Serving the Masses: Greens, Red Aubergines and Mushrooms


Have you ever had to serve a lot of people, but not known where to start with the recipe or what you can make without having to stress yourself out while still serving a variety of foods?

If so, our series, “Serving the Masses,” will provide you with delicious, yet healthy, meals you can make. These recipes will feature easy-to-source ingredients, few ingredients and ingredients that usually do not cost a lot of money. These recipes will be written in a different format from our usual recipes as we are publishing the recipe in the same way we suggest it should be cooked – in the way that takes the least time. Therefore, there will be points when you have multiple dishes or your main and sides cooking at the same time.

These recipes are filled with vitamins, minerals and a range of other beneficial nutrients. These recipes will also be great for meal preps as they can all also be eaten with other foods such as rice, pasta, lentils, beans and more.

Without further ado, here are our recipes for this Serving the Masses set meal.

Bon Appétit!

Continue reading “Serving the Masses: Greens, Red Aubergines and Mushrooms”

Wholewheat Waffles


Waffles are a delightful breakfast addition! They can be eaten on their own, doused with syrup, toasted with jam, butter or cream cheese spread on them, with fresh fruit, ice cream or breaded and fried seitan/tofu on them or even as a replacement for the bread in a sandwich. Yes! That’s actually a thing! We’ve never tried it, but it is a thing!

Our wholewheat waffles have the same texture, and taste just like, conventional waffles made with plain/white flour, eggs and dairy. Yet, they don’t contain animal by-products and they are made even healthier by the nutrients still intact in the wholewheat flour which would otherwise not be present if white flour was used.

These waffles contain thiamin (vitamin B-1), riboflavin (vitamin B-2), niacin (vitamin B-3), pyridoxamine (vitamin B-6), pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5), folate (vitamin B-9), betaine, calcium, choline, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, omega fatty acids, phosphorus, potassium, protein, selenium and zinc. You can find more information on the functions of these nutrients in our Nutrient Index.

Without further ado, here’s our recipe to these amazing easy-to-make waffles!

Bon Appétit!

Continue reading “Wholewheat Waffles”

Seitan Recipe


Seitan is a vegan meat substitute that has been growing in popularity over the years. It is so versatile that nowadays, it is used to make vegan beef, fried chicken, ham slices, sausage, minced meat and so on. Apart from its versatility, seitan is also a great source of protein and various minerals, such as iron, selenium, calcium, phosphorus and copper.

What is seitan made from? Seitan is a product of the vital wheat gluten, which is the pure protein found in wheat flour. However, unlike wheat flour, seitan is low in carbohydrates and mostly does not contain starch. Seitan is made by hydrating this protein with a range of seasonings then cooking in a way specific to the final product desired. In our opinion, this meat substitute is more similar to both the appearance and texture of meat.

Without further ado, here’s one of our delicious seitan recipes!

Bon Appetit!
Sponsored by: At His Feet Devotionals, who funded the making of this recipe.
Continue reading “Seitan Recipe”

Review: Cafe Thrive


Review by Samantha

Yes, it’s vegan!

Walking into Cafe Thrive, in Southampton, was a great experience. Almost every table was full of people. As a matter of fact, there were only two free tables and each taken table had 2-4 people sat at it.

As I walked up to the counter lined with delicious looking treats, I was greeted by friendly staff. In accordance with my usual character when I enter a new eatery, I could not decide what to order. I had seen the menu online, but they had a full specials menu that just looked so delicious. After a few minutes of someone explaining the dishes to me and making me want to go broke by ordering a portion of everything, I finally ordered a Wholefood Burger and strawberry milkshake off the regular menu. Continue reading “Review: Cafe Thrive”

Holiday Specials: Festive Potatoes


‘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”

Holidays Specials: Jollof Rice


Christmas Day in Nigeria is not normal without Jollof Rice. Jollof rice is the traditional celebration food of Nigeria. There’s party jollof, funeral jollof, thanksgiving jollof, I-woke-up-this-morning jollof, the-sun-is-shining jollof. Okay, we’re getting carried away now!

Nigerian love celebrating with jollof, fried rice, plantain and so on. So, if you’re not Nigerian and you’ll like a little switch up on your Christmas dinner, why you try our simple jollof recipe. Serve with a side of fried plantains, a salad and tofu or seitan.

Bon Appétit!

Continue reading “Holidays Specials: Jollof Rice”

Review: Veg’n Out


Third time’s a charm, aye?
Well, that was the case with trying Veg’n Out’s food. I had stood in front of their food truck in the heart of Canterbury for quite a long time, thrice actually, before I ever took the plunge to purchase something

Their menu was full of imitation meals which included a cheeseburger, bacun burger, egg burger, vish ‘n’ chips, chickun sandwiches and beef sandwiches. To most, this might not be a problem, but to me, it was as I did not want to write a bad review or eat something very disappointing. I hate the taste of meats so if any of their items tasted very close to the real thing, that would have been a problem for me.

Third time’s the charm. I went back to Veg’n Out and spoke to one of the people working there (who had just stepped out of the truck). I told her that I would like to try their food, but I can’t decide what to get so I would like her to help me pick something off their menu. The lady was rather wonderful and friendly. She told me what their bestseller was and talked me through the items on the menu and how they’re made. We even gushed over a particular ingredient she used that I had recently purchased for the first time and was rather astonished by.

Although I hadn’t gotten on the queue, the lady took my order and went back into the truck. Within a few seconds, I could smell the caramelised onion salad for my cheeseburger cooking and within 5mins, I had my food in biodegradable packaging and all the people in the queue had been served.

I walked over to a little garden with a friend to try the burger and once I took a bite, my first reaction was, “this cheese tastes real!” Vegan cheese has never tasted as real as that. The closest thing I can describe that burger to is a McDonald’s burger as it brought up childhood memories. My friend (who is an omni) tried a bite and said she won’t compare it to McDonald’s, but she still thinks it tastes good.

The burger comprised of tomatoes, pickles, a texturised soy protein patty, caramelised onion salad, lettuce and a bit of ketchup in a really nice bun. It was rather simple, but it tastes better than expected and I think it would be a great replacement for the conventional cheeseburgers omnis purchase. I think everything on their menu will be a good replacement just by judging through their most simple meal item.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a food truck experience like the one I had at Veg’n Out. One where everyone feels like a valued customer and there is a wide range of foods and desserts to order. If you are ever in the Canterbury area, give Veg’n Out a try.

LickYourPlate worthy? Well, I didn’t even have a crumb left uneaten.

Yam and Plantain Pottage


In honour of Nigeria’s independence day, we have decided to bring to you a vegan version of a popular and flavourful Nigerian dish.

We also chose to make this dish healthier by eliminating one of the main ingredients – palm oil. Instead, we replaced it with a tomato blend full of flavour that we cooked in a way that it provides the same colour and consistency to the final dish that the palm oil traditionally used does. By substituting the palm oil with this blend, we are not only creating a healthier version of this dish but also doing away with the struggle to find West African palm oil or certified sustainable palm oil as we know that most of you would prefer not to contribute to the negative effects, to both animals and the environment, of palm oil production.

Lastly, we incorporated dried seaweed into this dish to replace the dried fish and crayfish traditionally used. Seaweed does not only provide a bit of an “ocean flavour,” but also, iodine which is an essential nutrient needed for the production and management of thyroid hormones responsible for growth, cognitive development, the brain development both in vivo and during the early stages of life, and metabolism regulation.

Without further ado, get your pots, pans and kitchen equipment out for this delicious recipe!

Bon Appétit!

Continue reading “Yam and Plantain Pottage”

Coconut Rice (New Recipe)


Coconut rice! A very delightful dish to eat, full of flavour, full of nutrients and full of goodness!

Today, we are going to share our second version of coconut rice with you. This version is more like the West African coconut rice dishes as the final result is not creamy and the final dish looks quite simple, although it does not taste plain. The dish is a bit on the spicier side, but you can control the level of heat from the peppers by taking out the seeds or not using a green chilli pepper as those are actually spicier than red peppers.

Coconuts are one of our favourite things to add to dishes here at LickYourPlates. They always take dishes to a whole new level so, if you’re ready for a delicious meal, try out our coconut rice recipes.

Bon Appetit!

Continue reading “Coconut Rice (New Recipe)”

Penne Béchamel


Penne Béchamel is a delicious dish to unwind at dinner time with. This dish was inspired by the Egyptian Macaroni Béchamel. It consists of a seitan mince, a cheesy flavoursome béchamel sauce and penne pasta!

Seitan is a great protein source for vegans packed with protein, iron and a range of other nutrients. We will give a more in-depth description of it in the near future, with recipes included, as it is an ingredient we have been experimenting with for a few weeks.

We purchased our Vital Wheat Gluten (to make the seitan) from BuyWholefoodsOnline. The quality of their vital wheat gluten is great. However, their prices are lower than all other brands we’ve seen (even on Amazon). We will suggest purchasing it directly from them (using the link above) than from their Amazon store as, for some reason, it’s £2-3 more expensive on there. From their website, the price starts at £2.38 for a 500g bag and goes all the way up to a 25kg bag (we don’t think you’ll ever need that much). We purchased a 1kg bag costing £4.28. For a single person, this bag should last for about a month.*

Without further ado, here’s the recipe to our Penne Béchamel!

Guten Appetit!

Continue reading “Penne Béchamel”