7 Vegetarian Christmas Recipes | Budget-Friendly & Delicious: From Appetizer to Dessert

Mum's here and she's got a bit of a retro recipe for us today. Ma, what are you cooking? We are going to cook vol-au-vent. Vol-au-vent. A classic, which literally means fly in the wind. The French, I'll tell you what, with their silly words. No. It's a great thing to say because if you think about it, it's puff pastry that's made into a little basket. That's right. And as soon as it goes into the oven. It goes up, it's all fluffy and it's just flying. Flying! That's what we're going to make. So we've got some puff pastry. Yes. So we're going to make the vol-au-vent, the pastry, and then we will fill them up with a lovely mushroom mixture. Sounds divine. So what size rings do we need for your vol-au-vent? You want them a decent size, so I think about 10 centimetres and 5 centimetres to cut out the ring and that should do very nicely. So I'm going to cut. Yeah, and you kind of want your puff pastry to be really cold when you do this because it's much easier to handle. And so what we're trying to make here is a little puff pastry basket and we're going to fill that with this creamy mushroom and asparagus filling. So we've got our eight circles. Take the little one, it's about 5 centimetres and then you cut out the centre, so we're going to form four rings. And then we will put those rings on top of those four circles. All right. This is very easy to do. Yeah. And depending on what you want this vol-au-vent for, if you want to do entree size, do it this size, but you can make this into any size you like. Absolutely. You can make little vol-au-vent for the aperitif. It's really lovely with, you know, little bits and pieces in it. So it's up to you, you do what you like, but these ones are entree size. Yeah. Very nice. OK, so you are going to do the egg wash. So this is kind of like the glue, isn't it, Ma, to put them together? And then, ah, so you sandwich them together. Voila. Like so. Do I put more egg wash on now? Yes, yes, on top of it, yes. So a little egg wash, brush that on. And then that's your first one. Exactly. OK, put those on the tray. Yeah. We'll make a few more of these. How long are we cooking these for? We are going to cook that for about 25 minutes to 30 minutes at 190. It's got to be pretty hot, so we have this nice lift and it should be done. While the vol-au-vent are cooking in the oven, we're going to make the mushroom filling. Yes. So I need you to cut them, not too big. Beautiful Australian button mushrooms here. Look how fresh they are. Oh, they are beautiful. Yeah. So you cut them in four pieces or even... Even smaller? Yeah, quite big. That's all right, yeah. I guess you want them to be not too chunky, because you want to fill that little cavity up with lots of them. That's right, that's right. And meanwhile, I'm going to put some butter in my sauté pan. With a little bit of oil. OK. Just like that. Chopped shallots in there. Yeah. And we're going to sweat the shallots. OK, so you don't want too much colour on it? No, no, no, because it's going to be a creamy sauce. A little bit of wine. White wine? Yes. Smells good. It does. And in with the mushrooms. In with the mushroom. And we've got to cook them through. And then we're going to add those lovely porcini, which I want them drained. OK, so these are just dried porcini. And we've rehydrated it in some warm water, so they become really soft. Do you want them chopped or do they go straight in like that? Straight in like that. And it is going to give you an unbelievable taste. Yeah. It's really very earthy, very flavoursome. It gives another dimension to your vol-au-vent, really, you know? Very good. And a little bit of salt. Smells great. Pepper. White wine, mushrooms. They're just best friends. Maybe a little bit of cream. We're adding cream to this too, which is nice. We're going to cook that for about three to five minutes. Yep. And then we are going to add some cream. And we will reduce the cream until we reach the consistency that will be some sort of a not thick, not runny. Yep. It will fit nicely in the case. Very nice. OK. Aren't they beautiful? They look fantastic. You really need to put that egg wash on. Oh, yes, yes, yes. But they're really lovely. You need good quality puff pastry too, so you get that lift. That's just two layers. I know. It's magical, you know. It's just the cooking, how it works. So nice. And that mushroom sauce is looking very good. It's nice and thick and glossy. Yes, it's perfect. That's the way we want it. Can you please cut those asparagus? So we're going to add them to the sauce. When asparagus are in season, it's a lovely addition. These have just been blanched, and we just add them to the sauce. There you go. A few more. All right. Very nice. Mix that up. And you blanch them separately because you don't want them to cook with the mushrooms. That's right. It's just an addition, like another vegetable that you add in it. I like it. Yeah. Done. All right. So now we are going to remove that little cap. I don't know how you would call it. I call it a little hat, you know. A little Volvo hat. Le chapeau. So just with a little sharp knife, and you're cutting around that. Again, we're trying to make that little basket so we can fill it up. And do you get rid of that bit? No, no, not at all. No, no. We are going to put it on the top of our mixture. That's what it is. So onto the plate. Okay. So we're going to fill that up with this beautiful mushroom mixture. Yeah, I can see why you really wanted to reduce that. Yes, it's not good if it's runny. It's going to ruin your case. Okay. Yes, fill that up. Yeah. There you go. And you put your little hat on top. So you can actually prepare that in advance when you have a lunch, for example. And then you prepare them, and five minutes before serving, you just pop them in the oven. Reheat them. And Bob is your uncle. Is that what you said? Bob is your uncle. Very good. You've been in Australia long enough now to say that. It's all about that puff pastry, right? So we want to hear that. Oh, yes. That's flaky, flaky goodness right there. Love that. And I love this combination of the mushrooms. Let's have a taste. If you're a mushroom lover like we are, this is the dish to do. Let's bring back those retro dishes, those French retro dishes. Super. You heard it from Mama Fran first. You can never have enough salads in your repertoire. And Julie is here to show us one from her new book. Oh, I love your new book. I love all your books. I have them all. I actually have doubles of some of them. I don't know. I think I buy them to make sure I've got an extra copy for friends. Because I love sharing your recipes. They're that delicious. Even a simple salad, you manage to make just scrumptious. What are we working with today? We are cooking a beautiful salad for springtime. It's grilled zucchini with broad beans, frica, some beautiful buttery almonds. And it's really quite simple. You're like me. Follow the seasons because it just makes cooking simpler. Exactly. So we're really highlighting these beautiful spring zucchini. And you can use smaller ones if you've got them with the zucchini flowers as well. It's really beautiful. I'm just going to start on these. So chopping them up. And I'm going to grill them in a pan with just some olive oil. And I might get you to start on the shallots, the French shallots. So the basis is frica. But we've also got some French shallots in there. Some beautiful broad beans. And you know, if you can't get fresh broad beans, the frozen ones are actually really good. I love this recipe because a lot of the things here I can see are interchangeable. If you don't have broad beans, you could use fresh spring peas. 100% Yeah, you could use peas. If you don't have frica, you can use pearl barley. You could do brown rice. I'm just going to do one more. And so you're cutting them in chunks, not too small? Yeah, not too small because we want to be able to see and taste that beautiful zucchini. Yeah. So how do you come up with all these recipes for your many books? This one is number four. Number four. So this one is called Good Cooking Every Day. And really the inspiration for this one was about how to help people cook beautiful food every single day. So that's kind of how it evolved. There's menus in this book. So I often find people maybe struggle to know what to put with what. So it's kind of a little bit of a help in that area as well. Very helpful. All right, so we're just going to cook the zucchini. So beautiful extra virgin olive oil. All right, so the pan's hot and I've got my olive oil in. And we're just going to start frying these zucchini. And we want them to get a nice amount of colour on them. And we're just going to season them and cook them until they're looking nice and well coloured. Very nice. That's lovely colour on these zucchini. I know, they look really, really gorgeous. So they can just cool down for a few minutes while we start adding the rest of our ingredients. So we've got herbs, some frica, which I've just cooked. I've just boiled it in a saucepan until they were al dente. I love frica. It's got this almost chewiness to it. It's quite nutty, isn't it? And nutty. And then I'm just working on the little garnish. So I'm just going to melt some butter. And I've got some slivered almonds here, which are just going to colour up really nicely. And we're going to top the salad. So the butter's ready. It's foaming. I'm just going to pop these almonds into the pan. And then over here, we've also put some lemon juice into those shallots to kind of take away that strength of the shallots and also cut through the richness of the dish. Such a great idea. And then we can just pop everything else in. So we've got the herbs, which are really fragrant. I love this soup. The whole lot? Or just about half a teaspoon, so a good pinch. And that is also a kind of lemony hit. So it's a really lemony spice. And broad beans. Broad beans is one of my favourite ingredients. I'm actually going to take this off the heat. They're that quick. Just going to let that sit for a minute to cool down ever so slightly. And then the broad beans go in. And if you've got really small ones, I've kept some un-potted here. They don't even need to be potted. They're really sweet. It's when they're really big like this that you kind of want to peel out that outer pod just to reveal the tender little broad bean inside. And it's so easy to peel as you do frosting. Exactly. In it goes. Amazing. Shall I give that a mix? Yeah, give it a good toss. And we can just kind of assemble it onto this plate. So it's really quite simple. I will season it. Can't forget our seasoning. No way. We love our salt. Amazing. And I can just imagine this, you know, on a spring afternoon outside. And you were grilling these in a pan, but there's no reason why you can't light the barbecue, grill them on there for an extra smoky flavour. Exactly. And this is a perfect kind of salad if you're having a barbecue. Yeah. Also, I love this just as it is for lunch. You know, you could even have a dollop of yoghurt on the side. Or our favourite, a bit of buffalo mozzarella. I do love buffalo mozzarella. That is a real favourite. Love the colours. And then I'm going to... I might grab another spoon, Josie, actually. Thank you. More is more. Yep. I'm just going to spoon some of this beautiful golden... buttered, toasted almonds over the top. Just for that crunch, that kind of richness. And that's our salad done. Oh jeez, she's very good. Shall we have a taste? Let's have a taste. I really want to get the nuts. Yeah, get a little bit of everything. Yeah, yeah. And the mint and the dill. And just everything works in harmony together. Perfectly seasoned. I've got to have another taste. Is that good? I'm happy with this. Simple salads will always be delicious, particularly when you do them in the season. And right here, we're talking about spring. That's spring on the plate from Julia. Spanakopita, usually made with spinach and feta and lots of herbs like dill. But I'm going to change it up today by using some mushrooms. Mushrooms are so versatile. And this spanakopita really stands out, particularly if you're a mad mushroom lover like I am. Now, I'm using three varieties of Aussie mushrooms here. Some button mushrooms. I love these little button mushrooms because they're firm in texture and they're mild in flavor. I've also got these gorgeous portobello mushrooms, which are, in fact, a bigger version of the Swiss brown mushroom. So they've got that distinct brown color to them and they've got an earthier, deeper flavor. Now, when it comes to your mushrooms, please don't wash them. Because they are like sponges, they'll absorb some of that water. So when you bring them back from the supermarket or the green grocer, all you need to do is just give them a bit of a brush with a pastry brush like this. So by doing that, you're cleaning them really well. So what I've done here is just given myself a bit of a head start and started to roughly chop the mushrooms. I've also preheated my pan. I'll add a good glug of olive oil and we're going to start frying them off. So we want about a tablespoon or so of olive oil and then in with our mushrooms. And you want this pan to be quite hot and you want to fry this for a good three to four minutes just so we get that lovely concentrated flavor out of the mushrooms. We will also want to take as much moisture out of the mushrooms so we're left with crisp pastry as we cook this in the oven. So mushrooms, we'll cook that off. And a good pinch of salt. Mushrooms love salt and their true flavor really comes out after you've seasoned them with some salt. You can see how much they break down very quickly and there's no moisture whatsoever in the pan. Now I'm going to return some onion and leek. So I've pre-cooked my onion and leek. Not too much colour on this. I just want to really soften them down so they can go in. We'll turn the heat off and I'll also add some spinach to this. So the spinach needs to wilt down. So we'll add a big handful of that. And that's the base of our veggie mixture. You can see how good this is going to be for you too because there's so many vegetables. And you can change up the spinach if you like. You could add some kale or some silverbeet. Now what I'm going to do is just stir that in, allow that spinach to wilt down and do let this cool completely before you start your pastry. Now let's get onto the pastry while that cools down. I'm using some phyllo pastry. I've brought it out of the freezer. I've also just placed it into a clean, damp tea towel just so it doesn't dry out. So just give yourself lots of space when you start to prepare the phyllo pastry. It's just much easier to handle. We'll grab one layer of the phyllo and see how thin and delicate the layers are. You can almost see through it. Place that onto the board and cover up the rest of the phyllo so it doesn't dry out. And I like to use butter for this. Just tastes better. And also it's going to give it a lovely golden colour. So brush that onto the first sheet. Another piece of pastry. Brush that and then a third one. We're almost ready to wrap the spanakopita. Just a few more things in our filling. So some feta, lovely salty feta. I'm just going to crumble that in. You want it to be small little pieces. Cheese like feta and mushrooms are just best friends. It goes so nicely together. I'm also going to add about 100 grams of ricotta. I've got some buffalo ricotta here. It's about half of this tub. And this is just going to help bind everything together. Okay, we'll use our spoon to mash it all up. And that is the most delicious filling. A little bit of an alternative to that classic flavour of just spinach and herbs. I love these mushrooms in here. Alright, time to wrap this up. So we're going to add a few generous spoonfuls of our mixture on the bottom side of our pile of three pieces of phyllo. So we don't want to overfill it because what I'm going to do is form this into a gorgeous coil or a snail-like shape. There are a few ways of doing spanakopita. You could wrap this up and make individual ones. You could put it into a tray. I kind of like this version. So now I'm just going to spread that out just on the base and then carefully wrap it up to form a cylinder. Okay, a little more butter over this. On all sides, even the seam side. And now we're going to wrap it up into a spiral. You can see why that pastry needs to stay moist so it doesn't crack as you roll that. So that's going to be the centre of our spanakopita. I'm using a springform tin just to keep it in its shape. We'll place the first part of the coil in and now I'm going to continue the process. And instead of making a coil on the bench, what I'm going to do is wrap that cylinder around the first part of the phyllo pastry so we've got a lovely big snail-like shape. Alright, last log ready to go. And you want it to fit quite snug into our springform tin. That looks very good. Okay, the last thing I like to do is just sprinkle on some nigella seeds. I love the nutty flavour of them and it also looks really good. So a generous sprinkling of them over the top. And now this goes into the oven, 180 degrees and this is going to cook for about 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Well, this mushroom spanakopita looks really good. Lovely and golden. Do allow it to cool in the tin for about 15 to 20 minutes before you take it out. And this is the beauty of a springform. Comes straight off like that. You can see how it's golden everywhere. I'll just grab a palette knife and we're going to try and transfer it over to a plate. Just scoop underneath it and then on it goes. How gorgeous is that? Now, the all-important mushrooms. Let's cut into this to have a look. Now, you can unravel the spanakopita if you like or cut it into triangles, which is what I'm going to do. So serrated knife works really well with this. And listen to that crunchy pastry. I'll grab a plate and we'll lift that up. Oh, and have a look at that. All that ricotta mushroom. It's still lovely and warm. And I like to serve this the Greek way with some tzatziki, a dollop on the side and a hint of lemon. So just take a cheek off this. And there you go. A traditional Greek pastry, usually filled with spinach and herbs, but it works really, really well with earthy mushrooms. I've got three varieties of mushrooms in there and it tastes so good, particularly with all that cheese, the feta and the ricotta. Yum. There's so much you can do with it. And vegetable queen Alice Zaslavsky is here to show us you can do so much with leeks. That's it. This is the WikiLeaks episode of Everyday Gourmet, where I am going to let you in on some secrets of this delicious vegetable. So the first thing you're going to do for these braised leeks is actually cut the leek. When you buy a leek, you've got all of this white at the bottom and then all this green at the top. And when you cut into the leek, you know, to the end of the white, you wonder, what do I do with this? What do you do with it? I put it in soups, stocks, so much flavour in like chicken and rice, for example, it gives that broth beautiful flavour. Totally. So think of this almost like vanilla bean, put it in your freezer and the next time you want to add flavour to your stocks or broths or your soups, whatever, that goes in. But all we need for this are the whites, which I've sliced into one and a half centimetre discs. And Jazzy, your job is to arrange these soaked discs into the pan, just in one even layer. And the reason you soak it is because, you know, one of the things about leeks is that they are a little bit gritty. So soaking it means that all the grit falls to the bottom and you get these lovely clean white lines. Yeah, we don't want that grit in there. So just giving yourself a bit of time to put them in the water. Because usually with leeks, we just cut the crisscross and then open up the leaves and clean all the dirt in there. But because you're cutting them into cylinders, this is the best way to clean them. Exactly, you've got to be judicious with the grit. So I'm just a few short, which is easy because we've got this one ready to go. Yeah, you're up. I'll cut that. One, two, oh, one more. Nice. And in they go. Gorge. So snuggle them all in so that they're nice and tight. And then here comes my favourite bit. You're going to load it up with flavour. So you've got some currants, which are going to go all along. You can do that, Jazzy. Oh, OK. Some thyme. Got all the thyme in the world for this dish. I knew you would say that. I just knew it. It had to happen. Do you want all of these on there? Yes, all of them. And I know it looks like a lot of currants, but if you think about what the currants will do, they will play against the blue cheese crumb that we're going to add to this. And you're going to get the sweet and the salty and the funk. Blue cheese and leeks. They are classic flavours. Chef's kiss. Yep. OK, final ingredient here is butter. And I know how much you love butter, so I'll let you do the buttering. I thought you were only going to put one and then put this away. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We love lots of butter here. Lots of butter. And again, leeks soak up the syrupy butter and they become so silky and velvety. Very nice. Yes. And then, of course, the final element is you need some extra braising liquid. So we've got some wine and some stock. OK, so wine first. And some stock. And if you haven't got stock handy, just, you know, a stock cube in a cup of water. That's it. And Alice, how long are we cooking this in the oven for? That's in for two hours at 180. And while it braises, we're going to make a blue cheese crumb with some panko breadcrumbs, some blue cheese and some garlic powder. And that is going to gratinate on top and just make the most delicious combination. Alice, it smells so good. The blue cheese, love it. It's such a great classic combination. And you would think that with a crumb, you should just gratinate, which means just putting it under the salamander on the grill for like five minutes. But because we put them back in for half an hour, with the crumb, the sauce has really reduced to something thick and syrupy and buttery and so good. This is going to be so good. And some chives on top. Why not? A little pop of green there. I like the idea of just serving this as is with some crusty bread, but it's also a great side. Totally. So you could serve this as the main event easily, as you say, crusty bread. You could even turn this into a soup the next day by adding stock. Brilliant. But as you say, a side on any table is going to make your guests very happy. I love it. The humble leek no more can be very fancy if you want it to be. Fancy is schmancy. Thanks, Alice. It's been a joy. Now, you've probably tried Hasselback potatoes, which are potatoes that have been scored really, really finely. So they become crispy and it allows lots of flavour to go in. I'm going to take that concept and I'm going to do it with a pumpkin. It's a fantastic vegetarian or a really great side to go with any roast meat, like roast chicken or lamb. And I'm going to serve mine with lashings of hummus. So to Hasselback the pumpkin, I'm using a button-up pumpkin. I like it because it's quite long and it's just going to make it much easier and stable to give it that Hasselback texture. So this is a little trick that is very common. Two wooden spoons, the longest ones you can get, and it really depends on the size of your pumpkin. Leave the skin on and give it a really good wash and dry. And then with a sharp knife, we're just going to make deep incisions. Now, you can see why these wooden spoons come in handy because we're not cutting all the way through. If we cut all the way through, it's going to slice it. We want it to hold its shape. And this will just ensure we get perfect incisions like I'm doing here. And it's also very safe. So as you can see, pumpkin, it's quite tough to do. So we're just going to cut all the way through. I also like the skin because as it roasts in the oven, it caramelises and becomes really sweet. It's also quite good for you. I've also taken the seeds out of my pumpkin so the whole thing can be eaten. So we'll move those away. I've preheated my oven to 180 degrees and we'll pop this on. Some baking paper and just have a look at that. See how you can see all those little incisions? It's just a really nice way of presenting it too. So onto the tray, some olive oil, a good drizzle over it. You can also do it underneath so it doesn't stick a little bit. And just spread that over it. Salt and the pepper. So this is going to bake at that 180 degrees for about one hour or until it's tender. So it really depends on how large your pumpkin half is. So in it goes. Right, while the pumpkin is cooking, let's get onto the pesto. Now I like a vibrant green pesto. So the little trick to making sure it's retained that gorgeous color is to blanch your herbs. I'm using a combination of basil and I also like the flavor of parsley. So even amounts of basil and parsley. Rapidly boiling water. I've also got a bowl of chilled water and it's that chilled ice water that will stop the cooking and will help retain that gorgeous, vibrant green color. So into the boiling water with our parsley and I've just picked a bunch of beautiful basil. Look at that. I love the smell of basil. And just using this spider, we're going to just submerge it in that water. And as soon as you can see it start to wilt, which it is now, you take it out. So it is one more step, but if you're looking for that dramatic green color, this is what I do. And this goes for any style of pesto that you make. So straight into that ice water. Scoop it all out. And then just get your hands and just submerge that until it completely chills. Now we don't want that excess water in our pesto. So I suggest just using a little bowl, squeezing that excess out. And we've got dry, really vibrant green leaves. So it looks like it's wilted down to nothing, but there is quite a substantial amount of herbs here to make a good amount of pesto. So over to our food processor, in with our drained herbs. Just break them up, loosen them up a bit. And in with the nuts. Now, usually with a pesto, you would use pine nuts, but I'm going to use pepitas, which are pumpkin seeds. They've got a really nice nutty flavor. So they can go in, along with some Parmesan cheese, freshly grated straight in there. A good handful. Tap that. And I like to use a quarter of a whole clove of garlic. Any more than that, it is overpowering. I want to taste those herbs. So just a small amount of raw garlic, a pinch of salt, some pepper, and I also like some lemon juice. So I will add a small amount now. We'll taste at the end and we'll just see if it needs a little more. Lid on and we're going to blend this until it just starts to come together. Then I'll grab my olive oil and slowly drizzle in the olive oil until we've got a lovely sauce. All right, let's have a look at this sauce. Oh, it's that color that gets me every time. And then we'll just pour this pesto straight into a bowl. You can pop it into the fridge if you like, or it can just sit there at room temperature. And we just now have to wait for our pumpkin to finish cooking and we can bring it all together. How good does this look? Not your average roast pumpkin. And you can see all these little incisions they've opened up. So before we transfer it over to our plate, this is where we add lashings, a really good quality hummus. I love this one because it's creamy, it's got a smooth texture and it's going to go really nicely with our pumpkin. So a generous spoonful, I'm going to say at least half of this tub, pour onto the base. So spread that out, make a little pond. And now the hard part is just trying to carefully get underneath that pumpkin because it is quite soft. And then on it goes. Great. And that vibrant green pesto, just drizzle that over the top. See how it goes in the incisions. You can also serve a little extra of this on the side. And I love how it mixes in with the hummus too. Some chilli. I've got a long red chilli here because it's mild in flavour. So I don't want it for the heat, but just for that sweetness and the pop of colour there. So just finely chop it and we'll sprinkle that over the top. If you wanted some extra texture, you could add some more pepitas. How pretty is that? And it's not just pretty, it tastes sensational. The three components there brought together, yummy. You can have it by itself or like I said, a fantastic side to a roast. If anyone serves me a cheesecake for dessert, I'm a happy lady. And this one is extra special because it's full of delicious raspberries. Now when I have a lot of people coming over, this is my go-to dessert because you can make it ahead of time, pop it in the freezer and it's ready to go. We'll start with our gorgeous, plump, fresh raspberries for this. I'll place them into a bowl. You want two tunnets, so about 250 grams of fresh raspberries and I'm going to crush them and macerate them with some sugar. So a sprinkling of caster sugar and just with a fork, we're going to break them up. And as you just let that sit there for about five to 10 minutes, you'll see a lot of the liquid come out of it and it allows us to have a more concentrated raspberry flavour. I'm happy with that. We'll just pop that to one side while we get on to the biscuit base. So in a food processor, I'm going to add some ginger nut biscuits. So just break these biscuits up. Most of them. Some of them can stay whole. And I'm going to pulse this until it forms a fine crumb. Okay, lid on. Fantastic. So now it's time to moisten this with some butter. So just some melted butter. You don't need too much, about 125 grams. And that's unsalted butter. Lid goes back on and I'll pulse this until we have the consistency of wet sand. All right, that looks really good. So we'll take that blade out. Shake that off. And now we're going to just place this into a 22 centimetre springform tip. And just take your time doing this. You really want it to be quite compact. So I'm just going to press down on it with the back of a spoon until it's really, really compact. I'm also going to clean this out so we get onto the next stage of the cheesecake. The biscuit base is done and I've just been whipping some creme fraiche. Now, I like the creme fraiche because it's got a light tangy flavour to it. And the reason I whisk it is so we get a lovely texture in our frozen cheesecake. So once we've got soft peaks, just like this, we'll just pop it to one side. Okay, for the rest of the filling, we've got some cream cheese. Always bring out the cream cheese about an hour or two or until it's quite soft. This ensures we don't get any lumps in our mixture. So bring it out and it'll be nice and smooth. So back into that food processor and we need to sweeten everything up. So some more caster sugar. Pour that in. Along with some lemon zest. The zest of one lemon. And a generous amount of vanilla bean paste. Want about one to two teaspoons. Okay, drizzle that in. Smells so good. The lid of the food processor goes back on and I'll just blend this for a moment until it's really smooth and silky. Alright, happy with that. We can take it off the base. And now we want to mix this cream cheese mixture with our fluffy creme fraiche. So again, carefully take that blade out. And just use a spatula to scrape off all that lovely cream cheese. Don't want to waste any of that. We'll scoop all of this glossy goodness straight over that creme fraiche. And this is where you want to be quite delicate and just fold the two together without over whisking it. We've made so much effort to whisk that so it's light and fluffy so we want to keep it as aerated as possible. So just mix that. Folding. Oh, I could just eat that. Looks so good, doesn't it? I love those little speckles of vanilla bean. Now it is a raspberry cheesecake after all so have a look at our macerated raspberries here. See all that juicy goodness? That's because we've just allowed it to sit there for about 15 minutes. So I'm going to pour this into our creme fraiche and cream cheese mixture and then we'll give it another little mix. I don't want to over mix it. I kind of like that swirled effect. It will bleed eventually into it though. Okay, very happy with that. So we'll grab our base and I'll pour this mixture into a springform tin and spread that out so it's even. Some glad wrap. Just loosely cover it because we are putting it into the freezer and I don't like that glad wrap to touch the actual cheesecake so just let it lightly cover it and that goes into the freezer at least six hours or just do it the day before. Okay, cheesecake is out of the freezer. We'll take the collar off and the baking paper and look at that. See how easy this is to make? It is so easy and so impressive. Just carefully do this and I'm going to serve this just on a cake stand but this is where you want to be really careful because you don't want to break the base here from that biscuit base so just lift it off carefully. Cake stand and then we'll peel away that baking paper. Easy! To decorate this, there's a few options. If you wanted to go all out, you could make a raspberry coulis and you could just pour that over the top or just keep it super simple. Really showing off those gorgeous little jewels. Fresh raspberries over the top. I just like to pile them in the middle. Oops, you got away. We'll just get them, pop them on top and just because I've got another punnet here, we'll just pop them on top. Just be careful they don't go everywhere. There you have it. That is pretty as a picture. A true celebration of raspberries. Ashley Alexander from Gather and Feast is here and she's going to be sharing her self-saucing pudding recipe. It is a real treat. It's also vegan friendly. Vegan friendly, all in one bowl. Super easy. There's nothing wrong with this recipe. Nothing, there is nothing wrong. It's perfect. So how do we get started? So we're going to get started by making our cake batter. Now first of all, we're going to use fresh ginger in this recipe. It's going to give us that beautiful warm kick. So I'm going to get you to start grating that if you wouldn't mind. Would love to. We're going to need about a tablespoon of that initially while I get started on the cake batter. So we're starting off with our olive oil. Sort of the fat that we're using in the cake. And then we have a plant-based milk. Any kind of milk that you like or prefer. Yeah. And I love olive oil in any cake. It's just so good. So good. And your cakes in particular, you like to use a lot of olive oil and a lot of yogurt. Yes. It does give it that beautiful consistency and texture, doesn't it? It does. It keeps it moist. It keeps it that beautiful light airy sort of texture. Now we're going in with our sweetener. We're using coconut sugar. OK. Yeah. Why do you use coconut sugar? For this one, the malty flavour of the coconut sugar really adds, along with the dates, the ginger. It's the perfect mix. If you don't have coconut sugar, you could also use brown sugar. That's what I would use in place of that. But the coconut sugar is that beautiful malty taste that we're after. So we've just added some vanilla. And we're going to go in with a big pinch of salt. And then we're going to give that a little whisk. And then in goes our ginger. Is that enough ginger for you? That's perfect. Thank you. In it goes. Perfect. Just a little whisk. It's not really going to come together that well at this point. And then we're going to add our beautiful dates. Lovely. And we've taken the seeds out and given it a good chop. Yeah, pitted, finely chopped. Beautiful. Now we're going to go in with our dry ingredients. We've got some plain flour. And then also, yeah, thank you. In it goes. Thank you. And now we're going to add our baking powder. That's going to give us a little rise, a little lift. Now we're going to just barely mix this together. Give it a head start before we add the yogurt. And so this is coconut yogurt. Yes. Do you find because you've got a huge following and a big database, people are asking for more and more vegan-friendly recipes? Yeah, I think so. And I like to have sort of, thank you, a mix. I also have a few friends that are sort of more plant-based and vegan. So having a few options up your sleeve for a quick dessert, something like that, is really handy. Now we're going to use a baking dish. We don't need to grease it because we're doing a self-saucing pudding. Another easy step. So we're going to put that all the way in there. Scrape out as much as we can because we're going to make the sauce in the same bowl. So less washing up, which is what we love. This is a very thoughtful recipe for the everyday cook. Definitely. We don't want to do all those dishes after we're finished. And then we're just going to slightly spread that out a little bit. And then we'll keep the spatula here for when we pour the sauce over. So into this bowl, we're going to add our sweeteners. So we've got coconut sugar here. Again, for that really malty flavour that we're going for with this day pudding. So delicious. And we also have a little bit of maple syrup. Just adds a little bit of extra flavour and dimension to the sauce. It almost gives it like an earthy, slightly woody smoky flavour, which is really nice for like wintery style dishes like this. Yeah, it goes beautifully with the dates and the ginger as well. We've got our plant-based milk. Again, whichever you prefer, whatever you have on hand, straight in. And then we have a couple of tablespoons of brandy or cognac. It adds a really nice flavour to it. You can leave it out. No way. It's beautiful. And then we're adding our hot water. So we have a cup and a half of hot water. Okay. We're going to whisk that together. There we go. I'm also going to add a little small pinch of sea salt while we do that. So one thing we did forget is our fresh ginger again. So we're going to add a little bit more of that to the sauce. Okay. Probably about a teaspoon this time. I guess if you don't have some fresh ginger around, could you use some ground ginger? You could use ground ginger. Just a small pinch. Yeah. It's a bit more intense, isn't it? More intense. Okay. Beautiful. And that goes. Give it a little whisk. Now, if you haven't done a self-sourcing pudding before, this is where it gets interesting, right? Yes. It could get messy. Now, one trick I have when you're pouring the water on is to use your spatula or a spoon and you're going to pour the water gently onto here. So it doesn't create a giant divot or well in the middle of the pudding. Yeah, so you just want it to pretty much sort of float on the top there. Float on the top. Now, this is going to look hideous at the moment. But once it goes into the oven, the magic will happen. The sauce will sink to the bottom, the pudding will rise, and we'll get this beautiful lush sauce on the bottom of the pudding, which is exactly what we want. So into the oven for about 40 minutes, and we'll see when it comes out. I'm excited. So our pudding is hot from the oven. We've let it sit for about five minutes, which is what you want to do. It's going to settle nicely. And then we're going to dust it with some cinnamon while it's still hot. Great. Just adds that extra spice. I just love these little sides here. Hey, that was super liquidy. And now it's completely transformed and turned into caramel. Yeah, it's beautiful and lush. We're going to serve it onto some plates. I think the contrast of the cold and the hot with this kind of pudding is delicious. So we've got some beautiful vegan ice cream. Should we scoop into it? Go for it. Look at me, I'm like waiting. So good. So we've got our beautiful cake there with our sauce. See that caramel? You can never have enough caramel in a self-sourcing pudding. Look at that beautiful caramel. And this is particularly good because you've got, it's set quite nicely on top. So it's quite firm, so it's slightly crunchy. Then you've got this fluffy cake in the center and lots of goo. Lots of goo, that's what we want. And then we're going to pop some ice cream on top. So coconut ice cream, why not? I love it. In fact, I probably should have put that on top, right? It needs to go there and then all of a sudden it just starts to melt into that hot, hot pud. Beautiful. Looks good. Should we try? Let's try. You go first. If you're feeling fancy as well, you can add another little bit of cinnamon on top if you're serving it like a dinner party, but perfect. For a vegan pudding, you would never know this is a vegan pudding. It's just the different mouthfuls. You get different textures of the pudding that makes it so amazing. And the sensation, hot pudding, hot caramel, freezing gold ice cream. High five. Give me a high five. That's really good. Enjoy, guys. Make this one. You'll love it. A beauty and I'm going to share with you my vanilla pavlova. So I add vanilla in the actual meringues and I also add vanilla in my cream later on. So you really get that lovely aroma. Vanilla is one of the world's most popular flavors. So let's celebrate it. Now, let's start with our egg whites. You're going to need five egg whites. Now, what I do when I'm making mayonnaise or a custard is not throw out these egg whites that you don't need for those recipes. Pop that in the fridge to defrost overnight. And I tell you what, these make the best pavlovas. So after they've been defrosted, bring them to room temperature into the bowl of a mixer. And then we're going to start whisking this. So you want this to become quite frothy, double in size. And little by little, I'm going to add my sugar followed by a little bit of white vinegar. And then I'm going to add my vanilla bean paste. I love to use vanilla bean paste for this because you're going to see the speckles of vanilla beans throughout the whole pavlova. All right, our meringues have been perfectly whipped. Let's place this onto a tray. I've just traced a 20-centimetre circle onto some baking paper. And then we'll just pop all of our meringue into the centre. Now, we don't want to lose any air because as soon as this goes into the oven, it's not going to rise. So you want to form it into that perfect pavlova shape now. So not too flat, but at the same time, we want it to be quite even. So I'll just spread that out. Look how good that looks. And I love how there's a little tint there from that vanilla that we added. This now goes into the oven and it's going to cook for about one and a half to two hours at 120 degrees. So nice and low. And while this is cooking in the oven, I can prepare my cream. Perfectly whipped cream with some more vanilla bean paste and simple fruits for my pavlova. I like blueberries, kiwi and passion fruit. The meringues come out of the oven. It's crispy on the outside, spongy in the centre. I've got some cream here. I've just whipped up some sour cream with a little bit of thickened cream. And then I like to add some more vanilla bean paste. So about a teaspoon and just gently fold it in. Fantastic. Now we can top our pavlova with our vanilla cream. And you have to be generous with this vanilla cream. So pile it all in the centre. And then just with your spatula, just spread it out. And this is where you get extra height by adding lots of cream to the top and the fruits. So the fruits, we've got golden kiwis and we've also got the classic green kiwis. We'll just pop that in the centre. Of course, you could add some strawberries, any berry you like. I'm going to stick to blueberries for this one. And we'll just pop them on top. Look how big these blueberries are. They look fantastic, don't they? And finally, you can't have a pavlova without some passion fruit. So a drizzle of passion fruit, fresh pulp over the top, a crispy meringue base, fluffy cream and lots of fruit on top. I never get tired of making a pavlova and I certainly never get tired of eating it. you