Winner!

Congratulations to the winner of our Cookin Crunk competition Sian Watson! You’ll receive your book in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks to everybody who entered the competition and helped spread the word. I really enjoyed doing this and have another competition idea up my sleeve so watch this space…

In the meantime keep checking back, enjoying what we do and don’t be afraid to say hi.

Competition: Final Day!

The competition is now closed! Thanks to everybody that entered both on Tumblr & Twitter! Winner will be announced week commencing 17 September.

If you’re interested in vegan cooking and want to win a copy of the forthcoming book Cookin Crunk you need to GO HERE NOW.

Then, follow us, reblog that post and hey presto, you’re in it to win it. Good luck!

WIN STUFF! Belated Baddass Birthday Competition!

The competition is now closed! Thanks to everybody that entered both on Tumblr & Twitter! Winner will be announced week commencing 17 September.

Somehow Vegan Perv-Nerds Take London missed their own birthday! Le gasp!

We were 1 on July 15th and It’s been an awesome year-and-a-bit of over 70 snarky, delicious and kick ass articles and recipes, so to celebrate we are running an equally awesome competition.

You can win a copy of the forthcoming Cookin’ Crunk: Eatin’ Vegan in the Dirty South, by Bianca Phillips. 

Recipes include country-fried tempeh steak, eggplant jambalaya and smoky stewed okra and tomatoes. Can I get an OMNOM?

The book comes out on 15 September, our 1 year 2 month birthday so what better way to celebrate?! (OK so it’s a tenuous birthday link but we’re giving you free shit, so whatevs.)

To win, all you need to do is be our follower on Tumblr and reblog this post. Liking does not count, mmmkay?

You can also use Twitter to enter. Again, all you need to do is be following us on Twitter and retweet this tweet.

You can only enter once per social networking site so no sneaky cheating. The order will come straight from Amazon and we can ship worldwide.

Competition ends 23.59 GMT on Friday 14th September.

Good luck and thanks for an amazing year… and two months.

Raw Fennel Salad for People Who Hate Fennel

24 hours ago I hated fennel. I believed it was the single most hideous green/white edible food item I have ever encountered, and that the flavour should be reserved only for sugar coated sweets in Indian restaurants.

Things have changed since then (I am a fickle creature) and I am now a fennel convert! But how?! I hear you cry. Well, I get Riverford boxes delivered every other week and this week fennel arrived. As well as being fickle, I’m really into taking craaazy risks, and so I decided to eat the fennel (raw) immediately, rather than let it fester in the fridge until the whole kitchen needed to be fumigated. I’m so freaking glad I did.

Here’s the recipe that turned me from fennel hater to lover in about 30 seconds.

Ingredients:

• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 small red onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 cup of baby spinach (regular spinach is also ok I guess)
• 1 lemon (for juicing)
• 1 scant tsp of rock salt (I used smoked salt which isn’t technically raw, but whatever)
• 1 TBSP cold pressed olive oil

The How To:

Slice the fennel roughly into whatever size pieces you prefer.

Dice the red onion, grate the carrot put into a bowl with the spinach and fennel

Add the rock salt and oil, and juice the lemon over everything.

Turn until everything is covered in the dressings and then serve!

If you want to keep the salad for later, I recommend leaving the spinach out until later, because it will wilt fast.

I sincerely hope that you too, dear hater, will one day be converted to the virtues of fennel… until then, enjoy living on the dark side! Mwah ha ha ha!

Si’s Vegan Chilli

I’ve been trying to think of a better name for this, but I haven’t as yet. Suggestions welcome, and the winning suggestion (by a lady) will get to go on a date with me! Please. I’m so lonely.

Recently I discovered that one of the best things to cook in the world is Chilli. It’s easy and you can leave it cooking for ages while you play Diablo III and forget about it. It’s also filling, good for you, and above all, super tasty.

Main Ingredients

• 100g Soya mince. I use the dried stuff from Holland and Barrett as it comes in a huge bag, costs less than two squiddlies¹ and provides a great texture. There are two kinds - plain, and dark “savoury” mince that’s coloured with caramel. The caramel one looks less weird in a chilli, but there’s no real difference
• A couple of peppers - I prefer red and yellow, sliced thinly
• 1 big red onion, diced
• Mushrooms, chopped. If you don’t like ‘em², you can leave them out
• 1 tin kidney beans, drained
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes

Spices

This is the fun part and you’re free to experiment. Here’s what I use, and the measurements are all to taste, but be liberal:

• Generous dose of Cumin. This is what makes chilli smell like chilli - stick it in³ and it will start smelling “right”
• Cayenne pepper
• Dried chilli flakes
• Paprika. I recommend smoked paprika for a tasty smoky flavour
• Garlic powder (or fresh garlic - I don’t use a lot)
• Cinnamon. Don’t argue, cinnamon RULES
• 10 squirts of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (or Soy Sauce) - adds a little “savoury” taste
• If you find the sauce too savoury or salty, try a little agave nectar to add some sweetness
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

Put the soya mince into a bowl and cover with 300ml of water to rehydrate. Whilst it does its magic, prepare your veg and assemble the spices.

Grab a large pan with a lid, and heat some vegetable oil (you could use olive oil, but I think that’s a waste as you’ll never taste it). Once the oil’s shimmering, throw in the onion and get it sizzling until partially transparent. Next, add the pepper and after a couple of minutes, the mushrooms.

Once those are going properly, add the kidney beans and tomatoes and stir it all up. Then jump on board the fast train to Spice City! That’s a very stupid way of saying now add the spices, stirring thoroughly.

Then pop on the lid and sit back. I find that it tastes best if it’s simmered for at least an hour and a half, stirring once every twenty to thirty minutes or so. A good non-stick pan helps here, and if your chilli gets too dry, add a dash of water. With a chilli it’s important to taste regularly and adjust the flavour as you see fit but remember that you can always add more but you can’t take out what you’ve put in.

When you can’t take the hunger pains any more, serve over rice, or my favourite: wrapped in wholemeal tortillas.

Serves three, or two BIG portions. I find it tastes even better after it’s been in the fridge for a day. I dub these the chilli remnants or “chemnants”. Maybe “cheftovers”.

Stop judging me.

Vegan Mexican Quinoa

I intended to start this post with a cheesy Mexican exclamation, but after some thought Imma just let the recipe speak for itself.

This easy-peasy zesty fresh dish is perfect for a potluck, a picnic or a healthier alternative to eat with your enchiladas.

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tsp cumin seeds (bashed about in a pestle and mortar if you have one)
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• The juice of 1 lime
• 5 salad tomatoes

The How To

Cook the quinoa in the stock, with cumin and coriander, until soft and then chill in the fridge for about an hour

Deseed and dice the tomatoes (you don’t want soggy tomatoes in there), and add to the quinoa.

Squeeze the juice over everything (well not everything, just the quinoa and the tomatoes - yes, I’m a comedian in my spare time) and mix through thoroughly.Garnish with some parsley or other green herb (coriander leaves would work well) if you want to be a fancy pants or are taking a photo, like me.

Chill in the fridge until you’re ready to eat it, or if you can’t wait, take a fork to it immediately.

Put ‘em in your mouth and suck ‘em

Ok, so my chocolate balls aren’t salty like Chef’s, but dammit they’re tasty, and really easy to make.

You will need:

• 1 cup of cacao nibs - you should be able to find these in your local health food shop. (If you’re in SW London you can swing by Streatham and hit up Maitriti for some, and then come and have some masala chai with Si and I at the Nerd Cave)
• ½ cup of dried cranberries
• ½ cup of almonds
• 4 tbls of agave nectar
• Cocoa powder

Ok, let’s do this thang. Put your cocao nibs, cranberries and almonds into a food processor and blend until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the agave and combine well (by hand or in the food processor, it’s up to you). Scoop out spoonfuls of the mixture and roll it into balls, then roll the balls in cocoa powder.

Store in the fridge - these keep for a while, not sure exactly how long because they tend to get eaten in under a week in my household, but I’ve sent these to New Zealand and they still tasted good. I once made a huge amount for my beloved Swift family, and they still had some left after a month or so and were still good. How they showed such restraint, I’ll never know.

Apologies for the shitty phone pic. I assure you, my balls taste better than this photo looks. Hurr hurr.

Happy Vegan Pizza Day!

So apparently today is Vegan Pizza Day, which is a thing now. I can’t complain, I love pizza and today is great excuse to make one. So, in the spirit on VPD, I made a pizza with tofu ricotta and caramelised veggies. It sounds fancy, but it’s really quite easy to make.

For the dough:

• 1 ½ cups white flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix the flour, baking powder and the salt into a bowl. Make a well in the center and add the water and oil.
Combine by gradually mixing the flour into the olive oil and water. You may want to add a little more water if necessary.
Transfer the dough to a floured board and knead it at least for 5-7 minutes.
Let the dough rest wrapped in cling film while you prepare the toppings for the pizza.

For the tofu ricotta:

• 1 block of tofu
• A couple of lemons
• Nooch (nutritional yeast, for any squares)
• Fresh oregano if you have it, if not dried is fine
• A few cloves of garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper

I’ve not included amounts for the ingredients here as this is easily done on intuition. I do recommend going heavy on the lemon, tofu and lemon were made for each other. Put ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend till smooth.

For the caramelised veg:

• Aubergine
• Courgette
• Red onion
• Garlic
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Agave syrup or brown sugar

Preheat the oven to around 200 degrees Celsius. Slice the veggies thinly. Saute them until soft, then drizzle over the agave or brown sugar, a little more oil if you need it, then a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar. Don’t use too much vinegar, you don’t want a soggy pizza. Once cooked, set aside and unwrap the dough and start stretching it out to fit your pan.
Smooth the tofu ricotta over the base then spread the veggies over the pizza. Bake for about 20 minutes or so.

Buon appetito!

A New Vegan Theory!

In veganism there are all kinds of theories. There’s welfarism, new welfarism, abolitionism, the I-Just-Love-Animals people who perhaps don’t really know what theory they subscribe to. They may not even care.

With differences of opinion come disagreements, so I think it’s about time I brought my own brand of veganism to the table which will over-arch all theories. My mantra and core teaching?

Don’t be a dick.

It’s going to be huge.

Vegan Starter Kit

Somebody has finally done what needed to be done - An abolitionist vegan starter kit! No donation requests, no gore, just facts and advice in one of the most attractive web formats I’ve seen in yonks.

http://vegankit.com/

If you are new to veganism, or simply just interested and maybe considering a vegan life, this resource is going to be INVALUABLE. I think this could well be the most important piece of vegan work to come to the interwebs for a long time.I’m excited, can you tell?!

Read it! Share it! A change is coming!