Comfort Food: Mac'n'Cheese

Die deutsche Übersetzung findet ihr unter dem englischen Rezept!

I grew up with Kässpätzle as my favorite food. Basically, that's homemade (at least where I grew up) egg-based Swabian noodles baked with lots of cheese and caramelized onions. Now, I have not managed to make anything that is quite as good as what my Mom used to make, however, the following recipe is great and super tasty. 

Oh and I recently got a really cool recipe (at a vegan dinner party that was thrown for me in Philadelphia!) for egg-less spätzle that tasted incredibly great! So I may come up with a Kässpätzle recipe some time in the future. 

Easy: Basil Pesto

Die deutsche Übersetzung findet ihr unter dem englischen Rezept!

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

Cannelloni filled with Spinach in Tomato Sauce

Die DEUTSCHE ÜBERSETZUNG findet ihr unter dem englischen Rezept!

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)

Kitchen Basics: Cashew Parmesan

Die DEUTSCHE ÜBERSETZUNG findet ihr unter dem englischen Rezept!

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.

Vegan Kitchen Staples

Since my friend Joni (who is new to exclusively plant-based cooking) asked for some explanation of the things that appear to be more exotic to those who cook conventionally, I decided to collect a few things that I find in my pantry to explain them.

Firstly, I would like to mention that you can easily cook awesome vegan food without using soy, seitan, and all these other things. The main ingredient in my kitchen will alwaysdesc be vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, etc. There is nothing wrong with tofu etc., but in my kitchen vegan cooking does not have to mean that I copy conventional recipes and replace meat with tofu. I do that sometimes, because I used to enjoy eating meat. I do not think that there is anything wrong with the taste of it, I just no longer see the necessity to use meat/dairy/eggs in order to get a great meal.

So. The main ingredient that should be available anywhere near you is this: