Cardamom & Oatmeal Scones

This has been a bad blog week. It's already Saturday and this is the first post of the week. Well, I could blame school and having to study, or I could make it up to you with a really great recipe. As the second alternative sounds much more fun, I'm going to go with that one. So here you go, Cardamom and Oatmeal scones! 

I made these on a chilly fall afternoon and enjoyed them with marmalade and nut butter while watching a real childhood nostalgia-movie. I have a hard time finding a better way to spend a free afternoon! 

The best thing about these scones is that there is no scary fake butter or margarine in them. I may be silly, but I'm not a fan of vegan margarine. To me there is something gravely unnatural about vegetable fats, which should not be solid at room temperature, behaving like butter. In my opinion fake butter can't be all good, so I try to steer clear of it. And these scones work out wonderfully with the much healthier canola oil! They are a bit crumbly, but to me that's half the challenge and fun of eating a scone!

Two big scones 
3 dl oatmeal
3 dl plain white flour (you may need some extra if the dough is very sticky)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cardamom (best is if you ground it yourself)
1 dl canola oil
2 dl vegan milk or yoghurt (I used oat milk)

Turn the oven on to 225 degrees Celsius. Combine all the dry ingredients and att the milk and oil. Mix until you have a nice and not too sticky scone dough. You might have to add some extra flour if it is very wet. Divide the dough in two, roll them to balls and flatten out until they're about 12 cm in diameter. Place on a lined baking sheet and using a knife mark the scones where you'll want to break them apart later (in 4 parts per scone). Bake in the middle of the oven for 12-15 minutes or until slightly golden. 

Enjoy with marmalade or some nut butter. Or any other vegan scone-topping of your choice!

Variation: You can of course substitute the cardamom for some other spice. Why not try some seasonal pumpkin pie spice?

End of the week-treat: Banana spice bread with chocolate chips

It came again, the end of the week. This particular sunday might have seemed pretty dismal: the weather was grey as can be and the week-end was almost over. But instead it turned around to be a wonderfully cozy day to stay inside, putter around in thick wool socks and just enjoy being at home. Of course that kind of coziness calls for something good, a nice afternoon "fika" (swedish word for a small snack, often with a cup of tea or coffee). With some old bananas lying around, what could be better than baking some banana spice bread with chocolate chips! Together with a cup of tea, it'll give any day a silver lining! I made it with homemade pumpkin pie spice, you'll find that recipe below too.

Banana spice bread with dark chocolate chips

One yummy loaf
3 (over)ripe bananas
75 g vegetable oil
75 g dark muscovado sugar
225 g plain flour
1 heaped tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (or cinnamon)
100 g dark chocolate chips

Turn the oven on to 200 degrees C.Mash the bananas with a fork. Whist together with the oil and sugar. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and spices and add to the banana mixture. Stir until smooth, add the chocolate chips and then pour it all into a greased loaf pan. Baka for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. You might have to cover it ut at the end of the baking. Take the bread out of the oven, let it rest a couple of minutes in the pan and then take it out to cool on a rack.

Pumpkin pie spice

4 tsp "regular" cinnamon
1 tsp Ceylon cinnamon (you can omit this if you want to, but it has a wonderful perfumed flavor)
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
¾ tsp ground cloves
¾ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp ground cardamom

Combine all of the spices.

Apple, Gingerbread & Rye Porridge with roasted almonds

When I woke up this morning it was way too dark outside and I heard the rain patter on my window. In a moment like that, staying in your cozy bed under a double duvet seems like the only reasonable thing to do. Unfortunately that's not always an option. So I gathered all the mental strength I could muster early in the morning and got up. Luckily, I found the perfect way to turn getting up into something positive! Making som apple, gingerbread and rye porridge! You may say, get a grip, porridge can't make your day. Well, my love for porridge is real and true, so it made mine! Perhaps you also think, it's October, way to early for gingerbread spices. To that I answer a simple no. The warm and spicy flavors of cinnamon, cardamom and cloves... They can heat up any cold morning! So here it is friends, a wonderful way to start a cold fall morning, Apple and Gingerbread Porridge topped of with roasted almonds and sunflower seeds!

The porridge is made from very coarsely ground rye flour. I happen to have a small flour mill at home, so I can make the flour as coarse as I want. If you can't get ahold of this, you can use rye flakes instead, only they won't have to cook as long! Also you'll have to increase the amount to 1 dl.

For one lucky breakfast-eater
¾ dl very coarsely ground rye flour (or 1 dl rye flakes)
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cardamom
A couple of dashes of ground cloves
1 tbsp raisins
2 dates, chopped
2 ½ dl water
1 apple
¼ tsp salt
About 10 almonds
1 tbsp sunflower seeds

Chop up the apple into small pieces. Bring the water to a boil. Add the rye flour, spices, raisins and half of the apple pieces. Stir vigorously to eliminate all lumps and the lower the heat. Let the porridge simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the almonds and roast them together with the sunflower seeds in a dry pan.
When the porridge is done cooking, serve it up in a nice bowl, top with the rest of the apple, the roasted almonds and seeds and a nice dash of cinnamon. Serve with your favorite vegan milk.

Feeling blue? Make it all better with som really red curry!

This afternoon I spent three hours wandering around among fall leaves in the forrest. It was beautiful with the red and yellow leaves against the gray fall sky and really a very enjoyable afternoon, but when I finally returned home I was chilled to the bone. A couple of cups of hot tea later I'd thawed out a bit and decided for the perfect dinner after a day like this one. Bright red, warm and hearty curry! Both full of flavor and with the same beautiful colors as the fall leaves I'd been trudging through all afternoon.

Stew for a quite a few (about 6 people)

1 yellow onion
1 small red chili
2 tbsp grated ginger
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp good curry powder
1 tsp turmeric
300 g celeriac or turnip
300 g red beets
3 carrots
2 parsnips
400 g crushed tomatoes
5 dl boiling water
1 dl red lentils
3 dl kidney beans
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp salt
Pepper
Some oil for frying

Start of by heating a big pot to medium heat. Chop your onion, garlic and chili in fine pieces and peel and grate the ginger. Add a good lug of oil to your pot together with the onion, chili, garlic, ginger and spices. Let all of this cozy up in your pot while you start peeling and cutting the other veggies. Cut them up in fairly small cubes and add to the pot as you go. Once you're done cutting and peeling, the onion should be getting soft. Add the water and tomatoes, pop the lid on and let it simmer softly for about 30-40 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and tender. Add the lentils and some extra water if it is needed and let cook for 10 more minutes with the lid on. When about 3 minutes remain, add the beans and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper as you please and serve it up with your favorite carb. I had couscous that I'd cooked with spices, garlic and turmeric, and some green peas fried with chili, garlic, red onion, mango chutney and shredded coconut. Beautiful!

Keep-any-fall-cold-away breakfast!

You know the old saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"? This morning I took that a step further and made the most kick-ass, keep-any-cold-away, so good breakfast. What was this amazing breakfast you may wonder. Well, it was vegan (of course), gluten-free, raw and easily prepared. What could be all those wonderful things, your next question might be. Chia pudding with apple, ginger and cinnamon of course!

I must say, I've fallen in love with chia pudding. To start off with, there are few things that are better than being able to prepare your breakfast the day before and then just take it out of the fridge the next morning when you're way too tired. On top of that, chia pudding feels really fresh and healthy, and you can flavor it in so many ways (just like porridge, my other love in life). This particular chia seed breakfast has ginger and cinnamon in it, perfect to keep those fall colds at bay, together with some wonderful fall apples. There are few better ways to start of a chilly fall morning!

Taking an attractive picture of something like chia pudding
isn't too simple. So you'll just have to trust me on this one,
it's delicious!

Chia pudding with ginger, cinnamon and apple

For one lucky breakfast eater
1 ½ tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp oat meal
½ tbsp pumpkin seeds
½ tsp flax seeds
1-2 tsp wheat germ
1 tbsp raisins
½ - 1 tsp grated ginger
A big dash of cinnamon
1 apple
1 ¾ dl water

The instructions for this one is as promised very simple. The only thing is you have to start the night before. Just mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the water and stir it up. Grate half of the apple (and save the rest for serving in the morning) and stir it into the bowl. Let the pudding stand for about 10 minutes, then stir it again and pop it in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, take your pudding out of the fridge, cut the left over apple up over it, sprinkle with cinnamon and serve with your favorite vegan milk!

If you really want to boost your immune system, you can do like I did and add some wheat grass powder. It'll look slightly strange as it gets all green, but it'll be healthy as can be! Add about ½-1 tsp of wheat grass powder.

C'est lundi!

Well, the weekend disappeared. This time too. Another boring Monday, or are we? No! I found I simple quick-fix for boring Mondays: do them french-style! So this afternoon, after making about 4 kg of sauerkraut (that's a future post, I promise), I yanked up the french music and started cooking! I must say, there is no better music to cook to than real french accordion music! Everything instantly smells a little sweeter, you feel like Julia Child and out of the blue the inspiration is flowing. In the French playlist on my phone I have some wonderful songs from the movie "Ratatouille", which must be among the cutest Disney movies ever. Give me a movie about food, and you've got me, but if it's set in France and about a little rat chef, well, it doesn't get much better. Anyhow, just like in the movie, I made ratatouille for dinner, and just have to say: Yum. Today was really stormy and fall-like here in Stockholm, and I can't think of a more comforting and delicious thing to have for dinner after a day like today! So here you go, ratatouille with camut wheat and Puy lentils with lemon. The ratatouille may seem like a lot to do, but it's simple stupid, I promise.


For about 6 hungry people
The ratatouille:
Oil
1 eggplant
1 medium zucchini
1 large red onion (or two small ones)
4-5 cloves of garlic
1,5 dl red wine
1 red and 1 yellow pepper
4 big tomatoes
400 g canned chopped tomatoes
2 tsp frozen herbe de Provence
2 tsp frozen parsley
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper

The camut and lentils:
2 dl Puy lentils
3 dl camut wheat
Salt
Lemon zest from almost 1 lemon
Pepper
1-2 tsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp olive oil
Optional: Some baby spinach

Okay, so the first thing you should do is to chop up the eggplant. Cut it in about 1-inch cubes and place these in a bowl. Sprinkle some salt over, toss it up and let it stand while you continue preparing.
Next step is to start cooking the lentils. Add them to a saucepan together with some salt and add about 5 dl water. Bring to a boil and let them cook gently until they're tender, but not too soft, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, continue your vegetable-chopping. Cut the zucchini once lengthwise and then slice it in ½ inch thick slices. Cut the onion in bigger or smaller pieces, depending on how you like them. Finely chop the garlic. Cut the peppers in ½-inch cubes. Peel (if you want to) and slice the tomato.
Now, take out a nice big pot, of course I didn't miss the opportunity to use my favorite Le Creuset pot. Put it on medium high heat and add a good lug of oil. When the pot is hot, add the eggplant (but try to leave the liquid it's probably produced behind) and sauté with some salt, pepper and about a third of the garlic until soft, about 5 minutes. If the bottom of the pot starts to get a bit brown, don't worry, for here comes the best part. Add half the wine and scrape the bottom of the pan to get it all clean and get all of those flavors into the wine. Transfer the eggplant in wine to a bowl.
Add a new lug of oil and repeat the same procedure for the zucchini, that is fry it for about five minutes with salt, pepper and garlic. Add the wine, scrape a bit, and let the zucchini join the eggplant in the bowl. Add one more splash of oil and the onion this time, together with the rest of the garlic. Lower the heat and let fry for a couple of minutes. Add the peppers to the onion and let them soften.
Your lentils should be ready by now, so drain them in a colander. Cook your camut wheat according to the instructions on the package, it should take about 15 minutes. When they're done, add them to the colander with lentils. But while they're cooking, go back to the ratatouille.
Add tomatoes and herbs to the pot. Put the lid on and let them get a bit soft while simmering, about 5 minutes. Take the lid off, add the chopped tomatoes and the zucchini and eggplant. Give it a good stir, put the lid back on and leave it to do its thing for about 10 minutes. When the time's up, take the lid of and let it simmer for another 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the lentils and camut wheat. Add the rest of the ingredients in a bowl with the wheat and lentils, stir it up and you're done, if you don't want to have the spinach, then add that too.
The ratatouille should be getting ready, so set the table, slice up some good bread, light a candle or two and enjoy!

Twice in a week, going steady with some braised lentils!

Wow! Two posts in a week! We promised to stay in touch, and well, so far so good! With not so much to do in school, there is loads of time for some quality moments with my favorite cast-iron pot! This time it ended up in a dinner consisting of braised lentils with red wine, pasta and french-style green peas with lemon and garlic. One thing I can promise, this is not a shy stew! We're talking some massive flavor: wine, garlic, tomato, lentils making magic during an hour in the oven. Here's the recipe for you!

Braised lentils

For probably 6-8 or so (or less with yummy leftovers)
2 onions
2 garlic cloves
2 carrots
1 stalk of celery
2,5 dl red wine
1 l boiling water
3 tbsp tomato purée
250 g small green lentils (like the french kind, Puy)
400 g canned tomatoes
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp sugar
Salt and peper
Oil

Start of by popping your pot on the stove with some oil and heating it up to medium heat. Turn the oven on to 170 degrees C. Chop the onion and garlic finely and start frying it in the pot. Chop the carrots and celery in small, small cubes and add them to the onion. Fry everything until the onion's getting soft. Pour in the wine, and add the tomato purée, sugar and bay leaves. Let this boil on medium heat until the wine is reduced by half. Add the canned tomatoes, lentils and water. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then take the pot of the stove and put it into the oven with the lid on. Leave it to do its thing for 30 minutes, then take it out, stir it up and put it back for another 30 minutes without the lid. During these last 30 minutes, stir it up once or twice more. After a total of one hour in the oven you should have some wonderful braised lentils spreading a divine smell of wine and tomatoes in your kitchen. Serve with pasta or just a great sourdough bread and some nice greens. Bon apètit!

Back to stay this time?

Dear cyberspace!

A year ago I wrote a post stating how bad we'd been about sharing our vegan experiences with you here on the blog. Well, we didn't get any better did we. So I thought it is time to give it another try, shape up, and get blogging!

I do have some wonderful news though! Now, three years (that's a crazy long time, gosh!) after we started our vegan project and vegan challenge, it is finally time! For what you may ask. Well a new vegan challenge of course! Starting in October, we're having another vegan month! This means four weeks of wonderfully vegan food and hopefully som more activity here on the blog! So far we're three that are in on it, my brother, my dear friend Elin, who helped us so much with our book, and me. I know that we're not that many, and I know there aren't that many people out there reading the blog. But if you do, if someone does, join us in our challenge! It's an eye-opener, that I promise.

Anyhow, the last couple of days, I've been doing some great vegan cooking. Everything from pasta with zucchini cream, apples and sage to lime and ginger noodles with fried tofu. Yesterday though, was the best in a long time! Creamy borlotti beans, brussels sprouts with almonds and best of all, fried chanterelles with garlic! So humble flavors, it was to die for (and very simple to make!)! I must confess though, we happened to find some really nice parmesan in our fridge, and well, lets just say you can't waste good parmesan. But apart from that, it was completely vegan and delicious! And I'm going to share the recipe for the borlotti beans with you. It's based on a recipe from one of my all-time favorite recipe-writers, Jamie Oliver, although a bit altered. Enjoy!

Creamy, humble borlotti beans (with Brussels sprouts and fried chanterelles)

500 g cooked borlotti beans (2 cans)
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 stalk of celery
1 plum tomato
1 potato
Salt & pepper
A few springs of thyme and rosemary
A couple of sage leaves
3 bay leaves
Oil for frying
Water to cover it all
A splash of lemon juice

Heat a deep frying pan to medium heat with a splash of oil in it. Chop the onion finely, as well as the garlic. Fry gently until quite soft. Chop the celery in a few pieces, do the same to the potato, Cut the tomato in about three pieces. Pop all of the above in the pan with the onion, together with the herbs and some salt and pepper. Cover everything with water, bring to a boil and let simmer covered on low heat for about 40 minutes, until both beans and potatoes are soft.

Take the herbs and celery out of the pan and discard. Fish out the tomato and potato pieces and put on a plate. Take the skin of the tomato and mash it together with the potatoes on the plate. Add this back in with the beans, raise the heat, and let boil until everything is thick and creamy. Make sure to stir it quite often. Taste for salt and pepper, add the lemon juice.

To make the Brussels sprouts, simple boil them for five minutes in salts water. Take them out and rinse in cold water. Add to a pan of fried onions and fry gently for a couple of minutes. Season with salt, pepper and perhaps som balsamic vinegar. Top of with roasted almonds

Enjoy the beans together with chanterelles fried with garlic in some olive oil, the Brussels sprouts and a slice of nice sourdough bread.