Picnic Time...... (no bears were harmed!)

Those of you who follow my blog will know I have recently got myself a beautiful new bike (a Dawes Duchess in Roses!) and I am totally in love. As we get older we treat ourselves less so it is nice sometimes to put yourself first and get something you have wanted for a long time. As I have touched on in my previous blog there are many amazing reasons to cycle. But as the sun is shining, the infamous British summer has begun and I have a basket on the front of my bike I felt it was time to take some cruelty-free cooking to the park, the beach and wherever else you would want to picnic this summer. Loaves of bread stuffed with veggies and vegan pesto, pinwheels, potato salad and kale chips are just a few of the dairy-free dishes you could be enjoying on your summer adventures. From sandwiches to cakes, these fresh, flavourful and creative vegan picnic recipes will impress even your most sceptical omnivore friends and family. These are some of my favourite ideas -

·        Stuff a partially hollowed-out loaf of bread (gluten free if needs be) with all of your favourite fillings, wrap it up and refrigerate it overnight with a heavy weight on top for condensed picnic sandwiches that won’t fall apart when you try to eat them. This version by The Daily Mail layers pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, artichoke and grilled marinated tofu or substitute for  another favourite vegan ingredient like avocado, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers or hummus.

·        Vegetable pinwheels are a fun alternative to plain old wraps and sandwiches and can be made with any of your favourite veggies. You just spread a mixture of vegan cream cheese and finely diced vegetables onto gluten free wraps, roll them up, slice them and wrap each resulting ‘pinwheel’ individually. Another option switches out the cream cheese and diced raw vegetables for hummus and grilled veggies.

·        Pretty much any potato salad can be made vegan by omitting dairy-based mayonnaise – be creative! Many potato salad recipes use vinaigrette and/or mustard instead of mayo to dress the veggies, or you could just use vegan mayonnaise. Try adding dill and pickles for a flavour boost, and toss in any veggies you have laying around.

·        Homemade kale or sweet potato chips make a lovely addition to any picnic and are great for nibbling along the way if needs be. Simply follow the recipes on my previous blogs and enjoy!

·        No picnic is complete without pudding. The British summer favourite has to strawberries, picked fresh from your local farm ideally and dipped in champagne while nibbling some dark chocolate. Perfect. Realistically however I’d rather see how much cake I can eat before I start to feel sick (let me tell you it is quite a lot!) brownies, flapjack and carrot cake bites all work as they travel well, can be cut into pretty bite size chunks and are perfect for sharing (if you want to share!)