Go-To Chocolate Cake

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This cake will be your go-to chocolate cake as it’s extremely easy to make; it rises easily, and produces a deliciously fudgy, flavoursome cake that’s perfect served warm with the glaze poured over it.

Ingredients: 
For the cake:
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp granulated stevia
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup strong coffee, warm, but not hot
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup soy yoghurt
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 tsp white wine or cider vinegar

For the glaze: 
4 tbsp suitable-for-vegans margarine
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp granulated stevia
2 tbsp all-plant milk mixed with 1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 squares suitable-for-vegans 70% dark chocolate

Directions: 
1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a round loose-bottom cake tin, and sit it on a baking tray. 
2. Mix all of the cake ingredients so that the flour is well incorporated. Pour into the cake tin. 
3. Bake for 30-40 minutes (ovens vary) or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin. 
4. Meanwhile, Place all of the glaze ingredients except for the chocolate into a saucepan. Bring to a simmer, but don’t allow to boil. Add the chocolate to melt, adding more if glaze is too sweet. 
5. Serve cake warm with glaze poured over the top.

Roasted Grapes

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If you have a sweet tooth, you will love roasted grapes: their juices become like warm jam. Simply spritz with a little oil, sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and roast in a preheated oven at 220C for 30 minutes. Your only regret will be that you didn’t buy more grapes! These are delicious stirred through oatmeal.

Green Bean Casserole

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A wonderfully comforting dish, this serves two. Feel free to double or even triple the recipe: you’ll want extra helpings!

For the Mushroom Sauce:

½ yellow onion, roughly chopped
300g white mushrooms, roughly chopped
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup soy (or other all-plant) milk
½ tsp salt, or to taste
¼ tsp white pepper
½ tsp dried sage
½ tsp dried rosemary
½ tsp dried thyme
¼ cup nutritional yeast
2 tbsp cornflour

For the Casserole: 
400g frozen green beans

For the Topping: 
4 onions, cut into strings and fried (we air fried ours, which takes much longer than deep frying; instructions below).

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Make the sauce by sautéing the onions and mushrooms over a medium low heat until the mushrooms start to release their liquid. Don’t allow to take on much colour. Add the rest of the ingredients apart from the cornflour, and simmer for about 20 minutes. 
3. Meanwhile, cook the green beans according to package directions, and refresh in cold water to stop them cooking. Drain. 
4. When the sauce is ready, blend and return to the pot. Mix the cornflour with enough water to get a smooth paste. Add to the sauce and simmer to thicken. 
5. Transfer the beans to an ovenproof dish and pour over the sauce. Bake for 20 minutes. 
6. Top with the crispy onion strings and serve. 

To make the onion strings: 
1. Slice the onions on a mandoline. 
2. Transfer to an air-fryer basket and fry for 5 minutes at 120C. Toss and fry for another 5 minutes.
3. Lower the heat to 100C, and fry the onions for another 50 minutes or so, tossing often and checking that they don’t burn.

Oat-Stuffed Bell Peppers with Carrot Umami Sauce

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It’s a vegan classic, the stuffed pepper. Here, we’ve served it with a sauce that’s so good that you’ll lick the serving spoon!

To make the sauce: 

Ingredients: 
2 carrots, trimmed and sliced
1 potato, scrubbed and chopped
1 garlic clove
1/2-1 cup water
1 tbsp miso paste
salt, to taste

Directions: 
1. Add carrots and potato to a pan. Cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, simmer, and cook until fork-tender. 
2. Drain and add to a blender with the rest of the ingredients. Season to taste. 

To make the stuffed pepper: 
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup oats
2 tbsp hummus
1/2 cup Carrot Umami sauce
2 bell peppers, deseeded (if you’re following the plan, yours will each have a slice removed that we used for previous meals) 
Small handful spinach

Directions: 
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Fry the onion until lightly caramelised. Add the garlic until just fragrant. 
2. Mash the beans in a bowl. Add in the oats, onion and garlic, hummus, and carrot umami sauce. Season to taste. 
3. Stuff the peppers with the oat mix, pressing in well with your hands. 
4. Place the peppers on a silicone- or parchment-lined baking tray, and bake 25 minutes, or until the pepper has cooked. 

To serve: 
Suitable-for-vegans tortilla chips
Suitable-for-vegans salsa

Serve the dish with a large handful of tortilla chips, more Carrot Umami sauce, and some of the salsa.

Apple and Sultana Oatmeal

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You don’t need a recipe for this one: make up the oatmeal on water or all-plant milk, according to package directions. Add a chopped apple and as many sultanas as you like, and enjoy. 

If you have some spices like cinnamon and ground cloves, you could add those for an apple pie flavour. Sweeten, if desired, with vegan sugar or maple syrup.

Nori and Rice Salad

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A healthy, nourishing salad that’s really filling and packed with flavour.

Ingredients: 
½ cup dry weight sushi rice, cooked according to package directions
1 carrot, shredded
60g broccoli, in small florets
¼ red pepper, chopped (use the other whole red pepper, if following the plan, and cut down the side, leaving the other ¾ intact)
1 scallion, sliced
3 or 4 mushrooms, sliced
2 or 3 tbsp red cabbage, shredded (cooked, if desired)
100g baby spinach
2 sheets of nori, finely chopped
Soy sauce, if available; if not, use either salt or some of the sultanas to flavour
Flaked almonds, toasted, to garnish

Directions
1. Steam the broccoli until just fork tender. Cool in an ice bath (or under cold running water). 
2. Fry the mushrooms with the spinach until cooked.
3. Mix all ingredients, and season to taste. Sprinkle with flaked almonds, if desired.

Onigirazu

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This is the perfect lunchbox food. Try it if you don’t believe us!

Ingredients: 
1/2 cup sushi rice, cooked according to package directions
100g mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic
1 carrot, peeled and shredded
1 spring onion, sliced into matchsticks
1/2 avocado, sliced
1/4 red bell pepper (if following the plan, then take the slice from from the side of the pepper and leave the rest of the pepper uncut; we’ll be using it tomorrow), sliced thinly
4-5 sheets nori

Optional: 
2 tbsp vinegar (rice vinegar, preferably, but cider is also acceptable)
1 tbsp liquid sweetener (we used maple syrup)
Pinch salt
1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger
Sweet chilli sauce
Soy sauce

Method: 
1. If you wish to season the cooked rice, heat together the vinegar, sweetener, and salt. Stir through. 
2. To cook the mushrooms, fry over a low heat with the garlic until the liquid that they release has been evaporated. You can also add ginger and some soy sauce if desired. 
3. To assemble the onigirazu, lay a sheet of nori on a piece of cling film. Spread with a little sweet chilli sauce if desired (although they taste great without!)
4. Moisten hands to put a square of rice in the middle of the nori. Top the rice with some of the cooked mushrooms, carrot, spring onion, avocado, and bell pepper. 
5. To fold, bring opposite corners in to just past the centre point, keeping the parcel nice and tight. Repeat with the remaining two corners. 
6. Wrap the parcel in cling film and leave for a few minutes to allow the nori to soften. 
7. To serve the onigirazu, cut through the centre with a sharp knife, cutting through the cling film. 
8. Unwrap to serve, and enjoy.

Baked Beans

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Simple, hearty, and nutritious, these beans make for a perfect breakfast with some toast.

Ingredients: 
1 can cannellini beans
1 can tomatoes (we won’t use it all)
1/4-1/2 tsp suitable-for-vegans sweetener (to taste)
1/4 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 slices suitable-for-vegans bread, toasted

Directions: 
1. Meanwhile, empty the beans and their liquid into a saucepan. Add the juice from a can of tomatoes and stir. 
2. Bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes until slightly thickened. Add a tomato from the can, crushed between your hands, to thicken if necessary–alternatively, you can use a couple of tbsp of tomato purée if available. 
3. Meanwhile, make the toast. 
4. Add the sugar, to taste, and the salt. Season with freshly ground black pepper and serve, reserving half of the recipe for tomorrow’s lunch.

Banoffee Oat Sundae

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How could you wake up feeling grumpy when you’ve planned this delicious breakfast?

Ingredients: 
1 cup oats
2 bananas (1 mashed, 1 sliced)
8 dates
a pinch of salt and a splash of vanilla essence, if available
Peanut butter and flaked almonds to serve

Directions: 
1. Soak the oats in enough water (or use all-plant milk if you prefer) to just cover them. Add 1/2 of the mashed banana and stir. 
2. Place the dates in a blender with salt, vanilla essence, and enough hot water to blend to a smooth consistency. If you don’t have a blender, chopped dates will work perfectly well! 
3. Layer the oats, sliced bananas, date caramel, and mashed banana into a glass, alternating. Top with a few dots of peanut butter, and sprinkle with flaked almonds.

Oat and Banana Bread

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This is not your typical banana bread. Not a dense, very sweet, strongly flavoured loaf with which you’ll be familiar as a way to repurpose overripe bananas, this Banana Oat Loaf is subtly flavoured, sweet, and with the texture of a regular bread loaf. It’s perfect for nut butter, suitable-for-vegans chocolate spread, or jam/jelly. You may replace the oil with extra banana or apple sauce, but the bread will have a slightly shorter shelf life.

Ingredients: 
300g white bread flour
100g wholemeal bread flour
100g oats
2 tbsp tapioca starch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp suitable-for-vegans sugar
2 tsp yeast
2 tbsp olive oil
2 ripe bananas, mashed
200ml water

Directions: 
1. Add the flours, oats, and starch to a large bowl. Put the salt, cinnamon, and sugar in one side of the bowl and the yeast in the other. 
2. Add the oil, bananas, and 125ml water, and mix well to combine. If the dough is dry, add the rest of the water a little at a time until the dough comes together and the sides of the bowl are clean. 
3. Tip the dough onto an oiled surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth. Transfer back to the bowl and prove, covered with a tea towel, until doubled in size (about an hour). 
4. Preheat the oven to 200C. Place the dough in a non-stick loaf tin, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the dough sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.