Chocolate beet cake, cauliflower bites and fancy cocktail nuts
Hello from my house, where I’ve been holed up for 3 1/2 weeks now, only escaping for a daily walk during which we, of course, veer away from any nearby humans.
We’re lucky that before all this we were already receiving a weekly delivery of fresh fruit, vegetables and other mostly local groceries from Mama Earth Organics, so we’ve not had trouble getting food without going out. They quickly maxed out on new customers, but if you’re looking for delivery options, I was pleased to find this spreadsheet of small food and drink businesses across the country that you can order from. I keep going back and forth on the ethics of delivery (my conclusion, I think, is it depends?), but I have sent cheese and beer gifts to colleagues and I have some fancy cocktail nuts on their way here. (I had already tried these at the One of a Kind Show before Christmas and let me tell you, they are an expensive treat but worth it.) Let me know if you try anything extra delicious.
Quick hits
Some of my favourite vegetarian recipes are from Anna Jones’s cookbooks, and she also writes for The Guardian. Here she shares 10 favourite staple recipes for lockdown. I’ve got my eye on the carrot dal.
Tania recommended the Sweet Laurel cookbook for healthier takes on baking, which is good because I’ve been baking all the time. The library has the ebook version and I’ve ordered a hard copy from my local bookstore.
“If you have cauliflower, these are both ridiculously easy and amazing,” says Alyssa about these Sweet and Spicy Sesame Cauliflower Bites. I have not yet had cauliflower. One day!
I liked this story about liquid smoke as an essential ingredient in plant-based cooking. It’s something I’ve had around forever as it’s a staple in the Rebar Cookbook, but I haven’t actually been using it that often. I might have to remedy that.
Again from The Guardian, how to turn vegetable leftovers into rainbow pancakes.
Beets and beets
Like cabbage, beets are a nice vegetable to have as they keep for quite a while. I had a bag full and decided to steam them all the other day for a few recipes.
My favourite thing I’ve made this week is these Marinated Beets with Potatoes and Horseradish. I boiled the potatoes instead of roasting them, and was missing a few ingredients, but I think as long as you’ve got oil, vinegar and horseradish as well as the beets and potatoes they’ll work.
This dairy-free and gluten-free (almond flour based) beet chocolate cake was also very good. Mine turned out a little on the dry side but my oven is difficult. I skipped the glaze (and the fancy gold dust) and served with plain whipped cream instead. Which made it not dairy-free? Oops.
I was also going to make this beet and feta salad with citrus vinaigrette, but I ran out of beets! Next time.
On the to-make list
Easy Hot Cross Buns from King Arthur Flour.
Butter Chickpeas (they’re vegan!) from Canadian Living.
The Superfunghi Pizza from Virtuous Pie.
See you all next week!
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