Recipe: A quick, nutty, nourishing, energy giving, summery snack within 5 minutes

This is a super fast recipe for a sweet, nutty, nourishing, energy giving, summery snack. This recipe serves 1.

Ingredients for a summery snack

•    1 banana – chopped and mashed with a fork
•    1 handful of pine nuts 20g
•    1 handful of desiccated coconut – 5g

How to make a vegan summery snack

1.    Put the mashed banana in a bowl
2.    Add the pine nuts
3.    Garnish with desiccated coconut
4.    Taste it and add more desiccated coconut if you like the taste of coconut

Recipe for wholesome and healthy soup in 25 minutes

This soup was a creation of my own. I'm not quite sure what happened but I found myself wanting something hot, something wholesome and something that would use up some of our vegetables. So I began putting things together and it turned out really yummy!

This recipe serves 2.

Ingredients for vegan soup

•    2 mugs of water – 700 ml of water
•    1 cube of vegan stock
•    1/2 a bunch of broccoli – chopped into small pieces
•    1/2 a head of a small cauliflower – cut into small pieces
•    2 handfuls of kale – remove thick stems
•    175 of baby corn – cut into thirds
•    1 handful of capers
•    8 cherry tomatoes – left whole
•    1 small (200g) can of sweetcorn
•    1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
•    2 handfuls of cashew nuts – about 250g
•    100g of tofu - diced
•    1/2 a teaspoon of vegan margarine

How to make vegan soup 

1.    Put the water in a pan and let it boil
2.    When it’s boiled, add the stock, letting it simmer on the heat when it’s dissolved
3.    Add the broccoli and cauliflower
4.    After 2 minutes, add the kale and stir
5.    After 1 minute, add the capers and baby corn and stir
6.    After 10 minutes add the cherry tomatoes and sweetcorn
7.    Let it cook for another 5 minutes and then add a handful of sesame seeds
8.    Cook the tofu in a 'dry' frying pan
9.    After 1 minute, add the margarine and mix with the tofu
10.    After 1 minute, add the tofu to the soup and let it cook
11.    Put the cashew nuts in the pan that was used for the tofu and mix
12.    Turn the heat off when they become brown and remove the pan from that hob
13.    Serve the soup in a bowl and garnish it with the cashew nuts

The feedback was from my hubby who said he could eat this at least three times a week, because it was so healthy and tasty.

Recipe: Creamy lemon dressing within 5 minutes

Ingredients for vegan creamy lemon dressing

• 5g of Rapeseed oil - also known as Canola oil
• 5g of Lemon juice
• 5g of Tahini
• Salt
• Pepper

How to make vegan creamy lemon dressing 

1. Put all of the ingredients into a container which can be shaken without creating a spillage.
2. Shake vigorously until the dressing emulsifies and becomes creamy.

Recipe courtesy of Constantin. Translation courtesy of Sarah.

Recipe: Kale and Courgette Soup within 35 minutes

This creation is healthy, doesn't take long and it went down a treat when I served it as a dinner party recently. :)

This recipe serves 4 - 6 people. 

Ingredients for vegan kale and courgette soup

•    200g of kale
•    1 tablespoon of olive oil
•    1 small courgette – cut into medium sized cubes
•    1 cube of stock – dissolved in 500 ml of water
•    1 teaspoon of caraway seeds
•    1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
•    1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
•    2 handfuls of broccoli florets
•    freshly ground salt
•    freshly ground pepper
•    lime juice

How to make vegan kale and courgette soup

1.    Warm the oil in a large pan and when it’s hot, add the caraway seeds, coriander seeds and cumin seeds
2.    After 2 minutes, add the courgette, kale and stock
3.    Cook for 20 minutes and then liquidise using a hand blender
4.    Season with salt, pepper & lime juice
5.    Add finely sliced broccoli florets 5 minutes before serving

Serving suggestion

Serve with vegan wholegrain bread. 

If kale is not readily available spinach can be used instead.

Did you know that there are 23 science-backed health benefits of kale? Find out more from this article by Helen Nichols