Recipe: Strawgo Cheesecake

Strawgo Cheesecake is a great recipe, which is quick, easy and involves no cooking! A sure quick fire dessert to impress at any time of the year.

Michael and Victoria

Ingredients for vegan Strawgo cheesecake

• 500ml tub of Strawgo
• Half a packet of vegan digestive biscuits
• 1-2 tablespoons of vegan margarine spread
• 1 punnet fresh strawberries
• 1 large mango - alphonso is preferable

How to make vegan Strawgo cheesecake

1. Put the vegan biscuits in a food processor until they turn to a light crumb texture
   • If you don't have a food processor or just want to do it without using one; just put into a sealed plastic bag and bang away with a rolling pin
2. Once you have your biscuit base in a light crumbly texture add in the margarine spread and mix together until the biscuits turn slightly darker and thicker in texture - your base is then ready
3. Pour into your baking try base and simple flatten and smooth with a spoon until compact
4. Now get your tub of Strawgo (to make the frozen fruit dessert easier to spread leave it to thaw for 5 minutes)
5. Once it has softened scoop it onto the base and smooth - Be quick otherwise it will melt
6. Finally top with your punnet of strawberries and sliced mango in whatever way you fancy - We like to do a mixture of leaving the chopped and whole strawberries with stalks for a more pretty effect
7. Cut up and serve
8. If you are not going to eat it straight away, pop the dish into the freezer and take out a few minutes before serving or serve frozen for a great frozen cake

Recipe and photo courtesy of Michael and Victoria

Recipe: Sugar-Free Hazelnut Spread

This recipe makes approximately 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients for hazelnut spread

• 1 cup organic hazelnuts - roasted
• 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons of organic cacao powder
• 3 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup of almond milk
• 1 tablespoon of organic coconut oil
• 1 pinch of sea salt

How to make vegan hazelnut spread

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F
2. Lay out the hazelnuts onto a baking sheet and pop in the oven for ten minutes
3. Watch them carefully as oven temperatures vary and these can go from perfectly fine to burnt quickly
4. Remove hazelnuts from oven
5. Using your fingers or a paper towel, remove skins from hazelnuts - they will come off easily but it doesn't need to be perfect
6. Place the hazelnuts in a food processor
7. Process at high speed for 2-3 minutes until you have a paste
8. Add coconut oil and process for another minute, until it looks smooth
9. Add all remaining ingredients, process for another 2-3 minutes until you have a creamy texture
10. At this point it will be quite thin and liquidy
11. Place it into a jar (I use mason jars) and refrigerate for one hour
12. Remove from fridge and it will be a spreadable texture

If you store this in the pantry, it will remain fresh for about 2 weeks. I like to make it in small batches so we never get to the point that it’s gone bad because we didn't use it quickly enough.

Use the spread on your favourite baked goods, fresh fruit (like apple slices) or on sprouted grain bread.

Recipe and photo courtesy of Sophia.

Recipe: Unleavened Fougasse with Rosemary

Fougasse is a traditional Provençal flattish bread which is similar to Focaccia. This recipe serves 1

Ingredients for vegan unleavened Fougasse

• 100g of wheat flour
• 4g of Baking powder
• 10g of Olive oil
• 50g of water
• 0.5g of Rosemary
• 0.5g of salt

How to make vegan unleavened Fougasse

1. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together in a large bowl
2. Add the water and oil and mix vigorously until you are able to form the dough into small balls
3. Flatten out the balls of dough on a flat surface
4. Oil them on both sides and sprinkle with the rosemary
5. Bake them on a floured baking sheet for 25 mins, or more if a crisper crust is desired

To create a leaf pattern in the bread use a sharp knife or pastry scraper to create a slit down the middle of the bread, as well as, five slits on either side of it. Carefully separate the slits open to create a more prominent design.

Recipe courtesy of Constantin. Translation courtesy of Sarah.

What motivates you to eat differently? Fear, conscience, fitness or something else?

Reasons for eating differently

I have met people at different stages in their life who have chosen to eat differently for various reasons. Here's some examples

• Pregnancy - to maintain good health
• Weight - to gain or lose some
• Allergies - to minimise or nullify it
• Intolerances - to reduce or remove the effects of it
• Illnesses - to reverse, cure or pacify it
• Detox - to feel better
• Vibrancy - to feel less lethargic and more energetic

What does Alicia Silverstone have to say about shifting to a vegan diet?

Within 4 minutes, Alicia Silverstone discusses the pros of eating differently, reasons that fuel a change in diet, the visible benefits of shifting to a vegan diet and more.

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"People should flirt with a plant-based diet! The point here is that it's not all or nothing. You can sort of play with the idea and see if you like it a little. Often, the more you flirt, the more you want to flirt. Flirters try on these foods and hopefully become so into them they stick with it."
- Alicia Silverstone

Recipe: Houmous

This recipe serves 1.

Ingredients for vegan houmous

• 15g of dried chick peas
• 20g of lemon juice
• 10g of Rapeseed oil - also known as Canola oil
• 10g of Tahini

How to make vegan houmous

1. Soak the chick peas in cold water overnight
2. Rinse and cook until they are soft enough to purée
3. Mix the drained chick peas with the Tahini, lemon juice and oil
4. Blend the mixture
5. Add salt to taste

Note: the flavour and digestibility of chick peas is improved if they are peeled after cooking.

Recipe courtesy of Constantin. Translation courtesy of Sarah.

Can you eat a healthy plant-based diet whilst on a budget?

This video has a few comedy moments in it! Aside from those there are some huge positive, creative and realistic points to take away from it. It's 8 minutes long and the content shows us how we can eat really well without spending lots of money.

 “Every action has its pleasures and its price.” Socrates

Recipe: Pasta with a twist within 25 minutes

I didn't make this but I definitely enjoyed eating it! :)

This recipe serves 2.

Ingredients for the pasta

•    2/3 of a tablespoon of olive oil
•    3/4 of a bunch of broccoli – torn into edible sized pieces
•    1 fresh chilli – finely chopped
•    2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves – left whole
•    salt to taste
•    pepper to taste
•    8 cherry tomatoes – left whole
•    130g of pasta – I  use rigatoni
•    1/2 tablespoon of vegan margarine – I  use Pure sunflower margarine
•    2 carrots – grated
•    1 small (200g) can of sweetcorn
•    vegan sausage – thin circular slices – I  use Taifun Tofu-Wiener
•    1 tablespoon of salt – for the pasta

How to make the pasta

1.    Add the olive oil to a pan and heat it
2.    When it’s hot, add the broccoli let it cook for 2 minutes before adding the chill
3.    When the broccoli has become a little bit 'burnt', add the spinach, salt and pepper
4.    After 2 minutes, add the cherry tomatoes
5.    While this is cooking, boil some water and use it to boil the pasta in a separate pan
6.    Add the salt to the pasta and stir
7.    Check the pasta after 7 minutes and if it’s the way you like it, drain the water and add the pasta to the vegetables
8.    Add the margarine to the pan (with the vegetables and pasta in it) and stir
9.    To serve, create different sections on a plate, separating the carrots, sweetcorn and Wiener, and the pasta. 

Pasta served with grated carrots, sweetcorn and Wiener

Dr. Neal Barnard discusses the benefits of a plant-based diet

This video is about 9 minutes long. I consider it short for the amount of easily digestible information he covers.

Definitely worth watching.

Some points worth listening out for:-

• Diabetes
• Alzheimer's Disease
• Allergies
• Arthritis

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“Vegan diet reverses diabetes symptoms. Peo­ple that ate a low-fat vegan diet, cut­ting out all meat and dairy, low­ered their blood sugar more and lost more weight than peo­ple on a stan­dard Amer­i­can Dia­betes Asso­ci­a­tion diet.”
- Mag­gie Fox