12 Days of Christmas Recipes: Day 1
Merry Christmas to you all
I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas Day – wherever you are. We caught up with family across the world via Zoom this morning. Always fun and it is lovely to actually be able to see people even if only online. Our Christmas celebrations have been different this year, we ate capon on Christmas Eve with a variety of roasted vegetables including sprouts, bread sauce and stuffing. Today we had a vegan Christmas meal – za’atar spiced mushrooms and chestnuts on walnut bread, drizzled with walnut oil, followed by a really delicious (and very easy) nut and cranberry roast, which my son made, with roasted vegetables again, more bread sauce, but no red cabbage as I forgot to make it! Oops. We will have it with leftovers another day.
We also had vegan clafoutis with apple. raisins and mixed spice plus a little extra cinnamon, served with vanilla ice-cream and a spoonful of mincemeat.
As I mentioned in Moss, Mincemeat and Mistletoe, I have been making mincemeat in small batches with a different liqueur each time. We have tried them all – in mince pies, swirled into Greek yogurt, on porridge (yes really and it is delicious) and with ice-cream. They have all worked – even the coffee liqueur one! Unusual, interesting and tasty.
On this first day of the 12 Days of Christmas Recipes and long overdue (sorry), I am finally sharing the vegan clafoutis recipe. This recipe comes from Very Vegan Val (www.veryveganval.com). Give it a try. It has become a great favourite of ours, so easy. Eat it warm or cold – it keeps for a few days in the fridge, and freezes well. I have also made it with dried fruit and nuts and some Christmassy spices, add some cream or ice-cream (vegan or not). Another Christmassy or wintry tip – pour a little of your favourite liqueur over it so it soaks in… ! Let me know what you think.
Vegan Clafoutis recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
½ cup castor sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ cup chickpea liquid (aquafaba)
3 tbsp vegan milk – I use almond for flavour
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp vegan butter or coconut oil melted – I use coconut oil
2 cups of fruit, any type
Method:
1:Preheat oven to 230C/Gas 8 . Grease a cake pan, approx. 22cm size (use what is left from melting the vegan butter/oil)
2: In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder.
3: Add chickpea liquid, vegan milk, vanilla extract and melted butter/oil and whisk well
4: Let the batter stand for about 10 mins, while you prepare the fruit
5: Fold the fruit through the batter and pour into the prepared dish
6: Bake for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick or knife blade inserted into the centre comes out clean
7: Enjoy
Variations:
Leave out the vanilla essence and add melted chocolate or cocoa powder to the mixture for a chocolate cake version. Use cherries or nuts.
Add some ground almonds to the flour mix and pair with pear and cranberry, or apple and sliced or chopped almonds, or blueberry and sliced almonds, etc!
Leave out the vanilla essence and add cinnamon and apple
The options are endless.
Look out for another vegan recipe tomorrow.
A bientôt
Ali x
