Experimental Vegan Almond Pâté and Cheese

I have successfully made a mildly spicy, onion almond pâté a couple of times now, using the leftover pulp from making almond milk, which I eat in place of cheese. Here is an excellent recipe, for which I cannot claim credit, I just swap out the dill for paprika. I have also been known to use celery instead of red pepper (depending on the state of the fridge) and on accidentally overprocessing the onions on one occasion, learned that it still tastes abolutely fine after a couple of days in the fridge. This pâté really does taste better the longer you leave it in the fridge. It becomes smoother, and more flavoursome as it ages. That being said, I have no idea what the shelf life is, I think the longest one jar has lasted is a week and a half, but it did not show any signs of going off, it just ran out! I have a feeling it could be quite long lasting, I think the oil and lemon juice probably work as preservatives, but that's not a professional opinion! 

This stuff is so tasty, I am not even remotely tempted to eat real cheese any more, even though it doesn't taste anything like cheese, and why should it?!

However, my two year old daughter doesn't like the spiciness of it, and she does love her cheese, so this is my first experiment at making vegan almond cheese, with the leftover pulp from making almond milk combined with nutritional yeast for that cheesy flavour. Thanks to Kim Miles for the original recipe, which I tweaked a little, partly due to having different ingredients in the house.

I didn't have any mustard or garlic powder, so I added one small clove of finely chopped fresh garlic, and instead of mustard I added one tsp fenugreek powder, which I thought might enhance the cheesy taste provided by the nutritional yeast.

The main ingredient I changed was the oil. I have recently discovered coconut oil, which I have been using in place of butter, both on bread and in baking. Since it is a very mild oil, and solid at room temperature, I thought it might add a little something to this cheese in terms of solidity, without changing the flavour. This is why I have shaped the finished product into a block instead of putting it in a jar. It is now in the fridge setting (hopefully) so more news to follow! If this sets successfully I may post my own recipe for this vegan cheese, it certainly tasted nice and cheesy straight out of the blender.

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So, 3 days later and the results are in! I wasn't convinced about this 'cheese' to start with, it certainly slices nicely but the flavour is definitely still more pâté than cheese. That's to be expected, but after an hour in the fridge I still wasn't impressed. Given another day in the fridge and once again, this pâté has aged well. Don't expect it to taste too much like cheese and you won't be disappointed. It is more of a pâté, only far nicer than any meat pâté (IMO) and can easily be eaten in place of cheese on crackers, in sandwiches with sliced cucumber, on toast (it can be warmed up although it doesn't melt so much as cheese) or my husband just munches it on its own. My daughter still refuses to even try it, but ah well, you can win them all! As I have said before, it may not taste exactly like cheese, but I have not missed eating cheese one little bit since I started making this stuff, and cheese was my one sticking point to going completely dairy free. I now use coconut oil to butter my bread, use almond milk or oat milk in my tea or porridge, and eat this marvelous pâté, in all its various forms in place of cheese. This pâté is so versatile, it can be made soft and spreadable if you make it with olive oil or hard and sliceable (still slightly spreadable) when made with coconut oil. It can be made as plain or herbed, or as spiced up as you like! And it's so good for you too! Guilt free crackers and 'cheese', now that's what I'm talking about!

I may in time add my own recipe, but for now, follow the links, check out both recipes, decide whether or not you want to use nutritional yeast, whether you want to spice it up, and remember to swap out the olive oil for coconut oil if you want to set it in a sliceable block. Melt the coconut oil gently in a pan before adding to the food processor, and use just enough to bind it all together (between 2 and 4 tablespoons). Use your fingers to form the pâté into a block, then place in in an air tight container in the fridge to set. Leave overnight or 24 hours for a better flavour and smoother texture.

Recipe links.

https://lovinleaves.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/almond-pulp-pate/

http://positivelyvegan.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/say-cheese.html

Superfast Oven-Baked Potatoes

So there are a million tutorials out there showing you how to do quick, microwave baked potatoes. I don't know about you, but I DON'T HAVE A MICROWAVE! I am also quite disorganised about getting lunch or dinner ready on time...I only remember to start cooking around the time most people expect to be eating. Not good when you have a hungry 2 year old. So I had a quick think, and came up with this superfast oven method of baking crispy skinned, stuffed potatoes, in LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR. You are talking half an hour, maximum, from taking the potatoes out of the cupboard, to serving up onto your plate. How cool is that?!

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees C
• Wash and cut out any bad bits from your potatoes (same as you would normally do).
• Slice the potatoes in half length-ways.
• Hollow out the potato halves with a suitable knife (e.g. a paring knife, although I just used a slicing knife as pictured). Just scoop out the middle part of the potato, no need to be too precise or neat, leaving at least 5mm next to the skin. Put the middle parts aside.
• Put your potato halves face down on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
  
• Pop into the oven and bake for around 20 minutes.
• While your skins are cooking, take your potato middles and boil until soft.
• Drain and mash: add a little milk (optional) and grated cheese (also optional) or other filling of your choice (tuna?) before mashing. The possibilities are endless.*
• Take potato skins out of the oven, turn them over and prick to make sure they are soft.
• Stuff and serve. You can pop them back in the oven for a few minutes if you want them piping hot or grate cheese on top to melt.

 This method also works for baked sweet potatoes.

*If you didn't want to stuff your potato skins with other ingredients, you could in theory just mash the potato "as is" to pop back into the skins, or leave it out and fill the potato skins with other ingredients. Experiment and have fun with it!