The agave syrup in the custard caramelized around the edges, which gave it a very nice burnt sweetness.

The Custard Topping:

• 175 g (half a package Mori-Nu) silken tofu
• 2 dl oat cream (or soy creamer, or any other vegan cream)
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
• 4 tablespoons agave syrup
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons tapioca starch
• pinch of salt

I combined all the ingredients and blended until completely smooth.

The Brownie Batter:

• 70 g vegan chocolate (semi dark)
• 60 g margarine
• 1 dl plus 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
• 2/3 dl dark cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 and 1/2 dl plain, unsweetened soy yogurt
• 1 and 1/2 dl raw cane sugar
• 3 tablespoons soy milk
• 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar

First, I preheated the oven to 175 degrees Celsius, and melted the chocolate and the margarine in a water bath. Once melted, I let them cool down while preparing the other ingredients.

I mixed the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a small bowl. Then I placed the soy yogurt, the soy milk, vanilla sugar, and raw cane sugar in another bowl, and whisked them for about 3 minutes. I wanted the sugar to dissolve, so at this point I took the time to prepare my baking dish.

I covered my baking dish (26 X 18 cm) with parchment paper. Then, I whisked the cooled down chocolate-margarine mixture together with the other wet ingredients, and then added the dry ingredients in the bowl. I stirred with a wooden fork to combine, and poured the batter to the baking pan, spreading it evenly.

Then I spread the custard topping over the brownie batter. The original recipe advices to swirl the brownie with a knife for a marbled effect, and that’s what I did. However, since these vegan brownies are leavened with baking powder, the end result is very different – well, if you look at the picture you see what I mean! But I think our brownies came out pretty too, especially after I decorated them with some cocoa powder, and this way you get nice custardy caves in the brownie layer.

I baked the brownies in 175 degrees Celsius, on the lower rack of the oven, for about 35 minutes, when a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake came out cleanish (with only some custard topping stuck to it). Then we let the brownies come to room temperature and refrigerated them for a few hours before eating.

Well, actually we had a little bite before refrigerating, but I strongly suggest serving these fridge-cold – it improves the texture immensely!

Here’s what I used (enough for about 8 dl of ice cream):

• 4 dl coconut milk
• 2 dl whippable oat cream
• 1/2 dl sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar or more
• 200g frozen raspberries or more
• fresh raspberries for decoration

I began by melting the frozen raspberries and then putting them in a sieve on top of a bowl. I took a glass, and mashed the raspberries in the sieve with the bottom of the glass, until only the seeds and the skins of raspberries remained. In the bowl was some nice, fine raspberry purée. Obviously, if you have some kind of raspberry-crushing pestle that suits the task better, feel free to use one.

I put the oat cream and sugar in a bowl, and whipped them for a couple of minutes. Then I added the coconut milk, vanilla sugar and the raspberry purée in the bowl, and whipped some more.

I put the mixture in the freezer for an hour. Then I used our immersion blender to break the texture of the not-quite-yet ice cream, and put it back in the freezer again. I repeated this for 5 hours and 5 mixes, and then I put it back in the freezer for two hours more.

It was ready to eat now! We decorated the portions with some fresh raspberries we had picked ourselves. The texture was great, very much like store-bought ice cream. The taste was delicious too! It was very coconutty and could’ve been more raspberrish, so next time I think I’ll add a bit more vanilla sugar and use more berries.

We served these eggplants with brown rice and a simple soy yogurt sauce seasoned with garlic.

The ingredients:

• 1 eggplant (about 350 g)
• 1 dl bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon each: chili flakes, paprika, garam masala, coriander powder, and turmeric
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 dl oat cream (or another vegan cream, or vegan milk)
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil

I sliced the eggplant in relatively thin slices, then rubbed the slices with some salt, and let them sit for about a half an hour in a colander over the kitchen sink. Then I rinsed the eggplant slices and patted them dry with a kitchen towel. (Some say this salting thing isn’t really necessary, but this is the way I’ve learnt to cook my eggplant.)

Then I took two plates, poured the oat cream in another, and mixed the bread crumbs with the spices in the other. I covered a baking sheet with baking parchment, and brushed it with the peanut oil. Now, I dipped the eggplant slices in the oat cream, and then in the bread crumb mixture, until all the sides were more or less covered with the crumbs, and placed the slices snuggly on the baking sheet.

I first baked the eggplants for 10 minutes in 225 degrees Celsius, then flipped them over with a thin spatula, and baked for another 10 minutes, or until they were crispy and slightly browned.

Eggplants pre-baking.

Why call it a temptation, you might ask. There’s a Swedish (non-vegetarian) dish called Janssons frestelse, which is a bit similar to this dish, and the name translates as Jansson’s Temptation.

• 7 potatoes, chopped into sticks
• 4 onions, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 liters of fresh nettles (or more)
• 3 tablespoons capers (or more)
• 2 dl oat cream
• dry bread crumbs
• salt
• black pepper
• margarine

First, we chopped potatoes into sticks, and sliced the onions. We fried the onion over medium heat until translucent, and removed it from heat. Then we boiled the nettles in lightly salted water for a couple of minutes, and drained them. Now, we crushed the garlic, chopped the nettles, and fried them lightly on medium heat.

Next, we oiled a 28 x 19 cm baking pan, and started adding layers of potatoes, onions, nettles, and capers, in this order. After each full round we added salt, pepper and bread crumbs. We finished with an extra layer of potatoes, poured in the cream evenly, sprinkled the bread crumbs, and added a few dollops of margarine.

The temptation was baked in 200 degrees Celsius until the potatoes were cooked. In our oven this took 55 minutes. If the potatoes start to burn but are not yet cooked, cover the pan with aluminum foil.

We ate the temptation together with some pan-fried tofu.

Note: When gathering nettles, try to pick up only smallish ones – they shouldn’t be more than 20 cm high. The stalks and leaves of the younger nettles are still soft, and better for cooking.

This recipe makes a pretty nice, smooth ice cream, and it wasn’t as much work as I thought it would be. Blueberries and lime are a match made in heaven, and matcha powder adds a nice green tea flavor in the mix – I like to make a smoothie with these three ingredients as well.

Here’s what I used:

• 350 g firm silken tofu (Mori-Nu)
• 200 g frozen blueberries
• about 2 dl confectioner’s sugar (depending on the sweetness of the blueberries)
• 3 and 1/2 teaspoons matcha green tea powder
• juice and zest of 1 lime
• 2 dl oat cream (or other vegan cream)

Making the ice cream takes about 5 hours (in our tiny freezer compartment), and it’s best eaten on the day of making. This recipe fills one 750 ml (7,5 dl) container.

First, I reserved 1 dl of the blueberries for serving, and placed the rest in a mixing bowl. Then I added all the other ingredients: lime juice and zest, tofu, oat cream, sugar, and matcha powder. I blended everything with our immersion blender until completely smooth, poured the mixture in the container, and popped it in the freezer.

Now, I set our kitchen timer at 55 minutes (it can only be set to 1 hour or less), and when the alarm went off, I hurried into the kitchen to blend the ice cream. I moved it in a large mixing bowl, blended with our immersion blender, ladled right back in the container, and placed it in the freezer again.

Then I repeated the above step two more times, until 3 hours had elapsed. The fourth time I only let the ice cream freeze for 35 minutes, then stirred briskly with a fork to break the texture once again, and placed it in the freezer for about an hour more, until it was time for dessert.

If frozen overnight, this ice cream becomes very solid, and needs to thaw for about an hour in the fridge before it’s scoopable.

Wild vegetables should never be picked from road banks or anywhere close to heavy traffic. It’s also important to know exactly what you’re looking for – we were happy to have the advice from Heikki’s mom, who’s been trying to root up the goutweed from her allotment garden for the last few decades!

Here’s what we had in our soup:

• 5 dl goutweed (lightly packed), rinsed and chopped
• 5 dl veggie stock
• 2/3 dl semi-dry white wine (we had Portuguese vinho verde)
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 dl fresh bread crumbs (the insides of a baguette, for example)
• oat cream and chives

I first fried the onion and the garlic in the oil on medium heat for about 12 minutes, until they started to turn golden but not yet brown. Then I added the white wine, and let it come to a brisk boil. I added the veggie stock and goutweed, heated the soup until it was boiling again, and simmered it for one minute. Now, I removed the pot from heat, added the bread crumbs, and used our immersion blender to purée the soup.

After plating the soup, I drizzled our portions with a little oat cream and sprinkled with chives.

Fresh goutweed leaves.

This is what we used for the peas:

• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon vegetable stock powder
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons tomato purée
• 4 teaspoons chipotle paste (Santa Maria brand, 34% chipotle)
• 11 dl water
• 5 dl dried black-eyed peas
• ½ teaspoon barley starch mixed with ½ dl water
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 dl oat cream
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2-3 tablespoons chopped frozen cilantro (coriander leaves)

In the afternoon, Anni poured boiling water over the black-eyed peas, and let them soak for about 3 hours. If you’re not using a pressure cooker, just soak the peas overnight in cold water. Pre-soaking isn’t necessary when cooking with pressure, but it makes the pulses much easier to digest.

We started by chopping the bell pepper and onions, and crushed the garlic. We put the pressure cooker over medium high heat, and heated the olive oil in it. First, we added the onions and garlic, and fried them for a few minutes. Then we added the chopped bell pepper, and continued frying for a couple of minutes more. Now it was time to add the ground coriander, tomato purée and chipotle paste, and fry the mixture for two or three minutes, stirring all the time with a wooden spatula.

Next, we added the oregano, vegetable stock powder, and the water, which we had heated in the water cooker first. Now, we sealed the pressure cooker. We cooked the stew in low pressure for 11 minutes. (Our pressure cooker has only two pressure settings, high, and low – I don’t know if they are all like that.) Now, we lowered the pressure, opened the cooker, and added the salt, sugar, and oat cream, then closed the cooker, and brought the pressure up again, and cooked for 5 more minutes. Once more, it was time to lower the pressure, and open the cooker.

The last step was to thicken the stew by pouring in the barley starch mixed in water, stirring it in, and bringing the stew to boil for a few minutes. Before serving, Anni mixed in the frozen cilantro, and mashed a small portion of the peas with a fork. We ate the black-eyed pea stew with jasmine rice and a side of grated carrot, and squeezed some lime juice on top of the serving.

Since we’re slightly paranoid about not burning the food in the pressure cooker, we used plenty of water in the dish. To get a thicker consistency, one could use slightly less water, maybe 8-9 dl, but taste-wise the proportions were quite balanced: the delicate aroma of the peas was nicely contrasted by the earthy fieriness of the chipotle paste.

Anni says that it’s surprisingly difficult to take an appetizing photograph of two piles of mushy, yellow food, especially without any natural light available, but that only goes to show that appearances can be deceiving.

Root vegetable mash:

• 500 g (or 4) potatoes
• 500 g (or 2) rutabagas (also known as swedes)
• 200 g (or 2) carrots
• 1 dl plain soy milk
• 2 tablespoons margarine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• some freshly ground black pepper
• finely cubed red onions to garnish

Toor dal:

• ½ tablespoon olive oil
• 4 big cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 ½ dl toor dal (split pigeon pea)
• 4 ½ dl water
• 30 green peppers
• a pinch of smoked paprika
• 1 dl oat (or other vegan) cream
• salt to taste

First we prepared the root mash. Anni peeled and sliced the potatoes and rutabagas in slices about 1 cm thick, and cut the carrots in very thin rounds. Then she cooked the carrots for 5 minutes before adding potatoes and rutabagas to the cooking pot. She poured water over them, just enough to cover, and brought it to boil. She cooked them until they were all soft and mushy, about half an hour. Then Anni poured the cooking liquid in a separate bowl, to use as a soup or stock in some other dish later. Next, she added the rest of the mash ingredients, and mashed them with a potato masher. When there were no lumps left, she whipped the root mash with an electric whisker for about 3-4 minutes.

While our root vegetables were cooking, we prepared the toor dal. Anni chopped the garlic and ground the green peppers while I rinsed the toor dal. I heated the oil on a frying pan on medium low heat, and fried the garlic for a few minutes. I added the toor dal to the pan, continued frying for a couple of minutes more, and then poured 4 and 1/2 dl water over the toor dal and covered the pan, lowering the heat so that the stew just barely kept boiling.

When the lentils were done and very soft, which took about half an hour, Anni mixed in the smoked paprika, green peppers, oat cream, and added salt to taste. Then she reheated the lentils until the stew started to bubble. We sprinkled the root mash with red onions, and devoured our mushy and comforting Sunday dinner.