Vegan Lentil Pizza

I’ve been fascinated by uttapam for a long time. Uttapam is a Southern Indian gluten free fermented pizza made from urad dal and rice. The last time I ate this it got me thinking… Could I make an Italian type pizza base using red lentils and oats – a Vegan Lentil Pizza? Was it possible?  

The best way to make baked falafel?

Until this post I’ve never made proper falafel before!  There I’ve said it!  It seemed crazy trying to come up with my own falafel recipe if I hadn’t actually made anyone else’s ever. As we follow an oil-free vegan diet I searched for great oil free falafel recipes, which only used traditional ingredients and they seemed quite difficult to find.  

So I decided to try converting two popular falafel recipes to baked to find what I was looking for….

Chilli Cheese Fries (oil & nut free)

Today we have a guest post from Ian @chefvegan – he has a load of great recipes on his YouTube channel – make sure you check him out!

Ian told me his inspiration for this recipe came from fond childhood memories of eating chilli cheese fries at fairs and ballparks.  He says “I have been wanting to recreate a vegan recipe of it for a few years now, and when Rachel asked me to contribute I thought it would be really cool to create a chilli cheese fries recipe that ticked the easy, healthy and oil-free boxes in line with her blog’s philosophy”.

Jollof Rice (Vegan)

Last summer we had some builders in our house for about 6 weeks! During that time we became pretty good friends.  One of the popular topics of conversation, of course, was food.  I would feed them my concoctions and they would tell me about their favourite dishes from the countries of their heritage. One of the chaps was from Ghana and he mentioned that I had to try Jollof Rice.  Apparently, it was one of the best things you could eat, spicy, comforting and filling. I love trying new things so it sent me on a mission to come up with an easy vegan version of this traditional West African dish.

Korma Curry (Vegan)

Korma is one of my favourite curries.  Normally it is quite rich, but this vegan korma curry is lighter and lower in fat than usual, using just enough coconut cream, cashews and plant based yogurt to create the creamy korma sauce.

Mango & Passion fruit Cake (Vegan & Low Fat)

The other day we watched Rebecca Pawsey make a mango cake on her YouTube channel.  It just looked so easy and so delicious.  The recipe had come from the wonderful blog Blend With Spices and we just had to make and share it.  The wonderfully simple base recipe got me thinking about how I could switch things up to make it more tropical and replace the oil!  So this mango and passion fruit switch up of Blend With Spices recipe was born!

Spicy Ethiopian Burgers (GF & oil-free)

I am seriously addicted to Ethiopian Red Lentil Stew and have been looking at different ways I could use the Berbere spice blend which is the base of this stew in new ways.  That’s how these burgers were born.  They are spicy, rich and bitey, and provide a massive flavour punch.  

Herby Italian Vegan Meatballs (oil & GF)

I’ve been vegan a couple of years now and one of my favourite meals before I went vegan was meatballs with spaghetti.  I loved how the herbs in the meatballs melded with the sauce and pasta.  Three parts imperfect by themselves but together sheer bliss!  So I set out to recreate what I loved in a vegan meatball.

Ginger & Orange Breakfast Muffins (gluten, oil free & low sugar)

I was watching my friend’s awesome YT channel – Greek Vegan – and she made an amazing orange cake her grandmother used to make.  That got me thinking… how would this come up as a breakfast muffin which was oil and gluten free and low in sugar (you can leave the sugar out if you want).

Ethiopian Spicy Red Lentil Stew (Misr Wat)

I’m really getting into Ethiopian food and this Spicy Red Lentil Stew ticks all the boxes for me.  Quick and easy to make, complex spicing and super healthy.  This has become a regular fixture in our house and I hope it does in yours too!