"Chicken" Rogan Josh

The replacement chicken I'm using in this recipe is Oomph The Chunk. Oomph is fantastic - the best chicken replacement out there I think. They're a Swedish company, and when we went on holiday to Gothenburg last year it was really popular there. Here it's sold in most normal to large Tesco stores (not the small/express ones as yet unfortunately), where you'll find The Chunk as well as Kebab Spiced and Pulled Oomph. On a side note, that Kebab Spiced is fantastic in wraps with a bit of lettuce, sliced cherry tomatoes, a chopped up onion and a little bit of ketchup and vegan mayo. Add some Sriracha sauce if you prefer a spicy kick.

Anyway I digress, Oomph The Chunk is basically the Oomph chicken pieces without any flavour added. Which makes it really useful for a recipe like this.

Just to note as well, if you live in or near Mossley, the Mossley organic store sells fantastic fresh vegan onion bhajis on Saturdays. They're very popular and they sell out by early afternoon, but if you get there in the morning there should still be some available at the counter. They are worth going out of your way for, they have a really rich flavour to them and are the perfect side to a curry like this.

Here's the recipe: (serves 2, any leftovers are fine to put in a sandwich box and heat in the microwave for 3-4 mins the day after, stirring halfway through)

250g fresh spinach / baby spinach
1 packet of Oomph The Chunk (in the frozen section of most large Tesco stores)
1 400g tin of chickpeas
1 brown onion
2 cloves garlic
1 small chunk fresh ginger (roughly cut out about a 3cm by 3cm square).
1/2 cup red lentils
3 cups of water
1 veg stock cube
3 tablespoons rogan josh paste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1&1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1&1/2 teaspoons chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
3 tablespoons tomato puree

Me and Sarah share a 250g pouch of pilau rice with this.

• Slice up the onion into very small pieces.
• Peel the garlic and ginger then grate them onto a plate.
• In a small saucepan add the water and stock cube, boil then add the lentils, and boil for 10 mins.
• Meanwhile, add some olive oil to a large frying pan / wok and add the Oomph The Chunk. Stir regularly, separate pieces that are frozen together. 
• After 6 mins, stir in the chopped onion. Then after a couple more mins, stir in the grated garlic and ginger and cook for a couple more mins, stirring regularly. During this time, try to chop the chunk pieces into smaller pieces (or take off the heat for a min to do this).
• Then add the lentils and stock water into the frying pan/wok.
• Open the tin of chickpeas, rinse in a sieve then add to the frying pan.
• Stir in the tomato puree and the rogan josh paste.
• Stir in the black pepper, cayenne, garam masala, turmeric, curry powder, chilli powder.
• The curry should still need to evaporate a small bit at this point, add a little water if it's drying up.
• I usually cook it for another couple of mins, then rinse the spinach and add it. It seems like a crazy amount when you first throw it into the pan, but stir and fold it into the curry and it'll shrink. 
• Ideally have the spinach cook for 5 mins then serve at this point (but it's fine if the curry needs longer to reduce a little more).

Lentil Dahl

I always used to follow recipes I found to the letter, but lately I've taken to either finding a recipe and making changes to it, or even just making something up from scratch. I've never had the self confidence to even consider trying to do this, but it's actually been going surprisingly well so far! This Lentil Dahl was one of the first times I tried doing this. I've also then taken inspiration from this to make a Rogan Josh, and I'll post the recipe for that separately. 

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients: (this made 3 servings but I think if you up the lentils and water if you were serving for 4 you shouldn't need to adjust the other ingredients.)

2 cups red lentils
5 cups of water
1 veg stock cube
2 tablespoons curry paste
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
Juice of 3/4 of a lime.

I've not included rice instructions but this is best with pilau rice, we did a 250g microwave pouch for 2 people (so if in a pan about 125g per person). We shared a naan bread with the meal.

Instructions:

Boil a near full kettle, add the 5 cups boiled water to a large saucepan on a high heat, crumble and stir in a vegetable stock cube and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Once dissolved add the lentils and boil until most of the water has soaked up (takes about 10-15 mins)

Turn down slightly and add the coconut milk. The contents will be like a soup, boil until it's starting to get close to a milky porridge, again stir regularly. Meanwhile cut the lime in half and squeeze roughly 3/4 of it into a cup, removing pips.

Then turn the heat down a little more and get ready to add the paste and spices. Start by stirring in the curry paste, once fully stirred in add and stir in all the herbs and spices and finish up by stirring in the lime juice. Cook for a couple more minutes, stirring continually, then serve on rice immediately.

Intro

Hi all, just a quick intro to say about what I'm planning on writing about on here.

About me - I'm 32, I live in Mossley (near Manchester, England)  I've been vegetarian since I was 18. I've just begun being fully vegan (today is day 9).

I've tried this before, around 5 years ago I think, and failed. At the time it just seemed too difficult, the main problem was the lack of quick/easy to make options. There's been a huge amount of new vegan products introduced in the last year, particularly meat replacements, vegan pizzas and ready meals, and this has been the motivation for me and my other half Sarah to give this a real go - we really think we can keep this up this time round.

So I've decided to blog about the vegan options we buy, the meals we have and some recipes for what I've made, it'll hopefully be interesting for people who might be looking to make the step towards going vegan and generally for people curious about what a vegan can have. As well as main meals I'll be going into our snack choices, the dairy replacements we try, the difficulties of trying to find out which beers and wines are ok to have and other similar things.

I'd love to read any questions / discussion about these posts by the way, so feel free to comment at any point. 😊