VeganMoFo Recipe #3 : Green Machine Mocktail

Being a teetotaller is quite a boon! Every time I go out to the pub/club/lounge/bar I always scrutinise the drinks menu for their mocktails and fresh juices and often come across some of the best drinks in the house! Not to forget the surprised faces of the bartender when you order the least-ordered drink in their drinks menu! Well, to be fair in one of the world's most drunk nations you don't often see the odd nutter coming up to the bar and requesting for hot chocolate or juice! Unless it is me visiting a pub once in a blue moon!

One of the best mocktails I have had so far is the Green Machine at The Swan at the Globe on the Southbank. The pub is in the same complex as Shakespeare's Globe!

When I arrived with my glass-jar (see picture below) full of garden-green drink, all of my fellow friends who were sipping on their Rose-wine could not resist but ask what I had ordered! And most of them instantly accepted my offer and took a sip of my stunning mocktail. These signs told me this was no ordinary drink! It had an aura if it's own and it had charmed me and my alcohol-friendly friends!

I thoroughly enjoyed drinking it! A fresh dash of crushed mint and apple and lime and ice all at once, topped with the spright-fulness of cucumber! And the best bit, it was served in a jar! Yes, in a glass jar with a handle - one of the quirkiest things I have come across so far in any pub!

Here is the recipe crudely put together from the quick glance I had at the menu before ordering.

- Put some cucumber, mint and bananas in a juice mixer

- Add fresh apple juice and lime juice

- Add crushed ice

- Start the mixer

- Pour into a jar

- Drink!

Voila! Your green machine is ready to drink! And it's vegan!

Cheers!

VeganMoFo Recipe #2 : Rice flake salad

One of India's most loved street food items is Bhel! If you look closely at a menu of Indian street food, you will find it is anything but junk food! It consists of lots of healthy snacks and salads that one can enjoy for a few rupees.

One of my favourites is this Indian salad made with rice flakes.

The main salad consists of:

Chopped tomatoes

Chopped onions

Chopped cucumbers

Boiled and diced potatoes

Rice flakes (mum-raa)

Salted peanuts

Sprouted lentils

Boiled black peas

There are four main salad dressings you need:

1. Sweet red chutney made from tamarinds, dates and jaggery

- Boil some deseeded tamarinds and dates

- Make a paste using a food processor

- Sieve this paste into a bowl

- Add jaggery to the bowl and mix till it dissolves 

- Add cumin powder, red chilli powder, little turmeric and salt

2. Spicy green chutney made from mint, coriander and green chillies

- Wash a bouquet of coriander and mint thoroughly

- Remove the main stalks and discard them

- Chop off the leaves

- Put them in a mixer with chopped green chillies, salt, lemon juice and some pieces of ginger

- Add a little water and make a paste in the mixer

3. Garlic chutney made from garlic, red chillies and sesame seeds

- Take a mortar and a pestle

- Put cloves of garlic, red chilli powder, dollop of oil and a handful of sesame seeds in the mortar

- Use the pestle to crush and mix all the ingredients to make a thick paste

- Take small portions of the paste and mix with water to create a sauce and use as and when you are making the salad

You could make all the chutney's in the mortar and pestle for a more refreshing taste but this can be time consuming. Alternatively you can also make the garlic chutney by mixing all the ingredients in the mixer.

4. Lemon juice

- Take a lemon, wash it and roll it on a flat surface, apply pressure as you do this

- Chop it into half

- Deseed it carefully

- Squeeze it and collect the juice in a small glass bowl

For garnishing:

Finely chopped coriander

Bombay mix (available in packets at most Indian food stores)

Sev (available in packets at most Indian food stores)

- If not available in the market, make a dough of gram flour, salt, oil, red chilli powder and turmeric

- Get a sev-making machine which could resemble a noodle/ spaghetti making machine and use it to produce thin fine noodles and fry them in vegetable oil

- Strain all the oil and place them on tissue papers

- Crush them and use for garnishing

You can also make a dry salad by mixing a pinch of the following instead of the chutneys above. Squeeze in a lemon to your dry salad and top it with sev and chopped coriander.

Dry salad powders:

Chaat masala (or Jalani Jal Jeera)

Indian olive powder (amchur)

Black salt

Take a big bowl and toss all the ingredients and dressings in it as per your taste. I always try different combinations and rarely do I have the same-tasting bhel on my plate! That's the best part of this beautiful snack and makes 'cooking' it all the more fun!

Voila, your healthy Indian rice flake salad is ready to tingle your tastebuds! And yes, it's vegan!

VeganMoFo Recipe #1 : Indian Savoury Cakes

So when I moved to London three years ago I realised how much I would miss eating home made Indian food. One of them was this Indian sweet and sour sponge cake made from gram flour. It never  occurred to me all these years that Khaman, as it is called in India was in fact a cake! It was only after I started baking in London that I made the connection in my head and decided to treat Khaman-making akin to cake-baking and I was surprised with the results! It is amazing how a little bit of garnishing and change in perspective can change one's outlook and existing notions. Not to mention my Khaman-Cake tasted so much better too!

Khaman is a Gujarati dish, best enjoyed with coriander and mint chutney, a tarka (oil seasoning with mustard seeds, cumin and curry leaves) and generous sprinkling of grated coconut. The best Khaman is light as a Victoria Sponge and it is an art to master the recipe at home with freshly ground gram flour. Well at home my mother used to make Khaman from an instant mix that was available at the shops. The best and most easiest of these instant mixes was from a brand called Talod.

Follow the recipe below which is available on Talod's website and also on their instant mix packets.

Recipe:

• Take the powder in a vessel after removing the packet given inside.
• Add 2-1/2 cup (360ml) water and prepare a soft paste. Keep this paste aside for 5 minutes.
• Take the contents of the packet in a half cup (1/2) of water, mix it well and add it to the paste. Immediately stir this paste well and put it on a thali (plate) rinsed with film of oil.
• Put this thali (plate) to steam for 20 minutes.
• Remove the thali (plate) and allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Now sprinkle a cup of water over it and cut it into pieces.
• Heat 100 gms. oil, put mustard seeds and green chilli. When hot, pour two cup of water into it,after boiling sprinkle it on ready "Khaman" to season.
• Sprinkle clean coriander leaves and fresh coconut scrapings for better taste.                                   

  

You can order your packet of Talod mix here http://www.talodinstantmix.com/ShowProducts.aspx

Original Khaman looks like this when served.

In my cake version I did not cut the steamed cake into cubes but carefully upturned the steamed cake from the thali (plate)

I made four such round sponges of Khaman and used two 200gm packets of Talod's mix to make them. Make sure the sponges have completely cooled down before manhandling them to arrange your layered cake.

The second layer went on top of the first.

The third on top of the second and finally the fourth layer went right on top. You could add a thin layer of grated coconut and/or coriander chutney in between the layers if you wanted to. Finally decorate it chopped coriander leaves and glaze it with the tarka. Serve with a few raw green chillies!

Voila, you're triple layered Indian-gram-flour-sweet-and-sour steamed Victoria sponge is ready to eat! Oh and yes, it is vegan!

The creamiest ice cream in the world

The other day during my daily activity of researching the internet I came across numerous posts which talked about this magical one ingredient vegan ice cream! It looked too good to be true. So I took it upon myself to try my hand at making it. And it worked! It was the creamiest ice cream on the planet!

And the best part, it was vegan and needed only one ingredient to make! Yes, you read that right, just one ingredient!

Bananas! No jokes, this fruit is a magical one, try this recipe and see for yourself what it can do when frozen over night and whipped up in the food processor. And that is how easy it is.

Apart from being the creamiest vegan one-ingredient ice cream, it also boasts of having the shortest recipe on the planet!

All you need to do is peel the bananas, chop them up and put them in the freezer for six hours, chuck the frozen pieces into a food processor and whip them till they magically transform into the creamiest ice cream in the world!

You can always experiment and add Nutella, nuts, peanut butter, more fruits to give it a flavour. For the health enthusiasts, this is your perfect ice cream - no added sugar and totally natural; you can add a dollop of curd/yoghurt to pump up the protein.

Serve a scoop with a slice of mud cake and melted chocolate and you have the best home made dessert to devour!

Let me know how it went for you if you do make this!