Yummy vegan burger

If you ever have a Vegan round for a junk food bash in the UK and want to serve them something that actually tastes nice without a load of complex cooking and stuff, try this:

Ingredients:

  • Vegan chicken burgers from Holland & Barrett.
  • Vegan cheese slices from Holland & Barrett (or anywhere you can find them).
  • Sainsburys hash browns (A lot of the other makes don’t seem to be certified vegan).
  • Nandos Peri Peri chip sprinkle you can get this from Sainsburys as well.
  • A Jar of Doritos hot or mild salsa.

Cook the chicken burgers and hash browns (sprinkle the hash browns with the Peri Peri)

Just before the burgers are done, put the cheese slices on them to melt a bit (you will find the vegan cheese is fairly naff at melting)

Then simply stack the sandwich in the order: burger,cheese, Doritos salsa with hash browns on top.

Yum

 

Review of Vx Shop

Since becoming a vegetarian and more recently a vegan I have probably eaten in a more healthy fashion than at any time in the last 20 years. When you’re a vegan you can obviously make good food for yourself at home any time, and there are lots of good veggie health food places to shop or eat in London, but sometimes you just want a hot dog or a mouthful of biscuits or generally some junk food.

Thankfully there is a place in London that fills that need, its Vx or SSOV (Secret Society of Vegans): It’s a shop that occupies the “oh F**K isn’t there a proper vegan version of that” area of the market. I go there every weekend to get both the interesting core of my week’s food as well as the treats that you simply can’t get elsewhere. I’m talking about vegan marshmallows, doner kebab meat, cheesecake and proper vegan cheese that actually bloody melts for amazing pizza, all the stuff you can’t seem to find in the more specialist food shops. While a number of vegan products like cheese and ‘meats’ can be found in other grocery shops around London, Vx seems to stock the best tried and tested versions out there, which makes sense seeing as the owner is vegan himself.

In addition to that, the shop provides shoes, clothes, pet food, cakes and pasties, with more of an urban feel than a hippy one. It’s owner is both very open-minded to new products and suggestions and very very careful that all the products he sells are truly vegan, which makes shopping there a blessed relief in this day and age when product ingredients are sometimes not listed clearly and sometimes they seem to change each week depending on third line suppliers.

The shop is quite small physically but don’t let that stop you going each week, as it’s crammed with a large variety of things and the stock changes rapidly as new products come out from the various suppliers so there is always something new to try (that’s my excuse for going to get one of the ace hot dogs and I’m sticking to it!!!)

There is also a webshop and they update their Twitter and Facebook meticulously, both with things such as opening hours, as well as new stock or cupcake flavour of the day etc.

One final thing, the shop is located only 4 mins walk from Kings Cross so if you are waiting for a train you can actually get something nice to each for a change!!

 

Old Comments

hm(25/07/2012 09:45:46 GDT)

AWESOME!!

Vegan Katsu Curry 2nd Try

This is a refinement to Vegan Katsu Curry 1st Try to make it easier and less faff, this time we are killing the battered stuff and using pre fried or braised tofu from our local oriental shop (it costs about £1.40), just wash it with boiling water to get the oil off it, and after you have blended the curry mixture, slice it into bite size chunks and mix it in, much simpler 🙂

Vegan Katsu Curry 1st Try

Our household loves katsu curry, which is fine as im just a veggie, but you can’t get it in vegan form which makes sharing a happy curry a bit of a pain, so here is the first run at a full vegan version.

UPDATE: I keep changing the ingredients to make it taste better

We did the rice first, as we are lucky enough to have a Zojirushi rice cooker (which keeps the rice warm for 12 hours) and a sack of sushi rice, I would urge that you get some proper sushi rice.

Next onto the:
Sauce
1 tbsp vegan butter (we use ‘Pure’)
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 Red Apples, chopped
600ml water
1 banana, chopped
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tbsp ground turmeric
1/2 tbsp hot curry powder
1 tbsp ketchup
250ml vegetable stock (see below)
1 tbsp cornflour
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp ground black pepper

tbsp = table spoon (i forgot so i’ve put it here)

In a large saucepan, heat together the butter, garlic, onion and apple, mix together and fry briefly. Add in 350ml water, then the banana, maple syrup, turmeric, curry powder and ketchup. Bring to the boil. Add in the stock. Mix together the remaining water (250ml) with the cornflour and add to the curry with the salt and black pepper.

Let simmer for about 20-30 mins (with the lid off), your curry should have a nice gloppy consistency, if it looks a bit watery let it simmer for a while longer.

At this point we pummelled the curry with a potato masher to breakup up any of the apple and banana chunks left, but if you’re posh you can use a blender (when it’s a bit cooler) UPDATE: I really do recommend using the blender it makes it look much nicer.

Once you have a curry you like the look of, its onto the fried stuff:, if you have the option to get hold of pre fried or braised tofo you can do this alternative Vegan Katsu Curry 2nd Try

Fried Stuff
whatever flat “disk-like” veggies you want to cook, We used slices of aubergine (eggplant) but courgette (zuccini) or sweet potato is good as well

1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup vegan breadcrumbs
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp ground flaxseed combined with 3 tbsp water microwaved for 10-15 seconds at 900W (mimics an egg)
vegetable oil for frying

Heat the vegetable oil to 350 degrees.
Put the cup of water/flax mix in a bowl, the flour, salt and pepper into another bowl, and the vegan bread crumbs in a larger bowl or shallow dish. Wipe/spread/dip the veggies with water/flax mix, letting the excess run off, then dredge in the flour mixture and let dry for about 2 minutes. Wipe/spread/dip the veggies with water/flax mix once more then dredge in the breadcrumbs until the entire surface is covered. Fry the veggies in the vegetable oil until they are golden brown. Serve with the rice on the bottom covered with the curry and the veggies on top, it also tastes great with a bit of soy sauce

Vegetable Stock
We used what vegetables we had in the house (potatoes, leeks, the left over onion from the sauce, a chilli pepper and a garlic clove) put them in a pan with some vegan instant stock (marigold’s swiss vegetable Bouillon), brought them to the boil and simmered for about 20 mins.

(you could just use 2 cubes of oxo vegetable stock if you want it done quickly)

(this picture was before we had mashed the curry and rendered it down a bit more, this improved the visual side but it still tasted as good)

Old Comments

Mark Myers(03/01/2011 11:32:56 GMT)

@coatsie because its a Japanese curry dish

Coatsie(07/12/2010 18:54:15 GMT)

Just one question Mark – Why sushi rice and not basmati ?