Seaweedless sushi

(Nederlandstalige versie)

I added “make sushi that I like” to my food resolutions because the first time I tried sushi, I liked all of it except for the nori. I’ve since gotten over that problem, but I still wanted to make a plate of sushi without using seaweed (especially because the nori that I’d forgotten in my cupboard has gotten so old that it’s starting to fall apart). I’m still very much of a sushi noob but I had fun making these anyway.

I used the instructions from 500 Vegan Recipes to make the tofu pouches on the left. The recipe really only has a few steps: you  deep-fry and marinate tofu slices and then they’re ready to stuff. I followed the recipe pretty loosely but they still seem to have turned out very well, although I’ve never used pre-made inari-age so I can’t say how they compare.

We were getting hungry by the time all the tofu slices were done frying so I kept the rest of the sushi pretty simple. I made the rolls using rice paper, which works well though it doesn’t add much in terms of flavour — a good option for nori-haters. I only had circles of rice paper so I used two overlapping sheets to make the roll. Square sheets would be ideal. I filled the rolls with fried tofu strips, avocado, and stir-fried aubergine and carrot matchsticks.

The rest of the toppings are aubergine and carrot with sesame seeds and avocado and watermelon with IKEA’s seaweed caviar (so the sushi wasn’t entirely seaweedless after all!). The watermelon was my favourite so we had some more on the side — enjoy those summer fruits while you can! :)

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Chocolate Sauce

I almost forgot to post my MoFo meal for today!

This morning I made these delicious Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pancakes from 500 Vegan Recipes. They were really good all on their own, but then I figured since we were already having chocolate chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, why not go ahead cover them in chocolate sauce as well? Mmm. These were amazing, as you probably guessed. I made a huge stack, so we still have leftovers, too!

Burgers and Muffin Tops

When I came home yesterday after spending the weekend with my parents, I wanted to make a meal my boyfriend and I would both love: veggie burgers!

What I liked most about this meal was that it gave me the opportunity to try three recipes from other bloggers; the Spicy Cajun Lentil Patties from Heathen Vegan, the Burger Buns from Have Cake, Will Travel, and the Marvellous Mayonnaise from Graasland. I also chose to make these burgers because I really wanted to try out this nifty burger shaper my Mum gave me:

Just scoop the mix into the mould, press down, and there you go, a perfect patty!

Of course it’s not that hard to shape veggie burgers by hand, but using this tool is a quick way to get the patties perfectly round. And it’s fun!

I think I added a little too much of the lentils (I forgot to measure them after cooking) because I got a few extra patties out of the recipe, but they’re delicious so I’m happy to freeze the leftovers! I made sure to finely chop the mushrooms so my boyfriend would eat them, and it worked – he loved these. Now I’d really like to make other mushroom/lentil burgers like this one, too.

The burger buns were perfectly soft and fluffy and yummy, although I’m glad I cut down on the sugar because they were almost too sweet for me. Next time I make the buns I’m also going to add the cornstarch wash Celine recommends. I’ve never made bread with such a wash before and I’d love to try these buns with sesame seeds!

The mayonnaise recipe is something I’d made before, and it’s one of my favourite homemade mayos. I was so excited the first time I made it and it started thickening as I added the oil (this had never worked for me before). I’m glad to have such a tasty and cheap alternative to store-bought vegan mayonnaise!

Our breakfast this morning was really good as well. I made the Caramel Apple Muffin Tops from 500 Vegan Recipes and although I made a few substitutions, they turned out so delicious! I loved the crunchy top combined with the sweet caramelised apple pieces. Sadly we already ate all of them, but I can’t wait to make them again. I think these would be great on a cold winter morning.

Pumpkin Tofu Scramble

I’m spending this weekend at a hotel, so I’d planned on writing this post earlier today. I ran out of time, though, so here I am blogging from my hotel room! I’m glad to have an internet connection, but I have to share it with my boyfriend so I’ll try and keep this short :)

I came home last night feeling very hungry, but unfortunately I didn’t have a whole lot of food around. After a quick search through the fridge I decided to use my leftover tofu and pumpkin purée to make the Pumpkin Tofu Scramble from 500 Vegan Recipes. Combined with a few other leftovers, it made for a delicious quick meal! I made sure to reserve some so I could have it again for breakfast this morning (and so I could take a picture in actual daylight!)

Here’s the scramble, combined with sautéed potatoes, bell peppers, and some avocado slices:

Mmm! I wasn’t sure what to expect, since the flavours seemed so different from scramble recipes I usually make, but I absolutely love this. I don’t have pumpkin purée around very often, but otherwise this is a perfectly simple, quick, and above all delicious brunch dish!

As I said, I’m at a hotel right now and since that means I don’t have access to a kitchen, I probably won’t make any VeganMoFo posts this weekend. But maybe I can post some pictures of the hotel food, if I remember to bring my camera for our next meal :) Until then, happy MoFo’ing everyone!

Happy Christmas!

Hello! Very quick post because, well, I have to go to sleep.

Happy holidays, everyone! I meant to post this earlier, but apparently my internet connection sucks right now. These are the cookies I baked yesterday:

Cinnamon twist cookies, adapted from this recipe. I’d made them before with soy yoghurt as an egg replacer, and that worked well. This time I decided to use a mixture of coconut milk and sunflower oil for the liquid ingredients, and they’re delicious as well! They’re a lot of fun to make and they taste wonderfully light and cinnamon-y.

Sablés Marbrés from 500 Vegan Recipes. They’re so much fun to make, they look pretty, and they’re absolutely delicious! Mihl recommended them to me after I asked for cookie ideas in my previous post, and I’m really glad I ended up trying this recipe.

Lastly, I made half a batch of the chocolate chip cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I had made the recipe from the blog a couple of times before, so I already knew these would be a success. Yum!

I actually made more cookies, but these are just the ones I managed to photograph before it got too dark. Luckily, these also happen to be my favourites! I took a big plate of cookies over to my boyfriend’s house where I’m celebrating Christmas, and especially the sablés marbrés were a real success. I also had a lovely dinner with my boyfriend and his parents, and I even got a couple of presents! Those consisted of a new aluminium mini muffin tin, a new vegan cookbook (Nonna’s Italian Kitchen!), and various wonderfully scented vegan shower products. So exciting!

Going  to bed now – enjoy (the remainder of) your holidays!

Cookbooks & Buffets

These are the new cookbooks that I received today! They’re Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman (both books that just came out), and My Sweet Vegan by Hannah Kaminsky (which I’d wanted to order for a looong time). I can’t wait to cook from these books, but meanwhile, I’m having loads of fun just reading them. Look at how huge 500 Vegan Recipes is! The other two are packed with delicious looking recipes, too.

On a different subject, I spent pretty much my entire Sunday eating at restaurants, and I found plenty of vegan options! In the morning, we had a lovely family brunch at Van der Valk in Rotterdam. Even though I called ahead to make sure there would be something to eat for vegans, no one at the restaurant seemed to know what I was talking about when I referred to this phone conversation. Still, the people there were very friendly and I was able to put together a decent meal of salads, fresh fruits, stir-fried veggies, and french fries. So the food was pretty good, and it’s always especially fun to have such a big family get together!

For dinner, my boyfriend’s parents took us to Happy Wok, a wok restaurant in a nearby village. They have a buffet where you can choose from a few prepared dishes, but you can also create your own dish by combining different raw vegetables from the buffet and having the cooks prepare the meal for you. I asked one of the staff members about vegan options, and he surprised me by showing me the vegan tomato soup, spring rolls, those triangles with curry filling (what are they called?), battered deep-fried banana, and different stir-fry sauces. I think I’m going to make sure about the sauces next time because he said all of them were vegan except the curry sauce, but they also sell oyster sauce and I don’t think that’s usually vegan. Still, this variety of things to choose from is awesome! I couldn’t get any good pictures, but here’s a little mosaic to give you an idea:

The food in the picture includes fresh fruit (and fruit from a can, probably), tomato soup, stir-fried vegetables in sweet and sour sauce, french fries, herbed potatoes, deep-fried snacks, and pears in chocolate sauce. Mmmmmm.

Oh, I also went back to Eazie last week and tried their tomato soup.

I thought this dish was always vegan, but it turns out they normally put in chicken pieces when you order the tomato soup. Luckily, I discovered this before they prepared it, so I made sure to ask for a vegetarian option. They did put in mung bean sprouts and sliced green onions, both of which were excellent additions. I’m not a big fan of the overwhelming sweetness of most Chinese tomato soups, but the fresh vegetables made the soup taste a lot fresher.

Going back to admiring my new cookbooks now :D