Sharabelle bakes

BEETROOT Since I eat a vegetable based diet due to my IBS, it's lucky that I love veggies.  However there are only so many ways I can eat them,   before I get bored.  Which is why I like to search out and try new recipes. 1. Soup and Salad Velvety Beetroot & potato soup Easy soup to make.  I diced vac pack beetroot & a medium potato, then I covered them in veg stock.  Once cooked through, I blitzed them with my hand blender.  The potato gives the soup it's creaminess without the need for dairy.   Vegan borscht    - vegangela Beet, apple and orange salad  - Vegetarian.food Raw Beet Salad  - Gentleworld.org 2. Preserves It wasn't that long ago that the only beetroot you would find in the shops was preserved.  Unless you were lucky enough to grow your own.   Pickled Beetroot    - Traditional recipe courtesy of Mrs Beeton Pickled beetroot   - Recipe from British Larder spiced with star anise and cinnamon Beetroot chutney

The Banana Project To make as many recipes using Banana's in a year and updating my blog once a week.   My first recipe this week is for Banana tea loaf.  Most traditional tea loaf recipes are dairy free but aren't vegan as they require an egg.  However it bakes just as well without one.  This time I decided to use a mashed banana as a replacement.  I also reduced the amount of raisins so they wouldn't overshadow the taste of the banana's.   Banana Tea loaf To bump up the taste even more, I soaked the fruit in banana tea. Banana tea:  Place 1 banana peel into a mug, fill with boiling water and cover.  Leave for 5-10 Min's then remove the peel.   This makes a lovely soothing cup of tea.   Who would have thunk it..... it worked.  It's a hybrid between a tea loaf and a banana loaf and tastes great.  Perfect toasted and covered in a dairy free spread.   Banana Coconut Curry  I loved my last banana rice rec

Chiquito Lunch Burrito Bowls - Veggie Chilli Had a great meal out on Monday at  Chiquito Restaurant   in Dunfermline with one of my good friends.  Her birthday had been the week before, so I had baked her a belated birthday cake.   Chocolate Birthday cake recipe To make dairy free , use dairy free butter for the cake. For the ganache use dairy free chocolate and depending on your personal taste try using soya cream or coconut milk.   To make Vegan, use a chocolate wacky cake recipe for the base.   I turned to my one of my baking idols Mary Berry for the Recipe, the decorations were all my own though.   I baked a full dairy 2 layer chocolate cake, sandwiched with seedless raspberry jam.  I  frosted it with chocolate ganache, sprinkled the top with Crispy M&M's and put jammy dodger biscuits round the outside. Why jammy dodgers?  Well why not?   I wanted to make a really over the top cake.  I picked the jammy dodgers because of the cut out

Mixed Bell Peppers/Capsicum  One of the first dishes I remember my mum cooking with mixed bell peppers was a Chinese stir fry.   The only other times I'd seen them till then was in a Chinese sweet and sour sauce from our local takeaway.  They  just seemed more exotic than other vegetables because of their colour, well I was a kid at the time. Today you find fresh, frozen and preserved Bell Peppers in most local Supermarkets.  I love making vegetarian Mexican food, so I always keep a supply of chopped frozen mixed peppers in the freezer.  I would love to buy all my fruit and veg fresh, however that's not always possible.  Frozen vegetables are more economical for me to buy.  I do get the fresh ones whenever I see them on special offer. Wiki Link for Bell Peppers 1. Snacks and dips Bell peppers especially red ones, make great snacks and dips.  Either using them fresh, grilled or buying a jar that's already been roasted.  I get accident prone w

The Chocolate Experiment I've had enough I'm bored and tired of this now. For one day I would just love to not have any pain or discomfort because of my IBS. Or Just to have one day off from having to use anxiety management techniques would be great.  I'm just tired of being tired all the time...... I went to the chemist today to pick up a prescription for the gastro reflux Iv been experiencing lately, only to discover that the pills contain Lactose......   Not really ideal for someone that's lactose intolerant.  I did the only logical thing I could think of.  I went back to the chemist to ask the pharmacists for advice, rather than have a panic attack.   All she could say was "give it a try to see if it works", basically throwing my own philosophy back at me.  Bah humbug.   I'm really lucky that I am only intolerant to dairy, rather than allergic.  No matter how bad the pain gets, I know it's not life threatening.  Then there are peopl

STOP THE PRESS :  The sun's Shining in Central Scotland..... The perfect weather for Thank Bananas it's Friday Banana Crumble Today's theme is Dessert orientated.  What recipe I attempt to make, is basically dependent on my mood.  This week I really needed some healthy comfort food.  My IBS has flared up again, bringing with it the joy of  acid reflux...  Lovely.   I can't really work out if my anxiety disorder has set off my IBS, or if the IBS has set of my Anxiety.  I can cope with one or the other, just not with both at once. Hence the need for some healthy comfort food, since that's all my digestive system can handle at the moment.   One of my favourite childhood comfort foods was Apple crumble. I can remember making it for the first time  on my own in first year home economics class.   I've made a lot of different versions over the years with different fruit, but Id never made one with Banana's. " If you don't

And how not to crimp   one Veggie Cornish Pastie - Badly Crimped Typical Scottish weather - Today for a change we have torrential rain......again.  Since the weekend the weather has jumped between a brilliant sunny spring day too heavy rain in a matter of minutes.  I swear it's had more mood swings than I do and I'm a women with an Anxiety Disorder. On the bright side I have no reason to leave the house today.  So I decided to do some cooking instead.  Iv been wanting to recipe test the  Vegan Cornish Pasties recipe  from the Vegan Society Web Site. I prefer to use  Trex  for making pastry, I think it gives a better texture.  The finished result tasted good.  Personally I'd cook the veg for the filling a little longer than 15 Min's.  They were still on the al dente side.  For the other 3 that I've  made up, I'm going to lower the cooking temp and bake them for longer. Hopefully that will cook the veggies more with out burning the pastry. TOP