This is a handy chart for calculating how much produce can be grown in a given space using a bed system.

It’s from the book Solar Gardening: Growing vegetables year-round the American intensive way by Leandre Poisson and Gretchen Vogel Poisson (ISBN 0-930031-69-5).

For a printable PDF copy, click here.

The chart shows the average yield for a 4′ x 8′ bed (32 square feet, or about three square metres). Depending on the conditions, the yield can be higher or lower than this. Last year we harvested over 30 pounds of potatoes in one of our allotment beds (which are slightly smaller than 4′ x 8′). Conversely, there’s no way in a British climate you’ll be able to grow 28 pounds of watermelon or 45 pounds of sweet potatoes in a 32 square foot area!

It’s a great starting point, though, for figuring out how much space to dedicate to each crop.

Happy gardening!

ASDA has come out with a new range of vegetarian just-add-water mixes. The range includes burgers, sausages, falafel and nut roast.

When I first spied them in the store, I perused the ingredients list and noticed the presence of soy. It was not specified if this was genetically modified or not, so I called the ASDA help line on the back of the packet to enquire. Unfortunately, despite a 12-minute phone call at my expense, the customer “service” rep could not tell me if the soy was genetically modified or not. I asked if ASDA had a blanket policy on GM foods, but the rep was clueless on that as well. He took my contact details and promised a response within a couple of days, which (weeks later) I am still waiting for. Zero out of 10 for customer service on that one, ASDA!

We bought a couple of the packet mixes anyway, with the idea that we’d return them if it turned out they contained GM soy. After several days, and having received no response from ASDA, I searched the internet for the information. Turns out ASDA does have a GM-free policy, which applies to all of their own-brand food ingredients, but does not extend to  “the feeding of GM derived materials to livestock”. No GM worries for vegans, then!

Back to the food. The mixes sell for 78p, but are currently on offer at two for £1. Depending on the mix, they make from two to four servings each, so are really good value, and are a great idea when you’re pressed for time and want something quick and nutritious.

The first one in the range we tried was “Chargrill style meat free burger mix”, and we were not disappointed.

Preparation couldn’t be easier, as you simply add water to the dry mix and let stand for 10 minutes. You can then form the mixture into burgers. The directions called for making eight small burgers, but I made four “normal”-sized ones instead. I made the burgers using my burger press, but you can also form them by hand. They were then pan-fried until golden on each side. I fried two of the burgers; the remaining two were frozen uncooked for another meal.

I was pleased that the burgers held together nicely in the frypan. Both Mr Thrifty and I loved the savoury, delicious taste that was a bit reminiscent of fried onions.

When the time came to use the frozen burgers, I partially thawed them before frying, as I didn’t want them to overbrown before being hot inside. This worked beautifully, and were indistinguishable from the freshly-made burgers.

I highly recommend the new ASDA Chargrill style meat free burger mix as a quick, convenient, delicious and thrifty purchase. Reviews of other products in this range are forthcoming!

The other day I decided to experiment with a couple of faux meaty things.

I made “white seitan” from the book Viva Vegan (recipe can be found here; I made 1/4 of the recipe). I first steamed it for 30 minutes, then let it cool for a few minutes and tried it. It was gummy and unappealing, so I wrapped it back up and let it steam for 90 minutes total. This time the texture was nice and chewy. The flavour is good as well. It can be sliced very thinly. I think I still prefer seitan made with the addition of tofu though, as in this experiment.

I also had a package of bean curd skin in the freezer, and had wanted for ages to try making “ham” from it.

I started by cutting the bean curd skin into julienne strips, then poured boiling water over to soften. Drained it well, then added soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds and sugar. Wrapped it tightly in a piece of muslin and steamed over simmering water for 90 minutes.

It worked pretty well. Both Mr Thrifty and I really liked the texture, but the flavour was nothing like ham. It has to be sliced quick thickly or it breaks up. The problem is going to be trying to get the flavours into the ham before steaming it.  Using too much liquid seasoning means it just leaks out when being steamed. Next time I am going to try making my own bean curd skin from homemade soya milk, as I’m concerned that the bought bean curd skin may be made from genetically modified soya beans.

Further faux meat experiments to come!

This is a delicious way to cook new potatoes. It’s from Jack Bishop’s Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook.

Soaking the potatoes in cold water helps remove some of the starch so they don’t stick to the roasting tin. Adding the garlic and herbs halfway through ensures the garlic doesn’t burn. You can use thyme and/or oregano instead of rosemary and sage.

Thanks for the great recipe, Jack!

Roasted new potatoes with garlic & herbs

1. Preheat oven to 210C (425F). Scrub potatoes and cut into 2.5 cm (1 inch) pieces. Place in a bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside for 10 minutes.

2. Drain potatoes but do not blot dry. Place them in a roasting tin large enough to hold them in a single layer. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the oil and toss to coat evenly. Roast, turning once, for 30 minutes.

3. Crush garlic in a mortar and pestle with salt until reduced to a paste. Add sage and rosemary and ombine remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons oil, garlic, sage, rosemary and salt in a small bowl. Drizzle over the partially roasted potatoes. Toss gently to distribute the seasonings. Continue roasting, turning the potatoes occasionally, until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes more. Serve immediately.

Claire from VeganCooking.com has come out with a vegan dessert cookbook called Are you sure that’s vegan? If they taste half as good as the photos look, they will be awesome!

Here’s where the free bit comes in. If you register for her free recipe newsletter, she’ll send you five recipes from the book for free, plus offer you a special price to buy the book.

If you refer five people to also sign up, you’ll get another five recipes free. Yay!

Click here to get your free recipes from Are you sure that’s vegan?

Hmmm, what was that about being less tardy with this post? Oh well.

Our order for June:

* Light tahini — Essential, three 340g jars for £1.50 each. I have developed quite a taste for tahini, especially on my morning toast with Marmite and sliced tomatoes. Anyone have a good recipe for tahini salad dressing?

* Egg-free mayonnaise — Plamil, three 315g jars for £1.43 each. GranoVita does a vegan mayo as well, in both glass and plastic, but Essential Trading only carries the plastic version.

* Low-salt vegetable bouillon — Marigold, 1kg tin for £7.73. The only reason I buy the low-salt version is that the regular one isn’t vegan and the organic one (which is vegan) doesn’t taste as nice. This is going to last quite awhile.

* Organic almonds — Essential, 2kg for £13.34. I’m quite disappointed with these. There are some spoiled ones in the batch; some taste VERY bitter; and some are shrivelled and hard. I have written to Essential about this.

* Organic soda, dandelion & burdock and root beer — Free Natural, six 250ml bottles for 72p each. We don’t drink much soda, but wanted to have a few on hand for summer. This is nice-tasting soda, though not as flavoursome as Fentimans, IMO.

* Organic peach juice — Organic Village, three 1-litre bottles for £2.66 each. Unlike some fruit juices that use only a small percentage of the “featured” juice and bulk it out with cheaper apple juice, Organic Village juices cotnain 100% of the featured juice. Yummmy!

There’s another item in the photo above which wasn’t bought at the co-op, but which I thought I would include here.

* Organic white grape juice — Vila Vella, 12 1-litre bottles for £4.17 each. I had to buy this at retail price because Essential doesn’t sell any white grape juice in glass bottles. Yes, this stuff is expensive, and no we won’t be drinking it straight! It’s for homemade white wine, when red grape juice isn’t suitable. Despite its steep price, adds only 70p to each bottle of homemade wine, as one 1-litre bottle is all that’s needed for an entire one-gallon (4.5 litre) batch of homemade wine. I bought it from Viva! Wine Club, a wine shop affiliated with the vegan organisation Viva!

I’ll be ordering more vegan goodies next week, with order pickup at the end of the month.

I’ve finally discovered the secret to great bean burgers.

A lot of beans burgers are too soft and mushy, and squish out of the bun when you’re eating them. (Remember: mush burgers aren’t us.)

You can make a bean burger firmer by adding wheat gluten, but I must admit I’m not a fan of bean burgers with added gluten. They tend to be dry and the texture somehow just doesn’t seem right.

The solution to mushy bean burgers is an easy one. Don’t make them too thick, coat them with cornmeal and make sure you cook them long enough to form a nice crunchy crust. I’ve found the best way to achieve this is to first pan fry them in a small cast iron griddle, then place them, griddle and all, in the oven to finish them off.

These butterbean burgers are delicious and have just a bit of heat from the jalapenos. Thanks to happy vegan face, whose recipe I adapted.

The original recipe called for saltine crackers, which aren’t available here in the UK. However, I’ve found that Doriano crackers — available in supermarkets — are very similar to saltines, and work beautifully in this recipe. I also added ground raw cashews for a protein boost, as well as a bit of arrowroot to help bind the burgers.

You can either use a 400g (14oz) tin of butter beans, or cook your own from scratch. If cooking from scratch, 110g of dried beans will make about the equivalent amount of a tin.

Spicy butterbean burgers

1. Saute red pepper, onion and garlic in olive oil for 10 minutes, until vegetables are soft.

2. Meanwhile, mash butterbeans. Crush crackers into crumbs (I use a blender). Mix together butterbeans, cracker crumbs, ground cashews, nutritional yeast and jalapenos.

3. Add the cooked vegetables to the bean mixture and combine well. Stir together the arrowroot and water, and add this to the burger mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste and combine well.

4. Form into five burgers, pressing mixture firmly.

5. Spread cornmeal on a plate and gently press each burger into cornmeal to lightly coat.

6. In a heavy frypan (I use cast iron), gently pan-fry burgers until golden on each side.

7. For an extra-crunchy outside, place burgers, frypan and all, into 160C (325F) oven for 20 minutes.

Makes five burgers.

Trying to reduce plastics in packaged food is an enormous challenge. Not only are there obvious plastics such as bottles and tubs, but also “hidden” plastics such as the lining in tin cans and tetrapaks.

In this post I’m going to look at plastic packaging of beverages, and alternatives I’ve found.

Water. We rarely buy bottled water, instead preferring to filter tap water. We use Black Berkey purifiers fitted in a stainless steel British Berkefeld housing. (In the UK, I’ve found Kernowrat to have the best prices.) Fortunately, for those times when we do buy bottled water, there are still several brands available in glass bottles, such as some of the Highland Spring and Perrier lines. Mr Thrifty takes home-filtered water to work every day in a glass ex-Perrier bottle, which fits neatly into the centre console of George (our car).

Fruit & vegetables juices. Most juices are in tetrapaks, either shelf-stable or refrigerated. Don’t be fooled into thinking that refrigerated “waxed” cartons are plastic-free, because they’re not, and haven’t been in decades, apparently. Both refrigerated and shelf-stable tetrapak-type cartons are lined in plastic. There are a few juices available in glass jars, but they’re a lot more expensive than the tetrapak ones. Not even juice in glass bottles is completely plastic-free, however, as the metal lid used to seal the bottle is lined with plastic. But it’s the best store-bought alternative. I hope to experiment this summer with home-bottled fruit juices. In the photo above (l to r): Sunraysia organic carrot juice (750ml, £1.69 from Morrisons); Biona organic tomato juice (750ml, £2.04 from our food co-op); Rio d’Oro carbonated pear juice (750ml, 99p from Aldi); Dynamic Health black cherry juice concentrate (237ml [1422ml reconstituted], £2.08 from iHerb); Organic Village organic red grape juice (1L, £2.54 from our food co-op).

Tea & coffee. Instant coffee is usually packaged in glass jars with plastic lids, though we buy Douwe Egberts coffee which comes in glass-lidded jars (though the seal is probably plastic). Coffee beans, alas, are always in a plastic-lined foil pouch. Tea is easy to find in cardboard boxes.

Soya and other non-dairy milks. These are always in tetrapaks, either shelf-stable or refrigerated — unlike juice, it’s impossible to find these in glass bottles, at least in this country. Fortunately, non-dairy milk is easy and quick to make at home; our favourite is cashew milk. In fact, we prefer it to soya milk, though I still make soya milk in my spiffy SoyQuick machine, so I can make tofu from the soya milk. Anyone else have a favourite homemade non-dairy milk?

Soft drinks (soda, squash, etc). These are typically in plastic bottles or aluminium cans. Like tetrapaks, aluminium drinks cans are also lined in plastic. We buy soft drinks occasionally; fortunately there are still some available in glass bottles, including Fentimans; Lorina traditional lemonade; and Belvoir cordials. The elderflower cordial we made last summer was delicious, and I hope to experiment with other homemade cordials this summer. Pictured above (l to r): Barr’s Original cream soda with raspberry (750ml, £1.49 from Waitrose); Bright coconut juice with pulp (290ml, 99p (I think) from Wai Yee Hong); le Marché Française sour cherry lemonade (1L, £1.39 from Aldi but sadly now packaged in plastic); Fever-Tree ginger ale (500ml, £1.30 from Waitrose); Taste the Difference apple & damson pressé (750ml, from Sainsbury’s); le Panaché de Saint-Omer shandy (250ml, £1.69 for 12 bottles from Morrisons & Sainsburys); Bottle Green Blossom Cottage lemon & lime leaf cordial (500ml, £1.15 from Asda).

Beer, cider & wine. Although some brands are packaged in plastic bottles/aluminium cans (beer & cider) and boxes containing plastic bags (box wine), most brands are available in glass bottles. Last autumn I made enough cider to last a year, and we hope to become mostly self-sufficient in wine this year.

I would be interested in hearing about beverages in glass bottles that are available in other countries… are they a challenge to find, or relatively easy?

Okay, I know it’s almost June and I’m just posting this now. But I do have my reasons… May was a very busy month down at the allotment!

Our order for April:

* Organic tomato juice — Biona, three 750ml glass jars @ £2.04 each. Buying in glass jars is more expensive, but we’re committed to reducing the plastic in our lives (tetrapaks, the most common containers for juice, are plastic-lined). Mr Thrifty loves tomato juice. Although I love all other forms of tomato, for some reason I do not like tomato juice. Go figure.

* Seitan in tamari sauce — Yakso, three 350g glass jars @ £2.29 each. I was curious about this product as it is the only seitan packaged in glass that I’ve ever seen. I thought it would be convenient for camping. We tried one jar and it’s good, but not great. Still useful for camping, though.

* Organic raw cashews — Essential, 1kg for £8.91 (£4.05 per pound). For making cashew milk. YUM. Unfortunately packaged in a plastic bag.

* Organic polenta — Essential, 5kg for £9.58 (£1.92 per kg / 87p per pound). For making bird food and coating bean burgers. Packaged in a plastic bag.

* Organic soya beans — Essential, 5kg for £8.09 (£1.62 per kg / 73p per pound). For making tofu. Again, in a plastic bag. Homemade tofu is vastly cheaper than the bought stuff… 160g of beans makes a 250g block of tofu, which works out to just 26p (plus cost of coagulant). Cauldron, the most widely available brand of tofu, sells for £2 per 396g. Disappointingly, Cauldron recently made changes to their product line, and THEIR TOFU IS NO LONGER ORGANIC. Furthermore, it used to be packaged in a plastic pouch inside a cardboard box, whereas now it is packaged in a big plastic tub. What are you doing, Cauldron?

We placed our May co-op order a few days ago, and it’s due in next week. I promise to be less tardy with those details.

These meatless hamburger steaks are really amazing. The texture is EXACTLY like what I remember hamburger being like, and Mr Thrifty concurs. The taste is most delicious, though the flavour could be tweaked to make it more meat-like if you so desire.

The hamburger steaks are a combination of TVP, gluten, minced veggies and seasonings. They’re formed into steaks and steamed, then pan-fried. They hold together very well, and would probably work great on the barbecue.

A thinner version of these would make fab burgers as well.

A note on ingredients: Marmite lends a rich, salty taste. If you don’t have it, try adding some veggie “beef” bouillon powder instead. The gravy browning is optional, but adds a nice dark colour.

Vegan hamburger steaks

1. Bring 100ml (1/2 cup less 1 tablespoon) water, Marmite and gravy browning to a boil in a small pot. Stir in TVP, off heat, cover and let stand for 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a heavy skillet and saute the onion, mushrooms and red pepper for 10 minutes, until softened.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine TVP with cooked vegetables. Add soy sauce, tomato puree (tomato paste), steak sauce or barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce and 50ml (3-1/2 tablespoons) water. Mix well, then stir in ground oats and nutritional yeast.

4. Sieve the gluten flour over the wet mixture and combine well.

5. Divide mixture into four portions and shape into oval steaks. Wrap each steak in baking paper, then in aluminium foil.

6. Bring water to boil in a pot that has a steamer insert. Steam steaks for 40 minutes over gently simmering water, switching positions halfway through (bottom steaks on top and top ones on bottom). Check water level regularly to ensure the pot does not boil dry and add boiling water as necessary.

7. When steaks have finished steaming, let cool. Unwrap and saute until lightly brown.

Makes four hamburger steaks.