Roll out your pastry. Lightly grease a pie tin or similar receptacle – I find a loaf tin makes a very pleasing pie in an emergency, and a Victoria sponge tin creates a thinner one with a good pastry-to-filling ratio. Any leftover filling can always be frozen to make future pies, or eaten as a casserole, so the size of your tin is not prescriptive. Lay the pastry carefully in the tin, pressing it gently into the corners. The weight of the filling will do the rest for you. Spoon the filling in, working your way from the outside to the middle, and gradually so as not to overbear and thus tear your precious pastry. Fill it to the top – don’t be shy – underfilled pies have their own circle in Hell in my books.

In her book, Veganish, the anti-poverty campaigner wrote: ‘You don’t have to be vegan every day, but every single day you are, you save on average one animal, 40 pounds of grain, 1100 gallons of water, and 30 square feet of forest. Together, our one days can add up to a massive change. For us, for animal welfare, and for the planet.’ Set it to one side, and turn your oven on to 180C to preheat. Grab a mixing bowl. Peel your bananas and roughly chop them into the bowl with the side of a fork, then mash them gently. Add a little of the oil, mash some more, and repeat until you have a frankly horrid looking mess of gloppy banana pieces swimming in a sea of pale yellowish vegetable oil. It gets better, I promise. The post has been largely positively received by Monroe’s readers, with one commentator noting the increasing dependence a growing number of people in the UK have on foodbanks, saying: “Choice is a privilege and bless you for saying it.” Spread a third of the mushroom sauce in the bottom of a deep baking dish. Cover with lasagne sheets. Spread over a layer of white sauce. Repeat the layering of ragù, pasta and sauce twice more until the ragù is used up. Finish with a layer of lasagne and white sauce on top. Sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and cheese, if using.Occasionally that does mean incorporating the cheaper brands of meat from the supermarket for specific briefs and believe me I have tried very hard to avoid it as much as possible as it’s not something I’m comfortable with. Cook for a few minutes on one side, before turning. The burgers need to be handled with care as they can be quite fragile! Ayurveda, the ancient Hindu wisdom for health, is described by Panjabi as the single greatest influence on Indian cuisine. “Flesh has the force of violence in it, and the negative emotions of fear and hatred … it has no place in the sattvic diet.” Mix the tomatoes, beans and spices, layer and bake. Doesn’t need any cooking before it goes in the oven. Dice or slice your carrots and mushrooms, and add them to the pot. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer, until the lentils behind them have softened.

Now turn your oven on to 180C, and grab a suitable dish, one that looks like it will hold the same amount of lentil-mushroom-ragu that you have. Spread a layer of ragu into the bottom of the dish to cover it. Lay lasagne sheets over the top, leaving no gaps between them if you can help it. Spread a thin layer of white sauce onto the dry pasta. Then repeat: ragu, pasta, sauce, until the ragu is all used up. Top with a final layer of pasta sheets, then a generous layer of white sauce, carefully spreading it right to the edges. Sprinkle breadcrumbs generously across the top, and carefully place into the centre of the oven. Bake for 40 minutes, until golden and crisp around the edges. A knife inserted into the middle should go through the pasta easily. If not, bake for a further 10 minutes. The post also echoed comments made yesterday by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who said: “[Foodbanks]are a necessity but they are a necessity we do not want to have.”

Creative Play

Make three more balls with the remaining mixture. Place one in the oil and flatten gently with a fork to make the burger shape. Depending on the size of your pan, you may be able to cook all the burgers at once or need to do them in batches – unless you’re freezing some of the uncooked patties. Anyway, in the words of my gorgeous friend Sue and to join in the current Bake-Off frenzy, LET’S BAAAAAKE! This blog is free to those who need it, and always will be, but it does of course incur costs to run and keep it running. If you use it and benefit, enjoy it, and would like to keep it going, please consider popping something in the tip jar , and thankyou.

First peel and very finely chop the onion and garlic. If you have a bullet blender, magimix or small chopper, you might like to use it here. If you haven’t, don’t worry, it’s simple enough to do by hand. Toss into a large pan (either a saucepan or a shallow frying pan will do) with the oil and salt, and bring to a medium heat for a few minutes. Weigh the flour and measure the cornflour into a large mixing bowl, add the baking powder, salt (if using) and sugar, and mix well to evenly distribute throughout the mixture. Glaze with a little oil (I have discovered the secret to perfect vegan pie glaze, but this recipe is complex enough, so I will write about it another time – I have to have *some* secrets!). Place it in the oven and bake for 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden. You may wish to re-glaze halfway through, for extra sheen. I did, but then this is my living, and I need to tempt you here any way I can. At this point, if you are cooking the pie now, turn your oven on to 180C and ensure that there is a shelf in the middle of it for best results. Add the rest of the oil and the sugar to the bowl and mix well. It won’t be pretty right now but that’s okay, if you’re pulling a face at the oily gloop, you’re doing it right. It gets better.heaped teaspoon flour, plus extra to shape the burgers, 1p (was 45p, now 65p. Price increase: 144%) Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients (a rough hole, nothing too precise or technical) and pour in most of the milk and water, and the butter or oil. Mix well with a whisk or fork to form a smooth batter, adding the rest of the milk to loosen it if needed.

She’s an animal eater that uses low welfare cheap cuts when a decent vegan meal can cost less. There’s so many excellent vegan chefs that would love to work with you. Add both the flours, bicarb, cinnamon and a fistful of dried fruit if the mood takes you. Mix well to form a lumpy batter. Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. With floured hands, take a quarter of the burger mixture and roll it into a ball, about the size of a golf ball. Stir in the sugar, and then the baking powder, and then add half the flour and mix well. Fold in the berries; the more vigorously you mix them, the more pink your cake mixture will become, but unfortunately the colour does not hold well when cooked, so it is merely a temporary treat for your eyes. Add the water and mix, and then the remaining flour and – you guessed it – mix well. Scrape every last drop of the cake batter into the loaf tin, and pop it into the oven for an hour.If your bananas aren’t old and squishy then add a little of the oil to start them off or ping them in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften them up – but not in a metal bowl or you’ll be calling 999 and won’t have any banana bread, boo.) My theory is, if all of us adopted a few more plant-based meals into our diets on a weekly basis, not only would our food bills go down, but so would our environmental impact' half an hour later, melt a pinch of butter or heat 2 tbsp of oil until your pan is hot-hot, then turn the heat down to medium to keep it hot but not at risk of burning everything or spitting fat at you! Dollop a teaspoon of batter into the pan to make one little dollar-sized pancake, and another one, and another one. They only need a matter of seconds until they’re golden on one side (you’ll see them puff up slightly and little bubbles form in the top) – then turn them over and cook the other side. Repeat until you have enough tiny pancakes to satisfy all appetites present, plus a few more for obligatory encores, and serve.