Antipasti II: Roast Bellpepper with Shaved Almonds and Garlic

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Part II Antipasti recipes! Part I (marinated roast veggies) is here. Part III (Tomato filled with pesto cream cheese) will be posted soon.

(1) marinated roast veggies
(2) Roast Bellpepper with Shaved Almonds and Garlic
(3) Tomato filled with pesto cream cheese

Antipasti I: Marinated Veggies

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We had an Italian themed dinner party last week and made a nice little plate of antipasti as appetizers. It's June, so we wanted to stick to as many cold dishes as possible. Antipasti proved to be easily prepared in advance and a great way to start out the dinner. There are three main components to the dish on the picture above: (1) Marinated veggies, (2) baked bellpeppers with shaved almonds, and (3) the tomato that's filled with pesto cream cheese. I'll explain how they were made in the following blog posts.

So here is how you can make the marinated veggies:

For this starter plate for six people (each person got their own ;) No sharing necessary), I used the following:

Ingredients:

• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 small zucchinis
• 250g of meadow mushrooms 
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 150ml olive oil (plus some for frying)
• 1½ tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• some fresh basil, thyme, and rosemary
• salt

Dinner Party III

Dinner Party No. 3! 

I really love how we have established this little tradition of cooking three-course dinners for each others among us three couples. We started out last fall and have cooked really good stuff for each other since. This week, we started the third round of our "perfect vegan dinner" - and it was Italian themed.

Dinnerparty Nr. 3!

Ich finde es total toll, dass wir diese kleine Tradition füreinander Drei-Gang-Menüs zu kochen unter uns drei Paaren etabliert haben. Wir haben im letzten Herbst damit angefangen und haben seitdem immer nur leckere Sachen für einander kredenzt. Diese Woche haben wir die dritte Runde unseres "perfekten veganen Dinners" gestartet - und das Thema war Italien im Ruhrpott. 

Rosemary Panna Cotta with Strawberry Sauce

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The dessert for our latest dinner party was easy to prepare and was also easily prepared in advance.

Ingredients for six portions:

• 200ml soy cream
• 300ml almond milk (I made my own)
• 1 teaspoon of agar agar
• 50g of raw cane sugar for the panna cotta
• 1 vanilla bean or vanilla flavor
• 2 rosemary sprigs
• 600g of fresh strawberries
• 1 tablespoon of raw cane sugar for the sauce

Easy: Basil Pesto

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Trying to find a vegan pesto can be quite the challenge because most pestos are made with grana padano or parmesan. Although I know of one (good, yet slightly pricy) brand, I wanted to make some myself. Another reason for this was our latest dinner party at which I try to make as much from scratch as possible. (I used the pesto to make pesto cream cheese to fill a tomato. YUM!)

All you need for this basil pesto are a small number of ingredients and a blender: a regular one or an immersion blender should work.

Ingredients:

• 2 pots of fresh basil (cf. picture)
• 50g of cashews
• 4 tablespoons of yeast flakes
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 150ml olive oil (try to go for a good quality)
• 1 tablespoon of sea salt

Mississippi Mud Pie

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Inspired by my friends over at the used to be guerilla Café Mousebear/soon to be an actual café Krümelküche, I made Mississippi Mud Pie for a friend's birthday.

These are the ingredients for a 26cm/10¼in springform:

Ingredients for the dough base:

• 260g of flour
• 30g of cocoa powder
• 200g of margarine
• 35g of raw cane sugar
• 3 table spoons of water

Ingredients for the chocolate cream filling:

• 50g of margarine
• 90g of raw cane sugar
• 2 table spoons of soy flour
• 2 table spoons of cocoa powder
• 50g of dark chocolate
• 100g of soy cream (or rice, oat, coconut cream etc.)

For the topping: 

• 300g of whippable vegan cream (if it's sweatened, great, if not, add some sugar)
• 50g of dark chocolate

Product Test: Lupinesse Ice Cream

Product Test "Lupinesse" Ice Cream/Produkttest Lupinesse Eis

What? In English and German. :) Even though the ice cream is only available in Germany.

Was? Auf englisch und deutsch. :) Obwohl es das Eis nur in Deutschland gibt.

I have not had decent "milk" ice cream in a while. We used to have a small place by our uni campus that sold amazing oat milk based ice cream.... then they closed. :( So we went out to a supermarket that we rarely visit because we had read about Lupinesse ice cream - ice cream based on blue lupin!

Ich habe schon lange kein "Milch"-Eis mehr gegessen. Wir hatten mal einen kleinen Laden um die Ecke von der Uni, bei dem es total großartiges Hafermilcheis gegeben hat... und dann haben sie dicht gemacht. :( Also sind wir mal zu einem Supermarkt gefahren, in dem wir sonst eher selten sind (Real), weil wir von Lupinesse Eis gelesen hatten - Eis, das aus blauer Lupine hergestellt wird.

Tomato Quinoa

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Quick and simple way to make incredibly tasty quinoa! Tastes great hot or cold.

Ingredients:

• 170g of quinoa
• 500ml of puréed tomatoes
• pinch of salt
• pinch of sugar
• vegetables of your choice (I used one kohlrabi and 2 medium carrots)

Easy: Semolina Pudding - Grießpudding

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On Mondays, I eat at the university canteen with my colleagues. On Monday nights, I cook for Tuesdays. Because on Tuesdays, I eat something home made with one of my colleagues.
Today at the canteen (they have a vegan counter! One vegan main dish plus a variety of side dishes every day!) we talked about semolina pudding... So I figured, I'd have to make some for the next day. And here we are. Super easy, can be spiced up with some cinnamon or other things.

Ingredients for 6 desserts:

• 1000ml soy milk
• 150g semolina
• 100g of raw cane sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• fruit of your choice: I used 8 smaller peaches, you can use anything you like
• 50g of chopped or shaved almonds
• optional: vanilla bean or vanilla flavor and/or almond flavor
• optional: cinnamon, cardamom, whatever you like