I absolutely adore dumplings, I almost think there is nothing better and there is a chance that I could eat a world record’s worth of them. I really love the simple old school dough ball dumplings. On a cold night with a large dollop of veggie stew, they are such a comfort food.

When you read about veggie dumplings, likelihood is they’re referring to something that is a bit different to the dough balls your granny made you, unless your granny is of Asian descent!! Vegetable dumplings are much lighter, they are little wonton pockets of vegetables. They are absolutely delicious and walk that fine line between a healthy bite and a stodgy comfort food.

Here is a recipe for making your own vegetable dumplings. Veggie dumplings do have a lot of ingredients but if you use ready made wonton wrappers, it will make the prep much easier. This recipe is a variation of one I found on the food network. They take about 50 minutes to prep and 10 – 15 minutes to cook.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound firm tofu
• 1/2 cup shredded cabbage
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions
• 2 teaspoons finely minced fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped red pepper
• 1/2 cup coarsely grated carrots
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• Bowl of water, plus additional water for steamer

• 35 to 40 small wonton wrappers

• Non-stick vegetable spray, for the steamer

Instructions:

Cut the tofu in half horizontally and lay between layers of paper towels. Put on a plate and then place a weight on top and let stand for about 20 minutes.

Cut the tofu into 1/4-inch cubes

Add the cabbage, red pepper, carrots, ginger, sesame oil, scallions, soy sauce, hoisin, egg, salt, and pepper. Lightly stir to combine.

Follow instructions on your wonton wrappers, putting 1/2 teaspoon of the mixture in the center of each one. Keep damp until all your mixture is gone – using damp paper towel will help.

Place in steamer of choice, cover and steam for 10 to 12 minutes making sure the wontons are not touching each other. You will probably cook 6 – 10 at a time. Keep in over until all the dumplings are cooked.

Enjoy!

The best flapjack recipe is one that I have made for years. It makes the most delicious little bit chewy, but little bit crunchy flapjack on this side of the planet.

Flapjack reminds me of my childhood.  Before I switched to the vanilla slice at 14 and after I switched from the plain donut at 8, flapjack was my go to choice in the local bakery! The ongoing beauty of flapjack is that it is deliciously tasty and very cheap to make!

Flapjack is a really basic dessert or snack square, it doesn’t have the best nutritional content but is very delicious. If you want to get a little more healthy, turn the flapjack into a granola style bar with some dried fruit and nuts.

Here is my favourite flapjack recipe, it should serve about 10 people and be ready in 45 minutes including cooking time. You will find most flapjack recipes are very similar:

Ingredients:

• 125g butter
•  100g brown soft sugar
•  250g rolled oats
•  4 tablespoons golden syrup

Directions:

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4 or 180 °C.

• In a saucepan on a low heat, combine the brown sugar, golden syrup and butter.
• Cook, stirring occasionally, until butter and sugar have both melted.
• Stir in the oats until mixed well.
• Pour into baking tin – 20cm works well.
• The mixture will be 2 to 3cm thick.

 
Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven. When the top is that lovely recognisable golden brown, take out, cut into squares and then leave to cool completely before removing the squares from the tin.

Did you overdo it at Christmas? Don’t say no, because we know you did and even if you didn’t well, you can’t tell us that, we’re still in rich food hangover mode and you’re just going to make us feel guilty!

If you did overdo it, well good for you, Christmas is the time for feasting and celebration, but likelihood is that you are now feeling a little bloated and in need of a post Christmas detox! We know we are!

First things first, NO FAD DIETS. We’re sure the soup diet is really great for people who are actually undergoing heart surgery, but for anyone else, it’s a fad and a miserable prospect, believe us! The best way to feel better after a month of sugar, booze and big dinners is to simplify, reduce and detoxify.

So without starving, how do we best detoxify?

Well green smoothies are a great way to improve health, increase energy, fill up and feel good. You can juice pretty much anything but always always always throw in some raw greens. We love alternating spinach and kale. Check out cancer survivor’s Kris Carr’s site www.crazysexylife.com, this woman literally saved her life by eating the right foods and juicing!

Other foods to increase in your diet and that are excellent for detoxifying the body are listed below:
• Fruits – easy to digest, full of antioxidants and body flushing water
• Greens – as already mentioned these MUST be in your diet.
• Lemons – great for digestion and flushing, drink a cup of hot water and lemon every morning before you do anything else!
• Green tea – great antioxidant
• Garlic – keep the vampires at bay and also stimulate your live to detox
• Omega 3 Oils – avocados, hemp, flax seed oil, these goodies will help lubricate the digestive tract and shift stagnant waste
Good luck with the New Year detox, we’re sure it will work out really well!

If you didn’t get one for Christmas, get one in the sales, because slow cookers are THE way to cook your veggies and make delicious vegetarian dishes.

It is actually quite surprising what you can cook in a slow cooker and because of the cooking time, everything tastes extra delicious. Slow simmering achieves a richer more complex flavour which is why for pasta sauces and curries you’re going to get a taste explosion you don’t usually get with the stove.

First things first, if you are just getting started, the best vegetarian slow cooker recipes are soups and chillies – we’ll give you a terrific recipe further down. But something you might want to try is simple roast veggies. I love to do roast veggies but quite often if I have just got in from work, I won’t bother because they take a little too long in the oven. By using a slow cooker, I can quite literally leave everything to cook whilst I’m at work. This recipe takes about 8 – 9 hours to cook.

All you need to do is throw carrots and potatoes in your slow cooker, add a chopped tomato, 3 cloves of minced garlic, 2 tbsp water, 3 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper, stir it all up and leave on a low heat for 8 hours or until veg is tender. Remember to experiment with other veg too, I love throwing in parsnips.

For a great slow cooker chilli, follow this recipe found on allrecipes.com:

• 2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
• 2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 (15 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
• 4 onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 4 (15.5 ounce) cans black beans, drained
• 1 (14 ounce) package firm tofu, drained and cubed
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 6 tablespoons chilli powder
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon liquid hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco™

Directions – So Simple!!

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions; cook and stir until they start to become soft. Add the green peppers, red peppers, garlic and tofu; cook and stir until vegetables are lightly browned and tender, the whole process should take about 10 minutes.
2. Pour the black beans into the slow cooker and set to Low. Stir in the vegetables and tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, chilli powder, oregano, vinegar and hot pepper sauce. Stir gently and cover. Cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours.

Once you have simple soups and chilli down, you can build up a pretty good slow cooker recipe list. I love to make sauces in my slow cooker. The beauty of the slow cooker is that the flavours are enhanced and maintained so food is tastier than ever before, plus you can throw it all in and walk away – bonus!

Here’s an easy slow cooker tomato sauce for pasta, try and tell me you don’t love it as much as I do! You can use canned tomatoes if you don’t have fresh or don’t have a blender.

• 10 ripe tomatoes or 3 cans of tomatoes (put tomatoes in boiling water for one minute to loosen skins, then put on ice until they are cool, this makes them easy to peel and seed. Blend in blender.)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced -
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 cup Burgundy wine
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

Directions:

1. Cook onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften.
2. Pour all ingredients in slow cooker, cook on low 7 – 9 hours.

For some, Boxing Day is as big a feasting day as Christmas. It’s a great chance to incorporate leftovers, enjoy some more family and friend time and finish off those Quality Street!

Of course the traditional Christmas leftovers mean turkey casserole, turkey sandwiches and turkey turkey but for us veggies leftovers have a whole different meaning. Cold nut roast is of course delicious but might not be that appealing for you or your friends and family!

If you have Christmas dinner leftovers a great and easy meal idea is to make up a soup, adding all leftover potatoes and vegetables and adding lentils and a good vegetable stock. Served with homemade bread and scones, this is a nice light lunch or a late dinner that can be kept in the fridge until finished.

If you did cook up a nut roast for dinner and honestly, most vegetarians do (time to get creative!) then try something new for Boxing Day. Our favourite Boxing Day recipe and one which we’ve used for Christmas dinner too is a veggie pie. If you do have leftover vegetables from the ‘big day’, these can be incorporated, just roast up more peppers and garlic and add cheese (we use mozzarella) before baking in a homemade pastry shell (or store bought if you know a good brand and can’t make pastry!) If you are roasting up more veggies, use aubergine and courgettes, they roast to perfection!

If you know your way around a kitchen and have the time and energy, try something daring for Boxing Day. A cheese roulade, cheese tart, baked squash filled with couscous, bruschetta or mushroom wellington will get all your guests salivating, vegetarian or not.

If you are participating in a Boxing Day buffet or pot luck where everyone is required to bring a dish, we recommend simple drop scones with goats cheese and herbs (rosemary is lovely). Throw in some chopped olive and tomatoes and prepare to dazzle your fellow party goers. Drop scones require self raising flour, milk, eggs and sunflower oil (drop scones are fried not baked).