Sunday 8 July 2012

Cocoa and Marshmallows


Yes. I know, I know it's the middle of summer and I shouldn't be drinking Cocoa on a Sunday evening I should be outside of a pub drinking something cold with beads of condensation running down the sides. Only, I had these Mini Vanilla Marshmallows in my fridge. I got them from Vegan Cross in Kings Cross last week and they don't keep forever!

This is the first time I have had marshmallows floating on top of my hot chocolate since I realised that they weren't veggie and that was about 12 years ago, so it had to be done.

If you don't live in London you can get them online at www.alternativestores.com. Perhaps toast them on a camp fire if you want to do something a bit more seasonal with them.

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Saturday 7 July 2012

Who Needs Butter?



As a vegan and reformed cheese addict, my friends and family have been asking me whether or not I miss cheese. The answer is no. Not really. Cooking vegan food is teaching me all about new flavours and techniques and it has really opened up my culinary mind so I haven't missed it at all.

There was however,  one thing that I secretly missed and that was butter. I don't mind cooking and baking without it, that has been no problem at all. But it was when I made toast that I felt a great loss. I had a bad relationship with my brand of vegan margarine. I only stuck with it out of pure desperation. It tasted awful on its own and I in a crazy state of denial I thought that I could overpower the lack of taste with Marmite but it didn't really do the trick because one of the best things about toast and Marmite was the way that the Marmite mingles with the melted butter and in this case the Marmite just sat on top of tasteless grease.

So one day I was out shopping for said tasteless grease in my local Waitrose supermarket and it was no where to be seen. I picked up a few sunflower spreads and they all contained milk and some of the low fat ones even contained pork gelatine. I almost overlooked olive spreads because I've been mislead before, they usually all have milk in, but and then I spotted a new one: Minerva Greek Olive Spread - completely dairy free. I had no expectations but was glad to have something for my toast.

Anyway, to cut to the chase I put the spread on a warm savoury scone and it was creamy, tasty and delicious. It doesn't taste like butter but that's alright because I have stopped looking. I have found something else and now I can move on.