The sauce isn’t exactly visible in this picture, but the recipe does make just enough for a stir-fry for two, or even for three if a milder flavor is desired.

The Peanut Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon agave syrup (or brown sugar)
• 3 big cloves of garlic, grated
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
• 10 cm of a lemon grass stalk, finely minced
• 1 dl vegetable stock

I just whisk together all the ingredients and that’s it.

This time, our meal consisted of chili noodles, fried tofu, onion, cucumber, carrots, and new crop cabbage, all thinly sliced. First, we cooked the noodles, and then rinsed them in cold water to stop the cooking process. Then we fried the tofu until brown and crispy, and removed it from the pan. Then we added the onion, fried a few minutes, added the carrot, fried a minute, added the cabbage, fried a little more, and added the cucumber, and fried it too until heated through. Then we added the noodles, a small amount at a time, and the tofu last, frying until everything was hot again, and then mixed in the peanut sauce.

No doubt, this sauce would work wonders with soy ice cream too. A little bit of salt is what really makes it so delectable – salt somehow enhances the chocolate aroma and lets all the other flavors shine. Both the cake and the sauce were a breeze to make as well, and I have a feeling that we’ll be resorting to the sauce recipe in our future chocolate sauce needs, with or without the addition of peppermint extract.

The Mint Chocolate Cake:

This cake only has a mild cocoa flavor, which could be boosted with a little bit of melted chocolate in the batter. The texture of the cake was quite nice, and I think this would be a good recipe to use as a base for a layered cake.

Wet mix:

• 2 and 1/2 dl plain soy yogurt
• 3/4 dl sweetened, plain soy milk
• 2 and 1/2 dl confectioner’s sugar
• 1 dl canola oil
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 4 teaspoons vanilla sugar

Dry mix:

• 3 dl wheat flour
• 1 dl cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

First, I preheated our oven to 175 Celsius, and prepared my 22 cm wide, round cake pan with margarine and cocoa powder.

For the batter, I first whisked the wet mix together, and then combined the ingredients of the dry mix in a separate bowl. Then I poured the dry mix in the wet mix and stirred with a wooden fork, mixing only enough to combine. A few small lumps remained, but they melted away during baking.

I poured the batter in my prepared cake pan and baked it for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake came out clean. Then I let the cake cool down in the cake pan for about an hour or so. The cake itself was actually more delicious on the next day, after being chilled overnight, but we did serve it on the day of baking with the warm chocolate sauce.

The Mint Chocolate Sauce:

• 1 dl plain, sweetened soy milk
• 65 g semi dark vegan chocolate
• 2 tablespoons brown rice syrup
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract (or to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

First, I whisked the soy milk and the syrup together in a small cooking pot, and heated the mixture up until it started to get very bubbly, whisking all the time. When the bubbles reached the rim of the cooking pot, I removed the sauce from heat, and let it come down. Then I repeated the heating and cooling process two more times, until the sauce had thickened a little bit, but was still liquidy, and then removed the pot from heat. This all took maybe about a minute and a half. Now, I added the chocolate squares, the mint extract, and the salt, and whisked until the chocolate had melted and the sauce was smooth and shiny.

This recipe makes enough sauce to drown 4 slices of cake.

Our lasagne wasn’t extremely photogenic, but the side of steamed broccoli added a hint of aesthetic value – and also balanced the rich lasagne quite nicely.

Tomato Tempeh Sauce:

• 5 dl tomato sauce (passata type)
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 200 g tempeh
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

First, we prepared the tempeh. We chopped it finely, until we had nice crumbles.

Now, we heated a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan, and fried the temped crumbles for about 7 minutes, until they’d turned golden brown. Then Heikki added the soy sauce and the liquid smoke to the pan, and fried the tempeh until the liquid had evaporated, for a few more minutes.

I removed the tempeh from the pan, added a little more oil, and fried the onions until they became translucent. Now I added the dried basil, fried it for a few seconds, and then added the rest of the tomato sauce ingredients to the pan. I let the sauce simmer for about 20 minutes, until the cashew sauce was ready, and then mixed in the tempeh crumbles.

Cashew Cream Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons vegan margarine
• 1/2 dl wheat flour
• 2 dl cashew nuts & 1 dl oat milk
• 9 dl plain oat milk
• 1 dl nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 teaspoon green peppercorns, ground
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

While Heikki ground the cashews with 1 dl of oat milk to create a thick cream, I melted the margarine in a small cooking pan on medium heat. When it started to bubble, I added the wheat flour, whisking all the time, and kept on whisking and frying the flour for a few minutes. Now, I added the rest of the oat milk a little by little, whisking to get it smoothly incorporated, and brought the mixture to boil on medium-high heat, stirring all the time. After the mixture had thickened a little, I whisked in the nutritional yeast and the cashew cream, and heated for a few minutes. Now the sauce was quite thick, and I added the rest of the ingredients – salt, green peppercorns, and lemon juice.

Assembling the Lasagne:

• 250 g (half a box) spinach lasagne sheets (Pirkka brand)

We first brushed our lasagne pan with olive oil, and spread a thin layer of the tomato sauce over the bottom of the pan. We covered the sauce with 4 lasagne sheets, and spread some more tomato sauce over the pasta. Now, we spooned about one fifth of the cashew sauce over the tomato layer, and then added three more layers of pasta covered with the two sauces. We reserved a little more cashew sauce for the last layer, and spread it evenly over the whole lasagne. We ended up with 4 layers of pasta, a layer of tomato-tempeh sauce underneath, and a layer of the creamy cashew sauce upmost.

Now we baked the lasagne in 200 degrees Celsius for about 35 minutes, until the white sauce had browned nicely, and let it cool down for about 10 minutes before serving.

We served the croquettes with steamed cauliflower, a mix of brown rice and quinoa, and a tomato sauce seasoned with sage. Simple flavors of the accompaniments combined really well with the more complex black bean croquettes.

Black Bean Croquettes:

• 4 dl cooked black beans
• 1 dl sunflower seeds, lightly toasted
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 big cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon pink peppercorns
• 4 tablespoons spelt flour
• 1 dl sesame seeds
• canola oil for frying

To make the dough, I placed all the ingredients except for spelt flour and sesame seeds in a bowl, and mixed them with our immersion blender until smooth. Then I mixed in the spelt flour with a fork. Now, I formed the dough into 17 small croquettes with the help of our measuring tablespoon, dipping it in cold water in between each croquette, and then rolled them in sesame seeds to cover.

Heikki heated the canola oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat, and then fried the croquettes in two batches, for a few minutes on each side, until they had browned. Then we drained them on a piece of paper towel to get rid of excess oil.

Tomato Sage Sauce:

• 2 dl tomato sauce (passata type)
• 1 dl oat cream
• 1 teaspoon canola oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3/4 to 1 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heikki fried the onion in the oil until translucent, then added the rest of the ingredients except for black pepper, and let the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes. Then I puréed it with our immersion blender, adjusted the saltiness, and seasoned it with freshly ground black pepper.

Here’s what I used for the sauce:

• 1 onion, finely cubed
• 5 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry
• 2 dl boiling water
• 1/2 tablespoon wheat flour
• 1/2 dl cashew nuts, finely ground with 1/2 dl water
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

I fried the onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent, and then added the flour to the pan. Now, I fried the flour for a few minutes, then added the water, sherry, salt, and pepper, and let the sauce simmer while I made the cashew cream.

I ground the cashew nuts with the water in our electric grinder until a thick, white cream resulted, like this:

Now, I poured the cashew cream to the sauce, reduced the heat to low, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Then Heikki puréed the sauce with our immersion blender until it was completely smooth and ready to be devoured.

Yogurt Sauce:

• 1,2 dl plain soy yogurt
• 4 tablespoons finely ground almonds, toasted
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
• 1/2 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small clove garlic, crushed
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Tomato Mint Relish:

• 2 medium tomatoes, finely cubed
• 1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (or other hot chili sauce)
• 1 teaspoon dried mint

I thoroughly combined the ingredients for each dish and served immediately.