Vegan Family House

January 4, 2021January 4, 2021

Two Vegan Books! One Novel!

The first vegan book is Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t by Sean O’Callaghan of the well known Fat Gay Vegan blog.

We LOVE this book. It’s political but it’s also deeply personal, containing many stories from the lives of Sean and other contributors. The book is about how to be vegan, but it’s more about how to be a better vegan, and really it’s about how to be a better person. And we can all work on that.

It’s refreshing to read a vegan book that tackles how minorities and traditionally oppressed voices are treated, even within the vegan community. We have experienced and witnessed shocking able-ism and racism in our 21 years as vegans, and yes, sadly, sometimes from vegans. It weakens the movement. It weakens the world. It needs to end.

And we can all check our privilege. We can all watch our language. Some in this house have, upon occasion, described various unfortunate things as ‘crazy’. Not good, Vegan Family House, not good.

So it’s a challenging book, a personally challenging book, but it’s in no way downbeat or depressing. Although forthright, it’s written with a compassionate sense of humour. It’s empowering. Why should we shut up and put up about our veganism to please or appease non-vegan friends and relatives? At the end of each chapter there are little refuelling stops with delicious and simple recipes and food suggestions. And in the final chapter Sean predicts a world that continues to become more vegan, and perhaps more importantly, more kind.

Here it is on Amazon (out tomorrow Jan 4th).

And now, for a practical guide from Veganuary!

For those who don’t know, Veganuary is a charity that encourages people to go vegan for January and the rest of the year. And this is their compelling guide. It’s so persuasive that apparently the proof-reader went vegan!

The book has sections on why you should be vegan, with warnings of graphic content that you can choose to read or not, and then being vegan at home, when out, visiting friends, answering questions, and everyday foods you maybe didn’t know were vegan. It’s a very good starting point for anyone who is thinking of going vegan and wondering how to go about it and how hard/easy it will be.

And here it is on Amazon.

Enjoy your vegan reading!

And… not a vegan book, but it’s by a vegan:

The Mermaid and the Bear, a novel by Ailish Sinclair

Escape to 1596 with THE MERMAID AND THE BEAR! Exchange lockdowns for witchcraft accusations! Live in a castle, visit the stone circle and taste the Twelfth Night Cake…

See more recommendations for vegan books from us here.

December 23, 2020December 23, 2020

Christmas Frazzle: when things get too hectic

We’ve reached that Christmas frazzle time when, regardless of how simple your planned festivities are, everything becomes really hectic. So: frazzle style crisps on a plate. It is a festive plate though. And people are happily gobbling up their Tesco salt and vinegar twists as happily as they gobbled down the fancier snacks 🙂 Moral of the crisps on a plate? Don’t try too hard, don’t tire yourself out: enjoy Christmas.

Take a little walk on the beach. Breathe. Eat some crisps.

Today’s recipe: Gluten Free Mini Chocolate Yule Logs

See all Christmas Dish posts

See all Christmas recipes

The Mermaid and the Bear, the perfect read for Christmas!

Escape Christmas 2020 with THE MERMAID AND THE BEAR! Exchange lockdowns for witchcraft accusations! Live in a castle, visit the stone circle and taste the Twelfth Night Cake…

December 21, 2020December 21, 2020

Solstice Pudding Truffles! #vegan #plantbased #raw

Chocolate Truffles (rawish): Blend or food process up two handfuls of mixed nuts and 2 handfuls of raisins with a heaped teaspoon of cocoa. Roll the mix into little balls. We then put them in the freezer for ten minutes while we melted the white and dark chocolate in Bain Maries. This meant the chocolate set really quickly when spooned onto the cold puddings rather than running everywhere.

So: spoon the melted chocolate over the top and decorate with pumpkin seeds and chopped dried cranberry. Yum!

The truffles are now nestled happily in the Christmas Dish 🙂

Recipe for today: mini pizza bites

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The Mermaid and the Bear, historical fiction set in Scotland

THE MERMAID AND THE BEAR (a novel by Lucy, written under her pen name), has six whole chapters of medieval Christmas, making it the perfect festive gift! Also: romance, witches, and a Scottish castle…

December 14, 2020December 14, 2020

Fabulous Vegan Fudge and Chocolate Raisins!

From the Fabulous Freedom Factory comes this fabulous vegan fudge and these Chocolate Covered Raisins. Incredibly delicious.

Festive recipe: Carrot, Coriander and Ginger Soup

See all Christmas Dish posts.

See all Christmas recipes.

Oh, and we’re on Instagram now!

December 12, 2020December 12, 2020

Eating Vegan Trifle, Reading and Sunsets

Eating: a simple trifle made of bananas in vegan jelly, topped with thick custard and this rather nice provamel cream (we were lucky enough to find a few of these cheaply on Approved Food recently). There’s a more detailed trifle recipe on the Vegan Christmas page.

Reading: Manda Scott’s Boudica series.

Looking at: wintry sunsets.

December 8, 2020December 8, 2020

Vegan Christmas Cake, a Christmas Dish Post

Co-op Free From Christmas Cake Bites. Christmas is still a little frazzled… Here’s the enormous Christmas tree at the Old Auction Rooms in Strichen (vegan cake usually available there too):

Today’s recipe: really simple trifle

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See all Christmas recipes

December 4, 2020December 4, 2020

A Festive Soup: Carrot, Coriander and Ginger

This festive soup is such a bright and flavourful recipe, it would make a good addition to any Christmas meal!

Ingredients (for four):
a little olive oil
8 carrots, scraped and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
a stick of celery, chopped
1 small potato, diced small
2 inch square of fresh ginger, peeled and cut up
1 tablespoon of dried coriander (you could use fresh but it will make the soup go a bit green/brown in colour)
6 or 7 cloves of garlic, crushed or sliced (or even thrown in whole)
a handful of cashew nuts
water as needed
seasalt to taste

In a large pan, fry off the onion, carrot and celery until softened. Add the potato, ginger, coriander, garlic and nuts and cover with water. Bring to the boil and turn down to a simmer for about 20 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. Add salt to taste and then blend it all up! Delicious 🙂

If you liked this festive soup recipe, see all our Christmas and Yule fare here.

November 26, 2020November 26, 2020

Chestnut Roast for Christmas or Thanksgiving

A very nice chestnut roast, the sweet spiciness of the nuts making it quite different in flavour to our cashew and walnut ones. Serves four generously.

Fry off 2 large red onions and 4 sticks of celery, both roughly chopped. Add in seven cloves (or less, up to you) of finely chopped garlic and a good bunch of fresh rosemary, scissored in.

Once the above has softened add a jar or tin of chestnut puree and stir until dissolved. Add a little water (about half a cupful) before mixing in a cup of Orgran Rice Crumbs (or other bread crumbs) and a couple of tablespoonfuls of gluten-free flour. Salt to taste.

Place in an oiled loaf tin and bake at 200C for at least half an hour or until firm. Yum. Slices well cold the next day for chestnut roast sandwiches or salads too.

For more roast recipes, see Vegan Christmas or Yule

The tree picture is dark and creepy today, but still brighter than the weather.

November 25, 2020November 25, 2020

Lentil Walnut Roast – gluten free

This lentil walnut roast is delicious, nutrient dense and slices very well cold the next day for sandwiches too. Quantities are for a large loaf serving four generous roast dinner portions with leftovers:

Ingredients:

a cupful of lentils. For some reason organic ones cook much faster and just seem generally nicer. Buying the 3kg bags makes them cost about the same as the harder darker orange supermarket ones.
4 sticks of celery, finely diced
1 red and 1 green pepper, also diced
a 200g bag of walnuts, blitzed in blender or food processor
half a pack of Orgran Rice Crumbs (so 150g)
a tablespoon of fresh chopped herbs, I used rosemary and sage
2 tablespoons of gluten-free flour
small handful of sunflower seeds and some for sprinkling on top
seasalt to taste

Method:

Place lentils in a pan, cover with water and bring to boil. Turn down to a simmer and add the vegetables until everything is cooked. Mix in the walnuts and crumbs, add more water if the mixture is too stiff but you don’t want it runny at all. Add the herbs, flour, seeds and salt and mix well. Press the mixture into a greased loaf tin, sprinkle more seeds on top and bake in the oven at 200C/400F for about an hour.

For more roast recipes, see Vegan Christmas or Yule

November 18, 2020November 18, 2020

A Mheaty Vegan Roast!

There’s nothing quite like a vegan roast dinner, is there? Pictured above is a very delicious Mheat fillet from Sgaia’s Vegan Meats, stuffed with mushroom risotto and wrapped in puff pastry. Everybody loved it. Everybody wanted more. Served with baby broad beans, asparagus and a garlic and rosemary roast tomato, it made a very good meal and would be a good festive choice.

The fillet itself is really meaty, being made with wheat gluten, though less dense and solid than some seitan products we’ve tried, making it simple to stuff and wrap. Unlike tofu, mheat is flavoursome to begin with, savoury and salty. It’s also a good size, easily feeding four people. If you need a mushroom risotto recipe there’s one on the Yule page in the midst of Cat’s ‘Now that’s what I call a Christmas dinner’ mushroom parcel.

You can read more about the artisan made, small batch Mheat products on Sgaia’s website here