It’s important to choose waxy potatoes for salads, since they won’t get all mushy once cooked and cubed like their starchy relatives do. I even forgot my potatoes on the stove this time, and consequently overcooked them until their skins started to crack, but they still kept together just fine!

The Dressing:

• 1/2 dl olive oil
• 1/2 dl apple cider vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, rubbed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon red paprika powder
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

The Salad:

• 1 and 1/2 kg waxy potatoes, boiled, peeled, and cubed
• 4 Russian-style salted cucumbers, cubed (see our Stroganoff recipe for more information on Russian cucumbers)
• 35 g capers (1 small jar, or about 5 tablespoons)
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and finely cubed
• 1 can chick peas, rinsed, or about 3 dl cooked chick peas
• 1 small leek, rinsed and sliced
• chives (for garnish)

I just combined all the ingredients, whisked the dressing together, and mixed it in the salad. At this point, I always adjust the saltiness, and check if the salad still needs a dash of vinegar, or a little more black pepper.

Then we let the salad develop in the fridge overnight before taking it with us to the May Day picnic. This makes a big amount, and we even had leftovers with lunch for a few days after the picnic day – which is good, because this salad just gets better and better.

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!

One teaspoon of chili and sichuan pepper each don’t yet make a fiery dish, but it’s enough to enjoy the combination of their flavours. If you prefer more spiciness in your food, don’t hesitate to add more, but take it easy on the sichuan pepper if you’re not familiar with it – if you add it too much it starts to dominate the dish.

Sauce:

• 1 teaspoon toasted and freshly ground sichuan pepper (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon dried chili flakes (or to taste)
• ½ dl dry sherry
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fermented black beans
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed

Stir-Fry Ingredients:

• 350 g broccoli
• 1 red bell pepper
• a quarter of a leek (or maybe 1 small leek, we didn’t have more!)
• ½ kg tofu
• 1 tablespoon canola oil for frying
• 2 teaspoons starch diluted in 4 tablespoons water

First we drained and pressed the tofu. Then we toasted the sichuan peppers over medium heat on a dry frying pan for a couple of minutes, stirring them every now and then so that they would not burn, after which I ground them in a mortar. Next, I mashed the fermented black beans with a fork, and then mixed all the sauce ingredients together: sichuan pepper, chili, sherry, soy sauce, black beans and garlic.

Then we cut all the veggies and the tofu into small pieces. You could also cut them into thin strips, squares, triangles or whatever shape pleases you!

Now, we put a wok over high heat, added the oil, and when the oil was really hot, we added the leek and paprika first, stir-fried them for a minute or so, then added the broccoli, fried it for maybe two minutes or so, then added the tofu, and stir-fried for maybe a minute more. Next, it was time to pour in the sauce, cook and stir for about one minute or so. Then we added the thickener, and stirred it in. We removed the wok from heat, and served the dish with yasmine rice immediately.

We’ve tried a couple of variations of this soup. This version is basically a crossbreed between a recipe that was in the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat about three years ago, and various chick pea soup recipes from the excellent Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & Africa by Habeeb Salloum. This is what we used:

• 5 dl dried chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 5 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 2 small leeks, chopped to matchsticks
• 3 teaspoons vegetable stock powder
• 2 potatoes, boiled and cubed
• 1 liter water
• 5 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin (jeera)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• some freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt or according to taste
• 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice

About one hour before cooking, we put the chickpeas in a bowl, and filled it with boiling water. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you should soak the chick peas overnight. We put the cooker over medium-high heat and heated the olive oil. We then fried the chopped leek and sliced garlic for a couple of minutes, stirring frequenty so that the garlic wouldn’t burn. Next, we poured in the water and the chickpeas and added the vegetable stock powder, covered the cooker, and cooked on high pressure for 2o minutes. Then we lowered the pressure, added the cubed potatoes, cilantro, cumin and paprika, and cooked on low pressure for 10 minutes more. If you’re not using a pressure cooker, you’d probably need to cook the chick peas about for an hour, and then add the spices and potatoes, and simmer maybe 15 minutes more.

Now, we took the cooker off the heat, lowered the pressure, and used our immersion blender to purée the soup. Then we added the salt, lemon juice and black pepper. I guess this goes without saying, but at this point sample the taste, adding salt, pepper or lemon juice as you see (or taste) fit.

We served the soup sprinkled with chili and cumin and topped off with a liberal splash of olive oil. These are essential! Also have a few extra slices of lemon handy, which can be squeezed on top of the serving according to taste.

Ground cumin (also known as jeera, geerah, kamoon), crushed red chili, and red paprika powder, with some frozen cilantro on the background.

Making soup can’t get easier than this; I placed the ingredients in a pot, and cooked for 15 minutes. This batch makes one big bowl of soup, and would easily serve two as a starter. To make it a little fancier, I would garnish the individual servings with chopped cilantro, basil, or other fresh herbs.

Here’s what I had:

• 3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 leek, cut in matchsticks
• 1 big clove garlic
• a handful of cashew nuts (about 1/2 dl I’d say)
• water to cover
• salt to taste
• about 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• a little freshly ground black pepper

I placed the carrots, leek, garlic, cashews, and salt in a small cooking pot, and filled it with just enough water to cover them. Now, I covered the pot with a lid, and cooked the soup for about 15 minutes, until the carrots were tender. I puréed the soup with our immersion blender until creamy, added about a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice (a few squeezes), and adjusted the saltiness. Then I poured the soup in a bowl, and crushed some black pepper to garnish.

Spanakopita filling:

• one batch of our tofu “cheese”
• 300 g frozen spinach, thawed
• 1 smallish leek (150 g), chopped
• 2 small onions, finely cubed
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon dried red chili
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme, slightly crushed between fingers

While Anni was preparing the filling, I started to write this post. I added the part on how the Spanakopitas tasted and how they were received by our friends only afterwards, I swear!

First, Anni fried the onions about 10 minutes on a medium low heat, until they were translucent and not yet brown. Then she added the chopped leek, and continued frying for about five minutes more. Then it was time to add the chili and the paprika, and after frying them for a minute or so, she added the spinach to the frying pan. After stirring for a while, she added the salt, nutmeg, black pepper, sugar and thyme. The spinachy part of the filling was now ready.

The other half of the filling, the tofu “cheese”, Anni had made the day before. After the spinach filling had cooled down a little, we combined it with the tofu, and were ready to assemble the pastries.

Assembling the triangles:

• 450 gram package frozen filo pastry
• olive oil (preferably in a spray bottle)

This was our first time using the filo dough, so we didn’t really know how hard it would be to work with. In the end it didn’t prove to be that difficult, but it is important to follow the instructions on the package carefully. We took the frozen filo dough out of the freezer the day before baking, and let it thaw in the fridge overnight. On the day of baking, we let it thaw in the room temperature for two hours.

Another important thing to remember is that the filo sheets that aren’t worked on must be protected from air, so that they don’t dry out. We did this by placing a sheet of baking parchment over the remaining filo sheets, and covered the whole thing with a damp kitchen towel.

First, Anni placed one filo sheet on a dry table, and cut the filo sheet with scissors in four parts lengthwise. Then she sprayed the filo strips with olive oil, and placed a scant tablespoon of filling by the end of each filo strip.

Now, she folded the right corner of the dough over the filling, and a triangle formed. Then she folded the triangle over and over again, covering the filling with about three layers of filo dough. She cut off any excess dough, placed the triangles on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment, and sprayed them with olive oil.

Then we baked the triangles in 180 degrees Celsius, for about 15 minutes, until they were nicely browned.

Here’s what we had in the salad:

• 500 g cabbage
• 5 cm piece of leek, cut in small pieces
• 3 teaspoons dried dill
• 3-4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 -1 teaspoon salt

First, I cut the cabbage in thin strips. Then I mixed all the ingredients in a plastic container, and beat the cabbage with a bottom of an empty vinegar bottle, tossing the salad around a few times, to get every strip of cabbage soften up a bit. Then the salad settled in the fridge until lunch, for about two hours.

What I used:

• 1,5 whole wheat bulgur (medium coarse)
• 5 cm piece of a slim leek, only the white part
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 dl olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teapoon salt
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 red bell pepper
• 3 teaspoons dried mint
• 1/2 dl raisins, minced
• 1 dl fresh parsley, chopped
• freshly ground black pepper

I rinsed the bulgur thoroughly in a shifter, until the rinsing water remained clear. Then I chopped the leek finely, and cut the cucumber and red bell pepper in small cubes. Now, I just mixed everything up in a bowl, and stored in an airtight container in the fridge overnight. Next day, I adjusted the taste, added a little more lemon juice, and served the tabbouleh in a bowl lined with lettuce.

This is a basic Chinese stir-fry recipe and really easy to make. With proper ingredients – fresh leek and fresh tofu – it tastes delicious! I’ve adapted this from a meat dish in the Finnish book Syödään kuten Kiinassa.

This is what I used:

• 200 g leek (about 3 small leeks)
• 250 g tofu
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry or rice wine
• 3 tablespoons oil for frying (or less, according to taste)

For the thickening:

• ½ tablespoon corn starch
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons water

For the marinade:

• 2 tablespoons dry sherry or rice wine
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce

I began by putting the rice in the cooker. I then dried and pressed the tofu. We were really hungry, so I didn’t do it as carefully as I usually want to do it. I’ve found that using a thin cloth or tissue to absorb some of the water from the tofu really makes a difference in the taste. This time I just wrapped the chunk of tofu in some paper tissue and put a weight on top of it for a few minutes. After cutting the tofu into small cubes, I mixed it with the marinade in a box with a lid. While finishing the rest of the preparations, I shook the box every couple of minutes to make sure the marinade was evenly distributed among the tofu cubes.

I mixed the thickening ingredients and set them aside. Then, I cut the leeks in half lengthwise and rinsed them carefully to get rid of all the grit hidden between the layers. Anni was finished preparing the cabbage salad by now, and she cut the leeks in tiny matchstick-like pieces.

It was time to fry the food. I heated the oil in a wok until it was really hot, and tossed in the tofu along with the remnants of the marinade. I fried the tofu for a couple of minutes, stirring continuously with two wooden spatulas. Next I added the sherry, and stirred again, until it was dissolved.

Now I added the leek, and fried it for a few minutes, tossing the tofu and the leek around the pan frivolously. Finally I added the thickening, and stirred for a short while until the thickening started to boil. Now it was time to eat!

This is a great recipe if you want something delicious really quick.

Presumably the more skillful the cook, the bigger the lions’ heads are. I had some qualms whether my vegan lions stay together or not, so I played it safe and made my Lions’ heads a bit smaller. The original recipe (using pork) is from a Finnish cookbook “Syödään kuten Kiinassa” by Marja Kaikkonen, but I modified it quite a bit.

It took me almost an hour and a half to cook this dish, but for a quicker cook (like Anni) this would only take about an hour, I think. Together with some boiled rice, this portion would be enough for three. We managed to eat only 6 balls, and we barely ate any rice!

This is what I used:

• about 5 tablespoons canola oil for frying
• 500 g Chinese cabbage
• 5 dl vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon corn starch diluted in 2 tablespoons of water

For the Lions’ heads:

• 100 g cashew nuts
• 100 g textured soy protein bits (about 2.1 dl or 3/4 cup)
• 1 slim leek
• 2 tablespoons crushed ginger
• 1 teaspoon egg replacer (substitutes 1 egg)
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 4 dl vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon corn starch

First I roasted the cashew nuts, and ground them smoothly in the food processor. I mixed the boiling vegetable stock with the textured soy protein in a bowl and covered it. While the soy bits were soaking up, I crushed the leek and ginger in the food processor, and mixed them with the rest of the Lions’ heads ingredients. Before adding the soy protein bits, I drained and pressed them to get rid of extra water. What I had in the dough mix so far was: textured soy protein (soaked in vegetable stock), leek, ginger, egg replacer, sherry, soy sauce, and corn starch.

Now, at this point, I forgot that I had the cashew nut powder, and I got almost desperate, since the mix I had so far was not sticky enough to be made into balls. I tried to add a bit of canola oil, but that didn’t help. After realizing that I forgot to add the cashew powder, I combined it with the rest of the ingredients, and that did the trick!

Before starting to fry the Lions’ heads, I cut the Chinese cabbage into thinnish strips, and put them in a separate bowl.

I rolled 8 balls out of the dough, about 2 inches diameter each, heated up the oil in a frying pan, and carefully fried them until they had a nice brown color. While frying the balls, I heated up the vegetable stock into a boil in a separate kettle, and a couple of minutes before I was finished with the frying, I threw the shredded cabbage into the kettle along with the sugar. Because I already had used one vegetable stock cube for the dough, I was somewhat concerned that the balls would be too salty, so I only used half of a stock cube for the sauce.

After frying the balls, it was time to boil them in the stock. I wasn’t sure whether it would affect the taste, but I wanted to follow the original recipe.

I put the Lions’ heads into the kettle carefully, even though their consistency was much firmer after the frying. They settled on top of the boiling cabbage only partially submerged, but I thought that’s ok, and let them simmer for about 15 minutes. After deciding they were ready (for no particular reason, we were just getting hungry), I carefully spooned the balls out of the kettle, spread the cabbage on a serving platter, and put the Lions’ heads on top. I poured the corn starch mixed with water in the remaining sauce, and brought it to boil, after which I poured the sauce on top of the Lions’ heads.

I’ve been wanting to cook these things for a long time, and I’m glad I finally got around making them. They turned out to be delicious! Anni thought they tasted great, too.