Category Archives: Sauces and condiments

Mayonnaise, cheese sauce, gravy etc

Cheap & Easy, Recipes, Sauces and condiments, Vegan on a Budget

Easy Blender Mayo

The quantities here are suitable for making coleslaw accompanying a meal for 4 people.

One of the ingredients in this recipe is the liquid leftover from cooking chickpeas. It’s commonly obtained from the liquid drained from a can of chickpeas and called aquafaba. Of course, you can make it yourself as a co-product of cooking chick peas from scratch (the cheapest way of preparing them).

Ingredients 

  • 65 ml of aquafaba
  • 1½ teaspoons of mustard powder
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 1½ teaspoons of lemon juice
  • 200 ml of vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon of cider vinegar

Electric hand-held blender method

  • Place all ingredients in a bowl.
  • Blend with an electric hand-held blender until you have the consistency you want.

Save money: the hand-whisk method

  • A hand whisk can be used instead of an electric blender.  
  • Except oil, place all other ingredients in a bowl.
  • Whisk all ingredients whilst slowly pouring in the oil.
  • Continue whisking until you have the consistency you want.
Cheap & Easy, Festive, Main dishes, Recipes, Sauces and condiments, Vegan on a Budget

AIR-FRYER SAVOY CABBAGE ROLLS WITH TASTY GRAVY

Serves approx. 4

Ingredients for cabbage rolls

Lentils (1 tin, 1 carton or 1 cup loose)

Onion (large)

Garlic (2 cloves)

Mushrooms (2 cups)

Salt (half tsp), black pepper (half teaspoon) and bouillon (1tsp)

Walnuts (1 cup)

Savoy cabbage (whole leaves – approx. 8)

Parsley (handful)

Oil to sauté

Method

Prepare the lentils and remove excess water.

Peel off 8 cabbage leaves and remove very thick part of stem. Put in a pan with boiling water to cover and leave the lid on.

Sauté the onions, garlic. Then add finely chopped mushrooms and walnuts.  Cook for 5 to 7 minutes with lid on.

Add finely chopped parsley, bouillon, salt, pepper.

Add lentils.

Take 1 cabbage leaf and put a tablespoon of the mixture in the centre.

Wrap the cabbage leaf around it carefully, using a cocktail stick to secure if necessary, or aluminium foil to wrap in.

Arrange the 8 rolls in the bottom of the air fryer, and cook for 7 minutes on 180c, checking after 5 minutes .

Ingredients for gravy

Onion (large)

Oil to sauté

Cornflour (tbsp)

Bouillon (dessertspoon)

Cider vinegar (dessertspoon)

Yeast extract (tsp)

Method for gravy

Finely chop the onion and sauté in oil on a low heat with a lid on the pan.

In a glass jug, dissolve cornflour in a very small amount of cold water, and then add slightly more to loosen it.

Add the yeast extract, bouillon and vinegar, and add more water up to 1 pint, and add to the onion mixture.

Stir carefully and continuously with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens.

Sauces and condiments

Instant cranberry sauce by Rebecca (Christmas 2019)

Cranberries

Never buy a jar again. This takes no time, has nothing nasty in it (apart from sugar) and tastes much lovelier.

Ingredients

  • 100g light muscovado sugar
  • 100ml orange juice
  • 250g fresh or frozen cranberries

Method

  1. Bring the juice and sugar to a boil. Add a splash of port if you like.
  2. Tip in the cranberries and simmer till soft but still with some shape – around five minutes for frozen or eight minutes for fresh.
  3. Pour into a jar and leave to cool.
  4. Will keep for a month in the fridge. Freezes well too.

By Rebecca

Sauces and condiments

5-minute gravy by Rebecca (Christmas 2019)

GravyIt’s easy to find gravy mixes that are vegan (even the beef-flavoured ones don’t often have any meat in them!). However, they do have a lot of unnecessary additives and often contain palm oil. Make your own instead.

Ingredients

  • 150ml red wine
  • 2 tsps vegan stock powder
  • 500ml water
  • 1 tsp each of garlic and onion powder
  • 2 tsps mixed herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme)
  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 1 tsp Natex or Marmite
  • 2 tbsps arrowroot or other thickener (cornflour, tapioca starch etc)
  • 1 tsp brown (muscovado) sugar
  • Pepper to taste
  • Optional flavourings: balsamic vinegar, mustard, horseradish, redcurrant jelly or any dark fruit jam

Method

  1. Boil the red wine till it loses some of its rawness.
  2. Turn down to a simmer.
  3. Add stock powder and water.
  4. Add the herbs, soy sauce, sugar, Natex and garlic/onion powder.
  5. Slake two tablespoons of arrowroot with a little water and stir into the gravy. Stir till it thickens. If it’s too runny, mix a little more thickener.
  6. Now taste and decide what you need. Jelly or jam for more sweetness and a glossy finish, balsamic for a touch of acidity. If you need it saltier, don’t add pure salt – go for more stock powder, soy sauce or Natex instead to give depth.
  7. Make a big batch and freeze it in portions.

By Rebecca

Sauces and condiments

Three onion dip and Tangty pesto dip, from Veganuary film and talk night

Veganuary 2019 food

Andrew created two dips to be served with crudités.

3 onion dip

Inspired by Tesco’s Wicked Kitchen range, this dip contains the following ingredients mixed together:

  • soya milk
  • silken tofu
  • coconut yogurt
  • nutritional yeast
  • sunflower oil
  • mustard
  • garlic
  • cider vinegar
  • spring onions
  • red onions
  • chives
  • salt

Tangy pesto dip

Jazz up your supermarket-bought pesto by blending in the following:

  • vegan pesto
  • chickpeas
  • spinach
  • onion
  • mild curry powder
  • lemon
  • pine nuts
Sauces and condiments

#Vegan mayonnaise

At our recent egg-free cookery demo, we showed two of many ways to make mayonnaise without eggs (or dairy). Here is Andy’s selection.

Ingredients

  • ½ cup unsweetened soy milk
  • 1 cup rapeseed oil
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • ½ tsp sugar (or another sweetener of your choice)
  • ¼ tsp Dijon mustard
  • ¾ tsp salt

Method

  • Combine all ingredients in a high-speed blender, adding the oil last, blend on high speed for 30 seconds.
  • Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 month.

Adapted by Andy from Fab Lunch (YouTube video available)