I actually tasted a hint of liquorice in this mash, maybe because of the combination of salty and sweet flavors.

Sweet Potato Mash:

• 2 sweet potatoes (about 500 g)
• 2 teaspoons muscovado sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons margarine
• 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice (or lime juice)
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 to 2 tablespoon chopped basil leaves
• salt to taste

First I peeled and sliced the sweet potatoes, placed them in a cooking pot with the sugar and the 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and added enough water to cover. Then I boiled them until very soft.

Once they were cooked, I drained the water, added the margarine, and mashed the sweet potatoes with our potato masher. Then I stirred in the black pepper, chopped basil, lemon juice, and some salt, and served the mash with some stir-steamed veggies and an arugula salad.

This pasta shape has many names, but I like to call it risoni, just because there’s a connection to the word rice there. This makes enough for two moderate portions or one big portion and some leftovers. The dish has a serious lack of veggies, but I did munch a few carrots to balance that up!

The Pasta:

• 1 and 1/2 dl risoni (orzo) pasta
• juice of 1 lime (about 1/4 dl)
• 1 huge garlic clove (or 3 normal), pressed
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• salt and black pepper to taste

I cooked the risoni in plenty of water for 8 minutes, then drained it, and tossed with the other ingredients in the cooking pot. While the pasta was cooking, I prepared the tofu.

The Tofu:

• 200 g firm tofu
• 1 onion, cubed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1/2 teaspoon agave syrup or sugar

I cut the tofu in tiny cubes without pressing it first, and heated the oil in a frying pan. I first fried the onion for a few minutes, until it started to get a little brown, and then added the tofu to the pan. I kept on frying it until most sides of the cubes had browned. Then I mixed the soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, liquid smoke, and agave syrup together, and poured this mixture to the pan. I kept on frying until the liquid had evaporated, and then I was ready to plate the lunch.

Also needed:

• chopped basil leaves to garnish

I first ladled some of the risoni on my plate, then a pile of tofu over the pasta, and then sprinkled with chopped fresh basil leaves. Yum!

I’m increasing the amount of spelt flour in this recipe little by little, maybe I’ll use a half and half ratio next time. This bread is such a favorite and I don’t want to change it too much!

The Bread:

• 2 dl oat milk
• 2 dl water
• 11 g dry yeast
• 7 dl wheat flour
• 2 dl spelt flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dark syrup
• 1 dl sun-dried tomatoes in oil, rinsed and chopped
• 1 dl walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 dl sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

I made the bread exactly like the Olive Tomato Bread, only using the above ingredients. We only had 2 dl oat milk left so I used some water to make up for the rest of the fluid, and we had walnuts instead of cashew nuts. I also added sunflower seeds to the dough, and used a little more flour since part of it was spelt. I also chopped the tomatoes only coarsely, not as finely as I did the last time. This didn’t give the bread the nice orange color that very finely chopped tomatoes do, but bigger tomato pieces mean more flavor when they’re bitten into!

This dough is not stiff at all, so I kept my hands and the working surface floured at all times to avoid sticking, and kneaded the dough carefully to get the gluten to develop.

The Topping:

• 2 tablespoons soy yogurt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

I just mixed all the topping ingredients and brushed it over the bread before baking. The yogurt really keeps the seeds on the bread, even when it’s cut!

Here’s what we used:

• 500 g firm tofu
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 3 and ½ dl vegetable stock
• 1 and ½ dl red wine
• ½ dl soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon green peppercorns, ground
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, ground
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon rosemary

First, Heikki sliced the tofu in thin slices, about 1/2 cm thick, wrapped the slices in paper towels, and pressed them lightly. We mixed all the marinade ingredients, and poured them in the glass jar. Then we plunged the tofu in the jar, and let it marinate overnight in the fridge. This could, however, be marinated up to five days at least, since all the tofu slices are completely covered with the marinade.

We served these cutlets with pan fried potatos and sherry onion sauce – an extremely yummy combination. This recipe makes 16 thin cutlets, which isn’t much at all, but the recipe could easily be halved to avoid leftovers. The list of ingredients is pretty long, but the cutlets only take about half an hour to prepare if everything’s on hand.

Here’s what I did to make the cutlets:

Phase 1:

• 200 g firm tofu
• 3 dl cooked black-eyed peas
• 1 dl water

I mixed these up with a hand held immersion blender until all the peas were mashed.

Phase 2:

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/3 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 dl nutritional yeast
• 1 dl chick pea flour (gram)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Now, I added all of the above to the tofu-bean mixture, and mixed well until combined.

Phase 3:

• 2 dl gluten flour

I added the gluten flour in the mix, and kneaded for 7 minutes, until the dough was pretty stiff and could easily be formed into a big ball. It didn’t get very stringy like gluten does, and was still pretty easy to mold in shapes – unlike doughs that are only made of gluten flour.

Phase 4:

• canola oil for frying

I formed the dough into thin cutlets, about ½ cm thick. Our cutlets were about the size of the palm of Heikki’s hand, and we got 16 of them. Now, we fried them on medium-low heat on both sides until golden brown, which took about 5-7 minutes per side. The pan really shouldn’t get too hot, because then the cutlets will burn before they’re done inside.

This amount of dough makes just one bread.

Bread dough:

• 6 g dry yeast
• 2,5 dl water
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 dl bread flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

For the Yellow dough:

• 1 carrot (about 80 g), finely grated
• pinch of turmeric
• 1 dl spelt flour
• 1/2 dl wheat flour

For the green dough:

• 2 dl arugula, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons leftover pesto sauce (or chopped basil leaves)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 dl spelt flour
• 1/2 dl wheat flour

Topping:

• 2 teaspoons soy yogurt
• 2 teaspoons dark syrup
• sesame seeds

First, I mixed the dry yeast in some of the flour, and dissolved it in a big mixing bowl in 2,5 dl water a little warmer than my hand, and stirred this for a minute with a wooden spoon. I added salt, and then flour, 1 dl at a time, blending well to form a runny dough. In the end, I added olive oil, and blended it in.

Then I divided the dough in two equal parts, placed these in two bowls, and added the rest of the ingredients to each dough, the yellow and the green one. First, I added spices and veggies, second, spelt flour, and third, the rest of the flour. I added as much flour as was needed to form a relatively stiff dough, and then kneaded the doughs for a few minutes each.

Now the doughs needed to rise. I placed the two bowls in the washbasin of the kitchen sink, filled halfway with warm water. Then I covered the bowls with plastic wrap to make sure that any draft kept away. I let the doughs rise for about half an hour, because I was impatient – for them to actually double their size, I should have let them be for an hour or so.

Then, I preheated the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, and greased a rectangular bread tin. I patted the green dough on the bottom of the tin. I then braided the orange dough on top of it: I divided the dough in four parts, and then formed a long strip of each part, and then twirled each set of two around each other. (Another option would be to just flatten the yellow dough on top of the green one.)

Now, I let the bread rise again for half an hour. Then I mixed the soy yogurt and syrup for the topping, brushed the bread with this, and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Now, I baked the bread for about 35 minutes in the middle section of the oven, until it was brown on top, and the crust was crunchy.

Ingredients:

• 1,5 dl plain (Alpro) soy yogurt
• 1 dl coarsely chopped arugula
• 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1-2 teaspoons raw cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons dried basil

We always cut fresh herbs with scissors in a cup, a technique learnt from my step mom, and that’s what Heikki did with arugula in this recipe. First, he stuffed the leaves in a cup, and then just cut them with scissors until they were fine enough. Then he just mixed all the ingredients and checked the taste balance.

Even with dried basil, this is a very fresh tasting dip, but obviously fresh basil would be even better. It’s just pretty expensive in Finland, so I replace it with the dried kind if it doesn’t affect the taste of the dish too much.