5 Jan 2019

Laura Vincent's easy vegan treats

From The Weekend , 11:45 am on 5 January 2019
Food writer and bartender Laura Vincent

Food writer and bartender Laura Vincent Photo: Supplied

Wellington cook and bartender Laura Vincent specialises in developing sumptuous vegan recipes that can be made easily at home. 

She shares recipes for toasted sunflower seed and garlic dip, black salted caramel ripple ice cream, and almond butter toffee.

Laura admits to missing butter sometimes but creates a satisfying creaminess and richness in her recipes with oil, nuts and seeds.

"I feel like since becoming vegan all I do is blend stuff up."

Toasted sunflower seed and garlic dip

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Photo: Laura Vincent

After you've toasted the sunflower seeds and roasted the garlic, this dip is a breeze to make, she says.

Soaking the seeds makes them "super-super soft" so when blended up they'll be "creamy as hell".

The dip goes well with these vegan chia seed crackers.

"They're basically held together by chia seeds. I don't know how it works but they're so crunchy and good."

Black salted caramel ripple ice cream

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Photo: Laura Vincent

This ice-cream takes its blackness from black tahini but if you can't find that, the pale brown version is fine, too, Laura says.

Almond butter toffee

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Photo: Laura Vincent

This is a vegan take on the Dime bar, which Laura recommends dipping in Whittaker's (dairy-free) dark chocolate.

"It's buttery, man. I was real happy with that one, eh?"

Laura Vincent is the author of the cookbook and website Hungry and Frozen and also writes a food blog inspired by episodes of the American TV show Frasier.

Find more of her recipes in the RNZ Recipe collection.