Hubby cooks vegan

What looks like hodgepodge ...

 ... is actually called Spartan Millet Mediterranean.

From German vegan sensation Attila Hildmann's book "Vegan for Fit".

A huge portion for hungry ancient warriors and 

with some more tomato paste, salt and cumin quite edible.

Another meal, another Hildmann recipe, another grain -

popped Amaranth for breakfast:

... also with raspberries, soy joghurt, rosted coconut flakes

and way too much agave syrup.

Hubby put so much effort in making this for breakfast for Clara and himself

and even Clara found it much too sweet.

You can find both recipes (and some more) here.

Hubby cooks vegan

Hubby's weekly vegan cooking has lost its pace recently,

but he has cooked this lentil stew twice in May:

It's the thick lentil soup from "Peace Food".

(German recipe here)

The soup is one of Clara's favourites,

she eats bowl after bowl of it.

To fire up Hubby's vegan cooking again,

he wished for this book for his birthday:

The German edition of the Forks over Knives resipe book

The documentary about the positive impact of a plant-based diet is well worth watching, and now I am looking forward to all those new meals that will come out of this book (browsing through it was appetizing, and cooking without oils sounds adventurous too).

Hubby cooks vegan

When I came back from a morning yoga class the other day, I was met by three lovely people being busy in the kitchen.

"What are you cooking?" - Pancakes!!!!!!!!!

A request from the girls,

Hubby found this German vegan pancake recipe online

(and used water instead of apple juice).

But where did Hubby go?

Clara cooks vegan.

Very good.

Hubby cooks vegan

Hubby was a little behind in his cooking, I gently nudged him.

I could choose a new recipe from "Peace Food".

Something quick, on a busy weekday evening.

And so the man, who really loves eating soup,

cooked the first soup of his life himself.

Pea Soup

Made from frozen peas, with a hint of fresh thyme.

Light, hearty and elegant.

Even without garlic and the white wine

we omitted.

Good stuff, Hubby!

Cat cooks vegan

Hubby is away for a couple of days for a TV training course. So I will show you something that I have cooked the other day. While Hubby's taste is all about doughy meals like pizza, lasagne, quiche or tortillas, I am more the veggies-and-rice-type. The more asiatic and exotic, the better (as long as it is vegan). Hubby just commented recently, that I must be another parents' child, growing up with traditional German and Russian fare and very little left of it tastewise.

From my go-to-vegan-cookbook Veganomicon:

 Kabocha-Udon Winter Stew 

recipe here

 Light and yet hearty with a clean Asian taste.

It was the first time I have heard and used Kabocha squash, yes, a Japanese pumpkin not the drink (that would be Kombucha). I was lucky to find it in Oldenburg's main Asian store. It has very sweet orange flesh and you can cook it with its green peel, which will soften. But you can also use butternut or any other sort of squash. And I just love Udon noodles for big slurping fun (I have once heard that slurping your hot soup is a "must" in Japan to bring out the flavours, and not bad table manners).

For the broth you also need Kombu kelp, which I had ordered online last summer (since then I had wanted to make the soup, but really wanted to wait for a winter day, a bit weird maybe, and then I saw that the Kombu was about to expire soon and headed for the kitchen). The Kombu cooks up a nice broth with the ginger and soy sauce.

One thing from the recipe I didn't put in the stew: 1/3 cup of sake. I don't drink alcohol and who knows how the children would have reacted to it...

Hubby cooks vegan

Today -  the Olympic Special.

Just joking.

These were the ingredients for Hubby's Veggie Tortillas.

 recipe from "Peace Food" in German here

We omitted the chili (because of the kids) and the garlic (because of working the next day), so the main flavours were cumin, tamari and a lot of finely grated lemon peel (which I found strange). Hubby also put kidney beans inside for the Mexican feel. The wraps were quite a hit with Clara and Hubby, who wants to make them more often - so quick, easy and satisfying. 

And also the cooking process was quite an attraction 

for curious on-lookers and little helpers.

Hubby cooks vegan

What's today's vegan surprise?

I thought a lupine was a flower (see here),

but apparantly you can make ice cream 

or even schnitzel from it:
 

 lupine cutlets with orange sauce

(German recipe here)

Also called the "soy of the north" lupine protein is very versatile. Hubby used this product for his cooking. It tasted fine and the orange sauce was quite elegant, but you know, I always find something to complain about, especially when somebody else cooks. I am just not a fan of meat substitutes... and the lupine protein seemed to feel strange in my throat and stomach afterwards - as is the case with soy, some people have allergic reactions to lupine. Very mild in my case, but those wonder plant proteins usually have a drawback. Eat beans, people!

Monday Cupcakes

Have a sweet start to the week!

(with vegan caramel-apple-spice cupcakes,

recipe here)

Hubby cooks vegan

Veggie-Seitan-Packets

Of all the mock meats (what a terrible word) seitan is my favourite.

I made the seitan from scratch (with this)

and Hubby made the packets.

Potatoes on the side.

Great for vegan barbecue in summer.

German recipe here
We left out the garlic (work next day) and chili (children),
but still the flavours were fantastic (lime, ginger, tamari, maple syrup).

Note: The seitan has to marinate for two hours,
keep that in mind, before you become to hungry.

Hubby cooks vegan

Simple, warming and very filling, 

with my special friend Hokkaido pumpkin 

and white beans for protein:

The recipe comes from Peace Food and can be found in German here.

Hubby cooks vegan

After his beginner's luck instant success (here), Hubby cooked another meal in the same week.

Scrambled (V)eggs

The recipe comes again from Peace Food (like I suspect will be a lot to come, he is a thourough man). The (v)eggs look quite similar to the curry before, must be the Indian spices. But the taste was different and again very, very good I must say. The main ingredient is tofu. I am cautious about tofu recently, since I have heard about soy products being rather poisonous as opposed to their health food image. I still eat tofu a couple of times year, but not as jolly as I used to.

For the scrambled (v)eggs I advised Hubby to get a soft, curdy type of tofu (I like the German taifun brand) for the best consistency. There are hard, rubbery tofus out there, that would rather spoil the whole meal. He also put tomatoes, bell pepper, onions and mushrooms in it and topped it with fresh cilantro - my favourite herb, even though for some others it tastes like soup. Cilantro is considered to be a major cleanser of the body in ridding heavy metals such as mercury, lead and aluminum - a great blood cleaner. 

Some poison, some cleanser, it's all about balance, I guess.

Hubby cooks vegan

I got a totally unexpected Christmas gift from Hubby - a voucher for a vegan meal once a week for the whole year of 2014, cooked by him. Fittingly he not only got a sweater from me, but also wished for this cookbook here. I expected him to choose the receipts and me to do the cooking, what a surprise. All of his own accord he read Eating Animals, Peace Food and Anständig essen last year (I have never read these books). The man of spaghetti-and-pesto (and recently a very good vegan pizza) started the new year with a self-proclaimed 30 day vegan challenge. And I can benefit from it culinarily. Like last weekend - just imagine, the kitchen taken by Hubby, me in the living room resting and just occasional questions coming from the kitchen, where the vegetable broth or cumin are. Ta-dah!

Red lentil-coconut-curry

(German recipe here)

It looked really good and it also tasted very good. Subtle and sublime. Clara ate it, Carolina ate the rice and the rest of the four servings were finished off by Hubby and me. Just one thing I would change in the recipe -  I would take reduced-fat coconut milk, as I have noticed a certain intolerance lately to the full-fat version. But maybe it's just me.

As you can see, a new series on this blog is born. Stay tuned for more of Hubby's vegan culinary creations.

Yes, Chocolate, please!

I am not a very big chocolate lover. But once in a while I do indulge. Especially in winter, when it is cold and dark outside, or stormy like yesterday afternoon. During my raw food experiments in summer I came across the idea of making your own chocolate (based on coconut oil), that didn't seem very complicated. When I recently discovered cocoa butter at an organic supermarket, I bought it for "later" (keeps in the fridge). Also for "later", I bought these silicon moulds for making chocolate:

(you can obviously also use baking paper on a tray as a substitute)

"Later"(after the cupcake party basically) had arrived yesterday. A quick search online for a basic vegan recipe (I liked this German site here) later, I got started. You only need 4 -5 ingredients:

- 60-70g cocoa butter

- 3 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder (or carob)

- 2 tablespoons sweetener of your choice (agave, maple syrup, confectioner's sugar)

- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla pulp

- 1 pinch of salt

- optional: nuts of your choice

Take the cocoa butter ...

... and melt it at a low temperature in a pan. My first shock: chocolate consists mainly of fat! Where that soft melting sensation would come from otherwise, I had never thought about. Once over the shock, I made a cocoa-carob-mixture:

and mixed it with some maple syrup and vanilla drops:

Here comes the fat again!

Pour melted cocoa butter into chocolate-carob-mixture.

Mix again and pour into chocolate moulds.

After following all these steps - surprise, surprise, my chocolate mixture didn't look smooth and creamy, but crumbly and curdled:

The cocoa butter disintegrated and I was about to throw this first attempt in the bin, but decided to put in the fridge anyway. I don't know, what had caused the curdling, the carob, maple sirup, the vanilla drops or the combination of them. I made another mixture only with cocoa, agave instead of maple, and vanilla pulp instead of the drops.

All smooth now.

After 2-3 hours in the fridge the chocolate has hardened.

Let's taste it!

To our utter surprise we (Clara and me) liked the disintegrated chocolate more!

True artisan chocolate.

 chocolate-cocoa-buttery and melting-tasty, with some carob caramel-ness

Carolina asked for "meh' 'lade" (mo' 'late) and Hubby found it "addictive".

PS: Addictive? I am glad nobody saw me at 4.30 am on my way to the fridge ...

60 cupcakes

... and then I baked 60 cupcakes for Carolina's birthday party.

Recipes from Vegan Cupcakes take over the World

Really 60 cupcakes...

... someone counted them.

PS: Do you want to see my favourite "cupcake"?

Sweet by nature.

Kale Chips

While traveling around California I got introduced to a so-called superfood - kale. Especially in its raw form I saw it in salads or green smoothies. I had known kale before, it is called "Grünkohl" in German - green cabbage. But it is served cooked with lots of meat around here. Especially around here, in North-West Germany. When some nice American person asked me: "Do you have in kale in Germany?", I could only answer: "We live in the kale-capital of Germany." We really do. They even do "kale-tours" here. But let me explain. Or better, let somebody else explain, who explained it totally right here. (Read it? Guess, who is the "Kale King" of his company? Hubby).

For vegan reasons, you might understand, that kale in its north-western traditional form never appealed to me. But understand my excitement, when I found out about (raw) vegan kale chips! My joy had to wait on hold until now, because kale is only harvested after the first frosty nights, in summer I got strange looks at the farmer's market when I asked about kale and told them they are American superfood.

There are lots of recipes out there for Kale chips, flavours ranging from Pizza to white chocolate strawberry (!). I tried the "naked version" (from Amber Shea's Practically Raw):

- Take a bunch of kale, wash it, remove the bigger stems and chop it
- Dress it with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon lemon juice and 1/4 teaspoon salt (use your hands to massage the kale...)
- Arrange the kale on a baking tray

Since I don't have a dehydrator and 8 hours dehydration time to make the chips "raw", I bake them in the oven: 150°C (300°F) for about 15 minutes, then carefully flip them over and bake for another 5-10 minutes (watch carefully not to burn them). They will be crispy.

Hubby might be Kale King, but I am the Vegan Queen of Kale.

Blue

We all love berries in our family. Perfectly sized to eat for even the littlest one, sweet and so good for you on top of that. On one of his business drives Hubby discovered a blueberry farm not far away from us and last Sunday morning we ventured out there.

It was a perfect little trip. Big fun picking your own berries... 

... and nibble all along the way.

That's just the best way to eat them - fresh, ripe and raw.

Perfect as they are.

... or make Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownies:

(vegan recipe link here)

(I used "perfect" three times in this post, but couldn't think of another way to describe it just as it was... perfect)