Easy: Sesame Spinach

Sesame spinach is much better than it may look at first. I love it because it only consists of four different ingredients and I usually have those in the house. Additionally, it's can be made in minutes and thus does not justify unhealthy snacks if you're looking out for your health. 

Ingredients:

serves two (or one hungry person)

• 400g of frozen spinach. Yes, you can also get the fresh stuff. But the frozen version works just fine for this.
• 50g of sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil (the good stuff made from roasted sesame, not "sesame flavored oil")
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce

Glorious Lemon Cupcakes with Almonds!

I love these. A lot. The ground and chopped almonds give the cupcake base a special texture! This blog is going to supply you with the recipes for the lemon/almond base and the lemon butter cream. Yes, I wrote butter. I decided not to put it in inverted commas. We all know I'm not using dairy. ;)

Ingredients for 12 Cupcakes:

• 155g of flour
• 120g of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 30g of ground almonds
• 40g of chopped almonds
• a dash of salt
• 65g of canola or sunflower oil
• 55g of soy yoghurt
• 75g of soy milk
• 60ml of lemon juice
• the peel of 2 lemons (or more if you want :))

Schokoladen Cupcakes - und Variationen | Chocolate Cupcakes - and Variations

English version below

Schokocupcakes gehen eigentlich immer. In diesem Post findet ihr das Rezept für die normalen Schokocupcakes mit einer "Butter"-Creme, aber auch ein paar Inspirationen, wie man sie noch ein bisschen schöner machen kann.

 

Matcha Cup Cakes!

English version below:

Ah, wieder so ein Rezept, nach dem mich so viele Leute gefragt haben. Ich hab sie erst zwei mal gemacht, einmal für unsere Geburtstagsfeier, einmal für ein Konferenzbuffet an der Uni, aber ich habe es noch nicht geschafft selbst mal zu probieren, weil mein Zuckerbedarf sich erst zu spät bemerkbar gemacht hat.

Die hier sind mit Vanillecremefüllung
und einer Matcha-Vanille-"Butter"-Creme

Die sind sehr einfach zu machen - aber das trifft auf so ziemlich alle Cupcakes zu, die ich so mache. Irgendwie beeindrucken die Cupcakes Leute immer. Eher grundlos, wenn es um den Aufwand geht, der dafür gebraucht wird.

Zutaten für 12 Cupcakes

Für die Cupcakes:

• 170g Mehl
• 120g Zucker
• 1 TL Backpulver
• ½ TL Natron
• eine Prise Salz
• 10g Matchapulver
• 110g Sojajoghurt
• 140g Pflanzenmilch 
• 65g Raps- oder Sojaöl

Für den Zuckerguss:

• 2 EL Alsan
• ca. 2 EL Sojamilch (z.B. mit Vanillegeschmack, andere Milchsorten gehen natürlich auch)
• ½ TL Matchapulver
• 100g Puderzucker

Für die Dekoration:

• 50g Marzipan 
• ein paar Tropfen vegane grüne Lebensmittelfarbe
• oder etwas grünes Fondant. Nicht vergessen zu gucken, ob Eiklar oder Gelatine oder tierische Farbstoffe drin sind

Zubereitung:

• Ofen auf 180°C/350°F vorheizen, Cupcakesblech rausholen und mit Förmchen ausstatten.
• In einer Schüssel die trockenen Zutaten (Mehl, Zucker, Matcha, Backpulver, Natron, Salz) vermischen. In einer zweiten Schüssel die flüssigen Zutaten (Joghurt, Öl, Milch) mischen.
• Die trockenen Zutaten sieben, wenn notwendig.
• Beide Mischungen miteinandern verrühren.
• Teig gleichmäßig auf die Förmchen verteilen.
• Bei 180°C/350°F 20 Minuten backen.
• Cupcakes aus dem Ofen nehmen und abkühlen lassen bevor man sie aus dem Blech rausnimmt.

• Falls ihr Marzipan einfärbt: Ab jetzt braucht man Handschuhe!
• Ein paar Tropfen Lebensmittelfarbe auf das Marzipan geben und durch kneten verteilen.
• Marzipan zwischen zwei Lagen Klarsichtfolie ausrollen. Die Klarsichtfolie ist wichtig, damit das Marzipan nicht auf der Arbeitsplatte kleben bleibt und ggf. alles schön einfärbt.
• Die obere Lage Folie abnehmen.
• Mit kleinen Keksausstechern oder Fondantausstechern Formen ausstechen. Ich fand kleine Blümchen und große Yodas bisher am besten.
• Ausgestochene Formen auf Folie auf einen Teller legen und in den Kühlschrank legen bis man sie braucht. 
• Reste aufessen.

Marzipandeko

• Sobald die Cupcakes abgekühlt sind, kann man den Zuckerguss machen.
• Margarine und Matchapulver in einer flachen Schüssel mit einer Gabel vermischen.
• Zucker und einen Schuss Milch dazu geben bis man eine gleichmäßige, cremige Textur hat. 
• Auf die abgekühlten Cupcakes streichen.
• Marzipan/Fondantdeko drauf verteilen.
• Und jetzt: Teilen und selbst genießen!

**********

English version below:

Ah, one of the recipes for which people have bugged me for the longest time. I made them twice, once for our birthday party and once for a conference buffet at my university, but I never managed to actually eat one because I was always too late when my sugar craving set in. 

They're really easy - as all of the cup cakes that I make are. A lot of people are impressed - for no reason at all! I promise! 

Ingredients for 12 cup cakes:

For the cup cakes:

• 170g of flour
• 120g of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• a little bit of salt
• 10g of Matcha powder
• 110g of soy yoghurt
• 140g of plant milk of your choice, I used soy
• 65g of canola or sunflower oil

Chocolate Raspberry Cake Pops! Gluten-Free!

Have a few Euros to spare? Help my friends at the Café Mousebear (vegan guerilla living room café) open a real café to spread the vegan love! Check out their crowd funding campaign. Every Euro helps!

Some kitchen equipment is wonderful, some is entirely useless to me.

Useful: 

• A good knife!
• Food processor
• Apple slicers (if your laziness is keeping your from preparing a smoothie)
• muffin baking tins!
• a bains-marie

Useless: 

• Cake pop baking tins.

Seriously. Nobody needs those cake pop baking tins. I don't own one and that's not going to change. Friends of mine have tried them, only to complain about oddly shaped, not so great tasting, rather dry cake pops. Here is why you don't need one: You have hands (if not, I apologize for making this assumption). Making cake pops requires any cake tin that you already have, a good cake recipe, some other ingredients and hands that don't mind getting knuckle-deep in cake and jam. 

Ingredients for my Chocolate Raspberry Cake Pops:

Please not that you can really bake any cake as the cake basis for this. If you really love lemon cake pops, make a lemon cake!

• 200g of buckwheat flour (if you don't care about the gluten-free part, you can use any flour)
• 50g of cocoa powder
• 200g of sugar (I used unrefined raw cane sugar)
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 240ml of water 
• real vanilla or some vanilla flavor (I used vanillin sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 80ml of oil (sunflower, canola... just make sure it doesn't taste too strong)
• 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar

Easy: Winter Stew

As I may have mentioned in earlier blogs, we get a box full of vegetables and fruit from a local organic farmer once a week. This week, one vegetable proved to intimidate me a little bit as I had never worked with it before, the Scorzonera hispanica. In German, it is commonly known by the name "Schwarzwurzel" which literally translates to "black root" - quite fitting. In English, it goes by more impressive names such as black salsify or Spanish salsify, scorzonera, black oyster plant, serpent root, viper's herb, or viper's grass. I like "viper's grass" best! :) It does not necessarily look very edible at first:

Easy: Bulgur Quinoa Salad

Let's face it, this was supposed to be a bulgur salad. Then I realized I only had one cup of bulgur left, so I cooked an extra cup of quinoa. So if you don't have quinoa, feel free to double the bulgur... or use couscous instead!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of bulgur
• 1 cup of quinoa 
• 4 cups of water
• 1 jar of dried tomatoes in oil (ca. 300g) - do not throw out the oil!
• 150g of dried cranberries
• some fresh basil
• salt and pepper

Party Food: Spring Rolls

As I am putting up the recipes for the dishes served at the boyfriend's and my birthday party, I am running out of witty things to write in the opening paragraph. So here are the spring rolls, they're awesome. Especially with sambal oelek!

Chicken Wings - Without Chickens or Wings

A lot of people call vegetarians or vegans who eat products that taste and look like meat "hypocrites" because they indulge in things that look like something they would never eat. I did not go vegetarian because I did not enjoy the taste of animals. I stopped eating animals because I did not like a) that they were killed for my pleasure and b) how they were raised before they were slaughtered. In fact, I really like the taste of meat, but I do not want to eat animals. To cut a long story short: I loved chicken wings before I went vegetarian. And I found a lovely alternative that allows me to get a great taste without the consequences. Omnivore-approved and the instant love of every guest at our birthday party! (And the most requested recipe after the party!)

Ingredients:

"Chicken" spice salt - can be bought for a lot of money... or simply be
mixed for a fraction of what you would have paid at the supermarket!

Easy: Creamy Potato Salad

If you grew up in Germany, you probably grew up with parties, barbecues and picnics where creamy potato salad was served. Every family has their own recipe (or buys terrible potato salad in big buckets at the supermarket) and the only ingredients that all of them have in common are potatoes and mayonaise. Other ingredients include Fleischwurst (a German type of bologna sausage), pickles, apples, onions, bacon, garlic, scallions, peppers, beef stock, cucumbers, beets, hard boiled eggs, and parsley. Some of these ingredients are excluded in my recipe for obvious reasons. ;)

The boyfriend requested I'd make potato salad for our birthday party - with his mother's recipe. So here is the vegan version of it!

Ingredients:

• 400g of vegan mayonaise [here is my recipe for a quick and easy vegan mayo]
• OR 200g of Mayo and 200g of soy yoghurt!
• 1.5 kg of potatoes (the waxy type)
• 500g of carrots 
• Pickles
• 2 medium sized onions
• salt
• pepper

Dips, dips, dips: "Honey" Aioli

Die deutsche Übersetzung findet ihr unter dem englischen Rezept!

Fortunately, my little sister loves cooking food for her guests as much as I do, so I had the wonderful opportunity to first steal and then modify a recipe from her latest birthday party. The glorious, glorious honey aioli. Her version was vegetarian, so I decided to make a vegan one.

The basis for the honey aioli is mayonaise, a traditionally very unvegan product. Conventionally made with egg yolks, I knew there had to be a way to avoid them.

The secret star of our buffet: The Honey Aioli

Kitchen Basics: Vegan Mayonnaise

Having grown up in a country where it is not only fully acceptable, but almost expected to eat your fries with mayonnaise, I have developed a deep love for this artery clogging, creamy beauty. I have tried a number of store bought vegan mayos... and they just didn't do much for me - except for draining my wallet. 

When I put together the list of dishes that I wanted to serve at the boyfriend's and my birthday party, I quickly realized that I had to find an affordable way to make lots of mayo. German potato salad just isn't the same without mayo (yes, there are some versions with vinegar in them... but no! Mayo!), and a good aioli needs mayo [recipe for Vegan "Honey" Aioli here!], too. 

I ended up making one liter of mayo. Just enough for a good birthday party! :)

Here's my recipe. It's super easy, doesn't need any fancy ingredients and doesn't spoil as easily as conventional mayo because it does not contain raw egg yolks! 

Pureed arugula makes the mayo even better!

Vegan Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

• 100ml soy milk 
• 1/2 tea spoon of mustard
• 2 table spoons of lemon juice
• 1/2 table spoon of white vinegar
• 300ml oil
• salt

Party Food! A quick overview - Recipes are being updated!

Hello there, party people! 

One thing I like about getting older is that the food you get at parties gets better. No more store-bought potato salad with more store-bought... stuff. I am trying to do my part to keep up the tradition of not serving store bought stuff, but rather sticking to my family tradition of making stuff myself. 

The boyfriend and I both had our birthdays in December and like to celebrate our birthdays together - one party is less of a mess than two and since our food always takes time and money to prepare, it's just easier for us to throw one party. 

Here's what we served to our friends last night:

Before and after!