Apple Crumble with Salted Caramel Sauce

English version below!

Seit ich in der Bretagne in Frankreich war, liebe ich gesalzenes Karamell. Das Salz vestärkt den Geschmack des karamelisierten Zuckeres. Während meiner letzten Bretagnereise war ich noch "nur" Vegetarier, weshalb die caramel au beurre salé  Erfahrung großartig war - aber ich kann keine vegane Version finden. Also musste ich meine eigene Version machen. Aber das ist ok. Ist gar nicht so schwer. :)

Filled Eggplants

For some reason I used to be intimidated by eggplants, didn't know what exactly to do with them. But that has fortunately changed. This is one of my favorite recipe. Originally by Attila Hildmann from his Vegan for Fit book, it's a nice low carb recipe... unless you eat it with potatoes like I do! I made this as a lunch that I took to work for a friend and me: Tuesday is homecooked work lunch day - although we even have a vegan section in our university canteen! (So progressive!) I made baked potatoes and herb cream cheese/Quark [Recipe!] to go with the egg plant.

Ingredients:

for two meals:

• 2 eggplants
• a few tablespoons of olive oil
• 8 dried tomatoes (in oil)
• 2 onions
• 1 clove of garlic
• 100g of tomato paste
• 180g of precooked kidney beans (canned)
• salt
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons of oregano
• 1 tea spoon of agave syrup

For the cream on top:

• 60g of almond butter (almond butter is fairly pricey. Unseasoned cashew or peanut butter works, too!)
• some water
• 50g of tomato paste
• salt

Vegan Cream Cheese/Quark/Herb Cream

Ladies and gentlemen, I have yet to find a place that sells an affordable, great tasting vegan cream cheese or any type of vegan "quark" at all. Fortunately, I have a really cool boyfriend who makes those products for me!
It's really easy. The hardest part of the experiment is to find the right soy milk. We tried this with different brands and it just did not work with some of them. We don't know why. Our brand of choice is Alnatura Soja Drink Natur. Affordable, tastes good, and works for our cream cheese recipe.

These are the ingredients for Herb Quark or Herb Cream Cheese.
If you don't want the herb part, just... well... don't use the herbs or garlic.

Ingredients 

(for about 550g of cream cheese)

• 2l of soy milk
• 2 table spoons of olive oil
• 1 tea spoon of coconut oil
• the juice of one lemon (and maybe a little more)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• some salt
• herbs of your choice (we used parsley and chives)

Pizza

English version below

Ich liebe Pizza. So isset.
Hier seht ihr mein Gründe dafür:

Was braucht man um in den Genuss selbstgemachter Pizza zu kommen?

1. Pizzasauce
2. Pizzateig
3. Pizza

Die Rezepte für alle drei Sachen findet ihr hier.

Leftover Fried Rice with anything

Okay, this is probably not even a recipe. I just took everything that was left over or needed to be eaten for any other reason.

Ingredients:

Anything that needs to get out of your fridge. In my case:

• (cooked) white and red rice
• Carrots
• Onions
• Savoy Cabbage
• Chick peas
• Leeks
• Mock Duck
• Salt
• a clove of garlic
• a few table spoons of canola oil
• optional: some soy sauce

Green Thai Curry with Rice

Again, as with most more exotic recipes, I am claiming no authenticity for my green Thai curry. I am just claiming that it tastes great! :)

I made a big batch of green curry tonight because I made lunch for myself, a friend, and the boyfriend for tomorrow. And for dinner tonight. And whatever is left over won't survive for too long either. Here is a recipe for a normal batch.

Ingredients:

• 600ml of veggi stock
• 400ml of coconut milk (1 can)
• green curry paste - how much depends on how hot you like your food and on the curry paste itself. Also: Make sure you check your curry paste for non-vegan ingredients. Some are made with shrimp etc.
• 2 small zucchinis
• 1 eggplant
• 1 small broccoli
• 3 lime leaves (optional)
• a little bit of salt
• 1 cup of rice (I used red and white rice)
• 2 cups of water
• 1 tsp of sugar

Traditionally German: Bienenstich Cupcakes

Die deutsche Übersetzung findet ihr unter dem englischen Rezept!

Ok, maybe the "cupcake" part in "Bienenstich Cupcakes" is not quite "traditionally German" - but the rest most certainly is. ("Bienenstich" translates to "bee sting". Legend has it that two baker's apprentices threw bee hives at attackers who were trying to take over a town in the 15th century. The cake is said to have been baked in order to properly celebrate the prevention of the attack.)

My friend Sarah over at Café Mousebear/Krümelküche made the best vegan cupcake version of the Bienenstich I've ever eaten and finally shared the recipe. I made some slight changes to her recipe and here it is!

Ingredients for 12 cupcakes:

• 210g of flour (I used regular wheat flour)
• 110g of raw cane sugar
• 80g of canola oil
• 75ml of sparkling water 
• 100g of soy milk for the cupcake
• 250g of soy milk to the cream
• 1/2 a pack of baking powder (around 7g)
• a dash of salt
• 1 tea spoon of vanillin sugar (or a few drops of vanilla flavoring)
• 1/2 pack of vanilla custard powder
• 130g of margarine (I used Alsan)
• 100g of flaked almonds
• 2 table spoons of maple syrup or agave syrup

Veggie Quiche

Quiche? Egg-free? I was not so sure that this was going to work. But it did!

Ingredients for a Chard Quiche:

For the pastry:

• 320g flour (I used wholewheat)
• 150g margarine
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 80-100ml of water (not pictured)

For the filling:

• ca. 600g of chard (before removing inedible parts)
• five small onions
• 2 packs (~350g each) of firm silken tofu
• as much garlic as you like
• 200g of smoked tofu
• 3 tablespoons of soy (or rice, spelt...) cream
• 3 tablespoons of yeast flakes
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil (plus some for frying)
• 4 tablespoons of starch
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• a little bit of freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of kala namak salt
• 2 tablespoons of fenugreek
• 2 tablespoons of paprika
• some freshly ground nutmeg

Perfect Chocolate Chip (Pistachio) Cookies

English version below

Oh hai! Cookieturm! <3

Bevor ich mich damals an der Uni eingeschrieben habe, habe ich meinen Sommer nach de Abi damit verbracht bei einem gewissen Sandwichladen zu arbeiten. Ich fands immer am besten, wenn meine Kollegen sich nicht ganz an die Regeln gehalten haben und die Cookies etwas kürzer als gebacken haben als vorgeschrieben. Dann waren die Kekse nämlich schön weich in der Mitte.

Ich bin mir vollkommen darüber im Klaren, dass Probleme wie Salmonellen bei Cookies mit Hühnerei geben kann. Darum war ich überaus begeistert, dass ich jetzt so viel Keksteig essen möchte (könnt ihr auch, oder eure Kinder... oder euer kekstechnisch verantwortungslose/r Partner/in ^^) während ich diese Cookies backe:

 

Zutaten:

• 150g Rohrohrzucker
• 120g Zucker 
• 380g Mehl
• 200g Pflanzenfett (Ich nehm eigentlich immer Alsan und/oder raffiniertes Kokosfett, aber eigentlich ist jedes Fett in Ordnung, so lange es nicht weich bleibt, wenn es kalt wird)
• 200g Schokolade
• 1 TL Backpulver
• ½ TL Salz
• 50ml Pflanzenmilch eurer Wahl... oder Wasser (hab ich unten im Foto vergessen)
• optional: Pistazien

Fried Polenta

I originally got the recipe for fried polenta from my friend Sarah (who is currently doing a crowd funding campaign to open a vegan café in Duisburg, Germany. Check out the campaign website!) - and  hers are still far superior to mine. At least visually. But I'm working on the presentation aspect!

 

Ingredients:

• 800ml of veggie stock (check the polenta packaging in case the suggested amount of liquid differs from this)
• 200g of polenta
• 6 small onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 150g dried tomatoes 
• lots of fresh basil
• salt, black pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper

Falafel FTW!

Die deutsche Übersetzung findet ihr unter dem englischen Rezept!

I love falafel! They're great for bentos, party buffets, sandwiches... Everything!

A Vegan Café Start-up Business Needs Your Help!

tl;dr: Help out my awesome friends open a vegan café in Duisburg. Link to crowd funding project here.

I like cooking and baking and sharing food with other people. I guess it comes naturally that I surround myself with people who do the same. Friends of mine are currently planning to open a vegan café in the city of Duisburg in Germany. They have found a really nice location, a former handicrafts workshop, that is now being transformed into a cozy place where they can serve their yummy food.

Dennis & Sarah
photo by Marcus Kösters/camslinger.de

I have known Sarah and Dennis for quite a while now and love going to their guerilla café once a month. Guerilla what? Basically, they turn their living room and gaming room (oh yes, a room full of sofas and video games. Multiple screens, Super Mario decorations, old skool stuff and new games) into a café, Café Mousebear. You can sign up online, receive confirmation if there are still slots left (because... let's face it - they sell out quickly), show up, eat as much as you want, drink all the fair trade coffee you want and then donate as much as you want.

They have recently also introduced Gamer Nights. The concept is simple: You sign up online, show up, play all the board and video games you want, eat their delicious food (savory and sweet) and in the end donate as much as you want.

Their food is amazing! I am hereby officially blaming them for the size of my butt!

Veggi Galore: Massaman Curry

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!

How do you put as many different vegetables as possible in one pot? Curry is definitely a good option here!

The last leftovers that I could save for the photo before the
boyfriend devoured it all!

Disclaimer: This is most likely not a traditional Indian curry. That's ok. I just don't know any better. So far everyone who has tried this curry, though, said that it was good. Still - I'm not claiming any sort of authenticity.

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons of coconut oil
• 8 tablespoons of curry paste
• 1 l of veggi stock
• 1 l of tomatoes
• 1 pineapple
• 5-6 small onions
• 250g spinach (I used frozen)
• 300g peas (I used frozen)
• 5 carrots
• 1 eggplant
• 2 large bell peppers
• 1 can of coconut milk

• As much rice as you want - we ended up not making any rice in order to keep this a low carb dish.
• This is also a dish in which you can nicely add a couple of TSP (texturized soy protein) chunks. Cook a handful or two in salt water, press out the excess water and add them to the pot.