Tag: vegan

Vegan Yogurt Review: Silk

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Silk soy products are the bog standard soy you find in America. All the big stores stock it. It is, as my brother likes to praise things, inoffensive. In a land where bland is king, silk reigns. And fair enough, as a good soy milk (if used as a replacement for dairy) should fade to the background.

Their soy yogurt is as competent as one would expect. It’s got a good texture and a yogurt tang. There is a background note of beanyness, which is surprising, as their soy milk completely lacks this.

This is the soy yogurt one is most likely to see, say, staying in a hotel or if one shops at Safeway. It does the job. Silk is as reliable as ever.

4/5 stars.

Vegan yoghurt reviews: coconut dream

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I went to the Berkeley Bowl yesterday and bought many varieties of non dairy blueberry yogurt. I shall now review them.

Today’s yogurt was picked to start because it came open on the bag on the way home and needed to be eaten imminently.

It is a coconut base, which is at least as easy to perceive in taste as the blueberry. It lacks the normal tang of acidophilus flavour, but it does contain cultures.

The texture is a bit glue-y. Reading the label reveals that it was thickened with corn and tapioca starch, which probably caused this. The label says it is low fat, but the nothing in the ingredients list suggests that fat was removed from the coconut. I presume that the starches were used not as fat replacements, but just to get it to sit right on the spoon. Also, my experience of cooking with coconut milk-replacement is that it’s difficult to turn it into custard. Agar agar can help and maybe it would have been better to use that.

This is miles better than the fake yogurts i used to get 15 years ago, but as everything vegan has improved so much during that time, I feel this yogurt could also have gotten a bit better than it did. I’d feel pleased to see it on a hotel buffet or whatever, but it’s not the first one I would pick in the grocery store. I give it 4/10.

Best Nutloaf

  • 1 Onion
  • 1 tsp vegetable oil
  • 2-3 slices / 100g stale bread OR 100g matzoh
  • 225 g nuts
  • 300 ml vegetable stock
  • 2 tsp marmite
  • 1 tsp herbs de Provence (or mixed herbs)
  1. Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F / Gas mark 4
  2. Peel and dice the onion. Cook it in a pan on the stove with the oil
  3. Toast bread until slightly crispy. Process or mill it (or the matzoh, if you’re using that). Grind the nuts
  4. Heat the stock with the marmite. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat.
  5. Mix everything in a mixing bowl and transfer to a greased deep baking tray. Bake for 30 minutes or until dry on top, but not burnt. (You can cover it with foil for the first 20 minutes if you are prone to burning things.)

From Another Dinner is Possible, which is the best vegan cookbook I know of. You should get a copy.
Americans: 300 ml = 1.25 Cups. Apparently, according to this, if you use almonds, you’ll want 1.125 Cups. However, I think you might just need to get a scale for this one, which is a good investment anyway. They’re very useful for beer brewing.

Vegan Apple Cake

  • 225g (1¾ US Cups) self-raising flour (or 220g (still 1¾ US Cups) plain white flour + 1 tsp baking powder)
  • ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • A pinch of sea salt
  • Optional: A pinch of ground cardamom seeds, a grating of fresh ginger (or use ½ tsp ground), ½ tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp nutmeg
  • 450g (1 lbs) cooking or dessert apples
  • A little lemon juice
  • 100g (½ US Cup) sugar
  • 125 mL (½ US Cup) olive oil
  • 1 mooshed bananna
  • 50g (¼ US Cup) soft brown or demerara sugar (or caster sugar is fine)

The spices are optional and you can use more or less to your taste. Once you’ve gathered your ingredients:

  1. Sift flour, bicarb of soda, salt and spices (if using) into a mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly.
  2. Peel the apples. Cut into very small, think pieces. Toss the cut apples in a little lemon juice as you go, to keep them from browning.

  3. Mix in apples, sugar, oil and banana into the flour mix. Gently fold through until everything is thoroughly mixed. Turn into a greased cake tin.

  4. Level off the top of the batter. Sprinkle with sugar.

  5. Bake in a preheated moderately hot oven (200°C/Gas 6/375°F) for 30-40 mins. Test with skewer.

  6. Remove from oven. Allow to shrink slightly before turning out onto serving plate.

Variations

If you want a slightly heavier, richer cake, you can substitute 100g (½ US Cup) margarine + 1-2 Tbsp soy milk for the olive oil. Add margarine just after sifting the flour and spices together, cut it into the flour mixture and and rub into breadcrumb consistency. Then add the soy milk just after adding the apples, sugar etc. Add enough to wet the batter and hold it together.