Vegan brunch

Firstly, let’s be clear, hosting an event or dinner or even a brunch shouldn’t be super difficult. It should be fun and something you want to do to expand your skills and enjoy a meal with your closest friends. So, with that at the front of your mind remember that the people you love won’t care if you make the pastry from scratch, they’ll just be happy to eat good food and spend some quality time with you.

So, first things first decide whether you’re going to buy the pastry for the palmiers and the tortillas for the tacos or make them yourself. You don’t need to make them from scratch — not unless you really want to.

You should start the brunch prep the day before as you want there to be as little stress as possible on the day and with this being an earlyish meal you need to have some of it done the day before. So, on to the cupcakes!

The day before

Lemon and glacé morello cherry cupcakes method

Preheat the oven to 190c and choose some pretty muffin cases.

Add the milk and one teaspoon of lemon juice to a bowl and allow it to curdle slightly. I know it sounds gross but you’re basically making your own buttermilk by doing this. Not much will change except that you should see a few areas which are slightly coagulated into a clearer, thicker substance.

In a separate bowl add the sugar and the softened vegetable shortening. Beat together until it looks like a weird, grainy lightly whipped cream — don’t worry, the sugar will melt in the baking.

Add the sifted flour, baking powder and baking soda to another bowl (you don’t need to add salt as white flour already has a lot of sodium in it). Notice how all of the fibre from the wholemeal flour has remained in the sieve? Carefully pick a quarter cup of the wholemeal fibre and add that to the two sifted flours in the bowl.

Now add the wet ingredients alternately with the dry to the shortening and sugar mix and once it is more or less combined add a sprinkle of flour to the mixed peel, the lemon zest and the glacé morello cherries and stir it all together. Fill the muffin cases around 3/4 full and bake for around 20–25 minutes.

You can check if they’re fully cooked by putting a knife in the centre of one. If it comes out clear, without any bits of uncooked cake on it, they’re cooked through.

Once removed from the oven and cooled mix some icing sugar together with a small squeeze of lemon juice, stir together and spread on top of the muffins — you want a spreading rather than a runny consistency. You can also oven dry some lemon segments to go on top!

Lemon and poppy seed cupcakes ingredients

Makes 6

1/2 cup oat milk • 1 tsp lemon juice • 1/2 cup cups all-purpose wholemeal flour • 1/2 cup self raising white flour • 1 tsp bicarb of soda • heaped 1/4 cup granulated sugar • scant quarter cup vegetable shortening • zest of 1 lemon • 1 tablespoons mixed peel • 3 heaped tbsp glacé morello cherries • 1/4 cup icing sugar and squeeze of lemon juice • lemon segments

Nutrition per cupcake

• Calories: 217
• Carbohydrates: 32.5g
• Fat: 8.5g
• Fiber: 1.8g
• Sodium: 3657 mg
• Protein: 3.2g
• Sugar: 15.5g

Overnight Oats method

Grab a big jar and throw in all of the ingredients. Stir a little to ripple the blueberries, then leave in the fridge overnight.

This is fairly sweet, so you could add much less or even no sugar if you’re trying to avoid it.

Overnight Oats ingredients

5 cups rolled oats • 4 cups oat milk • scant 1/2 cup sugar • 1.5 cups frozen blueberries

Nutrition for around 14 portions

• Calories: 175
• Carbohydrates: 33g
• Fat: 3.1g
• Fiber: 4g
• Sodium: 29.7mg
• Protein: 4.4g
• Sugar: 12.2g

Palmiers method

This could not be easier.

Get the shop bought vegan puff pastry out of the fridge and allow it to soften a little, then roll it out into a rectangle and dust with caster sugar and cinnamon.

Roll one of the long sides into the centre of the dough then turn it around and do the same the other way. Place it in the fridge for 15 minutes.

You can then slice it up and bake them on a baking sheet making sure that you leave enough space for the puff to spread.

Bake for 10–15 minutes at 220c. Then remove and store in a container for tomorrow.

Palmiers ingredients

You should get 16 from half a block

250g shop bought puff pastry • heaped 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder • 1.5 tsp sugar

Nutrition per palmier

• Calories: 60
• Carbohydrates: 5.9g
• Fat: 16g
• Fiber: 0.13g
• Sodium: 62.5mg
• Protein: 0.9g
• Sugar: 0.6g

The day of the brunch

Start by prepping your brunch area. Flowers are nice as are candles if it’s a dull kind of morning. Set the table now so you’re not worrying about it all later.

Now turn to your blender for the first recipe of the day.

Avocado hummus toast method

Throw all of the ingredients, except the bread, obvs, into a blender. Purée until smooth then generously spread on toast. Top with radish, spring onion and extra coriander leaves.

Avocado hummus toast ingredients

This recipe makes loads of the avo hummus, it could probably be used on 12 slices of toast — so just store it in the fridge and eat it in the evening once everyone has gone home with some tortilla chips :-)

4 slices of seeded bread • 2 tbsp olive oil and 8–12 tbsp warm water • 1/4 tsp salt • 1/2 tsp pepper • 1 tin chickpeas • 1/2 tsp chilli powder • 1 spring onion • 1 tbsp tahini • 2 avocados • small bunch coriander leaves • squeeze half lemon juice to taste

Nutrition per toast

• Calories: 130
• Carbohydrates: 22g
• Fat: 7.8g
• Fiber: 6.1g
• Sodium: 115mg
• Protein: 5.8g
• Sugar: 0.1g

Tacos method

Start by removing the extra firm tofu from the packet and drying with kitchen roll, you can press it if you like but I don’t often have the time for that, so I just make sure it’s as dry as possible.

Now slice a third off the block and slice that very thinly — this will be used for the tofu bacon —just put it in a hot pan and allow it to crisp up and for it to slightly blister and turn golden in colour.

The rest of the tofu can be crumbled into another pan with the turmeric, chilli powder, onion granules and salt. Fry that up so it resembles scrambled eggs. If you have black sea salt use a little of that too.

Clean and slice the mushrooms. Put them in a lightly oiled pan on high and allow them to cook for around 6 minutes, turning often.

Now slice up some spring onions, avocado, spinach, fresh chilli and a little red cabbage. Once the mushrooms, tofu and tacos are ready you can begin the assembly.

A little raw red cabbage and julienned spinach goes on first then add the mushrooms and the scrambled tofu.

Top it with the tofu bacon, some spring onions, fresh chilli and your favourite hot sauce.

Serve immediately.

Tacos ingredients

6 Corn tortillas • 280g tofu • 1/2 tsp turmeric • 1/2 tsp chilli powder •1/2 tsp onion granules • 4 large mushrooms • 1/4 cup spinach • 1/8 cup red cabbage • 2 spring onion • half avocado • hot sauce

Nutrition per taco

• Calories: 345
• Carbohydrates: 53g
• Fat: 8.6g
• Fiber: 4.3g
• Sodium: 127mg
• Protein: 13g
• Sugar: 3.1g

You can also make some quick accompaniments (some of the recipes are included in previous posts) such as homemade blue corn tacos, frijoles with homemade chilli sauce, guacamole, sliced rustic toast, fresh tomato salsa, fruit salad, or simply have fresh fruit on the table.

Happy brunching!