Vegan cheese!

I found this receipy for vegan cheeze at Vegangela.com, but the original post was over at Ann Gentrys blog. Next time I'll make 1/2 a batch, as it becomes quite a lot. It's going to be interesting to experiment with different flavours! This first cheese batch was perhaps a tadd too yellow (tumeric) and the spice I added to the mix was cummin. Mmmm...

Chocolate-covered popcorn anyone?

Moms Irresistible Popcorn-Fudge !!

(The measurements’ are in metric system and the oven heat is in Celsius)

1. Buy 2 big bags of unsalted popcorn

2. Place the popcorn in a big tinfoil form/aliminium form

3. Melt 200 grams of butter with 5 dl, packed measurements, of
brown sugar.

4. Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1,5 dl molasses

5. Melt and stir non-stop and bring to a boil.

6. Take off stove immediately.

7. Add ½ teaspoon of baking sodaand 1 teaspoon vanilla
extract.

8. Pour over the popcorn and mix well.

9. Put in the oven at 120° - 125° C for 45 minutes.

10. Every 15 minutes take out the tinfoil and mix the popcorn.

11. Melt some chocolate in a pot.

12. After the popcorn has been in the oven for 45 minutes pour them
into a baking pancovered with parchment paper

13. Then pour the melted chocolate over the popcorn (yes!yes!)

14. Put the pan in the fridge and leave to cool.

The next day you will be ready to eat the most deliciously crunchy chunks of my mothers irresistible (I kid you not!) popcorn !!

Ketchup Receip

Thought this sounded fun - making your own ketchup!

1 dl sieved tomatoes
2 tbs vinegar
1 tsp sugar
Salt & pepper
Possibly add 1 tbs olive oil

Jerusalem Artichoke

Image from here.

Isn't it amazing that something so inconspicuous as this little root can make such a delicious soup like the one I did today! :)

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup
400 g of scrubbed Jerusalem artichoke ( peeled if not organic)
1 shallot ( I used ordinary onion because I was out of shallots)
2. 5 dl of non dairy cream ( I used one from oat milk)
lemon juice
salt & pepper

1. Scrub and sliced the roots in pieces and put them in cold water (so they don't get brown) while you fry the onions. I fried them in water as I am trying to eat as little oil as possible, you can fry them in a little butter or oil.

2. Cook the roots lightly in a little water, before adding some vegetable broth, approx 5 min.

3. Add the oat cream and cook until completly soft, approx. 10-15 minutes. then mix thoroughly with a hand mixer.

4. Sample the soup adding lemon juice, salt & pepper till the taste is just right.

Delicious!


Later I'm hoping to do some more cooking ;

The Beet & Spinach Salad that I didn't get to do last time.
The Chai infused Pears also that I didn't get to do last time.
A main course with chick-peas (probably something Indian)
And maybe some cookies!

So, after shopping a lot of stuff late last night thanks to my friend (thanks sweetie!) who took me in her car. I made carrot, Apple and ginger soup today from Vegangela. However my cocunut that I added did not look as thick as I imagined... and I had forgot that the cahews for the cashew cream needed to soak the night before... So, it does not look as luscious as hers did. Still I am learning! :) And on that note I should remember that I am a nut-alcoholic and thus need to soak the nuts and do the recipe a.s.a.p ...



Then I had my sister-in-laws sisters bean & mango salad with cilantro. Once again, NOT as amazingly tasty as hers, but I'm getting there!

Planning !

OK, so I'm home in Sweden again and swamped with numerous "to-do things" and cooking food is far down on the list, especially since my fridge is sort of empty... Now if I'm not going to starve (!) and blame it all on me going vegan I simply must start to plan my meals! I mean, buying some ready-made meals is not an option if I want to stay the course. So...

1 Soup - Carrot, Apple & Ginger
1 Main course - Pasta with basil & tomato sauce
2 Salads - Mango & Beans and Beet & Spinach
1 Spread - Hummus
2 Desserts - Chai-spiced Pear & Butternut Vanilla Pancakes (can be breakfast too)

I've written a long shopping list... :)

In the beginning

In 1984 I became first a vegetarian for a short while and then a "fish-vegetarian" for nearly 16 years. Then I started eating chicken and turkey. That was ten years ago. I haven't touched red or pig meat for 26 years...

But a few days ago my mother, a trained nurse, encouraged me to watch a documentary "Knives over Forks" that she had found immensely inspirational. And so did I!

The film has motivated me to return to my roots and beyond ! I think I'm finally ready to embrace becoming a vegan ( with the exceptional seafood meal now and then, especially when invited for dinner at other peoples homes ) !

BUT I have promised myself to try and make each vegan meals as delicious and sumptuous as possible, so that I'll never feel that I "gave up" something to change my eating habits.

My new vegan life begins when I'm back in Sweden again (right now I'm in LA) and I', really looking forward to it!

Watch the trailer of "Forks over knives" here !