The Baking Biker Chic

I dream about food – not about eating it, but I dream recipes. It’s a bit weird and I’ve no idea why or how, but hey it seems to be working so far.

Of course, it’s not always the perfect dream – often the reality is more of a nightmare. However with a little tweaking here and there and the help of my tasting panel – I get there in the end.

Black pudding – it’s something many meat eaters won’t touch. And let’s face it, it’s not very healthy either. The first batch was nice but I used beetroot and ended up with a red pudding and felt it was a tad gritty.

Omni husband, who tastes under pressure, suggested using treacle. Well he claims he did, I think it was my idea, but hey we’ll let him have it because as a meat eater – he could give me a pretty good critique of my vegan version.

So a few batches later, here’s the recipe for you to try. If you don’t like it too spicy, go easy on the black pepper – I think seasoning is such a personal thing so I encourage everyone to recreate this for their preferences.

You’ll get between 10 and 12 puddings from this mixture depending on the size you make. I got 10 and a taster this time round.

I buy dried turtle beans from Tesco for this recipe and cook for just over an hour however I’ve noticed that if you leave the beans soaking in the water for a few hours or more – they retain their black colour and this enhances the overall effect. Note the quantities of the spices are in the instructions below:

•200g of dried turtle beans (black beans) soaked or cooked until soft then drained
•1 tsp vecon
•1/4 to 1/2 cup of porage oats (gluten free oats can be used too)
•1 small red onion, chopped finely
•Smoked paprika
•Mace
•Black pepper
•3 tbsp Tamari
•1 tbsp and 1 tsp of treacle
•1 tbsp of tomato puree

1. If you are soaking the turtle beans, add 1 tbsp of black pepper and the 1 tsp of vecon to the water. It normally takes just over an hour to soften the dried beans

2. In a food processor or using a fork smash the beans roughly – it’s okay to have bits of beans as you want this for texture

3. Saute the onion using water to prevent it from drying and add a tsp of smoked paprika and a tsp of mace so the onion absorbs the flavourings

4. Puree the onion and add to the beans

5. Add 1 – 2 tsp black pepper to the beans and then thoroughly mix in the onion and beans, adding the tamari, treacle and tomato puree too

6. Next add your oats – depending on your mixture, you will add between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of the oats – roughly mix in, you don’t want to mix to much as the oats mimic the ‘fat’ in the black pudding

7. Taste the mixture and at this stage you may want to add more paprika, black pepper and mace – it really comes down to personal taste

8. Divide into equal amounts (between 10 and 12) and shape into rounds and place on a non stick baking sheet

9. Put your puddings in the oven for 10 minutes and then turn and bake for a further 10 minutes. You don’t want to over bake them at this stage. Now take out and allow to cool. You can freeze or refrigerate and then re cook when ready – if you want to indulge you can fry the black pudding or if you want to stay healthy – spray with coconut or olive oil and bake – ensuring the food is piping hot before eating.