A little while back I mentioned that a work colleague gave me not one not two but three jars of her homemade golden Dandelion Honey which also happened to be accidentally vegan.
I have been loving the stuff and using it in place of bee honey and golden syrup. I've had it stirred simply in some herbal fruit teas as a sweetener, used some to mustard glaze some vegetables and here in these Mango, Marigold and Dandelion Flapjacks that I made a while back
These Mango, Marigold and Dandelion Honey Flapjacks were made for breakfast. I am terrible for eating breakfast in the morning, especially on a working day, so these suit me fine with a cup of coffee when I turn on the works computer to check e mails and such.
I have used dried mango pieces in these flapjacks, but you can use any other dried fruit, but to keep it in the yellow fruit theme - golden raisins, apricots, peaches.
I have also made a fresh cranberry version, but did not get round to getting a picture of it, which is a shame as I loved how the fresh cranberries had burst and splattered into the oats.
This is another dish I made early last month when I picked up some local seasonal vegetables from a farmers market, one of which was turnips. I did not just want to chop and boil the turnip chunks and serve it as a side dish. I wanted to do more with it. It was then I remembered I had bookmarked a recipe from Sarah Beattie's Neither Fish Nor Fowl, I looked up the recipe and was inspired by it, but instead of honey which is used in the original recipe, I decided to make the mustard glaze with Dandelion 'honey'.
Some of you may remember that a generous work colleague had given me some jars of her homemade Dandelion Honey which accidentally happened to be suitable for vegans.
The dandelion honey was not the only change I made. I wanted to make more of a meal of the turnip, so I stirred in some sliced new potatoes and cooked shredded cabbage. It was delicious. The sweetness of the dandelion honey mustard glaze mellowed that strong distinct turnip taste.
I have made lots of recipes from Sarah Beattie and written about her on my blog before - please see here. I love her recipes and its hard for me to choose one, so I choose one that is quite season right now - the parsnip and here is a link to her vegan Tamarind Parsnip Curry that I made and she was kind to grant me permission to share the recipe on my blog with you all, but I recommend the .
I am sharing this with Healthy Vegan Fridays hosted by Rock My Vegan Socks and V Nutrition.
Last year when I was given a bag full of foraged apples by the neighbours, I made lots of tasty sweet things.
Devon Apple Cake which was absolutely delicious. D loved it more than me, for him it was a proper cake made with eggs and butter.
Then there was Apple Snow Crumble which we had with cream and then custard, then came Johanna's Apple Slices.
I've had Johanna's Apple Slice bookmarked ever since I saw it. Not only did it sound sumptuous, the recipe was even simpler. But there was something about it that reminded me of a recipe called Apple Crump that I used to make all the time when I lived in Glasgow with the windfall apples from my small back garden. I never blogged about it because it was not the prettiest to photograph, but it was one of the most easiest and most delicious apple dessert recipes I had ever had, of course I regret now not blogging and sharing it, something so delicious worthy of recognition should not have been kept hush hush.
The original recipe for Apple Crump recipe was showcased by a contestant called Janet Jones on Britain's Best Dish. Even though the recipe was super simple, I had safely tucked away the scribbles of the Apple Crump recipe in the breadmaker instructions booklet, but in between moving to Wales from Scotland, it has been lost. I was really gutted. I could not find the recipe on the internet either. I found this very strange as after appearing on Britain's Best Dish, the Apple Scrump recipe was very popular with lots of foodies raving about it. The only reference on the Internet that I could find to the Apple Crump recipe was on a cooking forum. I have written the recipe below full credit to Janet Jones for those of you like me who loved it.
Although Johanna's Apple Slice reminded me of the Apple Crump, its very different in more ways than one, but lets not compare and agree they are both delicious in their own ways.
The Apple Slice was everything I had imagined, it was delicious, even D thought so. We enjoyed it so much that we have had it twice last year and I know we will have it again come the apple season in the UK.
Johanna through her blog Green Gourmet Giraffe: A Vegetarian in Melbourne continues to inspire me. I don't want to gush, but she is truly exceptional. I think I may have cooked more recipes from her food blog than any other and have no doubt that I will continue to do so. Johanna will be celebrating 10 years in blogosphere and her blog has remained humble, down to earth and honest and I love it. Please do pay her a visit if you are not familiar with her at Green Gourmet Giraffe.
