Pancakes with blueberries and a few VeganMoFo favourites

(Nederlandstalige versie)

A few years ago I did a “brunch on Sunday” post every week during the Vegan Month of Food, and I thought I’d bring that back (or at least for today). I meant to put this up yesterday so I’ll probably update twice today.

I found a recipe for ricotta pancakes in the book Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights and decided to veganise it using fresh tofu. The end result was OK; I actually liked the addition of the tofu, but I didn’t have any lemon zest or lemon extract to flavour them so they were a little plain on their own. Fortunately we had blueberries and golden syrup in the fridge so this was still a lovely breakfast. I definitely want to try the pancakes again sometime.

Since that’s about all I have to share for today, I thought I’d list some of my favourites from the VeganMoFo blogs I’ve read so far.

Did you know there are at least three blogs doing Harry Potter themes this year? These triple bacon sandwiches from Dumbledore’s Vegan Army and this onion soup from Vegan Knyquol are both inspired by Mrs Weasley’s cooking, and this spotted dick by Miss Kitchen Witch looks like the perfect dessert for a Hogwarts-inspired feast.

Jenny from The Lusting Mind is devoting the month to meals inspired by Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain. Her posts make me want to watch this film again soon, preferably while enjoying a soup and salad or waffles with jam. I’m hoping for a post on crème brûlée as well.

Hasta la Vegan is spending MoFo cooking from bizarre and outdated cookbooks and features gems such as Crunchy Topped Cauliflower, A Sculpted Mound Fancifully Garnished, and “Breadless” toast (spoiler alert: it’s a slice of tofu).

If you’d like to use MoFo as an opportunity to learn about a new cuisine, have a look at these blogs: Mämmi‘s theme is Finnish coffee table culture, Jessica from Ichiban Vegan writes about Japanese food, Imogen Michel blogs about Vegan Scotland, and Rosie from Rosie’s Vegan Kitchen shares her vegan versions of Welsh recipes.

Finally, Julie from Apologies for the Novel is doing weekly themes, and she’s also ending all her posts with pictures of her cats which really I think we should all start doing.

Summer Breakfasts

Today was a long, cold, dark day. Seems like the perfect time to go through my photos from this summer and share a few breakfasts I’d been meaning to post! I don’t remember all the details about these, but I assure you everything was delicious.

First up is this plate of tofu scramble (with almost more veggies than tofu, it seems), roasted vegetables and a few strawberries as a little dessert. I used the Roasted Root Vegetables recipe from Vegan Brunch as a base for the side dish, using potato instead of some of the roots. Loved this!

I made these Blueberry Corn Pancakes from Veganomicon as a treat for my boyfriend one morning because he usually really likes things with blueberries, and we both loved them! I definitely have to remember to make these again when I have blueberries around.

I also made poffertjes! I had made them before, using a recipe from a cookbook, but this time I adapted a basic recipe from Wikipedia. They were really tasty (and so much fun to make), so maybe I’ll try and post a recipe if I try them again in the future.

Hmm, I think it was already autumn when I made these muffins, but their name definitely fits the summer theme: the Pineapple Carrot Sunshine Muffins from Veganomicon. Lena from the NVV forum recommended them to me, so I gave them a try, and they turned out perfectly! I didn’t have golden raisins, as you can see in the picture, but these were still a great success. They’re very moist and tasty and made for convenient snacks to take with me to classes (in my little cupcake container!)

Oh, I’m already looking forward to being able to enjoy summery breakfasts outside in the garden again. Meanwhile, I’ll keep enjoying delicious pumpkin-flavoured foods! More on that tomorrow.

VeganMoFo 25: Brunch on Sunday IV

Today was already the last Sunday of this year’s MoFo! So sad. Thankfully, there was brunch food to console me.

What better comfort food than Fennel Breakfast Risotto (from Vegan Brunch)? I adore creamy dishes with fennel (especially soup), and I loved the risotto from Vegan with a Vengeance, so this recipe seemed like a good choice for me. I was right – it’s so good! The texture is so perfectly creamy and soft and apart from the stirring, the recipe is very easy. I was out of shallots so I had to use regular onions instead, but all the ingredients are very basic! The recipe suggests to serve the dish with the Smokey Shiitakes (also from VB), but I didn’t have the ingredients for those. Instead, I ended up serving the risotto garnished with quartered mushrooms simply sautéed in oil and soy sauce and sprinkled with smoked sea salt. I’d still like to try it with the shiitakes sometime!

Because I loved the Bakery-Style Berry Muffins so much when I made them two weeks ago, I decided to make them again for today’s brunch. I only had raspberries this time and I have to agree with the author of the recipe that the muffins are better with mixed berries! I especially loved the big strawberry pieces in there last time. These muffins were still delicious, though. I used half whole wheat pastry flour in these, which worked fine. (I know they’re still not very healthy. But they are delicious!)

And as if the muffins weren’t decadent enough, I also made a batch of brownies! They’re the Fudgy Brownies from Vive le Vegan! by Dreena Burton, and they’re my favourite brownie recipe so far! Slightly crunchy top, soft, fudgey texture… and delicious cocoa flavour, of course. And maple syrup. And tiny chunks of chocolate, because I can never get my food processor to grind a chocolate bar properly, but that’s totally okay. I love these. I’ve only heard of one person who didn’t like these, but he just wasn’t fond of fudgy brownies in general. Especially for those people, Dreena apparently also has a cakey brownie recipe in one of her other cookbooks. If you do love the yummy fudgy ones, however, go try this recipe! It’s amazing.

VeganMoFo 18: Brunch on Sunday III

Today is sunday, and that means it’s vegan brunch time! I love cooking during a weekend morning so much. I got to try out a couple of new recipes from the cookbook Vegan Brunch today, and they were great!

Because brunch is apparently not complete without some form of potatoes, I made a batch of roasted potatoes with various dried herbs. Yummy as always! We had them with this:

Tofu scramble! It’s the basic scramble recipe from Vegan Brunch with onions, broccoli, carrots and kalamata olives.

These are the Coffee Chip Muffins. I didn’t have the instant coffee powder, so I made a small amount of strong coffee and used that to replace part of the almond milk in the recipe. I also used chopped chocolate instead of chocolate chips, but other than that, I stuck to the recipe. These were pretty good! Not as amazingly delicious as the Berry Muffins I made last week, but still, they’re really good.

When I had started making the batter for the muffins, I realised that I only had a little jar of baking powder left, and it was already a couple of months past its expiration date. I didn’t really want to use it and possibly ruining a perfectly good batch of muffins, so I went online and found a way to test whether your baking powder still works properly. If you mix it together with some hot water and it starts bubbling like crazy, then you have nothing to worry about! Everyone probably already knew this, but I didn’t, and I think it’s quite a useful little trick to know about. It’s fun to do, too. Anyway, my baking powder still created loads of bubbles so I continued to make my muffins and these waffles:

Mmm, waffles. These are the Old Fashioned Chelsea Waffles from VB and they are so good! My grandma gave me her old waffle iron, so I could finally make some big Belgian waffles instead of just the tiny heart-shaped ones (which are also cute!), and I tried it out this morning. I think she’s had this appliance for quite a while, but it still produces fine waffles. I’m not sure if it’s because of the new waffle iron or the excellent recipe from Vegan Brunch, but these waffles came out so delicious and perfectly crispy. And not once did I open the waffle iron to find my beautiful waffle torn apart and sticking to both of the metal plates, which always happens to me! My grandma’s iron is actually easier to clean, too, because you can take the plates out so you can actually scrub them properly.

Here’s a picture of the waffles topped with slices of Baked Cinnamon Apples:

It’s a real shame that the apples didn’t turn out as photogenic as I had hoped, because they were so good! I could have known you can’t really go wrong with apples and cinnamon, but still. This is one fabulous topping! I’d like to add it to my oatmeal, too…

So… brunch is awesome. I was especially happy with the way my waffles came out and I can’t wait to try more recipes using my new waffle iron!

Have a nice evening!