Chocolate and Spice

Florence - here I come

2008-04-30T21:48:00.005+02:00

One of the perks of living in Europe is that Tuscany is just around the corner. Well, not exactly, but close enough for a weekend trip. Thursday is a holiday and we took Friday off and booked a get-away weekend in Florence. I can hardly wait for tomorrow morning. Ever since my first school trip to Italy I have been a fan of this country. Well, the school trip then was more about drinking and who goes with whom, but still, the country's charm got me.

Then last winter my then-boyfriend "kidnapped" me and took me on a surprise trip to Rome where he proposed to me. Hmmmm, romantic - and one more reason to love Italy.

And now Florence. They say it has the most cultural treasures of all of Italy. I've googled a bit and read that they also have nice rich vegetable stews such as pappa pomodoro and ribollita. And as I've noticed last year in Rome, in Italy pizzas are not necessarily drowned in cheese. It was totally normal ordering pizza without cheese in restaurants, every street vendor had some. And all those yummy grilled antipasti veggies... Coming from Germany, Italy is vegan heaven.

And the weather is supposed to be really nice for the weekend - I'm excited as a six year old on Christmas Eve :-)

To end with a recipe I'll present you with one of my favorite soups: green split pea soup. Easy as pea pie :-) To get me into this Italy mood we had it with fresh oregano and some extra virgin olive oil drizzled over it.

1/2 cup split green peas
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small piece of ginger, minced
1 carrot, grated
water
bouillon cubes
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large leek, sliced
handful of dried tomatoes, sliced
the best extra virgin olive oil you can afford
some fresh oregano

Place the peas in a large pot together with the onion, the garlic, the ginger and carrot, cover with plenty of water, bring to a boil and cook until tender - 30 min to 1 hour (or longer, depending on the water in your area) Soaking the peas for a couple of hours before cooking will considerably speed things up. Do not add any salt to the water or the peas will take forever.

Once the peas are tender add bouillon cubes to taste (depending on how much water you've used), the potatoes, the dried tomatoes and the leek. Cook until the potatoes are tender - 10-20 minutes. By now the peas should have totally disintegrated, making for a nice, rich, creamy, hearty, stew-like consistency. Serve with fresh oregano and some olive oil drizzled over it. For complete protein serve with a slice of toasted sour-dough bread (or regular bread, we had it with sour-dough - the usual bread in Germany).

Without the olive oil this is a naturally fat-free dish.

And with this I'm off to Florence :-)

Mochi Tsuki - Making Mochi

2008-04-23T22:19:00.008+02:00

After my last post some people asked about making mochi yourself. Around New Years, many Japanese make mochi at home and enjoy this in a party-like atmosphere, much like at a barbeque. Mochi making is usually done in winter when the new rice is just in. Mochi are a very warming, strengthening food. After all, one large mochi is the equivalent of one bowl of rice. It is a light yet high-cal food, good for staying warm in the un-inunsulated Japanese houses in winter and a good light food for sick people.

Mochi can be eaten stuffed with anko, a paste from adzuki beans. Or they are dusted with roasted soy flour, which gives them a great nutty flavor, and then dipped in a mixture of soysauce, water, and sugar. This was my favorite way to eat them. Or you can roast them, or really dry them and then roast them in the oven, they will pop and triple in size. Lastly, you can add them to soups, zoni is a traditinoal New Year's soup.

I remember a mochi-making party: It was a beautiful day in early January, sunny and almost warm, and we were all outside at work having a mochi tsuki party. Unfortunately I hadn't brought my camera to work that day. But could I ever make mochi again myself? Watch the video:

You will understand that I prefer resorting to shop-bought mochi now or doing without :-)

I couldn't resist pasting another video, mochi making during Sakura Matsuri - the cherry blossom festival. Pretty cool, here the rice is pounded to the rhythm of taiko drums. Ooooooh, makes me homesick for Japan (even though the video was apprently shot in San Fancisco) :-)

Ichigo Mochi - Strawberry Ricecakes

2008-04-21T14:36:00.001+02:00

Ichigo mochi (or, more properly called ichigo daifuku) were my favorite treat when I was living in Japan. Even though... thinking about it I guess my favorite treat were daigaku imo - fried candied sweet potatoes, caramelized with sugar and a splash of soy sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds. But anyway, ichigo mochi were my favorite spring treat. Mochi, small dumplings made of pounded sticky rice and filled with anko, a paste of sweet red adzuki beans, are a year-round favorite treat in Japan, even though mochi are most popular in winter around new year's. In January, I started seeing mochi stuffed with strawberries from Okinawa (which is so far south that strawberries start ripening there when the rest of Japan ist still cold and wintery).

I purchased my very first ichigo mochi and fell in love with it. The tender consistency of the mochi, the anko's subtle sweetness and the fragrance, aroma, sweetness, and juicyness of the strawberry was better than anything I had ever had before. I spend tons of yen on ichigo mochi in spring.

Back in Germany I had no way of getting mochi. Until the other day, that is. I was in Berlin and on my way back in the train station I came across a sushi place that offered mochi. Oh joy! I grabbed a pack and when I was home I stuffed it with strawberries and dug in. Very un-ladylike and very un-Japanese. If you've ever had these gems you will understand :-)

Vegan Fajitas

2008-04-16T16:51:00.008+02:00

What can one say about fajitas? Not much. Everybody loves them, so without further ado I'll present you with the recipe. Quick, simple, and very satisfying. The fried tofu stripes convince even die-hard steak lovers.

Vegan Fajitas

2 large onions
1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper
avocado (or guacamole, I prefer the whole fruit)
1 small can of red kidney beans
1 pack firm tofu
soft tortillas
salsa

Spray a non-stick skillet with olive oil, heat over medium, add the onions. Fry for a minute or so, add three tablespoons of water, cover. Stirr frequently. If the oniosn start sticking to the pan, add more water. Cook until tender and caramelized. The trick is to have the heat relatively low so the onions don't crisp up but really caramelize, which will take thm around 20 minutes.

Cut the bell peppers into stripes and cook as described above for the onions.

Heat the beans with some water in a small sauce pan. Mash with a fork, add more water if needed. Season with garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, and hot stuff if desired (tabasco, chili...)

Cut the tofu into stripes. Heat 2 tblsp olive oil in a non-stick skillet over high heat. Add the tofu stripes and fry on both sides until they are golden brown and a nice crunhy crust has formed. Add more oil if needed. Add a very generous splash of soy sauce and immediately pull the skillet away from the heat. Shake the skillet so the tofu stripes are covered evenly with the soy sauce. The soy sauce will instantaneously start boiling and spluttering, covering the tofu stripes in a tasty, salty sauce.

Arrange everything nicely on a plate. Build your fajitas and enjoy :-)

Easter Bread

2008-04-12T16:33:00.016+02:00

Originally this was supposed to be an Easter bread. But then I didn't find time to bake during the Easter holidays, nor the week after that. We went to see our parents on Easter and it actually snowed on Easter Sunday!!! And last week I was busy with essays and project work for business school. I finally got around to making my favorite bread yesterday, so I just labelled it spring bread. It turned out like it wanted to make up for everything that has gone wrong lately: perfectly soft inside, perfect soft crust, and the aroma of almonds and raisins that have plumped up in Jamaica rum.

Easter Bread
makes a huge loaf, half the recipe if desired

1 cube fresh active yeast (40g, ca. 1.5 oz)
3 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c WW flour
1/4 c sugar
1/2 cup vegan margerine, melted, tepid
1 1/2 c non-diary milk, tepid
1/2 cup almonds, chopped
1/2 cup raisins plumped up in 1/2 cup rum, rinsed with water to get rid of excess rum on surface

Warm approx 1/2 cup of the milk until handwarm. Sift the flour into a large bowl, and make a "puddle" in the middle. Pour the warm milk into this puddle and add a tblsp sugar and the yeast, breaking it into small chunks. Now stir in very little of the flour surrounding the puddle until it forms a soft dough with the yeast and the milk.

Dust some flour over it and let rest in a warm place until the starter dough starts bubbling and rising. Depending on how warm it is in your kitchen this will take anywhere from 10-30 minutes. I'm using A LOT of yeast for this bread because I enjoy the intensive yeast taste in baked goods. You can also make this bread with half the yeast or even less.

Melt the margerine and let cool again to tepid, warm the remaining milk to tepid, and add the liquids together with the remaining ingredients to the bowl. Knead until everything comes together in a soft dough. I am still using the mixer/kneader I inherited from my grandma. Must be from the sixties or something like that.

If after 10 minutes of kneading it is still too sticky knead in some extra flour. You don't want to use too much, though, the softer the dough now the better the results later. Let rest in a warm place until the dough has risen to twice its volume. Preheat the oven to 350F/160°C.

Punch down. Divide the dough into three parts and form thick strands with each. Braid the strands on a piece of parchment paper or a floured surface. Give it a nice wash with some soymilk. I just poured very little into my hand and tried to distribute it nicely on the surface without making a huge mess (I did make a huge mess though, but the results totally justify it :-)).

Transfer the lot onto a baking sheed and into your oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, enjoying the sweet aroma that will fill your kitchen. Total baking time will depend on your oven and on how big your loaf is. Mine was HUGE, smaller loaves might be done quicker.

Let cool and either break off chunks and dip into coffee/tea or slice it nicely and enjoy with margerine and homemade jam. Hmmmm, Easter has just begun for me :-)

Some whining, some anatomy, and some Veganomicon

2008-04-06T20:44:00.006+02:00

There are times when eating only fulfills the purpose of transporting me from the state of "hungry" to the state of "not hungry". Now is one of these times... Things have been a little sub-perfect here lately.

As I've mentioned before I'm doing my MBA this year. And I don't know why it has to be this year, but of all years this is the year when all goes wrong. So we had planned that I do my MBA. We had wanted to get married anyway so we scheduled it for August 2007 before business school started in September. Everything could have been perfect except that I ran and feel down some stairs and broke my food two weeks before our wedding (Note to self: never never never run down stairs again). Talk about horror. So we cancelled the wedding, and I started business school on crutches. Wonderful.

After the plaster came down and I slowly learned walking again, walking wasn't a pleasure at first. I resorted to my trusted friend - my bike. Nine weeks after I fell down those stairs I was riding my bike at high speed when I got caught in tram tracks on the street and the dream of flying came true for me - I was catapulted 20 feet across the street and landed on my wrist (should have remembered that judo class... never never never fall on your wrist).

The pain was intense but I didn't give it much thought - after all this had been one hard fall and my hand was supposed to hurt. But then I woke up at night and wanted to cry my wrist hurt so much. We went to the emergency room where I was treated by a doctor who didn't care about what I told him where it hurt but who told me where it was supposed to hurt according to the X-ray. Well, try arguing with a doctor!

After some weeks of further fruitless treatment at that clinic I went to a different doctor. It took me a few weeks to get that appointment, and the new doctor immediately referred me to a hand surgeon. Another 8 weeks waiting time for an appointment, which I finally had last week.

Let me tell you, it feels so good to finally be taken seriously. Only, things don't look too good for my wrist. Luckily there are definitely no bones broken but apparently two very important ligaments are ruptured. I have a surgery scheduled for May 8, and will have my arm in plaster for at least 6 weeks.

Um, have I mentioned it is my right wrist? That's where business school comes into play again. Great. The one year I take out a huge loan to pay heaps of tuition I screw up my wrist and can't write for half the time - no notes, no written exams... Wonderful. I've started talking to my professors and the ones I've talked to so far were really helpful and will find ways to assess me without written exams.

Still, this diagnosis has somewhat depressed me. It felt good to finally have a diagnosis and not be told over and over again that I only imagine the pain and that I should stop whining. On the other hand - the doctors are not certain the surgery will be successful. They say if things don't turn out the way they want them to turn out, they may have to shorten my ulna bone to take away some pressure from the torn ligaments. Hey, sure, I'd love to have them cut open my arm and chisel and saw away at my bones... This would mean weeks and weeks pf plaster again, just when I wanted to start looking for a nice job with my new and shiny MBA degree. Oh perfect!

So that's why things have been a bit silent at this blog lately. Please bear with me, there will be happier posts about happy food again. For one, a supermarket nearby has started carrying vegan ice cream. Pure bliss :-).

And, to end on a happier note: I have very successfully tried Veganomicons "Acorn squash, pear, and adzuki soup with sautéed shiitake mushrooms". If you haven't tried this soup yet you don't know what you are missing. On a scale from one to ten, this was a clear eleven. Yum!

Butternut Bounty Contest - the Round-Up

2008-03-29T21:50:00.011+01:00

Let me start by apologizing for making you wait for so long for this round-up. Since you are probably not interested in hearing all my excuses about stress and work and so on let's get straight down to the purpose of this post:

When I first asked people for their favorite way to prepare butternut squash the majority advised me to just roast it. Apparently the simple things in live are sometimes the best! But then I did get some real recipes and therefore I am excited to present to you a proper round-up of this very first Bounty Contest:

"Butternut Squash. Who doesn't love this veg? It is dynamite in flavour and its versatility is much appreciated by this little vegan", writes VeganCowGirl and submitted two recipes that make me drool when I read them:

Sweet Squash Puff Packets: squash, apples, and sweet potatoes wrapped in puff pastry and baked until golden and flakey. I must admit that I find the combination of squash with apples intriguing and puff pastry is absolutely irressistible anyways. VeganCowGirl writes she had never worked with puff pastry before, so it was an exercise in discovery-cooking. Judging from the photos it was a successful experiment!

Next up are her Squash Sushi. Sushi, well, of course. Vinegared rice, tasty crunchy nori and tender squash - that must be one divine combo. I love sushi and was glad to discover that vegans can still enjoy it, with veggies. I had never thought of making it with butternut so this is a great idea.

Jennifer of Veg*n Cooking and other Random Musings sent me an email with her favorite ways to prepare butternut: "I tend to go a different way with things than most people. My favorite way to have butternut squash is in Mexican food." She submitted a recipe for "Spicy anasazi bean and quinoa stuffed roasted acorn squash". Quinoa is one of my recent favorite discoveries and the spices she uses do sound enticing.

The second recipe she suggested was "Vegan veggie enchiladas". Another great idea, and so simple when I think about it. Enchiladas rock! I must try them with butternut squash. Do contact Jennifer and request the recipes - they sound amazingly delicious!

And lastely Stonie of Dr. Stonielove's Bewildered Beast provided proof that, yes, it is possible to make squash gnocchi that do not fall apart when cooking. She submitted a mouthwatering recipe for Butternut squash gnocchi - with chili pepper for extra pizzazz - and an even more mouthwatering photo. Man, Stonie, you are a genius - photo and cooking-wise.

So, a total of five recipes that make me want to start cooking right away. Five recipes, each different and creative, each sounds delicious. I should not have labelled this a contest because now I have to single one out and proclaim it the winner. Believe me, this is hard and all of you are my winners.

So (drum-roll) after some deliberation with the co-host (my husband) we decided that the crown in this Bounty Contest goes to (more drum-roll) VeganCowGirl for the Sweet Squash Puff Packets. I had promised you a surprise prize but I didn't specify one before since I wanted to tailor it a bit to the winner. Since Vegan Cow Girl lives practically around the corner (Belgium) I decided that my favorite vegan fair-trade, 70%-cocoa chocolate is going to survive the trip across the border. Congratulations to VeganCowGirl and thank you to all of you for participating and making the bounty on our table even more delicious thanks to your great recipes.
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Edit: O blush, o shame... There was another entry I just discovered, in the comments section of the original post. Vinelady of Cooking Aboard submitted this amazing, mouthwatering Thai Squash Soup, a soup she cooked aboard a sailboat! A beautiful dish with my favorite Thai flavors: coconut milk, curry paste, and lemon grass. I love Thai food so this competition might have taken a totally different direction had I not missed this great entry. Go and check out this great soup. I deeply apologize to Vinelady for not including her. I feel so bad I'm giving out another prize which Vinelady totally deserves: more of my favorite vegan, organic, fair-trade, 70%-cocoa chocolate. Congrats!

Rhubarb Fool

2008-03-22T09:42:00.004+01:00

As promised, I'll let you in on the secret of yesterday's dessert. When I came across some forced rhubarb the other day I started craving rhubarb fool. Hmmm, the thought of tangy rhubarb with Soyatoo and something crunchy...

3/4 pounds forced rhubarb
4 tblsp brown sugar

Wash the rhubarb and slice it. Cover with water, add the sugar and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook until tender (approx. 10 minutes). Do not stir. Easy as pie :-) Serves four.

Serve in a nice glass topped with loads and loads of Soyatoo. To turn it into a real rhubarb fool, gently fold the rhubarb pieces into the Soyatoo, but then you need to serve it ASAP, because the Soyatoo melts fast.

So I had rhubarb, Soyatoo, but still needed something crunchy. And sure enough, Susan had a recipe for spicy crunchy biscotti. I went for the gluten-containing version of her recipe, and it turned out delicious. The biscotti's spiciness perfectly complemented the tanginess of the rhubarb and the creaminess of the Soyatoo. My father in law requested seconds and thirds - of the biscotti.

Unfortunately, the Soyatoo melted so fast in the heat of the lamp it was all melted before I got a chance to photograph it with some biscotti on the side. So, if you are still looking for a dessert for Easter Sunday consider this, it was the star of our meal.

The Butternut Bounty Contest

2008-03-21T21:14:00.003+01:00

This is just a reminder that I'm curious about your favorite way to prepare butternut. Post a fingerlickin' mouthwatering good recipe on your blog (or use one you've posted before), link here, and send me the link to aprilday AT web DOT de. Or just send me an email, as some have done already. Remember, there will be a small surprise present for the recipe me and my husband like best :-)

We've had my hubby's parents over for an early Easter get-together, and yes, I cooked, but with three hungry people waiting I didn't have time to take pictures of the food we had. I managed to get a shot of the dessert, though, so stay tuned.

So, happy Easter and happy cooking :-)

Yes, we can!

2008-03-18T21:23:00.005+01:00

Yes, vegans can indulge. Sure, most of the time most of us try to keep it as healthy as possible. But whenever we want to, we can eat cookies, and ice cream, and chocolate, and even the worst, greasiest, most artificial fast-food at times. Here is proof of our latest indulgence: french fries and faux gyro with ketchup. Since I got last-minute pangs of conscience I made some green peas and edamame to go with it. (Please excuse the blurry, weird photo - I was ravenous).

Apparently vegans can never stop thinking about how to make their food a little more healthy. So, this meal included beans. And, thinking of it, those were organic fries with nothing added when I bought them, not even salt. At least there is nothing I can say in defence of the faux gyro. Except for that it tasted great, actually the texture and taste were so "real" it was creepy.

I once made a fries + burger dinner for my parents: french fries and a soyburger - pan-fried tofu glazed with soy sauce and put on a bun with everything you could wish for on a hamburger. They were speechless. They never thought vegan food could be this good/evil/tasty/fast-food-like. But as I was saying: Yes, we can!

Swiss Chard in Spicy Peanut Butter Sauce

2008-03-17T20:09:00.006+01:00

No, this dish is not the prettiest of all. It's not all neat and shiny, no, it's smothered all over, smothered in peanut butter sauce. But don't let appearances fool you. Hmmm, the goodness of tender Swiss chard enveloped in the peanuts' creaminess, here and there a nutty, crunchy splinter, and then a hint of chili heat... Together with your favorite pasta this is comfort food in its purest form.

Try it and you will love it :-)

Swiss Chard in Spicy Peanut Butter Sauce
serves two

1 thumbsize piece ginger, peeled & minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups Swiss chard, sliced
2 cups very light vegetable broth
3-4 tblsp crunchy peanut butter (get one without hydrogenated oils)
a generous dash cumin
a dash cayenne pepper (or as much as you like)
1 tblsp balsamic vinegar
2 tblsp shoyu

+ your favorite pasta for two, cooked al dente

Heat a large skillet. Lightly spray it with olive oil, and add the garlic and the ginger, cover with a lid. Cook for a minute, make sure it doesn't burn.

Add the Swiss chard, together with the rest of the ingredients and cook until the chard is as tender as you like it - I like mine with A LOT of crunch left.

Add over your favorite steaming hot pasta and dig in :-)

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Very First Bounty Contest

2008-03-13T21:20:00.010+01:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, the time has come for the very first bounty contest. I'm looking for your favorite butternut squash recipe. And this is how it all began:

Growing up I do not remember pumpkins being sold in supermarkets. There were people who grew them in their backyards, but I only knew them as sweet&sour pumpkin pickles and I must say I did not crave them ever.

When I lived in Japan I got introduced to kabocha, and a gentle love affair started to unfold. Once back in Germany, I noticed that pumpkins were making their appearance on farmers markets. I started trying halloween pumpkin (uh, not my favorite) and acorn squash (wow, can't believe I missed that for the first 30 years of my live). And then last week I got a beautiful butternut squash. And now I'm at a loss as to what to do with this beauty.

I've tried a couple of pumpkin recipes so far. Some were a big hit with me and my hubby. And some... I've tried making pumpkin gnocchi with acorn, and failed miserably. Failed with flour, with potatoes, and with semolina. Acorn probably contains too much water. But roasted acorn - hmmmm. I wouldn't want to live without it. All in all more successes than failures and in the process I've turned into a pumpkin lover.

Now with this new baby I thought it is time for some inspiration. I've never had or cooked butternut squash so I need some help here. So send me your favorite pumpkin recipes, old or new, that have appeared on your blogs or that you post for this occasion. It does not need to be a butternut recipe, any type of pumpkin is fine as long as it will work with butternut, too. The recipe me and my hubby like best will be the winner, and there will be a little surprise prize :-).

Send me your recipes by Easter Sunday, March 23 midnight your time, to aprilday AT web DOT de, with Re: butternut (so I can tell your mails from spam). Now it's your turn, I'm looking forward to your creativity ;-)

PS: Yes I am aware of the fact that the season when everybody is crazy about pumpkins is over already. But doing unseasonal things sometimes is much more fun. So, fill me in on your butternut secrets already :-)
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Edit: I'm afraid my directions were a tad bit confusing, so here a clarification: The recipes you submit do not need to be new, however, they need to be posted on your blog, so I have somewhere to link to (Still thanks, chocovegan. The simplest things are sometimes the best :-)).

Additionally, in case of something you've featured before it would be great if you could just briefly repost your recipe and link to this post, if that doesn't mean too much trouble, just to give it the look and feel of a contest :-)

E for Excellent and Nice Matters Awards

2008-03-12T21:03:00.009+01:00

Recently I've been awarded the "Nice Matters Award" by Vaishali of Holy Cow! and the "E for Excellent" by Veggie of So what do vegetarians eat anyway?. Girls, I am speechless! I feel so honored because I only started blogging a little over two months ago and it feels good to be recognized in the blogging world already. Thank you girls, you made my day :-). And now it's my turn:

Amanda of Walking the Vegan Line definitely deserves a Nice Matters Award for her numerous nice activities to spread the message of veganism in Texas, "the land of barbeques and rodeo". Not the easiest place, it seems.

Second, I admire Chocolatecoveredvegan for giving up time to volunteer in an animal shelter to walk dogs. There's a well-deserved Nice Matters Award.

Third up is Vegan Dad who does a wonderful job of making a nutritious, healthy, and yummy vegan dinner every single night for his boys. Now, what is nicer than really taking a lot of time to make sure your kids grow up on a healthy diet when fast food is so easily available and socially accepted. Amazing job, vegan dad!

The E for Excellent is a little bit harder. I'm still relatively new to blogging and most of the blogs I know have received the E already. However, one of my favorite blogs which happens to be a non-food blog (albeit with a vegan sister blog), is What do I know. The author introduces herself as "an American living in Britain, a beautiful island in the North Atlantic. I often write about my adventures on the island, which is populated by friendly, dog-loving natives." I love her blog for its witty, pointed writing and good measure of irony so it's a clear E for KathyF.

The blog I probably adore most is Lucullian Delights. However, this blog is of a quality that I hardly dare award it anything cause that makes me feel like an ugly duckling assessing the beauty of a swan. Lucullian Delights features excellent, creative recipes, most of them veggie-based, and stunning, stunning photos. The most excellent blog I know!

So, congrats to all who recently have received one or the other award through me or somebody else. All your blogs are excellent and all of you inspire me so much with your cooking styles and your photos. And lastly, thank you again to Vaishali and Veggie who considered me for the awards.

Five a day

2008-03-09T21:02:00.008+01:00

One of my resolutions for this year had been to eat more veggies. It is so easy to start living on bread, pasta with cream sauces, sandwiches... Especially during the week when I have two of my three meals away from home and have to make do with what I can find, and that's usually bread, rice, bland lettuce and bananas.

So at least for the weekends I want to make veggies a priority and boy, me and my husband seem to do a great job. When I came home from grocery shopping Friday evening my husband asked me if we were expecting guests. I had bought a ton of fruits and veggies. But only 48 hours later, we had managed to chow down on all of the following:

1 pound green beans
1 pound potatoes
1 pound bell peppers
1 pound savoy cabbage
1 pound lambs lettuce
1 pound spinach
1/2 pound zucchini
1/2 pound brown portobellos
1/2 pound cherry tomatoes
1 eggplant
1/2 cauliflower
1 avocado
1 beautiful nameless lettuce

1 pound oranges
2 pounds strawberries
1 pound apples

That's 8 pounds of veggies and 4 pounds of fruits, or 2 pounds of veggies and 1 pound of fruits per person per day. Maybe there are raw-foodists who easily top this but for us this is a lot. Hehe, I guess this weekend we came close to changing the interpretation of the slogan "five a day".

We turned this into: roasted veggies, savoy cabbage with quinoa, braised eggplant, spaghetti with creamy spinach sauce, and vegan pizza topped with a lot of veggies.

More veggies and fruits? Mission accomplished, at least for the past weekend.

Oatmeal with almonds and raspberries

2008-03-08T21:43:00.006+01:00

Oatmeal is another food I didn't grow up with. I first got to know it when I went to high school in the US, sadly only out of a box with way too much sugar and artifial flavors that overpowered any other aroma. Yikes. Then during my time at university I spend some time in Scotland, the motherland of all oatmeals and porages. At least this is what they say there. It makes sense, though. The Scottish climate is kind of harsh, too cold for wheat and rye, and potatoes have been around in Europe only for the past 200 years or so. People had to eat something before then and in Scotland this happened to be oats and kale.

In Scotland I also learned the "proper" Scottish way of preparing porage, as they call oatmeal there: steelcut oats cooked in water with a pinch of salt, and served with a little cream or sour milk. I thought this must be gross, but then a Scot made it for me and I actually liked it. He told me that "in the old days" Scots would cook a huge pot of oatmeal in the morning, let it cool, cut it into chunks and take it with them for lunch.

Since going vegan, this is the way I usually make my oatmeal now (minus the cream, of course). But sometimes, I have this craving for a rich, creamy oatmeal, sweet and satisfying. And then I get out my soymilk and my quick cooking oats. This morning I also added almonds for added nutrients and frozen raspberries for fruitiness. I cooked the almonds with the oats to soften them a bit and added the frozen raspberries to the hot porage just before serving. The heat thawed them in no time and this way they didn't discolor the whole dish, even though pink oatmeal would probably have been pretty as well.

Lastly, I didn't add any sugar. I'm trying to avoid sugar as much as I'm trying to avoid fat - mostly but not religiously. I used "Alpro plus Calcium", it already contains as much raw cane sugar as cows milk contains lactose - sweet enough for me.

And this beautiful bowl? My husband gave it to me for my birthday last year. It is handpainted Meissen china, and to the right of the cherrie blossoms (how very Japanese) you can see the painters interpretation of my name in Japanese kana characters. See, best husband in the world :-)

1 cup soymilk
5 tblsp quick cooking oats
a few almonds
1 handful of fozen raspberries

Bring the soymilk together with the almonds to a boil. Stir in the oats, lower the heat and simmer until the oats are tender. Stir frequently. Add the frozen raspberries just before serving.

Cranberry-blood orange jelly

2008-03-03T19:42:00.014+01:00

I love February. Not because of the weather - definitely not. But February is blood orange season. In Germany, all oranges must be imported (pre-climate change climate provided... this winter would totally have been warm enough for orange trees to prosper), and more often than not their quality doesn't live up to my standards. But come February and all this changes. Blood oranges are always juicy, aromatic, tangy, and fragrant. I devour them by the pound.

Then the other day I found a leftover bag of cranberries in my freezer, and an idea started to form in my head. I'm the biggest fan of bitter orange marmelade, something you can only homemake with proper bitter Seville oranges - not marketed here. But how about a blood orange-cranberry jelly? Yes, gotta try that.

The verdict? Itsh hard to shpeak wish my moush full of bagel wish jelly... O my goodnesh, thish ish gooooooooood :-)

I used the frozen cranberries and juiced what seemed like 6 pounds of blood oranges. I brought the cranberries together with the orange juice to a boil, let it gently simmer for a while, covered with a lid to avoid boiling it down. I then strained it, pressing the pomace to squeeze out as much liquid as possible, and then measured 1 liter (4 cups) of liquid. I let it cool (important), then mixed this with 25 g of pectin, brought it to a boil again, stirring very frequently, added 300g sugar (1 cup), brought it back to a rolling boil and let it boil for approx. 3 min, stirring constantly.

so totals of:
cranberry juice + blood orange juice + juice of 1/2 lime, together a total of 1 liter (4 cups)
300g sugar (1 cup)
15g pectin (1/2 ounce) (use according to instructions on package!)
I'm giving the totals in metric values since they are a bit more precise.

I filled the hot hot hot jelly into scalded glasses with a twist-off lid. It is important to work quickly here, the jelly must be filled while it is still piping hot. Caution: the glasses get VERY hot. Use a clean towel to handle them, do not touch the rims with the towl. Since the glasses are too hot to hold while filling them, I always place them on a deep plate and then hold the plate.

I closed the lid tightly, and placed the glasses upside down. The remaining air in the glasses contracts as the jelly cools and produces a vacuum, thus tightly sealing the glasses. If I did it again I'd probably use less sugar, though, since the oranges were pretty sweet already. However, since the sugar acts as preserving agent I didn't want to cut it back too much. Still, if you use this ratio, your jam will still only have an added sugar content of 23% and a fruit content of 77%. Compare this to shop-bought jelly.

The key is to work as sterile as possible. Do not lick the spoon you are stirring with, do not touch the inside of the glasses or lids after scalding, do not wipe the glass rims with a cloth you used before for washing dishes or the like. Take a new cloth! Try to keep things surgically clean and the preserve will keep forever in a cool pantry - provided you don't eat it first. I've been making jams and jellies all my live and I've never had a batch go bad.

Homemade jelly is much much softer than store-bought brands (use mor pectin for firmer results). It is also much much yummier. Also, it usually is much much fruitier as well, preserving this typical pizzaz and tanginess missing in most store-bought brands. Plus, on one Sunday afternoon you can make a year's supply of jelly and jam of the fruit that's in season. So start peeling already :-)

Easy Marble Loaf Cake

2008-03-01T17:56:00.007+01:00

I have always wanted a silicone baking pan but was always too price conscious to actually buy one. Then the other day my husband surprised me with the cutest little silicone mini bundt pan and loaf tin. Hehe, he was probably just speculating on his favorite cake, marble loaf cake.

I count myself lucky that the cake he likes best is seemingly such an easy thing. But then, after going vegan it took me forever to find a recipe that always worked. After some fiddeling and tweaking, this is the one I'm always using now with only a handful of ingredients, and it's never failed me.

Easy Marble Loaf Cake

2 cups cake flour (300g)
1/2 cup sugar (150g)
1 heaping tblsp baking powder (20g)
pinch of salt

1/2 cup vegan margerine, melted and cooled (150g)
1 1/3 cup soymilk (300ml)

2 tblsp Dutch-proces cocoa
4 tblsp. soy milk

Combine the dry ingredients. Mix in the soy milk and melted, cooled margerine, and briefly mix till combined. Spoon half of the batter into a well greased loaf pan or ungreased silicone loaf pan.

Mix the cocoa into the remaining batter and add approx. 4 tblsp. soymilk to achieve the same consistency the white batter has. Add over the white batter. Now take a fork and lightly swirl it through the batters to create a marble pattern.

Bake in a loaf pan for 60 minutes at 350°F. For my silicone mini-pan, I halved the recipe, and baked it for 40 minutes. Let cool compeltely before slicing it, though. Tough, I know... Feel free to jazz it up with vanilla, cinnamon, or ginger, or throwing in dried fruits, chocolate chips, nuts, granola....

Marble cakes also turn out especially beautiful in bundt pans!

Baking in silicone pans was a novelty for me. For one thing you don't need to grease it. Also the sides of the loaf remained very soft which I really liked. However, I found the silicone increased the baking time considerably, probably due to lower heat conduction. So, in addition to baking time varying with stoves, it also varies according to how big your loaf is, and what form you use. Seriously, what's the point in indicating baking times... I've indicated my normal baking time for a normal metal loaf pan, but be sure to check your cake for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake to avoid underbaking or overbaking it.

Standard note on sugar: I realize that there are cultural taste differences. I like my desserts not overly sweet, both for health and taste reasons. Therefore, the amount of sugar I use may not satisfy your palate. Feel free to use more sugar, I've found this does not affect the baking properties / baking time at all.

Real. Fast. Food.

2008-02-29T22:26:00.007+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, Joanna from Joanna's Food gave away cookbooks she no longer needed - understandable with her collection of 100+ cookbooks. I was the lucky girl to get Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food.

I love reading cookbooks just like some people enjoy reading travel books. Maybe it's this feeling you were almost there, almost feeling the warm sand underneath your feet and the gentle breeze caressing your skin. This is what I feel when I read cookbooks. I can almost taste the smoky tenderness of grilled eggplant and the sweet tartness of plump sunripe summer tomatoes. I can almost feel the intricate flavors of a Thai spice mix gamboling on my tounge and the unearthly earthy aroma of dark chocolate melting in my mouth.

I don't follow cookbooks. In fact, I hardly ever follow any recipe, not even my own. Yet sometimes I stare at my pantry, open the fridge and inspect its contents, stare at my pantry again and can't decide what to make for dinner. That's where cookbooks come into play. Cookbooks are what I draw my inspitation from. And, vegan or not, one of the cooks who has inspired me most is Englishman Nigel Slater.

So, what to expect from a cookbook with the term "fast food" in its title? Curious I started leafing through the book and was in for a surprise. Fast food, yes, but not in the sense it is used these days. For starters, it has a bottle of olive oil, blue mussels, and a corkscrew on its cover, three things not ordinarily associated with fast food (read: coke, burger, fries). Nigel presents an amazing collection of real food ready to eat in less than 30 minutes. And he means real food.

The thing that thrilled me most, personally, is the fact that out of the 300 or so pages with recipes, about 120 pages are dedicated to vegetables, pasta, potatoes, and beans, and are either veg*n as is or can be easily veganized. Plus, they are what I call creative, either in their combination of ingredients, or the way they are prepared. And sometimes they are just plain simple and easy. Want a taste?

Hot brown lentils with mint
Grilled aubergine with chickpea puree and harissa
Bubble and squeak (cabbage mixed with mashed potatoes, then fried)
Wholewheat pasta with sausages, mustard and caramelised onions

Or take this: "Serve with a crisp salad, perhaps beanshot, pepper, and banana, tossed with lots of lemon juice." Wow. Talk about creativity. Beanshots, pepper, and banana. Nigel is a genius. I could go on and on and on. Suffice it to say that now I have enough "wanna trys" to last me through the rest of the year. Or more.

And then, the other day, Nigel's book helped me see the obvios. I was at home studying, facing a much dreaded exam the following day. It was lunch time and I was fighting hard to resist the temptation of taking an extended break from torturing myself with monotonous material by escaping to my kitchen and cooking to my hearts delight. No, no, I needed to stay focused. Still I was hungry, so I resorted to Nigel for advice. And the book showed me what I could have seen myself but failed to do so: an avocado sandwich. Duh! Of course I didn't follow the recipe completely, gotta preserve some creativity. Yet without Nigel's book, who knows, I might have ended up doing some real cooking. Instead I had Real Fast Food.

Thank you, Joanna.

Nice Matters

2008-02-28T21:49:00.008+01:00

Vaishali over at Holy Cow , a great vegan blog I highly recommend for its awesome Indian recipes, has awarded me with the "Nice Matters Award". I'm thrilled and excited, and very touched. And pretty spechless. I'll get to pass it on to some bloggers myself now. Will have to think about this a day or two, so for now just let me say, Vaishali, I am deeply touched by this award. Thank you so much. You received it first and you thoroughly deserve it for your great blog and simply for being sooooo nice.

Life is crazy these days. As I've mentioned before, I'm doing business school this year, and I'm up to my eyeballs in exams, classes even on Saturdays, projects, papers, reading, studying, and on top of that commuting a couple of hours each day. So there hasn't been much cooking going on lately, and if so, I was too tired/hungry/impatient to wait these two minutes it would take to photograph the plate before polishing it off. So forgive me and keep checking in nonetheless, I promise I'll post on the weekend again.

The best husband in the world

2008-02-24T21:02:00.008+01:00

I have the best husband in the world. No, seriously. The best. Not only is he a loving, caring, intelligent companion, he is also a talented cook. Today, after another six-day-week of business school, he made lunch for me. The other day we had bought some rice in the fair trade store - but not just any rice: purple rice from Laos. It was white basmati rice mixed with dark grains of a variety that according to the package would turn purple when cooked. We gave it a shot, and really, when we opened the rice cooker after it was done it was a bright amazing purple. Lovely :-)

To go with this bright purple rice he made green edamame, grilled zucchini, and a mustard sauce that he turned yellow and fragrant with a spice mix he brought back from Kenia. This was one delicious and colorful cooked lunch. And to make it even more perfect, today was the warmest day we've had this year so far. It must have been something like 70°F. The normal temperature this time of the year would be closer to 0°F. It was sunny and warm so we had lunch on our balcony. Seriously, in moments like these I'm a big fan of global warming...

When I first met my husband I had just turned vegan - and he was on the continuous quest for the perfect steak. "I'll never become a vegetarian, let alone vegan", he told me. Not too long after this incident he said good by to meat, too, and replaced his quest for the perfect steak with the quest for the perfect slice of fried eggplant (which is just as demanding, I'm telling you). On top of this he cooks the most delicious vegan dishes for me. See, I have the best husband in the world.

For more purple foods check out my Purple Potatoe Salad.

Chickpea Soba Soup with a Secret Ingredient

2008-02-22T20:14:00.008+01:00

Last night as dinner time was approaching I was leafing through V-con and the Chickpea-Noodle Soup caught my eye. Unfortunately, I didn't have half of the ingredients and was too tired/lazy/cranky to go shopping again. But I had set my mind on this and was craving it, it had to be a chickpea-noodle soup. Luckily, I happened to have a can of chickpeas and a pack of Japanese soba on hand.

I didn't measure what I put in the soup. I used instant vegetable stock, zucchini (courgettes), chickpeas, soba noodles, a secret ingredient (more of that later), and handful of arugula (rocket). I love throwing arugula into soups. It adds color, crunch, vitamins, iron... and taste :-) I brought the broth with the chickpeas to a boil and added the soba and the sliced zucchini at the same time, and cooked it for five minutes until the soba were tender. The zucchini were still al dente, so if you like your veggies softer you might want to throw in the zucchini first.

I didn't have the miso the V-con recipe called for. So far I have not been able to find fish-free miso here. Once I was in an Asian supermarket and was looking at the misos. I checked the German list of ingredients - all fine- and had the pack of miso in my shopping cart already when I noticed the Japanese inscription on the front of the pack. I turned the pack around again and checked the Japanese list of ingredients. After living in Japan as a vegan, the one thing I can decipher is animal ingredients on labels. There was fish in the miso!

I am still shocked and cannot believe the slack labelling. Food laws stipulate that all possible allergens must clearly be indicated - and fish is one of them. Plus, it WAS clearly indicated in Japanese, but of the 10 or so ingredients in Japanese, only 3 were translated... My trust in labeling of imported food is now a bit shaken...

Anyway, I'm digressing. So no miso. But a mixture I came up with a couple of months ago and which truly takes brothy soups to another level is a 1:1:1 mix of tahini, soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar. With lots of "umami" it makes soups nice'n'creamy. So, this is my secret soup ingredient, and both me and my husband love it.

Now drool over the picture and/or get a copy of V-con as I'm sure that V-con's soup is even tastier.

For more brothy soups check out Japanese Nabe.
For more creamed vegetable soups check out Broccoli-Cauliflower Yin-Yang Soup.

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Purple Potato Salad

2008-02-19T19:24:00.004+01:00

The other day I stumbled across some purple potatoes in the deli section. Their color intrigued me and so I managed to ignore their outrageous price and bought some. I cooked them in their jackets because I was afraid their precious color could fade plus their surfaces were really uneven which would have made it hard to peel them. Then I proceeded with my family's potato-salad recipe, adding a dash of wasabi for extra pizazz.

Their color was a big hit at our dinner table tonight, and so was their taste. I served these with an unbelievably good soup (more of that later) and a kick-ass vegan sandwich: I baked a crusty focaccia and put on some ground horseradish, generous amount of hummus, sundried tomatoes, sliced black olives, avocado slices, broiled tofu, loads of arugula (rocket), cucumbers and ketchup. I'm telling you, my husband really loves me now :-) (I mean, he does anyway, but no man can resist good food :-))

Purple potato salad
Serves two as a side

1/2 pound purple potatoes
1 red onion, diced
1 cup strong vegetable broth (instant)
1-2 tblspoon mustard
1-2 tblspoon balsamic vinegar (depending on how vinegary your mustard is)
a dash of wasabi

1/2 juicy, aromatic apple
2 tblspoon sliced pickled cucumbers

Cook the potatoes in their jackets. Drain, and peel the hot potatoes. Bring the broth to a boil, add the onion and cook for a few minutes. Stir in 1 tblsp mustard and vinegar, taste and add more if you want. The dressing should be quite vinegary and salty.

Slice the potatoes into 1/2 - 1 inch slices, dice the apple, slice the cucumbers. Add everything to the hot dressing and turn off the heat. Let sit for approx. 1/2 hour, stirring every once in a while. The potatoes will start absorbing the dressing and the starch of the potatoes will mix with the liquid resulting in a creamy potato salad - with no fat added. Serve at least at room temperature, preferably a little warm.

For more side salads check out Arugula with white beans, cherry tomatoes, and red onions.

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Susan's Sichuan Tofu

2008-02-13T22:11:00.009+01:00

Last night we had FatFreeVegan Susan's Sichuan Tofu with Garlic Sauce. Wow. I'm still speechless. This is arguably the best meal I've ever cooked without that-which-must-not-be-named. I made brown rice and some roasted broccoli to go with it. I didn't have sherry or Shao Hsing wine but I still had a bottle of organic high-quality sake I brought back from Japan that I had been waiting to use. It worked beautifully.

Soon my husband was scraping the empty skillet, giving me this "this-is-good-and-I want-more-of-it" look. Next time I'll double the recipe. Thanks, Susan, for this wonderful recipe.

Spinach-Squash Lasagna

2008-02-13T21:49:00.010+01:00

This months topic for Heart of the Matter, hosted by the Accidental Scientist, is Stews and Casseroles. Heart of the Matter is all about heart-healthy food that is delicious without putting your health at risk. Hm, last months topic was soups. I didn't want to make anything that would resemble last months theme, so I went for a spinach-squash lasagna, since lasagna could arguably pass as a casserole.

This lasagna is almost fat-free and 100% cholesterol-free, something your ordinary lasagne is probably not. Still it is chock-full of flavors and veggies: caramelized squash, tender spinach and heart-healthy garlic. This one is a keeper.

Spinach-Squash Lasagna

2 1/2 cups vegan broth
2 1/2 cups soymilk
2 tblsp flour dissolved in some cold water
nutmeg, freshly ground pepper, minced garlic, lemon juice
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes + some more for sprinkling

1 1/2 cup squash/pumpkin cubes, roasted with garlic and sea salt
1 cup spinach (I used frozen thawed)

dry lasagne sheets

Cut the squash/pumpkin into approx 1/3" cubes, toss with some olive oil, season with sea salt and garlic and roast until tender. Defrost the spinach (or wash, cook, and drain fresh spinach).

Bring the broth and soymilk to a boil. Season with nutmeg, pepper and a spritz of lemon juice. Stirr in the dissolved flour and bring back to a boil, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Then start by pouring a thin layer of "bechamel" in your lasagna form to prevent the sheets from sticking to the bottom. Cover the bottom with lasagna sheets but leave room for them to expand (they will). Top with the roasted squash and a generous amount of sauce. Add another layer of lasagna sheets, top with the spinach and again sauce. If you still have veggies left and room in your form, then just repeat. Make sure you use plenty of sauce because the pasta will soak it up and you want a nice and moist lasagna. The amount of sauce you need will vary with the size of your lasagna form, you may need more or less. Make sure you have one cup sauce left over.

Stirr the nutritional yeast flakes into the remaining 1 cup of sauce, pour on top of the lasagne. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast and into the oven it goes. The yeast flakes on top give it this nice crunch that is usually achieved with cheese that has baked for a long time. Bake for approx. 45 minutes until the pasta is tender and the top is nicely browned and crunchy.

This was the first time I've attempted to make a non-tomato-based lasagna and I was really surprised at how rich and creamy it tasted. The starch of the pasta makes for very creamy results even though this is almost fat-free. Serve with a BIG salad, lambs lettuce is in season plus it tastes divine.

Serves two.

Spaghetti with Caramelized Veggies in Creamy Red Wine Sauce

2008-02-07T21:26:00.002+01:00

Susan over at the FatFree Vegan Kitchen is again hosting Vegetable Love. This is an event where she collects fat-free, vegetable-centered, healthy, sexy recipes for Valentine's day. So, what is the most sensual thing to eat with candlelight, a glass of good red wine, and subtle music? Think Lady and the Tramp.... It's spaghetti. Seriously. Comfort food that a simple sauce can transform into an aphrodisiac and which will still retain its simple, sensual appeal. And if that sauce is veggie-based it meets all the other requirements above. So here I give you the recipe for our all-time favorite pasta. Sweet caramelized onions, earthy mushrooms, and tender courgetts with perfect al-dente spaghetti enveloped in creamy, aromatic, red wine sauce. (Picture of Lady and the Tramp: Disney).

Spaghetti with caramelized veggies in creamy red wine sauce

Serves two plus leftovers

2 cloves garlic, minced
3 red onions, halved and then thinly sliced
4 courgettes
8 oz brown portobellos, sliced
8 oz shiitake, sliced

3/4 cup soymilk (see note)
3/4 cup red wine
3/4 cup vegan stock (instant)
salt, freshly ground pepper, fresh thyme

Lovingly set the table with flowers and candles and put on romantic music.

Cut the courgettes in half lenghtwise, then shave them with a potato peeler into thin slices.

Ligthly spray a non-stick skillet with olive oil. Gently fry the garlic for a minute over medium heat. Add the onion slices and cover with a lid. The onions will now start cooking in their own juice. Stirr frequently, adding 2 tblsp of water if the onions start browning too much or sticking to the pan. After about 20 minutes the onions should be tender and caramelized.

Turn the heat to high and add the mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes on high until the mushrooms start exuding their juices. Add the courgette slices together with the soymilk, red wine and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, cover again and cook for two minutes. Uncover and stirr. The steam should have softened the courgette slices, they are so thin that they will cook in no time. Cook for one or two more minutes of needed. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste and sprinkle with fresh thyme. Add more liquid if needed.

Pour over your steaming hot spaghetti and serve to the one you love. Slurp on the same strand of spaghetti. Kiss.

THE END

Mmmmmmh, can you smell it? Mmmmmmh... :-)

For more yummy pasta recipes check out Spaghetti with arugula, garlic, and grape tomatoes

Note: If you are not concerned about fat-free, use soy-creamer.

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Photo Blog

2008-02-07T20:58:00.000+01:00

I've started to like taking pictures and I'm taking more and more non food-related photos. I didn't want to cram them into my food blog so I've started a photo blog. Nothing to do with vegan food, just the joy of capturing beautiful moments as best as I can. Check it out: Learning to See.

Japanese Nabe

2008-02-05T16:18:00.006+01:00

This is the story of a very traditional Japanese dish and what I made of it. First of all, I took out all that crawled before. And second, I cannot find half the original ingredients over here in Germany, so I had to make some adjustments. Even so, nabe is one of my all-time favorite soups. It is quick, easy, warming, and in its vegan version almost fat-free.

Nabe is a traditional winter dish. It is cooked at the table in a wide flat pot. The ingredients are nicely arranged in the pot, the longest cooking go in first, the most tender last. Then everybody takes out some of the food, and new ingredients are placed in the broth. This goes on until everybody is full. Now you have a deeply aromatic broth left. Enter the rice. On festive occasions in Japan, rice is usually served last. Maybe it is because this is the weekday staple, and on special days people want to fill up on something else. The cooked rice (some Japanese also use soba) is placed in the rich, fragrant broth, left there to soak up the liquids, and then enjoyed at the close of the meal.

I remember cold cold winter Sundays in Japan when I was out all day. When I got home I only wanted to do one thing: curl up on my heating carpet and slurp hot nabe soup until my bones were thawed again. Also my Japanese friends frequently invited me for nabe nights - evenings full of laughter and playing cards - and eating lots and lots of nabe.

Back here in Germany, I don't have a nabe pot, so I make it on the stove like a soup. I love how the flavors play together. The pumpkin and cabbage lend it some sweetness, chrysanthemum leaves have a delightful bitterness in them, lotus root adds some crunch, and the mushrooms and tofu are heavenly tender.

Above are two pics I took in Japan of my beloved pot and what it looked like in the soup bowl. Below the instructions for my westernized veganized Nabe. I give you the original ingredients first, and in parentheses the possible substitutes if you have trouble finding things.

Japanese Nabe
Serves two

vegan nabe broth (or vegetarian yeast-based stock or vegetable stock)
vegan Japanese sesame dressing to taste (or 1:1:1 tahini + balsamic vinegar + soy sauce)
1-2 cups Japaneses mushrooms (shiitake, king trumpet mushrooms (eryngii), enoki)
1/2 cup fresh lotus root (or water chestnuts)
5 oz firm tofu
1/2 small kabocha pumpkin
1 small Chinese cabbage
1 cup bean sprouts
a good handfull of chrysanthemum leaves (or arugula (rocket))
1 oz rice noodles (original: Japanese rice or soba)

Cook the rice noodles (or Japanese soba or Japanese rice) according to instructions on the pack.

Place the stock and some of the sesame dressing to taste together with the tofu, the pumpkin, the mushrooms and the fresh lotus root in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer until the veggies are tender. Add the Chinese cabbage and the sprouts and simmer for a few more minutes. You do not want the cabbage to overcook. Taste and adjust spices. Add the arugula (or better: chrysanthemum leaves) and the rice noodles and serve, the heat of the soup will wilt the arugula to perfection.

For more easy but impressive soups check out the white and green Broccoli-Cauliflower Yin-Yang soup.

I'm making my veganized Japanese Nabe my contribution to "No croutons required" which is hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen and Holler from Tinned Tomatoes - this month centers around vegetable soups.

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Veganomicon

2008-02-05T13:52:00.001+01:00

Veganomicon. It was praised as the ultimate vegan cookbook. After practically every vegan blogger seemed to have a copy of it I got curious and ordered one, too. Then I had to wait for it for three weeks since it is shipped to Germany from the US. Let's not talk about the shipping costs... Suffice it to say that for the shipping costs alone I could have bought another cookbook.

So I was really excited when it finally arived today. Would it be worth the money spent?

I started flipping through it, reading here a bit, looking there at a recipe - starting to look at recipes closer, reading more, reading more.... An hour later I was still marvelling at the recipes, trying to decide if I should start with the Hot and Sour Soup with Woodear Mushrooms or with the Kabocha-Udon Winter Stew. I must confess I'm sold. This book is brilliant.

I don't think there is anyone except for me who didn't buy it yet, but if there is still a soul out there who has not yet read THE BOOK - go get it. You won't regret it. Hundreds of wonderful recipes, mouthwatering photos, and the part I love best is the index. You can search recipes by soy-free, gluten-free, low-fat, under 45 minutes... Finally a really helpful index.

Verdict: Worth every penny (cent) spent - and much more. Wonderful job, Isa and Terry.

Potato Gratin "Heaven and Earth" with Lambs Lettuce

2008-02-03T21:50:00.001+01:00

My contribution to the Paper Chef #26 - The Return. The four ingredients to be used were potatoes, bacon, swede/rutabaga and plum tomatoes. Ilva urged us to get creative so I was trying to think of of something a little more... out of the ordinary.

There is a dish in North-West Germany called "Heaven and Earth". It is basically mashed potatoes (earth) with cooked, mashed apples (heaven). I had never actually had it myself but had heard its praises sung so much that I decided to try a hommage to Heaven and Earth by including apples in the gratin.

So, how was it? It was WOW. I'm glad I tried what when I first thought of it seemed crazy and probably inedible. It was heaven, so to speak. The mealiness of the potatoes was perfectly complimented by the swedes' texture, and the apples contributed sweetness, a little tartness and juiciness (duh). All in all the comfort of a gratin with an interesting zing. I am definitely making this again.

Potato Gratin "Heaven and Earth"

2 pounds mealy potatoes
1/2 pound swedes
1 apple
some fresh thyme

1/2 cup soy creamer
1 1/2 cup vegan stock
2 bay leaves

1 tblsp flour, dissolved in some water

some lemon juice, nutmeg, freshly ground black pepper

Bring the soy creamer and stock with the bay leaves to a boil, stirr in the dissolved flour and stirr until it thickens slightly. Season with freshly ground pepper, nutmeg, and lemon juice and add salt to taste. You want to be a little on the salty side since the potatoes absorb a lot of flavor.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Peel the potatoes, swede, and apple and slice approx. 1/4 inch thick. Layer nicely in a flat, wide gratin form, tucking in a slice of apple here and there, and sprinkling it with some fresh thyme. Gently pour the sauce over the veggies. Bake for approx. 30 minutes or until the veggies are tender and nice and golden. If it starts browning too much, lower the heat to 350°F (170°C). Serve with Lamb's Lettuce, Plum Tomatoes, and Faux Bacon.

Lamb's Lettuce, Plum Tomatoes, and Faux Bacon

Cut 2 ounces of extra firm tofu into small cubes. Heat some olive oil in a pan, add the cubes and fry until they are crisp and golden. Add a generous splash of soy sauce. This will give the cubes a deep dark color and give them this savory, salty touch.

Wash lambs lettuce (between the two of us we eat 5 ounces), slightly salt it and give it a generous splash of good balsamic vinegar and fruity extra virgin olive oil. Toss. Add plum tomatoes and "bacon" pieces.

Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Thai Curry with Spelt-Basmati Rice

2008-02-03T12:05:00.002+01:00

A couple of years ago shortly after going vegan I took a trip to Thailand. I was shocked by the fact that in tourist restaurants they seemed to offer meat only, and thrilled when I found a little eatery that had vegetarian options on their menu, most of them vegan. There I had some of the most flavorful dishes I ever tasted.

Fast forward: Some months ago I was browsing the shelves of an Asian supermarket in the nearby city and stopped dead when I saw a vegan Tom Ka paste. Lovely. I've been cooking not a soup but more of a curry based on this, and both the husband and I really have to fight this urge to lick our plates after dinner... This curry is pretty heavy on Chinese cabbage, but then again Chinese cabbage contains loads of calcium.

As for the rice: I've recently discovered that brown rice when cooked tastes as good as white rice, only it contains so much more that is good for you. And my latest discovery: adding a few spelt kernels to the rice is an awesome thing to do. I love the crunch the spelt adds, not to mention the added nutrients. All in all this was one nutrient-packed Sunday lunch. Um, have I mentioned it was yummy?

Thai Curry with Spelt-Basmati Rice

1 large king trumpet mushroom (eryngii) (approx. 4 ounces), sliced
7 ounces extra firm tofu cut into 1/2" pieces
1 14ounce can light coconut milk (or coconut water to make it fat-free)
1/2 cup water

1 dry red chili (or a lot more, depending on how spicy you like it)
2 bay leaves
2-3 tblsp vegan Thai tom-ka paste
spice mix, containing galangal, lemongras, kaffir lime leaves, coriander root

1 small Chinese cabage (approx. 1 pound), cut into bit-sized pieces
1 1/2 cup shiitake, stems trimmed, sliced

splash of lime

Bring the coconut milk together with the water and the spices to a boil. Add the tofu and the sliced trumpet mushrooms. Let simmer for a few minutes so the mushrooms can soften and the tofu can absorb the flavors. Add the remaining ingredients, simmer for a few more minutes. Adjust spices, add a splash of lime. Done.

I bought the spice mix ready assembled in a bag, it's called Tom-Ka spices. I bet their fresh counterparts will give this curry even more flavor but here in Smalltown, Germany, I consider myself lucky finding dried exotic spices. So if you get a chance to buy fresh galangal, lemongras, kaffir lime leaves, and coriander root you should definitely go for the fresher taste.

1 1/2 cup organic, fair-trade, brown basmati rice
1/2 cup spelt (leave out to make it gluten-free)
4 cups water

I cooked the rice in my rice cooker, ignoring the water marks and using 2 cups of water for every cup of brown rice.

Serves two.

Bonus pic: Look at this beauty! This is the orchid my brother gave me for christmas. Lucky me :-)

Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.
Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.

Chocolate Mousse on Caramel with Red Nettles

2008-01-28T13:45:00.001+01:00

My entry for Art You Eat #1- Chocolate. Ok, this is probably the least creative idea there is when the task is to create edible art with chocolate. So I didn't get any more creative than chocolate mousse. But then I have never had good VEGAN chocolate mousse. I mean, making something that usually consists of copious amounts of eggs and cream with a little chocolate drizzled in using plant-based ingredients only... Creative in my book. Adventurous at least... I was curious to see if I could do it.

And the caramel net? I'm a big fan of Bridget Jones's Diary and laughed my heart out when Bridge tried to make something or the other in sugar cages for her birthday. I had never tried to make sugar cages and just wanted to tackle it.

The results? The sugar turned out quite caramelized which gave it a nice dark sheen. And the mousse... my oh my... I have a new vice...

Did it beautify my blog? Well.... My food photography skills are not very refined yet. But I had fun. And a new and oh so simple vegan dessert to show off with.

The Caramel Net

There are fancy ways to do this, with a candy thermometer and all sorts of things I don't have. I just melted 1 cup regular sugar over medium heat until it was all liquidy and caramelized, then jacked up the heat to high and let it bubble for a minute or two. Then I put a bowl into the sink (lest it would break and spill its contents all over my kitchen) and poured the hot hot hot caramel into it to prevent it from burning in the hot pot. This had the added advantage that I could just pop it into the microwave for a few seconds everytime it got too cool to work with.

I let the sugar cool for a few minutes, testing every once in a while if it would already form strings. Then I dipped the prongs of a fork into the sugar and let it drip in long thin strands onto some parchment paper to form a grid. Then I just let it cool and went shopping for vegan cream and chocolate.

The Chocolate Mousse

1 cup dark chocolate, melted
1 cup vegan whipping cream (I used Soyatoo)
1 tblsp cornstarch
1 teaspoon confectioner's sugar

I had never had vegan mousse nor tried to make any. The recipes I googled all used tofu, something I cannot come by easily. So I decided to give Soyatoo, an amazing vegan "whipping cream" a try.

The chocolate I used is an equally amazing organic fair-trade chocolate. Its only ingredients are cocoa mass, cocoa butter, and raw cane sugar. 85% of it is cocoa, that means it only contains 15% sugar. No added fats, no added nothing. Amazingly chocolate-y.

I melted the chocolate in a bowl in a pot with hot water, making sure the chocolate didn't get too hot, then let it cool to room temperature. I whipped the Soaytoo with the starch and the sugar until it was whipped-creamy, then added the chocolate, whipped it some more, transferred it to a nice bowl and trusted it to my fridge.

Onto the plate

I had envisioned my mousse on a glass plate, garnished with mint leaves and raspberrries. Unfortunately, my supermarket was out of mint plants but on my way home I found some edible, non-stingy red deadnettles. They normally blossom in spring and summer but this winter so far has been more like spring anyway so they were already out and blooming. Beautiful.

I placed the caramel grid on a glass dish. Then I used two spoons to form little oval "nockerl" and lovingly arranged them on their caramel bed. I had some raspberries join them and some red nettles to keep them company. And then I highjacked the whole plate to take pictures of it.

After the photo session I sat down with a nice cup of rooibos tea and enjoyed my piece of art. My verdict? As Saint-Exupery put it: "What is essential is invisible to the eyes." It was delicious :-)

Spring Rolls with Chili and Ponzu Sauce

2008-01-23T19:15:00.002+01:00

Wow, what a week. In September, I started business school and this past week truly lived up to expectations. We had class from nine to seven, even on Saturday, and loads of reading to do at home. Plus, it takes me two hours to get to school. And when I was riding the train I would think about the things I'd like to cook but when I got home at nine in the evening I simply couldn't be bothered...

Yesterday, Saturday, was the last day of this marathon. And you know how after your last day of something very exhausting you suddenly have lots of energy because you know you can sleep in the next day and relax? I finally had energy left to cook and I had a craving for spring rolls, something I last had years ago back in my omni days. Fatty fried foods give me a hard time so the challenge was to make them vegan and as fat-free as possible.

To fill them I used whatever I found in the fridge and pantry but I bet they'd be great with vegetables only. I'm thinking bean sprouts, carrots, and broccoli.

Ponzu Sauce

3 tblsp reduced sodium soy sauce
3 tblsp lime juice

This is a very simple version of my favorite Asian dipping sauce. It is almost not a recipe, too easy to be spelled out and yet too good to not mention it.

Spring Rolls

24 rice sheets for spring rolls (diameter ca. 6 inch)

3 carrots
3 scallions
1 cup Chinese cabbage in thin stripes
ginger garlic chili to taste

1/2 cup small TVP chunks
1/2 cup hot double-strenth vegan broth
1 tblsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tblsp balsamic vinegar

1 tblsp dark sesame oil

Reconstitute the rice paper in batches: let some water run over the sheets and place them on a wet kitchen towel. Mine took forever to soften so you might want to do this first.

Reconstitute the TVP chunks in the broth with the soysauce and the vinegar. Stirr once in a while to make sure the chunks a the top also get soaked. Cook them in a skillet for a few minutes. I'm not sure this is necessary but I didn't want to eat these raw.

Peel and shred the carrots and the scallions. Add them together with the cabbage to the pan and give them a quick sweat. Season generously with ginger (I was lazy and used the powdered version) or whatever strikes your fancy.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Place two sheets of softened rice paper on top of each other. Place some of the filling in a row in the center. Fold the sides over and then roll them up.

Lightly lightly coat the rolls with some sesame oil using a brush (or lightly spray them) and place them sealed side down on a sheet lined with parchment paper and bake them until crunchy. Mine took 15 minutes but this will depend on your oven. Makes six rolls.

We had these with ponzu sauce and with sweet chili sauce I made (but so far have not managed to take a decent photo of).

I was really happy with how they turned out :-)

Serves 4 as starters or two as main course.

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Glutenfree depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Broccoli-Cauliflower Yin-Yang Soup

2008-01-22T20:11:00.002+01:00

Two cruciferous vegetables cooked in aromatic homemade vegetable stock wich reduces the amount of salt needed - ultimate heart-healthy luxury. Um, did I mention that it is delicious as well? This soup is one of my contributions to HotM. Joanna promised me I could enter more than one soup - that sure got me cooking.

Broccoli-Cauliflower Yin-Yang Soup

1/2 head cauliflower
1 head broccoli
1 cup soycreamer (or soymilk or leave out to make it fat-free)
vegan stock (preferably homemade)
nutmeg, pepper, sea salt to taste

Cut the broccoli and cauliflower into florets, you should have more or less an equal amount of broccoli and cauliflower. Place the broccoli in one small saucepan and the cauliflower in another saucepan. Cover with stock and cook until tender. Add half the soy creamer to both pots. Blend. Add stock until the two soups have about the same consistency. Season the cauliflower with a generous pinch of nutmeg, the broccoli with some freshly ground black pepper.

Take some aluminum foil and fold it to a stripe. Place the stripe upright on the plate marking the yin-yang-dividing line. Then very slowly and carefully start pouring the two soups from the two sides onto the plate. When the plate is filled, carefully remove the stripe. Spoon a drop of white soup on the green round and vice versa.

It only took me about 30 minutes total - 15 minutes cooking time and 15 minutes for bringing the soup onto the plates, so this is the perfect make-belief-its-fancy dish.

Simple and easy to prepare but quite impressive. For more simple yet impressive soups check out Roasted Pepper Soup with Cinnamon and Ginger.

Serves two.

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Caldo Gallego a la Scarborough Fair

2008-01-21T22:04:00.000+01:00

During my time at university I spent almost a year in Spain. I was living in Galicia in Spain's beautiful north where the hills are green and the winters cold and where you will see snow almost every winter. To keep warm during the colder months, the people in Galicia, gallegos as they call themselves, cook up a rich and warming stew, the Caldo Gallego.

The main ingredients are white beans, potatoes and two leafy greens I cannot come by in Germany, namely rapini and collard greens, these can be perfectly substituted with curly kale. Alas, the original also contains copious amounts of that-which-must-not-be-named but I chose to just ignore that. This soup is not to be confused with the similar Portuguese Caldo Verde. Caldo Verde does not contain beans and is more on the light side, served as a starter. Caldo Gallego however is a thick, filling soup that is usually served as a one-pot meal.

I fell in love in Spain - with this creamy, rich, aromatic stew and after going vegan this was the first thing I tried in its all-vegetable version. I had been planning on making this my contribution for HotM. While I was making the soup, I was humming the tune of Scarborough Fair. It was then I realized that I happened to have fresh parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme on hand. So in order to give this recipe a twist and make it even more heart healthy I added the English touch to this Spanish stew - the Scarborough fair herbs.

Caldo Gallego a la Scarborough Fair

1 cup uncooked white beans
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves
vegetable stock (ideally homemade to make it super heart-healthy)

2 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 cups curly kale, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1 sage leaf, chopped
1/2 teaspoon rosemary, chopped
1/2 teaspoon thyme, chopped

sea salt to taste
extra virgin olive oil

Soak the beans overnight. Cook them the next day with the bay leaves and the diced onion and garlic until tender. Do not add salt (or salty instant stock) before the beans are tender.

When the beans are done, remove the bay leaves and add the potato cubes and the kale. Cook until tender, around 15 minutes. If you are using homemade stock, you need to add only very little salt since the broth will be very aromatic already, an added heart-healthy bonus. For serving, sprinkle each plate with some of the herbs and give it a drizzle with your finest extra virgin olive oil.

Serves two.

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Homemade Vegetable Stock

2008-01-21T21:08:00.000+01:00

I love soups, always have. Back in the pre-veg days I used to make my own stock from that-which-must-not-be-named. After quitting meat I resorted to shop-bought vegetable instant stock. The results were never as satisfying as the stock I was used to. One day a fellow veg*n told me he was making his own stock. An idea started to form in my head.

Back home, I chopped up some veggies, threw in savory things like bay leaves, allspice, and dried mushrooms, and let it simmer. When I tasted it after 30 minutes I was disappointed. The stock tasted like - well, like plain water. I left it on the stove for another 30 minutes, and - oh miracle - there was the faintest hint of taste in the broth. After three hours I could hardly contain my joy: I had a rich, smooth, aromatic stock that I drank on the spot - it tasted like the best consomme.

So, the trick is to cut the veggies in as tiny morsels as you can manage and leave it on the stove simmering for a few hours. You do not want it to be boiling because then the liquid will evaporate. Once I left the veggies cool in the pot overnight before straining the stock and it turned out even richer.

If you do not want to waste veggies for just stock you can simply save the bits and pieces left over from peeling veggies, this is what I often do.

Homemade Vegetable Stock

1 carrot
1/2 leek
1/2 celeriac (or celery stalks)
1 onion
some allspice, pepper, parsley, bay leaves
sea salt to taste

variations: other root vegetables, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms ginger, sherry, soy sauce...

Chop the veggies finely and simmer with the other ingredients for at least two hours. Do not let it boil too much or else the liquid will evaporate. Strain and add salt to taste. Enjoy in soups, stews or straight as consomme.

You can adapt this any way you like. Adding more carrots makes it sweeter, using the outer leaves of Brussels sprouts makes it very rich and slightly bitter, adding more onions gives it a great flavor, more mushrooms make it earthier and richer, garlic gives it an amazing zing... In summer I like to throw in some tomatoes as well. You can't go wrong, just experiment to create your ideal broth.

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Roasted Squash with Wasabi Mashed Potatoes

2008-01-19T21:19:00.000+01:00

Ok, maybe this is a little off-season. Just before Christmas I saw the first (probably this season's last) acorn squash I had ever seen in my life and bought it - only because it was so beautiful. At least I think it is an acorn squash. It is kind of an orangy brown with a blueish hue. Beautiful. We were gone over Christmas for our honeymoon, and I returned with a nasty bug that upset all that is inside me so I couldn't hold down anything for another two weeks. But yesterday the beautiful squash was finally able to shine.

(Lady Sunshine and Mr. Moon: fall's last squash and spring's first tulips.)

After so much pumpkin soup, pie, muffins, etc. in fall I wanted to try something different. I'm glad I did. Roasting the squash elevated its flavor to a level I had never expected from this somewhat unexciting vegetable that is unvariably adorned with powerful spices to make it interesting. Roasting it, the squash's very own aroma was brought out. Alas, my active English vocab is not comprehensive enough to describe the rich, smooth, intensive taste of this orange beauty when roasted.

To go with it I made wasabi mashed potatoes. Not that this is a novelty, its just something something I had never tried before. Ooooooh, spicing up the mash was just as good as roasting the squash, and the two things went together perfectly.

The best thing about it: this was easy as (pumpkin) pie. No, easier. I peeled a chunk of squash, cubed it, lightly coated the cubes with olive oil, sprinkled them with sea salt and dried garlic, and roasted them for 15 minutes at 400 F - and voila, they were done already. For the mashed potatoes, I made them as usual and added 1/2 teaspoon wasabi powder per serving. Easy-peasy as Jamie Oliver says. But good. Very good. Comfort-food good.

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Arugula with white beans, cherry tomatoes, and red onions

2008-01-17T21:41:00.002+01:00

This salad is one of my favorites. Crisp arugula (rocket), tender beans, fruity cherry tomatoes, and aromatic red onions kissed by smooth-tasting extra-virgin olive oil, subtly sweet balsamic vinegar, and fine sea salt. We always keep a can of white beans in our pantry just for this salad.

I never measure what goes in the salad. And measurements aren't that important here. It will turn out nice with more beans and less tomatoes or the other way around. However, what is really indispensable here (as in any other salad) is high-quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Three years ago in Japan I discovered that sea salt also really makes a difference. I was on one of the Japanese tropical islands and bought a small bag of locally produced sea salt. Back home in Osaka I regretted forever that I didn't buy a larger bag. This salt was still moist which really surprised me. When I tasted it however, it was unlike any other salt I had ever tried before. It had a taste of its own apart from being salty. It feels like shop-bought bone-dry sea salt is never quite as tasty so we brought back a BIG bag of moist sea salt from our honeymoon on the Cape Verde islands.

So, anyway. On topic again. A wonderful salad with only four main ingredients which still looks impressive and tastes great :-).

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Brussels Sprouts and Tomato Curry with Gnocchi

2008-01-14T21:55:00.000+01:00

Last night I ran into the same problem Susan over at the Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen once described*. The food was good. But how do you photograph it so that it looks good on a blog??? A uniform, yellowish curry... So you just have to take my word for it - this was delicious! And it contains a cruciferous vegetable to boot. Especially Brussels sprouts haters might wanna give this a try since the curry and the spices take off the edge of the taste so many people don't like. I love Brussels sprouts in all forms and this is one of my favorites :-)

Brussels Sprouts and Tomato Curry With Gnocchi

1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic
4 cups Brussels sprouts
1 cup dried tomatoes
1 pack ready-made gnocchi (or other gluten-free pasta to make it gluten-free)
2-3 cups of water
1 cup soy creamer (mine has 17% fat, substitute soymilk or coconut water to make it fat-free)
ginger, curry powder, chili and salt to taste

Heat a little oil in a skillet. Add the garlic and onions. Cover with a lid and let sweat until the onions caramelize. Be careful not to burn them. If they start browning too much, add a tblsp. water.

Remove the outer leaves from the sprouts, trim the stems, and cut them into quarters. Cut the dried tomatoes into thin stripes. Add to the onions. Add the water, the soy creamer, ginger, curry powder and chili. Simmer until the Brussels sprouts are tender. Add the gnocchi directly to the pan and heat them in the sauce.

I used real Italian sun-dried tomatoes I get at the local farmers market - in their dried form, not reconstituted and packed in oil. They are quite salty so I didn't add any salt to my curry, but if you can't find dry dried tomatoes you might have to add salt.

* Help, all you experienced bloggers out there!!! How do I hide a link behind a word??? Sorry, I'm still a total blogging illiterate... Update: Thanks to Paulina's help I was able to solve the problem :-)

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Amazing antioxidant-rich pancakes

2008-01-13T17:38:00.000+01:00

Or should I call them heavenly healthy pancakes? Can't think of a synonym for "healthy" starting with "p" though, that would make the perfect alliteration. Anyways, Sunday mornings I always get this craving for pancakes. Today we happened to have some fresh blueberries and some frozen raspberries so I decided to make berry pancakes. I started frying them like I used to do - in a small amount of vegan margerine. However, when I tried the first one, I realized that I had liked them better the way they turned out last week when I had to fry them without any fat. So I just baked the rest in our non-stick skillet without any fat. The trick is to set the heat relatively low so they don't burn or stick.

When I saw the amount of berries left over after making the pancakes I decided to top my fatfree, almost sugar-free goodies with an amazingly antioxidant-rich berry sauce. I just added a teaspoon of confectioner's sugar to the fruits and blended them with my immersion blender. Both blueberries and raspberries are rich in pectin - a natural gelling agent. The sugar seems to help the gelling process. After only a minute or so of blending, the berries had turned into a deep purple, fragrant, creamy sauce. The perfect compliment for my already not-so-unhealthy pancakes. Even the husband who despises all things sweet (to him, sweet is a synonym for unhealthy) admitted that he would feed these to our kids without guilt AND he ate up his entire stack of pancakes. I mean, THAT is a compliment. I'll remind him once we have kids :-)

Amazing antioxidant pancakes

6 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 heaping tblsp soy flour
1 tblsp raw organic cane sugar
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 1/4 cup non-dairy milk

2 cups raspberries
1 cup blueberries
1 teaspoon confectioner's sugar

Well, you knwo how to do this, right? Combine, whisk in, heat skillet, spoon batter into skillet. Drop some berries into each batter puddle.

Purree the left-over berries with the sugar until they start to thicken and gel. Slather onto your stack of pancakes and dig in. These are heaven.

A note on sugar: I realize that there are cultural taste differences. Americans are used to quite a high degree of sweetness whereas sweets in Germany tend to be comparatively less sweet. (Coca Cola puts more sugar into the coke they sell in the US than into the German equivalent.) Therefore, the amount of sugar I use may not satisfy your palate. Feel free to use much more sugar. Or, start reversing the sugar trend :-) (Truth be told, I added some maple syrup to mine.)

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Giving up tea

2008-01-12T08:39:00.000+01:00

I'm giving up tea. Green tea, black tea, and white tea, that is. I gave up coffee years ago but did love me my cuppa tea in the morning. Or rather, my three or four cups. Let me add that I'm more of a nervous, touchy person. Then, with the diarrhea and bug and all, I didn't have tea for two weeks. And, oh miracle, I've never slept better in my live! Now yesterday and the day before I figured that my insides had recovered enough and it would be ok to have tea again. And let me tell you, I spent two horrible nights. Tossing and turning in my bed, waking up every hour or so.... So, when sleep eluded me for good this Saturday morning at 7am, I resolved to give up tea. Jawohl!

Since I still enjoy sitting there in the morning when the house is still quite (on weekends my hubby sleeps in until noon) and sipping my cuppa tea (or two or three), I resorted to rooibos tea. This Southafrican beverage is supposed to be very good for you: high in antioxidants, cancer-fighting, and very low in tannins which affect the absorption of iron. And hey, it is even a member of the legume family. Talking about eating beans every day :-) So, here it is, my new vice: cups and cups of organic, fair-trade rooibos tea.

Fauxballs and Spaghetti

2008-01-11T22:40:00.000+01:00

In our house, Friday night is leftover night. (Across the pond, its Friday night already). We still had some spaghetti left over from yesterday's indulgence and some frozen tomato juice. AND there were these amazing faux meatballs sitting in the fridge smiling at me and whispering, "Yeesss, you want us, you know you do". And indeed, I did.

Spaghetti to your heart's content, your favorite tomato sauce, and faux meatballs. Again, not a recipe that could be spelled out, since it doesn't really involve much cooking. The star of the meal comes out of a pack... (unless you make them yourself, of course).

Ok, ok, there is this debate whether or not it is wise to use faux products. I usually don't use many, primarily because there aren't that many available in Germany. But a few things I wouldn't wanna miss, and fauxballs are one of them.

Enjoy your weekend :-)

Spaghetti with arugula, garlic, and tomatoes

2008-01-10T20:37:00.000+01:00

Yay, this was my first real meal after two weeks of bland diet - if anything at all. And boy did I have a craving for spaghetti. This dish is one of my favorites. It is a cinch to throw together because it is almost a raw sauce that doesn't need much cooking time. If you make that on a weeknight you may want to go easy on the garlic, though.

It is a lovely simple dish, as garlicky as you make it, crisp arugula, fruity olive oil, aromatic tomatoes, and with great colors to boot. Oh, and it is even an original Italian recipe.

Spaghetti with arugula, garlic, and tomatoes

There is not much of a recipe. Cook as many spaghetti as you like. In a skillet, heat a generous splash of some nice and fruity extra virgin olive oil. Peel and chop as much garlic as you like and let it sweat in the oil a bit. Make sure it doesn't get too hot. Chop the tomatoes, throw them in and let them cook for just a few moments, just to soften them a bit. Add the cooked, drained spaghetti. Salt to taste. Add the arugula (rocket in the UK) and let it wilt for a few seconds in the hot spaghetti. Enjoy with your favorite red wine :-)

Roasted rosemary potatoes and garlicky grean beans

2008-01-09T18:09:00.000+01:00

Alas, I still don't eat, but my hubby does. We still had beans sitting in our vegetables basket, and so I thought of surprising him with something tasty, garlicky, tangy, rosemary-y. And when I saw the green beans and the yellow potatoes sitting in the dish I threw in some ripe, juicy, sweet tomatoes, just for the color. And sure enough they turned out lovely.

Peel and quarter potatoes, remove strings and ends of beans. Toss with fruity olive oil to coat. Sprinkle with your best sea salt and some freshly ground white pepper. Sprinkle some fresh (or dried) rosemary over the potatoes, and some chopped garlic over the beans. Arrange with the tomatoes in a dish. Roast, stirring occasionally. Roast until the beans are nice and tender and the potatoes have this delicious roasted crunch. Perfect the beans with a nice squeeze of lime juice and some chopped hazelnuts.

The best part of it? No pots to clean :-)

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Kate and the Magic Vegan

2008-01-07T16:18:00.000+01:00

This is great. The very moment I start a blog I get so sick I can't eat. Or cook. Oh well... I guess I'll just have to stick it out. Meanwhile, I found this video on youtube which I thought was hilarious. Enjoy :-)

Saved-My-Day Pancakes

2008-01-05T14:52:00.001+01:00

After a week of nibbeling dry toast and sipping chammomile tea and STILL feeling sick and getting cramps and everything I was ready for something else this morning. When I saw the mouthwatering photo of FatFreeVegan Susan's Golden Spice Pancakes I knew it had to be pancakes. The doctor had told me to abstain from sugar and milk (haha, two things I don't eat much anyway).

Ok, strictly speaking sugar would include maple syrup. The real challenge however was to make them absolutely completely fat-free since I knew that my stomach couldn't handle that for sure. I used a non-stick skilletand set the heat on medium. And - oh miracle - they came out beautifully. Their surfaces weren't sealed by the fat so they absorbed the maple syrup immediately. But for a stomach-impaired person like me they were perfect.

Saved-My-Day Almost-BRAT-Diet Pancakes

1 cup soymilk (mine is slightly sweetened with organic cane sugar)
5 tablespoons all-purpose-flour
1 tablespoon soyflour (or egg replacer of choice)
1 tablespoon organic brown cane sugar
1 heaped teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch of salt

Whisk together and "fry" or rather bake them in a non-stick skillet over medium. Of yourse you can grease the skillet but if your skillet is really non-stick it should work without fat. Drench in maple syrup and enjoy :-)

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

Vegan on Cape Verde

2008-01-05T13:58:00.000+01:00

I'm not doing much cooking (or eating, for that matter) at the moment since that bug is still plaguing me. My husband (who, fortunately, can cook really well) makes himself the most delicious meals and then I sit there, drooling over his food and munching away on my dry toast. Fun fun fun...

So, to get another food-related post in here a quick account of feeding yourself on Cape Verde as a vegan. The people on Cape Verde mainly eat vegetables, corn, and squash. The most popular dish on the islands is cachupa: freshly ground corn, beans and vegetables (sweet or white potatoes, tomatoes, squash) cooked together. Unfortunately, in restaurants they only serve this cooked with meat though I'm sure in their homes it is mostly prepared vegan. On every corner there are women selling veggies, but we hardly ever saw people selling meat. Not because they are all vegetarians, but because they simply can’t afford to buy and eat much meat.

This is the how the women and girls carry their produce to the market and home. We even saw a women carrying a stove on her head...

Fortunately, the hotel devoted an enormous (and I mean ENORMOUS) portion of their breakfast buffet to fresh fruits. Fully-ripe, aromatic bananas and sweet, deep-orange papayas (both local) as well as kiwi, apples, oranges and so on. And then there was always bread, margerine and jam. For lunch we usually snacked on the nuts I brought and fruits and bread we took from the buffet.

The hotel also offered buffet-style dinner. They always had a huge plate of steamed veggies, then bread, rice, salads and - again - fresh fruit. I must have eaten a ton of papayas in this week. Maybe what I have is not your ordinary diarrhea but a more serious form of papaya-poisening? Who knows?

A Glimpse of Cape Verde

2008-01-03T15:57:00.000+01:00

Cape Verde - the (not so) green islands off the coast of wester Africa. They were uninhabited until they were discovered by the Portuguese. Portugal then used the archipelago as a stop-over on their way to Brazil.

The Portuguese brought people from Africa to the islands to work as slaves. Later the white and coloured people mixed and a creole culture was born. However, the majority of the population still has a very dark complexion.

Cape Verde gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

The islands have a very peculiar climate. There is an absolutely steady Northeastern trade wind and it hardly ever rains on the islands. Therefore, potatoes and grains don't fare well, and corn and squash are the staple of the poor.

The bustling market of Praia, the capital on the island of Santiago. The women mainly sell vegetables. However much I like this fact, it is nonetheless a sign of great poverty.

On the few islands suitable for growing anything (here Santiago) every inch is planted with corn.

Of course the people who can afford it also keep animals. One day we were driving through a mountain village when I saw a litter of piglets. I had never seen piglets in (relative) freedom. It was amazing. They were running at great speed and gamboling and playing around like puppies. And so agile, too.

I got out of the car and immediately they stopped playing and eyed me curiously. Finally, the boldest of the group cautiously started approaching me, the others followed him (or her? who knows). They inched closer and closer and then suddenly they scurried off, scared by their own courage. This was the cutest thing... Their eyes so intelligent and curious, their lively play, their agility... Everybody ought to see what wonderful creatures pigs really are!

Their mother btw. was pink. Now this leaves room for speculation as to their father, hehe.

One of the few things the archipelago has to offer in terms of products is salt. Here the view of an (almost) abandoned saline. (Other products include real good wine and superb coffee).

Before, when I saw pink bath salts in shops I always thought how corny. But apparently, natural sea salt really has a pinkish hue due to iron oxides (I don't know how well it comes out in this photo.) We were also able to bathe in the saline. With its salt content of some 86 percent we were floating on the water - Heaven!

Sunset seen from our hotel window that was overlooking the bay.

And yet another new beginning

2008-01-03T14:56:00.000+01:00

It seems like I'm starting over and over again for a definitely new beginning :-) I had some problems with the blog, couldn't format it, the search bar half hid the title, and so on. So after hours of fruitless fiddeling I decided to just delete it and start over again.

I saved and pasted again my posts, however I must apologize to those who left comments. Your comments are gone, I' afraid. I'm truly sorry. I hope from now on everything goes smooth here.

The rest of my life hasn't been working out according to plans either this year. I had planned to dish up a new, vegan, yummy, nutritious dish each night when my hubby comes home (I still got off until Jan. 7.) But, alas, the Capeverdean germ I imported (illegally I guess) when we came back from our honeymoon is still plaguing me. I feel sick, haven't had much food myself, let alone any desire to cook.

So no new recipes for the moment. I wanted to post a few pics from the gorgeous Cape Verde islands. Yet I can't seem to insert pics after text. This is weird. All I can do is insert a photo at the very top. Does anyone now how to fix this??? (And I thought blogging here would be easy but no such luck...) Um, please, bear with me and my blogging-illiteracy :-)

Have a wonderful day, evening, or whatever is left of today :-)

Roasted Pepper Soup with Cinnamon and Ginger

2008-01-03T14:41:00.001+01:00

This is the soup I made on New Years Eve. It was planned as just the first course with more to follow but then I got sick. We had just returned from our honeymonn on the Cape Verde islands the day before and it seems like I picked up one of the bugs lurking around there. So I couldn't try any of it (and seasoned it by just smelling it) because my stomach wouldn't permit me any food. The husband loved it and ate the whole pot I made. I guess it was THAT good :-)

Roasted pepper soup with cinnamon and ginger

5 large yellow bell peppers
1 large red bell pepper
(the 6 peppers I used together weighed 3 punds)
6 cups vegan broth (or more to taste, preferably homemade)
salt and pepper to taste
a generous pinch of cinnamon
a generous pinch of paprika
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 cup soy creamer (substitue soy milk to make it fat-free or just leave it out altogether)

Wash the peppers and cut them into quarters. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (you'll be glad you did when cleaning up...) and place the peppers on it skin side up. Grill on medium until bubbles form under the skins and they start getting black (depending on your oven this will take around 10 minutes.)

Put the peppers into a plastic bag, close the bag, and let it sit for 20 minutes. The heat and steam will make the skins come off easily, and straight from the oven they are too hot to handle anyway. Peel off the skins, they should come off easily now.

Bring 5 cups of broth to a boil in one pot and place the yellow peppers in it. Place the red pepper in a second pot with the remaining 1 cup of broth. Blend both soups with an immersion blender (or with a food processor or whatever you have and like). Season to your liking with salt and pepper. Add a pinch of cinnamon and paprika to the red pepper and the ginger to the yellow peppers. Let simmer for a few minutes for the flavors to develop. If you like your soup thinner you can always add more broth.

For serving, laddle yellow soup in a plate. With a teaspoon, carefully apply a spiral of red pepper soup on it. Then use anything approx. 1/4" wide (fork grip, wooden spoon, knife blade...), insert it in the center of the spiral and pull it away from the center, crossing the lines of the spiral. Repeat this 4 times at even intervalls. Then do the same movement halfway between the outward lines, this time pulling it inward. The result will be a delicate flower on your plate. Serve with crusty French baguette (or gluten-free bread to make it gluten-free)

Enjoy :-)

Serves 4 as starter, two as main course, or one very very hungry husband :-)

Update: This recipe is one of my contributions to Heart of the Matter.

Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

A new Year - A new beginning

2008-01-03T14:35:00.000+01:00

2008 has just begun, the perfect time to start blogging. I'm a vegan on and off (at home vegan food only but I'm not at home most of the time...) and I really want to make 2008 the year that I make it, that I finally stick to veganism 100% and don't get tempted by desserts and the like or give in when there are no vegan options available. So I hope that blogging about it will help me stick to my beliefs and not let my stomach get the better of me.

In case my diction or spelling ever seems funny - I'm not a native English speaker so please pardon any weird wording.I'm German and currently living in Germany (where I only spent half of the past ten years, so this is not as obvious as it may seem). Therefore I use the products I can come by in Germany. However, I don't use many faux products anyway since there simply aren't that many available here. It is even hard to come by edible tofu. Germany still has a long way to go to become vegetarian-friendly, let alone vegan-friendly. For the most part I cook with fresh veggies and naturally vegan things like durum-wheat pasta and the like.

I just got married so this is a very new and exciting thing in my life and I'm still in honeymoon-land :-).

So happy 2008 to all and let the blogging begin :-)