THE VEGAN NEWS
THE VEGAN NEWS
OCTOBER
1996
In This Month's Issue
Recipes Vegan Product Review(s) Recycling Tips In The Veganic Garden Your Queries Book Review(s)
Recipe of the Month
Pauline's Macaroni Beanpot
My version based on a recipe obtained from 365 Plus One Vegan Recipes by Leah Leneman
Ingredients
200g wholewheat macaroni
1 onion
3-4 medium tomatoes
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
1 x 400 g tin of curried baked beans (or normal baked beans with 1 tsp mild curry powder added).Method
- Peel and chop the onion and the tomatoes. Put the onions and tomatoes in a pan and cook them gently with the herbs for about ten minutes. (N.B.tomatoes can be skinned by covering them with boiling water for a few minutes. The skins should then come off fairly easily.)
- Cook the macaroni in a pan of boiling water until tender.
- Add the baked beans and the curry powder to the onion and tomato sauce. Stir well and heat through thoroughly.
- When the sauce is cooked, mix in the cooked macaroni and serve.
Recipe serves 2
October Product Review
This dessert is made from soya beans and contains no animal ingredients. It is available in chocolate or vanilla flavour and uses chicory syrup as a sweetening agent instead of sugar. Serve it over fruit as a change from vegan yogurt. Provamel soya dessert can be bought in Holland and Barrett and other health food stores.
Recycling TipsBefore you throw anything away think! Can it be reused? Here are some suggestions:
- Did you know that those empty toilet rolls make good 'plant pots' for germinating large seeds in? Simply, cut the toilet rolls in half and stand them in a gardening tray or propagator. Fill them with peat-free potting compost and plant your runner bean seeds or sweetcorn seeds in them to germinate. When planting out the seedlings cut off the toilet roll with scissors. Start saving up all your old toilet rolls now for next year's sowing.
- Similarly, any small yogurt/dessert pots or take-away coffee cups can be reused for growing cuttings in, or for potting up young plants.
- Don't throw away your grass mowings either. These can be used as a mulch on peas, leeks, or around the comfrey plants or they can be mixed into the compost heap. Autumn leaves can be used for making leaf mould. (See next section)
What's Happening in the Veganic Garden This Month?There are two main tasks to be done in the garden this month. These are:
A. Harvesting:
- Now that it is getting frosty, bring in the tomato plants and ripen those last green tomatoes indoors by putting them in paper bags in a warm place such as in the airing cupboard.
- Finish lifting root crops such as beetroot, carrots, turnips and potatoes and store them for use thoughout the winter.
- Take down the runner bean frames after harvesting any remaining beans. And don't forget to keep and dry any large runner bean pods for use as next year's seeds.
B. Tidying Up:
- Leaf Mould
Sweep up all of those autumn leaves as they fall. These can be used to make leaf mould. This is usually made inside a wire netting container but if you do not have a suitable container to put them in, then the leaf mould can be made inside plastic dustbin bags instead. Punch some air holes into the bags of leaves and sprinkle in some soil and a suitable activator. And, if the weather is not too wet, give the lawn a final cut and mix the mowings in with the leaves.Note: For leaf mould, only deciduous tree and shrub leaves should be used and rose prunings or horse chestnut leaves should not be included. Wire netting containers can, however, be constructed quite easily. If you are making the leaf mould using a wire netting container, it should be built on a soil base and should be at least three feet high. You will get better results if it has a cover to keep the rain out. It's possible to construct a such a simple container from chicken wire. However, a special leaf mould compost cage can be purchased from: The Organic Gardening Catalogue, if you prefer to purchase a ready-made leaf mould container. The Organic Gardening Catalogue also sells a pack of three biodegradeable leaf sacks and a special activator called Biotal, which is designed to accelerate leaf mould production.
- If you have some compost that is ready, then put it on the land as it is cleared. The ground will then be ready for Spring sowing. (Details on veganic compost making will appear in the November issue.) In the meantime, keep any garden rubbish you make!
- Plant out the Spring cabbage plants if you have not done this already. August sowings of seeds such as winter radish, land cress, corn salad and claytonia should all be doing well and you will soon be able to harvest some of these winter salad crops. Hikari bunching onions and welsh onions can also be picked throughout the winter months and eaten in salads.
- If you haven't installed a water butt yet, then now is the time to do it. You should be able to purchase one from your local DIY store. Many plants prefer to be watered with rainwater and it helps to conserve the mains water supply for other more important human uses. Why not set it up now so that it will have time to fill up for the Spring?
Any Queries?
I love Pesto Sauce on my pasta but since becoming a vegan, I have had to stop using it as it contains cheese. Can you suggest any alternatives?
S. Williams. Milton KeynesYes, I can. Zest foods make a special vegan pesto. This is available from some health food shops. Florentino also produce a dairy-free pesto. You will find further more recent information on pesto sauces on the Product Page.
October Book Review
365 Plus One Vegan Recipes by Leah Leneman.
A good collection of easy recipes. The first chapter of the book is a good source of information on vegan 'dairy' products and it is therefore quite useful for beginners. You may still be able to obtain a copy of this book through your local library. Alternatively visit Amazon UK to look for a second hand copy.Recipes that I would particularly recommend include: The queen scones (p.17). Avocado and mushroom salad is also very tasty and easy to prepare when the weather is hot (p.31). I frequently use the miso and tahini pizza topping (p.46) instead of vegan cheese. The tahini sauce for pasta (p.53) is delicious when baked in the oven and this dish makes a very tasty vegan alternative to macaroni cheese. Potato and pea curry (p.72) is interesting and cheap to make. Hazelnut and potato patties (p.78) is one of my favourite recipes. I always grill the patties for about 15-20 mins instead of frying . They are very cheap and easy to make, especially if you use leftover potatoes. The toad in the hole batter made without eggs and using vegan sausages makes a nice treat (p.104). I generally reduce the amount of fat used though. And to end a meal try tofu cheesecake 1 (p.125) or bread and butter pudding (p.127). Both of these are delicious. The book also has a chapter on vegan cakes if you are wondering how to make cakes without using eggs and dairy products.
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