winter sunday

today was a very snowy quiet dim day in berlin. after yoga and before a neighborhood walk i made a quick breakfast of toast with mild miso paste and tahini. i know it sounds odd but my best friend in london swears by it and passed the tradition on to me. its a great salty taste combo and both ingredients are good for you, a nice bonus. paired with a small glass of fresh pomegranite juice from the market it was the perfect 5 minute breakfast

while on our neighborhood walk hendrik and i spotted some newly bloomed pussy willows, a sign of early spring and a chinese symbol for prosperity. we spotted a branch that has been broken already and took the chance to remove it and bring it home to hang out with us.

black beans two ways

black beans in a can arent so available in germany so when i go through the effort of soaking and then boiling the dry ones for like 2 hours i make a whole bag and try to use them in a variety of ways. Yesterday i made a simple black bean spread by sauteeing some garlic and onions in olive oil then throwing them in the food processor with some salt, more oil, water and a tablespoon of tahini.

tonight i used the rest of the beans for dinner. The beans were sauteed with onions, garlic, pine nuts, walnuts and some mole sauce and then jammed into and poured over oven roasted teeny tiny acorn squash. Although this pic is pretty whack due to my awful kitchen lighting it was a delicious meal, my favorite part being the oven roasted thyme onion bits. mmm.

chili + choco chip cookies

last night i had some pals over to watch the season finale of real housewives of beverly hills (no shame) and for it i made a big pot of vegan chili and some “healthy” chocolate chip cookies.

the chili wasnt from a recipe and its pretty traditional but the one twist i was excited about was the addition of whole wheat berries. I had a bunch in my pantry from the rejuvelac process and i thought they would add a chewy nutty carb to the chili which it totally did, i highly recommend giving it a try.

the cookies are “healthy” because they contained rice flour instead of wheat flour, agave nectar instead of sugar and rapeseed oil instead of butter. theres also puffed amarinth, some oats, and sunflower seeds thrown in.

the original recipe can be found here.

Popcorn snackage

Things may be getting a little plainer in my house due to the cleanse but that doesnt mean were starving or going without or not enjoying food. The new snack du jour since were avoiding all pre packaged or produced foods is fresh popped popcorn. sprinkle a little salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, or a dash of your favourite seasoning blend (old bay popcorn is my fave!) to spice things up or just go all model diet on the snack and eat it plain.

fermented cashew cheese

I make cashew ricotta all the time (which is only really soaking cashews, grinding them up in a food processor with some flavored oils, salt, pepper, herbs, etc. and eating) so i finally decided to try my hand at a harder fermented cheese. An easy way to do this is to add the contents of a probiotic pill to your cashew-ricotta-like blend and let it sit, but i decided to try my luck using rejuvelac as my fermentation starter.

Rejuvelac is a fermented liquid made by sprouting a whole grain (i used wheat berries) for a few days, then soaking that sprouted berry in water for like 2 days. the water you're soaking in is Rejuvelac once its all finished. theres how-to guides all over the internet for the process and they're all varied in quantities and time but the main idea is to sprout, then soak. then drink the soaking liquid.

Rejuvelac is great for the digestive tract and is a super cheap easy vegan probiotic formula. Ive yet to take enthusiastic gulps of chilled rejulevac as a beverage (its in a jar in my fridge and i will get around to drinking it…) but im excited about its health benefits nonetheless.

the cheese recipe is also dead easy

here it is:

3 cups soaked cashews (soaked for approx 12 hours)

1/4 cup rejuvelac

salt and pepper to taste

blend your soaked cashews in a food processor until as smooth as possible. add salt and pepper and anything else you're flavoring with. Mix with rejuvelac in bowl. if its super liquidy you can put it through a cheesecloth but i didn't need to.

let sit in room temp area, covered, for 12 hours. it will firm up during this time.

shape your cheese round however you'd like, and stick it in the fridge!

i added cracked black peppercorns to the top of one of my rounds and left the others plain. this recipe made me 3 good sized rounds, so much cashew cheese that i had to give some away.

Staples monday

old bay oat crackers

almond milk

plain old seitan

after the cinnamon buns were all gone hendrik and i officially started a month long cleansing diet. the basic principles follow very closely the standard ones for macrobiotic eating, with a focus on healing japanese ingredients that used to be a bigger part of my diet like a variety of seaweeds, umiboshi plums, green tea, etc.

Im avoiding all sugars including those in fruits and starchy veggies, coffee, alcohol, non fermented soy products, wheat flour (so with no soy butter, soy milk and no wheat my baking is going to have to get very creative). im also making about 50% of my diet brown rice, which i was inspired to do by reading my new genmai book.

so yesterday as a good start to the diet i prepared some basics for the rest of the week.

also not pictured is this bomb ass tahini caramelized onion sauce from hell yea its vegan that i highly recommend. its only got 4 ingredients so its super easy to make plus its creamy but healthy and sooo good.

sunday cinnamon buns

during my layover in new york on my return flight to berlin i caught sight of a cinnabon, and glimpsing those gooey shiny cinnamony buns inspired an attempt at vegan cinnamon buns. So this past sunday my friend drea and i put in the effort, and were rewarded. Our buns werent perfect, since they didnt cook through to the bottom during the allotted cooking time we had to put them in for longer which turned the sugar from a goo into a hard-goo, but they were still awesome. a dollop of vegan cream cheese frosting on the side, always a plus.

recipe for "perfect cinnamon buns" from vegan yum yum

Dinner Pancakes

Today is still a sick day during which i ate a lot of leftover 'sick girl soup' so when Hendrik jokingly suggested pancakes for dinner I was all over the idea. Five minutes and one modified VeganYumYum recipe (i didn't have any soymilk so i substituted watered down soy yoghurt) later the batter was ready and the skillet heated. We ate them standing up by the stove and were fully satisfied.

The last one on the skillet was sacrificed to the foodblog gods, we kind of spaced on flipping it while taking pics. woops...

sick girl soup

so, now that im back in Berlin… im sick. Today I whipped up a pot of comfort soup that ive affectionately dubbed "sick girl soup". Im including a rough recipe but really the idea is to not leave the house for ingredients and use whatever is around. for me that was spiral noodles, potatoes, carrots and broccoli but it'd work just as well with cabbage, pumpkin, tofu, whatever.

Yield: 5 servings

3 cloves chopped garlic

2 shallots or 1 large onion, chopped

4 small potatoes, cubed

4 carrots, chopped in rounds

2 cups spiral noodles

whatever amount you want of tofu, seitan, or other protein (i used two sautéed field roast sausages cut into bits cause its all i had)

1 cup chopped broccoli

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 1/2 tablespoon tomato paste

2 tablespoons braggs liquid aminos or soy sauce

any vegan broth (i used faux chicken)

salt and pepper to taste

sauté garlic, onion and smoked paprika in oil at bottom of large heavy soup pot. once onions cook slightly add potatoes, carrots and protein and mix well. continue to sauté for about ten minutes, then add approximately 6 cups water, tomato paste, soy sauce and broth powder. allow soup to come to a boil and after about another 10 minutes add the noodles. cook till the noodles are tender and at the very end throw in your broccoli or other fast cooking green. and whala! fast and simple sick girl soup... warm, salty, starchy and comforting ;)

gainesville

Last weekend Hendrik and I ate our way through Gainesville, Florida. I went to college there but havent been back since i left 6 years ago. Most of my most vivid memories from that town are food based, so we had alot of tasting to do.

TVP burrito from Boca Fiesta with a side of collard greens and corn on the cob

Ancho black bean cakes with mango salsa, asparagus and peppered tofu from The Top

Iced coffee and many many rolls than pictured with marinara sauce from Leonardos Pizza

Ok i know this looks kinda gross but it was my best meal in g'ville. Seitan steak with beans and rice, steamed cabbage and plantains from Reggae Shack

Our last meal of the journey was a rushed to-go vegan pizza from Satchels, which is this totally amazing pizza-joint-slash-community-center with a bocce court, a tree fort, a oddities store called lightning salvage enterprise, tons of rad outsider art, walls o junk, hallways o junk, and the coolest part.. shiitake logs! they have this dark corner covered in tarp full of stacked logs where they grow their own shiitake mushrooms which i was so into.

shiitake logs

thanks gainesville for being so good to us

highway 60

Im on a mini roadtrip through florida from miami to gainesville, and have already encountered two of floridas edible jewels... citrus and boiled peanuts. Hendrik and i bought a bag of mixed local citrus from a trading post but the prize so far has been the 'pomelo'. the biggest piece of citrus ive ever seen... its like a grapefruit but sweeter and its so big i have to use two hands to lift or hold it.

Boiled peanuts are my absolute favourite southern delicacy and the fact that theyre completely impossible to locate in germany makes having them here that much more special. We saw a dude selling them out of his car yesterday, slammed on the breaks, and bought a bag of garlic ones. pop the entire shell in your mouth, suck the juices, crack the shell with your teeth, then harvest the delicious hot creamy peanutty middle. I hope we find more tomorrow!