I had a fab time at the North West Vegan Festival at the weekend, lots of nice people, tasty treats and worthwhile campaigns. Not to mention plenty of lovely lovely beers 😉

If you weren’t there, I’m afraid you missed out! But the stalls and their webpages can be found here:http://northwestveganfestival.co.uk/stalls/

Some of my highlights:

Getting a Flash Gordonette henna tattoo by Rubee’s mendhi (https://www.facebook.com/RubeesHenna)

Drinking yummy yummy beer! This one was a London Porter by PitFields (www.pitfieldbrewery.com)

Free goody bag! Teapigs tea donated by Coconut Rose tea rooms from Blackburn http://www.coconutrosebakery.co.uk/

Tasty “Caramac” from Trishul Raw Chocolate (http://trishulrawchocolate.wordpress.com/)

Coconut and Lime Ice from Coconut Rose (http://www.coconutrosebakery.co.uk/)

Tasty-ass samosa from SSK Caterers (https://www.facebook.com/ssk.caterers)

Condensed soya from Ananda Foods (http://www.anandafoods.co.uk/ ) – I feel a fudge recipe coming up!

Most sexy smelling candle ever! From Harper’s Bizarre ( http://harpersbizarre.org.uk/ ) although I wish I’d bought the “House Red” one as well.

My little Dr Hadwen Trust butterfly (http://www.drhadwentrust.org/ )

Bought this bad-boy from Vegan Tuck Box (http://www.vegantuckbox.co.uk/) Amazing stuff!

Sexy carrot cake, I think it was from Pudology (http://www.pudology.com/) … but I’d had a bit too much beer by this point!

Anyhow, after all this vegan festivalling, I was feeling inspired. I always thought my “Eazy Cheeze” sauce would make a great hard cheese… and it does! I simply added a bit of kappa carrageenan to make a grateable mild cheddar.

Ingredients:

1 x large carrot (peeled) 2 x small potatoes (peeled) ¾ x cup nutritional yeast ½ x cup olive oil (don’t use virgin!) ½ x teaspoon mustard (or horseradish or wasabi) ½ x tsp black pepper ½ x cup soya milk ¼ x tsp garlic powder ½ x tbsp fresh lemon juice ½ x tsp white miso paste 5 x tsp kappa carrageenan

Method:

Line some ramekin dishes with cling-film. Put to one side.

Peel and roughly chop the carrot and potatoes. Boil in water until soft.

In a food processor, blend the cooked carrot, potatoes, nutritional yeast, olive oil, mustard, pepper, soya milk, garlic powder, lemon juice and miso paste until smooth and a consistent colour.

Sprinkle the kappa carrageenan over the mixture and blitz just enough to thoroughly mix.

Transfer to a pan and using a silicon spatula stir whilst heating until glossy (8 – 10 minutes, its ready once the oil just begins to separate out – don’t let it go too far!)

Quickly pour into the ramekins and leave to cool for about 20 minutes before covering with more cling-film.

Leave to set in the fridge overnight. Take out of the cling-film and wrap in kitchen roll. Store in the fridge.

This stuff slices:

Grates:

And although it doesn’t melt like exactly like cheddar, it does melt to a spreadable paste which is nice on toast!

Enjoy 🙂

Flash-Gordonette…X