideas. Also the Happy Pear. 

weenancyinAmerica

@Sun_Addict. I will check them out. I actually have 4 roommates, but we never eat together because of strange work schedules and weird food habits. So making food for one hasn't worked too well for me. People on here are so enthusiastic about cooking and seem to enjoy it. 

KajiKita

weenancyinAmerica said:

My problem is that I don't like any foods - I have a terrible time cooking. I am very interested in vegan recipes, but I just can't make myself prepare much. If I have oatmeal for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and a jacket potato with something on it, I have reached my limited. What would you recommend for someone who is just beginning to cook vegan meals?

What sort of flavours and textures do you like? Rich and dense with heft, or light and refreshing? Spicy or subtle? Chilli or not?

KK

weenancyinAmerica

Rich and dense in winter (lots of thick barley soup this year), light and refreshing in summer; not too spicy or the hiatal hernia acts up, love onions if cooked - raw are a problem, and the doctor tells me to try and avoid chilli or anything really spicy. What do people start with? What you recommend if a teacher asked what to cook for a school lesson that it is not too hard? I'm 75, but still really at the learner level when it comes to cooking. Or maybe back to it, as tired of cooking most of the time.

leftatthetrafficlights

Happy New Year everyone!! 🥳 

@KajiKita - I'll be investing in some masking tape for the new year, all the labels etc I have used over the years have never worked for me so fingers crossed the masking tape is the charm! 😁 The plum jam sounds lovely- I have a stupid amount of hm jam in the house which I really need to use up but as I'm trying to reduce my sugar intake to lose some weight it's going to have to stay put until the scales say that I can dabble again 😉 That chickpea pancake sounds lush! 

I never worry about the dates on my chickpea flour - as soon as I buy it it goes into a lock box and has never gone off. I use it when I make seitan, onion bahjis and I used to have a recipe for savoury muffins which made for my grandbaby (must see if I can find it again 🤔) so don't use lots of the stuff. 

@weenancyinAmerica - for something easy and that will do a couple of meals I would suggest red lentil dhal with rice; chop an onion and sweat it off in oil, add some ground cumin, ground coriander and ground ginger (or any other mild spices you like) and coat the onions. Add some red lentils and mix, pour in veg stock to cover by about 1 inch and stir. Keep on a medium to low heat stirring regularly and adding additional stock if the mixture gets too think. Takes around 20 mins of cooking and the lentils go mushy. Serve with rice (it's also good with any other grain, potatoes, flatbreads, used as a dip etc) Add sides of yoghurt, chutney etc if desired. 

You can do a similar thing with any sort of lentils; add herbs as opposed to spices if you prefer and you can change the flavour every time you cook them. 

KajiKita

Let me know how you get on with the masking tape 😊

I am feeling virtuous. I have a Jack Monroe(ish) ‘chilli non carne’ for work lunches bubbling away on the hob with two tins of chopped tomatoes, a tin of aduki beans (out of date), butter beans (also ood and I didn’t have any kidney beans 😉🤷‍♀️), 2 packets of shredded Jackfruit (also ood) and two homegrown onions, all out of the cellar or store. The only recently bought ingredient is the garlic. All the spices, vinegar and chocolate came from various scattered stocks I already had and the red wine came from the bottle Mr KK got from his boss for Christmas, that apparently isn’t that good …. 😉

KK