Glögi is the Finnish equivalent of mulled wine, and before Christmas its readymade incarnations start to appear in the stores – some with alcohol, but most without. I find them usually way too sugary, and that’s why I always thought that I just don’t care for the drink that much. It wasn’t until this weekend [...]
November 28, 2009 – 16:37
This was a quick and easy Saturday lunch I cooked in half an hour. I’ve blogged about chipotle black-eyed peas before, but this time the dish was a lot simpler and not a bit less yummy! I don’t know if canned whole chipotles are available in Finland – we’re lucky to get them from a [...]
These can well be my new favorite sweet treat – the batter itself bakes into a fudgy center and caramelized edges, and the occasional bite into super-dark chocolate balances out the sugary experience.
I use white whole wheat flour all the time now that it’s finally available here, and it works very nicely in heavier baked [...]
September 30, 2009 – 16:45
One of the things we’ve been growing in our garden this year has been Swiss Chard. Usually we put it in a stew like the Tunisian-style dish that Anni blogged about before, but this time we wanted to try something different. Many people have been blogging about kale chips, so we figured why not try [...]
Forest blueberries are in season and I know nothing better than having a walk in the forest near our family’s summer cottage and coming home with my fingertips tinted deep purple-blue. Blueberry pies have been abundant this year, and now that we have our fridge in the city packed with blueberries I’ve been thinking of [...]
We’ve been having a little bit of an unintentional summer vacation from blogging – busy times but in a totally good way: we’ve been spending a lot of time in summer cottages and not that much time in the kitchen, and that’s about to continue for a while. Anyhow, this is a simple recipe that [...]
Roasted cashew butter is sweet and toasty, a very nice ingredient in both sweet baking and savory cooking. This carrot dip I make has just a few ingredients in addition to the nut butter: soy sauce, brown rice vinegar, and water. Our cashew butter has no salt (actually it only has cashews and nothing else) [...]
This is how we love our pop corn: with a fiery heat from chili powder, a nice acidic bite from the amchoor, a bit of smokey paprika, a dash of nutritional yeast, and a pinch of salt. These flavors just combine so very well that a bowl of pop corn never lasts very long around here.
The amount [...]
Tofu chocolate mousse has recently been embraced by a number of mainstream culinary authorities, but for many vegans it’s been basic fare for years – either as a pie filling, cake topping, or simply as a decadent dessert. This is my latest twist on the classic, with a dash of espresso and whole cane sugar [...]
It’s been way too long since I’ve blogged about anything. I’ve been quite busy, but things are a lot less hectic now, and I can focus on important things, like making pickles and baking bread. I had always thought caraway as a spice to use with rye sourdough bread, but this bread demonstrated me how [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, bread, caraway, muscovado, spelt, spelt flour, wheat bran, wheat flour, whole wheat, whole wheat flour, yeast
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We’ve been eating a lot of cabbage all through the winter, and the arrival of Hungarian new crop cabbage has been a real celebration for us. It’s so soft and green and sweet, perfect to be used in stir-fries and salads of any kind – an indulgence while we wait for the local cabbage crop. [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged agave syrup, arugula, bell pepper, black pepper, brown rice vinegar, cabbage, garlic, gomasio, lemon juice, lunch, olive oil, sage, salad, smoked paprika, tamari, tarragon, thyme, tofu, tomato
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I baked these cookies for dessert over the last weekend when my dad and step mom came over for dinner. The whole idea of freshly baked cookies served with ice cream for dessert makes so much sense now that I can’t believe I haven’t though of this before. I made the dough the previous evening [...]
These super yummy oven fries are what I had for dinner one night last week, along with a serving of chocolate strawberry pudding – this is what happens when Heikki leaves me home alone for a few nights!
Ever since I learnt to use our mandolin I’ve been making oven fries from scratch. I’m guessing they’re [...]
I love this dessert – it is a breeze to make, and its flavor has the perfect combination of tart and sweet with a little bit of nutty rye and some vanilla thrown in. Probably even better than the other trad Finnish dessert, whipped semolina-lingonberry porridge, and definitely quicker to make. We get lingonberries from [...]
This was a quick dinner that we weren’t planning to blog about, but it turned out so great we wanted to share the recipe. I had some vegetable stock I had made a few days before in our pressure cooker, which definitely added to the yumminess, but I’m sure this will work well with store-bought [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged chick pea, coriander, cumin, garlic, onion, potato, quick, smoked paprika, soup, tahini, turmeric, vegetable stock
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In the wintertime we are not great salad eaters, not only because the weather makes us crave something more warming, but also because of the sad state of the local veggie supply. Good root vegetables and tolerable cabbage are always available, but other than that it can get a bit grim. This salad isn’t exactly [...]
Farinata is one of the must-try dishes I’ve had in mind for a long time. I saw it for the first time in some French or Italian movie, and was intrigued: I hadn’t realized that chick pea flour was used in traditional Southern European cooking. The southeastern French and the northern Italians apparently both have [...]
December 16, 2008 – 21:13
I enjoy experimenting with different sweeteners, and lately I’ve used a lot of whole cane sugar in baking. It has the most flavor of the options I have tried so far, but I am still waiting for the perfect moment to crack open that jar of black treacle! There is a definite liquorice undertone in [...]
I know four carrots doesn’t sound much like a meal, but served alongside a pile of my avocado-yogurt dip, these fries did make a perfect light lunch to start the week with. Smoky chipotle flavor roasted right into the heart of my sweet carrots, and they came out of the oven crispy around the edges [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged avocado, baked, carrot, carrot fries, chipotle, dip, fries, oven fries, recipe, side dish, vegan, vegetarian
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November 25, 2008 – 21:59
Walnuts, vanilla and raw brown sugar melted into nice caramel flavor in these cookies. These nutty treats are rather soft and a little crisp on the bottom right after baking, perfect with a cup of tea and snow falling silently outside our window. Helsinki has tons of snow right now, but the weather forecasts say [...]
November 19, 2008 – 10:27
I love toasted sunflower seeds, and have even blogged about a plain version back when we were starting out this blog. These are very easy to make and make a great addition to soups and salads, if you can keep yourself from snacking them all! This time I seasoned my seeds with tangy lime juice [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged chili, garnish, lime juice, quick, recipe, smoked paprika, snack, sunflower seeds, toasted seeds, vegan, vegetarian
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November 10, 2008 – 21:47
We’ve had a bit of an unintentional blogging break, but here’s a sweet treat to make things right again! Chocolate and apricot are such a classic combination, and the addition of cardamom in the mousse topping added that little extra something in these birthday cupcakes.
I baked these for the birthday party of a niece, and [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged apricot, baking, cardamom, chocolate, chocolate mousse, cupcakes, dessert, mousse, recipe, silken tofu, vegan, vegetarian
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This is just a simple and quick lunch pasta I whipped up, but it came out surprisingly nicely for two reasons I suppose. Firstly, I cut the eggplant in small cubes and fried it until very brown and soft, which added a lot of flavor, and a lovely texture contrast to the lentils. Secondly, I [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged capers, eggplant, garlic, green lentils, lemon, lunch, main course, pasta, recipe, rosemary, vegan, vegetarian
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The other day I was just casually thinking about beets, and it suddenly dawned on me that fennel seed would be a perfect spice to roast them with. The moment I got the idea I knew it was a good one, and so I wrote this recipe down in a sudden burst of culinary inspiration. [...]
I am being pretty liberal calling this dish tandoori – I suppose the word refers to the method of cooking food in the tandoor oven as much as it does to the spices. And the spices used in tandoori dishes seem to vary a lot: it’s sort of like North Indian barbecue and everyone has [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged bake, baked, basmati, beet, Indian, main dish, potato, recipe, rice, soy yoghurt, tandoori, tofu, vegan, vegetarian
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We spent a very relaxing weekend at the cottage with my little wonder of a godson and his parents. It was full of raking leaves and picking mushrooms, knitting on the porch in the autumn sun and watching the little guy play with the toys me and my brothers used to have as kids. Indescribably [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged apple, baking, cardamom, chocolate, chocolate cake, dessert, orange, recipe, snack, vegan, vegetarian
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Chokladbollar are a Swedish delicacy, and we’ve noticed on our trips to Stockholm that they’re available at almost every grocery and coffeehouse over there. They are often vegan, and boy are they delicious! I envy Swedes for their abundance of chokladbollar, since although a certain brand of them is sold in some Finnish supermarkets, they [...]
September 25, 2008 – 21:27
We recently bought our first bag of kamut out of plain curiosity, since it’s a pretty interesting cereal. It is actually a trademarked organic crop, essentially a certain type of wheat, but with larger berries and more protein than the regular wheat. Kamut berries are pretty chewy and have a nice round flavor, but somehow [...]
September 22, 2008 – 21:15
The cracker madness doesn’t seem to come to an end, so I may as well post another recipe. These are the crunchiest, crispiest crackers I’ve managed to produce so far, and their secret ingredient is quite surprising: finely ground rolled oats! I added a few dried herbs for a new flavor, but the texture is [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, cayenne, crackers, garlic, ground oats, herb crackers, nutritional yeast, recipe, rosemary, snack, thyme, vegan, vegetarian
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September 16, 2008 – 20:51
We needed a quick and effortless supper on Sunday, since I had a mean flu and Heikki was hurrying to meet some friends. I decided to resort to my trusted veggie soup recipe, but instead of carrots I used lovely beets and the cauliflower that had been sitting in our fridge for a day or [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged beet, beetroot, cashew, cauliflower, lime, lime zest, main course, recipe, soup, vegan, vegetarian
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September 12, 2008 – 17:36
I’ve been seeing salty cracker recipes here and there and they have accumulatively fed my cracker cravings. This week I finally started to bake my own, and how yummy they are! Now I am completely hooked – the triangular shape is just perfect for scooping up baba ghannouj, tsatsiki, or hummus, and these are nice [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged Add new tag, baking, cayenne, crackers, garlic, lemon juice, mustard, nutritional yeast, recipe, snack, vegan, vegetarian
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September 11, 2008 – 09:33
Whipped semolina porridge with lingonberries, or vispipuuro as we call it, is a very traditional Finnish dessert. The semolina is first cooked with crushed lingonberries, then the porridge is cooled down, and finally it’s whipped, which gives it the right velvety texture and a pretty pink color. The resulting concoction is really more like a [...]
I’ve always thought that you need an ice cream maker if you want to have home made ice cream, so I was delighted that the ice cream Anni made turned out so good. The next step, of course, was to make ice cream of my own. I wanted to try coconut ice cream, since it [...]
There’s something irresistible about eggplant, and especially about fried eggplant. We both really liked the gentle spiciness of this breading mixture, and the texture of the dish was very pleasing – the soft eggplant flesh on the inside and the crispy crumbs on the outside.
We served these eggplants with brown rice and a simple [...]
These thin caramelized oat biscuits are often the first baking project Finnish kids learn – they’re so easy to make and the results are delicious. The two tricks are to leave enough room around the dollops of batter before baking, since they spread out a lot, and not overbaking them, since they burn very quickly.
These [...]
Sweet potatoes are something we didn’t use very much in our cooking before. Maybe it’s because we generally prefer locally grown root vegetables, and sweet potatoes are usually shipped in from China, USA, or Israel. But yep, sometimes we treat ourselves with a few of these yummy things, and this mash really is a perfect [...]
This spread was part of our May Day picnic. It gets its deep flavor from liquid smoke and fresh sage, and goes especially well with a bread that has a lot of flavor of its own – like the dried Finnish sour rye bread pictured below.
The recipe is very easy and quick to make, but [...]
This pie was very easy to make, and quite delicious as well. I found the original filling recipe through Eric at VeganGrub, and my only additions were a little bit of Grand Marnier, some salt to make the chocolate flavor shine, and a little bit more agave syrup than Eric used. Heikki thought that the [...]
The idea for this dish came from Antonio Tabucchi’s book Requiem. In one scene, the protagonist dines with a dead friend of his in a restaurant, and they are having sarrabulho, a traditional Portuguese meat dish. While eating, they are discussing how the meat is marinated in some white wine, caraway, garlic, and olive oil. [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged black pepper, caraway, chili, garlic, main course, paprika, potato, side dish, smoked paprika, tofu, white wine
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This dish consisted of the ingredients I was able to find in our kitchen when I needed to make a quick lunch for myself. I thought about spaghetti, but there was none left, so I opted for risoni (orzo) instead. No canned beans, so tofu it was, and I was lucky enough to find a [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged balsamic vinegar, basil, lime, liquid smoke, main dish, nutritional yeast, orzo, pasta, recipe, risoni, tofu, vegan, vegetarian
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When I finally tried making my own peanut sauce, I couldn’t believe how easy it is to prepare, and to tweak according to what’s at hand. Sometimes I add lime juice, or leave out lemon grass if we don’t have it, or use coconut milk instead of veggie stock to thin the sauce, and it [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged asian, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, main course, noodle, peanut butter, peanut sauce, recipe, sauce, stir-fry, vegan, vegetarian
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When I was living in Malaysia some years ago, this was one of my favourite take-away dishes. Nearby my workplace there were some food stalls that sold Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leaves. Basically, it’s rice cooked in coconut milk and some condiments, eaten with sambal and some side dishes – yes, I think the [...]
I made this as a light lunch for myself, and it was so good that the recipe is definitely going to appear as a side dish for a larger audience. Steamed broccoli is great, and stir-steamed broccoli is even greater – it’s a quick method that gives pleasantly crispy results. Simply seasoned with nothing more [...]
I have visited the US a few times, and one of the things I miss most is that the supermarkets carry hummus and baba ghannouj in a number of flavors – my favorite being the roasted red bell pepper. Lately the bigger supermarkets in Finland have started carrying one brand of Swedish hummus that is [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged chick pea, cumin, garlic, hummus, lime, recipe, red bell pepper, roasted bell pepper, snack, spread, sunflower seeds, vegan, vegetarian
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If there’s one dish that reminds me of my childhood, it’s mashed potatoes. We always had a simple version at home, that I enjoyed with a dab of butter that melted and transformed into a lake on top of the potato mountain… I also have a vivid memory of a dinner I had at [...]
February 26, 2008 – 09:52
This gentle soup made an amazing weekday lunch for the two of us. Somehow it managed to be light and filling at the same time, and the subtle flavors of edamame and avocado enhanced each other beautifully.
Edamame means fresh young soy beans in Japanese, and they’re usually cooked and served in their pods. Fresh soy [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged appetizer, avocado, edamame, edamame soup, fresh soy bean, onion, recipe, sherry, soup, vegan, vegetarian
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February 17, 2008 – 20:54
I fried this tempeh for lunch one day, and didn’t have time to marinate it more than an hour. It was very delicious, which made me realize that tempeh absorbs flavors even more readily than tofu does! Actually, the marinade I used is pretty close to the one we often use for tofu, but I [...]
February 13, 2008 – 20:55
The simple act of adding balsamic vinegar to vegetables before roasting takes their flavors to a completely new dimension. The vinegar loses its acidity in the oven, and enhances the sweet flavors of the root vegetables.
We got our monthly supply of organic flours and vegetables on Friday evening, delivered to our door by my [...]
February 10, 2008 – 18:42
We whipped up this pie 20 minutes before a friend came over, and it had almost firmed up after spending 2 hours in the fridge, when we were ready to have dessert. The photo is from the next day, and I do recommend refrigerating this pie overnight to let the filling firm up completely – [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged agar, dessert, lime, no-bake, pie, recipe, strawberry, strawberry lime pie, vegan, vegan lime pie, vegetarian
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There are various vegan omelette recipes around the internet, and we’ve tried a few of them – Susan’s version for example, which we liked as much as to make it several times. Sometimes the recipes call for chick pea flour (also known as gram), like this Indian style vegan omelette, but almost always the [...]
This is another take on Mihl’s sunflower seed spread, but this time we seasoned it with sundried tomatoes, harissa, and parsley. Really good and spicy, this goes well with potato bread and alfalfa sprouts like in the photo, and is even better with Finnish rye bread. With all the seasonings, this doesn’t have as much [...]
Moth beans are yet another new legume in our kitchen. They are very tiny, and look something like small, brown mung beans. Moth beans cook really fast, are creamy in texture, and have a nutty flavor that paired really well with the sharp dressing.
Beans:
200 g dried moth beans, soaked overnight
2 cloves garlic
vegetable broth
1 bay [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged balsamic vinegar, cilantro, garlic, lime, lunch, moth beans, pressure cooking, recipe, salad, vegan, vegetarian
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This was a quick lunch I made for myself on a day when I had to use up three carrots, since we’d got our organic veggie delivery the day before, and the old ones had to go. We froze a bunch of leeks after the previous organic delivery, so now I could just take one [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged appetizer, carrot, cashew, garlic, leek, lemon, lunch, recipe, soup, vegan, vegetarian
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This tofu “cheese” has a consistency resembling cottage cheese, or a little like feta cheese, and is really tasty. It doesn’t taste like cheese, however, which for me is a good thing: I outgrew my cheese addiction about 7 years ago – it took a few vegan years to combat my cravings. Tofu marinated this [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged garlic, lime, recipe, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, spread, tofu, uncheese, vegan, vegan cheese, vegetarian
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November 28, 2007 – 22:24
Last week I found a post by Mihl from Seitan is my motor through Vegalicious. Mihl had developed a recipe for sunflower seed spread, and reading about it, I instantly got a feeling that this would be a new favorite at our house. First batch I made was the plain version that Mihl posted, only [...]
November 24, 2007 – 16:21
On Thursday evening after two dance classes I was pretty hungry, and Heikki was at a somewhat early Christmas party. Luckily this dinner didn’t take me more than about 10 minutes to make. I had marinated the tofu earlier the same day, instant cous cous cooked in a few minutes – and the Ajvar yogurt [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged arab, chili, cous cous, fried tofu, harissa, lime, main course, pressing tofu, recipe, soy sauce, soy yogurt sauce, tofu, vegan, vegetarian, za'atar
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November 21, 2007 – 22:30
Served with a slice of bread, this soup is a tasty wintertime dinner in itself. It only took me about 10 minutes to make plus an hour to simmer. Long cooking time cuts the sharpness of the Middle Eastern hot chili pepper paste, harissa, and mellows down the garlic as well.
My soup looks more liquid [...]
November 19, 2007 – 15:46
On Friday, we invited some friends over before a night out. I made us three spreads to have with fresh baguette and crackers, over a glass of wine or some beer. This first one was made with sun dried tomatos, the second with fava beans, and the third with olives. I love how easy these [...]
November 19, 2007 – 15:46
This is a really salty spread, nice for snacking with crackers or fresh bread, and maybe a glass of red wine.
What I used:
1 and 1/2 dl olives (we had Kalamata and some leftover green ones)
3 teaspoons capers
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon dried basil
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
I [...]
November 14, 2007 – 11:50
We love mashed potatoes. We also had some leftover coconut milk from curry roasted tofu and vegetables, and these two facts put together resulted in coconut mashed potatoes. Google told me that in Hawaii, sweet potatoes are often mashed in coconut milk. Here, the coconut flavor hides in the background, but still gives a nice [...]
November 12, 2007 – 17:06
The yogurt sauce is an Arab dish, Yogurt Ginger Appetizer (Laban ma’ Zanjabeel) from Habeeb Salloum’s Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa. We only made minor modifications to his recipe and halved it to serve two people instead of four, and the dish came out very very good. Almonds add a [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged almond, arab, ginger, Habeeb Salloum, mint, recipe, sauce, tomato, vegan, vegetarian, yogurt
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Green lentils have an appealing shape, each one so perfectly round and flat. I thought of France while cooking these lentils, but can’t remember ever eating lentils there – mine probably aren’t even remotely French, but they are delicious. Green lentils keep their shape when cooked, but don’t need soaking, which is great since I [...]
An easy and satisfying lunch, preparing this dish takes only 10 minutes, and roasting about 40 minutes. I mostly work at home, and this is a great way of preparing a meal and getting other things done while it’s cooking.
Marinating the tofu would be a good idea, since now it only had a mild curry [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged carrot, chili, coconut milk, curry, ginger, lemon grass, lime, potato, recipe, roasted, tofu, vegan, vegetarian
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I made this ridiculously easy Chinese salad while Heikki was cooking the main dish for lunch today. This is a favorite of ours, and we make it often to accompany Chinese stir-fries. We received a big white cabbage from a local organic farm this week, and that’s pretty much all that is needed to make [...]
