Gluten Free Vegan Carrot Cake

Jess and Tom here!

We were craving carrot cake, but struggling to find a gluten free vegan recipe for one that didn't require a long list of weird ingredients we didn't have to hand, we decided to wing it and make it up using the contents of Jess' cupboard. And it worked. It worked so well we ate most of it in one night. Now, as happens quite often in our joint kitchen ventures, the exact method and quantities got blurred a little by wine (now Jess is eating clean this should happen less now!). But anyway, these ingredients make a large, gluten free, vegan carrot cake. 

1 cup ground almonds
1 cup plain gluten free flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
2 carrots, grated
1 apple, grated
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
3 tbsp brown/demerara sugar
3 tbsp agave syrup
1/2 cup raisins/nuts (optional)
1-2 tbsp dairy free milk
2 bananas, mashed
1 orange, juiced and zested

I think the general gist of the method is to combine the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients, then add them together. The mashed bananas, juiced orange and grated apple and carrots add plenty of moisture so no additional fat is needed.  Then, once this incredible smelling cake had come out of the oven, we decided it was too good not to be iced. So we made our own orange-almond frosting up:

1 cup icing sugar (probably more like 2 or 3 cups, we just kept adding til the consistency was right)
1 orange, juiced and zested
2 tsp almond butter
2 tsp dairy free butter/spread
1 tsp vanilla essence

Add orange juice and zest to the icing sugar and mix, adding the vanilla essence along the way. Then add the butters and beat them in until you have a glossy frosting. Add more icing sugar as required until you have the right consistency.

Please do let us know if you know of a better way to spend an evening than eating carrot cake, drinking red wine and watching Girls?

Anyway, sorry this isn't the most useful recipe in the world. But do give it a try and let us know if you come up with something as amazing as we did!

Butternut Squash Thai Red Curry

Tom tonight,

Jess is off being drunk somewhere (I have the texts to prove it) and my housemate Lucy is leaving tomorrow to get herself her own place so were making a big curry for her last meal. This is the first time I've made a red curry, and because I am cheap I have bought a curry paste rather than making my own. It's probably not too hard to make your own but this is easy and I think it still tastes awesome. I'm making this with Thai sticky rice and pan-fried red cabbage. The vegetables used in this can be changed for others if you like but I like the colour combinations these bring - originally I was going to add the red cabbage but I saw online someone suggested doing this and honestly it turned out incredibly tasty so will definitely make this a regular part of my cooking. I also baked chicken breasts in the curry paste for Lucy as a non-vegan. Also added peanut butter for an extra flavour as I'm liking adding peanut butter to asian dishes and butternut squash and peanut butter are a match made in heaven.

This recipe makes enough for about 5 portions of curry and rice.

Ingredients:

For the Curry:

1 Butternut Squash
1 large Onion
1 tbsp Olive Oil
3 tbsp Thai Red Curry Paste
4 cloves Garlic
1 small Chili
2 inch of fresh Ginger
6 large closed cup Mushrooms
1/2 a Courgette
1 Red Pepper
1/2 pack of Dwarf Beans
1 dessertspoon Peanut Butter
1/2 can Tomatoes
1 litre Boiling Water
1 1/2 tsp Bouillon
1 inch block of Creamed Coconut
3 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

For the Chicken:

1 Chicken Breast
1 tbsp Red Thai Curry Paste

For the Rice:
1/2 a pack of Thai Fragrant Rice
A sprinkle of Seaweed Flakes (my secret ingredient for everything)
Cold Water

Method:

First peel the butternut squash, drizzle with a little bit of oil and pinch of salt flakes and roast in a hot oven until cooked and browned.
Next put the rice on, cover with a centimetre of water and add a sprinkle of nori flakes if you have them, a sprinkle of jasmine leaves  also adds a great flavour if you have them.
Put on a high heat until bubbles form around the edge of the saucepan, then turn down to a low heat and put the lid on.
Leave until all the water has been absorbed, then fluff up and leave with the lid on to steam for a few mintues. While this cooks start the curry
Chop up the onion and fry in oil in a saucepan until soft.
Once soft, add the garlic, chili, ginger and curry paste, fry for a few minutes.
Chop up the mushrooms, courgette, pepper and dwarf beans and add to the saucepan, mix thoroughly and cook until soft.
Add the peanut butter and mix well, it helps to put the peanut butter to the bottom so it heats up and then it's easier to stir in.
Add the tomatoes and mix again.
Add boiling water until the vegetables are covered by about a centimetre of water and just a bit thinner than you want it to be.
Next add the stock and creamed coconut (you can make each of these separately if you want to but i didn't think it was necessary and this seemed easier to get the right consistency.
By this time the butternut squash should be nicely roasted, add this to the curry. At this point I rubbed the chicken with the paste and put in the oven to bake (reuse oven tray, save washing up, done).
Mix all of this together and bring to the boil.
Simmer until the correct consistency (as you like it).
At this point I quickly fried the cabbage (link) if you want to make that as a side.
Serve and enjoy.

Really pleased with how this came out, the curry paste I used wasn't fantastic but I imagine you could get nicer ones without too much effort, and if i find a decent recipe to make one I will definitely post it later. This could be very easily adapted to make it how you like, spinach might make a nice addition to this! As always, let us know your own versions at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com.

Nutritional Info:


                      Calories   Carbs     Fat     Protein     Sodium     Sugar
          Total:     885         113       40         24          3481         42
Per Serving:       177          23        8           5            696          8


And 1 cup of rice adds around 240 calories, and 101 from the cabbage (worth it!) giving 512 for the meal in total! (not including chicken)

Ignore the cabbage, originally this post included that recipe.

I apologise for the steam, it was a very, very, very, very cold day.

The vegan version

And with the baked chicken.

Thai Chickpea Burgers

Tom's turn today! (alliteration win)

This is one recipe that is almost completely my own creation. After going vegan I had the occasional craving for something nice and hefty and filling and well....burger-like. Anyway, mushrooms burgers without goats cheese just weren't the same so I decided to invent my own recipe. It's similar-ish to falafel (in that it involves chickpeas - but what vegan food doesn't?) and has the spicy fresh flavours that come with thai food. This recipe can be gluten free or not depending on what you use to bind it (see the notes in the recipe list).

The nutritional values are listed here (as best as I could work them out), this recipe makes 8 small burgers or 4 large-ish burgers (I'd usually use this to make 4 dinners worth):

                        Calories      Carbs       Fat      Protein       Sodium        Sugar
   Total                530            73          32         18               36               9
  Per Serving         66              9            3           2                5                1

Ingredients:

1 can Chickpeas

1/2 an Onion (I prefer red)

1/2 a Courgette

3 cloves of Garlic
1 cm piece of fresh Ginger (I have absolutely no idea how much this weighs - maybe 40g? You can use Ground Ginger if you want, probably around 1.5 tsp will be alright)

1 Lime

2 tbsp Tomato Paste

1 small Red Chili

1 tbsp Olive Oil (or if you have it sesame gives a great flavour)

1 tbsp Soy Sauce

Either 4 tbsp Flour/Gluten Free Flour OR 5 tbsp Oats

1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tbsp Cornflour

Salt and Pepper to taste

This works with a mixture of the two i.e. 2 tbsp Flour and 3 tbsp Oats. If you eat eggs and want to use one instead I would substitute the half the flour and the oil for one egg (you can omit all the flour if you want too but it helps to make the mixture the right consistency - as always, have an experiment). I know buying fresh ginger probably feels like a massive pain but trust me DO IT. It is undoubtedly worth it. At the risk of sounding pretentious (who I am I kidding? I'm vegan) ground ginger just doesn't even compare in flavour and you need so much more to taste it and it just isn't as nice. A decent sized piece of ginger is a staple of my weekly shop, I'd recommend it.

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celcius.

Strain and wash the chickpeas (you don't necessarily need to do this, I just hate the smell of the water they come in).

Smush them in mixing bowl - you can use a potato masher if you want but honestly, I find it easier to just use my hands. Punch them, physically punch them. Great stress release.

Chop up the onion, chili and garlic and add it into the bowl.

Grate the courgette and the ginger into the bowl.

Juice and zest the lime.

Add the tomato paste, soy sauce and olive oil and mix thoroughly.

Either sift in the flour and baking powder and cornflour or stir in the oats.

Season to taste.

Mix around with you hands until they are a good consistency (this doesn't always happen, add either more lime juice/water or flour until you can make them start to stick together).

Squash into burger shapes and place on a baking tray.

Bake for 20-25 minutes on either side (or until golden brown/it looks cooked - entirely your call).

Serve and enjoy!

I like to serve two of these with boiled new potatoes, steamed veg and/or a salad - having both takes this to about 500 calories a portion (based on 150g potatoes, a normal size of vegetables). Also protip: a glug of sweet chili sauce can save even the driest and most burnt of burgers (something you learn quickly if you have as bad a memory as mine).

This is just how I like these burgers HOWEVER, not everyone likes thai food (I don't know why it's just true) so feel free to scrap all the flavours from these burgers and just use the basic recipe (chickpeas, courgette, onion, oil, baking power and flour/oats) and make them how you want to.

Suggestions:

Add a stick of lemongrass (or ground lemongrass) for an extra thai flavour - I didn't put this in the main recipe as it's something of a specialist ingredient but it regularly makes an appearance in mine.
Add a tsp of cumin, paprika, tomato paste and garlic - more of a mexican vibe

As always, let us know your improvements at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com or leave a comment!