Vegan Mozzarella? Moxarella!

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When Mr. Squirrel first made this moxarella, I wasn't home and couldn't quite understand the excitement he transported via facebook. Then I came home and had to agree. This moxarella is amazing! It might look a bit intimidating at first, but... it's not. :) You will need a bit of time, though, as you need to soak the cashews and you'll need about 24h to let the yoghurt bacteria do their thing.

This make quite a bit of mozzarella/moxarella, but stored in salted water, it has survived about a week in our fridge. We don't really have any test result for the time afterwards because we ate up every last bit.

Mr. Squirrel didn't just make this up, he based the recipe on this one by Miyoko Schinner.

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

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)

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream and Strawberries

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The strawberry season is here and we decided two kilos of strawberries were a good way to start! Apart from eating the just like that and putting them in my overnight oats, we knew we had to use them in more ways. Cupcakes seemed like a great option!

Ingredients for 12 Vanilla Cupcakes

• 250 ml soy milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
• 175g wheat flour
• 20g of cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 pack of vanilla sugar (or flavor)
• 60g of sunflower oil
• 150g of raw cane sugar

Ingredients for the topping:

• 1 pack of vanilla flavored custard powder
• 250ml of soy milk
• 2 tablespoons of sugar (more if you like your butter cream sweeter)
• 100g of margarine (I used Alsan)
• 12 small strawberries (about the size of a hazelnut or a little bigger)
• a handfull of strawberries of any size :)

Curry Coconut Milk Potatoes with Spinach and Cauliflower

Yet another Tuesday work lunch! Monday nights are always a bit of a challenge because I want to cook something nice for my colleague and myself. Something that can easily be taken to work, heated up, and then eaten. And since my friend - unlike me - does not appreciate the taste of meat (and never has), I always want to make sure I make a wholesome, nice meal without making it seem like I'm just bringing side dishes. Curries and chilis are the obvious choice... and for today I did another curry based dish, but a little different from the green Thai curry or the regular tomato based curry. I have something similar every time we are at the Indian restaurant with my boyfriend's parents, ... except they put much more garlic in there. Which I like. But I don't really consider that a great idea for work lunches. So, if you eat this in the privacy of your home or do not care if your breath wreaks havoc on humanity: Don't forget to throw in as much garlic as you like!

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Ingredients for 5-6 servings:

• 1kg of potatoes
• 1 cauliflower
• 500g of spinach
• 1l coconut milk
• 3 onions
• massaman curry paste
• some coconut oil 
• salt - if necessary. I didn't use any because I was happy with the salt content of my curry paste
• optional: fresh garlic (preferably chopped finely and added to the pot along with the onions)

Banana Rhubarb Breakfast Muffins

I'm quite the fan of The Vegan Foodnerd on Facebook. I get tons of great inspiration there and have already tried a recipe or two from their posts. One of them was the ever-awesome (Oreo-free Oreo) Raspberry Cheesecake! Bow down to the makers of these recipes! :)

I have to admit that I had never baked or cooked with rhubarb before. But since I had a bunch of rhubarb in our organic farmer's veggie box last Friday, I had to conquer the art of rhubarb eating! The first piece went into a smoothie (along with bananas, an apple, and turnip tops), but I had to find good use for the rest! And The Vegan Foodnerd's recipe for breakfast muffins looked too good not to try it. I made a couple of changes to the recipe, though. Here is my version!

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Lots of <3 goes to camslinger.de for the picture.

Ingredients for 30 Breakfast Muffins:

• 350g of wholemeal flour (I used half spelt, half wheat)
• 1 1/2 table spoons of baking powder (1 pack)
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 140g vegan "butter"
• 300g of unrefined sugar
• a little bit of vanilla (flavor or the real deal)
• 2 bananas
• 3 medium stalks of fresh rhubarb
• 350g of soy yoghurt

Bulgur Asparagus Salad with Walnuts

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Inspired by a non-vegan (and generally different) version of this recipe (which I found through buzzfeed! :)), I decided to make a vegan version for a birthday party that we'll attend this weekend. Asparagus season just kicked in, so what better thing to make than an asparagus salad?

Ingredients:

• 750-1000g green asparagus
• 300g Bulgur (600ml water)
• 150g Cashew Feta
• 100g walnuts
• 3-4 medium sized carrots
• A hand full of fresh parsley
• 80ml olive oil
• 4 tablespoons mustard
• 3 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• some freshly ground pepper 

Fried Rice with Veggies and Sesame

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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!)

Glorious Oreo-free Raspberry Oreo Cheesecake

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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 Frikadellen Filled With Feta

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Now that's a vegan title, isn't it? (Red Lentil) frikadellen filled with feta. But that's ok. It's just a combination of two previous recipes of mine! The Mediterranean Red Lentil Tomato Frikadellen and the Cashew Feta!

The outside is crispy, the inside is creamy! <3

It's really easy to make once you got the feta. I mostly did them because I wanted to see what I could do with the feta. I had made a batch two days ago and had frozen blocks of it. Remembering meat frikadellen filled with sheep's milk feat, I figured this might be a nice combination!

Cajun Spice? Cajun Fries!

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I love Cajun fries, so when we made burgers and fries for a dinner with our friends, I figured a bit more than salt wouldn't hurt.

Cajun spice is easy to make and can be stored in a cleaned jam jar if you wish.

Ingredients:

• 4 teaspoons of sea salt
• 2 teaspoons of Cayenne pepper
• 4 teaspoons of garlic granulate
• 5 teaspoons (sweet) paprika
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
• 2 teaspoons roasted onions (or onion powder)
• 3 teaspoons dried oregano
• 3 teaspoons dried thyme

Instructions:

• Throw everything in a blender and blend. 

• Store in an airtight container and sprinkle it on food (tofu, seitan, potatoes, fries, ... anything!).

Deutsche Übersetzung: 

Cajun Gewürz

Ich liebe Cajun Fries. Als wir für unser Drei-Gang-Dinner für unsere Freunde Burger und Pommes gemacht haben, dachte ich mir, dass die Pommes auch gerne etwas mehr als Salz vertragen könnten.

Cajun Gewürz ist sehr einfach herzustellen und kann wunderbar in einem alten (sauberen) Marmeladenglas aufbewahrt warden.

Zutaten:

• 4 Teelöffel Meersalz
• 2 Teelöffel Cayennepfeffer
• 4 Teelöffel  Knoblauchgranulat
• 5 Teelöffel Paprika edelsüß
• 2 Teelöffel frisch gemahlener schwarzer Pfeffer
• 2 Teelöffel Röstzwiebeln (oder Zwiebelgranulat)
• 3 Teelöffel getrockneter Oregano
• 3 Teelöffel getrockneter Thymian

Zubereitung:

• Alles ab in den Zerkleinerer und schön zerkleinern. 

• In einem luftdichten Container aufbewahren und auf Essen streuen (Tofu, Seitan, Kartoffeln, Pommes, alles!) 

Kitchen Basics: Cashew Parmesan

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I posted this in a previous blog, but I'd hate for it to get lost in the pasta recipe post. And since I got was specifically asked to repost this on my facebook page, here we go! How to make cashew parmesan!

Special thanks to Marcus Kösters at camslinger.de for taking the picture with his awesome
new camera while I was sick. And for bringing me tea, snacks, love, and tissues.

Ingredients:

• 100g of cashews
• 1 tea spoon of sea salt
• 3 tea spoons of yeast flakes

This is really easily made. It stores well in the fridge. I usually have a small mason jar full of cashew parmesan at hand.