Cookbook Challenge Day III

After all of yesterdays sweet treats I was happy that the generator threw some savoury stuff at me today. First out of the hat was 500 Vegan Recipes & the page, 354, Beer Rolls. I've made some really delicious things from 500 Vegan Recipes before, the Seitan en Croute and the Caramelised Onion Tart with a Sweet Potato & Sage Crust really stick in my mind, so I had high hopes for the rolls.

I've never really made bread before today, I've made bagels & pizza dough but never actual bread, so I knew this would be a challenge. First off I had to seek some help from my American BFF to find out what the UK equivalent to sucant was (it's rapadura whole cane sugar btw) & then I had to work out what kind of beer to use. I went for Budweiser after checking my VeganXpress App in the supermarket because it was the only vegan American beer I could see! Whilst reading through the recipe I was a little surprised by how long baking bread was going to take but also by how simple it was, sure it takes a while but during all of the waiting I went to the gym, hung up the laundry, cleaned the kitchen & watched some Jersey Shore so it's the kind of cooking I can get down with!

To start I mixed together the dry ingredients, and then the wet - the wet ingredients included beer, hence the name, but also water that had to be 38 Celcius. That was quite a challenge as I kept getting distracted & letting the water drop in temperature. Next up was trying to find somewhere warm for the bread to rise, our house is currently a little chilly because our radiators aren't working but I solved the problem by taking the dough into the bathroom with me whilst I showered & leaving it there to let the steam do it's thing once I was done!

I was so excited that these turned out so well, look, they're like real bread!!

These rolls are really delicious, I'm eating my third right now & I made the first into a sausage sandwich...

...which was of course delicious!

The only bad thing about these rolls coming up is that bread was part of my 'New Foods Friday Challenge' for MoFo & now it'll feel like cheating so I need to come up with something else to go alongside the Paella, Pierogis & Tamales I'll be making. Any ideas?

Surprisingly the second name out of the hat was 500 Vegan Recipes. I guess I shook the hat too well... or not well enough! The generator picked me page 164 the Leek, Bean & Rice Medley. I like rice, beans & leeks so it definitely looked promising.

The recipe was really easy to follow and whilst it needed two pans you were't really using them at the same time so it's definitely an easy weeknight dish. The rice, both wild & brown, takes a while to cook so as long as you throw it in the pan when you get home you can still have dinner on the table in around an hour. I'm so glad this recipe popped up, it's full of gorgeous flavours & I'd never have thought to put pecans in a hot rice dish myself.

The more I cook from 500 Vegan Recipes the more I love it & I'm hoping it comes out of the hat again before the end of the month.

Now I was meant to make a third recipe today, the Quinoa, Tofu & Kale with Walnut Pesto from Color Me Vegan. I'm not particularly hungry after all of that bread and rice and beans though so I'm going to save it for tomorrow & spend the rest of the evening reading MoFo blogs rather than cooking.