Do you love new cookbooks as much as I do? I am always excited to see new authors and their vegan creations hit the market. Today, I am talking about Gaz Oakley’s Vegan 100. Gaz, who goes by “Avant-Garde Vegan” and is based in London, only became vegan two years ago but his background as a chef informed the development of the recipes in this book. I have already made three recipes (I got permission to reprint them here) plus I have earmarked a whole bunch more. Be sure to follow me on Instagram to see what else I cook up. In the meantime, let me tell you more about this book.
There are over 100 recipes in the book, divided up into the usual categories including essentials, breakfast, soup, snacks, burgers, mains, salads, sides, bread, dessert and potions.
There are recipes for milk, butter and cheese. I love that vegans have recipes for milk, butter and cheese in their books! I am especially intrigued by the butter recipe because it calls for cacao butter. I make my own but I am going to try this variation to see if it tastes like chocolate or not!
There are also recipes for mayo, ketchup, and veg stock. At this point I make all of those myself but it is good to see other variations that may give me (or you!) some new good ideas.
There are recipes for sausages, beans, bacon two ways, loaded nachos, kebabs, beetroot hummus, and Kentucky friend chick’n! There is also the Mexican burger, the ultimate vegan roast and the epic raw lasagna. Not to mention the three recipes I made below!
Overall, I think this is a fun new book with a different viewpoint – one that comes from across the pond – so there are recipes for dishes that are staples over there. I love that and I am inspired to make those. But I started with some basic recipes. Here they are. Can you guess which photo is mine and which is from the book?
First up, I made the Spinach & Basil Buckwheat Crêpes. I have been experimenting with buckwheat lately so I was excited for this one. In this recipe, Gaz turns basic crêpes into something green and extra vegan! I filled mine with almond ricotta, asparagus and topped them with tomatoes that I had frozen in my garden last summer.
Spinach & Basil Buckwheat Crêpes
These speedy, nutrient-rich crêpes are the perfect light lunch. Fill them with a savoury filling of your choice. Some suggestions include: Meltable “Mozzarella,” steamed asparagus, red onion, sliced, and fresh basil, torn.
The recipe for the mozzarella took a lot of experimenting to get right, but I was so impressed when I cracked it – it’s the most incredible vegan mozzarella and the perfect cheese for topping pizzas or filling quesadillas. You can form the mix into balls but I prefer to keep it in a sealed container and spoon it on as and when I need it.
Ingredients
Spinach & Basil Buckwheat Crêpes
- 360ml (1 1/2 cups) almond milk
- 2 handfuls spinach leaves, washed
- 1 handful fresh basil leaves
- 180g (1 1/2 cups) buckwheat flour
- pinch sea salt and pepper
- juice of ½ lemon
- 1 tbsp coconut oil, for frying
- 2 tbsp Pepper & Tomato Relish (see recipe below)
Pepper & Tomato Relish
- 3 red (bell) peppers
- 7 ripe tomatoes
- 4 shallots, finely chopped
- 4 tbsp unrefined caster (granulated) sugar
- 120ml (1/2 cup) white wine vinegar
- pinch salt and pepper
Meltable Mozzarella
- 75g (1/2 cup) raw cashew nuts
- 240ml (1 cup) cold almond Milk
- 4 tbsp tapioca starch
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/4 tsp dried onion powder
- 1 tsp white miso
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- pinch sea salt and white pepper
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
Crêpes
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To make the crêpes, blitz the milk in a blender with the spinach and basil until it’s smooth and super-green.
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Add the flour to a mixing bowl and whisk in enough of the green milk mix to turn it into a smooth light batter. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the lemon juice.
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Pop the batter in the fridge to settle for 10 minutes while you prepare your fillings.
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Preheat a large, non-stick frying pan (or, even better, a crêpe pan) over a low heat. Rub with some coconut oil before it gets hot.
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When the pan is hot, ladle in enough batter to cover the pan, swirling the batter around to help spread it thinly and evenly. Cook for 1–2 minutes on each side, or until golden.
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Continue until you have cooked all the crêpes, then serve with your chosen fillings and the Pepper & Tomato Relish.
Pepper & Tomato Relish
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To make the pepper & tomato relish, preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F). Place the peppers on a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, until they are slightly charred. Alternatively, hold each pepper directly over the flame of a gas hob to char the skin, turning it around using tongs until it’s completely charred. Either way, put the peppers in a bowl and cover with cling film (plastic wrap).
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Fill a small bowl with boiling water and another with ice-cold water. Lightly score a cross on the bottom of each tomato, plunge them into the hot water for 1 minute, then straight into cold water. Peel the skins off and discard.
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Once the peppers are cool, deseed them and, using the back of your knife, peel/scrape off the charred skin and discard.
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Chop the tomato and pepper flesh into evenly sized pieces. Tip into a heavy-based saucepan with the remaining ingredients. Cook over a very low heat with the lid on, stirring occasionally, for around 40 minutes, or until it’s thickened. Remove from the heat and pour into a sterilized 227-g (8-oz) jar or container.
Meltable Mozzarella
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To make the meltable mozzarella, first, “quick soak” the nuts: simply pop them in a heatproof container and pour over boiling water. Leave for around 20 minutes to soften while you measure out the other ingredients.
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Once the nuts have softened, drain and add them to a high-speed blender with all the other ingredients. Blend on full speed until you have a smooth mixture. I know it doesn’t look anything like mozzarella now, but bear with it!
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Scrape the cheese mixture into a non-stick saucepan, arm yourself with a spatula and start stirring over a medium heat. Be patient – you will be stirring for around 8–10 minutes. Stir until it is super-thick and starts to come away from the sides of the saucepan.
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Once it’s thick and cheese-like, remove from the heat. Serve straight away or place in a sealed container and store in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Next up, I made the Dauphinoise Potatoes. I have never made a dish like this but I have always wanted to. I finally got a safe mandoline so it was perfect timing. Although, my dish turned out soupier than the photo in the book, it was still tasty. I am going to adjust the recipe next time I make it. It might have been the Trader Joe’s coconut milk I used. I’m not sure, but the flavors are spot on so it is worth playing with.
Dauphinoise Potatoes
This dish was one of my favourite treats before becoming vegan but this version actually tastes better than the original. That’s the magic of coconut milk! It’s also a lot less time-consuming and the mustard adds a little umami.
Ingredients
- 6 Maris Piper potatoes, peeled
- 5 shallots
- 1 x 400-ml (14-oz) can coconut milk
- 250ml (1 cup) soy milk
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 tbsp wholegrain mustard
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- pinch sea salt and pepper
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 190˚C (375˚F).
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Slice the potatoes very finely using a mandoline or food processor, on the finest setting. Finely slice the shallots with a sharp knife.
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Pour the coconut and soy milk into a large saucepan and add the garlic, thyme, bay leaf, mustard, yeast and seasoning.
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Heat until boiling, then add the sliced potatoes and onions and stir gently. Remove from the heat and pour carefully into a shallow 1.5-litre (2 ½ pint) ovenproof dish (I sometimes use a 20-cm [8-inch] square oven dish). Spread the potato out so it’s compact and level, then cover with a sheet of greaseproof paper.
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Bake for 20 minutes before removing the paper and baking for a further 20 minutes.
Finally, I made the Moroccan Chickpea Omelette. I love that the recipe instructions call for finishing it off in the oven which really helps with the texture and cooks the top. I’m all about chickpea anything so this recipe and technique has given ideas for all kinds of variations.
MOROCCAN CHICKPEA “OMELETTE”
Witness the magic of chickpeas… This dish resembles an omelette and, if I can say so myself, tastes even better. I have thrown in some North African flavours to give it a Moroccan twist.
Ingredients
For the “omelette”:
- 120g (1 cup) chickpea (gram) flour
- 1 tsp ras el hanout
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/4 tsp chopped fresh thyme
- pinch sea salt and cracked black pepper
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 250ml (1 cup) water, approximately
Filling
- 1 red (bell) pepper
- 1 small red onion
- 6 cherry tomatoes
- 10 pitted green olives
- handful of spinach
- a little olive oil, for frying
Toppings
- handful of fresh baby spinach
- 1 tbsp hummus
- sliced avocado
Instructions
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First up, you will need a large mixing bowl. Add all the omelette ingredients to the bowl apart from the water. Give it a thorough mix, then whisk in enough water until you have a pancake batter consistency.
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Cover the batter and pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes while you prepare your filling ingredients.
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Finely slice the red pepper and red onion. Thin, even slices work best for this dish. Simply halve the tomatoes and chop the olives into 3. Make sure the spinach has been washed.
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Preheat a large, non-stick, oven-proof frying pan and add a small drop of olive oil. (I use a 28-cm [11-inch] pan.) Preheat your grill (broiler).
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Add the peppers and red onion and sauté over a medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring often. Once the peppers and onion are soft, remove them from the pan and add them to a bowl with the tomatoes, olives and spinach.
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Turn the heat down low and add a touch more oil if you think it needs it. Ladle in the batter, then quickly follow with a good covering of the pepper and spinach mix.
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Cook on a low heat for 3 minutes before placing the pan under your grill just to cook the top. Cook for around 3–4 minutes or until golden.
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Slide the omelette onto a warm plate and top with lightly dressed spinach, hummus and avocado.
Recipes excerpted with permission from Vegan 100 by Gaz Oakley, published by Quadrille February 2018, RRP $24.99 hardcover