The secret of this soup is how we used tahini as a thickener, which produced an almost coconut-milk-like creaminess. It really worked well in this recipe, and we’ll be sure to try tahini in other soups in the future.

This is what we used:

• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 teaspoons cumin (jeera)
• 2 teaspoons coriander
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
• about 6 dl of vegetable stock
• 5 medium potatoes, diced
• 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 2 teaspoons tahini
• 1 – 2 tablespoons lime juice
• salt to taste
• sugar to taste
• pepper to taste
• chopped fresh parsley to garnish

I began by prepping the potatoes, onion and garlic. Since we were hungry, I diced the potatoes into smallish cubes to reduce cooking time.

I heated the oil in a thick-bottomed pot and added the cumin, coriander, turmeric and paprika. I stirred with a spatula, until the fragrances were released. Then I added the onion and garlic, and sweated them for a few minutes. Next I put the potato cubes in the pot, and poured in the stock, just enough to cover the potatoes. I brought the soup to boil, covered the pot, and cooked until the potatoes were soft.

When the potatoes were done I added the chickpeas in the soup. Then I took about 1 dl of the liquid from the soup in a cup, mixed in the tahini with a spoon until no lumps remained, and poured it back into the soup. Then we added the salt, sugar, pepper and lime juice, and checked the taste until it was to our liking. Before serving, we sprinkled our soup with some chopped parsley.

Most tandoori sauces seem to have red food coloring, and that’s not something I wanted to include in this recipe. I added a chopped beet to get a little bit of that red tandoori color, but my endeavor wasn’t a complete success: the result was unevenly colored, partly bright fuchsia, partly yellowish. Now that I think of it, I could have added the beets in when I was pre-cooking the rice, and the color would’ve most likely come out prettier! Another option would’ve been to add some beet juice in the sauce, so that the tofu would’ve had a pink color as well.

This recipe makes a lot of food, enough for about 4 hungry or 6 not quite as hungry eaters. I like to make a larger batch of food once I heat up the oven, so there’s leftovers for the days to come.

The Tandoori Sauce (adapted from this recipe):

• 5 garlic cloves
• 5 cm peeled ginger
• 3 shallots (or 1 regular onion)
• 1 small red chili with seeds
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons muscovado sugar
• 1 and 1/2 dl plain soy yogurt
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons paprika powder
• 1 teaspoon each: ground cumin and turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon each: cinnamon and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon each: freshly grated nutmeg, ground cardamom, and ground clove

Also Used:

• 500 g firm tofu, pressed and cubed
• 2 potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
• 1 beet, peeled and finely cubed
• 4 dl brown basmati rice
• 1 bay leaf
• water to cook rice in
• 4 dl vegetable stock

Three and a half hours before we planned to have dinner we started the preparations. I blended all the tandoori sauce ingredients with our immersion blender until smooth. Heikki pressed and cubed the tofu, and I mixed it with the sauce and put it in the fridge to marinate for two hours (overnight would be even better). I rinsed the rice at this point and let it soak in fresh water for two hours as well.

An hour and a half before dinner time I set the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Then I rinsed the rice, cooked it in ample water with the bay leaf for about 20 minutes, and drained it.  While the rice was cooking, I cubed the potatoes and the beet. When everything was prepped, I just mixed it all together in a large baking dish – tofu with the tandoori sauce, pre-cooked rice, potatoes, beets, and the veggie stock. Now, I covered the dish with a lid, and baked it for one hour.

I think that chopped cilantro leaves would be a nice compliment to this curry as well, we just didn’t have any on hand at the time of making.

Here’s what I used (serves 4):

• 1 medium head cauliflower, cut into smaller florets
• 2 onions, finely cubed
• 6 small potatoes, cubed
• 3 dl cooked chick peas
• 1 dl green peas
• 4 dl coconut milk (one can)
• 1 tomato, finely cubed
• 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon (muscovado) sugar
• a 3 cm long piece of a ginger root
• 6 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons peanut oil

The Spices:

• 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• a pinch of asafoetida powder
• 2 teaspoons dried red chili, crushed
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
• 2 teaspoons coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon Garam Masala powder
• (1/2-1 teaspoon hot chili powder)

First I chopped up all the veggies and pulsed the garlic and the ginger in our mini food processor into a coarse paste. My ingredients made about 3 tablespoons of ginger-garlic paste.

Then I fried the cumin, mustard, and fennel seeds in the peanut oil on high heat until they started to pop, and added a pinch of asafoetida, lowering the heat to medium. Right after asafoetida I stirred in the ginger-garlic paste, the crushed chili, the coriander, and the turmeric powder, and fried for a few seconds more. Now, I added the onions to the pan, and fried them until they were a little soft, for a few minutes.

I poured the potatoes and the cauliflower florets in the frying pan, and stirred to coat with the spice mixture. Then I added the green peas and the chick peas in the pan, stirred again, poured in the coconut milk, and added the salt and the sugar. Now I let the curry simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the potatoes had softened.

Before serving, I stirred in the lemon juice, chili powder, and Garam Masala, and then served the curry over basmati rice, sprinkled with the cubed tomato.

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.

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.

As a side we had oven-baked potato wedges and soy yogurt sauce seasoned with garlic and chives.

Marinade for 250g firm tofu (serves 2):

• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds, ground
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 dl white wine
• ½ teaspoon black pepper, ground
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

We just pressed the tofu, cut it into slices, dried the slices with a kitchen towel and put them in a plastic container. Then we mixed all the marinade ingredients, poured them over of the tofu, closed the lid of the container, shook it until the marinade was spread evenly, and put the tofu in the fridge overnight.

Next day we heated the oven to 200 degrees Celcius, spread the tofu slices in a single layer in a baking pan, poured the rest of the marinade over them, and baked them together with the potato wedges (see below) until the marinade was absorbed. In our oven this took 30 minutes.

Spicy Crispy Potato Wedges (serves 4):

• 1 kg potatoes, scrubbed and cut in 6 wedges each
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
• 1 teaspoon paprika powder
• 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 3/4 dl dry bread crumbs

Anni first mixed the breadcrumbs with the spices in a big bowl, and then added the potato wedges and the canola oil. Now, she stirred the potatoes until fairly covered with the breadcrumbs, and placed them on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment, the skin side of each wedge facing down. Now, there was some breadcrumbs left in the bowl, which she pressed on the wedges.

Now, we baked the potato wedges in 200 degrees Celcius on the uppermost rack of our oven for 30 minutes, while the tofu stayed on the lower rack of the oven and was cooked in the exact same time.

As a side dish, this recipe makes plenty for two.

Here’s what I used:

• 6 small potatoes, peeled and grated
• 1 red Gloster apple. peeled and grated
• 1 small onion, peeled and grated
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tablespoon potato starch
• 1/2 dl spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried, crushed red chili
• 1/3 teaspoon (smoked) red paprika powder
• olive oil for frying

First I grated the potatoes and rinsed them in cold water to remove some of the starch – raw potatoes can have a little bit of a bitter taste, and this takes it away. Then I dried the grated potatos by spooning them on a layer of cheesecloth, placing another layer of cheesecloth over the potatoes, and pressing them lightly. (To make it quicker and easier, I’d skip the whole rinsing part, and just omit potato starch from the recipe.)

Now, I mixed all the ingredients in a small bowl, and heated two frying pans; one of them was my pancake pan that makes small pancakes with a diameter of about 8 cm, and the other a larger pan that had a diameter of about 15 cm. I poured some olive oil in the pans, and heated them on medium heat until hot.

When the pan was hot, I added about one tablespoon of the batter in each little compartment of my pancake pan, and about 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter to the larger pan, and then flattened the piles of potato to about 1/2 cm thick.

I fried my rösti for about 5-6 minutes on both sides, until they were golden brown. I find that medium or medium-high heat is best for this; on high heat the potatoes quickly burn before they’re done inside, and if the heat is too low, they won’t turn brown and get crispy.

So, these days I like to add new things in my mashed potatoes and they sometimes hit the spot. After baking the pinwheels I was thinking hazelnuts, and the resulting variation might well be the best one I’ve mashed so far. Pink peppercorns added a touch of elegance in terms of taste and presentation.

We enjoyed these with steamed bok choy and fried tofu that Heikki prepared while I was busy with the potatoes.

Nutty mashed potatoes:

• about 10 small floury potatoes
• 1 dl cashew nuts, lightly roasted
• 1/2 dl hazelnuts, lightly roasted
• 1 dl cold water
• about 1 dl cooking liquid from the potatoes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pink peppercorns, crushed

I peeled and sliced the potatoes, and boiled them in enough fresh water to cover until soft, for about 10 minutes. While they were boiling, I ground the cashews and hazelnuts with the 1 dl of water in our mini food processor, until the mixture became creamy and smooth.

When the potatoes were done, I drained them, reserving some of the cooking liquid, and then mashed them carefully with our potato masher. Now, I added the margarine, nut cream, salt, and enough reserved cooking liquid to reach the consistency I was after. Sometimes I whip the potatoes at this point to make them extra fluffy. Before serving, I sprinkled the crushed pink pepper over the pile of mashed potatoes.

We got our monthly supply of organic flours and vegetables on Friday evening, delivered to our door by my dear step-dad – thank you once again!

Here’s what I roasted this time:

• 8 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cut in chunks
• 3 big carrots, scrubbed and cut in chunks
• 3 small onions, cut in wedges
• 4 garlic cloves, each cut in 3 pieces
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• freshly ground black pepper

After preheating the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, I scrubbed the potatoes and the carrots, and cut them in chunks. I prepared the onions and the garlic, placed all the veggies in a big bowl, added the rest of the ingredients, and stirred to mix well. Now, I covered a baking sheet with baking parchment, poured the veggies on the sheet, and baked them for 40 minutes in the middle section of the oven.

The process of making pizza is considerably easier with store bought pizza crusts and tomato sauce, but I highly recommend making your own – it is more than worth it. I have never had a store bought crust that wasn’t dry and too thick, and I like my tomato sauce filled with flavor – just a thin layer of the home-made sauce will be enough to season the whole pizza. However, for almost instant gratification, our potato pizza had no tomatoes whatsoever, and was just as delicious.

Double-Rised Spelty Pizza Crust (for 4):

This is the end of my spelt madness for a while, since I used the last of my spelt flour in this pizza crust. But it was the best pizza crust I’ve ever made – thin and crispy, just like I like it, and as a bonus it was very easy to roll out. Double-rising process requires some planning ahead, but improves the texture of the crust.

• 2 and ½ dl water, in 42 degrees Celsius
• 3 and ½ dl spelt flour
• 3 and ½ dl wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon dark syrup
• 1 sachet (11 g) dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt

First, I placed the water, that was a little warmer than my hand, in a mixing bowl. Now, I mixed in the syrup and salt, and stirred until combined. Then I mixed all the other ingredients in a separate bowl, and then poured about half of them in the liquid bowl. I stirred vigorously with a wooden fork until the dough seemed glutinous, and then poured in the rest of the flour. Now, I kneaded the dough until it formed a firm and springy ball, which took about 4 minutes.

I filled our kitchen sink halfway full with hot water, covered the dough bowl tightly with plastic wrap and a cutting board, and placed the bowl in the water. I let the dough rise for about an hour and a half while we were doing some grocery shopping. When we came back, it had almost tripled in size. I took the dough out of the bowl and flattened it on a floured surface, kneading it lightly to get the air out, and repeated the rising process; placed the dough in the bowl, covered, filled sink with warm water, and placed the bowl in sink.

Now, I started making the tomato sauce and preparing the fillings. When that was done, after about 45 minutes, I took the dough out of the bowl, cut it in four pieces, formed a ball of each piece, and rolled them with a rolling pin on a well-floured working surface. This batch makes four round pizzas that each fit on a regular baking sheet.

Tomato Sauce:

• 500 g tomato sauce (the passata style, or crushed tomatoes)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, finely cubed
• 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 and ½ tablespoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

First, I fried the onions in the olive oil for about 4 minutes, until they started to brown a little. Then, I added the sliced garlic, and fried it for another 2 minutes. I added the basil, and sautéed it for about 30 seconds, and then added the rest of the ingredients. Now, I let the sauce simmer until we were ready to fill our pizzas, for about 45 minutes. Had I started earlier, I could have let it simmer up to 2 hours for maximum taste.

Before filling the pizzas, I like to purée the sauce with our immersion blender, and let it cool down a bit. This batch makes enough for about four pizzas, and since we only topped two with tomato sauce, we’ll probably use the leftovers as a pasta sauce.

Our Fillings:

• fresh spinach, rinsed and coarsely chopped
• red bell pepper, sliced
• sun dried tomatoes in oil, rinsed and sliced
• red onion, thinly sliced
• green beans (haricots verts)
• sliced button mushrooms (for Heikki)
• grated vegan cheese that melts (we had Cheezly brand)
• freshly ground black pepper

The tomato sauce is filled with flavor, so we just spread a thin layer of it over two pizza crusts. If there’s too much sauce, it can easily overwhelm all the other flavors. Then we filled our pizzas with all the yummy fillings, and topped them with grated vegan cheese and freshly ground black pepper. We baked our pizzas on the upper rack of our oven, in 225 degrees Celsius, for about 7 minutes.

A Note on Vegan Cheese: The only commercial vegan cheese we’ve tried that really melts is the Cheezly brand, but there might be others. We’ve tried their mozzarella, edam, and cheddar, and they all have the kind of artificial flavor that vegan cheeses generally do – I think they are best for cooking and baking, as opposed to sandwich fillings and such. Heikki prefers his pizza with drizzles of olive oil instead of vegan cheese, but I kind of like its salty soft meltiness.

Unbaked pizzas – these little photos can be clicked to make them larger.

Potato Pizza:

When we are making pizza, Heikki always insists on at least one potato pizza, the concept of which an old flatmate introduced to me. The spelt crust recipe makes 4 round pizzas, so we baked two tomato pizzas and two potato pizzas, which left us with next day’s lunch as well. This potato pizza really is amazingly good in all its simplicity.

• 5 potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced
• 3/4 dl olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tablespoon dried dill
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• thinly sliced red onions

First, I mixed the olive oil, dried dill, garlic, and salt in a cup. Now, I placed the sliced potatoes in a mixing bowl, and poured in half of the olive oil mixture, stirring to coat each slice. When the pizza crusts were ready, I brushed the rest of the olive oil over the crusts, and then arranged the potatoes evenly so that they covered the pizza crusts. Then we ground some black pepper over the potatoes, and sprinkled the pizzas with sliced red onions. The potato pizzas were also baked in 225 degrees Celsius, in the upper section of our electric oven, for 7-8 minutes.