Vanilla Fairy Cakes

Gorgeous vanilla fairy cakes topped with intense lemon icing and a single chocolate bean.

This sponge is so light and the lemon in the icing gives the cakes a real zing. I found this recipe on Realfood's site as a basic sponge and, as stated, the recipe made 34 fairy cakes. I made the lemon icing simply by adding lemon juice a few drops at a time until the icing just starts to drip from a spoon. The chocolate beans are Whizzers from Allergycare available from a variety of places including the Vegan Store, VeggieStuff, Goodness Direct and hopefully your local health food shop. Also look out for Whizzers Speckled Eggs ready for Easter.

Bean Burgers

This week I am making bean burgers, the recipe is from Parsley Soup the home of Cherry's vegan recipes. Her website has a great selection of recipes laid out logically and cleanly but colourfully and with photos. This specific recipe takes some time to prepare but is well worth it if you are cooking for several people.

I halved the recipe to make the above burgers but that did leave me with leftover beans which I need to find a use for tomorrow. I would recommend a food processor for this recipe as it useful for making the bread crumbs and mashing the beans but it is not necessary. The burgers tasted lovely, they are most satisfying and have an interesting texture. Give them a try!

Chana Masala

This weeks recipe is Chana Masala, the recipe is from Mary Jane Kelly on vegweb.comI found this recipe simple to make and very tasty. This is a great basic recipe which would be easy to modify to suit different tastes. I am thinking about using more onions next time and adding some chopped red pepper. I kept half of the Chana Masala in the fridge and it did not taste as good the next day; the chickpeas had a slightly different texture and had come away from the skins so bear that in mind.

Steph's Chilli

For starters I will share one of my recipes - a hearty chilli:


Ingredients:
2 medium/large onions
1 large carrot
1 red pepper
2 cans of chilli beans (420g)
100g TVP
a little oil
extra chilli powder as required







Method:

• Firstly put the TVP in a heat proof bowl and cover with boiling water
  
• Peel the onions and cut them in half
  
• Heat a little oil in a large saucepan
• Slice the onion one way and then in half the other way
• Add the onion to the saucepan
• Peel the carrot and thinly slice it
• Cut the pepper in to smallish chunks
• Add the carrot and pepper to the onion
  
• Stir the vegetables occasionally until the onions become translucent
• Add the tins of chilli beans and the TVP to the vegetables and stir
• Add chilli powder for an extra kick
  
• Cover the the chilli and simmer for twenty minutes stir every few minutes
• Uncover the chilli and simmer until the chilli reduces

Serve over rice, potatoes, pasta or with naan bread.