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.

The ingredients were improvised from what we had in the house, and we managed to use up a few items that had been sitting in the fridge since pizza night; half a bell pepper and a small chunk of Cheezly vegan cheese. I don’t think Cheezly contributed to the taste very much. The quiche was delicious, and with some more elegant garnishes could very well be served to guests as well. I had a slice for lunch the next day, as pictured above, and the flavors were even better after a night in the fridge.

Crust:

• 3 and 1/2 dl wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 dl liquid vegan margarine
• 1 dl plain unsweetened soy milk

First, I mixed the flour, salt, and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Then I poured the margarine and the soy milk in the bowl, and mixed the dough with my hands until it formed a firm ball. Now, I rolled it out with a rolling pin to form a round shape a little larger than our pie tray. After Heikki had greased and floured our pie tray, I placed the crust in it and evened up the edges.

Filling:

• 2 small onions, finely diced
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil for frying
• 2 dl walnuts
• 350 g firm silken tofu (we had 1 package of Mori-Nu)
• 20 g Cheezly Edam (optional)
• 1 dl soy milk
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
• freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

First, Heikki diced and fried the onions in olive oil until they had browned a bit. Meanwhile, I placed the walnuts, the tofu, soy milk, lemon juice, and vegan cheese in a bowl, and mixed them with our immersion blender until the mixture was smooth and light brown. Now, I added the rest of the ingredients, stirred with a spoon to combine, and adjusted saltiness. Then I poured the filling in the crust.

Garnish:

• 1/2 small red bell pepper

Heikki sliced the bell pepper thinly, and I arranged the slices over the walnut filling.

Now, we baked the pie on the middle rack of the oven, in 175 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. Then we placed the pie on the lower rack of the oven, baked an additional 10 minutes, and let it cool down for 15 minutes.

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.

Spanakopita filling:

• one batch of our tofu “cheese”
• 300 g frozen spinach, thawed
• 1 smallish leek (150 g), chopped
• 2 small onions, finely cubed
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon dried red chili
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme, slightly crushed between fingers

While Anni was preparing the filling, I started to write this post. I added the part on how the Spanakopitas tasted and how they were received by our friends only afterwards, I swear!

First, Anni fried the onions about 10 minutes on a medium low heat, until they were translucent and not yet brown. Then she added the chopped leek, and continued frying for about five minutes more. Then it was time to add the chili and the paprika, and after frying them for a minute or so, she added the spinach to the frying pan. After stirring for a while, she added the salt, nutmeg, black pepper, sugar and thyme. The spinachy part of the filling was now ready.

The other half of the filling, the tofu “cheese”, Anni had made the day before. After the spinach filling had cooled down a little, we combined it with the tofu, and were ready to assemble the pastries.

Assembling the triangles:

• 450 gram package frozen filo pastry
• olive oil (preferably in a spray bottle)

This was our first time using the filo dough, so we didn’t really know how hard it would be to work with. In the end it didn’t prove to be that difficult, but it is important to follow the instructions on the package carefully. We took the frozen filo dough out of the freezer the day before baking, and let it thaw in the fridge overnight. On the day of baking, we let it thaw in the room temperature for two hours.

Another important thing to remember is that the filo sheets that aren’t worked on must be protected from air, so that they don’t dry out. We did this by placing a sheet of baking parchment over the remaining filo sheets, and covered the whole thing with a damp kitchen towel.

First, Anni placed one filo sheet on a dry table, and cut the filo sheet with scissors in four parts lengthwise. Then she sprayed the filo strips with olive oil, and placed a scant tablespoon of filling by the end of each filo strip.

Now, she folded the right corner of the dough over the filling, and a triangle formed. Then she folded the triangle over and over again, covering the filling with about three layers of filo dough. She cut off any excess dough, placed the triangles on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment, and sprayed them with olive oil.

Then we baked the triangles in 180 degrees Celsius, for about 15 minutes, until they were nicely browned.

It is funny how vegetarians keep saying that they could never give up cheese, and that’s why they won’t go vegan; it’s like a smoker stating that s/he could never give up cigarettes. We all know it’s possible with a little willpower, but if the motivation isn’t there, it’s not going to happen. What people mean by saying things like that is that they’re just not interested (enough) in becoming vegan, but phrased in a way that is more socially acceptable. Can’t blame them, I like social acceptance too.

I have accidentally tasted milk products every now and then, and have to say that they no longer taste exactly appealing to me, although I practically grew up on cheese, milk, and yogurt. Now I understand the many Japanese people who think cheese and milk taste weird – they do, compared to our beloved tofu. So, after all this babble, my main point is: I wouldn’t call this tofu cheese when cooking for cheese-eaters, since they would compare it to cheese. And to be honest, I cannot tell whether it resembles cheese or not – I only know that it’s tasty.

So, here’s how I made it:

• 300 g firm tofu
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons brown rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

I first pressed the tofu like I always do; slice it in about 1 cm thick slices, wrap in kitchen towel, and place a light weight on top of the pile. Then I mixed all the marinade ingredients, except oil, in a container, and then squeezed the tofu with my hands in the same container so it became grainy.

Now, I mushed the tofu and the spices for a few minutes until they were incorporated, squeezing the mixture between my fingers to make it smooth. Then I mixed in the oil with a fork, adjusted the saltiness, covered the container with a lid, and refrigerated overnight.

This recipe could be varied indefinitely: lemon juice instead of lime juice, olive oil instead of canola, fresh herbs instead of (or in addition to) garlic, or with an addition of different peppers. Brown rice wine vinegar is pretty essential, since it gives a sort of fermented taste to the tofu, but other types of wine vinegar might work as well.