Ingredients

The following ingredients have 40 Servings
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small onion, finely diced
  • 3 red bell peppers, finely diced
  • 135 ml / ½ cup + 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 5 tbsp sugar
  • hot chilli flakes, to taste
  • salt, to taste
  • 120 g / 1 cup buckwheat flour
  • 85 g / 2/3 cup all purpose white flour or rice flour (for GF*)
  • 1 heaped tsp active instant yeast
  • 200 ml / ¾ cup + 1 tbsp soy milk (or other thin plant milk)
  • 45 ml / 3 tbsp aquafaba at room temp.
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • oil, for frying
  • ½ cup vegan soft cheese (buy or use my recently STREAMLINED recipe)

Instruction

  • Heat up 1 tbsp of oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add finely diced onion and fry gently, on a low heat, until lightly coloured. Give it a stir from time to time.
  • Add finely diced red pepper and mix it in with the onion. Let it soften a bit.
  • Add red wine vinegar, sugar (you may want to start off with 4 tbsp first and adjust to your own taste), a good pinch of salt and hot chilli flakes. Mix well. Let the mixture cook slowly, on a very low heat (I used setting 2 out of 6), stirring from time to time, until the red pepper becomes sticky and translucent.
  • Taste and adjust the salt, sugar and spice content to your liking. After the relish cools down, transfer it to a sterilised jar and keep in the fridge - it will keep for 1-2 weeks.
  • Heat up soy milk in a small pan until just warm, not hot. Place both flours, salt and yeast in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk aquafaba (make sure it is room temperature as cold will kill the yeast) really well with a hand whisk until really frothy.
  • Very gradually, start adding warmed-up milk to the flour mixture, stirring with a hand whisk at the same time to prevent lumps from forming. Next, mix in whisked aquafaba. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it rest somewhere warm (but not too warm as it will kill the yeast) for 1 hour, so that yeast has a chance to activate.
  • Heat up a bit of oil in a frying pan - be careful not to make the oil too hot or else the blinis will burn on the outside and remain raw on the inside (I used setting 4 out of 6). Drop 2 teaspoons worth of batter onto the hot oil swirling the batter a little as it drops so that a circle forms. The batter should be thick enough that it doesn't spread out much once it hits the pan. If it's too thick, add a bit more lukewarm milk.
  • Fry blinis in small batches until the underside is nice and golden, then flip to the other side and fry for another minute or two. Place on a paper towel to get rid of excess grease. Consume warm. I topped mine with my ricotta (to which I added a touch more lemon juice to contrast it nicely with the relish) and red pepper relish.