Fried Rice with Veggies and Sesame

Die DEUTSCHE ÜBERSETZUNG findet ihr unter dem englischen Rezept!

Very easy and a great way to use up any veggies that need to go and, of course, if you have leftover rice! I used leftover white rice and some purple rice, but any type will do. 

Ingredients for 5 servings:

• 300g of rice (300g before cooking)
• 4 medium carrots
• 300g of smoked tofu
• 4 small onions
• 1 medium zucchini
• 50g of sesame seeds
• soy sauce
• salt
• 1 tablespoon of powdered curry
• some vegetable oil
• some roasted sesame oil (the dark yummy oil, not the light tasteless stuff)

Super Easy: Carrot Soy Sprout Salad with Black Sesame

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Again, one of those "stuff I still had in the fridge" meals. :) The salad was one half of our lunches today. The other part was fried rice with veggies and sesame. Oh, sesame. <3

Ingredients:

• 4 medium carrots
• a handfull of fresh soy sprouts (whatever happens, never ever use the nonperishable ones that are sold in glasses!)
• 6 nice leaves of lettuce
• 200g of soy (or any other non-dairy) yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon of mustard
• 1 tablespoon of vegan honey (yes, this exists, basically, it's honey flavored sugar...stuff)
• salt
• 50g of black sesame (or really... as much as you like. Sesame is good for you!)

Delicious shortbread

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Making vegan shortbread really isn't rocket science! :) But it's all the more delicious! Both the whole wheat and the white flour version turned out great!

Ingredients:

• 125 g margarine at room temperature (I recommend Alsan)
• 40 g sugar 
• 25 g powdered sugar
• 225 g flour (wheat, spelt, ... anything you like)
• a dash of salt
• 1 table spoon of rosewater

Glorious Oreo-free Raspberry Oreo Cheesecake

Die DEUTSCHE ÜBERSETZUNG findet ihr unter dem englischen Rezept!

Oh my - best Easter Cake ever. I am also fairly certain that it works on other holidays or random days of the week. The recipe will follow as soon as I recover from quality family time, concert extravaganza, and general awesomeness with friends and other great people. I may also have to get some work done before I devote time to food blogging. ;)

But I promise: The recipe will follow. This is too good not to share it.

Now. Here is the recipe. Finally! :) I've had quite a few people - including our lovely couchsurfer Conor from New Zealand - ask for the recipe. 

Why "oreo-free" and still oreo? Because the original recipe asked for oreo cookies... and I decided to omit them and to make my own chocolate cake base etc. It works just fine and it's probably cheaper, too. And you don't have to buy palm oil oreos. :)

Creamy Salsify and Chickpea Salad

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Yet another one of those recipes that originate in the mysteries the veggie box our local organic farmer brings. We had a couple of salsify roots again and I decided not to put them in a stew like I did the last time we got them. So today, they went into a creamy salad along with chickpeas, some lettuce, and a few slices of raw zucchini.

Ingredients:

• 3 large salsify roots
• 100g of precooked chickpeas
• half of a small zucchini, cut in slices with a julienne slicer
• 4 large leafs of lettuce
• 150g of soy yoghurt
• 4 table spoons of white vinegar (make sure you get a nice, yummy vinegar, not just some cheap sour stuff)
• salt
• pepper

Make Your Own Seitan Kebab

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I am not willing to give up my kebab! Kebabs are basically a national dish where I'm from. (Ah, the Ruhrgebiet. <3) I've bought my fair share of vegan kebab "meat" and it was always good, but I just wanted to make that stuff myself. Without spending as much money.

Since making the kebab "meat" always takes a while, we always make big batches and freeze double portions. This basic kebab recipe is great in your conventional kebab, but it's also great in wraps.

Ingredients:

Keep in mind, this is the big batch we make so we have plenty of extra food to be frozen. You can easily cut the recipe in half or even quarters. This should make 2 to 2.5kg of kebab "meat".

• A handfull of dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1kg of gluten
• ca. 3l of veggie stock
• 12 tablespoons of kebab spice blend (this really depends on the spice blend you’re using. We’re using one that contains no salt and no msg)
• 12 tablespoons of paprika
• 5 tablespoons of salt
• 100g of tomato paste
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil and a bit extra
• 100ml of soy sauce
• 100ml water

Death by Chocolate Cupcakes with Nougat

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Ingredients for 12 cupcakes:

• 150g of flour
• 150g of sugar
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 300ml of oat milk (or any other plant milk): 250ml for the cupcakes, 50ml for the ganache
• 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
• 80g of canola or sunflower oil
• 200g of dark chocolate: 100g for the cupcakes, 100g for the ganache
• 40g of maple syrup
• 125g of nougat

These always work, even if you have
super basic equipment! <3

Cannelloni filled with Spinach in Tomato Sauce

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It's fairly difficult to get a nice looking picture of cooked cannelloni. They always tend to look like a big pile of stuff drowing in tomato sauce. I hope this picture is still as appetizing as the food was when we had it for lunch today!

Unless you prepare the tomato sauce in advance, this is a rather time consuming meal. Just a heads up.

Ingredients:

• 200g fresh spinach
• 3 onions
• 5 cloves of garlic
• a handfull of fresh basil
• 200ml veggie stock
• 200ml plant milk
• ca. 250g of vegan cheese
• salt
• 250g of cannelloni pasta
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• a handfull of dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1000ml of pureed tomatoes
• 3 table spoons of corn starch
• 4 table spoons of yeast flakes
• a bit of oil for frying
• 4 tablespoons of oil the the roux (Yes, I'll explain,what a roux is)

Super Easy Lentil Salad!

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I'm currently staying in Berlin with friends while I'm doing some research for work in the basement of a library (oh yeah, microfilms!)... Fortunately, I get to use my friends' kitchen! I worked in an archive (in a small town in Eastern Germany) for a week last year and not having a kitchen drove me crazy... I was "only" a vegetarian back then, so getting food wasn't quite as hard yet. Now that I'm in Berlin, vegan food is really easy to come by, but I just love to cook, so was I am more than grateful that I can use my friends' kitchen.

Today, I made a "leftovers and stuff that needed to go" dish. This lentil salad was part of it:

Ingredients:

• 100g of red lentils
• 200ml of veggie stock
• 1 tomato
• half a green bell pepper
• half a yellow bell pepper (leftovers from yesterday's soup!)
• 1 onion
• some salt (optional! Depends on how salty your veggie stock is!)
• some pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon of powdered curry
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar (or really any other yummy vinegar)

Red Lentil Veggie Soup

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Yet another incredibly easy dish! And super tasty, too. If you happen to not have one ingredient or the other in the house, you can always replace things. You can basically swap out any of the veggies as long as you stick to the lentils, water, and seasoning.

Ingredients for six servings:

• 150g red lentils
• 3 large carrots
• 1 leek
• 3 onions
• 3 cloves of garlic
• fresh ginger (about the size of a thumb)
• salt
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, for example, sunflower seed oil.
• 50g tomato paste
• 1l of water
• a handfull of hazelnuts
• half a green bell pepper
• half a red bell pepper
• 2 table spoons of balsamic vinegar
• a handfull of fresh herbs, for example, parsley or basil