Mini Pizzas and Farinata

Making pizza is so much fun! This time I made eight little ones, so I could try out different toppings and eat them for lunch. I noticed the dough didn’t really rise this time, and the same thing happened the last time I baked bread – I wonder why. Maybe I’m doing something wrong with the yeast, or could it be because I used wholewheat flour? I don’t know, but these pizzas came out nicely anyway. Some of the pictures are sort of blurry. That’s because I had to go outside to get enough light, but it was raining a bit so I rushed them.

A while ago, Tippitappi posted a recipe for Farinata. When I read it I wanted to try it out right away, but it took me until yesterday to finally do it. It’s great! What I love about it is that it’s an Italian recipe that’s originally vegan, and so simple to make! My parents really liked it too.

This one came out best – it’s the basic mixture, in this case with rocket salad, because that’s what I had on hand. Oh, and onion.

I added tomato to this one, which made it a bit messier, but still so good. I’m definitely going to use the recipe again, and add some other vegetables next time.

Green beans and seitan, buffet at De Oude Plek

I don’t post a lot. I don’t know, I guess my meals tend to boring lately. I also can’t decide on which WordPress theme I like best. Oh well, here’s today’s dinner:

Green beans, seitan and banana, all baked in peanut oil (so good) and sprinkled with seroendeng.

Last night, I had dinner at my current favourite restaurant, which is De Oude Plek in Rotterdam. There’s a vegetarian buffet every third saturday of the month, which means you can try different things from their menu for €15,-. Great for me, because I can never choose which dish I want to have!

Saté at the top, babi pangang at the left, dough-coated deliciousness on the right. I forget the names.

More of the same, plus different mixes of vegetables and fruit, along with pieces of their ‘vegetarian chicken’. I wonder what that’s made of – it reminds me a bit of seitan (Edit: OK, so it IS seitan), but it’s much much softer than the seitan I’ve had.

Dessert of course! Loads of fresh fruit and sorbet ice cream.

Tofu scramble

I used a recipe to make tofu scramble once, and wasn’t too impressed. Since people seem to be raving about it however, I decided to give it another chance and try myself. I’m happy I did! I figured that I like not too much tofu, as many veggies as I can find in the fridge, some spice mix and nutritional yeast. It’s so yummy!

The first one I made yesterday for me and my mother to have for lunch. It has onion, zucchini, eggplant and tomato. It was lovely, but I thought it could be even better.

And of course it could. This pretty much the same, but with more tomato and zucchini and added asparagus and sundried tomatoes. I love this. I don’t quite know how to use spices well, but I used premade mixes of Italian and bruschetta seasonings and that worked perfectly.

Oh and here’s a sandwich I made monday.

Not very interesting, just using up leftover eggplant with hummus and tomato.

Also, I made Celine’s Beer Bread Ballons again. This time I was lazy so I didn’t wait for an hour for the beer to go flat, didn’t proof the yeast properly and crammed all of the rolls on one baking sheet instead of two, making them all stick together, but they’re wonderful anyway so I don’t know why I even bother! Actually, there’s only one left now! I’ll be taking that one to school tomorrow. Oh right, school has started again, which means I have to get enough sleep. So I’m off to bed, bye-bye.

De Kop van ‘t Land

I just uploaded the pictures of my dinner and I’m really sleepy so quick post. I ate at a restaurant in Dordrecht called De Kop van ‘t Land. They offer a surprise menu and I love to choose that. They always make very original vegan dishes that look more spectacular every time I visit.

First, a vegetable broth with a bit of sesame oil and chopped up something [EDIT: now I know the name: lavas. LAVAS. I must not forget].

Then this pretty dish: three different kinds of tomato in the middle and red and yellow beetroot on the sides. This photo doesn’t do it justice – the colours were really nice together.

Then some toasted lettuce on top of pasta with a fresh tomato sauce.

This is so fancy – rice and cucumber in a papadum, on top of a piece of pumpkin which was also filled with chicpeas and other veggies.

And of course, dessert! A sorbet. Two types of icecream and fresh blackberries.

Pizza and Waffles

OK, here are le pizze… Homemade whole-wheat crusts, but storebought tomato sauce.

Courgette (zucchini), aubergine (eggplant?! I never know what to use.) and sundried tomatoes. I liked this one best, but the other one was tasty too:

Black olives, green bell pepper and Cheezly mozzarella that I bought in Amsterdam. I was really curious about the Cheezly because I had never had it before. Of all vegan cheeses I’ve tried so far, I like this one best. I didn’t use a lot of it because I didn’t want an overwhelming soy-cheese taste on my pizza, but that wasn’t the case at all. Personally I could hardly tell it was there. All in all, I like Cheezly, but I don’t think I’m going to eat it a lot because a. it’s not available in stores near my home and b. I like my pizza just as much without it. My parents (not vegan) liked it on the pizza, though, so that was nice!

Also yesterday, I finally used some of the pears from the garden along with some hazelnuts, from the garden as well, to make a cake.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t much of a success. I used a recipe for apple pie, subbed pears and hazelnuts for apples and raisins and added a bit of maple syrup. The pears were already pretty moist, so the whole thing fell apart when I tried to put it onto a plate. It tasted all right, but I still prefer apples. Oh well, better next time!

I made waffles again this morning. This time, I used Celine’s basic waffle recipe from Have Cake, Will Travel, which was great! It’s so basic you can use it to make pretty much any waffle you want. I kept it fairly simple, but did add some shredded coconut.

Yum! This time the batter was a lot thinner, which made it easier to handle. I even got a few perfect little hearts!

My parents liked them too. And so did my cat.

I’m going to a restaurant again tonight. I normally don’t do that this often, but it’s a great activity for the last week of summer holiday!