Eat Organic, Fuck Monsanto

On the 25th May there will be demonstrations all over the world called March Against Monsanto. 

I'm organising the demonstration in Glasgow, and in the past few weeks I've been talking to people about what I'm doing and it's amazed me just how many people haven't heard of one of the world most evil corporations, Monsanto, and all the awful things they've done. People don't know about Genetically modified foods (GMOs) or the importance of eating organic, both for your health and for the environment.
Some things are just as important as being vegan, or maybe even more, and eating organic and saying no to GMOs, is one of those things.

Just remember every time you make a purchase you're making a vote.

Peanut Butter Jelly Cookies

Peanut Butter and Jelly. Probably the best thing America ever gave to the rest of the World.
Not much needs to be said about these little gems. They're easy to make, have a list of ingredients just as tiny as my willpower not to eat them, and they taste pretty fucking good 
(I should know, I ate enough of them).

Peanut Butter Jelly Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups creamy or crunchy peanut butter
1 3/4 cups of strawberry jelly ( that's jam to you Brits)

How to:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. In a bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Add the peanut butter and 1 cup of jam. Mix it all together, depending on the type of peanut butter you use you might need to either add more or less flour to the mix. Roll the dough into small balls and then flatten slightly on the baking tray (don't forget to grease it first or put down parchment paper).
Bake for 8 minutes, take them out and make a wee depression on each cookie with your thumb, spoon a teaspoon of the remaining jam on each, then chuck them back in the oven for another 8 minutes. Then try not to eat them all.

Martha's brown rice salad

'Martha Goes Green' is a great little cookbook that my friend once lent me, warning me that the brown rice salad can lead to obsession, of course I made that recipe first.
And then ate it almost every day for a month.
It's pretty damn tasty, plus you can shake it up and make it really exciting. Have no money? Preaching to the choir sister. Try putting all those leftovers in your fridge into it and pretend you're being quirky.

Ingredients:

Cup of brown rice
1/2 cup of corn kernels
2 celery sticks, thinly sliced
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup parsley, chopped

For the dressing:

1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 glove garlic, minced
1 tbs agave syrup
1 tsp curry powder
Squeeze of lemon juice
Salt and pepper

How to:

Put the brown rice on first because it takes forever to cook. 1 cup of rice = 2 cups of water.
For the dressing, just add all the ingredients together into a little jar, screw on the lid and give it a good shake. Leave it there to marinate.
Soak the raisins in boiling water for about 5 or 10 minutes until they expand and go soft.
Put all the other salad ingredients into a big mixing bowl, add the raisins, the cooked brown rice (don't forget to cool it done first) and the salad dressing. Mix them all together.

Good luck with your new found food addiction.

Vegan in West Africa?

Before leaving for West Africa, I was pretty confident that I could continue being vegan or at the very least vegetarian while I was in Africa. We had told our project that we were vegetarian and it didn't seem an issue. We spent our first couple of weeks on the coast ordering food that we figured to be vegan(ish) and were feeling cocky about how easy it would be.

Then we arrived at the project.

I have never in my life found so many fish bones in my meal, (because you know fish isn't actually an animal right?) and stews where the animal carcass had just been removed "to make it vegetarian for us". To be honest it just went down hill from there, to the point where I started eating eggs and ice-cream, rationalising that if I had to eat fish heads then, fuck it, I'm going to eat chocolate too.

After a few months I'd found out that all the foods we had originally thought to be vegetarian were not at all, and almost every dish there seems to have some sort of meat stock or ground up fish in it. As one Ghanian once told us "I understand you don't like to eat meat but you want the taste in it"

Suprisingly Ghana actually does have a few vegetarian restaurants. They're usually owned by Rastafarians, so if you can take Bob Marley blaring on the speakers, ganja wafting in the air and every second word being "Jah man" then they're worth a visit.

We visited at least four of five, none of them were anything special, but it's nice not to find bits of mystery meat in your meal.

Best ones by far would have to be Asasse Pa in the center of Accra and Baobab Guesthouse in Cape Coast, so if you ever find yourself in the middle of Ghana and you're craving some veg food, hit them up.

Fig, mint & almond salad - MOROCCO

I've been saving up a few posts to use for days such as today, where I am stuck in bed with the flu, my only movement being to flip the pages of my book and to boil the kettle for tea. Actually I've haven't even done that, I've got two fabulous flatmates who have been refilling my tea cup faster than I can drink it and would probably read my book to me too if I asked. Bless them.

Anyway today's post is not a dish particular to Morocco but more just a combination of flavours that are quite common. It would be more traditional to use couscous but I'm trying to balance out all the naughty food I've been eating so I used quinoa instead. 

FIG, MINT & ALMOND SALAD - MOROCCO

Ingredients:

2 figs

a handful of fresh mint

1/3 cup almonds

1 cup quinoa

handful of rocket

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 tbs agave syrup

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp lemon juice

salt & pepper

Instructions:

Cook then quinoa in 2 cups of water for 10-15 minutes, drain and set aside to cool.

In a jar mix the balsamic vinegar, agave syrup, olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Shake and pour over the quinoa. Roast and roughly chop the almonds, dice the figs, chop the mint and add them all to the quinoa, mix together and serve.

Zombie Cupcakes - BEYOND THE GRAVE

Ok, I've gone slightly insane. What with all the late night baking, the flu, split shifts at work... who can blame me? I feel like a zombie and even zombies need sweet treats.
What started off as a late night snack from no particular country ended up as slime green cupcakes. But obviously these are zombie cupcakes , a very traditional dish from a country called 'Beyond the grave'... so yes it still fits in with my Vegan MoFo theme.

ZOMBIE CUPCAKES - BEYOND THE GRAVE

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup of sugar

1 tbs spirulina powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

2 bananas, mashed

1/4 cup margarine, melted

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

Instructions:

Heat the oven to 180 degrees and fill the cupcake tray with 'cupcake coffin' as my flatmate Mel likes to call them.

Mix all the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas, add the melted margarine and orange juice, stir together and slowly add to the dry ingredients and fold together until mixed.

Tip your zombie slime into each 'cupcake coffin' and chuck in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until you can poke a toothpick in and it comes out without goo.

Pimientos Rellenos - SPAIN

When I was volunteering in Cataluna in Spain, long before I was vegan or even vegetarian, I used to love Pimientos rellenos (Stuffed peppers), my host would leave them in the freezer for me and I would heat them up for lunch and eat them in the sunshine before my siesta (Not a bad life eh?). My favourite filling was cod in a béchamel sauce so I decided to recreate a sort of creamy fish sauce.. sin la pescada.

PIMIENTOS RELLENOS - SPAIN

Ingredients:

2 tbs olive oil

1 can butter beans, drained and rinsed (keep a tbs of the bean liquid)

1 jar of whole pimientos peppers

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs red wine vinegar

1tsp thyme, dried or fresh

salt and pepper

Instructions:

Heat oven to 180 degrees. Drain the liquid from the pimentos, pat dry with a paper towel.

In a sauce pan, heat the oil, add the garlic and butter beans, cook for a few minutes then mash with a fork until it's a smooth paste, add the red wine vinegar, the bean liquid, thyme, salt and pepper and cook for a further minute.

When the mixture has cooled, stuff the peppers, place in a tray and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Special thanks to Melanie Vautier for being my new food photographer. No more badly lit midnight photos, I promise!