Tag: Christmas

12 Days of Christmas: Nigerian Party Rice

Leave a comment

No celebration or holiday meal in Nigeria, or amongst Nigerians, is complete without one or two of these party rice dishes. Jollof Rice and Nigerian Fried Rice are easy-to-make, yet absolutely delicious rice dishes that everyone will enjoy eating. These dishes are usually never served alone. Most of the time, they are served with sides of fried plantains, a salad/coleslaw and some meat. In order to keep your Christmas meal plant-based, you can substitute the meat with your preferred vegan alternative, tofu or tempeh.

We should mention that our jollof rice is made following an Igbo (Nigerian tribe) recipe which tend to feature visible bell peppers in the final dish. Our fried rice is also a bit paler than that which is more common due to the colour intensity of the stock we used (as we’re not using meat stock or Nigerian chicken seasoning cubes which tend to be a relatively yellow). However, our fried rice tasted like and authentic Nigerian fried rice.

We hope you enjoy our vegan jollof rice and fried rice recipes!

Bon Appétit!

Continue reading “12 Days of Christmas: Nigerian Party Rice” →

12 Days of Christmas: Lebkuchen Brezeln

1 Comment

Pretzels are a beloved German food. However, a lot of people have never tried actual German pretzels. Traditional pretzels are soft and delicious as opposed to the popular Americanised pretzels which tend to be crunchier, almost like a thick crisp.

While researching about pretzels last month, we realised that around Christmas, gingerbread pretzels can be found. So, today, we decided to share two recipes with you – our soft Lebkuchengewürz Brezeln (Gingerbread Spice Pretzels) and more conventional cookie Lebkuchen Brezeln (Gingerbread Pretzels).

The Lebkuchengewürz Pretzels are soft, more traditional pretzels. However, they are, as the name suggests, flavoured with gingerbread spice. The gingerbread spice we chose to use is a homemade German one as it tastes really good and there aren’t any other gingerbread spices which really taste like it. We guess we’re actually sharing three recipes with you, then. Yes, we will be sharing our Lebkuchengewürz recipe with you so you can make your own German gingerbread spice wherever you are.

In regards to the Lebkuchen Pretzels, these are small gingerbread cookies which are shaped into pretzels with a chocolate coating on some of them. They are sweet, but not too sweet, and they are a delicious treat which you and your loved ones will be sure to enjoy.

Guten Appetit!

Continue reading “12 Days of Christmas: Lebkuchen Brezeln” →

12 Days of Christmas: Italian Christmas Cookies

Leave a comment

These vegan Italian Christmas cookies are soft and pretty cake-like, but they’re cookies! When deciding to make these, as we had never made anything like them before, we compared multiple traditional swirled Italian Christmas cookie recipes and then averaged out everything and made them vegan by replacing non-vegan ingredients with the most appropriate vegan substitutions. Honestly, we feel so weird referring to them as ‘cookies,’ but that’s what they are!

Unfortunately, we did not have colourful sprinkles and we couldn’t find any that were vegan (and didn’t cost a fortune for a small bottle) so we just sprinkled chia seeds on them. In addition to that, as these cookies are very sweet already, instead of dipping them in a thick icing sugar mixture (as is traditionally done before sprinkling), we brushed on a light icing sugar mixture on its surfaces to make them more edible for those who can’t handle extremely sweet foods.

We hope you enjoy these…..cookies.

Bon Appétit!

Continue reading “12 Days of Christmas: Italian Christmas Cookies” →

12 Days of Christmas: Pigs in a Blanket

Leave a comment

Pigs in blankets are beloved sides or appetisers at British Christmas dinners. They are great finger foods which people can easily snack on and they are delicious!

Although we’ve only ever encountered Pigs in blankets at British events, we are fully aware that this dish is also common in other cultures although with some variances. For example, in Germany, Würstchen im Schlafrock (which translates to “sausage in a dressing gown”) is eaten. However, the pastry is usually made from puff pastry. Other examples include the Moshe Ba’Teiva (which translates to “Moses in the basket”) in Israel which is covered in ketchup and, at times, is made using phyllo dough, the Argentinian version for which the sausage is topped with ketchup then wrapped with empanada dough and the American one which is wrapped in croissant dough, biscuit dough or pancakes.

For this, we have opted for a pizza dough which is one of the easiest doughs to make or purchase ready-made. The cocktail sausages are also made as a form of seitan. They are flavour packed and moreish.

Regardless of the way you choose to make your pig in a blanket, this recipe will be a delicious and easy guide for you.

Bon Appétit!

Continue reading “12 Days of Christmas: Pigs in a Blanket” →

12 Days of Christmas: British Christmas Dinner

1 Comment

Christmas Dinners tend to be the highlight of a lot of people’s years in the United Kingdom. Every Christmas dinner features a roast meat centrepiece which is usually poultry, but nowadays, other meats are included such as beef and pork. Served alongside the roast are roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, brussels sprouts, stuffing, pigs in a blanket, Yorkshire pudding and gravy.

As we have already shared out roast seitan and gravy with you, for day 4, we are going to share our fluffy roast potato, carrot and onion-herb stuffing recipes with you. They are delicious and pair well together through a linking of infused oil flavours.

As a warning to our American readers, British stuffing is very different from American stuffing. With that said, if you try our stuffing recipe, do so without the stuffing you are more familiar with in mind.

Bon Appétit!

Continue reading “12 Days of Christmas: British Christmas Dinner” →

12 Days of Christmas: Roast Seitan

1 Comment

The centrepiece of most Christmas dinners is roast meat. For Day 3 of our 12 Days of Christmas, we will be sharing our roast seitan recipe with you. It is packed with flavour and glazed with a simple brown sugar glaze.

This roast seitan takes about 2hrs to make. However, 92% of that time is cooking-time which means that you won’t have to actively be in the kitchen. Therefore, this seitan is rather easy to make and not time-consuming while still being so delicious.

This seitan can be served with our Mashed Potatoes and Creamy Mushroom Gravy and is also linked to tomorrow’s recipe which will be of a British Christmas Dinner.

Bon Appétit!

Continue reading “12 Days of Christmas: Roast Seitan” →

12 Days of Christmas: Mashed Potatoes with a Creamy Mushroom Gravy

2 Comments

American Christmas dinners usually consist of roasted root vegetables, some roast meat, mashed potatoes and gravy. Today, we’re sharing our delicious mashed potato and gravy recipe with you. These are not your ordinary mash and gravy as we have infused the mash with the flavours of onions and garlic and thickened the gravy using a mixture of mushrooms and rice which have been added to a vegetable stock seasoned to perfection.

Although we are just sharing the mash and gravy recipes with you today, we will be sharing our flavoursome roast seitan recipe with you tomorrow followed by a British Christmas dinner which will feature other elements found in American Christmas dinners alongside those solely found in British Christmas dinners.

Let us know your thoughts if you try any of these recipes.

Bon Appétit!

Continue reading “12 Days of Christmas: Mashed Potatoes with a Creamy Mushroom Gravy” →

12 Days of Christmas: Cozonac (nut-free)

Leave a comment

Welcome to 12 Days of Christmas. Starting from today, every day, at 11am GMT, we will be sharing a new recipe with you to help you prepare for this festive period. In this series, we will be featuring breakfast ideas, snacks, appetisers, main meals and desserts from various cultures in order to introduce you to new dishes as well as to give you a variety of options or plant-based meals you can make for yourself or your vegan/vegetarian loved ones. Some of the recipes will also be alcohol-free, nut-free and gluten-free for those with particular dietary requirements or preferences.

To kick this off, here’s our first recipe – a nut-free cozonac.

Cozonac is a Romanian sweet bread which is usually eaten during Christmas and Easter. Traditionally, it is made with eggs, milk and butter which enrich the dough. However, for this recipe, we have substituted those ingredients with suitable and affordable plant-based alternatives. We suggest that you do not substitute those alternatives with other alternatives such as flax eggs instead of aquafaba as that will change the texture and density of the bread.

The shape and shininess of this bread are so attractive and foretell the delicious taste experience offered by the bread. However, they hide the surprise inside the loaf which is the curving effect of bands of raisins and chocolate toasted oats, which is what we have used to replace the chocolate walnuts found in traditional cozonac in order to keep this bread nut-free whilst not compromising on a nutty flavour and texture.

Without further ado, here’s our nut-free cozonac recipe.

Poftă Bună!

Continue reading “12 Days of Christmas: Cozonac (nut-free)” →

Holiday Specials: Festive Potatoes

Leave a comment

‘Tis the season or delicious foods!

December brings about a lot of celebrations! There’s the Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Kwanzaa, Omisoka, and we most definitely cannot forget Christmas. Seriously, there are lights and Christmas trees everywhere so there’s actually no way you can’t remember Christmas.

Today, at LickYourPlates, we are bringing a holiday recipe to you. In our LickYourPlates Holiday Specials. Our Festive Potatoes are a delicious way to zhuzh up your regular roast potatoes by adding more flavours to it creating a tasty crispy outer layer complemented by a fluffy delicious centre. We are going to equip you with two recipes. The first is the one pictures and the second created a paler coloured roast.

Hope you have a happy and extremely delicious month!

Bon Appetit!

Continue reading “Holiday Specials: Festive Potatoes” →