Tag Archives: onion

Chipotle Black-Eyed Peas

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 [...]

Tofu Burgers with Beet Relish and Tahini Sauce

Simply prepared vegetables and cooked grains are what we’ve mostly been eating this fall. We still get a lot of kale from our little allotment garden plot – I can’t believe it yields crop until December in Finland! It was especially surprising ot find out since kale is pretty expensive and very hard to find [...]

Soy Bacon Bits and Spaghetti Carbonara

It’s not like I’ve spent the last 10+ years of my life in pursuit of a good imitation of meaty bacon, but now I almost wonder why I haven’t – these soy bacon bits were just so crunchy and chewy and smokey and salty. If I was challenged to fool someone into eating fake meaty [...]

Potato Chickpea Soup

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 [...]

Spelt Focaccia with Balsamic Onions

Happy new year everyone! We are back from the holidays, and it feels great to be baking and cooking and blogging from our little kitchen again.
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 [...]

Soupe a l’Oignon

I’ve been wanting to make onion soup for a long time, and finally got around doing it now that the days are so dark and cold and rainy that I crave soup constantly. It is so simple to make and so delicious that I’m sure it will be on regular rotation at our house from [...]

Spicy Rutabaga Fava Bean Soup

This soup has typical Finnish fall produce and North African spices. We thought that the earthy and sweet rutabaga combined really well with the rich and complex flavors of ras-el-hanout, the fava beans providing a mild backdrop to it all. Our soup’s enchanting fragrance complemented its taste in an elegant manner.

Soup ingredients:

olive oil for frying
2 [...]

Cow Pea Hemp Burgers

There had been two ingredients sitting in our pantry for many weeks, demanding my attention: cow peas and crushed hemp seeds. Couple of days ago I finally made some burgers using both the peas and the seeds. Cow peas are brownish red, but otherwise they look just like black-eyed peas. They are actually the same [...]

Cabbage Pie

This was such a nice pie: creamy, tangy filling in a crunchy whole wheat crust. I tried to recreate something a little bit Easter European with the dill and the cabbage and a pile of onions, seasoned with allspice and parsley. With a side of mixed salad this pie made perfect dinner for the two [...]

Nettle Temptation

In May, when we gathered some goutweed, we also picked up a lot of nettles (Urtica dioica). Usually, we make pancakes or a sauce from nettles, but this time we wanted to do something different. A non-vegan version of this recipe by Vivi-Ann Sjögren was in the monthly Kuukausiliite supplement of the Finnish newspaper Helsingin [...]

Spicy Potato Rösti

Rösti is a Swiss potato pancake, and in its most simple form, a rösti recipe only has grated potatoes as an ingredient. I added a little flour to keep my rösti together and a sweet apple to counterbalance the spiciness of chili, onion, garlic, and thyme. Delicious!

As a side dish, this recipe makes plenty for [...]

Edamame Avocado Soup

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 [...]

Balsamico Roasted Vegetables

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 [...]

Palak Tofu

Palak is an Indian spinach dish that everyone knows from Palak Paneer, in which it is served with Indian cheese. I do not think that I ever tasted that dish before going vegan, but I’ve witnessed friends devour it in restaurants numerous times, and have become curious. Palak is delicious on its own, but tofu [...]

Five-Spice Tofu with Slightly Sweet and Sour Veggies

We had a weekday dinner at its best on Wednesday: delicious five-spiced tofu, slightly sweet and sour stir-fried veggies, and a bowl of brown rice. Yumminess can’t be exaggerated, it was all very delicious. It happened to be the Chinese New Year’s eve as well – everyone was wishing happy new year for each other [...]

Walnut Tofu Quiche

We baked this pie Sunday evening, when neither of us felt like having real dinner. I often make savory pies that are based on a puréed tofu filling, but haven’t thought about walnuts in this context before. Their deep flavor paired perfectly with the sweetness of the fried onions and the tangy lemon juice.

The ingredients [...]

Meatless Loaf

This soy and cashew loaf has many specialty ingredients in it, but I’m pretty sure that the recipe can be tweaked according to what’s on hand and it’ll be just as good. We both really enjoyed the texture that this loaf got from the chewy soy protein bits and the creamy cashews. I think this [...]

Cuban Black Bean Soup

When me and Heikki were travelling in Cuba, black bean soup was one of our favorite vegan foods. Staying at casas particulares, renting extra rooms from people’s homes, we had the advantage of sampling Cuban home cooking the vegan way. We could always explain what vegan food was, and could be sure that our [...]

Sherry Onion Sauce

This was a simple sauce I made to go with the wonderful Black Eyed Pea Cutlets, served with pan fried potatoes. Thanks to cashew nuts, the texture is smooth and really creamy, and this is a good all-purpose gravy that would go with just about anything, I imagine.

Here’s what I used for the sauce:

1 onion, [...]

Eggplant and Split Chick Pea Curry

We had this curry for dinner with basmati rice and cooling soy yogurt sauce. It was delicious, one of the best curries I’ve ever made. Toasting the spices and mixing my own curry paste must have been the secret of its taste.

Curry paste:

2 tablespoons grated coconut
1 teaspoon each: mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, [...]

Seitan Log

Following in the footsteps of Susan’s veggeroni, and a number of other similar recipes I’ve seen floating around the Internet, this is my own version of oven baked gluten. This makes a dense, sort of dry salami-like wheat gluten log, ideal for crumbling for further use.

This seitan has some tiny air bubbles in it, as [...]

Spanakopitas

We made these pastries for a Christmas party we went to on Saturday, and everyone liked them. Filo (also fillo or phyllo) pastry is crispy and delicate, and the spinach-tofu filling was nice and spicy. An easier way out is to bake one big spanakopita in a baking dish, but triangles are better for parties.

Spanakopita [...]

Tofu Patties

We had these tofu patties for lunch two days in a row: first day served with cous cous and some leftover gravy, and the next day with olive mashed potatoes and basil yogurt sauce. We thought the patties tasted even better the next day, and thus would be perfect to have in the freezer for [...]

Split Chick Pea Soup

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 [...]

Fava Bean Dip

Fava beans, also known as broad beans, are very delicious, but there’s one problem: they have thick skin, and every bean needs to be peeled separately. Especially dried fava beans are a little difficult to work with. I was very happily surprised when we found dried split fava beans at a local shop, Al Marwan. [...]

Stewed Green Lentils

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 [...]

Potato Wedges “Chinese” Style

Oven roasted potato wedges are probably my favorite side dish. This was an experiment with a corn starch thickened coating, which resulted in a slightly sticky consistence. We had these potatoes for lunch with some bean salad. Yummy!

What I used:

1,2 kg potatoes
3 onions

Coating:

1/2-3/4 dl olive oil
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 teaspoon sesame [...]