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!