Tag: Vegan Recipes

GUEST POST // Vegan Rice & Tofu Stir-Fry

Vegan Tofu & Rice Stir-Fry Recipe, By Veggie Gib.

Making a high protein and nutritious stir fry without meat is not an impossibility, in fact it is quite easy! Mr Veggie Gib shows us how…

I like to use extra firm tofu (usually sold as ‘bio’ tofu) for stir fries because it is higher in protein (a good 15g/100g) and has less water so it doesn’t need to be pressed. All you do is pat the tofu dry, cut it up and shallow fry. The outside will go crispy whereas the inside will be soft, giving a nice contrast of textures, and it develops a nutty, almost popcorn-like flavour.

I don’t mind admitting I sometimes use shortcuts, in this case with the stir fry vegetables which I buy ready to use, but feel free to add any of your liking. Stir fries require some organisation because they are quite quick, so it pays to have a hot wok and all the other components ready beforehand.

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Tofu, made from soybean curds, is naturally gluten-free and low calorie, contains no cholesterol and is an excellent source of protein, iron, and calcium.

Ingredients:
150g rice noodles, 5mm thick
250g extra firm tofu
1 tbsp coconut oil
150g stir fry vegetables (carrots, beansprouts, onion, pepper, Chinese leaf, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots)
20g (1 tbsp) peanut butter
2 tbsp tamari soy sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar
25g dried shiitake mushrooms (about 7 or 8), alternatively a packet of mixed dried mushrooms will do
100 ml of water

1. Put the shiitake mushrooms in a bowl with about 100ml of hot water and allow to soak for about 15 minutes until soft.

2. Add the peanut butter, tamari soy sauce and rice vinegar into a small bowl and stir. It might look like it won’t mix but it will do so later on.

3. Place the noodles in a large bowl of warm water and let them soak. They only need to be soaked for about 8-10 minutes and should be ready for when they are needed at the end.

4. Pat the tofu dry with some kitchen paper and cut the tofu into bit size pieces and add the coconut oil in a hot wok. Once the oil is hot add the tofu and shallow fry until it has browned on all sides. This should only take about 5 minutes. Take the tofu out, place on kitchen paper to absorb any extra oil and put to one side.

6. Add the vegetables to the wok and stir fry.

7. Cut the shiitake mushrooms into strips and add to the wok.

8. Add about 4-5 tbsp of the shiitake mushroom liquid to the peanut butter / tamari soy sauce marinade and this should loosen up to the consistency of a thick sauce.

9. Add the noodles and peanut sauce to the wok and give a good stir.

10. Add the tofu pieces and serve.

Makes 2 servings.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Nutritional Info:
Calories:635 kcal
Fat: 17.1g
Carbs: 65.3g
Protein: 29.7g

Muscle Bakery tip: Want to make it lower cal and carbs? Sub the noodles for spiralised veggies or Bare Naked / Slim Noodles!

Veggie Gib

Food has always been a passion of mine, especially eating! Being naturally curious and having a sweet tooth I have always enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen and creating yummy treats for myself, family and friends. Going vegetarian made me explore a lot of different foods and ingredients and made me look at food from a different perspective. What is more I quickly learned that veggie food is far from bland or boring. I like to make food that is quick, easy and tasty and I like to adapt traditional recipes to vegetarian alternatives whenever I can. Now I like to share what I eat and my recipes and hopefully make people want to eat more veggie food.

 

Recipe created by Ivan Hernandez, the man behind Veggie Gib. if you have not checked him out… what are you waiting for?! You can find him on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and most importantly via his website. (His Instagram is a beautiful array of meals and sweets that will most certainly make your tummy rumble!)

We hope you enjoyed this recipe, get involved… tweet/ gram us @themusclebakery & @veggiegib and tell us your thoughts!

Banana Bread: Two Ways (Protein & Vegan)

Banana bread is possibly the easiest and most re-created recipe amongst the foodie realms and no surprise why, it’s flipping delicious! The nan used to make a walnut one when we were little ohhhh did we love it! 

Some food historians believe banana bread was a byproduct of the Great Depression as resourceful housewives did not wish to throw away overripe bananas (as they were still a costly item to purchase), others believe the modern banana bread was developed in corporate kitchens to promote flour and baking soda products.

These recipes came about after finding a printed banana bread recipe from what used to be our first blog and one of the first recipes we ever created all those many moons ago. We decided to give it a go again with a few tweaks and making two versions: Protein version and a Vegan version.

PROTEIN BANANA BREAD


Author: The Muscle Bakery.
Banana bread recipe that you can whip up in no time! Simple, delightful and tasty!

Ingredients

    3 Cups (Gluten-Free) Ground Rolled Oats
    0.5 Cup Granulated Sweetener of choice
    1 Cup Low-Fat Greek Yoghurt or Fromage Frais*
    1 Scoop Banana Whey (or any flavour you prefer)
    2 Mashed Bananas
    1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
    5 Egg Whites
    1 Tsp Baking Powder
    1 Tsp Baking Soda
    1 Tsp Cider Vinegar
  • If you don’t have this, substitute with applesauce.

    • You will also need a metal loaf pan, not the silicone one.

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 170 Degrees C.
  2. In a bowl mix together all your dry ingredients until combined. Then, fold in your wet ingredients until you get a thick batter.
  3. Prepare a greaseproof baking sheet in your loaf pan then pour mix into it.
  4. Bake for 30-40mins (until knife comes out clean when piercing it).
  5. Leave to cool completely before slicing.
  6. Then slice up and enjoy solo or with your fave nut butter!


Nutritional Info (per slice):109 Cals | 1.6F | 19C | 6.5P

Free from Gluten, Wheat & Sugar

For the Vegan variation, we decided to use a Coke Zero to replace the egg. Yes. You heard that right!

After delivering a Vegan cakey to a customer, he mentioned that he had tried making a cake with his daughter using a Betty Crocker mix and a Diet Coke and it worked! This clearly got us SOOOO curious and the culinary creative juices started flowing! We had read somewhere before that sparkling water could be used but never really thought much about it until he mentioned it so without further ado we jumped right in and used the above recipe to experiment with.

As with all of our recipes, we prefer trying and failing before having to call on our buddy google for help and that is exactly what we did with this one and absolutely winged it. The experiment paid off! It made the most delightful banana cake, id even go as far as to say that it was better than the original creation!

(Thanks for that Mr Williams).

Heres the recipe:

VEGAN BANANA BREAD


Author: The Muscle Bakery.
Banana bread made with Coke Zero?!! YUP! So damn delicious, like a cross between bread and pudding… exactly like nan used to make (made vegan)!

Ingredients

    3 Cups (Gluten-Free) Ground Rolled Oats
    0.5 Cup Granulated Sweetener of choice
    1 Tbsp Xanthan
    1 Cup Soya/ Coconut Yoghurt*
    1 Scoop Pea Protein Isolate**
    2 Mashed Bananas
    1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
    1 Tbsp Agave Nectar (add more if you prefer a little sweeter)
    1 Coke Zero/ Diet Coke Can (330ml)
    1 Tbsp Cinnamon (optional)
    1 Tsp Baking Powder
    1 Tsp Baking Soda
    1 Tsp Cider Vinegar
  • If you don’t have this, substitute with applesauce.
  • If you want to omit this or don’t have this ingredient, try adding a little bit more flour instead.

    • You will also need a metal loaf pan, not the silicone one.


Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 170 Degrees C.
  2. In a bowl mix together all your dry ingredients until combined. Then, fold in your wet ingredients until you get a thick batter.
  3. Prepare a greaseproof baking sheet in your loaf pan then pour mix into it.
  4. Bake for 30-40mins (until knife comes out clean when piercing it).
  5. Leave to cool completely before slicing.
  6. Then slice up and enjoy solo or with your fave nut butter!


Nutritional Info (per slice): 112 Cals | 1.8F | 25.1C | 5P

Free from Gluten, Wheat, Sugar, Dairy, & Egg.

As you can see the recipes are extremely similar, in fact they are almost identical except for the eggs part.

You can try the Protein version without eggs and use coke instead, but we have not yet tried that yet as we still have all the above slices of banana bread to get through! 😛

If you do, let us know how it goes!

Don’t forget to tag us if you try any of these recipes, you can find us on all social media outlets @themusclebakery

For 15% discount on Bulkpowders use code: MUSCLEBAKERY15

HAPPY (BANANA BREAD) BAKING!

<3

Everyday we wafflin’

I bought a new double waffle machine recently, you know… the one that makes those sexy looking American Diner style waffles. YAS.

So, in true Muscle Baker style, I didn’t let that red light die down till I was several recipes deep. (If you follow me on instagram @themusclebaker you may have noticed the few days of waffle obsession that followed suit.)

 

Now, making waffles isnt too different to making pancakes which means any pancake mix will work for waffles and vice versa! Just (for me personally) waffles are easier because the machine does all the work for you with a handy light which lets you know when they are done. Regardless, here is our top tips for wafflin’ successfully:

 

QUALITY WAFFLE MAKER // We ploughed through a gazillion options and reviews to check over quality/ price/ customer satisfaction before we bought ours. Don’t just choose a cheap one or even an expensive one because you think it will be good. Our recommendation is: JM Posner Double waffle maker.

SPRAY OIL // This is not essential but it does help a little, especially for Vegan waffles which don’t have eggs.. We use a coconut oil spray which is low in calories and doesn’t add much extra calories. There is also a butter flavour one which tastes lovely and vegan-friendly!

EASY WITH THE MIX // Before you start going crazy making waffles, experiment with the batter first. Check how many spoonful’s of batter it takes to make a full waffle without over-spill. Start small then go adding more batter for every next waffle until you reach perfect size. If your waffle spills it is quite hard to clean so you want to avoid that.

BE PATIENT // Don’t be tempted to put the heat too high in a bid to get the waffles done quicker. Start on a lower heat and wait for it to get to the right temperature, the first 2 waffles will always be the dummy ones anyway, the perfect temp will start once you’ve done a few. Note: some waffle machines don’t have temp options, it’s not necessary but is a nice extra to have. 

DON’T CHEAT THE LIGHT // The heat lights are there for a reason, so pay attention to it! All waffle machines generally are the same whereas there is a red and green light, both of which go on when you turn on machine and then the green light is the one that goes on and off to alert you. In short, when the green light is on don’t do anything.

 

As mentioned earlier, using any pancake batter will work for waffles, so if you are after a simple protein waffle recipe we recommend this one. However, if you are after a Vegan option or egg-less option, the following recipe is for you and works perfectly with casein or a vegan protein blend.

 

This is our latest go-to recipe:

VEGAN PROTEIN WAFFLES



Deliciously dense waffles, perfect for any day of the week.
Credit: The Muscle Bakery

Ingredients

1.5 Cup Coconut milk/ Almond milk 0.5 Cup Gluten-Free rolled oats 0.8 Cup Brown Rice Flour 1/8 Cup Arrowroot Flour 1 Scoop Bulkpowders Vegan Protein Blend* 1 Tsp Xanthan Gum 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract 2 Drops Stevia (or alternative) 1 Tsp Baking Soda 1 Tsp Cider Vinegar Spray oil of choice.

*This recipe will work just the same with casein too, textures will be different but will work perfectly nonetheless. We used Bulkpowders Strawberry flavour casein to test the recipe.

Directions

  1. Mix milk and vinegar together and set aside.
  2. In a bowl mix together all your dry ingredients until combined. Then, fold in your wet ingredients until you get a thick batter.
  3. Heat up waffle machine as per instructions and like mentioned earlier, if you have never done waffles before add less batter rather than more. Add batter when green light goes off, then wait until green light goes off again to open waffle machine to remove waffle.

    4. Note: If you’re waffle has a temperature setting, start at a lower heat then build it up.

  4. Repeat until all batter is used up.
  5. Pile them up on a plate, add your favourite syrup and ENJOY!

    6. Nutritional Info (per serving of 4): 228 Cals | 2.6F | 39.7C | 8.8P

    Free from Gluten, Wheat, Sugar, Dairy, & Egg.


 

Need some waffle inspo? Here are some of our customers creations from our ‘Waffle Party’ event held 15th October at Strength Factory. Proceed with caution, extreme foodporn follows:

Vegan Choc Peanut waffles with Zero syrup, frozen raspberries and almond butter, Nadia’s simple and delicious creation.
Simple protein pancake recipe, smothered in zero chocolate mint syrup, choc mint oreos and a dollop of Nutella. OH MY.
Simple protein pancake sandwich with an apple pie theme! Apple pie filling and Toffee Nakd bites between 2 layers of waffle, topped with whipped cream, banana, caramel waldens syrup and a cheeky oreo.
Rita topped her simple protein pancake with frozen razzies, choc shot syrup and an oreo ice-cream sandwich. Who’s jealous?
Chocoholics look away! Simple protein pancake topped with zero syrup, crumbled twirls, Nutella and an oreo ice-cream sandwich. HOT DAMN.

 

 

No matter your dietary needs, everyone should be able to enjoy waffles! So if this recipe doesn’t tickle your fancy, have a browse on our ‘Pancakes and Waffles‘ recipes section and see if any other recipe suits you better!

Hope you enjoyed the tips and recipe, tag us if you put them to good use!

Find us on all social media outlets @themusclebakery <3

How to: Pancakes

Pancakes, a simple delight which fills us all with so much happy when we get to eat them.

Pancake is a flat, round cake, comprised mainly from a flour-based batter made with eggs, milk, oil or butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan. In UK, pancakes are typically thinner and closely resemble a crêpe. However, American pancakes tend to use baking powder which makes them a lot thicker and fluffy. 

The ancient Greeks and Romans ate their pancakes with honey; the Elizabethans ate them flavored with spices, rosewater, sherry, and apples. In the American colonies, pancakes—known as hoe cakes, johnnycakes, or flapjacks—were made with buckwheat or cornmeal.

They are typically served as a breakfast option with berries, jam, butter and spreads *cough Nutella* but can also be enjoyed with savoury items such as bacon and eggs.

Ultimately, the defining characteristic of the entire vast family of pancakes, whether you call them crepe, griddlecake, blini, bannock, is indeed their flatness. “Flat as a pancake,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, has been a catchphrase since at least 1611.

“Flat as a pancake” – since 1611

Fast forward to present day and pancake’s have somewhat changed; flour, milk and oil alternatives are used to suit, they can be enriched with protein and are sweetened with sugar replacements such as stevia, agave, applesauce etc. 

Unfortunately a lot of people find that they often fail at pancake making, in most cases ending up with a scramble instead of a pancake, and ofc then give up trying ever again. We want to help you avoid this at all costs because pancakes are awesome!

So, before we share our recipe this is our top tips on how to perfect the pancake:

NON STICK PAN // This is absolutely crucial to successful pancakes. Without it you may as well give up on life. Srsly. Trust us on this one! We have a ceramic one which is absolutely perfect for pancakes, needs next to no oil and cleans real easy. 

SPRAY OIL // This is not essential but it does help a little, especially for Vegan pancakes which tend to be harder to flip due to the lack of eggs. We use a coconut oil spray which is low in calories and doesn’t add much extra calories. 

BLENDER // Blitzing all your ingredients in a blender prior to making pancakes will ensure that your mix is well combined. It is only natural that when you mix by hand, it doesn’t combine as well and you may be left with clumpy mix which will affect your pancake making.

SILICONE MOLD // This isn’t really needed but it really does make ALL off the difference if you can get one. Not only does it help make perfectly round pancakes but it also helps you make them all even in size which will make life a lot easier if you are counting macros. Any pound saver shop (or in Gibraltar/ Spain, any of the Chinese shops) should have them! 

mold-selfie

BE PATIENT // Don’t be tempted to put the heat too high in a bid to get the pancakes done quicker. Start on a lower heat and wait for it to get to the right temperature, the first 2 pancakes will always be the dummy ones anyway, the perfect temp will start once you’ve done a few pancakes.

 

This is our latest go-to recipe:

Vegan Protein Pancakes



Deliciously fluffy pancakes, perfect for any occasion.
Credit: The Muscle Bakery

Ingredients

1 Cup Gluten-Free Oats
1 Banana
1 Cup Koko Coconut Milk
1 Scoop (approx 25g) Pea Protein Isolate
1 Tbsp Ground Chia Seeds
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tbsp Agave Nectar
2 Drops Stevia (or alternative)
1 Tbsp Granulated Sweetener (or alternative)
1 Tsp Baking Soda
 

Directions

  1. Blitz all the ingredients in a blender until it is all well combined. Then leave aside to set for 5-10 minutes while pan heats up.
  2. Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat, spray with low-cal coconut oil to make it easier to get your pancake on.
  3. Add spoonfuls of batter onto the pan, we find that 2 tablespoon’s of batter makes the perfect size pancake. Leave to cook for a couple of minutes until you start noticing bubbles come through. Flip and cook a further couple of minutes.
  4. Repeat until all batter is used up.
  5. Pile them up on a plate, add your favourite syrup and ENJOY!

    6. Perfect leg-day post workout noms! 😛

    Nutritional Info (per serving): 314 Cals | 7.1F | 49C | 17.8P

    Free from Gluten, Wheat, Sugar, Dairy, & Egg.


Follow @themusclebaker on Instagram, tune into her daily stories to get first dibs on recipes, tips, tricks and general nonsense.
 
Photo 27-08-2016, 14 17 20

Some more delicious pancake recipes to choose from:

pb-pancakePB Giant Pancake lemon-pancakesLemon Pancakes pancake-cakePancake Cake
spinach-crepeSpinach Crepe lowcarb-pancakesLow-Carb Pancakes banoffee-pancakesBanoffee Pancakes
simple-pancakeDairy-Free Pancakes vegan-pancakesVegan Pancakes basic-proteinBasic Protein Pancakes

Don’t forget to tag us if you get your pancake on with any of our recipes! We love seeing all your creations. Find us on all social media outlets: @themusclebakery <3