I think this amount would be enough as a side dish for 2-3. The quality of carrots really does make a difference here – I used a bunch of organic carrots that still had a nice protective layer of dirt on them when they reached us. Root vegetables keep better and stay much more flavorful if they’re not cleaned after harvesting, but unfortunately the supermarkets rarely carry “dirty” veggies.

The chipotle I used in this recipe is the adobado kind. Heikki mashed a can of chipotles in adobo sauce when he made the black beans from Veganomicon, and we still have some of the paste in the fridge. Chipotles are amazing in their depth of flavor, but I’m sure these fries would turn out well with other spices if they are hard to find.

The Carrots:

• 4 large carrots, scrubbed and cut into sticks
• 2 teaspoons mashed chipotles in adobo sauce
• salt to taste
• a dash of olive oil to coat

I cut the carrot into thin fry-size sticks and then tossed them with the chipotle and the olive oil. There’s no need to use much oil, just enough to coat the carrots. Then I spread the carrot sticks on a baking sheet in one layer, and sprinkled them with salt. I baked my carrots in 200 degrees Celsius on the upper rack of the oven: first for 35 minutes, then tossed them around, and then another 10-15 minutes until slightly charred here and there.

The Avocado Dip:

• 1 ripe avocado
• 3/4 dl plain soy yogurt
• pinch of salt
• pinch of sugar
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• black pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped

I simply mashed everything together with a fork and chilled while the carrots were baking.

Soup ingredients:

• olive oil for frying
• 2 onions, chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic, crushed
• half of a medium rutabaga (about 275 g), diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 teaspoon hot chili powder
• 4 teaspoons of ras-el-hanout
  
• 4 dl (about 275 g) dried split fava beans (you can use whole beans, but they take longer to cook)
• enough water to amply cover the vegetables and beans (about 1 – 1 1/2 liters)
• 3 teaspoons vegetable stock powder
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• juice of 1 mandarin
• salt to taste

Harissa yogurt ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon harissa
• 1 1/2 dl soy yogurt
• pinch of salt
• pinch of pepper

About 4 hours before starting to cook the soup I speed soaked the fava beans. Speed soaking means I simply rinsed the beans in cold water, put them in a bowl, poured boiling water on them, and covered the bowl. Of course one could soak the beans properly too, overnight in cold water.

After the beans were soaked, we started by chopping the onions and crushing the garlic. While I diced the rutabaga and the carrot, Anni put some olive oil in a pot over medium-high heat, and fried the onion and the garlic until the onion was translucent. We then added the chopped rutabaga and carrot, and fried them for a minute or two more.

Now we added the chili powder and the ras el hanout, stirred the mix for a while, and then added the beans, water, stock powder, sugar, and vinegar. We covered the pot, and simmered until the beans were soft. This took about one hour.

Anni then proceeded to purée the soup using our immersion blender until it was smooth, and adjusted the taste by adding the olive oil, the mandarin juice, and a pinch of salt.

We garnished our soup bowls with some harissa yogurt – the yogurt was simply made by combining and mixing all the ingredients in a small bowl.

I have been thinking about beets a lot lately. I don’t know why, but they are the one ingredient that has been inspiring me most this fall, and there doesn’t seem to be an ending to this state of affairs. I cannot get enough of the purple color, it simply makes me happy each time I cook with beets, and I think their earthy sweetness reflects the essence of autumn itself.

Here’s what I used:

• 6 beets, peeled and cut into wedges
• 2 big carrots, scrubbed and cut into thick sticks
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon crushed red chili
• 2 teaspoons muscovado sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

First, I preheated the oven to 200 Celsius, and prepped the beets, carrots, and garlic. Then I just placed all the ingredients in a baking pan and tossed them so that each veggie piece was covered with some spices.

I first roasted the veggies for 15 minutes, tossed them around a bit, roasted for another 15 minutes, tossed, and roasted for yet another 15 minutes. After this I checked the salt, and realized the veggies were done, so I turned off the oven. The rice we were going to have with the beets wasn’t quite ready yet, so I popped the vegetables in the oven that was still hot for another 10 minutes to keep them warm.

This spread thickens a bit in the fridge, and is wonderful with the Finnish hapankorppu - very thin and very sour rye bread that has been dried. For extra smooth results, the almonds could be soaked overnight, or even cooked in a little bit of water.

• 100 g almonds, lightly toasted
• 1 medium carrot, sliced
• 1 big clove garlic, sliced
• 3-4 tablespoons plain soy yoghurt
• 4 large sage leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste

I started by toasting the almonds until they were just a little brown, and set them aside to cool. Then I placed the carrot slices and the garlic in a small cooking pot, added just enough water to cover them, and cooked until the carrots were very soft. Then I placed the carrots and the garlic in a fine sieve and rinsed them with cold water to cool them down a little bit.

Now, I placed the carrots and the garlic, almonds, sage leaves, salt, and 3 tablespoons of soy yoghurt in our mini food processor, and processed them for about 5 minutes. I checked the spread and decided it needed a bit more soy yoghurt, so I added one tablespoon more of it, and continued processing until the spread was very very smooth and light orange in color. It might need even more soy yoghurt if the texture is still grainy at this point.

This is how my almonds looked after toasting.

This stir-fry is based on the Kung Pao Tofu recipe in The Asian Vegan Kitchen. I tweaked it quite a bit, but the essence of the dish remains: a stir-fry sauce with chili paste, soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, sweet miso, and sherry. As my version doesn’t have peanuts or cashew nuts in it, I couldn’t call it Kung Pao any more. As a side we had a Sweet and Sour Cucumber salad from the same book and some jasmine rice.

This amount of ingredients made about three portions.

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
• 2 teaspoons chili paste
• 1 and ½ tablespoons sweet (light) miso paste
• 1 and ½ tablespoons dry sherry
• 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice

Stir-Fry Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons canola oil for frying
• 1 cm slice of ginger, crushed
• 2 bell peppers, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 300 g tofu, pressed and diced
• 1 fresh red chili, chopped
• ½ dl sunflower seeds, roasted
• ½-1 dl chopped chives and chive flowers
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• fresh coriander and chive flowers for garnish

I began by preparing all the ingredients – mixed the sauce, removed the seeds from the fresh chili, and chopped and diced all the ingredients. Then I put a wok over medium heat, heated the oil, and threw in the chili and the tofu, and fried them for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Then I picked up all the chili slices and the tofu cubes with two spatulas, and put them aside in a separate bowl.

I heated the oil remaining in the wok to high heat, and first put in the carrot and the ginger. After stir-frying them for half a minute, I added the bell peppers, and after another half a minute, the chives and the chive flowers. I stir-fried the veggies for about a minute more, and then poured in the sauce followed with the tofu and the chili. I stirred to combine everything, lowered the heat, and cooked it for a couple of minutes more. Before serving, I added in the sunflower seeds, stirred them in, removed the wok from heat, garnished with coriander leaves, and drizzled with sesame oil.

We decorated our portions with pretty chive flower petals. By the way, stir-fried chive flowers taste amazing!

I love lemons and the combination of tangy and sweet in this cake, but a vegan cream cheese frosting goes extremely well with this as well. I make it by just mixing a package of soy cream cheese with lemon juice and grated zest, and then add some confectioner’s sugar in the mix.

The Wet Mix:

• 1 and 1/2 dl plain soy yogurt
• 1 dl canola oil
• 2 dl muscovado sugar
• 4 dl finely grated carrots
• 2 tablespoons finely ground flaxseed
• 1 dl soy milk

The Dry Mix:

• 2 dl spelt flour
• 1 dl wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 dl walnuts, coarsely ground

I mixed the wet and the dry mixes in separate bowls, and then combined the two. Then I covered a rectangular baking dish, about 30 cm x 20cm, with baking parchment, poured the batter in the dish, evened the surface, and baked the cake in 225 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

NOTE: The cake might need to bake a little longer, up to 30 minutes – some bloggers have found the cake too moist with 20 minutes’ baking time.

The Icing:

• 2 tablespoons plain soy yogurt
• juice and grated zest of 1/2 lemon
• 3 to 4 dl confectioner’s sugar

I whisked together the yogurt, lemon juice, and zest, and then added enough sugar to create a relatively runny icing. The I waited until the cake had completely cooled, and poured the icing over the cake, leveling it with a butter knife. I let the icing dry up in the room temperature for a few hours before serving.

For a little shine, I brushed my bread rolls with a soy yogurt-based mixture. Most of the ingredients were organic – the flour, carrots, soy yogurt, rice syrup, and tarragon. The flavor of this bread is quite simple, but the sweet carrot somehow balances the earthy whole wheat, and the result is very nice and substantial.

The Dough (makes about 16 bread rolls):

• 8 dl whole wheat flour
• 1/2 dl gluten flour
• 1/2 dl crushed flaxseed
• 1 bag (11 g) dry yeast
• 3 dl finely shredded carrots
• 3 dl water
• 2 dl plain soy yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (for color)
• 1 tablespoon brown rice (or other light) syrup
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-2 teaspoons dried tarragon (or other herb)

First, I mixed the soy yogurt, water, and shredded carrots, and heated them up until the mixture was a little bit warmer than my hand. Then I mixed in the salt, syrup, oil, turmeric, and tarragon.

I mixed together the yeast, gluten flour, ground flaxseed, and 2 dl of the wheat flour, and stirred this in the wet mixture. Then I added the rest of the flour a little by little, mixing the dough with my hand, and kneading it for a few minutes in the end. The dough ended up pretty sticky and moist. Then I let it rise, covered, in a kitchen sink filled with warm water, for about 35 minutes.

I used regular wheat flour for shaping the buns, since it gives a smoother finish. I took half of the dough, and rolled it into a log, and then cut the log in eight pieces. The I rolled each piece into an oval shaped bun, placed the bun on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, and sliced the surface gently with a sharp knife to make three diagonal cuts about 1 cm deep. I repeated with the rest of the dough, covered the bread rolls with a kitchen towel, and let them rise on top of the oven for about 25 minutes.

Topping:

• 2 tablespoons soy yogurt, in room temperature
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon syrup
• pinch of salt
• water

I mixed all the ingredients and let them come to room temperature while I was rolling the bread. I used enough water to make a liquid solution that is easy to brush, and right before baking the rolls, I brushed them with the topping.

Then I baked the rolls in 220 degrees Celsius for about 14 minutes, in the middle rack of the oven, until just a little browned over the tops.

We got our monthly supply of organic flours and vegetables on Friday evening, delivered to our door by my dear step-dad – thank you once again!

Here’s what I roasted this time:

• 8 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cut in chunks
• 3 big carrots, scrubbed and cut in chunks
• 3 small onions, cut in wedges
• 4 garlic cloves, each cut in 3 pieces
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• freshly ground black pepper

After preheating the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, I scrubbed the potatoes and the carrots, and cut them in chunks. I prepared the onions and the garlic, placed all the veggies in a big bowl, added the rest of the ingredients, and stirred to mix well. Now, I covered a baking sheet with baking parchment, poured the veggies on the sheet, and baked them for 40 minutes in the middle section of the oven.

We cooked the brown rice in our pressure cooker, and it was ready in 20 minutes – the exact time it took to fry the tofu and make the stir-fry. The vegetables were slightly sweet and a little sour with a hint of sesame, and were a perfect accompaniment to the very five-spicy tofu. The tofu recipe makes enough for four, so the two of us had tofu leftovers for lunch yesterday, but the veggies were gone in no time. Reheating stir-fries isn’t very recommended anyway, since the whole point of stir-frying is to maintain the crispy freshness of the vegetables.

Tofu:

• 500 g firm tofu
• 2 teaspoons five spice powder
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sherry wine
• 1/2 tablespoon agave syrup (or other sweetener)
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• some oil for frying
• (cilantro for garnish)

I cut the tofu block in slices about 1 cm thick, wrapped them in cheese cloth, and pressed them for about half an hour. Then I cut them in small triangles (I really like triangular food), tossed together all the marinade ingredients, and let the tofu marinate in an air tight container in the fridge for about 3 hours.

When the rice was cooking, Heikki heated the oil in our wok pan on high heat until it was very hot, and fried the tofu triangles until they had browned a little. We covered them to wait until everything else was ready, and sprinkled them with a little cilantro before serving.

Veggies:

• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 1 bell pepper
• 2 and 1/2 dl broccoli florets
• some oil for frying

I cut the onion in wedges, broke the broccoli in small florets, and cut the carrots and the bell pepper in small triangles.

Heikki wiped the wok with a piece of paper towel after he had fried the tofu, and then he heated a little more oil in the pan until it was really hot. First, he fried the onions for a few minutes, then added the carrots and fried them for a minute or so, and last he added the bell peppers and the broccoli, and kept on frying for a minute, not more, all the time tossing everything around in the wok with two wooden spatulas.

Slightly Sweet and Sour Stir-Fry Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon potato starch

While Heikki was stir-frying, I mixed the sauce ingredients together, and when the veggies were done, I stirred the sauce to mix in the starch that always sinks to the bottom, and poured the sauce in the wok. Heikki tossed the veggies to coat them in the sauce, and heated it for 15 seconds or so to thicken.

Now, we ladled the rice and the veggies in warmed serving bowls, and immediately enjoyed our New Year’s dinner.

Another reason I prefer hard-cover cookbooks: perfect for tofu pressing!

This is what we used (makes enough for two):

• 100 g rice noodles
• 200 g carrots, scrubbed and cut into thin strips
• 300 g cabbage, cut into thin strips
• 1 dl cashew nuts
• 250 g firm tofu, pressed and cubed
• 1 slice of ginger, about 1 cm thick, crushed
• about 3 tablespoons canola oil for frying

For the sauce:

• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried, crushed chili in oil (We used Lao gan ma brand)
• 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup
• 2 teaspoons brown rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

First, I put the noodles in a boiling pot of water. While they were cooking, Anni was slicing the vegetables. I pressed the tofu with cheese cloth for a couple of minutes, and cut it into cubes. I tasted the noodles now, and yes, they were already beyond al dente, so I poured them into a colander, and rinsed them in plenty of cold water, so that they wouldn’t get stuck into each other.

Then I heated about 2 tablespoons oil in a wok over high heat, and fried the tofu cubes until they were slightly browned, about 3 to 4 minutes. I poured the tofu out of the wok to a plate, and put rest of the oil in the wok, and waited a while for the oil to heat up. Now it was time to fry the veggies.

I put the ginger in the wok first, and stirred it around for maybe 20 seconds, and then added the carrots. Stirring continuously, I fried the carrots for about half a minute, and then added the cabbage, and fried them for about 2 minutes more. Whatever vegetables you are using, put the hardest vegetables in first, so they have more time to cook, but don’t fry them for too long! It’s nice if they still have some crunch, I think.

Next, I added the noodles. I put them in a bit at a time, mixing them with the vegetables. If you add all the noodles at once, it’s easy to end up with one big lump of noodles, all the veggies around it, which is, well, unsatisfactory.

While I was frying, Anni prepared the sauce. It’s easy to make, just combine all the ingredients in a cup, and stir. This time we used garlic, lemon juice, chili oil, soy sauce, agave syrup, brown rice vinegar and sesame oil. Yummy!

Once I had fried the noodle-veggie-mix for a couple of minutes, stirring continuously, I added the tofu back in, stirred for a few seconds more, and then poured in the sauce. Once it was mixed in, the noodles were ready to eat!

Variations

One thing to take into consideration with this dish is that the tofu tastes a bit mild when prepared this way. We don’t mind, I think it creates a nice contrast to the otherwise strong flavours of this dish, but there are a couple of easy ways to season the tofu.

One variation of the dish would be to marinate the tofu beforehand and otherwise prepare it exactly the same way, or alternatively, use unmarinated tofu, but once you have fried the tofu, pour in part of the sauce on top of them, stir until the tofu cubes have absorbed the sauce, and then remove them from the wok, and prepare the rest of the dish as explained above.