Vegan Tempeh-Cashew Balls of Glory - a recipe

Fiiiiinally, a new recipe for you!!! These tempeh-cashew balls with their spicy tomato sauce are absolutely delicious: I'm afraid making them is quite an involved process, but I think it's worth it!

Possible variations:
- You can of course spice these however you want - adjust the amounts of all the spices and garlic in the recipe to your tastes, or for instance go for an oriental version with soy sauce, five spice and ginger in the balls, and a coriander sauce in stead of tomato sauce
- I've made something similar in the past with finely ground seitan in stead of tempeh. I think a mix of the two would be good, too, and it would give them a fantastic texture. I've also made the seitan variation with half cashew and half pistachio nuts, which was delicious.
- To reduce time and effort, you can of course buy tomato sauce rather than make your own.

(makes about 15 golf-sized balls)
Ingredients: 
Tempeh Balls:

• 200g of tempeh, coarsely grated 
• 5-6 spring onions, finely chopped (or one regular onion) 
• 5-6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 
• a cup (prior to processing) of raw cashew nuts, coarsely chopped in a food processor 
• olive oil for sauteeing
• 3 medium potatoes, cubed and boiled until soft
• 1 tbsp of unscented coconut oil
• half a cup of oats, ground into flour in a food processor 
• half a cup of nutritional yeast
• 1 heaping tsp of tomato paste
• 1 tsp of garlic powder
• 1 tsp of onion powder 
• 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp of smoked paprika
• 1 tsp of dried thyme 
• salt and pepper to taste

Tomato sauce:

• 3-4 spring onions, chopped 
• olive oil for sauteeing
• 5 ripe medium-sized tomatoes
• 3 sundried tomatoes (in oil or rehydrated), finely chopped
• chili flakes to taste
• salt and pepper to taste 
• pinch of dried oregano and basil

Preparation:

1) For the balls, gently sautee the spring onions and garlic in olive oil in a large skillet until the onions are soft, then add the grated tempeh and continue to sautee until it begins to brown. If you want your balls to be more moist, add some more olive oil and let it be absorbed by the tempeh

2) Meanwhile, mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl: cashews, oat-flour, nutritional yeast, spices, herbs and seasoning

3) In a food processor, blend together half of the boiled potatoes and all of the coconut oil and tomato paste: this will become a very sticky, glutinous goo which will help bind your balls :-)

4) Mix the tempeh, onions and garlic into the dry ingredients, followed by the potato glue, and knead it all together. If the mixture is too dry and doesn't stick, blend additional potatoes and add them as needed - go by feel, you want to end up with something you can shape into balls that will hold together, and that isn't too dry. Taste the mix for seasoning, and add salt, pepper and spices as needed.

5) Refrigerate the mix for at least an hour to further bind the mixture. If your mix is sticky enough and holds together when shaped, you may be able to skip this step if pressed for time. While the mix is being chilled, pre-heat the oven to 200°C.

6) shape your mix into golf-sized balls, and place them on a baking tray or oven dish lined with greaseproof paper. Bake them in the oven for around 40 minutes, turning them over once halfway. You want them to develop a slightly crunchy brown outer layer, but not to burn of course, so keep and eye on them, different ovens can behave very differently.

7) While the balls are baking, prepare the tomato sauce if you are making your own: Sautee the spring onions in the olive oil, and meanwhile blend the fresh and sundried tomatoes in a food processor or blender until you have a slightly chunky sauce. Add the tomato sauce to the pan with the onions, along with the spices, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer until a lot of the water has evaporated and the sauce has the flavour and thickness you want. You could also add a splash of red wine or vinegar and/or a pinch of sugar or other sweetener to enhance the flavour.

8) Serve!! Delicious with saffron rice, or oven-baked potatoes, and a large salad.

My rooftop garden

And now for something slightly different: A couple of months ago, I moved house, from a place with no outdoor space whatsoever, to a place with a sizable roof terrace. I'm very excited about this, and have been gardening like mad! I have a mix of herbs, vegetables and flowers (whereby I tried to pick good flowers for bees), and most of my containers (as well as my garden furniture :D) was either found or re-used from other stuff. Just some pics to show you what I've been up to:

Making a pallet garden

Filling the pallet with earth

...and planting the first plants: thyme, strawberries, lavender and echinacea

The pallet in its vertical position, after giving the plants a week to settle in horizontal position. I added some flowering plants, cat grass (in a bid to keep my two furry monsters away from the rest of the plants :-)), various kinds of lettuce, and planted land cress, garden cress and coriander seeds.

The bean box, built from the wood of an old Ikea futon frame

The pallet plants growing

...and adding irrigation pipes (old curtain rails with holes drilled in them) when watering the pallet proved tricky

The emergence of the snow peas

Box built from shelves of a disused Ikea shelving unit, filled with tomatoes and indian cress

...and the terrace today :-)

You can't see it too well here, but my honeysuckle is growing enthusiastically. Also in the pot are rosemary and lavendar, and in the pot next to it are indian cress, mint, and a courgette plant - unfortunately, I think the courgette has Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus, and I'll have to take it out as it's unlikely to produce much :(

Under the second pallet, the rucola has blossomed (after I got to use loads of it in pastas and salads) - once it goes to seed, I'll try to harvest and save it for next year.

Great vegan fennel and asparagus risotto

Joy! My weekly CSA packages have started up again: I get mine from a small vegetable farm run by a friend, Tuinderij de Groene Steen. In the winter months there isn't enough produce to make the packages, so I have to do without. However, they've been back for a few weeks now, and this week my package included - among other things - fennel, green asparagus, and fresh garlic, which I turned into a deeeeelicious risotto. I'm currently trying to refrain from eating the portion I saved for lunch tomorrow....

This is an adaptation of a recipe I've been making for a long time: before, I've always used roasted red peppers in stead of asparagus - either way is lovely, I'd recommend you make this version in asparagus season, and red pepper the rest of the year :)

Ingredients
(serves 2)

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 3 small onions, chopped
• 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced (adjust quantity to taste)
• 1 medium fennel bulb, chopped, including stalks and fronds
• 120 ml dry white wine
• 120 grams arborio rice
• 500 ml vegetable stock
• 8 large green asparagus, heads removed and stems halved lengthwise (if you have smaller asparagus, use more and leave them whole)
• zest of one lemon
• 2 tbs ground almonds
• 3 tbs nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

1) Gently grill the asparagus - both the halved stems and the heads - in a grill pan or under the grill in your oven. Turn and taste occasionally: The asparagus should be cooked, but still firm. When they are done, remove from heat and set aside.

2) Meanwhile, over a low fire, gently sauté the onions, garlic and fennel in the olive oil, for 10-15 minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent.

3) Add the rice, and fry with the vegetables briefly, stirring so the grains are covered in oil. Then, add the white wine, and cook until the wine is absorbed - this should only take a couple of minutes.

4) Add 1/3 of the vegetable stock, and simmer gently. When it begins to be absorbed add more in small amounts: you may not need all the stock, and cooking times can vary depending on the rice you use. It took about 25 minutes for my rice to cook, taste regularly to see whether yours is done: risotto should be very soft in texture. When it reaches that point, stop adding stock and remove from heat.

5) Chop the grilled asparagus stalks into bite-sized pieces, and stir into the risotto.

6) In a bowl, combine the nutritional yeast, almonds, garlic and onion powder and salt. Then, stir into the risotto together with the lemon zest. Taste for seasoning, and garnish servings with grilled asparagus heads.

Recipe for delicious vegan chocolate and strawberry pie

This one is all kinds of sinful, but no animals were harmed in the making of, the karma must cancel out some of the calories, right? :-) This has been a *huge* hit every single time I've made it - and it looks pretty, too! Don't be daunted by the recipe: Yes, it comes in three parts, and yes you need to make it in stages (the chocolate ganache needs at least a few hours to cool and set in the fridge before you can make the strawberry topping), but none of it is complicated. I purchased a pie tin with a removable bottom a while ago, and it's fantastic for this kind of pie. A spring-form tin will do the job well too, but I wouldn't use a pie tin with a fixed bottom as it will be hard to remove the pie from the tin and serve it without it falling apart.  

Enjoy!   

Ingredients:

Biscuit pie crust:

• 150 - 200 g vegan biscuits (I use wholemeal wheat and oat cookies, but any dry biscuit will do)
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder 
• 75 g vegan margarine

Chocolate ganache 

• 400 g dark chocolate (most dark chocolate is vegan, check the ingredient list to be sure) 
• one 400 ml can of coconut milk

Strawberry topping: 

• 400 g of fresh strawberries
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 tbsp of maple syrup (or other sweetener of your choice)
• 1 tsp of agar agar powder 
• 200 ml water

Preparation:

Crust:

Pre-heat the oven at 180*C

1) Melt the margarine over a low heat  

2) Pulverise the biscuits using a food processor. If you don't have a food processor, try putting the cookies, 2-3 at a time, in a zip-lock bag, and rolling a glass bottle over them until they are crushed.

3) Stir the cocoa powder into the cookie crumbs, followed by the melted margarine, until they are well mixed

4) Press the sticky crumb mixture into a 22 cm pie tin to cover the bottom and sides. If you are using a higher spring-form tin, cover the sides up to about 3 cm.  

5) Bake at 180*C for 10 minutes, then set on a rack to cool. 

Chocolate ganache:
6) Break the chocolate into pieces, put into a heat-proof bowl (e.g. stainless steel or pyrex) with the coconut milk

7) Place your bowl on a small saucepan filled with water, so that part of the bowl is submerged in the water. Place the saucepan on the stove over a low heat, and stir the chocolate and coconut milk until fully melted and combined

8) Pour the chocolate mixture into the crust, and refrigerate for 3-4 hours (or longer of course, if that fits your schedule better), until the ganache has set. Only then prepare the strawberry topping.

Strawberry topping: 

9) take about 100g of the least pretty and ripe strawberries, and puree them with the water, lemon juice and maple syrup or other sweetener. Taste and add more syrup if necessary. 

10) halve the remaining strawberries, and place them cut-side-down on the chocolate ganache. I like to make concentric circles, but be creative and turn it into your own work of art :-) 

11) In a saucepan, gently bring the strawberry puree to a simmer, stir in the agar agar, and allow to simmer for a further 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

12) Carefully pour the mixture over the strawberries on the pie, until the top is evenly covered. Do this right after removing the saucepan from the heat, as the agar agar will begin to solidify immediately. 

13) Place the cake back in the fridge, until the topping has completely cooled down and set. In hot weather, store the cake in the fridge until use, or your ganache might melt :-)

This. Is. Fricking. Delicious.

Delicious raw vegan fennel, orange and avocado salad

A very tasty, whole food, quick and easy new salad to share today! Don't worry, there's a chocolate ganache and strawberry pie recipe coming up soon to compensate for for all this healthiness :-)

Serves 1 as a full meal, or 2-4 as a side dish

Ingredients: 

• 1 large fennel bulb, very thinly sliced (use a mandolin if you have one)
• 2 oranges, peeled and pith removed, halved and segmented 
• 1 avocado, peeled and roughly chopped
• 30 grams of rocket (I'm sure more would be tasty too, this was all I had) 
• 40 grams of currants (or raisins or sultanas, but note these are often coated in vegetable oil if you want to avoid that)
• 1 spring onion, finely chopped (optional) 
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
Put all the ingredients in a bowl, mix them thoroughly, and season to taste. There is no separate dressing for this: The oranges, which will give off some of their juice, provide the acid you would usually add in the form of vinegar or lemon juice, the avocado provides the fat in stead of oil. If your avocado is nice and ripe it will partly 'dissolve' and form a creamy dressing together with the orange juice. I didn't have any, but I imagine some chopped toasted walnuts or toasted almond flakes would be very nice with this too! 

Easy vegan Sushi Salad recipe

During the summer, I eat a *lot* of salads, especially for lunch at work. I have quite a variety, but this remains one of my absolute favourites: I call it my sushi salad as the combination of flavours reminds me of sushi. You can up the sushi-ness by adding some shredded nori, leaving out the orange juice, and adding a small amount of wasabi to the dressing, also very tasty!

Serves: full meal for one hungry person

Indredients:

Salad:

1 cup cooked brown rice, cooled

1 avocado, diced

2 spring onions, chopped

75 g grated carrot

1/2 cucumber, finely chopped

75g bean sprouts (mung or soy)

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

dressing:

juice of one orange

1 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tbsp sesame oil

(adjust to taste)

Preparation:

1) Mix salad ingredients.

2) Mix dressing ingredients.

3) Stir dressing into salad.

4) NOM :)  

Vegan Olive Tapenade Recipe

I love olives and olive tapenade, but almost all the supermarket varieties contain anchovies, so I decided to make my own, and it turned out raaaather good:


Olive-rocket tapenade
Ingredients:
115 g pitted black olives
30 g rocket (rucola) leaves
40 g raw unsalted cashew nuts
heaping tablespoon nutritional yeast
heaping teaspoon miso

Preparation:
Put it all in a deep bowl, and blend. YUM.

Be sure to store in the refrigerator. I finished this amount in about a week, and my guess would be that it wouldn't have kept much longer than that with the rocket... oh well, I suppose I'll just have to make more :)