Vegan 100 Cookbook Review & Chickpea Pizza Recipe
Avant Garde Vegan is one of my favourite Vegan Food Bloggers around at the moment. Gaz Oakley, who is the face of Avant Garde Vegan, creates the most beautiful food I have ever seen – so if you haven’t heard of him, here’s a great place to start. Gaz has taken the nation by storm with his Vegan YouTube channel, creating the likes of Tofish and Chips, Sticky BBQ “Ribs” and Filet’O’Fish’ burger that is very similar to mine… he mush have taken inspiration from moi… Dream on Rosie.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re likely to have heard of Vegan 100, the blooming Youtubers newly released cookbook. Rightly so, the cookbook brewed a lot of excitement with fans and the hype did not disappoint. The recipes you can find in Vegan 100 retain Gaz’s high standards and creativity with plant-based ingredients. I adore the fact the recipes are real comfort food that is entirely vegan and still pretty damn healthy! Vegan 100, as well as Avant Garde YouTube channel, achieves what I strive to achieve with The Hungry Herbivores; presenting vegan food that is so far detached from the stereotypical, boring green food. Vegan 100 shows there is so much more to a vegan diet! Making it a great purchase for new comers to veganism as well as long-term ones!
I’m so glad I took the plunge and bought this cookbook. It’s definitely earned its place on the top shelf! Keep your eyes peeled for another post about what other cookbooks are on my favourites list (I have soooo many!)
There are many recipes that appeal to me within Vegan 100 such as: Kentucky Fried Chick’n & Katsu Tofu Burger. Yet the Smoked Pea Chickpea Pizza stood out to me. Come on – Who doesn’t love pizza? I have wanted to put down my Ultimate Pizza Dough for a while, just to experiment with a non-wheat pizza base. Therefore, this recipe was a perfect excuse for me to give it a go! This pizza isn’t no regular tomato base and basil! No, no. That’s not Avant Garde Vegan style at all. Instead we have a smoked pea puree, grilled asparagus and homemade cream “cheese” spread on top of a chickpea flour base. If that doesn’t get you drooling, I don’t know what will.
After trailing out this recipe, I just knew I had to do a review of Gaz’s book and bring this sneak peak to the table! Check it and try it! If you’re sold, grab Vegan 100 and get testing out these recipes for yourself!
- 1½ cups chickpea flour
- pinch sea salt and pepper
- 1½ cups water
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 shallots, finely chopped
- olive oil, for frying
- 1½ cups frozen peas
- ¼ cup vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp liquid smoke (or ½ tsp smoked paprika)
- pinch of salt and pepper
- 8 asparagus tips, trimmed and washed
- 8 spring onions, topped and tailed ( I used 3 shallots )
- ½ cup frozen broad beans, defrosted and skinned
- zest of ½ a lemom
- 3 Tbsp "Cream Cheese" (find recipe in Vegan 100)
- First make the chickpea flatbread better. Put the flour and seasoning into a mixing bowl. Whisk the water and olive oil into the flour. The mixture should have a thick batter. Cover the bowl and pop in the fridge for 20 mins while you make your toppings.
- To make the smoked peas, saute the shallots in small saucepan over med heat, until soft.
- Add the peas, stock and lemon juice and heat through until the peas are piping hot. Using a hand mixer, blend until smooth. Gaz likes a bit of texture, so he doesn't blitz it all the way.
- Add the liquid smoke and the seasoning, stir to combine.
- Heat the griddle pan until smoking hot, then add a little olive oil.
- Grill the asparagus and spring onions quickly until lightly charred, then remove from the heat and set aside. Make sure your pan is really hot - you just want to char the outside of the asparagus, not cook it.
- Preheat the grill and head a 28cm (11 inch) ovenproof, non-stick frying pan over low heat. Add a little olive oil and ladle in all of the chickpea batter and cook for two minutes.
- Carefully transfer the pan and place under the grill for two minutes (this saves you having to flip it!)
- After two minutes, carefully remove the pan from the grill, the flatbread should be nice and golden.
- Spoon over the smoked pea mixture, then top with the grilled onions and asparagus. Sprinkle over the broad beans and lemon zest and add a few dollops of cashew cream cheese.
- Place the topped pizza back under the grill and cook for a further two minutes.