Easy Vegan Pumpkin Pie to use your leftover pumpkin

I was determined to use up my pumpkins in cooking this year and not just throw them away so as well as this pumpkin and gnocchi gratin I made a pumpkin pie. I've made a pumpkin cheesecake (vegan) before, and this chocolate pumpkin cheesecake, but I've never made an actual pumpkin pie before.

I was spending the weekend with friends so a pie seemed like a nice thing to take; one friend is vegan so I needed to find a vegan recipe. I had a look online and ended up creating my own recipe based on this one from Yummy Mummy Kitchen, but using shop-bought shortcrust pastry, which is vegan, and using my fresh pumpkin rather than canned, coconut milk and cornflour to thicken, and brown sugar and golden syrup to sweeten it. The end result was a soft baked pie filling, almost the consistency of a baked cheesecake, which tasted delicious! It was very popular with my friends, vegan and non-vegan alike.

See below for the full recipe - I also want to mention here the vacuum seal food storage container from Ozeri that I used to transport and store my pie in. You get two large domed containers in the pack, and you simply close the valve at the top and push down to create a vaccum seal; when you want to open the container just open the valve. This keeps the food fresh and there's also a handy dial you turn to show which day you put the food in the container. They are fairly large to store but are a nice sturdy design and I like the fact that the lid is clear plastic so you can see what's inside, so this is also a nice way to serve food for instance when you are outside in the summer and want to keep the insects away!

 

It's currently available on the UK Amazon site but with fairly high shipping costs as it comes from the US, or you can find it on other Amazon sites which are cheaper to ship to the UK.

So here's how I made my pumpkin pie
Serves 10-12

Flesh from one large pumpkin, skin removed, chopped
500g shortcrust pastry block
The cream from the top of a 400ml tin of coconut milk plus some of the milk making up 200ml in total
150ml golden syrup
75g brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
3 tbsp. cornflour

Stew the chopped pumpkin in a pan of boiling water until softened then drain. Allow to cool then pulse in a food processor until you have a smooth puree.

Preheat oven to 180C. Roll out the pastry and use to line either a deep tart tin or a loose bottomed cake tin. Line with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans and blind bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is starting to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cook while you make the filling.

In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin puree, coconut cream and milk, golden syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cornflour and beat until smooth.

Pour into the pie crust and return to the oven for 45 minutes. If the top of the pie starts to brown too much, cover with foil.

 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool then chill overnight in the fridge - this should make the filling set.

I'm sharing this with Baking Crumbs hosted by Jo's Kitchen Larder and CookBlogShare hosted by EasyPeasyFoodie.
 

Thanks to Ozeri for the food storage containers to review.

MidWeek Coconut Fish Curry

I love prawns, and think they work really well with pasta or curry, so when I came across this recipe for a coconut fish curry on the BBC Good Food website, where the prawns took centre stage, I knew I had to make it. The flavours are inspired by both India and Thailand and doesn't take that long to cook -the part that took longest was probably finding all the ingredients in the cupboard! So it makes a great mid-week meal.

The shrimp paste in the recipe is not the kind that you may have had n your sandwiches as a child; it is an essential ingredient in Thai cooking. These days it is easy to find in supermarkets like Tesco though, in the speciality ingredients aisle.

To serve 4, you need:
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely grated
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp shrimp paste
1 small red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
2 lemongrass stalks, split and bruised with a rolling pin
1 heaped tbsp. medium curry powder
1 heaped tbsp. light muscovado sugar
small bunch of coriander, stems finely chopped
400g can coconut milk
450g skinless hake or other white fish fillets, cut into large chunks
220g prawns
1 lime, halved
cooked rice to serve
I also served mine with some broccoli

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion for 5 minutes until softened. Stir in the ginger, garlic, shrimp paste, chilli and lemongrass and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the curry powder and sugar and stir until the sugar starts to melt, then add the coriander stems, coconut milk and 2 tbsp. water. Bring to a simmer.

 

Add the fish and prawns and squeeze in half the lime. Simmer for 5 minutes until the fish is cooked, scatter over the coriander leaves and serve.

Slow Cooker Thai Green Beef Curry

I've been trying to use up the contents of my freezer so I can fit my ice cream maker inside! It's been quite interesting as I've made a list of everything in there and intend to cross it off and add to it - no more rummaging wondering whether we have any more chicken breasts, or telling my fiancé there is no garlic bread left and then finding some the next day (sorry!). It's also meant I don't have to buy as much as there is more food in there than I thought!

One thing I came across was a packet of cubed beef. My fiancé loves steak but isn't as keen on beef when it's casseroled but this sort of cubed beef really is best in the slow cooker. Rather than do a traditional casserole though I wondered if I could make it into a curry, and found this recipe from BBC Good Food for Thai Beef curry.

I used red chilli rather than green as that's what I had in the fridge, and I already had some galangal from when I made a Thai curry from scratch after doing a cookery class last year. I bought it from Sainsbury's so there's no need to find a specialist shop - though if you live in an area with Thai food stores then definitely go and have a look! Star anise is also something I've had in the cupboard for a while and I know spices do lose their potency so it was good to be able to use them. I didn't have any kaffir lime leaves either so I know this wasn't quite as authentic, but it still tasted really good. And my fiancé enjoyed it which was great as I really wasn't sure he would like it!

See link above for recipe.

Sugar-Free Coconut Milk Pancakes

My last-ditch attempt to lose weight before my wedding involves cutting out as much sugar as possible. A friend who has done this, and seen great results, recommended a book called I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson.  Sarah cut sugar out of her diet and says she has seen improvements in her weight, energy, skin and so on, and has published a book that is part explanation, part cookbook.

I liked the sound of these 'coconut fluff' coconut milk pancakes so I made them one day recently for lunch, and served them with stewed apple.

You need:
2 eggs, whisked
400ml can coconut milk
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted, plus extra for frying
30g coconut flour
100g buckwheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
50g shredded coconut

The coconut flour was expensive (£5 for a bag in Sainsbury's) but I plan to find lots of other recipes I can use it in.

These are easy to make: beat the eggs with the coconut milk and the oil, then fold in the other ingredients. I found the mixture thickened quickly, as the coconut soaked up the liquid, so added some milk. I'd recommend not leaving the mixture to stand and making the pancakes immediately.

Heat a little coconut oil in a frying pan and spoon or pour in enough of the mixture to fill the pan with a thin layer of pancake mixture. Cook until you can see the consistency has changed and the pancake has firmed enough to turn - you can either use a fish slice utensil or toss the pancake in the pan! Put to one side and cover with foil to keep warm and repeat.

I served these with stewed apple but all sorts of toppings would work. They tasted really good.

Oxo Butternut Squash and Coconut Milk Soup

Oxo is pretty much a store cupboard staple for me – I always have Oxo cubes and use them in all sorts of recipes. Recently I’ve come across Knorr stock pots and branched out a bit, so was pleased to be sent a selection of Oxo stock pots to try recently – and they even threw in an Oxo cookery book!

Oxo is an iconic brand in the UK and has been around pretty much forever. Did you know that Oxo was invented in the 1840s after a German chemist developed meat extract? And as official sponsor of the 1908 London Olympics, Oxo supplied marathon runners with fortifying drinks of Oxo (I can’t quite imagine drinking beef broth while running a marathon but never mind!). In the First World War, soldiers were given Oxo cubes in their ration kits.

The company has now launched three flavours of stock pots, which I would describe as a sort of concentrated gel. They are: garden vegetables with parsley and bay; beef with onion and rosemary; and chicken with garlic and thyme. They also do a range called ‘herbs and more’ of flavours like lemon and thyme, which are not stock but ‘flavour pots’, which I’d also like to try. The stock pots sell for around £1 for 4 from major supermarkets.

My only criticism is that once you open the pot, you have to use the whole thing – you could probably refrigerate the rest for a day or two, but as I only cook for one or two people, I often cut a traditional stock cube in half, wrap the other half back up and put it back in the box, and you can’t really do that with the stock pots. They do however add a real depth of flavour; you don’t have to boil a kettle and wait for the stock cube to resolve, as you can add them straight to a pan to melt. You do still need to add water or some other liquid (tinned tomatoes perhaps) as the flavour is quite concentrated.

They are really easy to use though and definitely gave a nice flavour to my recipe.

I was working from home one day just after they arrived so flicked through the Oxo cookery book and found something I could make from store cupboard ingredients: a spicy butternut squash soup with coconut milk. Be warned, it does have quite a kick from the coconut milk alone (so you could perhaps miss out the chilli).

To serve 4, you need:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 small piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

½ red chilli, finely chopped

900g butternut squash, peeled and diced (seeds discarded)

1 Oxo Garden Vegetables with Parsley and Bay stock pot, made up with 500ml boiling water

400ml coconut milk, reserving 2 tbsp to serve

1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander to serve

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, ginger, chilli and garlic, and fry for five minutes until softened. Add the butternut squash, stock and all but the 2 tbsp of coconut milk you are reserving.

Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the squash is cooked.

Blend in a blender until smooth (you may need to do this in batches). Serve in bowls with half a tbsp. of coconut milk swirled on the top and sprinkle with the chopped coriander.

I'm sharing this recipe with various blog challenges: Meat Free Monday, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes (who also runs the Food Blog Diary where you can find out about these challenges); Extra Veg, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours, and No Croutons Required, hosted this month by Lisa's Kitchen.

Vegan Meringue and Pavlova (yes it exists!)

Can you make vegan meringue? Yes you can! I bet you didn’t know that – and I bet you will be surprised by the secret ingredient.

I had a barbecue recently and served up this meringue and cream, and waved it under the nose of my vegan friend… not to tease her, but to tell her that I’d made it for her! The meringue doesn’t contain egg and the cream doesn’t contain cream!

I am ridiculously excited at having found out about this and have been spreading the word; each time I tell someone the main ingredient in the vegan meringue- and the fact that it looks and tastes great – they are amazed.

No, not chickpeas… but the water that is in the tin. It’s called aquafaba and you can read the fascinating story of how people have been looking for egg replacers which work in meringue. It seems to be a relatively recent discovery.

The meringue is really easy to make – just the same as a regular meringue, though the aquafaba did seem to need a bit more whisking than egg whites, so I was very glad of my Kitchenaid stand mixer.

You need:

For the meringue:

liquid from a 400g tin of chickpeas

1 cup caster sugar

1 tbsp arrowroot powder (available in supermarkets in sachets from Dr. Oetker)

1 tsp vanilla flavouring

1 tsp white wine vinegar or cider vinegar

For the cream:

400ml tin coconut milk

Icing sugar to taste

Fresh berries to decorate (optional)

Preheat oven to 140C. Drain the liquid from the tin of chickpeas into a bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk, starting off at low speed and gradually increasing the speed to high, for several minutes until the liquid foams up and then forms soft peaks, much like whisking egg whites.

Add the sugar and arrowroot powder and mix on medium speed and then high until you have stiff glossy peaks.

Add the vanilla and vinegar and whisk briefly to combine.

Place a piece of greaseproof paper on a flat baking tray and spoon out the ‘meringue’ into a circular shape. Turn the oven down to 120C and bake for 2 – 2.5 hours. Turn the oven off and leave the meringue in the oven to fully cool overnight if you can. At the same time, place the can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight.

The next day, carefully peel the greaseproof paper off the meringue – rather than the other way around – and place on a plate to serve. Mine did break up a little unfortunately!

To make the cream, open the tin of coconut milk – the contents will have separated into a thin water-like liquid and a thick, almost solid, top layer. The tins will often separate in this way even in the cupboard and you can easily mix the two layers together to add to a curry and so on – but for this recipe, you want the solid layer. Carefully spoon it out into a bowl and add icing sugar to taste (add about 3 tbsp initially then taste it). Whisk until you have the consistency of double cream.

Spoon on top of the pavlova and top with fresh berries - I used strawberries and blueberries. And there you have it  - a vegan pavlova!

I'm sending this to Tea Time Treats as they have a theme of summer holiday baking; the strawberries and blueberries make this quite summery and this is a good dessert to have after a BBQ as you can make the meringue in advance then assemble it very quickly. The challenge is hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Jane at The Hedgecombers,

I'm also sharing it with the Vegetable Palette challenge, hosted by Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen; the theme is 'more glorious reds' and she accepts fruits as well as veg.

In addition I'm sending this to the Food Year Linkup hosted by Charlottes Lively Kitchen. This would be lovely if you were holding a Breast Cancer Care's Strawberry Tea fundraiser.

 

Brazilian Coconut Chicken

Brazil is playing the Netherlands in the World Cup third place playoffs today. Did you see Brazil's amazing (ly bad) game against Germany? Nonetheless Brazil is the host country so I wanted to make one more of their national dishes in honour of the occasion. This is Brazilian coconut chicken; a sort of South American curry and the recipe comes from All Recipes.

To serve 2, you need:

2 chicken breasts

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp coriander

1 tbsp olive oil

salt, pepper

Fry Light or 1 tbsp oil

half an onion, chopped (which I left out as my boyfriend doesn't like it)

1 green chilli, seeded and chopped (also left out!)

1 tsp minced ginger

200ml coconut milk

the recipe says to use 3 chopped tomatoes for 4 people; I don't like fresh tomatoes and didn't want to open a tin so used 1 tbsp tomato puree which worked really well in this recipe

Mix the cumin, turmeric, coriander, salt, pepper and oil in a small bowl and use to coat the chicken breasts.

Chop the chicken breasts into chunks, heat some oil in a pan and fry the onion, chilli and chicken, until the chicken is cooked through.

Add the ginger, coconut milk and tomatoes or tomato puree, stir gently until well combined and simmer until the sauce has reduced.

Serve with rice and enjoy.

I'm sending this to Chris at Cooking Around The World for his World Cup challenge.

Lemongrass Chilli Chicken

This is a Vietnamese recipe called Ga xao xa ot. It is a coconut milk-based curry using lemongrass, garlic and chilli - it was a lot lighter but also a lot spicier than the tomato-based Indian curries I usually make. I chose this recipe so I could take part in this month's Bloggers Around the World challenge, as the country this month is Vietnam.

I'm lucky enough to have been to Vietnam at someone else's expense - I used to be a financial journalist on one of the biggest newspapers in the UK. I wrote about insurance companies, among other things, and one company decided to take two leading (ahem) journalists to visit its Asian operations. So in my 20s I found myself flying business class to Hong Kong and Vietnam. Unfortunately I don't remember much about the food I ate there at all. It was a whirlwind trip - two days in Hong Kong visiting the company's office there and meeting with various people, and no sightseeing but I did squeeze in afternoon tea at our hotel (I was far too jet lagged for sightseeing anyway, I recall!). Then we flew to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam for two days, for more meetings but this time we also got taken to a market where I bought a handbag and to the War Museum which was fascinating - the Vietnam war told from the perspective of the Vietnamese. This would have been in 2006 I think... eight years ago is a long time when you are trying to remember what meals you ate. I do remember my first ever time doing karaoke was in a bar in Hong Kong with the journalist who accompanied me on the trip, watched by a very bemused PR from the company we were out there visiting!

Still, I enjoy Asian food of all varieties and it was a nice opportunity to browse the internet for Vietnamese dishes. I found this recipe for lemongrass chilli chicken on an Australian website called SBS. I adapted the recipe to use coconut milk instead of 'young coconut juice', whatever that is.

 To serve two, you need:

40 ml fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 lemongrass stalk, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
1 long red chilli, finely diced, or 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
300g mini chicken fillets
20 ml vegetable oil
100 ml coconut milk
1/4 onion, cut into wedges

Mix the fish sauce and sugar and finely chop the lemongrass - I found it easiest to do this by snipping with scissors. Crush the garlic and mix with the chopped chilli or chilli flakes and mix in with the fish sauce, sugar and lemongrass.

Mix with the chicken and leave to marinade for a few hours or overnight.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and tip the chicken and the marinade into the pan. Fry the chicken and the chopped onion until cooked.

When the chicken is cooked, stir in the coconut milk so it is combined with the other ingredients. Heat through until it has reduced a little.

I served this with rice and green veg though you could also serve it with noodles.

I'm sending this to Chris at Cooking Around the World for the challenge Bloggers Around the World, as the country this month is Vietnam.