Veggie Lady

Vegetarian Pizza

I made us a lovely Vegetarian pizza on Friday, using a recipe in one of our favourite books, Easy Vegetarian

The dough recipe seemed like the most straightforward of all the books we own, and it proved to work very well. I've tried to make pizza dough before, but with limited success! Actually, last time I made it I swore I would never bother again, it was so stressful. However, this dough made a lovely thin base and did't end up splattered all over my kitchen, so I will definitely be making it again.

I made some simple tomato sauce, chopped some veggies and topped the dough with them. Half an hour later we had two lovely pizzas - one vegan, one vegetarian.

Hello again!

Well now, I'm so sorry for my long absence. I have been in the thick of university assignments for the last few weeks, and have taken a bit of a holiday from blogging.

However, here am I, ready to blog anew! I'm going to make homemade pizza tonight - the results of which I will blog about soon - but in the meantime here is a little photo list of the nice veggie meals I've been cooking up lately.

Red Pepper and Asparagus Soup

 

Lemon and Piri-Piri Kebabs

Banana and Strawberry Smoothies for breakfast

Asparagus and Tofu Stir Fry

Portabello Mushrooms with red onion chutney and brie

Veggie Mars??

Okay, so readers of my Veggie Lady Edinburgh blog will already have seen this news, but I wanted to share it with everyone as if you didn't see it today, you'd probably not hear about it!

Masterfoods are no longer going to be making their popular chocolate products - such as Mars Bars, Twix, and (BOO!) Maltesers - vegetarian friendly. From the 1st May onwards these products have been manufactured using calf rennet instead of a vegetarian alternative, due to a switch in source materials.

The Vegetarian Society is, naturally, up in arms.

Fair enough, I've only actually eaten one of these products in the last couple of years (a bag of Minstrels) so it doesn't really affect me, but to never be able to eat Maltesers again seems harsh! I'm sure there are literally hundreds of thousands of people who did before and now can't.

The moral of the story is: always check the label! If I hadn't seen this news I would just have assumed that these products would still be alright to eat.

UPDATE: 20 May 2007

Mars have listened to the flood of complaints they received, and will apparently be making their products vegetarian once again. Full story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6673549.stm

Tasty Tofu

 I never thought I would like tofu, but I've found a very tasty brand that I buy as often as I can.

Tofu (bean curd) is an ancient product made by "coagulating soy milk and pressing the resulting curds" - see Wikipedia. It originated two thousand years ago in ancient China, though for hundreds of years it has been used in Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand.


Photgraphed is Taifun Smoked tofu, which is my particular tofu of choice. It's firm so doesn't crumble when you cook it. It smells and tastes quite unlike anything I've eaten before, and I practically drool over the stuff. The tofu is suitable for eating straight out of the packet, putting in marinades, and using in recipes.

The Engine Shed Cafe in Edinburgh makes their own smoked tofu, which I've been told is delicious. My local veggie friendly shop Real Foods sells it, and it would be nice to try one day soon!

I also like the very popular  Cauldron smoked tofu pieces, as they're easy to use in recipes and also taste nice just to snack on.

I'm personally not a big fan of the soft silken tofu that you can get, but mostly because of the texture. It's so versatile though, I've probably got hundreds of recipes that use it!

Has anyone else a favourite tofu?

Soya Latte

Soya Latte, originally uploaded by Laura A.

I'm back from a little easter holidays break. My dad, brother, grandparents and I went down to Scarborough and York for a couple of days, as we used to do when we were all younger. It was great fun! Managed to eat well, which is always a good thing.

We went to Whitby for an evening meal, and my panic about the family desire to have fish and chips was alleviated when we found a really nice Pakistan restaurant. All of their curry dishes were available for vegetarians, they had lots of veggie starters and veggie specials. I'm not a hugecurry fan, but the passanda I had there was REALLY good, and I'd love to make one as nice. The restaurant was called Shafiq , and had a lovely view of the harbour too.

Anyway, as the photo above demonstrates I am developing a keen passion for soya latte. I keep getting them when I'm bored at university: i just love them. I never used to be a coffee drinker, it's bad for you if you have too much, blah blah blah, but after a trip to Italy a couple of years ago I realised just how lovely coffee could taste... Only problem with them is that you have to pay extra to get the soya milk, but it's a price I'm willing to pay :)

More bad news for red meat eaters...

I'm glad I'm vegetarian these days: the number of scare stories I've been reading about red meat lately are getting worrying. I'd love to be able to pass this information on to friends without sounding preachy!

A new UK study has found that women who eat red meat or processed meats may have up to a 56% increased risk of developing breast cancer over those who don't. While more research is needed to find the cause and confirm the study, they did find that "a high overall consumption of meat appeared to raise the risk for women of all ages", due to the saturated fats within. Read the full story at the BBC News.

Here's a weird one for you: a small study linked red meat consumption to "unattractive" body odour.

News

I read a few stories today I thought might be of interest.

Expert advice ignored by Scottish Minister, who sends "mixed message" out to schools. See the Scotsman

Slightly grotesque US study links large amounts of beef during pregnancy to low sperm counts in sons, due to hormones in US cattle. See the BBC news.

Healthy pizza? Scientists have found a way of cooking the dough which may have health benefits! See the Guardian.

Finally, and not as nice as the thought of healthy pizza, the blogosphere are considering some sort of code of conduct after a prominent blogger received death threats. See the BBC news again for more details. Scary stuff.

Lifescape Subscription Offer

Just a reminder that the offer for a brilliant discount on the normal price of Lifescape Magazine ends tomorrow!

The offer is:

Lifescape Magazine would like to offer all Lifescape blog readers a 12 month subscription to Lifescape for just £14.95 (saving £15.00 on the normal price!) as a special limited offer until 28 March.

To subscribe, please send your contact details and a cheque for £14.95, made payable to "Lifescape Magazine" to:
“Blog subs offer”,
Lifescape Magazine,
301 Canalot Studios,
222 Kensal Road,
London, W10 5BN

Alternatively, email claudia@lifescapemag.com with “Blogs Sub offer” in the subject line.

Fancy Sushi

 

I almost forgot about this!

I did make fancy sushi, as I'd intended. It was actually really good, I would probably rate it as the tastiest sushi I've made.

I made up a few recipes for ingredients, to try some different things. On the PPK they recommended using tempeh in sushi, so I made a vegan sauce with some veganaise, tomato puree and (vegan) worcester sauce, mixed it with tempeh then stuffed it into sushi with avocado and cucumber - very nice.

Also marinaded some shitake mushrooms with sugar, mirin and tamari soy sauce, then lightly fried them together and rolled with cucumber. Again, this tasted nice but was also quite strong!

I filled the other rolls with various raw veggies, and also made a little wasabi mayonnaise (vegan style) to put in the rolls with the raw vegetables. T'was lovely: I'm not normally a fan of wasabi but the mayo certainly cooled it down a lot!

I cut these at jaunty angles, as per the PPK video, and they did look really good on the plate when they were sliced like that.


Mmmm, sushi. I could eat some right now...

Free Range Fraud...

There was a story in the news yesterday that millions of Battery eggs may have been imported into the UK while incorrectly labelled as Free Range eggs. Defra are investigating the issue, which may have larger implications for the market.

I rarely eat eggs these days, I only buy them a couple of times a year, as they are hard to get through when you eat them alone! I only ever buy organic eggs now, as a couple of years ago I read the "Rough Guide to Ethical Shopping". This book is not for the faint hearted, as it honestly changed the way I thought about the food I eat and the products I buy. If you took it all to heart you would probably end up wearing grey hemp and eating beans and nothing else, but I found it fascinating and made many simple changes to the way I shop and eat.

I'd never purchased battery eggs, always sticking to free range (as an adult in general, not just vegetarian), but I was alarmed to read that free range chickens still don't have a great quality of animal welfare, for the main. The large flock sizes still cause stress, they are more likely to be debeaked because they are prone to fighting, and the nature of "free range" can be questionable on some farms. I strictly stick to organic because the standards are so much better: read the Soil Association's pages on organic poultry farming to learn more, or see the CIWF site for information on battery farming.

If you have any plans to decorate eggs this easter, try going organic!