Naked Vegan Cooking

Another guest post! Fancy submitting a guest post? We would love you forever! 

I’ve been in Manchester three months ago (last June) for the first time in my life. I really loved Manchester; the atmosphere of the city is just as magical as it is portrayed in the film “24 Hour Party People” (the song “Ceremony” by New Order was sounding in my head all the time).

I would like to move and live in Manchester, but the authorities wouldn’t allow me to migrate because I’m foreign and my financial status is not good enough to prove to the government that I am a good person. I was not born in the E.U. territory… When I was a fetus I didn’t have the chance to choose where to be born. Yeah… F*** all countries.

I joined my naked vegan cooking friends in their kitchen. I had a great time while I was there, although it was a chilly spring evening, a bit chilly to cook naked haha. We made a stir fry cassava dish. In case you don’t know, the cassava (also called yuca, manioc or mandioca in Spanish) is an edible root cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions.

These are the ingredients you’ll need to make this dish (for 3-4 servings): 1 kg fresh cassava roots, 2 or 3 onions, ½ cup chopped scallions or spring onions, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, Vegetable oil, 200 ml. water, Salt or soy sauce, Vegetable stock in powder (or sweet paprika, pepper, etc), Dried parsley or dried basil, Nutritional yeast flakes

Preparation:
Peel off the cassava roots. Boil the peeled roots in water (you can add some salt) for about 30-40 minutes, or until they get soft (try pinching with a fork). When it’s already cooked, remove the cassava roots from the water. Then remove the middle stringy thing inside the cassava roots, you can do it with your fingers or using a knife. Also remove all the impurities you find on the roots. Then chop the cassava roots in little cube pieces.

Chop the onions, scallions and garlic cloves. Fry them on a big pan with some oil, some vegetable stock in powder and salt or soy sauce until they are cooked.

Add the water and when it starts boiling, add carefully all the chopped cassava pieces. Stir and mix everything during 4 or 5 minutes. Add some dried parsley or dried basil. Mix again and done.

Serve on plates and add some nutritional yeast flakes on top… Yum!

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Latest guest post from the lovely Hannah! Thanks lovely! 

Hi there, thought I would submit again, and this time I decided to make a dessert! So here is my very famous (in my family haha) vegan chocolate bourbon cake which is quick, easy and very tasty!

Ingredients for cake: one cup soy milk, one teaspoon apple cider vinegar, 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of oil, one teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 10 chocolate bourbon biscuits.

Buttercream: one cup butter, four cups icing sugar, one teaspoon vanilla, one teaspoon soy milk, vegan chocolate spread

Preheat oven to 350f or 175c gas mark 3/4.

In a large bowl, mix together one cup soy milk and one teaspoon apple cider vinegar. Mix together until curdling and frothy.
Next, mix in 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of oil, one teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, or more vanilla.
Mix all these together until thick and foamy.

Next in a seperate bowl, sift (with a sieve): 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt. Mix all the dry ingredients well, and slowly add to the wet in three batches which gives it the lightness. Finally, crush ten bourbon biscuits and mix in. Finally, line two cake tins and put an equal amount in both. Put this into the top of an oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Leave to cool, turn out of the pans and cool some more. Finally sandwich together with vegan chocolate spread and buttercream (One cup butter to four cups icing sugar, one teaspoon vanilla, one teaspoon soy milk) Mix together and put in the fridge to firm up.

This recipe can also do cupcakes, but require a few minutes less baking.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as me and my family do!

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We had an absolutely fantastic time at the Mezze and Music event t’other day. Thanks so much to our wonderful hosts at V Revolution, who were absolutely brilliant. (Sidenote: V Revolution is a punk record and vegan lifestyle shop on Manchester’s Oldham Street, everyone should go there and buy things)

Work for the event started the day before, when we bullied our friend Tyler to help make pastry. All through this process he was mumbling “I have no idea what I am doing” under his breath.

Then, on the day of the event, we set up our awesome safer spaces agreement:

We first served baba ganush and tabbouleh (both of which we failed to get pictures of). Then the lovely Alex serenaded us with some harp playing:

We then served delicious spinach fatayers (front):

Then our friend Charlie played some rather lovely songs on her guitar:

Then aubergine salad with garlic, ginger and soy dressing (with tabbouleh in the background):

And then for peppers stuffed with minty rice:

Then our friend Tyler played harmonica for us:

Then gorgeous syrupy baklava:

Then impromptu accordian playing!:

We also had pear and walnut cake, baba ganush, bata harra, and cherry tomato and rocket tarts but they went so fast we didnt get a good picture of them!

Then Jess and Zach did some dancing:

When we got home we then found that our littlest housemate fits inside the tupperware we had bought to store the food in:

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Veganism gives us an opportunity to reduce our impact on non-human animal suffering and on the environment around us. Veganism as a lifestyle choice has, to some degree, become a norm within radical movements. But it is not without its problems. Can everyone be vegan? Is veganism a privileged position? To what extent are radical movements creating a new moralism? Is veganism lifestylist in its focus on individual dietary choices rather than collective solutions?

Whilst some criticisms of veganism are valid, “vegan-bashing” is still popular within radical movements and beyond. Is this something to resist, and if so, what tactics are necessary? How do we build a radical, rational, inclusive and intersectional veganism?

We are putting together a project called “Critical Veganism” which seeks to examine some of these issues in print. We want to produce an accessible booklet of personal experiences, academic and non-academic writing on the above topics. Do you want to be involved? Please send us a summary/abstract of what you want to address to nakedvegancooking[at]gmail.com by October 15th 2012 

Please share far and wide! Thanks

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We made this delicious treacle tart with leftover pastry after a day of testing out various pies for the upcoming cookbook. Absolutely delicious!

For the pastry: 70g cold vegan margarine, 150g plain flour, 3 tbsp soy milk

For the filling: 270g of coarse white breadcrumbs, 650g golden syrup, juice and zest of one lemon,

To decorate: 5 tbsp of icing sugar + a little water, lemon juice (optional)

Make the pastry by rubbing the margarine into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the soy milk to the mixture until it forms a soft ball of pastry dough. Chill for 30 minutes or so. Preheat the oven to 200 ‘C.

Make the filling by combining the breadcrumbs, golden syrup, lemon juice and zest in a bowl. Spoon into the pastry case and bake for 25-30 mins or until the top is nicely browned. Leave to cool for a bit. Make up a little bit of icing with lemon juice or water and drizzle nice patterns on top.

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After much deliberations on what dishes to prepare for our upcoming Mezze and Music Event, we have finalised the menu. We’ll be entertained by some fantastic local musicians throughout the event; a harpist, two guitarists and a harmonica player. We still have some places left, so contact us at nakedvegancooking[at]gmail.com to book your place.

Classic Mezze Dishes

Tabbouleh
a gorgeous bulghur wheat salad with herbs, originally from Syria

Hummous with crudites
a dip made with crushed chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon and olive oil

Baba Gannoush
a delicious charred aubergine dip from Palestine

Batata Hara
Lebonese spicy potatoes with peppers and coriander

Fattoush
A Levantine salad of toasted breads, tomatoes, cucumber and herbs

Spinach Fatyer
Middle Eastern spinach pastries

These new dishes from our upcoming cookbook

Aubergine Salad with soy, ginger and garlic dressing

Cherry Tomato and Rocket Tarts

Sweets

Pear and Walnut Cake

Baklava

Apple and Mint Jellies

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