Focaccia is one of my favorite homemade breads, mainly because I lack the patience of a true bread maker and it’s so simple! I used to always make it with white wheat flour, which results in lusciously soft and fluffy bread. Nothing wrong with that, but baking with whole spelt flour does add nice texture and makes the bread a lot more satisfying as a part of a meal, even if it doesn’t make a focaccia quite as tender and airy.

I always add onions in my focaccia, but olives, rosemary, red bell pepper, and eggplant are very nice as well. Frying the onions with balsamic vinegar makes them all caramelized and lovely, but when I don’t feel like any extra work, I just spread the raw onions over the bread and bake it a little longer to make sure they cook in the oven.

The Dough:

• 4 dl (300 grams) whole spelt flour
• 2 tablespoons gluten flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 sleeve (12 grams) dry yeast
• 2 and 1/2 dl warm water (approximately 42 degrees Celsius)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

First I stirred together the flour, gluten flour, salt, sugar, and dry yeast. Then I made a well in the center of the dry ingredients and poured in the water and the olive oil, and mixed with a wooden spoon until the dough came together. It ends up still a little sticky.

Now I let the dough rise in a warm place, covered with a plastic wrap, for about half an hour – or until doubled in size.

The Topping:

• 4 small onions, sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• pinch of sugar and salt
• (a few kalamata olives)
• more olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper

I fried the onions in the olive oil until they started to soften, and then added the balsamic vinegar, sugar and salt to the pan. Now, I continued to fry them on medium-low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the onions were very soft and dark brown from the balsamico. Then I spread the onions on a wide plate to cool down a bit.

When the dough was well risen, I covered a baking sheet with baking parchment, and sprayed the parchment with olive oil (brushing is fine too). Then I formed the dough into an oval shaped log and placed it on the baking sheet, and flattened it until about 1 and 1/2 centimeters thick. Then I poked it with my finger to make wells, sprinkled with sea salt and black pepper, pressed a few kalamata olives here and there in the dough, and spread the onions over it all. Now I sprayed some more olive oil over the bread and let it rise in a warm place for about a half an hour more.

I set the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. When the bread had risen, I sprayed it with some more olive oil, sprinkled with some more sea salt, and baked it for 20 minutes on the lower rack of the oven. I took the bread out of the oven and sprayed it once more with olive oil, and let it cool down a little before enjoying with a bowl of soup.

We thought that the burgers turned out really well. The Indian-style spices, the earthy flavor of the cow peas and the delicate taste of the hemp seeds made a delectable combination. The burgers were served with a side of potato wedges, garlic yogurt sauce and some lettuce.

There are many reasons to use hemp seeds. First of all, they are a complete protein source, just like soy bean and quinoa. Also, unlike soy beans, hemp can be cultivated in Finland too. After making this dish, I realized there’s a third reason as well: Its mild, easily combinable taste makes it a great ingredient in plant-based cuisine.

This is what I used:

• 500 g boiled or canned cowpeas, mashed (about 1 cup or 2,5 dl of dried cowpeas)
• 1 dl ground hemp seeds
• 3 tablespoons gluten flour
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 2 teaspoons of coriander
• 1 fresh chili, minced (or to taste)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• olive oil for brushing

First I set the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. I heated the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, and fried the onion until translucent. Then I lowered the heat, added the garlic, turmeric, cumin, and coriander, and stirred them into an oily paste. I continued to fry and stir for maybe a minute more, and removed the paste from the heat.

Next I simply combined all the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, added the paste from the frying pan, and kneaded the mix with my hand for a minute or two, until a delicate dough was formed. Now I spread some baking parchment on a baking sheet, and rolled eight balls from the dough, which I proceeded to tap between my palms into burgers.

I placed the burgers on the baking parchment, and brushed them with olive oil on both sides. I baked them in the oven for 30 minutes, 15 minutes on both sides. Before flipping them over, I brushed them with olive oil again. Together with the burgers I baked some potato wedges on a separate baking sheet, the burgers on the upper rack, and the potatoes on the lower rack.

This batch makes 22 small meatballs, and the recipe was inspired by the one on Cake Maker to the Stars.

Here’s what we used:

• 2 dl granulated TSP (in Finnish: tumma soijarouhe)
• 2 dl vegetable stock
• 1 dl diced leek
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste, depending on the stock
• 1 teaspoon dried chili
• ½ teaspoon dried marjoram
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon fried onion
• ½ dl gluten flour
• ½ dl water

I started by setting the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

To start with the dough, I combined the stock and the soy granules in a bowl, and set aside. I chopped the leek into small bits, sautéed it in olive oil for a couple of minutes, added the chili, marjoram, and thyme, and stirred to mix. By now the soy granules had absorbed all the vegetable stock, so I added them into the frying pan, and sautéed the mixture for a few more minutes. Then I added the sesame seed oil and the soy sauce to the pan. I removed the frying pan from heat, and added the crushed garlic and the store-bought fried onion, stirred them in, and let the mixture cool down a bit.

When the soy granule mixture wasn’t too hot to touch anymore, I added the water and the gluten flour, and kneaded the dough for a couple of minutes. At this point, I tried rolling a meatball in my palm, testing the consistency of the dough. It was still quite soft, but firm enough to roll into balls – just what I was aiming at.

I rolled the dough into 22 small meatballs, which I put on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment. I sprayed them with olive oil on all sides, and put them in the oven for 10 minutes. Then I flipped them over one by one, and baked for another 10 minutes. By then they were nicely browned, and a little crunchy on the surface.

Usually on May Day the weather is still quite cold, so the picnic is more of a symbolic start of the summer, but this year the weather was really nice and warm, in Finnish terms at least. We enjoyed the soy meatballs together with potato salad and smokey tofu spread seasoned with sage, of which we’ll blog about later!

The recipe we’ve been using for our seitan ribs comes from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. It’s called Barbecued Seitan Ribz, and is based on a recipe from the Vegan Chef. The latter recipe actually describes the oven cooking method we used, since barbecuing really isn’t an option for us. What follows is our version, essentially a gently modified double batch of of the two above mentioned recipes, which makes enough ribs for 5-6 persons. The main difference in terms of ingredients is that we used fresh garlic and fried onions instead of the powdered ones used in the original recipes, and that I also made my own barbecue sauce.

BBQ Sauce:

• 1 dl light soy sauce
• 2 dl mild vegetable stock
• 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons muscovado sugar
• 3 tablespoons fried onions
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon red paprika powder
• 1/2 teaspoon each: dried thyme, dried oregano, crushed red chili
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

First, I whisked together evetything but the liquid smoke and the olive oil, and then simmered the sauce over low heat for about 20 minutes. Then I added the smoke and the oil, and mixed with an immersion blender until smooth. This sauce is pretty salty, so reducing the amount of soy sauce and upping the veggie stock might be a good idea to make it less so.

The Ribs (for 5-6):

• 5 dl wheat gluten
• 3 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
• 4 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons fried onion, crushed
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 and 1/2 dl water
• 4 tablespoons tahini
• 2 teaspoons Liquid Smoke
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce

Heikki first mixed the wheat gluten, paprika, yeast, and onion together in a large bowl. Then he combined the water with the tahini, liquid smoke, garlic, and soy sauce, whisked until smooth, and added this to the dry ingredients. Now, he stirred to mix well, and then kneaded the dough lightly in the bowl for a couple of minutes.

Now, I covered our rectangular baking dish (30 cm x 20cm) with a sheet of baking parchment, and Heikki flattened the seitan dough in the dish. This takes a little bit of time and effort, since the dough should be quite stringy at this point. Heikki cut the seitan in 16 strips, then turned the pan and cut those strips in half to form 16 pieces (as per Susan’s instructions).

We baked the ribs and the fries in 175 degrees Celsius for about 25 minutes, then turned the heat up to 200 degrees, flipped the ribs, and poured half of the barbecue sauce over them. Now, we baked them for 10 more minutes, then flipped them again, poured the rest of the sauce over them, and baked them for about 10 minutes more. This makes 45 minutes total baking time.

Curry Sweet Potato Fries (for 4):

• 3 sweet potatoes (1 kg)
• 2 tablespoons Madras curry powder
• 1 teaspoon dried ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon each: ginger powder and cumin (jeera)
• 1 tablespoon muscovado sugar
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

First, I peeled and cut the sweet potatoes in chunky fries, and then placed all the ingredients in a big bowl. I tossed the fries until they were all coated with the curry powder, and then poured them on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment. I baked the fries with the ribs: first in 175 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes, and then in 200 degrees for about 20 minutes more. We tossed them around once during baking.

These fries didn’t get very crispy, but they did hold their shape nicely, since we kept them in the oven until their tips were a little charred.

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 had the loaf with plain old mashed potatoes and the delicious Tarragon Sauce from the Parsley Soup website. In the sauce, I used soy milk and brown rice vinegar, and whisked in about 25 grams of grated vegan Cheezly that we had left over from our pizza night.

Here’s what I used:

• 4 and 1/2 dl textured soy protein granules
• 1 teaspoon vegetable bouillon powder
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• The Dry Mix:
  • 2 dl cashew nuts, finely ground
  • 2 dl bread crumbs
  • 1/2 dl gluten flour
  • 3 tablespoons potato starch
  • 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• The Wet mix:
  • 2 and 1/2 dl water
  • 2 teaspoons bouillon powder
  • 5 garlic cloves, pressed
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
  • 1 tablespoon dark syrup
  • 3 teaspoons sesame oil

First, I placed the soy protein granules in a cooking pan, and covered them with plenty of fresh water. I added a teaspoon of vegetable bouillon, and brought the mixture to boil. Now, I let the soy protein granules simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring every now and then. They absorb a lot of water, so I had to be careful and add a little water when they ran dry. After cooking, I placed the granules in a sieve and rinsed them with cold water.

Now, I chopped the onion in our small food processor, and fried it in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until translucent. Then I mixed the dry mix and the wet mix in separate bowls, and then combined all the ingredients in one bowl; the dry mix, the wet mix, the soy protein, garlic, and onion. I mixed the dough carefully with a wooden fork, until everything was thoroughly combined.

I sprayed a glass oven pan with olive oil, placed the loaf dough in it, and sprayed some more olive oil over the loaf. Then I baked it in 175 degrees Celsius for one hour and 15 minutes.

The photo was taken after we’d coated the already-once-baked roast with mustard, crushed melon seeds, breadcrumbs, and pink peppercorns. It went in the oven after coating, but we forgot to take a picture when it was all done – it looked pretty much like this, except the breadcrumbs had browned a little. There’s no inside shot either, but the roast had a delicate and pleasant texture: tender and juicy, and not chewy like regular seitan.

We chose the seasonings to fit our own tastes, but the proportions for this recipe are from a seitan ham recipe at the Finnish animal rights discussion forum.

Dry ingredients:

• 3 dl gluten flour
• ½ dl chick pea flour (gram)
• ½ dl nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon dried rosemary

Wet ingredients:

• 150 g marinated tofu
• 1 and ½ dl tofu marinade
• 1 dl water
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed

First, we mixed the dry and the wet ingredients in separate bowls, then poured them together, and kneaded the dough for about 10 minutes. Now, I formed the dough in a cylindrical shape, and then wrapped it tightly in multiple layers of aluminum foil. Then we baked the roast in 150 degrees Celsius for one and a half hours, and refrigerated it overnight without removing the foil.

Pictured here; the roast dough wrapped in foil, and the next day before coating.

On Christmas eve, before dinner, we spread Dijon mustard seasoned with garlic and red bell pepper over the roast, sprinkled it with crushed melon seeds and breadcrumbs, and decorated with pink peppercorns. Then we baked it in about 175 degrees for half an hour or so, until it had gotten some color.

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 seitan has some tiny air bubbles in it, as seen in the photo, and for an even denser texture, I would make sure it’s wrapped in multiple layers of foil. The bad news is that aluminium foil is far from being ecological, but I can’t think of anything that could replace it in this recipe.

The gluten flour we use is not high-gluten wheat flour, but 100 % gluten. In Helsinki, this kind of gluten flour is available for example in the organic store Ekolo that’s close to where we live.

This is what I used:

• 3 dl instant gluten flour
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed or grated
• 1 dl fried onions (the store-bought kind), crushed
• 2 dl water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1 teaspoon red paprika powder
• 1 teaspoon dried chili in oil
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

First, I preheated the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

I measured the gluten flour in a bowl, mixed everything else in a different bowl, and then poured the wet mix in the gluten bowl. Now I kneaded the dough for 5 minutes, forming it in a log about 25 centimeters long, and then wrapped the log tightly in aluminium foil.

Then I baked the seitan for one hour and 15 minutes; the first 45 minutes it was placed with the seam side down, then I turned the log around so that the seam side was up, lowered the heat to 150 degrees, and baked for further 30 minutes.

After it had cooled down, I refrigerated the log overnight, and then crumbled it in our electric grinder. This could also be sliced as a pizza topping or a sandwich filling, but for me, that’s just too meaty.