Recipe: Vegan Toad in the Hole with mushroom gravy

I’ve recently been experimenting with vegan Yorkshire puddings (I do love a roast!) and after finding some success with a recipe scheduled in a toad in the hole night with my bezzie. Of course I was late leaving work so she cooked the whole thing and probably did a much better job of it! I’m an enthusiastic cook (and yes Aunty Chris, a messy one) but she has an innate pizazz that turns good food into something special. She makes the best roast dinner in the whole world and generally everything is a delicious success!

A strange one to explain to a non Brit. We’re not putting toads in our dinner as the French put frogs in theirs. It’s a traditional dish where we mix sausages with batter to create a stodgy, hearty, comforting dish. Definitely falling into the nostalgia realm of cooking!

Vegan Toad in the Hole with egg replacement to make the batter and vegan sausages from Linda McCartney.

The batter recipe is adapted from a recipe on vegan recipe club

Ingredients:
6 Linda McCartney sausages
115g/4oz self raising flour, sieved
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
280ml/ ½ pint soya milk
55g/2oz egg replacer, we used Ogran
60ml/ 2 fl oz water
Oil to heat in the oven dish

– Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7.
– pour oil to line the oven dish (we used sunflower as it has a higher cooking point) and heat in the oven until it’s really hot.
– pre cook the sausages for 10 minutes to ensure they’ll be cooked through.
– Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix the egg replacer into a smooth paste with the water and then mix that in a jug with the soya milk.
– Add the wet mixture to the dry slowly adding the wet until you have a smooth batter. We used a food processor for after work ease!
– take the oven dish out and pop the sausages in with some kind of order, pouring the batter around them.
– cook for about 20 mins until it’s browned and crispy on top and hopefully through the middle.
– serve with some nice green veg and an onion and mushroom gravy and the company of a good friend!

I would try with half the amount of egg replacer, seems rather a lot and turning down the oven after you’ve popped it in a bit to cook for slightly longer to see if it crisps up the middle as well as the outside and edges.

We washed it down with some sleepy time tea and a couple of episodes of The Walking Dead on Amazon prime. An oxymoron if ever there was one! We are totally addicted to both.

Whilst I thought I would miss my own space, the benefits of coming home to your bezzie far outweighs the not being able to walk around in your pants. Hugs, chats, tea, walks and kitchen experiments. How lucky am I after 22 years of best friendship being able to live with my mate?! By this stage of a friendship most people are locked in to the rhythm of their own lives, but as a nomadic hippy I still get to see my bezzie everyday, just like 20 years ago!

It was those everyday moments I most missed when I lived overseas and away from my dear ones. Quality time is hanging out in your pjs, brushing your teeth together, making the other one a cup of tea when they’re working late, making them a nice dinner

Nothing beats sitting in your pjs on the sofa with a cup of tea. It’s like rolling back 20 years!

Vegan Toad in the Hole in all her plated up glory. Served with mushroom gravy, kale and broccoli