There are numerous more or less detailed recipes for farinata around the internet, but I mostly relied on the one from The Daily Spud, who got it from a book by Elizabeth David. I added fresh rosemary and garlic for additional flavor. We enjoyed the farinata for dinner with oven roasted vegetables, and had the leftovers for a snack on the next day, when we fried our slices on a frying pan to get the crispiness back.

We both think farinata is a bit like polenta, but has much more flavor than any polenta we’ve ever cooked. Not to say polenta couldn’t be as good as this farinata – we just haven’t mastered cooking it right just yet. Some recipes have up to three times more olive oil in a similar amount of batter, but the 3 tablespoons I used was still enough to make the bottom side all shiny and crispy.

Here’s the short list of ingredients:

• 200 g, or about 4 and 1/2 dl chickpea flour (gram or besan)
• 6 and 1/2 dl water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil (plus some more)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary (optional)
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed (optional)

The farinata batter needs to rest for four hours before baking, so this recipe requires some planning ahead.

First, I whisked together the water, the olive oil, and the chickpea flour, making sure there were no lumps. The batter is pretty liquid, but it sets perfectly in the oven. I covered the bowl and let the batter rest for 4 hours.

Then I preheated the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, and brushed a round pie tray with olive oil. I mixed the salt, garlic, and rosemary in the batter, and poured it in the baking dish. Now, I baked the farinata for 30 minutes in 200 degrees Celsius, then upped the heat to 225 Celsius and baked for 15 minutes more.

This isn’t the most visually pleasing dish even with the decorative sprig of rosemary, but the taste will more than compensate for the plain looks. Heikki took his half to work on the next day, and says it was very good re-heated as well. Cooking this took me about 25 minutes from start to finish, including the cooking time for lentils.

The Ingredients (serves 2):

• 5 dl whole wheat fusilli
• 300 g eggplant (1 medium)
• 1 and 1/2 dl green lentils (plus 1 bay leaf for cooking)
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 dl fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons capers
• salt and pepper to taste
• nutritional yeast for sprinkling (optional)

The first thing I did was to rinse the lentils. Then I placed them in a small sauce pan with plenty of cooking water and a bay leaf, and let them simmer until soft but still firm.

Now, I cut the eggplant in small cubes, and heated a non-stick frying pan with about half a tablespoon of the olive oil. Eggplant will absorb any amount of olive oil, so there’s no point adding too much. Then I started frying the eggplant, on medium-high heat, stirring every now and then to ensure even browning.

I chopped the rosemary, squeezed the lemon juice, and grated the garlic, and mixed all these together. Then I cooked a large pot of water for the pasta, and added it in the pot when the lentils had cooked for about 10 minutes so that they’d be ready at about the same time.

When the lentils were done (which only took 15 minutes to my surprise), I rinsed them, removed the bay leaf, and added them to the frying pan with about two thirds of the lemon-garlic-rosemary mix. I added some salt at this point as well, and continued frying for about 3 minutes, stirring all the time. Finally, I added the capers, and removed the pan from heat.

When the pasta was cooked, I drained it, and combined it in the cooking pot with the rest of the lemon, garlic, and rosemary, and half a tablespoon of olive oil. After I plated the dish I sprinkled it with some nutritional yeast, and ground a healthy amount of black pepper over my portion.

I imagine oat flour can be bought commercially as well, but grinding rolled oats does the trick just fine. I first learned about this method from a cookbook I checked out from the library a while back, Dreena Burton’s The Everyday Vegan.

The oat cracker dough:

• 2 dl rolled oats, finely ground
• 1 and 1/4 dl wheat flour
• 3/4 dl nutritional yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (for color)
• 1 dl water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed

I set the oven to 175 degrees Celsius, and proceeded to make the crackers exactly like the last time. The only thing I had to do differently was to ground the oats, which I did in our mini food processor. I processed them until they were fine, much like whole wheat flour.

I combined water, olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, and garlic, and placed the resulting wet mix in the fridge. Then I mixed the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, and covered a baking sheet with parchment paper. When the oven was ready, I added the fridge-cold wet mix to the dry mix bowl, stirred with a fork until combined, and rolled it out on the baking parchment with the help of a little bit of extra flour. I cut the cookies with a pastry wheel and baked them for 20 minutes, until nicely browned and crispy.

This recipe makes a large loaf of bread, because my bread tin just happens to be a little larger than most I guess – it’s 12 X 26 cm. This bread does keep quite well, and we didn’t have any problems finishing it in a couple of days just between the two of us.

The Dough:

• 6 dl water
• 1/2 dl olive oil
• 2 tablespoons syrup
• 10 dl whole wheat flour
• 3 dl wheat flour
• 1 dl oat bran
• 3 tablespoons gluten flour
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 15 g dry yeast (or check the package for the right amount)
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
• 1 teaspoon green peppercorns, crushed

I followed Celine’s instructions pretty closely, so here’s what I did:

First, I mixed the dry ingredients (whole wheat flour through green peppercorns) together in a large mixing bowl, but I left out about half of the whole wheat flour to be added later. Then I warmed the water to 42 degrees Celsius (a little warmer than my hand), added the olive oil and the syrup in the water bowl, and started mixing in the flour mixture. Using my hands, I added about 1-2 dl dry mix at a time, and then started adding the remaining whole wheat flour until the dough was quite elastic and didn’t stick to the sides of the bowl.

Then, I placed it on the kitchen counter, and kneaded for about 5 minutes, adding a little bit of flour when it started sticking, and didn’t stop until it was completely smooth and springy. Now, I placed the dough back in the bowl, added a teaspoon or so of olive oil, swirled it around to cover the dough, and let it rise, covered with plastic wrap, for 2 hours.

When the dough had risen nicely (and maybe doubled in size), I greased my bread tin with some more olive oil, kneaded the dough a little more to break the bubbles, formed it into a loaf, and placed in the pan. I covered it again with the same piece of plastic wrap and let it rise for another hour as per Celine’s instructions. I set the oven to 175 degrees Celsius half an hour before baking, and when the dough was ready for the oven, I cut three crosses on the surface of the bread with scissors. Then I baked my bread for 35 minutes, until it was all browned over the top, and made a nice hollow sound when I tapped it with my knuckles.

This is how high the bread had risen before it went to the oven.

We had this stew over quinoa, which was perfect in terms of timing: quinoa takes 15 minutes to cook, the exact time that the sundried tomatoes require to soak. I also think that the nutty flavor of quinoa was a great compliment to the salty and sour tomato flavors.

Tofu Sundried Tomato Stew:

• 250 g tofu, pressed and finely cubed
• 3 tablespoons (light) soy sauce
• 3/4 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 onion, finely cubed
• 2 dl tomato sauce (passata type)
• 3/4 teaspoon (muscovado) sugar
• 5-6 sundried tomatoes, cut in thin strips
• 1 and 1/2 dl boiling water
• freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil for frying

The first thing I did was to cut the sundried tomatoes in thin strips, place them in a mug, and pour the boiling hot water over them. Then I pressed the tofu just lightly and cut it in tiny cubes, about 1 cm wide. I tossed the tofu with the soy sauce, vinegar, and herbs, and let it marinade for a few minutes while I fried the onions.

When the onions were translucent, I removed them from the pan, added the tofu to the pan (with the marinating liquid and all), and fried it until the liquid had evaporated and the tofu started to get crispy and brown. I now added the onions back, with the tomato sauce and sugar, and let them simmer until the sundried tomatoes had soaked for fifteen minutes. Then I added the tomatoes and their soaking liquid to the sauce, and let it simmer for one or two more minutes.

Before serving I ground some black pepper over the tomato sauce, and it was ready! Our sundried tomatoes were quite salty, so I didn’t need to add salt, but it’s always good to check the salt balance before serving the dish.

Here’s what we used:

• 500 g firm tofu
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 3 and ½ dl vegetable stock
• 1 and ½ dl red wine
• ½ dl soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon green peppercorns, ground
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, ground
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon rosemary

First, Heikki sliced the tofu in thin slices, about 1/2 cm thick, wrapped the slices in paper towels, and pressed them lightly. We mixed all the marinade ingredients, and poured them in the glass jar. Then we plunged the tofu in the jar, and let it marinate overnight in the fridge. This could, however, be marinated up to five days at least, since all the tofu slices are completely covered with the marinade.

This salad is especially loved by dancing Christmas elves, the little guys that moved to live with us in the beginning of December. The salad has a nice crunchy texture from cabbage and toasted sunflower seeds, and tofu “cheese” binds everything together wonderfully. This recipe was veganized from a little Swedish cookbook I borrowed from the library, Vegetarisk julmat by Lena Brorsson Alminger.

Here’s what I used:

• 1 dl grated or finely sliced red cabbage
• 1 dl our (or other) tofu “cheese”
• 50 g sunflower seeds, toasted
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, ground
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• salt and frechly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

After toasting the seeds on a dry frying pan over high heat, I mixed everything together while the seeds were still hot. This salad is really tasty at room temperature, and other ingredients will cool the toasted seeds just enough.

If the cabbage is a little bit on the dry side, it could be either grated very finely, or placed in a bowl and beaten with the bottom of a drinking glass, or an empty bottle, until it softens up.