Kategorie: Vegan food

A few weeks ago I decided to make vegan lasagna with homemade vegan cheese. It was super delicious, and may be one of my favourite recipes ever.

I used this recipe for the vegan cheese but doubled it.

You’ll need:

Lasagna noodles
Pasta sauce
Vegan mozzarella

For the pasta sauce:

1 jar marinara sauce
800g diced tomatoes
340g tomato paste
680g Trader Joe’s beefless ground (or Yves or whatever)
300g mushrooms, chopped
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced

Pour some olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add in the garlic and onion and saute for a couple of minutes. Then add the beefless ground and saute for a minute, then add the tomato paste and stir together. Then add in the diced tomatoes, marinara sauce and chopped mushrooms. Continue to heat until it boils, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Ideally you would make this a day ahead, as this will allow the flavours to meld together, but this is not necessary.

Now it is time to layer everything. I used a 23cm x 33 cm pan (9 x 13 inches)

Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F.

Add a layer of pasta sauce. Then a layer of the pasta. Then another layer of pasta sauce. Then thinly slice the vegan cheese and add a layer of that, then add another layer of pasta. Continue until you have used all the pasta sauce and vegan cheese. The top layer should be the sauce with a bit of the cheese on top.

Then cover with aluminium foil and place in oven for 25 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for another 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Bagel recipe from here (hot for food), cream cheese recipe adapted from this recipe as well as hot for food’s

Cream cheese:

• 450g silken tofu, drained
• 1 1/4 cups raw cashews, soaked for at least 4 hours or boiled for about 15-20 mins, until softer
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup neutral tasting coconut oil, melted
• 1.5 tsp lactic acid
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• Chives

Let tofu sit out for about 15 minutes until it is closer to room temperature. This is because if the melted coconut oil touches the rest of the mixture, it will become solid again and it will be more difficult to blend these ingredients. Combine all ingredients in a high power blender until completely smooth. If the mixture is too thick for the blender to blend, move to a bowl and microwave for about 15-30 seconds so that the coconut oil melts again.

Once blended, the consistency should be like this.

Transfer to a container and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. It will thicken a lot and the tanginess will decrease a bit.

For the bagels, follow the hot for food recipe.

Once the bagels have cooled, slice in half and slather with vegan cream cheese and whatever toppings you prefer. I like to add vegan chick’n strips (Beyond Meat/Lightlife), sliced tomatoes, cucumber and avocado. Or you can make carrot lox and add that.

The other week I decided to try making dumplings with soy curls. Soy curls seem to work well in everything – curries, shawarma, stir fries… They absorb flavours very well and don’t have any odd aftertaste that I can detect.

You will need dumpling wrappers for this. Most of them are vegan. I found some at my local H-Mart in the frozen section:

Vegan dumplings:

Dumpling wrappers
1/2 package Butler’s soy curls
1 tsp Butler’s veggie “chicken” seasoning
250g diced mushrooms, any kind should work
1/2 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp diced ginger
2-4 tbsp mushroom “oyster” sauce, to taste
1 tbsp agave syrup or sugar
Hot chili oil, for serving
Bamboo steamer

Place soy curls in a bowl. Pour boiling water over them to cover, and add veggie “chicken” seasoning (Butler’s sells this as well). Let sit for about 5 minutes, until rehydrated.

Heat a pan over medium-high heat with some vegetable oil, and add garlic, ginger and onion. Saute for a couple of minutes until the onions are softened/browned a bit. Then lower heat to medium, add mushrooms and saute for a couple more minutes until softer and more fragrant. Add mushroom sauce, sugar and soy curls. Saute for another couple of minutes, then remove from heat.

To form dumplings, place ~2 tsp of the filling in the centre of the wrapper. Then close the sides and seal them.

Heat some water in a wide pan over medium heat, and place the bamboo steamer on top. Put some lettuce leaves on steamer to keep the dumplings from sticking. Once the water is boiling, then add the dumplings, cover with the top and leave to steam for about 12 minutes. If the water level becomes too low, add more.

Eat with hot chili oil or whatever dipping sauce you prefer. Enjoy!

I never really made omelettes before I was vegan – it was really only something I would eat at a restaurant. Vegan omelettes always seemed a bit weird to me. It makes sense that you can easily replace eggs in baking, but in an omelette, basically the only ingredient is egg.

However, I found a video recipe for chickpea omelettes and finally tried to make it. It turns out vegan omelettes are delicious!

Omelette recipe: (makes two omelettes)

2 tbsp flaxmeal + 5.5 tbsp water, left to sit for 5 minutes
1 cup chickpea flour
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black salt
1 cup broth

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Heat a 35 cm/14 inch nonstick pan at medium heat with some oil. Then pour half of the batter into it and cook on one side for about 3 minutes, until the edges start to brown. Then use two spatulas to flip. Cook on the other side for 1 minute, then turn off the heat and add your fillings. Then fold the omelette over itself, remove from the heat, cover the pan and leave to sit for 3-5 minutes.

For the fillings, choose whatever you like. My favourite combination is soy chorizo (Trader Joe’s soyrizo is delicious, a few other brands have something similar), mushrooms, onions and vegan cheese.

This weekend we had a vegan bake sale at my local vegan grocery (Vegan Haven), and I decided to make pumpkin donuts with a maple glaze. I decided to veganise this recipe. They turned out great!

I doubled it, replaced the cinnamon sugar topping with a maple glaze, and removed some of the spices as I’m not a big fan of ginger and cloves.

Pumpkin donuts:

1. 7 cups all-purpose flour
2. 2 tablespoons baking powder
3. 2 teaspoon salt
4. 1 teaspoon baking soda
5. 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
   
6. ¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
   
7. 2 cups sugar
8. 6 tablespoons vegan butter, room temperature
9. 1/4 cup flaxmeal mixed with 3/4 cup water, left to sit for 10 minutes
   
10. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
11. 1 cup plus 2 tablespoon nondairy milk mixed with 1 tbsp vinegar
12. 425g (2 cups) pumpkin purée

Icing:

1. 900g icing sugar, sifted
2. 100g maple syrup
3. 100g nondairy milk
4. 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in one bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together vegan butter and sugar. Then whisk in pumpkin puree, nondairy milk/vinegar mixture, flaxmeal mixture and vanilla extract.

Add dry ingredients a little at a time, whisking to combine. When it becomes too thick to whisk, switch to a spatula and fold in the rest of the dry mixture.

Don’t use a stand mixer. I did, and it was a disaster. Flour was flying everywhere. Forget about it.

Now spread some clingfilm in a clean large bowl, and place the dough inside. Wrap the dough in the clingfilm and put in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, or ideally overnight.

Take the dough out of the fridge, and split into two pieces, as this will make it easier to roll out.

Flour both the bottom and the top of the dough, and place on a floured surface.

Roll out the dough to ~1 1/4 cm (0.5 inch) thickness, and use cutters to cut into your desired size. I used a 9 cm cutter for the donuts and a 3 cm cutter for the holes. Place flour on the rolling pin too! This dough is very prone to sticking, even when chilled.

Once you have your shaped pieces, place them on a baking sheet with parchment paper on top. Make sure to flour this as well. I didn’t and it stuck.

Place the baking sheet in the fridge while you heat your oil and make the icing.

Heat oil in a deep fryer to 180°C (355 °F). While this heats, make the icing.

Combine all ingredients for the icing. Add the nondairy milk a bit at a time until the right consistency is reached. It should be very, very thick, but all the sugar should combine with the liquid.

Take your donut pieces out of the fridge.

Then fry your donuts for about 3 minutes, flipping halfway through. Don’t start your timer until the donuts have floated to the top (this will take about 10 seconds).

After removing the donuts, place on a cooling rack with paper towels below it to absorb the oil. Then after just a couple of minutes, while still warm, dip the doughnuts into the glaze, and place back on the cooling rack.

Enjoy!

This recipe is pretty similar to the oatmeal cookies I posted about last week. However, I think it’s still worth sharing.

A few years ago I found this recipe, which I used to make when I wasn’t vegan. Now I’ve veganised it, but I’ve replaced half of the vegan butter with almond butter, and changed a few other things.

Recipe:

• 1/2 cup vegan butter, softened
• 1/2 cup smooth almond butter
• 1 ¹⁄₂ cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp flax meal mixed with 5.5 tbsp water, left to sit for 5 minutes
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Combine vegan butter, almond butter, and sugar. Then add flax mixture and vanilla extract. Then add dry ingredients. Then add chocolate chips. Then chill mixture in the fridge for 2-4 hours, or overnight. Then shape into cookies and bake on baking sheet at 180°C for 15-25 minutes depending on the size and how crunchy you’d like the cookies to be.

Enjoy!

I finally succeeded at making lamingtons yesterday. I used a doubled version of this recipe for the sponge cake, and I veganised this recipe for the icing. If I did this again, I would probably use a veganised version of the latter recipe instead, since the one I made was not thick enough to slice in half.

• 140g vegan butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 300 mL unsweetened plant milk
• 2 cups + 2 tbsp flour
• 2 2/3 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 tsp salt

Icing:

• 500g icing sugar, sifted
• 200g dark chocolate
• 15g coconut oil
• 125 mL plant milk at room temperature
• 325g dessicated coconut (I used sweetened coconut flakes)

Combine vegan butter with sugar, vanilla and plant milk. Then add dry ingredients and combine. Generously butter a 30cm x 18cm baking pan and sprinkle some flour. Add the cake batter and bake at 180°C for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool for 10-20 minutes and then remove from baking pan and place on a cooling rack. It should come out very easily.

Slice into squares and cut in half.

For the icing, melt the chocolate with the coconut oil, either with a bain marie or in the microwave at low heat. Then add the plant milk (make sure it is not cold, or the icing will solidify too much). Then add icing sugar until reasonably thick – thick enough to stick to the cake but thin enough to only leave a thin layer of icing on the cake.

Dip the cake pieces into the icing, then put on a cooling rack. Immediately cover with coconut flakes, then place in the fridge for about 15 minutes so that the icing sets.

Slice in half and spread some fruit jam, then form sandwiches. I didn’t have time to add the jam, but I will next time. I suggest raspberry jam, but any jam would be tasty I think.

This week I decided to combine two of my favourite cookie recipes – cinnamon almond butter chocolate chip, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

I started with this recipe, but veganised it, doubled it, replaced the walnuts and raisins with chocolate chips, and replaced half of the vegan butter with almond butter.

• 1/2 cup (230 grams) vegan butter, softened (I recommend Miyoko’s)
• 1/2 cup smooth almond butter (salted/unsalted is fine as long as it is not too salty
• 1 1/3 cup (250 grams) light brown sugar, packed
• 2 tbsp flaxseed meal mixed with 5.5 tbsp water, left to sit for 5-10 mins
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup (190 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups (240 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
• 3 cups dark chocolate chips
  
• 1-2 tbsp plant milk

Combine vegan butter, almond butter and brown sugar. Then add flax ‘egg’ and vanilla extract. Then combine with flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and oats. Then add chocolate chips. If you cannot incorporate all of the flour, add a bit of plant milk until you can.

The dough may be a bit crumbly, but do your best to create pieces of dough. The cookies will hold together once they are cooked.

Bake at 180°C for 15-25 minutes, depending on the size. If you like your cookies to be crunchy, then cook until golden brown. If you like them softer, then cook until slightly springy but a little undercooked.

Enjoy!

A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to visit what is apparently the only vegan Cuban restaurant in the world.

It happened to be right next to LAX airport, which was super convenient.

They seemed to have everything – vegan “wings” with different sauces, nachos cubanos, tostones and heaps of different vegan meats.

The first time I was there I got El Cubanoso and the Fire Agave wings.

Both were delicious. The fire agave sauce was amazing – the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. The vegan “wing” meat was eerily similar to chicken meat – I don’t know how they do it. There was even a skin. Very convincing.

The cuban sandwich had roast pork which was also very meaty, along with all the fixings.

The second time I went (on the way out from LAX), I ordered the yuca a la yama with the lechón asado – which is shredded “pork”.

The yuca were crispy and tasty and came with black beans and fire agave sauce. The lechón was flavourful and had a great texture, and the sauce complemented it very well.

I will definitely be back. Check it out if you’re in the area!

There are a lot of great vegan chocolate chip cookie recipes out there. I’ve seen some made with refined coconut oil, which yields a similar richness to butter. However, this is still my favourite.

Before I was vegan, I would always use this recipe. But for some reason, after I went vegan I was determined to find a different recipe to use.

Little did I know that this was easy to veganise.

All I did was replace the eggs with flax meal mixed with water and replace the butter with vegan butter. Then I added a bit of nondairy milk because I had a hard time incorporating all the flour at the end. I highly recommend that you use Miyoko’s vegan butter here. Other options would probably be fine, but Miyoko’s definitely gives the best result. If you don’t have access to Miyoko’s, try to find a vegan butter that is as similar to butter as possible, or you could also make your own (recipe courtesy of WorldofRandomStuff).

Recipe adapted from smitten kitchen

• 1 1/4 cups (280 grams) Miyoko’s vegan butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups (240 grams) light brown sugar
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (225 grams) granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp flaxmeal + 5 tbsp water
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse or kosher salt
• 3 1/2 cups plus 2 teaspoons (yes, really) (445 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1-2 tbsp plant milk
• 3 1/2 cups vegan dark chocolate chips/dark chocolate chunks
• Sea salt

Combine the flaxmeal with the water in a bowl and leave to stand for 5 minutes. It should thicken substantially.

Cream the vegan butter with the sugars by hand or with a stand mixer. Then add the flax mixture and the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (baking soda, baking powder, salt, flour).

Add the dry ingredients to the rest and combine. If you cannot incorporate all of the flour mixture, add plant milk until you can combine all of it. Then add the vegan chocolate chips.

Chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour, ideally 4 hours or even overnight.

Take out of the fridge and leave at room temperature for about five minutes until it softens slightly.

Shape pieces and place them on the baking pan. Bake at 180°C for somewhere between 15 and 25 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. I make mine quite large, and hence it often takes 25-28 minutes for mine to bake.

When you take them out, they should seem firm but not too golden – they should still be pretty light coloured. If they are golden brown, they will become crispy as they cool. So if you prefer that, then leave it in the oven until golden brown.

Immediately after taking them out of the oven, sprinkle sea salt on the cookies if you like them that way. If not, omit. Leave to cool for five minutes on a cooling rack. Then eat!