Bristol-based energy company OVO has decided to cater only meat-free food at its in-house café on Mondays, a sentiment I can get behind. It makes sense environmentally, ethically, health-wise and of course, saves the lives of animals. Ovo have produced an infographic that shows that by serving 500 meatless recipes one day a week, it will offset 5000 miles of travel emissions. Imagine if every business, school, hospital, government building in the UK did that? Initatives like this really make a difference. C’mon, just one day a week without meat… it’s no biggie, you can do it. Ovo have commissioned me to develop a Meatless Monday recipe that is easy and delicious; guilt-free chocolates. If you use dark chocolate in the recipe, as I do, it’s vegan.
Meatless Mondays recipe: vegan mint, pistachio and violet chocolates
Makes 12-15 chocolates depending on your mould
You will need a non-stick silicone chocolate mould, which you can buy at Lakeland or any good kitchen shop. I used nibbed pistachios here, which I bought on a recent trip to Istanbul, but you could use ordinary pistachios, shelled. The bright green of the nibs contrast beautifully however with the violet petal pieces.
150g dark mint chocolate
20ml of brown rice syrup or agave syrup
1 pack of nibbed pistachios or any shelled pistachios
2 tbsp of glazed violet petal pieces
Break the mint chocolate into pieces into a small glass bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. If necessary, stir and microwave for another 30 seconds. If you don’t have a microwave, you can melt the chocolate in a bain-marie, that is the heatproof bowl placed on top of a saucepan of hot water, but the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water.
Once melted, add the brown rice syrup or agave syrup into the chocolate and stir.
Take your mould and add some of the nibbed pistachios and violet pieces into the bottom of each chocolate mould. Pour the chocolate over. Leave to chill.
Then pop out the chocolates and enjoy your pretty vegan treat.
Leave a Reply