Lentil soup

I’ve been making this soup for many years. It’s very simple and you can feel it doing you good.

250g brown lentils
5 cups cold water
1 onion diced
½ capsicum (red or green) diced
2 tomatoes diced
Oil
1 ½ cups stock
2 tbl vinegar

Cook lentils in water. Saute onion, capsicum and tomato in oil. Add to cooked lentils and cooking liquid. Add stock and vinegar. Cook approx 30 mins.

What matters?

I have been trying to avoid products containing palm oil. Consumption of palm oil is unhealthy and its production devastates the environment and kills animals (including orangutans and gorillas). Palm oil is in everything! I thought eliminating it from my diet at least was straightforward – I don’t usually eat processed foods except for margarine …

… at the world vegan day last weekend I discovered that nuttelex uses palm oil. In checking this on the web I further found that apparently nuttelex also contained a (very small) amount of vitamin D3 derived from wool. I spent a bit of time looking into this and concluded that this claim is not true – all nuttelex ingredients are derived from plant sources. But it really struck me how much time this checking wasted, and how much time all the other people who had been researching the topic had spent (contributing to forums, writing to the manufacturer, searching the topic).

Being vegan is not to be individually implicated in animal cruelty, but it is also to strive towards an end to all animal suffering. It’s virtually impossible to be totally vegan – so many products that we might assume to be innocuous actually use animal products (e.g. rubber, glue). It’s important to be vigilant about these animal by-products, after all they contribute to the profitability of the slaughter industry. But a focus on the bigger issues of animal testing, animal slaughter and habitat destruction seems to be what is really important. It’s not a matter of who is the strictest vegan – researching the use of minor ingredients (sometimes in only homeopathic-like percentages of the product), rather than focusing on the main causes of animal suffering, seems an ineffective use of time.

I won’t be using nuttelex anymore. Not because of any doubts about its vegan credentials, but because of the suffering palm oil production causes to animals.

Biscuits

Who said vegan had to be healthy?

1 ½ cups flour
½ cup cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup margarine
½ cup icing sugar

Cream margarine and sugar. Combine flour, cornflour and baking powder. Add to margarine mixture. Mix to a firm dough (add water if necessary). Roll out to 5mm thickness. Cut into shapes and place on lined/greased baking tray. Bake at 180C (350F) for approx 10 mins until bases are light brown. Cool on cake cooler. Ice half with vanilla icing. Place raspberry jam on the other half. Sandwich together.

Leek and Potato Soup

Another chickpea recipe …

400g cooked chickpeas
3 potatoes
3 leeks finely sliced
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic finely sliced
Salt
Pepper
650ml stock

Cook leeks and garlic with salt in olive oil until very soft. Add chick peas and potatoes and cook one minute. Add stock and simmer 15 mins – adding more stock if too dry.Puree mixture until smooth (I have also mashed quite successfully - just a bit chunkier). Add pepper to taste.

Vegetable Pasties

The other food I can’t resist are savoury pastries (ok, I admit it’s the tomato sauce I really like).

Pastry
1 ½ cups flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
Salt
½ cup margarine
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
½ cup iced water

Filling
1 tbl oil
½ cup diced onion
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp allspice
½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne
Salt
2 large cloves of garlic minced
¾ cup coconut milk
¼ cup diced carrots
¼ cup diced potatoes
½ cup green peas
½ cup sweet corn
½ cup shredded cabbage
1 tbl minced fresh thyme
1 tbl lemon juice
Pepper

Combine flours with turmeric and salt. Rub in margarine until resembles breadcrumbs. Combine water and vinegar. Add to the dry ingredients a little at a time until the mixture forms a ball of dough. Wrap and refrigerate.

Cook the onion, cinnamon, allspice, cumin, paprika, cayenne and salt in the oil until soft and caramelised. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the coconut milk, carrots and potatoes and cook covered over a low heat until tender. Add the peas, corn cabbage, thyme and lemon juice. Cook until soft. Add pepper and cool.Roll out the dough sufficient to make at least 4x6 inch circles (I used a bowl). Place 2 tbl of filling in the centre of one half of each circle. Fold the other half over and press to seal (use water if necessary). Decorate the edges with a fork and place a slit in the top. Bake on a greased tray (or use baking paper) at 350F for approx 35 minutes. Serve hot with tomoto sauce.

Falafel

400g cups cooked chickpeas
4 spring onions chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
3 tbl parsley chopped
1 tbl mint chopped
½ tsp cayenne
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
½ tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbl flour

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until a thick paste. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Form into small balls and fry in oil until brown (can also be cooked in the oven).

Hoummus

I love chickpeas and make hoummus most weekends. We usually eat it with flatbread but lately have been making falafels as well and rolling them up in bread with the hoummus, lettuce, spinach, cucumber, tomato, sprouts and (the best bit) grated beetroot.

400g cups cooked chickpeas
Water
2 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic
½ cup tahini
1/3 cup lemon juice

Blend/puree chickpeas with enough water to make a thick paste. Blend in crushed garlic and salt. Add tahini and lemon juice alternately. Adjust quantities to taste.