Roasted Carrot Salad with Lime Yoghurt Dressing

Sometimes you don't feel like carbs, sometimes you want something light but satisfying to sate you during the hot months of summer. Roasting carrots brings out their innate sweetness but also their deep earthiness, which acts as a rich and solid tapestry to support other more gutsy flavours.

Roasting the carrots alongside onions adds a sweeter, yet sharper note that is made more complex by the addition of sumac, cumin and thyme, respectively adding a sour tang, a fragrant whiff and savoury herbaceousness.

I've included some marinated tomatoes here, because they compliment the dish so well, but you can leave them out and this would still be sufficiently pleasurable. However, having them at hand can brighten up salads, sandwiches, deli platters and cheese boards, so if you do make them you won't be concerned of how to use them.

A dressing this simple yet this satisfyingly complex allows this dish to come together perfectly. Normally I'd encourage you to experiment with a dish but I consider this to be a rather special one. Tamper if you will, but be aware of the delicate balance that is struck here.

Roasted Carrot Salad with Lime Yoghurt Dressing

450g carrots, peeled and sliced lengthways

2 red onions cut in to eights

1 tsp sumac

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp rock salt

1 tbsp sunflower oil#

Turn oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4

Put carrots and onions into a large bowl and pour over the oil.

Bash the sumac, cumin, thyme and salt together in a pestle and mortar.

Tip spice mix in to bowl, mix well.

Tip in to a non stick roasting pan and put in the oven for 30 mins.

Marinated Tomatoes

For every large tomato halved and sliced into half moons:

1 tbsp extra virgin oilve oil

1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp honey

1 tbsp fresh parsley coarsely chopped

Salt and pepper

Put the tomatoes in a sealable container.

Mix all other ingredients together and pour over the tomatoes, giving a good but gentle mix. 

Leave for at least 2 hours before serving. 

Do not refrigerate. 

Lime Yoghurt Dressing

Juice of 1/2 a lime

2 tbsp Greek yoghurt

1 1/2 tsp tahini 

Salt and pepper

Mix them all together, season to taste

To construct, put carrots and onions on bottom, layer with equivalent 1 marinated tomato, drizzle with half the dressing and garnish with chopped flat leaf parsley. 

Rhubarb Swirl Cheesecake

I'm a sucker for tart and sour flavour sensations, which is why I adore citrus fruits, sumac and vinegar, and I especially like the sharpness of fruit in a dessert. 

Rhubarb can be aggressively tart, I remember my old friend and next door neighbour, Hazel, being given a stalk and a bowl of sugar to dip it in to to make it palatable. 

With the aid of the dullingly sweet cheesecake, some ground ginger and a smattering of caramelised demarara sugar on top this is a grown up but indulgent teatime, or indeed any time, treat.

Rhubarb Swirl Cheesecake

Base

60g wholewheat flour

60g white flour

85g soft butter

60g sugar

pinch salt

Cheesecake mixture

450g cream cheese

150g sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp ground ginger

Rhubarb purée 

100g rhubarb, diced

2 tbsp sugar

40g demerara sugar

Turn oven on at 160C./Gas Mark 3

To make the base, mix all ingredients with electric hand-whisk until uniform in consistency. Line a loose bottomed spring-form tin with baking paper and press the base mixture in until evenly distributed. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until base is golden brown, allow to cool.

Turn the oven down to 140C/Gas Mark 1

Put rhubarb and sugar in a pan over a medium heat until soft, around 10 minutes. Purée in a food processor and set aside to cool.

Use clean electric hand-whisk to mix cream cheese, sugar, eggs and ground ginger until smooth and pour into prepared spring-form tin on top of the base. 

Spoon rhubarb purée into a piping bag and pie a swirl of rhubarb on to the cheesecake.

Bake for 1 hour and a half, then sprinkle with demerara sugar and turn up to 200C and bake for 5 until caramelised, not burned. Checking every few minutes.

Leave to cool. Refrigerate. Serve.

Wild Garlic Vegan Pesto

You may all think that I have suddenly gone vegan. I have not, I assure you, but as Beyonce and Jay Z have taken to being vegan for 10-20 days a month I've done the same, I even wore a fur coat to a vegan restaurant. I'm so impressionable.

Seriously though, I didn't have any hard Italian cheese in the house and I bought some nutritional yeast last weekend so thought that might suffice to flavour the pesto.

Getting wild garlic in the veg box this week was such a boon, partly because it's pretty rare unless you go forraging and partly because it signals a change in the weather and a welcoming back of the Spring.

To get a similar consistency to 'normal' pesto I used whole cashew nuts and walnuts, along with ground almonds in an attempt to mimic the texture of hard cheese.

I've been experimenting with bastardised pesto a lot recently, a semi wilting salad bag can be used when you might decide to throw it away if you have some nuts, oil, garlic and a food processor. Don't be bashful, i've put cream cheese in one of my batches and it was delicious. Definitely not a vegan.

This will be getting used in a lunch-box tomorrow, possibly with some pasta, maybe with some rice, when Squirrelface and I are at the BFI for the third day running enjoying a full day of films at BFI Flare.

Wild Garlic Vegan Pesto

40g wild garlic

40g mixed nuts

1tbsp ground almonds

2tbsp nutritional yeast

Oil (I used a mixture of walnut and olive)

Salt and pepper

Put all ingredients apart form oil and seasoning in a food processor. Process until paste like and drizzle in the oil until you have a pesto like consistency.

Scrape down the sides, season to taste and add more oil if too stiff.

Store in a jar in the fridge, but I dare you nto to use it immediately.

Vegan Carrot and Parsnip Muffins

I’m a sucker for baking with vegetables, so much so I like to combine them for different flavour profiles and contrasting colours. The carrot and the parsnip, kissing cousins of the vegetable world, work wonderfully here with the spices – the holy trinity of sweet spices (IMHO) ground ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. If you have any other suggestions of spices to be used in sweet dishes, I’m all ears, I have discovered none but these 3 that seem to work in harmony with a cakey bake.

I’ve been developing these bad boys for a while now and have just managed to perfect them. Getting the ratio of wet/dry is really important in eggless cooking and I found that this batter needs to be wet. The ground almonds really help to keep moisture in the muffin along with the parsnips and carrots, which add sweetness to a low sugar treat.

Vegan, low sugar, low fat blah blah blah – These little delights are filling enough to take for breakfast and healthy enough to snack on without planning a run and a green smoothie afterwards.

Don't be put off by the number of ingredients, you can use one type of flour and water instead of almond milk, I just thought I'd experiment, and it worked, Makes 12.

Vegan Carrot and Parsnip Muffins

125g grated carrot

125g grated parsnip

140g whole wheat flour

70g spelt flour

70g gram flour

70g ground almonds

70g dried fruit

100g soft brown sugar

1tsp cinnamon

200ml sunflower oil

200ml almond milk

50ml water

1tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Pinch of salt

1tsp vinegar (I used hazelnut)

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4

Stir together all dry ingredients, mix wet ones in apart from the water. You should have a relatively wet batter with a nice dropping consistency.

If the batter is too think, add a little water and work in until you have the desired consistency.

Spoon in to prepared muffin cases in a 12 hole tin.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown on top.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Vegan + Gluten Free Chocolate and Black Bean Brownies

One of my oldest friends came to stay this weekend, she’s a vegan and was spending 6+ hours getting tattooed on Saturday, so I knew she’d need something sweet and delicious as a treat after all the pain.

I’ve read considerable amounts about black bean brownies and wanted to experiment once I happened upon said pulses, this conveniently happened on Saturday afternoon. They were the first thing I baked when I returned home because I was worried that they might turn out awful, if they were I would have had more time to make something else. They were delicious! No curious flavour or texture, just some brownies that everyone can enjoy being vegan and gluten free. They’re also easy to make sugar free, I added a few tablespoons of vanilla sugar for flavour.

I had questioned as to whether other beans could be used to make these or other brownies, but didn’t experiment, my next plan will be to see if I can make blondies with a white bean and maybe red velvet brownies with a  red bean. I think you understand where I’m coming from here. If you do experiment, let me know, I’d love to see how they turn out.

The brownies keep for a good 3 – 4 days in an airtight container but if they last 24 hours you’re doing something wrong.

Vegan + Gluten Free Chocolate and Black Bean Brownies

1 tin black beans
40g cocoa powder
40g oats
40g vanilla sugar
40g coconut oil
75g agave nectar
4tbsp almond milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g dark chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4.

Combine all ingredients but the chocolate and the almond milk in a food processor until smooth. Add almond milk along the way to reach a wet cakey like consistence.

Stir half the chocolate and pour into a greased square tin, then sprinkle the rest of the chocolate on top.

Bake for around 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting.

Portion into 12 or less and enjoy.

Chocolate Mousse Cake with Salted Caramel

A friend and I have been asked to make the wedding cakes of two friends, no mean feat, so we've taken to the task seriously and come up with three solid cakes to be presented on the big day. One of which is this delicious chocolate mousse cake with an unctuous salted caramel icing, which was requested by the bride to be.

Variations of this cake are like an old friend - I've been making it for at least five years, whether plain, sandwiched with raspberry cream or here, covered in a delicious salted caramel. It's deceptively easy to prepare and bake but takes a little time to get the right results.

After baking the cake can be kept out of the fridge, where it will remain fluffy and voluminous or it can be left in the fridge, where it becomes fudgy and decadent. We're opting for the second method here, but to have the option between the two proves how veritable this rich bitch really is.

I've experimented with using flavoured chocolate when making this cake, orange chocolate works particularly well and if you are going to experiment with fillings - make sure it is a robust flavour or it will be lost in the chocolate abyss.

NB. This cake is gluten free.

Chocolate Mousse Cake with Salted Caramel

Chocolate mousse cake

2 tbsp ground almonds, plus extra for dusting
600g dark chocolate (feel free to experiment with different kinds)
550g caster sugar 

330g unsalted butter
Pinch salt
10 large eggs

Salted Caramel

75g unsalted butter

50g light brown sugar

50g caster sugar

50g golden syrup

1 tsp good sea salt

125 ml double cream

Preheat oven to 180c, line bottom of 2 tins with grease proof paper, brush tins with a little melted butter and dust with ground almonds then shake off the excess. 

Melt chocolate, sugar, butter and salt in a heatproof bowl over a simmering pan of water, be careful that the bowl doesn’t touch the water. 

Then remove from the heat. Whisk the eggs with the almonds for 5 - 10 mins and fold into the chocolate mixture till glossy. Divide equally between 2 cake tins and bake individually for 35 – 40 minutes. 

Remove the sides of the tin and leave to cool for a few minutes then remove form the bottom of the tin and remove the grease proof paper and cool on a wire rack. Once both cakes are cooled leave them in the fridge for a few hours. 

For the salted caramel put all ingredients apart from cream and salt in a ban and bring to the boil, swirling as they melt together.

Boil for three minutes, turn off the heat and mix the cream in with a wooden spoon and add the salt. This is the time to check for how salty you like your caramel, I added an extra 1/4 tsp because as the caramel cools, the taste will be muted.

Boil for another minute and leave to cool. When the cakes are ready to be assembled, pour a small amount of the caramel over the base of the first cake in order to secure the top layer, then drizzle liberally for best results.