Holistic Vegan

We live in a day and age when people are increasingly becoming interested in wellness therapies and healing modalities outside of the mainstream. As a professional  Holistic Therapist , I've been lucky enough to try many different alternatives to mainstream treatments provided by doctors and the allopathic health service. I firmly believe that Holistic Therapy should be used alongside allopathic medicine. Much as the pros and cons of any pharmaceuticals should be carefully considered, I feel it would be extremely foolish to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. The rising number of people training in various alternative methods of healing and wellness is testament to people's need and desire to find better ways to take care of themselves. Whilst many of these treatments are "natural" they aren't necessarily vegan friendly, so that's what I wanted to address today. Many of the hands on on energy healing types of treatments are totally vega

Wheat free bread suitable for vegans is horribly expensive, not to mention hard to get hold of. Tesco make a passable loaf but the price is about 5 times what I would have spent on a wheat loaf, and you gate about one third of the quantity. It's far from good value! I decided to have a go at baking my own wheat free bread, so I invested in some Freee gluten free bread flour and started experimenting with my bread maker. Whilst I used to make all my bread by hand, I tend to use my bread maker these days for convenience and speed, so the bread maker method is the one I will be focusing on in this blog. The Freee flour made by Doves Farm, is made from blend of rice, tapioca and potato flour, with added xanthan gum.  If you're not familiar with xanthan gum, it's an additive that adds the elasticity missing from most gluten free flours and stops your baked goods from crumbling to bits when you touch them. Freee have a standard recipe for a white loaf on the packet w

I have a confession to make. I'm addicted to satay sauce! It's long been one of my favourite flavours and I've been searched high and low for the perfect recipe for some time. Jars of satay sauce never seem to have the deliciously thick and creamy taste you want from this special sauce, or the powerful punch of fragrant spices that should accompany it. A big thank you must go to my friend Lindsay who not only helped me to go vegan, but who also introduced me to this mouth watering satay sauce recipe that I've made my own.  This is a dinner that I have occasionally as a bit of a treat. It's very satisfying on every level - filling, creamy, fragrant and delicious! I also like to eat the rice on it's own as a light meal. You can play around with the vegetable mix you put in your rice, but I recommend always using frozen peas. Their sweet taste adds the perfect flavour, and they are sturdy enough not to get squished, unlike tinned peas.  Serves 2 Ingredi

One of the most frequent questions I get asked about vegan baking is how to replace eggs? It's certainly something of an artform, because you have to think about what properties the egg brings to each individual dish in order to correctly veganise them. One of the easiest and most effective egg-replacers for baking cakes, cookies and anything where the egg primarily serves to bind the mixture together, is Flaxseed. Ground flaxseed, also known as linseed goes thick and sticky when mixed with water, and acts as a very good binding agent. It has a slightly nutty flavour which is fine alongside strong flavours like chocolate, banana, fruit and nuts etc. You may find it's not your preference for almond or vanilla flavoured sponge cakes, and for these I tend to prefer a flavourless commercial egg replacer. But as a go-to, flaxseed is the cheapest and the easiest to have on hand. I normally buy mine from Aldi which is probably the cheapest way to get it, but it is also ava

I really love the spicy, warming flavour of this moist cake. It was a childhood favourite, either on it's own or warmed and covered with hot custard for pudding. The good news is there is no need to miss out of the yummy goodness of this cake if you are vegan and wheat or gluten free! I've devised a recipe packed with flavour and so tasty your whole family will want more. Ingredients 115g light soft brown sugar (or alternatively whatever you have in the cupboard) 75g vegan margarine 75g golden syrup 75g treacle 110ml plant milk 1 flax egg  or vegan egg replacer 225g gram flour 4 tsp ginger powder 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1 large pinch of Himalayan pink salt 1.5 tsp baking powder Method Preheat oven to 160C and line a 2lb loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Put the sugar, margarine, golden syrup and treacle in a saucepan and warm over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until everything is well combined and you have a dark brown mixture. Remove t

When you go vegan, vegetarians really can be your best friends! Like many people, I went veggie before taking the plunge to go fully vegan. In fact I never planned to go vegan in the first place, that seemed "too extreme" to me. But once I switched to vegetarian, realised I had a milk allergy and ditched dairy quite early on, I only had eggs and honey left in my diet that weren't vegan. I did my research and a few months later decided to go full vegan. I think it was the videos of fuzzy chicks going into a grinder that did it for me...  But the point is I didn't go vegan from being a meat eater, I went vegan as a vegetarian .  We should remember that human psychology tells us that if you want to make changes, taking smaller steps over a period of time mean that the changes are more likely to stick. I get very frustrated when I see loud, angry vegans being mean to vegetarians about the fact they still consume eggs, dairy or wear leather. Firstly, you attr

When you first go vegan, it can feel like you're missing out on a lot of your favourite treats. Although we've come a long want in the past few years, it can still be difficult and expensive to find delicious chocolate (and wheat free) treats that are affordable and delicious. These can be made on quite a low budget, or as fancy as you want if you choose to splash out on posh ingredients. It doesn't matter, they will be lovely anyway! I made my latest batch with gluten free digestives from Asda. To give you an idea of proportions, I used 10 biscuits because they're rather small. You would need around 6 or 7 normal sized wheat digestives or HobNobs. Digestives and oaty biscuits like HobNobs are *usually* vegan friendly, but be sure to check the label! Ingredients 200g vegan friendly chocolate (dark or milk, I like to use half and half) 70ml plant milk 100g vegan friendly digestive biscuit crumbs (gluten & wheat free if required) 100g plant based m

The Royal Medical Academy of Belgium recently published their findings on the suitability of vegan and vegetarian diets for children on 14th May 2019. In light of the alarmist media articles in English speaking publications such as The Telegraph and the New York Times, I've taken the time to translate the press release for you. In case you were wondering, I'm a fluent French speaker and former professional translator. If you wish to peruse the original French for yourself, the original document can be found here , the full document her e, and the short version here . My Comments I am frankly very disappointed, not only with the choice of experts chosen for the commission, notably Jacques Rigo is a consultant for Nestle in respect of dairy based infant milk product preNAN. The findings are not only extremely short sighted, worded in an excessively emotive tone that I feel is inappropriate for a supposedly scientific document, and the studies they rely upon for thei

There is no need to fear the humble dried chickpea! Dried pulses make for cheap and easy vegan yum yums, you just need to know how to prep them properly. Dried chickpeas take some time to prepare so it's best to plan in advance if you are going to use them. I've heard many complaints from people about the farty smell they give off when cooking, which also puts people off doing this. Don't worry - I've fixed this problem with this method and made them extra tasty too! Ingredients 1 cup dried chickpeas Water 1 stock cube or 1 dessertspoon of all purpose seasoning Method Place the dried chickpeas into a large glass bowl or jar. Glass is best because it allows you to easily see how much they have expanded, and whether you need extra water (or a bigger bowl...) Add about 1 pint of cold water. The chick peas will soak a lot up and expand to almost double their size - hence why I always say to use a large bowl or jug. In the video, I use a 1 li

One of the most annoying things about being vegan is coffee. No seriously, it is. As an adult, you take for granted the fact that you can make your own instant coffee. It's not hard is it? Well... I've lost count of the number of cups I've had to throw away because the soya milk curdled. Plant milks, and I mostly drink soya, have a nasty habit of curdling in hot coffee and you really can't drink it once that has happened - seriously, don't, it's gross. It looks bad, tastes sour and gives you indigestion. I made it my mission to find a method to make instant coffee at home without the curdling, and I'm going to share my secrets with you today. Take back your coffee power! #adulting How to make perfect instant coffee with plant milk Put your instant coffee, preferred sugar and plant milk into your mug. Note: It's important that you use a microwave proof mug for this.  No fancy gilt edged nonsense - metal is not allowed

I enjoy traditional potato rostis and hash browns, but I've always thought that the flavour could use jazzing up a bit. After discovering gram flour and learning how to make vegetable pakoras from my friend's Persian Mummy, I decided to make my own twist on the humble potato rosti and make it even more delicious. This special rosti is very tasty and makes an ideal to accompaniment to your dinner and is perfectly suited to a 'morning after the night before' fry-up. I don't have a photo at the moment because I keep eating them and forgetting to take a pic... (oops!)  They should end up looking something like this handy library image... The secret to making them in a neat circle shape is to use egg poaching rings or crumpet rings to form them into a coherent shape. You can even use a heart shaped one if you like! You only need one ring to make a batch, as you use it over and over again. So here we go...knives and forks at the ready! Makes 8 approx