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.

I adapted the recipe from Mathilde’s recipe that I found on the French Vegetarian Association’s website. I added some cognac and muscovado sugar, and served the soup with toasted baguette slices with some melty vegan cheese on top. It gets dark after about four in the afternoon in Helsinki, so the picture is taken of my lunch bowl the next day!

Here’s what we put in our soup (serves 4-6):

• 1 kg onions
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons cognac
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• black pepper and salt to taste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon muscovado sugar
• 1 and 1/2 liters water

We sliced the onions pretty thickly (about 1/2 – 3/4 cm thick), chopped the garlic, and then fried them on medium heat in the olive oil in our largest cooking pot until golden and soft. The frying took about 20 minutes or so. Then we added the flour, stirred to mix evenly, added the cognac, and stirred again to remove all the bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Then we added the rest of the ingredients, and cooked the soup for about 45 minutes.

The Garlic bread (serves 2-3):

• half a multigrain baguette, sliced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 50 g vegan melty cheese (we had Cheezly Edam)
• freshly ground black pepper

I preheated the oven to 200 degrees Celsius while the soup was boiling, and started making the breads when it had simmered for half an hour. I placed the bread slices on a baking wheet, combined the garlic with the olive oil, and spooned it over the bread slices. Then I let the oil seep in for a minute or two.

Now, I turned the slices over, grated the Cheezly over the slices, and ground some pepper over them. Then I baked the bread on the uppermost rack of our oven for about 6 minutes, until it was brown and crispy underneath and the Cheezly had melted.

Soup ingredients:

• olive oil for frying
• 2 onions, chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic, crushed
• half of a medium rutabaga (about 275 g), diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 teaspoon hot chili powder
• 4 teaspoons of ras-el-hanout
  
• 4 dl (about 275 g) dried split fava beans (you can use whole beans, but they take longer to cook)
• enough water to amply cover the vegetables and beans (about 1 – 1 1/2 liters)
• 3 teaspoons vegetable stock powder
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• juice of 1 mandarin
• salt to taste

Harissa yogurt ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon harissa
• 1 1/2 dl soy yogurt
• pinch of salt
• pinch of pepper

About 4 hours before starting to cook the soup I speed soaked the fava beans. Speed soaking means I simply rinsed the beans in cold water, put them in a bowl, poured boiling water on them, and covered the bowl. Of course one could soak the beans properly too, overnight in cold water.

After the beans were soaked, we started by chopping the onions and crushing the garlic. While I diced the rutabaga and the carrot, Anni put some olive oil in a pot over medium-high heat, and fried the onion and the garlic until the onion was translucent. We then added the chopped rutabaga and carrot, and fried them for a minute or two more.

Now we added the chili powder and the ras el hanout, stirred the mix for a while, and then added the beans, water, stock powder, sugar, and vinegar. We covered the pot, and simmered until the beans were soft. This took about one hour.

Anni then proceeded to purée the soup using our immersion blender until it was smooth, and adjusted the taste by adding the olive oil, the mandarin juice, and a pinch of salt.

We garnished our soup bowls with some harissa yogurt – the yogurt was simply made by combining and mixing all the ingredients in a small bowl.

Since the sunflower that had decorated our living room for a few weeks had just started to wilt, I used a few of its petals to garnish our soup. They were actually quite tasty as well! I’m also thinking that coconut milk instead of the cashew nuts would probably be a nice tweak.

Here’s what I threw in the pot (enough for 3-4 as a main):

• 3 large beets
• 1 medium cauliflower
• 2 red onions, roughly chopped
• 1 red chili
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 7 and 1/2 dl water
• 1 dl cashew nuts
• juice of 1 lime
• zest of 1/2 lime
• (pinch of cayenne)

I heated up the oil in the cooking pot and fried the onions until they’d browned. Meanwhile, I prepped the veggies: peeled and thinly sliced the beets, chopped the cauliflower, and de-seeded and sliced the chili.

When the onions were soft and browned, I added the chili to the pot, fried it for a bit, and added the beets, the cauliflower and the garlic. I fried the vegetables for a few more minutes and then added the water, the cashews, and the salt in the pot. Now, I cooked the soup until the beets were tender, for 20 minutes approximately.

I puréed the soup with our immersion blender until it was completely smooth, and stirred in the lime juice and the zest, a little cayenne pepper for extra heat, and checked the salt.

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.

The stock recipe we adapted from the Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure by Lorna J. Sass, a book we very much recommend for anyone with a pressure cooker. There is a little planning ahead to do for this dish: the tempeh needs to be put in the marinade on the day before, the wrappers need a few hours to thaw, and the filling has to cool down before the assembling process can begin.

The Marinated Tempeh:

• 200 g tempeh, crumbled
• 1/2 dl light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger

Heikki mixed all the ingredients and let the tempeh marinate overnight in the fridge.

The Filling (for about 64 wontons and a little extra):

• 1 red bell pepper, finely cubed
• 1 leek, the white part, finely chopped
• the marinated tempeh from above
• canola oil for frying

We fried the marinated tempeh crumbs in the oil for about 15 minutes on medium heat, until they were all nicely browned. Then we added the veggies to the pan, and fried for a few minutes, until they’d softened a little bit.

The Stock:

• 2 carrots, sliced
• 2 dl shredded cabbage (new crop)
• 1 leek, the green part, chopped
• 5 large garlic cloves, sliced
• 4 cm piece of a ginger root, sliced
• about 4 dl loosely packed fresh cilantro, with roots (scrubbed)
• 1 stalk shopped lemon grass
• 1 and 1/2 litres water

We placed all the ingredients in our pressure cooker, brought it to high pressure, cooked it for 10 minutes, and then let the pressure come down naturally for 10 minutes. Then we strained the stock through a fine sieve and added:

• 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil

Without a pressure cooker, the stock needs at least an hour of simmering.

Assembling the Wontons:

The wrappers need to be defrosted first, which takes a few hours at least. They do keep in the fridge for a while after defrosting, so this can be done on the day before. Not all wonton wrappers are vegan, so it’s important to read the labels carefully!

While I was assembling the wontons, I took care that the additional wrappers were covered with plastic. The method I used for assembling is very easy and seals tightly, but there are many other possibilities, like the fun boat shape in Veganyumyum‘s wonton recipe.

First, I placed a little less than a teaspoonful of the filling on one end of a wrapper, and brushed the edges of the wrapper with water. Then I rolled the wrapper tightly around the filling, and pressed down the ends of the resulting roll, adding a dab of water on each end. I took care to press the excess air out of the roll while doing this – the dumplings will be prettier that way.

Now, I folded the wonton roll gently in half, bringing the two ends together, and pressed them firmly with my fingers to seal. And then I repeated the process 63 times, keeping the already filled wontons covered under a kitchen towel while working on the rest.

The Boiling and Serving of the Wontons:

When all the wontons were ready, we brought a big pot filled with water to a brisk boil, and cooked them for 1-2 minutes, until all had floated up to the surface. Then we picked them up with a slotted spoon, and placed in the hot vegetable broth we’d just made.

We sliced some new crop cabbage into our bowls, scooped a generous amount of soup over it, and enjoyed!

This batch made enough soup for three lunches – two for me and one for Heikki.

The Soup:

• 1 small head of cauliflower, cut in florets
• 300 g (one medium) sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 and 1/2 dl coconut milk
• 4 dl vegetable stock
• salt to taste
• about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

I fried the onion and garlic in the oil until soft, then added the sweet potato and cauliflower, and fried for a few more minutes. After frying the veggies, I added the coconut milk, vegetable stock, and garam masala, and let the soup simmer until the vegetables were soft, for about 20 minutes. While it was boiling, I prepared the cashews.

Then I puréed the soup with out immersion blender, added a little bit of salt (might not be necessary if the stock is very salty), and stirred in the lemon juice. Before serving, I sprinkled my bowl with cashews.

Cashew Nuts:

• 1 dl cashews
• 1 tablespoon agave syrup
• 1 tablespoon water
• pinch of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
• pinch of salt

First I toasted the cashews lightly on a dry frying pan, and meanwhile mixed the rest of the ingredients together. When the nuts had browned a bit, I lowered the heat to medium, poured the syrup mixture in the pan, and stirred until the cashews were shiny and covered with the syrup, and the water had evaporated. Now, I poured the nuts on a plate covered with aluminium foil and let them cool down until the soup was ready to serve.

My cashews came out really sticky, which basically means that I didn’t caramelize them enough. That’s not a problem when sprinkled in a soup, but the leftover cashews were a nuisance to eat…

This stew made a nice lunch with a few slices of rye bread. If it was cooked in a regular stove-top pot, the black beans would need to soak overnight, and the cooking time would also be considerably longer – but the stew would be just as good I’m sure.

Here’s what I used:

• 4 dl dried black beans
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed dried chili
• 1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 l water (boiling)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1-2 tablespoons of lime juice

First, I fried the onion and the garlic in the olive oil in the pressure cooker. I rinsed the black beans carefully, and then added them to the cooker with the boiling water. I also added the seasonings except for the salt, black pepper, and lime juice. Adding salt before cooking can make the beans’ skins a bit chewy, and prolongs cooking time.

Now I brought the cooker to high pressure, pressure-cooked the beans for 25 minutes, and released the pressure. I stirred in the salt, black pepper, and lime juice, adjusting the amounts a little bit for perfect balance, and our lunch was ready to be served.

Edamame means fresh young soy beans in Japanese, and they’re usually cooked and served in their pods. Fresh soy beans are not available in Helsinki, but some Asian markets stock frozen edamame without pods, and that’s what we used in this soup.

The soup only took 15 minutes to prepare from start to finish.

Edamame Avocado Soup (serves 2):

• 5 dl frozen edamame
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 small avocado (Hass variety is what we had)
• 5 dl vegetable stock (we had boiling water mixed with 2 teaspoons vegetable broth powder)
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry wine

We first fried the onion in the olive oil until translucent, for about 6 minutes, and then added the rest of the ingredients except for avocado. We brought the soup to a brisk boil, and let it bubble up for five minutes. Now, I removed the pan from heat, let the soup cool down for a few moments, then added the avocado, and puréed the whole thing with our immersion blender until it was very smooth, almost fluffy.

Frozen edamame beans are very pretty.

We’ve tried a couple of variations of this soup. This version is basically a crossbreed between a recipe that was in the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat about three years ago, and various chick pea soup recipes from the excellent Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & Africa by Habeeb Salloum. This is what we used:

• 5 dl dried chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 5 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 2 small leeks, chopped to matchsticks
• 3 teaspoons vegetable stock powder
• 2 potatoes, boiled and cubed
• 1 liter water
• 5 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin (jeera)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• some freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt or according to taste
• 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice

About one hour before cooking, we put the chickpeas in a bowl, and filled it with boiling water. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you should soak the chick peas overnight. We put the cooker over medium-high heat and heated the olive oil. We then fried the chopped leek and sliced garlic for a couple of minutes, stirring frequenty so that the garlic wouldn’t burn. Next, we poured in the water and the chickpeas and added the vegetable stock powder, covered the cooker, and cooked on high pressure for 2o minutes. Then we lowered the pressure, added the cubed potatoes, cilantro, cumin and paprika, and cooked on low pressure for 10 minutes more. If you’re not using a pressure cooker, you’d probably need to cook the chick peas about for an hour, and then add the spices and potatoes, and simmer maybe 15 minutes more.

Now, we took the cooker off the heat, lowered the pressure, and used our immersion blender to purée the soup. Then we added the salt, lemon juice and black pepper. I guess this goes without saying, but at this point sample the taste, adding salt, pepper or lemon juice as you see (or taste) fit.

We served the soup sprinkled with chili and cumin and topped off with a liberal splash of olive oil. These are essential! Also have a few extra slices of lemon handy, which can be squeezed on top of the serving according to taste.

Ground cumin (also known as jeera, geerah, kamoon), crushed red chili, and red paprika powder, with some frozen cilantro on the background.