Spicy Vegetable Skewers

Hello,

Today's recipe is one that I found in the fabulous book, Vegan Fire and Spice by Robin Robertson, called "Spicy Skewered Vegetable Kebabs". I have made some changes with the quantities etc, so I hope you enjoy my interpretation.

Note: The original recipe calls for rapeseed oil in the marinade, but I left this out, not because I'm a culinary genius, but because I forgot! However, the marinade still infused with the veggies extremely well, and the kebabs weren't at all dry. So, if you want a low-fat option, go ahead and omit the oil.

Ingredients

• 1/2 Courgette
• 3 mushrooms, halved
• 4 vegan prawns, defrosted (the same I used in this post)
• Half a red onion
• 1 orange/red pepper
• 3 cloves garlic
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Spices: ground coriander, ground cumin, cayenne pepper (1/4 tsp each)
• 1/4 tsp salt

Makes 4 skewers

Calories: 42 calories per skewer approx

Method

1. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 30 mins before cooking to prevent burning.
2. Peel and crush the garlic. In a mixing bowl, combine the crushed garlic with the lemon juice, ground cumin, ground coriander, cayenne pepper and salt. Set aside.
3. Chop your veggies into bitesize pieces. Put these and the prawns in the bowl with the marinade and coat thoroughly with the marinade. Leave the marinade to soak in with occasional stirring.

1. Arrange your veggies and prawns on the soaked skewers in the most attractive way you can. Pop on a baking tray and bake at Gas Mark 6 for 20 - 25 mins or until the veggies are tender.

The Result

I served up my skewers with brown rice which I flavoured with a tablespoon of sesame oil. The vegetables are tender, and the mushrooms and prawns soaked up the marinade especially well. I didn't miss the oil at all - nothing was dried out and it all went down well.

I can't recommend the recipe book where this came from enough, it's full of fantastic recipes for vegans with a passion for flavour!

Hope you enjoy it!

Callum

Sneak preview

Here is a quick sneak preview of a recipe which will be on the way soon. This was my first attempt (my dad is very good at these but I don't have the knack yet....) and my recipe isn't ready to be shared yet. Keep your eyes peeled for a blog-ready recipe soon....

Callum

Tom Yum Soup

Hello, and happy new year!

My next recipe is a Thai soup called Tom Yum, and it's one of my favourites. Often given as a starter in Thai restaurants, I think it serves just as well as a main with a bit of tasty flatbread for dipping. 

As much as I would love to say I made this from scratch... I didn't. I bought the soup base as a paste from B&M. It's quite rare that a vegan can do that, because 90+% of the pre-packaged pastes contain fish or prawns. In restaurants, the soup typically contains whole prawns as well, but these can be omitted and replaced with fresh mushrooms. In this case, I used mushrooms and vegan prawns - Yes, vegan prawns!! I got these from a website called Veggie World, who have very good service despite a somewhat antiquated payment system.

I just followed the recipe on the jar of paste, so this is less a recipe and more of a review of an existing recipe. Nonetheless, I would recommend it.

Ingredients

• Tom Yum paste
• 70 g Coconut milk
• 4 Chestnut mushrooms, quartered (these must be very fresh!)
• 4 Vegan prawns
• Veg oil
• A little fresh coriander for garnishing

The Method

As I said, I just followed the recipe on the jar! If you are using a pre-bought paste, you should do the same. 

It was just a case of frying the paste in a little oil for 30 secs or so, then adding the coconut milk (70 g), followed by the prawns and mushrooms on boiling. This was allowed to simmer until all the ingredients were cooked. The soup was transferred to a bowl, and garnished with fresh coriander.

The Result

Beautiful Thai soup with that classic coconut-lemongrass flavour. This took me around 20 mins to make from start to finish, so the convenience factor was high as well! I enjoyed this with a bit of Kurdish flatbread to dip - maybe not a classic combination, but fusion cooking is all the rage these days!

Hope you're lucky enough to have a local B&M - if you do, I can highly recommend this delicious paste. Also, the vegan prawns are worth trying - although the delivery cost through this company is high, it's worthwhile if you buy a few items at a time.

Enjoy!

Callum