[Ad- gifted product] It’s January, which means more people than ever are experimenting with being vegan. Veganism is when an individual no longer consumes any meat or animal byproducts, this includes fish, egg, honey, cheese, and anything else that has to do with animals. It’s a big lifestyle switch if you have been eating meat your entire life, but many people take on the challenge for the month of January in hopes of living a healthier life and possibly losing weight. Having some sort of guide is a very good idea when making huge changes to you diet, even if you only plan on sticking to this change for a month.
We’ve not personally been vegan, but we have eaten vegan food as we enjoy a variety of food. The Vegan Kitchen by Rose Glover, who is a vegan nutritional therapist, and Laura Nickoll, a member of the Guild of Food Writers, is dubbed the Vegan Bible, as it’s mainly a book that tells you all about taking on the vegan lifestyle in a healthy way. From using supplements to the effects on hormones, this is a must have for those serious about actually taking on a vegan lifestyle. The book itself has three main sections; how to create a balanced diet that contains carbs, fat, protein, vitamins and mineral sources, everything that should be in your fridge and pantry, as well as all of the individual benefits of each of the foods, and a recipe section. The section on vegan cheese and nutritional yeast, which is just like magic cheese-y boosts without any cheese is very interesting in itself. The Vegan Kitchen also contains lots of information on just generally being healthy, from drinking more water to how carbs actually work in your body.
As mentioned at the back of the book, there are a few staple recipes, simple ones to start that have a lot of room for your own personality to shine through. There are a few choices from various milk alternatives you can make yourself through to pesto. As a part of our Recipe a Week, we are looking at various cooking books and making one new recipe to enjoy for each and every week of 2020. The Vegan Kitchen was our first look, and we went the dessert route with a tropical vegan tart. Below you will find the recipe from The Vegan Kitchen for a tart shell, as well as the filling we made to go with it!
Vegan Tart Shell
Ingredients
- 300 g Wholemeal Flour, plus extra for dusting
- 90 ml Olive Oil
- Pinch of Salt
- 60 ml Cold Water
Instructions
- Put the flour in the food processor bowl and add the olive oil. Blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add 60ml cold water and the salt and pulse briefly until the mixture binds together and you have a soft, not sticky, dough. If you don’t have a food processor just put the flour in a large mixing bowl and use your fingertips to rub the oil into the flour and salt before stirring in the water and mixing well.
- Turn out the pastry onto a lightly floured surface and gently bring it together into a smooth ball. For the best results, handle it lightly and do not overwork it.
- Wrap the dough tightly in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before use.
We made a mistake here, I think. We left the dough to sit for quite a bit longer than 30 minutes, which resulted in a dry dough. We had to add a bit more water before rolling it out so that everything came together. We rolled the dough out thin and added it to a fluted tart tin and trimmed the extra dough. This dough did not have a baking time in the recipe, so we blind baked it (with baking paper and rice over the middle section) for 10 minutes at 190c before taking the rice out, and baking it for another 20 minutes. Once the pastry looked completely baked, we set it aside to cool and started on our filling
Vegan Tropical Tart Filling
Equipment
- Hand Mixer
Ingredients
- 150 ml Coconut Yogurt
- 30 ml Mango and Passion Fruit Coulis
- 30 g Icing Sugar (adjust to sweetness preference)
- 1 Ripe Mango
Garnish
- Some Pomegranate to scatter
- Mint Sprig
Instructions
- In a bowl, whip your coconut yogurt until aerated, then add your icing sugar. Taste your mixture and feel free to add a bit more icing sugar if you feel the need too, we eyeballed ours, as the tart shell isn’t particularly sweet.
- Fold in your mango and passion fruit coulis.
- Peal and cut your ripe mango into small, bite-sized pieces.
- Once your tart shell has cooled, add your yogurt/coulis mixture and spread out evenly. Sprinkle over mango and pomegranate, and mint if you want.
- Slice and serve – the dessert doesn’t need time to set up and leaving it to set up didn’t make much of a difference.
Overall, we found this tart to be pretty good! We don’t tend to eat wholemeal flour often, so Dann found the flavor to be a bit more Earth-y than he likes, but there was a very good balance of filling to tart shell, which he enjoyed. As a family, we all really love mango, so picking this sort of filling worked well with everyone. It’s a very satisfying dessert that doesn’t feel too healthy and provides a nice amount of fruit and tropical feeling. Also, it’s pretty fun to make pastry.
You can purchase The Vegan Kitchen on Amazon, if you’re interested in transitioning to a vegan lifestyle.
Looks great. I’m pinning to try later.
I hope you enjoy it!
Looks yummy, thanks for sharing 😍
—Athena Christy
https://athenachristy.wordpress.com/
It’s so delicious!