vegan Archives - The Smallest Smallholding

Easy Apple Tart Recipe (Vegan)

November 16, 2016 by Lucy

Vegan apple tart

For me, one of the triumphs of the autumnal season in the UK is the humble apple. I will take any opportunity to eat a cooked apple, and as the recipient of a bagful of fat, bulbous Bramley apples – and finding a spare 20 minutes one evening whilst E took a quick nap – I decided to make a simple but super tasty (vegan) apple tart.

Bramley apples

Here’s how I did it with minimum prep and maximum flavour. Just let those yummy apples do all the work:

INGREDIENTS

2 – 3 large Bramley apples, peeled & cored

Ready-made rolled (vegan) puff pastry (I used Tesco)

Demerera sugar for sprinkling

Apricot jam for glazing

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5/190C/375F, and grease or line a tart tin or flan dish with baking parchment.

2. Using the tin upside down as a guide, cut a large disc of the puff pastry to size, leaving an extra 2cm or so for the crust. Place inside baking tin and mould to the sides. Don’t worry too much about being neat!

3. Slice the apple and place on the tin in a spiral pattern, starting at the outside edge and working inwards, overlapping each slice.

4. Sprinkle Demerera sugar over the sliced apple and put the tin in the oven on the middle shelf. Bake until the pastry is a light golden brown and ensure it has baked thoroughly in the middle (should take around 20 minutes).

5. Once baked, leave to cool and glaze with apricot jam. Serve with vegan ice cream or Alpro custard!

I also tried making tartlets with the above recipe by using a shallow muffin tray – perfection!

Filed Under: foodie, recipes, vegan Tagged With: apple, recipe, tart, vegan

Autumn comfort eating – Instant Pot Butternut squash soup

October 1, 2016 by Lucy

Today was a good day. E is almost 5 weeks old and it’s still very much a round-the-clock job looking after her. So days like today, when I’ve grabbed 15 minutes here and there to tick a few jobs off the list, feel like a triumph.

In the days straight after E was born, hot meals were hard to come by. My mum came to the rescue with stew and soup, and kept us going until we found our feet.

I’m still finding my feet, but making a concerted effort to start a routine, and part of that is home cooked food and a decent meal each night.

A timesaver and somewhat of a God-send has been the Instant Pot. If your food has finished cooking, then it automatically goes onto a keep warm mode – no cold food, and no burned saucepans!

Today E decided to have a quick 15-min nap after we’d been out for a walk, so I took advantage and threw together some ingredients to make an earthy, autumnal soup. Perfect for these cooler days, and something I can store for a couple more lunches this week:

INGREDIENTS

1 butternut squash, chopped & cubed roughly
1 large floury potato (eg Maris Piper), chopped & cubed
2 large onions ( I also added a few small homegrown banana shallots), diced roughly
2 medium carrots, chopped & cubed
2 – 2.5 cups of water
About two heaped dessert spoons of Marigold vegan bouillon
Liberal dash of cayenne pepper

METHOD

1. Dice onions and add cooking oil (I use a mild olive oil mix). Press Sauté on the Instant Pot. Cook until soft, stirring occasionally.

2. Add the rest of the chopped veg and continue to sauté for a few mins, sweating down veggies.

3. Add water and bouillon, then cayenne pepper to taste.

4. Place lid of Instant Pot on, set to Manual for 15 mins.

5. Once the manual programme has finished, allow steam to vent. Open Instant Pot and blend down ingredients to a smooth consistency.

6. Serve with crusty bread!

Filed Under: foodie, recipes, veg, vegan Tagged With: butternut squash, Instant Pot, soup, soup recipe, vegan

You can’t beat homegrown garlic

July 20, 2016 by Lucy

I’ve been banging this drum for years; you simply cannot beat the flavour of homegrown garlic. That’s why every year we plant some bulbs, grow them organically before harvesting enough to get us through a few months without having to resort to sub-standard supermarket fare that’s been flown halfway across the world.

This year we tried two varieties; Cristo (one of our favourites) and Solent Wight. We did have a pretty bad case of rust, but it just seemed to affect the leaves and not the bulbs (and it means we won’t be able to grow any allium on that patch for a few seasons). The Cristo definitely outperformed the Solent Wight in terms of bulb size, but I feel like we didn’t have enough of a cold snap at the beginning of the year to promote bulb growth and division.

Regardless, we’ve seen got a few decent sized bulbs, and crucially, they smell just amazing. Last year I lost a lot of bulbs as I harvested them during a prolonged spell of rain and damp weather, and they went soft and mildewy very quickly. This year, we’ve had the intense heat and lots of sun, so the bulbs have been drying out nicely on a rack in the greenhouse. I’ll wait until the outer layers of the bulbs are papery and crisp before transferring them indoors to store somewhere cooler but with plenty of air circulation.

Garlic growing earlier in the Spring

One of my simple pleasures in life is to make homemade vegetable soup from homegrown ingredients. The addition of homegrown garlic and onions brings a new level of flavour and fragrance to my cooking and just takes it into a realm of its own. Rich is more of a fan of homemade garlic bread, and we both enjoy the zingy fresh flavour in homemade pasta sauces too.

After eating slightly disappointing shop-bought garlic for a few months, I really don’t realise what I’m missing until I take that first taste of homegrown. Next time, we’ll grow even more to get us through the year. And if you haven’t tried it, you should. You’ll never look back.