Like most people, in the past, I used to buy shop versions of “garlic bread“. That is until I worked out this superb vegan garlic bread mix. Once you try this recipe, you’ll never go back. It is so easy – just a question of bish bash bosh – and chuck it all in the blender. What you don’t use there and then, you can freeze. What’s more, you can use wholemeal bread rather than the unhealthy white supermarket versions.
It is best to crush the garlic as you add it to the blender, because otherwise you may end up with overlarge pieces of garlic in the mixture. A bit of rough chopping of the parsley is a good idea too. Then just a little bit of pulse blending of the ingredients will quickly give you the right consistency for your garlic bread.
If you use a standard sized small baguette, then around 50g per complete baguette is about right – so 25g per side. You can decrease that to 40g if you like, but much less and it doesn’t work so well. I like to buy the “bake at home” style wholemeal baguettes, and then cut them in half. If you wrap them in greaseproof paper, and then aluminium foil is safest. This will stop the aluminium interacting with the acids in the mixture and causing health problems. You can then freeze the whole thing to use any time you have a meal that goes with garlic bread. That’s generally Italian or Greek style cooking – but you can be the judge of that!
When you want some vegan garlic bread for a meal, just take one out of the freezer and put it straight in the oven at 200°C for 20 minutes. Open the foil for the last 5 minutes to brown the outside. It will be just perfect, guaranteed.
Garlic Bread
Ingredients
- 50 g garlic
- 175 g margarine
- 15 g smoked sea salt – can use more to taste.
- 30 g parsley - flat or curly leaf.
- 6 brown or wholemeal baguettes – ready to bake style.
Instructions
- Weigh directly into the food processor bowl 210g of your favourite vegan margarine – I like the Pure Olive Oil one - or even better, Flora's new plant butter as it has no palm oil.
- Wash and roughly chop the parsley
- add to food processor bowl.
- Add 15g or (more to your taste) of sea salt – I like smoked as it gives it a richer flavour.
- Peel and trim the garlic
- and use a crusher crusher to add the garlic to the processor
- Pulse process the mixture – not too much, but enough so that it’s pretty well smashed up. You will need to scrape the sides down a couple of times to get the larger bits processed as they stick to the sides at first.
- Cut the baguettes in half with a sharp knife and spread a total of 50g on each loaf – 25g on one half & 25g on the other half.
- close the baguette back up so the two halves are facing each other
- Wrap each loaf in enough greaseproof paper to protect the outside of the loaf. See pictures as a guide. You don't want the acids in the food to come into contact with the aluminium.
- Wrap this in a large enough piece of aluminium foil to enclose the ends to avoid freezer burn, and freeze. See pictures again for a guide.
- To cook, use 200°C fan oven and initially cook for 15 minutes direct from frozen.
- Unwrap all coverings to expose loaf completely and cook for a further 5 to 7 minutes to brown and crisp the outside of the loaf.
- Keep any garlic butter that you don't use and cover with cling film and freeze for later use. Freeze any loaves you aren't going to cook immediately.
Notes
- It’s difficult to find proper wholemeal baguettes, to date I haven’t managed to find any. So far, Waitrose multi-seed or Sainsbury’s “brown” baguettes are the best I ‘ve managed to find. They both come in packs of 2. LIDL have some that come in packs of 4, but they aren’t as good.
- Definitely need to be “ready to bake” style otherwise they will overcook.
- The greaseproof paper is so that the aluminium doesn’t taint the food – it’s not a good idea to consume aluminium salts so for that reason, I would never use aluminium pots or pans – stainless steel only.
- Removing the foil after 15 minutes gives the outside of the loaf the chance to brown nicely – these times I’ve found to work, but they can always be varied.
- The amounts are based around a 30g bag of parsley as sold in supermarkets.
- If you don’t want to make 6 loaves, make 2 and freeze the rest of the mix in 100g portions. Most loaves come in double packs so 100g is the best amount to freeze.
- Don’t worry about the calories – it’s huge – but so nice!
