The Scottish Vegan Cookbook

THE VEGAN STORE CUPBOARD

Listed below are the items that you may want to include in your vegan store cupboard. There is no need to buy everything at once; just pick up ingredients as you make the recipes and find your favourites. Check labels carefully as non-vegan ingredients may be used either in the foods themselves (e.g. chocolate, sauces, stock cubes) or during the production process (e.g. alcohol). Most items can be found in the supermarket or can be bought from a health-food shop.

Alcohol: I like cooking with alcohol, as it enriches and deepens the flavour of a dish (and evaporates during cooking so it is not going to make you tipsy!). I use a vegan vermouth (Sainsbury's Italian Vermouth Extra Dry) for savoury sauces and soups and would recommend having this in your cupboard, as well as a good quality whisky of course (preferably single malt) - quintessentially Scottish!

Other dishes use brandy and Muscat dessert wine, and you might want to use vegan alcohol-free white wine if you are teetotal, although you can also substitute apple juice in the same quantities.

Not all wine or alcohol is vegan - it depends on what is used in the fining process (often isinglass, from fish bladders, or egg whites). Vegan wines tend to use charcoal for this process. Spirits such as brandy and whisky are generally vegan unless blended with cream. To check whether or not a particular brand of alcohol is vegan, see the Barnivore website (www.barnivore.com/), which offers a guide to vegan beer, wine and liquor.

Beans (dried or tinned): aduki beans, black beans, butter beans, chickpeas, haricot beans, red lentils, yellow split peas.

Butters: for a non-hydrogenated vegan butter alternative Vitaquell Organic Cocovit Spread is one of the few that is free from palm oil. It is made with rapeseed oil, coconut oil, shea butter, carrot juice, lemon juice, sunflower lecithin and salt. It is fine for spreading, although I find it isn't ideal for baking. Try making my home-made butter (p. 28).

With nut butters, start with your favourite, as they can be used interchangeably in most recipes. Keep nut butters in the fridge to preserve them. It is also useful to have coconut butter, which can be kept at room temperature, for solidifying some of the desserts.

Chocolate: it's useful to stock either cocoa powder or cacao powder (the former is processed, the latter raw and I tend to use the latter in desserts) and a good quality vegan dark chocolate (51% and 70% cocoa solids). Check for dairy-derived butterfat, cream and milk; 'cocoa butter' is vegan.

Cream: oat cream or soya cream are useful to keep on hand (and have a long shelf life unopened); tinned coconut milk is the basis of whipped coconut cream and an essential if you are making your own. Coconut cream and creamed coconut (refrigerate once opened) are used in some of the dessert recipes.

Dried fruit: soft or Medjool dates are an essential store cupboard item; other dried fruits used in some of the recipes are apricots (unsulphured), coconut flakes, cranberries, desiccated coconut, figs, prunes and raisins.

Dried herbs: bay leaves, oregano, rosemary, thyme.

Dried seaweed: organic arame and kombu (only if making your own stock) - obtainable from health-food shops or Asian supermarkets.

Dried spices: allspice, chilli powder, ground cardamom, ground cinnamon, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground ginger, ground mace, ground nutmeg, smoked paprika, turmeric, za'atar (a Middle Eastern herb and spice blend containing roasted sesame seeds, salt, thyme, marjoram and oregano, and sumac, a lemony spice made from ground berries).

Nutmeg is highly neurotoxic to dogs and should not be given to or prepared near them.

Extracts: almond extract, vanilla extract - I use these frequently in baking and desserts.

Flours: beremeal (stoneground barley flour - can be found in health-food shops or online), chickpea (gram) flour, wholemeal plain flour, wholemeal self-raising flour, unbleached strong white (bread) flour, wholemeal spelt flour.

Grains: oats - of course! Keeping medium oatmeal and rolled oats should cover most needs; pearl barley and pudding rice are only needed if making specific recipes.

Nuts: buy as required and store in a cool, dark place. Almonds (flaked and whole), brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, sweet chestnuts (dried and puréed), walnuts.

A word about . . . oil

Where possible, choose organic, cold-pressed, unrefined and non-GMO oils. Using unsaturated fats, which include monounsaturates, such as olive oil and rapeseed oil, with occasional use of polyunsaturates, such as sunflower oil, is recommended.

Cold-pressed rapeseed oil contains around half the saturated fat of olive oil, is high in mono-unsaturated fats (but not as high as olive oil), tends to have a good ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 acids and is a good source of vitamin E. Its beneficial antioxidants tend not to break down at high temperatures, so rapeseed oil can be used for roasting (and higher temperature cooking).

In Scotland there are now at least seven artisan brands of rapeseed oil being produced, including Ola Oils in Inverurie in Aberdeenshire and Supernature in East Lothian. My favourite is Mackintosh of Glendaveny. See www.scotrapeseedoil.co.uk for more information.

There are conflicting views about coconut oil. It is a highly saturated fat, so use sparingly - I use it in my butter recipe and occasionally for setting desserts. Use cold-pressed coconut oil and only use refined coconut oil if you need an odourless oil (i.e. in baking).

If you want to reduce the amount of oil you use altogether try roasting vegetables in water and then adding a drizzle of oil for flavour after cooking. You can also shallow fry onions and garlic, for instance, in vegan stock rather than in oil.

I usually dress a salad with a drizzle of Omega-3-rich flax seed oil, hemp seed oil or rapeseed oil and a squeeze of lemon.

Oils: my go-to all-purpose oils for low-to-mid-temperature cooking are extra virgin olive oil and cold-pressed rapeseed oil. I also keep either flax seed oil or hemp seed oil (store these in the fridge) but note that these should not be heated.

Plant milk: I keep a good stock of fortified soya milk (a good one is Milbona Unsweetened Soya Drink, with added calcium, B2, B12 and D2 from Lidl) as it contains more protein than other plant milks. My other staples are almond milk and oat milk.

Preserves: raspberry jam, stem ginger.

Raising agents: baking powder (aluminium-free), bicarbonate of soda, Easy Bake dried yeast (for baking bread).

Savoury pastes: miso paste, tomato paste.

Seasonings: the essentials are black pepper, iodised sea salt, nutritional yeast flakes (for a savoury, cheesy flavour), soy sauce/tamari (the latter is wheat-free/gluten-free), vegan bouillon powder (check there is no dairy) and yeast extract/Marmite - I am a total Marmite baby!

Nice to have and for specific recipes are: garlic granules, garlic powder, mushroom ketchup, onion powder, onion seeds, vegan worcestershire sauce (i.e. without anchovies and without soy sauce, if gluten-free; the Biona brand is both gluten-free and vegan).

Seeds: amaranth, buckwheat, chia seeds (keep in the fridge), flax seeds (keep in the fridge), hulled hemp seeds (keep in the fridge), pumpkin seeds, quinoa, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, tahini (keep in the fridge).

Stock: Kallø organic gluten-free vegetable stock cubes; organic Swiss Vegetable (vegan) gluten-free bouillon powder.

Sweeteners: I try to use sweeteners that retain some (even if minimal) nutrients in them including:

Barley malt extract: a natural product obtained by drying and cooking sprouted barley malt. It contains some minerals and vitamins, as well as soluble fibre. I use it when making oat milk and for baking. Note that it is not gluten-free.

Blackstrap molasses: extracted as part of the process of refining sugar and retains some vital nutrients such as vitamin B6, manganese, magnesium, potassium and iron, as well as being high in calcium. I like to use it in baking.

Coconut sugar: grown sustainably and contains vitamins B and C, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc. I use this in baking and desserts. It doesn't taste of coconut!

Maple syrup: retains beneficial minerals such as calcium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, riboflavin and zinc. Make sure that you buy pure Canadian maple syrup without added sweeteners.

Muscovado sugar: unrefined cane sugar with the molasses retained. It contains some minerals such as calcium, iron and manganese.

Beetroot, carrots and sweet potatoes, and dried dates and figs can also be used as sweeteners and also contain beneficial fibre and minerals. Fruit purées are whole foods...