Summer. It’s the season of abundance. Definitely my favourite time of year produce-wise, with all those delicious fruits that are so very missed during the cooler months; tomatoes, plums, peaches, apricots, berries, figs. Fantastic! Having too much of a good thing can be a bit irksome though, specifically when you somehow manage to end up with too much of one thing. The glut.
A lovely friend recently posted on the harvest and yarn facebook page requesting vegan cherry recipes, preferably using a lot of cherries. Firstly, I need to apologise for taking so long getting this up here. It’s one of those chaotic times when writing about food constantly falls to the bottom of the ‘to do’ list, following the ever growing amount of produce that needs cooking, drying or bottling. Secondly, this doesn’t use nearly as many cherries as I would have liked. I rushed straight to the farmers’ market to buy some, and was lucky enough to get a punnet from the last cherry pick of the season. But they were still expensive. I’m sure you’ll understand, Mia :)
To make up for this, I’ll just note that I’m certain you could probably double the cherries in this recipe and it would work just fine. Or even better, use a bigger pan, and triple the cherries! I’ve also found a couple of neat little vegan recipes that look super-tasty, and make me wish I had discovered them at the start of summer:
Homemade cherry ripe bites (Wholesome Cook)
Cherry Garcia Ice cream (Girl Cooks World)
I also had a flashback to a wwoofing experience last year, where we were instructed to cook up sour cherries with 80% as much sugar as fruit, which was then strained and bottled separately as stewed cherries, plus cherry sauce. Could go?
Anyway, fingers crossed cherry season isn’t long gone, but in the likely event that the glut is no longer existent, at least we all have a heads up for next summer.
Cherry crumble slice
Base
1/3 cup almonds
1 teaspoon raw sugar
4 tablespoons vegetable oil (coconut or olive oil is fine too)
2 tablespoons soy milk
Filling
200g cherries, seeds removed (halving and picking them out is fine)
3/4 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
2/3 cup soy milk
Crumble
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 180C. Line a rectangular dish with baking paper, though it could really be any shape. (Mine was about 25x15x15cm).
Make the base by blitzing the almonds in a food processor to form a course meal, then mixing with the sugar. Add oil and soy milk and combine to form a crumbly mixture. Press about half into the base of the prepared dish.
Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl, then add the milk and vanilla essence and stir until well combined. Lay the cherries evenly in the dish on top of the base. If you want to add more, just pile them up a bit. Pour the filling on top of the cherries, ensuring it fills all the gaps.
To the remaining half of the base mixture, add the brown sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle liberally on top of the slice. If you used more cherries, they might poke out the top, but that’d look quirky so don’t worry :)
Bake for 50 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean (but don’t worry if it’s not – the cherries keep it moist). Serve warm or cool with something tasty – ice cream, cherry sauce, or ideally both.
harvest and yarn 