Chocolate Toffee Truffle Ball

CAUTION: Sinfully sublime and decadently delicious this creamy, chocolatey creation may induce feelings of happiness and well-being.

Ingredients

8 ounces vegan cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup organic powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
2 ounces vegan chocolate (about 4 squares), melted and cooled (see Chef’s Tips for chocolate melting methods)
1/2 cup crushed vegan chocolate-covered toffee pieces
Vegan graham crackers, for serving

To Make the Chocolate Ball

• Melt the chocolate squares according to directions in Chef’s Tips. Set chocolate aside to cool. Beat together the cream cheese and powdered sugar until creamy and smooth. Stir in the melted chocolate until well blended.

• Scoop mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap and with a spatula, roughly shape into a ball. Enclose the ball tightly with the plastic wrap, smoothing and shaping it further as you do so. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

• Remove plastic wrap and with a spatula, transfer chocolate ball to a serving plate. With your hands, gently press the crushed toffee pieces all the way around the ball until completely covered. Serve immediately with graham crackers or cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Chef’s Tips for Melting Chocolate

• Melt chocolate carefully because overheating or any addition of moisture may cause chocolate to gunk.

Double Boiler Method

• Break chocolate into small, somewhat uniform pieces and place in top pan of double boiler over hot, not boiling water (you may also use a glass or metal mixing bowl on top of a saucepan half-full with water). Allow chocolate to melt, stirring occasionally.

Direct Heat

• Use this method if chocolate is to be added to a batter (do not use for dipping or molding). Place chocolate pieces in a saucepan and over very low, even heat, stir constantly to avoid scorching. Remove from heat when small lumps remain and stir to complete melting.

Microwave

• Using a microwave-safe bowl, place chocolate in microwave oven for 30 seconds. Remove and stir. If not melted, return to microwave and repeat heating step, stirring every 30 seconds to prevent scorching. When small lumps remain, remove and continue stirring to complete melting.

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Tomato & Onion Sambal

Ingredients

8 plum tomatoes, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
8 teaspoons water
4 teaspoons raw cane or granulated sugar, blitzed in the blender to a fine consistency
1/4 teaspoon sea salt


To Make the Sambal

1. Combine the tomatoes and onion in a medium bowl.
2. Mix the vinegar, water, sugar and salt until dissolved.
3. Pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables and blend well.
4. Serve alongside Bobotie and Yellow Rice.

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Hot Artichoke & Spinach Dip is a real crowd-pleaser.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO FOR THIS RECIPE

Serves 6

Ingredients

¼ cup Parma Zaan Sprinkles
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 jars (12 ounces each) high-quality marinated & quartered artichoke hearts, drained*
10-ounce package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry, or 1 cup cooked fresh spinach (be sure to drain as much excess water as possible after it’s cooked)
3 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise (such as Vegenaise)
¾ teaspoon chilli oil, or ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (add more if you want it spicy)
1 teaspoon curry powder
½ teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons vegan sour cream (such as Tofutti)

To Make the Dip

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 C). Lightly grease a 9 ½ x 6-inch baking dish with olive oil.
• Add the Parma Zaan Sprinkles, garlic, artichokes, spinach, mayonnaise, chilli oil, curry powder, salt, lemon juice and sour cream to a food processor. Process until smooth, scraping down the sides to incorporate all the ingredients.
• Scrape the mixture into the baking dish and smooth out the top. Bake for 20 minutes until dip is lightly browned and heated through.
• Remove from the oven and drizzle with a extra-virgin olive oil or truffle oil (if you’re feeling decadent).
• Serve warm with toast points or vegan crackers.

*I especially like the Cento brand for marinated artichokes, but any high-quality brand of artichokes will work.

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Curried Apple & Sweet Potato Soup

Don’t let the seemingly long list of ingredients deter you from making this soup. The ingredients comprise mostly of herbs and spices, which should not take you any more than 5 minutes to pre-measure. The actual hands-on prepping of the veggies is minimal. Apple and sweet potato are a harmonious match that will make your taste buds sing.

Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vegan butter
1 large red onion, peeled and diced (about 2 ¾ cups)
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced (about 3 cups)
3 medium organic Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced (about 3 cups)
3 cinnamon sticks
4 whole cloves
1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
5 cardamom pods, smashed and seeds crushed in a mortar and pestle
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
4 tablespoons applejack or apple brandy
5 ½ cups low-sodium vegetable broth, or more as needed
2-inch sprig fresh rosemary
Homemade croutons to garnish (optional)

To Make the Soup

• Smash or peel away the pale green outer husks from the cardamom pods and remove the black seeds. Crush these to a fine powder using a mortar and pestle. Set aside.

• In a soup pot or Dutch oven, melt the vegetable oil and butter over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook partially covered until golden brown, about 5-8 minutes.  Add the sweet potato and continue to cook for an additional 2 minutes.  Add the apples, cinnamon sticks, cloves, salt, nutmeg, crushed cardamom seeds, garlic, cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, bay leaves, turmeric and ginger. Stir well to combine and completely coat the apples and sweet potatoes with the curry spices.  Add the applejack , or brandy, to deglaze the bottom of the pan followed by the broth.

• Bring the soup to a simmer and continue to cook partially covered for 30 minutes. Stir the soup occasionally.  Add the rosemary sprig for the last 5 minutes of cooking.  If necessary, add enough broth to achieve a soup consistency and adjust salt to taste.

• Discard the bay leaves, cinnamon sticks and rosemary sprig, and working in batches, puree soup in a blender until smooth.

• Serve hot and garnish with a few homemade croutons.

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Banana Streusel Loaf

Streusel Ingredients

6 tablespoons evaporated cane sugar
6 tablespoons cake flour
4 tablespoons vegan butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Loaf Ingredients

¾ cup almond or soy milk
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups cake flour
½ teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
1 ½ teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup vegan butter
1 cup evaporated cane sugar
3 large ripe bananas, finely mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To Make the Streusel

• Combine the sugar, flour, butter, ginger, cinnamon and pecans in a medium bowl. Using your fingertips, mix the ingredients until they are well incorporated and the clumps are the size of peas. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

To Make the Loaf

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Liberally grease with butter a 9 ½ x 5 ½-inch loaf pan. In a small bowl or beaker, stir together the milk and vinegar. Let it stand for 5 minutes; it’ll curdle like buttermilk. Add the applesauce to the milk and whisk to blend. Set aside.
• In a separate medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
• In a separate large bowl and using an electric or a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the bananas and vanilla extract and continue to beat until thoroughly blended.
• Alternating, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then ½ of the milk mixture to the batter, beating well after each addition. Continue alternating. Be sure to end with the flour mixture.
• Scrape ½ of the batter into the greased pan. With the longest sides of the loaf pan facing you and leaving a 1/2-inch of batter on either side, sprinkle about ½ cup of the streusel down only the centre of the loaf. Scrape the remaining batter over the streusel and top the loaf with the remaining streusel, pressing it down slightly into the batter.
• Bake for 90-100 minutes, or until wooden skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides of the loaf with a blunt knife and invert loaf onto a wire rack. Cool completely before slicing or storing. Wrap in foil and store covered at room temperature for up to 3 days. If freezing, cut into slices, then wrap in foil and plastic wrap and freeze for up to 1 month.

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Clockwise: Zulu Cabbage, Tempeh Meatballs, Vegetable Kebabs and Putu Pap with Chakalaka

This side dish is a great accompaniment to Umnghusho (African samp and beans).

Ingredients for Putu Pap (polenta porridge)

2 cups water
1 ½ cups white ground cornmeal
½ teaspoon salt

Ingredients for Chakalaka (Tomato and Onion Sauce)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 medium tomatoes; peeled, deseeded and chopped (see Cook’s Notes)
½ teaspoon salt

To Make the Putu Pap

• Bring water to boil. Add the cornmeal and salt, turn heat to low and cook for 1-2 minutes. Serve immediately with tomato and onion sauce.

To Make the Chakalaka

• In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, heat oil and saute onions until transparent and light brown. Turn heat to low and add sugar; cook for 1 minute to caramalise. Add cinnamon and stir until blended. Add tomatoes and salt and cook covered for an additional 5 minutes. Serve chakalaka over the putu pap.

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Umnghusho - A Taste of South Africa

A taste of South Africa – Umnghusho is also known as samp-and-beans in South Africa. Samp is the African reference to hominy and umnghusho is a staple of millions of South Africans. I have replaced the sugar beans used in the traditional recipes for umnghusho with tempeh (or you can use soy crumbles if you cannot find tempeh in your neck of the woods). You may also replace the zucchini with green bell pepper if you wish. Serve the umnghusho over brown rice or putu pap.

Serves 6

Ingredients

3 tablespoons unrefined vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cans (15 ounces each) hominy, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons curry powder
3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons garam masala
6 dried curry leaves
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 packages (8 ounces each) tempeh, crumbled (or replace with soy crumbles)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 zucchini, diced
1 can (14 ½ ounces) diced No Salt Added tomatoes with juice
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 ½ tablespoons vegan sugar
1 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

To Make the Umnghusho

• In a cast-iron of heavy-bottom Dutch oven, heat one tablespoon of the oil over medium heat and saute the onions until soft and transparent, about 5 minutes; stir often.

• Add the hominy, curry powder, bay leaves, garam masala, curry leaves and salt. Stir frequently for 10-15 seconds to combine ingredients. Add the tempeh and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, garlic, zucchini, tomatoes, vegetable broth, tomato paste, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to thoroughly blend and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, or until the zucchini is tender but not mushy and the umnghusho sauce is thickened; stir often. Remove from stovetop and finish off with ground pepper. Serve over brown rice or Putu Pap.

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