Author: Clare

Cruelty free cook, crafty lady, obsessive reader, animal babysitter, and mistress of lego

Pastifico Veneto Tortelli with Pizzaiola

On By ClareIn products, TotnesLeave a comment

When people ask us about vegan cheese, and they do, we always tell them that without a doubt the best one you can buy is MozzaRisella Classic. The Mozzarella log is uncannily like the real thing, both raw and melted on a pizza. So how could we resist pasta stuffed with MozzaRisella? We spied these in the chiller cabinet of Green Life in Totnes and brought them home.

DSC_1466

The package suggests serving with pesto, which in retrospect I wish I’d have done, but I was feeling lazy so I just boiled it up and tossed with a little olive oil and pepper. The pasta itself is lovely. It didn’t burst in the pan which is always a plus. The filling is yum, a mix of basil, tomato and cheese which adds a little decadence to every bite.

pasta

When I close my eyes and dream of pasta it’s always fresh and home made but when I can’t be bothered doing it myself (almost always) I’m happy to pick up a pack in the supermarket for a quick and delicious supper. These are a fantastic vegan alternative and I only wish I could get them close to home.

Recipe: Split Fava Dhal

On By ClareIn recipeLeave a comment

We spied a packet of dried fava beans in Seasons in Exeter. Kate asked me if I could make something with them. I mean in theory I guess. I’ve been trying to get more pulses into our diets and my main method has been dhal. Now here was Kate asking me to cook some pulses and I was just shrugging. Never made a fava dhal.


First a note on the beans themselves. They are produced by Hodmedods who grow beans here in the UK which is pretty cool. It’s always exciting to try things that are new to us, especially if they are grown in Yorkshire.

So how to make these new to us pulses into a dhal we’d both enjoy? I looked to my cookbooks. I wanted a recipe to use as my base but I knew that the fava beans would bring their own distinctive taste. I went for the Thomi Mahaar Dhal from one of my favourite books Cooking Like Mummyji. I simplified a little, left it a little wet, and changed the pulses from urid to fava. Lets go!

Ingredients
1 cup split fava beans

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

2 tablespoons oil

One medium onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

Half of a 400g can of tomatoes, blended

1 tablespoon of ginger, minced

1 teaspoon garam masala

1/2 teaspoon asfoetida

1. Bring the split fava beans to boil in 2 cups of water. Add the salt and turmeric. Cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook for an hour, stirring every so often. Add more water if the pan gets too dry.

2. Keep the beans on a low heat while you fry the topping. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onions and garlic and fry until golden, reduce the heat and add the spices and tomatoes.

3. Fry until the oil begins to come through, making the sauce look nice and shiny.

4. Put the beans into the serving dish and pour the stuff in the frying pan on top.

Enjoy.

How on Earth Southern Fried Seitan

On By ClareIn products1 Comment

26/10/2020: How On Earth have opened a Deli for all of your vegan deli meat needs, plus fried chicken. Our review is here.

I love trying new vegan food especially when it’s made by a local business so I was so excited to spy a packet of Southern Fried Chicken by Devon company How on Earth (you can find them on Facebook)


Like it says on the tin plastic tub this seitan, Southern Fried. It certainly looks the part. Opening it up for the first time I was very impressed. I looks suspiciously like southern fried chicken. Smelt like southern fried chicken. Time for a taste test.


I opted for heating them in the oven and shoved them in a wrap with some lettuce and chilli sauce. It was really nice. Probably a bit cheweyer than chicken would be, but that’s seitan. The coating was thick, flavourful and crisp.


I really enjoyed trying the fried seitan, if you’re in Devon try to get some. They stock it at Seasons in Exeter. I can’t wait to see what How on Earth come up with in the future.

Rock Garden, Stone Baked Vegan Pizza

On By ClareIn Torquay1 Comment

Rock garden is legendary amongst vegans in Torquay. They were one of the first places in town to offer vegan food options and they have a full vegan menu (found here!) and they can even tell you what drinks are vegan. Although the burgers an fajitas sounded tempting this place is famous for it’s wood fired pizzas so that is what we went for.

I ordered a vegan cheese pizza with sun dried tomatoes, red onion and mushroom. Kate had hers with just cheese. The member of staff who took my order was really enthusiastic, telling us that the vegan cheese they use is amazing. Only the mouth feel would be different from dairy cheese. She was right. It’s really delicious cheese. Which is a good thing because they put way too much on.

pizza
A very vegan cheesy pizza

Out by the crust things were going fine but as we got closer to the centre we found that the cheese had basically become a sauce leaving the pizza tasting more like a lasagna. I think this is a problem most pizza places have that offer vegan cheese. It doesn’t behave the same as a dairy cheese so putting just as much on often leads to puddles. As much as I love a cheesy pizza I also want to taste the topping, the tomato sauce, and the stone baked crust.

torte
Torte

I managed to eat enough of my pizza to justify desert. Oh who am I kidding, I ate all of it. Out of the vegan options Kate picked the Orange, Almond an Chocolate Truffle Torte. Decadent and very orangy. I went for the Fravacado Ice Cream with raw cacao fudge sauce swirl. It was icy and creamy alright but I wouldn’t necessarily call it an ice cream. It was pretty yummy though.

fravacado
Fravacado

We’ll probably pop into Rock Garden again, if not for the full three courses then to try out the lighter options.

Rock Garden is just off Fleet Walk and you can find there website here. They are also available through Deliveroo