Our poor dear blog has been ignored for too long, but here’s a little recipe to make things right. It’s all about a dried sourdough starter I bought at an organic grocery in Tallin by a German company called Lecker’s. I thought it sounded like a lovely product and wanted to give it a try, [...]
Glögi is the Finnish equivalent of mulled wine, and before Christmas its readymade incarnations start to appear in the stores – some with alcohol, but most without. I find them usually way too sugary, and that’s why I always thought that I just don’t care for the drink that much. It wasn’t until this weekend [...]
These can well be my new favorite sweet treat – the batter itself bakes into a fudgy center and caramelized edges, and the occasional bite into super-dark chocolate balances out the sugary experience.
I use white whole wheat flour all the time now that it’s finally available here, and it works very nicely in heavier baked [...]
September 30, 2009 – 16:45
One of the things we’ve been growing in our garden this year has been Swiss Chard. Usually we put it in a stew like the Tunisian-style dish that Anni blogged about before, but this time we wanted to try something different. Many people have been blogging about kale chips, so we figured why not try [...]
Forest blueberries are in season and I know nothing better than having a walk in the forest near our family’s summer cottage and coming home with my fingertips tinted deep purple-blue. Blueberry pies have been abundant this year, and now that we have our fridge in the city packed with blueberries I’ve been thinking of [...]
We’ve been having a little bit of an unintentional summer vacation from blogging – busy times but in a totally good way: we’ve been spending a lot of time in summer cottages and not that much time in the kitchen, and that’s about to continue for a while. Anyhow, this is a simple recipe that [...]
Roasted cashew butter is sweet and toasty, a very nice ingredient in both sweet baking and savory cooking. This carrot dip I make has just a few ingredients in addition to the nut butter: soy sauce, brown rice vinegar, and water. Our cashew butter has no salt (actually it only has cashews and nothing else) [...]
We really loved these spicy treats: they are simple to make and packed with flavor. Somehow the addition of chili in sweet things makes them more satisfying, and a smaller bite is needed to satisfy my sweet tooth – the advantage being that one batch lasts longer. And these treats actually even improved in the [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged almonds, baking, cayenne, chocolate, coconut, dessert, hazelnuts, pecans, recipe, snack, vegetarian, walnuts
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Finnish rye bread is dense and dark and sour, and as biased as I am, I must say it’s easily my favorite bread in the whole world. I always used to think that it’s hard to make, but as it turns out the process isn’t complicated at all – you just need to know what you’re aiming at. [...]
Tofu chocolate mousse has recently been embraced by a number of mainstream culinary authorities, but for many vegans it’s been basic fare for years – either as a pie filling, cake topping, or simply as a decadent dessert. This is my latest twist on the classic, with a dash of espresso and whole cane sugar [...]
The most typically Finnish pastry is pulla, a yeasted sweet bread that comes in various shapes: small round buns, swirly cinnamon rolls, and braided loaves and knots. The dough has plenty of cardamom in it and the rolls are often topped with slivered almonds or pearl sugar for some sweet crunch. The smell of cardamom [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged almond rolls, almonds, baking, cinnamon rolls, dessert, recipe, sweet rolls, traditional, vegetarian, walnuts, yeast
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I baked these cookies for dessert over the last weekend when my dad and step mom came over for dinner. The whole idea of freshly baked cookies served with ice cream for dessert makes so much sense now that I can’t believe I haven’t though of this before. I made the dough the previous evening [...]
These super yummy oven fries are what I had for dinner one night last week, along with a serving of chocolate strawberry pudding – this is what happens when Heikki leaves me home alone for a few nights!
Ever since I learnt to use our mandolin I’ve been making oven fries from scratch. I’m guessing they’re [...]
There’s been a bag of soy flakes in our cupboard for a while now waiting for us to find a good use for them. The package says they can be consumed as is, but they are really pretty bland in flavor. As it happens I’ve been meaning to make granola so this seemed like a [...]
This dish was inspired by the Indian comfort food khichdi, which if I understood correctly can mean quite many things depending on the region and the cook, and is also known as kitchari especially among the ayurvedics in the US. It makes use of rice with some variety of pulses to form a complete meal, [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged asafoetida, basmati rice, bean, black mustard seed, comforting, coriander, cumin, fennel, ginger, Indian, khichdi, kitchari, main course, margarine, mung bean, recipe, rice, tamarind, turmeric, vegetarian
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When our dinner involves heating up the oven I often bake an impromptu batch of cookies for dessert. These crumbly chocolatey cookies are a result of one such occasion, whipped up in no more than 15 minutes, thus being very good value for the time spent. Balsamic vinegar and muscovado sugar enhance the cocoa flavor [...]
There’s an Indian grocery around the corner where we solely shop for the best home-made samosas in Helsinki. Those little pies are so good that we sometimes buy a whole bunch of them to serve at family parties and such, usually exhausting their stock with a single purchase. And after having just a few bites [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baked, baking, curry, curry pies, lunch, pies, quinoa, recipe, red lentils, snack, vegetarian
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I love this dessert – it is a breeze to make, and its flavor has the perfect combination of tart and sweet with a little bit of nutty rye and some vanilla thrown in. Probably even better than the other trad Finnish dessert, whipped semolina-lingonberry porridge, and definitely quicker to make. We get lingonberries from [...]
In the wintertime we are not great salad eaters, not only because the weather makes us crave something more warming, but also because of the sad state of the local veggie supply. Good root vegetables and tolerable cabbage are always available, but other than that it can get a bit grim. This salad isn’t exactly [...]
Last week I got this idea of combining chocolate and red wine in baking, and doing so in the cookie form seemed like a good challenge. Since there’s not much liquid in a cookie dough, I decided to cook the wine into a syrup, and it worked wonderfully – the cookies went to the oven [...]
We eat lots of tofu, but most of the times it’s just too everyday to blog about. This marinade was one of the best we’ve ever tried, and it worked well on three days in a row – by the first meal, the tofu had marinated for only two hours, but the flavor was already [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baked tofu, breading, dinner, green peppercorn, main course, marinade, pink peppercorn, recipe, red wine, soy yoghurt, tofu, vegetarian
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Farinata is one of the must-try dishes I’ve had in mind for a long time. I saw it for the first time in some French or Italian movie, and was intrigued: I hadn’t realized that chick pea flour was used in traditional Southern European cooking. The southeastern French and the northern Italians apparently both have [...]
Happy new year everyone! We are back from the holidays, and it feels great to be baking and cooking and blogging from our little kitchen again.
Focaccia is one of my favorite homemade breads, mainly because I lack the patience of a true bread maker and it’s so simple! I used to always make it with [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, balsamic vinegar, bread, focaccia, gluten flour, olive, olive oil, onion, recipe, spelt flour, vegetarian
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December 16, 2008 – 21:13
I enjoy experimenting with different sweeteners, and lately I’ve used a lot of whole cane sugar in baking. It has the most flavor of the options I have tried so far, but I am still waiting for the perfect moment to crack open that jar of black treacle! There is a definite liquorice undertone in [...]
I know four carrots doesn’t sound much like a meal, but served alongside a pile of my avocado-yogurt dip, these fries did make a perfect light lunch to start the week with. Smoky chipotle flavor roasted right into the heart of my sweet carrots, and they came out of the oven crispy around the edges [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged avocado, baked, carrot, carrot fries, chipotle, dip, easy, fries, oven fries, recipe, side dish, vegetarian
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I found a recipe for non-vegan cheesecake brownies through tastespotting, and it didn’t take me long to veganize it. I used my trusted brownie recipe and added a topping made with silken tofu, oat cream, and agave syrup, and the end result was really just deliciously decadent. The topping is more like a creamy custard [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged agave syrup, baking, brownies, chocolate, custard, dessert, oat cream, recipe, silken tofu, soy yogurt, vanilla custard, vegetarian
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November 28, 2008 – 11:41
I have a love-hate relationship with pickled vegetables. I absolutely love pickles when they’ve been made by fermenting in brine, but I can’t bring myself to like pickles that have been preserved with vinegar. For example, when I was a kid in school, we’d often have slices of pickled beet as part of our school [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged beet, beetroot, chili powder, chinese cabbage, garlic, ginger, kimchi, Korean, pickled, recipe, red onion, vegetarian
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November 25, 2008 – 21:59
Walnuts, vanilla and raw brown sugar melted into nice caramel flavor in these cookies. These nutty treats are rather soft and a little crisp on the bottom right after baking, perfect with a cup of tea and snow falling silently outside our window. Helsinki has tons of snow right now, but the weather forecasts say [...]
November 21, 2008 – 11:40
I’ve been wanting to make onion soup for a long time, and finally got around doing it now that the days are so dark and cold and rainy that I crave soup constantly. It is so simple to make and so delicious that I’m sure it will be on regular rotation at our house from [...]
November 19, 2008 – 10:27
I love toasted sunflower seeds, and have even blogged about a plain version back when we were starting out this blog. These are very easy to make and make a great addition to soups and salads, if you can keep yourself from snacking them all! This time I seasoned my seeds with tangy lime juice [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged chili, easy, garnish, lime juice, quick, recipe, smoked paprika, snack, sunflower seeds, toasted seeds, vegetarian
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November 17, 2008 – 23:48
This soup has typical Finnish fall produce and North African spices. We thought that the earthy and sweet rutabaga combined really well with the rich and complex flavors of ras-el-hanout, the fava beans providing a mild backdrop to it all. Our soup’s enchanting fragrance complemented its taste in an elegant manner.
Soup ingredients:
olive oil for frying
2 [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged carrot, chili, fava bean, garlic, harissa, main course, onion, ras el hanout, recipe, rice wine vinegar, rutabaga, soup, soy yogurt, vegetarian
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November 13, 2008 – 15:22
I can’t believe how quickly the first half of November went this year! I caught a cough, we were both busy with work, and suddenly I noticed it wasn’t October anymore… But I also love how time decides to jump ahead sometimes, as confusing as it is – it’s a good reminder of how little [...]
November 10, 2008 – 21:47
We’ve had a bit of an unintentional blogging break, but here’s a sweet treat to make things right again! Chocolate and apricot are such a classic combination, and the addition of cardamom in the mousse topping added that little extra something in these birthday cupcakes.
I baked these for the birthday party of a niece, and [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged apricot, baking, cardamom, chocolate, chocolate mousse, cupcakes, dessert, easy, mousse, recipe, silken tofu, vegetarian
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Pocket pies are fun to make and eat, and a great way to use up a bunch of apples beyond their prime! To be honest, I’ve had my fair share of apples recently, but these pockets were quite irresistible nevertheless. The dough was lovely, and I’m already thinking about all the sweet and savory fillings [...]
This is just a simple and quick lunch pasta I whipped up, but it came out surprisingly nicely for two reasons I suppose. Firstly, I cut the eggplant in small cubes and fried it until very brown and soft, which added a lot of flavor, and a lovely texture contrast to the lentils. Secondly, I [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged capers, easy, eggplant, garlic, green lentils, lemon, lunch, main course, pasta, recipe, rosemary, vegetarian
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The other day I was just casually thinking about beets, and it suddenly dawned on me that fennel seed would be a perfect spice to roast them with. The moment I got the idea I knew it was a good one, and so I wrote this recipe down in a sudden burst of culinary inspiration. [...]
I am being pretty liberal calling this dish tandoori – I suppose the word refers to the method of cooking food in the tandoor oven as much as it does to the spices. And the spices used in tandoori dishes seem to vary a lot: it’s sort of like North Indian barbecue and everyone has [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged bake, baked, basmati, beet, easy, Indian, main dish, potato, recipe, rice, soy yoghurt, tandoori, tofu, vegetarian
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I named these cookies after a band, but there’s also a whole history of trial and error behind the recipe. I have been making rosewater cookies for many weeks, using different flours: almond meal, spelt flour, whole wheat flour, and oat flour, among others. This last batch was definitely best of all I’ve baked so [...]
There had been two ingredients sitting in our pantry for many weeks, demanding my attention: cow peas and crushed hemp seeds. Couple of days ago I finally made some burgers using both the peas and the seeds. Cow peas are brownish red, but otherwise they look just like black-eyed peas. They are actually the same [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baked, burger, coriander, cow pea, cumin, garam masala, garlic, gluten flour, hemp seed, lemon juice, main course, onion, recipe, turmeric, vegetarian
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We spent a very relaxing weekend at the cottage with my little wonder of a godson and his parents. It was full of raking leaves and picking mushrooms, knitting on the porch in the autumn sun and watching the little guy play with the toys me and my brothers used to have as kids. Indescribably [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged apple, baking, cardamom, chocolate, chocolate cake, dessert, easy, orange, recipe, snack, vegetarian
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Chokladbollar are a Swedish delicacy, and we’ve noticed on our trips to Stockholm that they’re available at almost every grocery and coffeehouse over there. They are often vegan, and boy are they delicious! I envy Swedes for their abundance of chokladbollar, since although a certain brand of them is sold in some Finnish supermarkets, they [...]
September 30, 2008 – 21:05
Yet another beetroot recipe! This risotto is most delicious and simple to make, although the cooking time was a little long for an improvised lunch dish. Beets are in season so they’re especially nice and sweet this time of year, and there’s double parsley power in there as well: in the form of a root [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged beet, beet risotto, brown rice, lemon, main course, mirin, parsley, recipe, rice, risotto, root parsley, tofu, vegetarian
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September 29, 2008 – 18:34
This isn’t exactly a drink that needs a recipe to succeed, but I just thought I’d share this in case anyone hasn’t thought of adding peppermint extract in their cup of hot cocoa. It’s delicious, and a perfect treat for the darkening nights!
Actually there is another little secret to the greatness of this cocoa: a [...]
September 25, 2008 – 21:27
We recently bought our first bag of kamut out of plain curiosity, since it’s a pretty interesting cereal. It is actually a trademarked organic crop, essentially a certain type of wheat, but with larger berries and more protein than the regular wheat. Kamut berries are pretty chewy and have a nice round flavor, but somehow [...]
September 22, 2008 – 21:15
The cracker madness doesn’t seem to come to an end, so I may as well post another recipe. These are the crunchiest, crispiest crackers I’ve managed to produce so far, and their secret ingredient is quite surprising: finely ground rolled oats! I added a few dried herbs for a new flavor, but the texture is [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, cayenne, crackers, easy, garlic, ground oats, herb crackers, nutritional yeast, recipe, rosemary, snack, thyme, vegetarian
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September 16, 2008 – 20:51
We needed a quick and effortless supper on Sunday, since I had a mean flu and Heikki was hurrying to meet some friends. I decided to resort to my trusted veggie soup recipe, but instead of carrots I used lovely beets and the cauliflower that had been sitting in our fridge for a day or [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged beet, beetroot, cashew, cauliflower, easy, lime, lime zest, main course, recipe, soup, vegetarian
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September 12, 2008 – 17:36
I’ve been seeing salty cracker recipes here and there and they have accumulatively fed my cracker cravings. This week I finally started to bake my own, and how yummy they are! Now I am completely hooked – the triangular shape is just perfect for scooping up baba ghannouj, tsatsiki, or hummus, and these are nice [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged Add new tag, baking, cayenne, crackers, easy, garlic, lemon juice, mustard, nutritional yeast, recipe, snack, vegetarian
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September 11, 2008 – 09:33
Whipped semolina porridge with lingonberries, or vispipuuro as we call it, is a very traditional Finnish dessert. The semolina is first cooked with crushed lingonberries, then the porridge is cooled down, and finally it’s whipped, which gives it the right velvety texture and a pretty pink color. The resulting concoction is really more like a [...]
September 6, 2008 – 18:38
This year was the first time we actually got around growing our own vegetables, and our dear parents with their various summer cottages were the ones who really made it possible. We simply grew the seedlings on our windowsill in the spring, planted them in the soil in early summer, and a month later we [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baked, beluga lentils, Greek basil, lentil, lentil stuffing, main course, recipe, red lentils, sage, spaghetti squash, stuffed spaghetti squash, vegetarian
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September 3, 2008 – 21:04
Carrots and almonds go so very well together, as do fresh sage leaves and garlic. My purpose was to make a spread that we could have for breakfast on rye bread, and it came out exactly how I wanted: cooking the garlic mellowed down its sharpness, and the overall taste is pretty mild and buttery, [...]
This is a classic Hungarian stew. Many people would actually call this a goulash, but a Hungarian goulash is actually more soup-like. See the definitions of goulash and pörkölt in Wikipedia if you’re interested to know more. I’m not making any claims to authenticity with this recipe, but from what I’ve understood, what makes pörkölt [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged caraway, gulash, Hungarian, main dish, paprika, pörkölt, recipe, smoked paprika, soy chunks, textured soy protein, vegetarian
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We got a free bag of apples from the organic grocery nearby, and since the fall seems to be here for good, I decided to bake something cinnamony. This apple cake was so easy to make, came out perfectly moist, and had such a delightful fragrance, that the forthcoming winter doesn’t suddenly feel like such [...]
I have been obsessed with limes since our vacation, and I have a feeling this has something to do with the extremely juicy limes we got in Portugal. Even though the ones we can buy in Finland have just a faint shadow of their Portuguese counterparts’ deliciousness, they do add a lovely fragrance and flavor [...]
This is a moist and decadent chocolate cake that owes its wonderful texture to silken tofu and a large amount of chocolate. Not very cakey at all, Heikki described this cake as a blend of cake batter and chocolate frosting baked into one wonderful concoction. Only for those who love fudgy cakes and moist centers!
I [...]
I’ve always thought that you need an ice cream maker if you want to have home made ice cream, so I was delighted that the ice cream Anni made turned out so good. The next step, of course, was to make ice cream of my own. I wanted to try coconut ice cream, since it [...]
This curry is definitely comfort food at its finest! I wanted a really spicy dish and added some red hot curry powder before serving, but it could be omitted for a milder version. Cubed tomatoes didn’t just add a nice contrasting color for the photo shoot, but also contributed fresh bursts in the midst of [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged cauliflower, chick pea, chili, coconut milk, curry, garlic, ginger, green pea, Indian, main course, potato, vegetarian
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The fruit combo in this cake is very nice and summery – lemon zest adds a refined kick to the usual pairing of rhubarb and strawberries, and the cake layer is sweet with a hint of cinnamon. When I first baked this, my mom said that it tastes like it had eggs in it. And [...]
These thin caramelized oat biscuits are often the first baking project Finnish kids learn – they’re so easy to make and the results are delicious. The two tricks are to leave enough room around the dollops of batter before baking, since they spread out a lot, and not overbaking them, since they burn very quickly.
These [...]
Sweet potatoes are something we didn’t use very much in our cooking before. Maybe it’s because we generally prefer locally grown root vegetables, and sweet potatoes are usually shipped in from China, USA, or Israel. But yep, sometimes we treat ourselves with a few of these yummy things, and this mash really is a perfect [...]
This is just a simple recipe to remind us that not everything edible comes from a supermarket. The name of goutweed reveals a lot – it’s generally thought of as a weed that should be rooted up, not as a green leafy vegetable. The young sprouts can be eaten raw, in salads or on sandwiches, [...]
The idea of combining chocolate with pink peppercorns, cinnamon, and nutmeg came to me when I read the newspaper the other day, and found an interview with Senyor Marc Escudellers, a chocolate shop keeper from Barcelona. He stated that these are some of his favorite cocoa flavorings, and I absolutely agree – I’ve already baked [...]
This spread was part of our May Day picnic. It gets its deep flavor from liquid smoke and fresh sage, and goes especially well with a bread that has a lot of flavor of its own – like the dried Finnish sour rye bread pictured below.
The recipe is very easy and quick to make, but [...]
After reading Kittee’s vegan meatball recipe, I was hungering for something similar. We hadn’t made anything resembling meatballs since the Lion’s heads way back in October. Also, because we were going to go on a picnic on May Day, we thought it would be nice to have them there. May Day, among other things, is [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged chili, garlic, gluten flour, leek, marjoram, meatball, picnic, recipe, sesame oil, side dish, soy sauce, textured soy protein, thyme, tsp, tsp granules, vegetarian
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We usually don’t eat sweet things in the morning, but we did have these muffins for breakfast with a little vegan margarine and they were wonderful. They’re not too sweet, and there’s a nice gentle ginger flavor hiding in the background. Our cherries came from a jar, since fresh ones aren’t yet available around here, [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, breakfast, cherry, cherry muffins, ginger, muffin, recipe, snack, spelt, spelt flour, vegetarian
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This dish consisted of the ingredients I was able to find in our kitchen when I needed to make a quick lunch for myself. I thought about spaghetti, but there was none left, so I opted for risoni (orzo) instead. No canned beans, so tofu it was, and I was lucky enough to find a [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged balsamic vinegar, basil, easy, lime, liquid smoke, main dish, nutritional yeast, orzo, pasta, recipe, risoni, tofu, vegetarian
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I love thin and crispy chips – potato, corn, or apple, they’re sure to disappear in no time at our house. I don’t like deep-frying things because it’s just a little bit scary, but I baked these beetroot chips in the oven. They came out very crispy indeed, and the earthy flavor of beets paired [...]
I’ve made my version of the Key lime pie several times and it has always been a success: it’s quite easy to make, and the silky soy whip filling is just heavenly. This recipe is just one of many versions – I’ve used soy cream cheese instead of the soy whip and added more yogurt, [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged dessert, graham cracker crust, lime, lime pie, no-bake, pie, recipe, soy whip, soy yogurt, vegan key lime pie, vegetarian
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We had a few sweet potatoes in the fridge, so I googled my way to yummy-looking and very simple curried sweet potato fries. Then it occurred to me that we hadn’t made our favorite seitan recipe for a while, and that it would be a great compliment to the fries. The spicy sweet curry fries [...]
I wanted tosca cake and Heikki wanted cupcakes, and thus the tosca cupcakes were created. I seasoned the cake part with cardamom, and it came out quite light and moist in texture, contrasting nicely with the crunchy almond topping. The humble appearances of these cakes are deceiving, since they do taste divine!
I made this recipe [...]
When I finally tried making my own peanut sauce, I couldn’t believe how easy it is to prepare, and to tweak according to what’s at hand. Sometimes I add lime juice, or leave out lemon grass if we don’t have it, or use coconut milk instead of veggie stock to thin the sauce, and it [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged asian, easy, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, main course, noodle, peanut butter, peanut sauce, recipe, sauce, stir-fry, vegetarian
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In celebration of making wontons for the first time, we finally cooked our own veggie broth as well, and this soup came out just wonderfully – the gentle broth complimented the spicy salty wontons, and the sweet new crop cabbage added a nice crunch. With store-bought wonton wrappers, these Chinese dumplings are pretty easy to [...]
I’ve been having a spring flu lately, and this drink is what is starting to make me feel better. Heikki says that if I believe it cures me, it will, and I am a firm believer in ginger tea – I drink it when I feel down or have a back ache or feel that [...]
We love the combination of raspberries and dark chocolate, there’s something about the tart berries and bitter cocoa flavor that makes them a perfect match. The construction of this pie is quite like my mocha pie, but this is as delicious straight out of the oven as it is after chilling. Served warm with a [...]
I paired cauliflower with sweet potato in this smooth soup, and added coconut milk and garam masala to give it a gentle spiciness. I also caramelized a bunch of cashews to go with the soup – they gave it a nice contrasting texture and a cinnamony element of sweetness, and we ended up with a [...]
This carrot cake is based on a trusted recipe from a friend’s cousin, a recipe that was veganized 10 years ago, and has been served to many party guests over these years. To make it more suitable for a weekday tv-night with friends, I cut the oil by more than a half, substituting a part [...]
When I was living in Malaysia some years ago, this was one of my favourite take-away dishes. Nearby my workplace there were some food stalls that sold Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leaves. Basically, it’s rice cooked in coconut milk and some condiments, eaten with sambal and some side dishes – yes, I think the [...]
I made this as a light lunch for myself, and it was so good that the recipe is definitely going to appear as a side dish for a larger audience. Steamed broccoli is great, and stir-steamed broccoli is even greater – it’s a quick method that gives pleasantly crispy results. Simply seasoned with nothing more [...]
This gentle custard filling would have been even better made with fresh mango fruit, but since those aren’t a staple around here, I resorted to the puréed variety from our Asian grocery. The color isn’t as vibrant as the real deal, but most of the mango taste is still there! We both loved the texture [...]
Ever since I saw the recipe for Lemony Risoni on Emmie’s blog, I’ve been wanting to make something with this pasta camouflaged in the shape of rice. It’s so cute, and absorbs flavors even more readily than other shapes of pasta. Otherwise this is a pretty basic salad recipe with a basic vinaigrette, but I [...]
This is a great recipe I snatched from Celine’s inspired blog Have cake, will travel. The original recipe makes use of whiskey, but we didn’t have that, so I used coffee liqueur and soy milk instead. This isn’t a toffee-like fudge, but the consistency is more like a chocolate truffle – and since no [...]
I have visited the US a few times, and one of the things I miss most is that the supermarkets carry hummus and baba ghannouj in a number of flavors – my favorite being the roasted red bell pepper. Lately the bigger supermarkets in Finland have started carrying one brand of Swedish hummus that is [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged chick pea, cumin, easy, garlic, hummus, lime, recipe, red bell pepper, roasted bell pepper, snack, spread, sunflower seeds, vegetarian
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I usually use at least some white flour in my bread doughs, and haven’t baked bread with just whole wheat before, so I was very pleasantly surprised at how wonderfully these carrot buns turned out. I didn’t add any regular wheat flour, but decided to mix in a little bit of gluten flour to add [...]
Rösti is a Swiss potato pancake, and in its most simple form, a rösti recipe only has grated potatoes as an ingredient. I added a little flour to keep my rösti together and a sweet apple to counterbalance the spiciness of chili, onion, garlic, and thyme. Delicious!
As a side dish, this recipe makes plenty for [...]
Pasha is a lovely Easter dessert that has traveled to Finland from Russia. It’s a rich and flavorful concotion seasoned with almond, vanilla, orange peel, and dried fruit, traditionally prepared for the celebrations at the end of Lent by the Eastern Orthodox Christians. For pagans like me and Heikki pasha is a perfect way to [...]
This was an easy weekday recipe, and very much packed with flavor – thanks to the lovely sun dried tomatoes that flew to us straight from Rome! Lately I’ve realized how much more flavor stays in dried tomatoes when they aren’t preserved in oil, and it doesn’t take that long to rehydrate them either.
We had [...]
We were originally trying to make jiaozi, Chinese-style dumplings, but it turned out that the spring roll pastry that we got from the local Asian market reacted less than favourably to steaming. In fact, when steamed, it turned into a pulp! So, what do you make from spring roll pastry? Spring rolls. And they turned [...]
If there’s one dish that reminds me of my childhood, it’s mashed potatoes. We always had a simple version at home, that I enjoyed with a dab of butter that melted and transformed into a lake on top of the potato mountain… I also have a vivid memory of a dinner I had at [...]
I had never tasted a brownie in my life before baking these, so I’m not completely qualified to assess how brownie-like they were. Well, I did adapt the recipe from an American blog Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk and I’m sure that Katie knows what a brownie is. These were like moist and delicate pieces [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, brownie, cardamom, chilli, chocolate, cinnamon, marianne, mint, mint chocolate brownies, recipe, soy yogurt, spicy brownies, vegan brownies, vegetarian
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Just a simple black bean stew, very comforting and lovely on a winter’s day. Our pressure cooker allows us to make bean stews on a whim – no soaking and thus no planning ahead is required.
This stew made a nice lunch with a few slices of rye bread. If it was cooked in a [...]
I wanted to make this dough into spritz cookies, but unfortunately my cookie press broke in the process and wouldn’t press cookies any more. So I made pinwheels instead!
These cookies are imbued with a sweet and mellow hazelnut flavor – I added a little bit of cocoa powder just for the color effect. The [...]
February 29, 2008 – 15:40
We both love lasagne, and this is definitively one of our favorite ways to fill those pasta sheets. Fried tempeh crumbs, basil tomato sauce, and white sauce made with cashews and nutritional yeast were a delicious combination in this creamy and hearty and remarkably satisfying lasagne.
Our lasagne wasn’t extremely photogenic, but the side of [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged bechamel, cashew, cheezy sauce, lasagne, main course, recipe, sauce, tempeh lasagne, uncheese, vegan bechamel, vegan lasagne, vegetarian
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February 28, 2008 – 10:33
These muffins reminded me of fruit Bundt cake, but they had not-too-sweet currants and dried cranberries in them, and the orange zest is what really made them special. I only used the zest of one orange, and the aroma was just heavenly. These muffins were especially delectable when eaten warm, halved, and spread with a [...]
February 26, 2008 – 09:52
This gentle soup made an amazing weekday lunch for the two of us. Somehow it managed to be light and filling at the same time, and the subtle flavors of edamame and avocado enhanced each other beautifully.
Edamame means fresh young soy beans in Japanese, and they’re usually cooked and served in their pods. Fresh soy [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged appetizer, avocado, easy, edamame, edamame soup, fresh soy bean, onion, recipe, sherry, soup, vegetarian
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February 24, 2008 – 16:42
This recipe is a variation on my recipe for Olive Tomato Bread, I just made a few alterations to the ingredients. I love this bread – it’s very satisfying and packed with flavor. Spelt flour and walnuts gave the bread a very nice texture, and I developed a topping that really makes sunflower seeds stick [...]
February 21, 2008 – 09:58
These croquettes were made with simple ingredients that we almost always have around the house. Black beans, sunflower seeds, and pink peppercorns were the main components here, but lemon juice, sesame seeds, and ground coriander added a lot of flavor as well. Pink peppercorns and coriander are both fragrant and delicate seasonings, and they paired [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged bean, black bean, black bean croquettes, croquette, garlic, lemon, main course, recipe, sage, sauce, sunflower seeds, tomato, vegetarian
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February 19, 2008 – 13:13
This cake was soft and moist and full of sweet coconut flavor, beautifully counterbalanced by the tart raspberry sauce made with only two ingredients: frozen berries and agave syrup.
This cake was especially good right after baking, steeped in the raspberry sauce, but went well on its own with a cup of tea on the [...]
February 17, 2008 – 20:54
I fried this tempeh for lunch one day, and didn’t have time to marinate it more than an hour. It was very delicious, which made me realize that tempeh absorbs flavors even more readily than tofu does! Actually, the marinade I used is pretty close to the one we often use for tofu, but I [...]
February 14, 2008 – 16:10
When I created the recipe for this mint chocolate cake, I thought it wouldn’t rise very much during baking, and I’d end up with a small amount of cake. Well, it did rise, I had to cut it in two layers, and we ended up with five mini-cakes instead of the two I’d planned to [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, cake, cashew, chocolate, dessert, mint, mint chocolate cake, mint chocolate frosting, recipe, soy yogurt, tofu, vegan mint chocolate cake, vegan mint chocolate frosting, vegetarian
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February 13, 2008 – 20:55
The simple act of adding balsamic vinegar to vegetables before roasting takes their flavors to a completely new dimension. The vinegar loses its acidity in the oven, and enhances the sweet flavors of the root vegetables.
We got our monthly supply of organic flours and vegetables on Friday evening, delivered to our door by my [...]
February 11, 2008 – 22:45
Palak is an Indian spinach dish that everyone knows from Palak Paneer, in which it is served with Indian cheese. I do not think that I ever tasted that dish before going vegan, but I’ve witnessed friends devour it in restaurants numerous times, and have become curious. Palak is delicious on its own, but tofu [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged chili, curry, garlic, ginger, Indian, lemon, main course, onion, palak paneer, palak tofu, recipe, spinach, tofu, vegetarian
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February 10, 2008 – 18:42
We whipped up this pie 20 minutes before a friend came over, and it had almost firmed up after spending 2 hours in the fridge, when we were ready to have dessert. The photo is from the next day, and I do recommend refrigerating this pie overnight to let the filling firm up completely – [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged agar, dessert, easy, lime, no-bake, pie, recipe, strawberry, strawberry lime pie, vegan lime pie, vegetarian
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We had a weekday dinner at its best on Wednesday: delicious five-spiced tofu, slightly sweet and sour stir-fried veggies, and a bowl of brown rice. Yumminess can’t be exaggerated, it was all very delicious. It happened to be the Chinese New Year’s eve as well – everyone was wishing happy new year for each other [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged carrot, chinese, five spice, garlic, ginger, main course, marinade, onion, recipe, sesame oil, sherry, soy sauce, stir-fry, tofu, vegetarian
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There are various vegan omelette recipes around the internet, and we’ve tried a few of them – Susan’s version for example, which we liked as much as to make it several times. Sometimes the recipes call for chick pea flour (also known as gram), like this Indian style vegan omelette, but almost always the [...]
Today is the day of the Finnish national poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg, and a great number of these little cakes are enjoyed all over the country. They were baked by Johan Ludvig’s wife Fredrika in the 19th century, and there’s a story that the poet enjoyed them with his morning Punsch. He probably wasn’t the [...]
We baked this pie Sunday evening, when neither of us felt like having real dinner. I often make savory pies that are based on a puréed tofu filling, but haven’t thought about walnuts in this context before. Their deep flavor paired perfectly with the sweetness of the fried onions and the tangy lemon juice.
The ingredients [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, garlic, lemon, onion, pie, quiche, recipe, savoury, sesame oil, tofu, tofu quiche, uncheese, vegetarian, walnut, walnut quiche
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This soy and cashew loaf has many specialty ingredients in it, but I’m pretty sure that the recipe can be tweaked according to what’s on hand and it’ll be just as good. We both really enjoyed the texture that this loaf got from the chewy soy protein bits and the creamy cashews. I think this [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged cashew, garlic, gluten flour, loaf, main course, meatless loaf, onion, recipe, sesame oil, soy protein granules, vegan meat loaf, vegetarian
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We baked these pizzas in celebration of snow that finally came to Helsinki on Tuesday – it had been raining water since before Christmas. Watching the snow flakes fall from the sky while devouring a homemade pizza and a bottle of German beer, all in the warmth of our home, is just about as good [...]
I occasionally get serious apple cravings, but because of my allergies, I can’t have raw apples. That’s when I have to start baking, and these muffins definitely satisfied my apple tooth: they are both filled and topped with yummy apple cubes. Walnuts, cinnamon, and a hint of ginger added a wintery spiciness to these soft [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged apple, apple pie muffins, baking, cinnamon, dessert, ginger, muffin, recipe, soy yogurt, spelt, spelt apple muffins, spelt flour, vegan apple muffins, vegetarian, walnut
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This is a great simple soup that I discovered when I was in Fez a few years back. We stayed in the old town, medina, and close to our hotel was a hole-in-a-wall type of breakfast place, serving freshly baked bread and chickpea soup. The soup was so delicious that we went there every morning, [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged appetizer, arab, chick pea, cumin, garlic, Habeeb Salloum, leek, main course, paprika, potato, pressure cooking, recipe, soup, vegetarian
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We buy organic spelt flour form a local farm, and I’ve been experimenting with it lately, adding it to all kinds of baked goods. Spelt flour has a lot of flavor and a great texture, and I think it should be much more widely used than it currently is. I used only spelt four in [...]
This is another take on Mihl’s sunflower seed spread, but this time we seasoned it with sundried tomatoes, harissa, and parsley. Really good and spicy, this goes well with potato bread and alfalfa sprouts like in the photo, and is even better with Finnish rye bread. With all the seasonings, this doesn’t have as much [...]
Rendang is definitely my favourite Indonesian dish. I’ve been meaning to make a veganized version of it for a while, but since the cooking takes so long, I’ve been putting it off. Christmas at the cottage was the perfect place to make it. We cooked this on the day before Christmas Eve, while heating up [...]
Moth beans are yet another new legume in our kitchen. They are very tiny, and look something like small, brown mung beans. Moth beans cook really fast, are creamy in texture, and have a nutty flavor that paired really well with the sharp dressing.
Beans:
200 g dried moth beans, soaked overnight
2 cloves garlic
vegetable broth
1 bay [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged balsamic vinegar, cilantro, easy, garlic, lime, lunch, moth beans, pressure cooking, recipe, salad, vegetarian
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This is something that we cooked for a quick dinner. Since we got a pressure cooker, we’ve started using much more dried pulses. It’s great not having to plan in advance, and just quickly cook up some beans when you feel like it. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, this isn’t as fast to [...]
This was a quick lunch I made for myself on a day when I had to use up three carrots, since we’d got our organic veggie delivery the day before, and the old ones had to go. We froze a bunch of leeks after the previous organic delivery, so now I could just take one [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged appetizer, carrot, cashew, easy, garlic, leek, lemon, lunch, recipe, soup, vegetarian
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These muffins are filled with jam made of raspberries and blueberries, a combination known as the Queen’s jam in Finland, although we don’t have a queen. We do have a female president, but as conservative as it may seem, I don’t think that President’s muffins sound nearly as appetizing as Queen’s muffins do. These are [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, blueberry, dessert, filled, ground oats, muffin, raspberry, recipe, spelt, spelt flour, vegetarian, walnut
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This cake was our dessert on Christmas eve, along with a refreshing citrus fuit salad. The fragrance that came from the oven during baking was intoxicating, and the cake itself didn’t let us down; it was sweet and moist and delicious, with just enough spice and a decadent accent of cognac from the [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, cake, cardamom, christmas, cinnamon, date, dessert, plum, recipe, soy yogurt, vegetarian
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I made this drink to myself one morning, with the intention of adding black tea and turn it into chai, but it was so good on its own that I just eliminated the tea part. I am not a breakfast person, and this subtly spiced and lightly sweet drink wakes me up when I don’t [...]
When me and Heikki were travelling in Cuba, black bean soup was one of our favorite vegan foods. Staying at casas particulares, renting extra rooms from people’s homes, we had the advantage of sampling Cuban home cooking the vegan way. We could always explain what vegan food was, and could be sure that our [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged appetizer, bean, black bean, chili, christmas, cuban, garlic, onion, recipe, red bell pepper, smoked paprika, soup, vegetarian
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This was our vegan take on the traditional Finnish Christmas ham, although its similarities to a ham are very minor. We coated our roast with Dijon mustard that’s seasoned with garlic and red bell pepper – I am not a great mustard lover, but that particular mustard is delicious. We used pink peppercorns for decoration [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged christmas, garlic, gluten flour, lemon, main course, marinade, recipe, red bell pepper, roast, seitan, soy sauce, tofu, vegan roast, vegetarian
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This is a simple tofu marinade we used as a base for our Christmas Roast. After making the roast, we fried the rest of the tofu in some olive oil, and had it on sandwiches.
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 [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged basil, christmas, garlic, main course, marinade, recipe, rosemary, soy sauce, thyme, tofu, vegetarian
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December 30, 2007 – 11:01
Marmalade confections are very popular in Finland around Christmas, and they’re naturally vegan – what could beat that as Christmas gifts for friends and family. My family isn’t religious at all, but Christmas is my favorite holiday, traditionally celebrated in Finland at the time of year when the darkest day of the year had passed. [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged blueberry, christmas, confection, dessert, gift, lemon, lime, lingonberry, mango, marmalade confections, pear, recipe, sea buckthorn, sherry, vegetarian
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December 28, 2007 – 16:04
This was a Christmas gift recipe we developed to give out as presents. We wanted to make a cookie mix of our own, but also wanted to make sure that the receiver of the gift would have no need to add any non-vegan items in the recipe. We also wanted to be able to pack [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, cashew, chocolate, christmas, coconut milk, cookie, gift, recipe, spelt, spelt flour, vegetarian, walnut
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December 25, 2007 – 16:01
We were at the cottage for Christmas eve, just returned today, and with this little recipe want to wish happy holidays to all our readers! We’ll post our Christmas menu and sweet gift recipes after all the holiday fuss is over.
This salad is especially loved by dancing Christmas elves, the little guys that moved to [...]
December 19, 2007 – 09:59
These vegan cutlets were mainly inspired by the Chickpea Cutlets from the Veganomicon cookbook. We made those cutlets a few weeks ago and they were really good. I liked the idea of mixing beans and gluten flour, since gluten can be too glutinous on its own, and the cutlets were really easy to prepare. Another [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged basil, black eyed pea, cutlet, garlic, gluten flour, lemon, main course, recipe, soy sauce, tofu, vegetarian
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December 19, 2007 – 09:54
This was a simple sauce I made to go with the wonderful Black Eyed Pea Cutlets, served with pan fried potatoes. Thanks to cashew nuts, the texture is smooth and really creamy, and this is a good all-purpose gravy that would go with just about anything, I imagine.
Here’s what I used for the sauce:
1 onion, [...]
December 17, 2007 – 15:13
This is a tasty side dish, and the last one of our triangular recipes. Just in case someone feels like eating triangles, I drew a tutorial on how to cut cylindrical vegetables in triangular shapes. I hadn’t thought of it before, and in our kitchen carrots usually end up cut in circles or matchsticks – [...]
December 14, 2007 – 21:10
Crunchy and fresh, this is a salad inspired by Eastern European bean salads. We had it alongside Juicy Baked Tempeh, and served the salad surrounded by triangular cucumbers.
Here’s what I used:
2 dl cooked black eyed peas
2 dl red cabbage, thinly sliced
2-3 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried dill (or 1 tablespoon fresh)
3 tablespoons [...]
December 13, 2007 – 17:53
We had a triangular-themed dinner on Monday; these tempeh triangles were served with triangular carrots, and the accompanying black bean salad was surrounded by cucumber triangles. The tempeh was first cooked, then marinated, and finally baked in a hot oven, and it ended up being very juicy and delicious.
Heikki has successfully taught me to eat [...]
December 12, 2007 – 20:11
This is something we quickly improvised for a comforting Sunday dinner. Toor dal is a new acquaintance, apparently one of the most popular split peas used in Indian cooking, although we didn’t use Indian spices for this. The sweetness of the root vegetables was balanced by raw red onions, and toor dal got some extra [...]
December 10, 2007 – 08:49
We had this curry for dinner with basmati rice and cooling soy yogurt sauce. It was delicious, one of the best curries I’ve ever made. Toasting the spices and mixing my own curry paste must have been the secret of its taste.
Curry paste:
2 tablespoons grated coconut
1 teaspoon each: mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged basmati, chana dal, cilantro, curry, curry paste, eggplant, lemon, main course, mint, onion, raita, recipe, soy yogurt, split chick pea, vegetarian
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Following in the footsteps of Susan’s veggeroni, and a number of other similar recipes I’ve seen floating around the Internet, this is my own version of oven baked gluten. This makes a dense, sort of dry salami-like wheat gluten log, ideal for crumbling for further use.
This seitan has some tiny air bubbles in it, as [...]
The fragrance of this moist cake comes mainly from Grand Marniér liqueur, and there are three citrus fruits involved in the recipe; lemons, oranges, and limes. We had a few slices of this cake with black Assam tea on a gloomy November afternoon, and it seems to be a pretty good antidepressant. This is an [...]
We made these pastries for a Christmas party we went to on Saturday, and everyone liked them. Filo (also fillo or phyllo) pastry is crispy and delicate, and the spinach-tofu filling was nice and spicy. An easier way out is to bake one big spanakopita in a baking dish, but triangles are better for parties.
Spanakopita [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged baking, chili, filo, leek, onion, recipe, savoury, smoked paprika, spinach, tofu, uncheese, vegetarian
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This tofu “cheese” has a consistency resembling cottage cheese, or a little like feta cheese, and is really tasty. It doesn’t taste like cheese, however, which for me is a good thing: I outgrew my cheese addiction about 7 years ago – it took a few vegan years to combat my cravings. Tofu marinated this [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged easy, garlic, lime, recipe, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, spread, tofu, uncheese, vegan cheese, vegetarian
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This is the latest attempt of my ongoing mission to master the seasoning of textured soy protein (TSP). Usually I’m lazy and just boil the TSP chunks in a broth made from vegetable stock cubes, but this time I tried something fancier. We thought that the result was really good.
For the soy strips:
100 g [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged chili, cooking, garlic, main course, recipe, rice vinegar, sherry, soy sauce, textured soy protein, tsp, vegetarian
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November 30, 2007 – 12:50
We had these tofu patties for lunch two days in a row: first day served with cous cous and some leftover gravy, and the next day with olive mashed potatoes and basil yogurt sauce. We thought the patties tasted even better the next day, and thus would be perfect to have in the freezer for [...]
November 28, 2007 – 22:24
Last week I found a post by Mihl from Seitan is my motor through Vegalicious. Mihl had developed a recipe for sunflower seed spread, and reading about it, I instantly got a feeling that this would be a new favorite at our house. First batch I made was the plain version that Mihl posted, only [...]
November 27, 2007 – 17:16
This isn’t really a recipe, more like an idea of how to prepare all those green leafy vegetables from the Asian market. Choi sum is really yummy, and its stalks taste a bit like asparagus. We often eat bok choi, Shanghai bok choi, and water spinach prepared the same way: lightly steamed and seasoned with [...]
November 26, 2007 – 16:49
I baked these for breakfast on Saturday, after a night out, when Heikki was still sleeping. I messed up a few things, used wrong measuring cups and such, but the end result was great anyway. While the muffins were baking, I stared in the oven, thinking about how lucky I am to have someone to [...]
November 24, 2007 – 16:21
On Thursday evening after two dance classes I was pretty hungry, and Heikki was at a somewhat early Christmas party. Luckily this dinner didn’t take me more than about 10 minutes to make. I had marinated the tofu earlier the same day, instant cous cous cooked in a few minutes – and the Ajvar yogurt [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged arab, chili, cous cous, easy, fried tofu, harissa, lime, main course, pressing tofu, recipe, soy sauce, soy yogurt sauce, tofu, vegetarian, za'atar
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November 22, 2007 – 10:40
Cashews in the batter, creamy cashew frosting, topped with caramelized cashews: these cupcakes are a celebration of our favorite nut. We made these for Heikki’s dad on the Father’s day. These are cupcakes for fathers, not sons, and are probably more devoured by adults than kids. We’ve learnt that both Heikki’s nephew and my [...]
November 21, 2007 – 22:30
Served with a slice of bread, this soup is a tasty wintertime dinner in itself. It only took me about 10 minutes to make plus an hour to simmer. Long cooking time cuts the sharpness of the Middle Eastern hot chili pepper paste, harissa, and mellows down the garlic as well.
My soup looks more liquid [...]
November 20, 2007 – 20:02
I created this bread recipe to test how high a dough can rise if the baker can control her impatience and let it sit for a while. I found out that with regular all-purpose wheat flour, the bread dough will triple its size in just over half an hour, and double in only 15 minutes. [...]
November 19, 2007 – 15:46
On Friday, we invited some friends over before a night out. I made us three spreads to have with fresh baguette and crackers, over a glass of wine or some beer. This first one was made with sun dried tomatos, the second with fava beans, and the third with olives. I love how easy these [...]
November 19, 2007 – 15:46
Fava beans, also known as broad beans, are very delicious, but there’s one problem: they have thick skin, and every bean needs to be peeled separately. Especially dried fava beans are a little difficult to work with. I was very happily surprised when we found dried split fava beans at a local shop, Al Marwan. [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged bean dip, bondbönor, chick pea, dip, fava beans, ful medames, garlic, lemon, onion, parsley, puree, recipe, snack, spread, vegetarian
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November 19, 2007 – 15:46
This is a really salty spread, nice for snacking with crackers or fresh bread, and maybe a glass of red wine.
What I used:
1 and 1/2 dl olives (we had Kalamata and some leftover green ones)
3 teaspoons capers
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon dried basil
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
I [...]
November 16, 2007 – 09:55
I’ve eaten kangkung or morning glory often when travelling in Southeast Asia. Our local Asian food store (Aseanic Trading on Kolmas linja) has this in stock every now and then, but this is the first time we’ve tried it.
200g morning glory (also known as kangkung or water spinach)
2 cloves of garlic
1-2 tablespoons canola oil for [...]
November 15, 2007 – 09:14
This is a really basic but delicious recipe for preparing tofu. For the seasoned vegan veterans there’s probably nothing special here, but it’s a great introduction to tofu if you haven’t yet accustomed yourself to its unique and infinitely malleable taste. Here’s what tofu prepared this way looks like, when fried and served together with [...]
By Heikki
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged barbecue, chili, chinese, ginger, grill, lime, marinade, recipe, sesame oil, soy sauce, stir-fry, tofu, vegetarian
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November 14, 2007 – 11:50
We love mashed potatoes. We also had some leftover coconut milk from curry roasted tofu and vegetables, and these two facts put together resulted in coconut mashed potatoes. Google told me that in Hawaii, sweet potatoes are often mashed in coconut milk. Here, the coconut flavor hides in the background, but still gives a nice [...]
November 12, 2007 – 17:07
This dish was the second recipe we made from our new cookbook, Habeeb Salloum’s Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa. It is a collection of hundreds of simple traditional recipes from the Arab world, and has already become one of our favorite cookbooks. This dish originates in the Arabian Gulf, where [...]
November 12, 2007 – 17:06
The yogurt sauce is an Arab dish, Yogurt Ginger Appetizer (Laban ma’ Zanjabeel) from Habeeb Salloum’s Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa. We only made minor modifications to his recipe and halved it to serve two people instead of four, and the dish came out very very good. Almonds add a [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged almond, arab, easy, ginger, Habeeb Salloum, mint, recipe, sauce, tomato, vegetarian, yogurt
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November 10, 2007 – 10:57
I haven’t baked bread for a long while, and I’ve never baked a two-colored bread. After baking, the colors weren’t as bright as I had hoped they would be, but the bread was tasty. Grated beets would maybe result in a brighter purple color, and spinach is probably greener than arugula.
This amount of dough makes [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged arugula, baking, basil, bread, carrot, pesto, recipe, sesame seeds, spelt, spelt flour, vegetarian, yeast
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Green lentils have an appealing shape, each one so perfectly round and flat. I thought of France while cooking these lentils, but can’t remember ever eating lentils there – mine probably aren’t even remotely French, but they are delicious. Green lentils keep their shape when cooked, but don’t need soaking, which is great since I [...]
An easy and satisfying lunch, preparing this dish takes only 10 minutes, and roasting about 40 minutes. I mostly work at home, and this is a great way of preparing a meal and getting other things done while it’s cooking.
Marinating the tofu would be a good idea, since now it only had a mild curry [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged carrot, chili, coconut milk, curry, easy, ginger, lemon grass, lime, potato, recipe, roasted, tofu, vegetarian
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Easy and fresh, another way of using our organic cabbage.
Here’s what we had in the salad:
500 g cabbage
5 cm piece of leek, cut in small pieces
3 teaspoons dried dill
3-4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon canola oil
freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 -1 teaspoon salt
First, I cut the cabbage in thin strips. Then I mixed all [...]
Another famous Slavic dish, this delicious beetroot soup can be adjusted indefinitely. In Poland, borsch is liquid, like vegetable stock made with beet, served without the vegetable pieces. Our soup is pretty thick, loaded with shredded organic root vegetables and cabbage.
We enjoyed our borsch with a big dollop of plain soy yogurt, sprinkled with plenty [...]
This is a nice warming cake I baked on Saturday, when it started snowing for the first time this winter.
The batter is sort of bread-like, I have never baked anything with both yeast and baking powder before. The inspiration came from the Pflaumenkuchen recipe at Vegalicious. My plums weren’t completely ripe, so I decided to [...]
This is a green dip we had as a Friday night snack with some carrots, rutabaga (Swedish turnip), and corn chips. Arugula dip is great with any kind of chips and veggies, and we also serve this as a sauce with potatoes, or in a bun with a veggie burger.
Ingredients:
1,5 dl plain (Alpro) soy yogurt
1 [...]
Oven roasted potato wedges are probably my favorite side dish. This was an experiment with a corn starch thickened coating, which resulted in a slightly sticky consistence. We had these potatoes for lunch with some bean salad. Yummy!
What I used:
1,2 kg potatoes
3 onions
Coating:
1/2-3/4 dl olive oil
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 teaspoon sesame [...]
This is a Russian dish that’s usually made with meat or sausages. We had Wheaty’s spicy seitan Frankenberger sausages, but I’ve made this with fried tofu before. Heikki said that the Wheaty sausages were a bit too dominant in this dish, and I kind of agree – tofu allows for other flavors to stand [...]
This is a North African salad made of bulgur (or burgul), crushed wheat grains. Bulgur doesn’t need to be cooked. Instead, it is reconstituted in the fridge overnight. It absorbs the liquid from vegetables, and prepared this way, remains firm in texture and is very flavorful. Other vegetables, like tomato or onions, could be added [...]
By Anni
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Posted in Recipes
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Also tagged bulgur, cucumber, leek, lemon, parsley, raisins, recipe, red bell pepper, salad, tabbouleh, vegetarian
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This is a quick salad I made as a refreshing side dish to go with a spinach curry.
What I used:
2 medium carrots
a splash of water
1 dl cashew nuts
1/2 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1/2 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
pinch of sugar
freshly ground black pepper
First, I brushed the carrots until there [...]
Dal means split beans. There are many different varieties in Asian stores, and they are great because they don’t require soaking like whole beans do. This was a very delicious curry we served in its own the first day, and over rice the next day. I added some margarine before serving to mimic that taste [...]
I really love leek. This week we got a bunch of fresh organic vegetables from a local farmer, including about a dozen leeks. I decided to cook a dish that centers around leek.
This is a basic Chinese stir-fry recipe and really easy to make. With proper ingredients – fresh leek and fresh tofu – it [...]
I made this ridiculously easy Chinese salad while Heikki was cooking the main dish for lunch today. This is a favorite of ours, and we make it often to accompany Chinese stir-fries. We received a big white cabbage from a local organic farm this week, and that’s pretty much all that is needed to make [...]
This pie practically melts in the mouth, I haven’t baked anything near this good for a long while.
We use a lot of plain soy yogurt in cooking, but there is only one really good brand sold in Finland, called Alpro. Their organic plain yogurt is not sweetened and it is pretty thick and tangy, like [...]
This is the Finnish equivalent of mac and cheese: a food that every child loves, and most adults too. So naturally we made this for my 4-year-old niece who was coming over today. While makaronilaatikko was in the oven, we made jewelery and played “hide the piglet” with the little niece. She hasn’t been very [...]
This recipe is originally from eastern China. The name of the dish comes from the way it looks; the big balls, traditionally made of pork, resemble lions’ heads, and the shredded Chinese cabbage looks like its mane. (Come on, use your imagination!)
Presumably the more skillful the cook, the bigger the lions’ heads are. I had [...]
This is a stew we had for lunch today, the taste is slightly sweet and subtle yet spicy.
700 g sweet potatoes (2 medium ones), peeled and cubed
1 can tomatoes
1 dl water
1 big onion, cubed
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon crushed chili
1/2 cube vegetable stock
salt [...]
This was an easy Sunday lunch. With the addition of leftover tofu this makes a filling meal, and even more so when served with rye bread. Main flavor comes from tarragon and pink pepper, which both have a mild and sweet taste, nicely contrasted with a little splash of lemon juice.
4 carrots, peeled, and [...]
This is a cake we made with Heikki for our friend Taina’s birthday party this weekend. It was a bit time consuming, and we actually made the raspberry mousse and baked the cake a day before, and just frosted and assembled the cake on Friday. Now that I think of it, an easier way out [...]
Sara from Sweden invented this veganized version of a traditional fish recipe we found at her blog Veganvrak, and we just had to cook our version of it right away. Both Heikki and me thought that it was delicious. The flavors are similar to Finnish way of cooking fish, and we were both amazed how [...]
This is a basic recipe for a tasty Chinese stir-fry I made for a quick lunch yesterday. We had a can of mock duck form our Asian market, and I wanted to use it up finally, so I tweaked Bryanna Clark Grogan’s mock duck recipes a little bit. Canned mock duck is not our favorite [...]
This is a light and fragrant, moist and flavorful coffee cake. Crispy sweet cashew topping and sour raspberries give character without making the cake too sweet or heavy. I might even call this a comfort cake.
Here’s what I used:
Dry:
5 dl wheat flour
0,6 dl granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
[...]
I am allergic to raw seeds and nuts, but they are a great source of a number of nutrients, especially for vegans. Toasted sunflower seeds taste a bit bland on their own, but the addition of soy sauce converts them in a highly addictive snack.
Here’s how it happens:
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
150 g sunflower [...]
This not very sweet muffin recipe was inspired by Mocha Chip Muffins from Post Punk Kitchen. I decreased the amount of oil to one third and replaced a few things, and this is what I ended up using:
Dry things:
2,5 dl wheat flour
1,2 dl spelt flour
1 dl raw cane sugar
1/2 dl dark cocoa [...]
We just had this easy soup for lunch today. I have made it for many years, and the only recent additions are lemon grass and raw cabbage. Lemon grass can be left out, but it does compliment the flavors of this soup.
Here’s what we put in the soup:
4 large potatoes (almost the size of my [...]
This is an easy spread that has a lot of flavor. We have it for breakfast on bread, topped with cucumber, lettuce, or red bell pepper.
What I used for the spread:
380 g or 1 pack of black beans in brine, rinsed (about 3 dl cooked beans)
100 g cashew nuts
1/2 dl water
4 sun dried tomatoes [...]
My mom grew Swiss chard (mangoldi in Finnish) for the first time this summer at our country house, and we have eaten a lot of it with Heikki. One of our new favorites is this recipe, which I adapted from a recipe for a vegetarian version of Tunisian sahel. Unfortunately chard is not generally [...]
The recipe was adapted from Tofu Balls in the Post Punk Kitchen forum.
Here’s what we used for the balls:
500 g regular firm tofu
½ dl ground fried onion (or one fried onion)
2 cloves gralic, pressed
3 tablespoons soy sauce
¾ dl roasted peanuts, finely ground
1 dl potato flakes (powder for mashed potatoes)
dried basil, freshly ground black [...]
This is an adaptation of the Peach Upside-Down Cake from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. I didn’t use peaches, and didn’t bake it upside-down, but the batter recipe ended up pretty similar to Susan’s batter. I baked this in a pie dish, so it looks more like a pie than a cake, I think.
Here’s what I [...]
It might seem that all we have eaten lately is beets and arugula. Partly true, and here is another variation of the perfect combination of potatoes and beets. Here’s something we had on Saturday, and will have in the future since we still have a bunch of beets in the fridge.
There’s some fresh arugula and [...]
Here are a few pictures of cupcakes I’ve made recently. Recipes are from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, with minor modifications.
The first two I made last week for a friend, who celebrated her birthday and other nice things that have happened in her life lately. Here are the raspberry rum [...]
For a quick lunch on Friday, I made a pasta salad with the ingredients we had at home. My pasta salads vary a lot, exactly because I usually make them when I am hungry, and want to have something fast and tasty. This was the first time I used cashew-arugula pesto as a dressing for [...]
I received a bowl of lingonberries from a friend yesterday, and decided to bake a batch of muffins with our evening tea. Heikki had been working the whole day, and really needed a break.
This was my first time experimenting with organic spelt flour from a local farmer, and the muffins turned out [...]
September 30, 2007 – 17:26
This is a perfect autumn soup. The intense color and the simple, earthy flavor of this soup made us feel all happy inside.
What we put in the soup:
about 10 smallish potatoes
about 8 smallish beets
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1-2 teaspoons horseradish paste (or freshly grated horseradish, maybe a little bit less)
1 vegetable stock cube
1 dl (or about [...]
