QUICK MONDAY DINNER - HALLOUMI & AJVAR

This is a quick 15-min dish that I usually make a big pot of and bring to work the following days. You can sneak a lot of your daily vegetables into this.

They key is seasoning it with ajvar relish, which is a roasted paprika paste that you can get in most larger stores. The ajvar makes a really yummy combo with the salty halloumi.

If you want to make a vegan version choose firm tofu instead, but then add some salt when you fry it.

You will need:

-chopped/sliced vegetables - I have kale cabbage, carrot and onions. 

-1 jar of tomato-vegetable pasta sauce. You can of course make your own tomato sauce but then this is no longer a quick dish to make.

-1 250g pack Halloumi cheese

-Ajvar relish

 + Cauliflower rice (steamed grated cauliflower) to serve with, for even more daily veggie bonus.  Tastes good with any actual full grain rice as well, or a 50/50 combo of any rice and cauli-rice. Possibilities folks!

Fry the vegetables and halloumi in a separate pan, join in one pan and mix together with the pasta sauce and season with ajvar. I like it with 3 large table spoons. Serve on top of the rice of your choice, or mix it all together to a yummy (but less photogenic) mash!

APPLES & GINGER

Do you still have apples from this fall? One of my favourite things to make of autumn apples is apple mash with ginger!

Apple mash is what we usually cook of apples around here; as in smoother than jam with bits and looser than a hard marmalade. 

I usually make one jar spiced with vanilla as well, but the ginger version is my favourite -just grate a little chunk of peeled organic ginger at the end of cooking the mash and enjoy a spicy treat that goes well as a jam on pancakes, porridge and peanutbutter sandwhiches (especially!) but due to it's taste also is a great add to salty foods like grilled tofu or meat.

MUSHROOMS AND COFFEE

Buongiorno! I am still in Italy and hopefully eating some nice pasta or gelato (not or! AND) plus enjoying myself some wine. Meanwhile, for the rest of you, we have a throwback to a creamy mushroom pasta I did some time ago with walnuts and chive from the back porch. 
The chives were from the back porch that is. The walnuts were from Lidl. (The mushrooms however were almost from the back porch as well; porcinis my father-in-law picked last autumn.) 


My friend Dixie who has worked in many restaurants before gave me the advice to add a little bit of coffee to a mushroom sauce to bring out their taste and so I did, and so it did as well. Try it!
Otherwise this one took cream (I use oat cream), salt and pepper and garlic. 

MANGO-LEMON VEGAN NO-BAKE CHEESECAKE

Lets start the week with some cake!

The other day I was a guest at a radio show where we talked about the usual things that I tend to visit various shows for, but also had some chit chat on different things, one of them being food.
But I can't really asnwer the question of weather I cook or not correctly. Perhaps a boring  'sometimes' is the right answer. Most of the time I just make what I can get away with quickly (and, as you may recall, due to how I work I most often buy something fast that I have in my car...sniff). But sometimes I do cook properly, and mainly tend to bake things. And I have a habit of not really following recipes, but rather get inspired by them, and often coming up with things myself.

So - here is a semi-raw, no-bake, vegan and  gluten free cheesecake without white sugar that I put together for Easter.

Ok, I know the above categories will make some go "blah" but for me the thing with making these "free of"-cakes is that they should be as yummy and sweet-tooth soothing as any so called conventional cake, and not a substitute. Plus, if it's breakfast worthy it's a bonus because, reaaaally, who would not want to have cake for breakfast?
(Ok, I actually know several weirdos who would answer with a 'not me' to that one but in my universe cake for breakfast equals awesomeness, mmmkay?)

The crust on this one is made with less nuts than usual for some variation, by using roasted buckwheat instead. I am normally not too fond of the taste of buckwheat, but when roasted it has pleasant taste and makes the crust more piquant.
The cake has a lemond curd-y layer in the middle, and a fruity cheese layer on top made with fabulous oat-based PåMackan cream cheese. (It's a great product; tastes just like the real thing!) If nuts are an issue you could try leave them out and use only sunflower seeds for the crust instead (in which case you might have to leave out the mid layer which is made mainly from cashews, or then make a lemon paste of something else). If this does not have to be vegan you can of course make the cheese out of regular Philadelpia or similar.  If the mango is very sweet itself you might not need any extra sweetener, depending on your preferences. I used some agave syrup. Coconut oil is used to firm the cheese filling, but sometimes I have made fillings using cocoa butter instead (but that is way more expensive and not something I have at home regularly).
The cake mold I use is 22cm, alas, if you want a higher creation then use a smaller mold.

Alright! As this is no-bake you'll manage without an oven. Apart from a kitchen mixer, here's what you will need:

For the crust -
1,5 dl  raw buckwheat
2,5 dl walnuts
1,5 dl sunflower seeds
175g dates (approx.), soaked for a while if dried and pressed
lemon zest
1 tbs oil

For the faux lemon curd paste-
4dl cashews
juice of 2 lemons
vanilla
sweetener of your choice

For the cheese filling -
1 mango
1 pack (150g) of På Mackan vegan cream cheese
a little lemon zest
sweetener of your choice
a dash of vanilla
2 tbs melted coconut oil

Dry-roast the buckwheat in a pan on mid-to high heat. Be careful not to burn them; move them around.

Put the buckwheat (I keep writing buckwhat. Like buck-WHAT? Haha) in the kitchen mixer and mix, adding first walnuts about a dl at a time and then the seeds, until you have a semi smooth texture. It's okay to leave a bit of crunch.

Add the dates (squeeze out excess water if you had them soaked) and mix, then the lemon zest and the oil. Press into a cake mold and put in the fridge while doing the rest.

Next step! Mix the cashews smooth, add the lemon juice, the vanilla, and a bit of sweetener. You will get a rather firm paste. Spread/press it out on the crust and put back into the fridge.

Time for the cheese filling! Mash the mango and mix it smooth with the cream cheese. Add the rest.
(At this point of the preparation I thought that my mind had fucked this up, because the luke warm mango-cheese mix did not taste good right our of the mixer. But fear not! It will be nice once it has cooled down!)

Pour the filling on the cake and put in the fridge for an hour or two (or freezer, if you want it quicker. Also, some decoration would porpably be nice, but I never got that far. Berries would be a good suggestion!). Then serve and enjoy!

Store in a sealed box if you don't eat all at once.

MÄMMI TIME!

Altough being stacked up in every store for the moment, it still seems I am in the minority of Finns actually rejoicing that mämmi season is here! Well at least if you ask my Facebook feed, that is. It is a short and sweet (and a bitter one, if we are being literal and going after that taste here) season, lasting only for a week or two around Easter. Once my parents did this thing though where they froze mämmi and had it for midsummer dessert. With  Christmas dishes for dinner. (It tasted wrong on so many leves, but was rather fun of course)

Traditionally meant as a dessert, I like to have my mämmi (or memma, as we say in Swedish) for breakfast. I buy the version without sugar that is somehow sweetened slowly by itself. Don't ask, can't explain how it's done. As I posted here some seasons before, I started having mine with fruit and quark instead of the traditional cream and sugar. So I can both piss off people by saying I actually like mämmi, or then the tradtionalists by having mine in new ways. However, this year I noticed a version selling mämmi with quark in a duo-pack, so it is not just me! Or, then it was because of me.

I think the quarks with lemon or vanilla flavours taste best with mämmi, which makes it somethng of a double-easter thing, as I think flavoured quarks tend to resemble pasha, which we also have for Easter,  in taste. Pasha is a dessert that is served in Eastern Orthodox countries but also in Finland (having been part of Russia for 109 years just up until our independece in 1917 there are both linguistic and culinaristic remnants from that time) and, is unlike mämmi, perhaps easier to like. Kind of like it tastes good without having to think about it twice. It has quark and butter and cream in it with fruit and nuts and you get about all the calories you need for a week to survive in one serving. (BRING IT ON!)

Mämmi is bought in carton boxes made to resemble the original birch bark bowls it was stored and served in back in ye olde days. The dish is made out of rye flour and malt and baked in the oven. So it has quite a lot of protein and fibres and keeps your stomach full and well-working. Even though do I like it could still be described as what disappointment tastes like, because as I kid you'd picture it was some kind of chocolate pudding and then BOOM it was so much not that. However, if you ever find ourself over here at this time of year I do urge you to try this only-in-Finland dish!

MONDAY SOUP

When I don't "have anything at home" and need to cook dinner I tend to make this tomato-lentil-noodle soup. I still always have lentis, crushed tomatoes and coconut milk at home, and this one is ready in no-time. Double the batch of soup if you want this to be Tuesday-soup and Wednesday-stew aswell, it tastes just as good a couple of days later!

I think I've posted some version of this before but that was so many years ago so here you go again -

This soup takes:
1,5 dl red lentils
A handful of rice noodles (or noodles of your choice)
1 can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 - 1 can of coconut milk
Chopped garlic

(All measurements are approximate. I never measure. Not sure if it's even possible to fuck this up, you can have it more creamy or more tomaty if you like, everything works)

Cook everything together in the order above. Choose the amount of water yourself, depending on if you want your soup thicker or runnier.  Season the way you like - I always add garlic, preferrably a lot, and some chili powder or a bit of vegetable broth to the water. You could also add a little red curry paste or perhaps some grated ginger.

Serve with Sriracha sauce and garnish with fresh cilantro. Hemp seeds and/or salted peantuts on top makes this extra delicious.

PIMP MY WATER / THREE WAYS TO FLAVOUR YOUR H2O

I have noticed that keeping a jug of water on the table with stuff in helps me get closer to the goal of drinking enough water during the day (as in opposite of having a jug with just plain water, or no jug at all). And even better, it also helps the kids and man in the house to drink more too, which is a big bonus. The water we get is good and tasteless, but a hint of berry or herb in it makes it more appealing none the less, and is also pretty to look at.

Here are three ideas on how to spice up your water -

Strawberries, cinnamon-basil and a dash of apple cider vinegar.
I came across cinnamon-basil in the store the other day but any kind  of basil will of course do.

Orange and rosemary.

My colleague Tink came up with this one: Pineapple chunks and fresh mint. Try it by putting the pineapple bits in the freezer for a while before dropping them in the water.

Enjoy!

FRESH AND SOUR

Fennel is a vegetable which anis-like taste I sometimes crave for, and sometimes makes me go 'Uh, not now!'. It is however mostly the first option for me, and this easy-to-put-together side dish salad suits Easter well I think. It goes well with mild foods like eggs and rice to add some sour and piquant vibes, or middle along wiht some eastern dishes but also on top of a cheese sandwhich for example.

Fennel & Lemon salad
sliced or diced fennel
sliced cucumber
juice of a lemon
a bit of oil and white vinegar
black pepper

Just blend together in a bowl and you're good to go!

I use a white vinegar with black currant which gives some extra taste to the salad. If you want a spicier version you can add a little Sriracha sauce as well. And add some more oils and fine chopped cabbage if yo do,  but now we are going into totally different territories and salads already.

FLUFFY GREEN SPRING SMOOTHIE

(because at this time of year, you can just name everything starting with "spring"-)

Apparently there's some gene that determines weather you like celery or not. Same goes for cilantro. (The source being solely "what people way" and the internet so I have no idea how much truth there is in that, but it sure makes a great excuse for people to use.) Good for me I seem to have neither of those genes, because I love celery - and cilantro as well, altough I did not put it in this smoothie, even though one surely could; it'd fit great.

Pineapple makes smoothies wonderfully fluffy. You can add one or two drops of apple cider vinegar as well if you want your smoothie a bit more edgy.

So, here we go:
Cloudy apple juice
Celery
Wheat grass
The juice of one lime
About a coffe cup of frozen small pineapple chunks

Woom! in the blender and there you have it!

PUMPKIN TREATS

You know I like it when something is more healthy than it may seem? These pumpkin treats would be something that fits that description. It is also something you can treat your gluten free friends with.

Totally cake-y with a yummy frosting, they still are kind of breakfast worthy as well.

You know, as the main ingredients are a vegetable (pumpkin) and eggs.
The original recipe is from here, but as usual I always alter things a little bit. I am keen on trying to come up with a vegan version of these. And perhaps to try make a round using sweet potato with / instead of pumpkin.

You will need
2,5 dl mashed pumpkin (or 2 dl + half a banana)
A handful of almonds
3 tbs peanut butter
1 dl honey or maple syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
cardamom
vanilla
half a teaspoon of salt
3 eggs

Lightly roast the pumpkin in the oven on 175C so it turns soft and then mash it. (As a bonus you can take out and wash and dry the seeds of the pumpkin too, then when dry roast in a pan with a bit of salt. A great snack.)

Put the almonds in a mixer and mix until smooth (or, use ready made almond flour). Add the pumpkin and the possible banana bonus, peanut butter, sweetener and the spices and blend. You can of course do this by hand if you do not have a mixer. Then add the eggs and stir. You will get a quite loose batter.

(Extra hint: If you don't want to or can use nut butters try doing this with sunflower seeds instead, about 1,5 dl. )

Pour the batter in an oiled pan or a pan with baking paper (that's what I do) and bake in 175C for 30-40 minutes until the colour is a soft brown and the middle is firm. Take out and let cool, then do the topping.

For which you need;
1dl pecan nuts
1dl hazel nuts
2-3 tbs cocoa powder
2tbs coconut oil
about 1dl maple syrup
some salt, vanilla
water if needed

Mix the nuts smooth in a mixer, then add the dry ingredients and the oil. Add the maple syrup in a thin line, check the taste to see if the sweetness is of your preference, add more if needed. If the batter is too firm you can add a bit of water to loosen it up. Put the topping on the pumpkin bars, cut into square, serve and dig in!

Store the pastries in the fridge. These will last at least 5 days and, in my opinion, taste even better after a day or two.

VEGAN SANDWICH BLISS

From the list of small things (or maybe not even that small in the end) that make me happy:
Going to the big super market after work at 10pm because
1) nowadays it is open that late because of free opening hours.
(It's so god damn great I tell you, for anyone that does not do the normal 9-5. Smaller stores have had longer hours for years but now any store can choose their hours themselves and all Prisma's are open until 11 pm for example. And if you live out in the middle of a god damn field like I 99% of the time do nowadays, you are thankful)
2) and in that store, although not in the centre of Helsinki, you can easily pick and choose out of several vegan options available next to any non vegan-or vegatarian one. You don't even need to find that one sad hippie-shelf in the back corner for your almond milk anymore, it's all centrally located and full with lots of different options! 2010's, yey!
3) I can thus have a classic sandwich with cheese and even maddafakin baloney on it, with chocolate milk on the side and it's vegan all the way.

I am not a self-declared vegan, but do I most of the days follow a vegan diet. Sometimes by planning my meals, sometimes more "by accident" as I am so accustomed to it by now. I was on a full-time-vegan diet for a couple of years over a decade ago, and the selection was so much different back then! There is so much more to choose from than Tartex nowadays!

I've never been too fond of vegan cheeses, often found them a bit yucky, but the VioLife one is as good as it's reputation - no funky side taste here. They even have parmesan which I want to try! And the pizza cheese. (And for anyone over here eager to try it: do so from the S-labeled stores, as the K-ones sell these to about double the price as the S-ones!!). The latest sandwhich filling I tried out was vegan baloney with green pepper (soy based). Something I haven't had on my bread for years and years! Also, on a side note: the vegetable breads by Fazer are great! This time I tried out the newest version which is Finnish dark rye bread with zucchini and parsnip. The veggie percent is over 30.

Here are my own favourite vegan bread-spreads, that also work as side dishes to any bbq or salad/meze buffet. And definitely worth trying and serving even if you or your guests aren't vegans or vegatarians -

Green Lentil Tapenade

A delicious picante mash of cooked green lentils, garlic and vinegar and some more stuff. A little (just a little) more detailed how-to with ingredients can be found if you click the link behind the name.

Vegan Liver Patée

I just love this one, and many sworn carnivores dig happily in to this without thinking of it's veeeeegan label. It makes a great ingredient in the best pasta sauce/lasagna filling evvah! Click the name for the recipe.

Ok, now I am hungry again.

(As usual, none of these were sponsored mentions, it's just me digging stuff. But it'd be awesome if they would be though, awesome for me at least. But alas, they are not.)

RED AND STICKY

Phew!
I've juiced and jammed and refridgerated berries like whoah the past day - black currants, red currants, cherries! And the kitchen looks like a murder took place; it's red and sticky everywhere.

All the juice-and jam making is a bit funny though as I don't consume that much of neither and also try not to let the younger ones get too much of those...

But  -sometimes homemade cherry juice is just the best thing there is.

And now I'm off to Reperbahn to dance for a few days! Ta-ta!

QUINOA CHOCOLATE COOKIE-BALLS

This is a recipe that I got via my friend Minnie in New York, that she had modified from another recipe that had been modified from yet another recipe out there. The way it usually goes.
My version differs quite a lot in the end I think,  and I am keen to try on of the more original versions as well, but the first time I did these I went with what I had at hand, and my version has remained like that since.

Because of the quinoa the consistence is a bit different than from the raw or no-bake bars/cookies/fudges I usually make - they are a bit lighter, although still a lot to munch on. These somewhat reminds me of a "potato pastry" (perunaleivos/potatis bakelse)! This association will of course only open up to anyone here in Finland, where that is a very dense, chocolate pastry.

The actual recipe used maple syrup instead of dates but I only had the later (plus I am very fond of dates and it kind of makes the recipe a little bit healthier) and it did not have sunflower seeds, but I did not have as much almond butter as the recipe suggested plus I like the buttery texture that sunflowers get when mixed, which makes whatever it is that you are making yummier.

For the cookie-balls you will need:

1,5dl sunflower seeds

1,5 dl oats

1,5 dl quinoa

1,5 dl shredded coconut

1 dl cocoa powder

1 dl coconut oil

2 tbs nut-butter of your choice

12-14 dates

vanilla

Cook the quinoa. Mix the sunflower seeds with the oats rather smooth in a mixer. Add the dates one by one and mix to a paste. Melt the coconut oil in a pan on low heat (coconut oil melts at around +25 already) and stir in the cocoa, vanilla, coconut and cooked quinoa. Let cool for a minute or two and add this to the mixer and blend for a few seconds so that everything has mixed well. Form into desired shape with a spoon (balls,loose scoops, rolls or press out in a pan if you want to cut them into squares) in cupcake molds or in a pan covered with baking paper and place in the refrigerator for at least half and hour. I rolled my cookie-balls in coconut.

The second time I made these I forgot about the how-to and just mixed everything one by one in the mixer (the same order though, seeds first quinoa last) and it turned out really good as well.

I have done this with both peanut butter and almond butter (and the last time with no butter as I was out), so it is a matter of taste what you prefer. Also the amount of cocoa powder can be adjusted a but to your liking, I've done lighter and darker versions,  and leave out the coconut if you are not a fan, perhaps add some more oats instead.

I am a fan of bitter almond and added a few drops of bitter almond essence which gave me even more potato-pastry vibes!

You could manage to do these without a mixer as well - just leave out the sunflower seeds and add more nut butter instead, and mix with a fork. The cookies will turn out a bit more sticky and loose then, but we know they will taste good nonetheless!

FINALLY: PULLED OATS!!

Last night I finally, after months of waiting, got to prepare us some pulled oats!
"Months of waiting" might seem a little weird and exaggerated for those not acquainted with pulled oats and the anticipation (well, in certain circles at least) around it -pulled oats is a vegan protein source, in texture comparable to pulled pork. It is a Finnish innovation made from, oats - obviously- and the protein from faba beans and peas. There has been a buzz around it ever since last autumn, food journalists and bloggers having tried it already, but it did not reach the stores for us common mortal ones until this May. And it is always sold out everywhere all the time. It's a god damn BINGO! if you manage to actually score a pack in the store, proving that pulled oats are not just a legend after all.

Even I didn't manage to get this one myself -my local supermarket said the chances are biggest on Saturday morning when their order arrives, and they usually sell out by then - but got this pack from my colleague who had some extras after the midsummer celebrations. Our farm produces organic oats and organic faba beans but it's not like I'll be making any pulled oats myself here - I listened to a radio show where the developer of pulled oats talked about the process to reach the texture (which is, of course, secret) and how long it took them to develop it.  So unless I get a bit faster in the morning I'll just have to wait for the production to grow.


I cooked my first pulled oats with a tomato-oat creme-pickled paprika sauce.

And the taste? The texture is very meaty,  but so in a good way. The taste is mild and comes mostly from the seasoning (this pack was with parsley and smoked paprika.) Can't wait to get my hands on the other flavor as well as the un-seasoned one for more cooking.

Note that this post is in no way affiliated with or sponsored by Gold Green (but I'd definitely be up for it if they'd would ask, ehrm!)

CREAM CHEESE 15 MINUTE-PASTRIES WITH SUNDRIED TOMATOES AND HORSERADISH

Here's an easy-to-make salty pastry that I sometimes put together for when guests come over or to have as a quick dinner with a green salad.

You'll need ready made pastry dough (puff- or butterdough sheets), cream cheese, sundried tomates and horse radish.

The quickest version is to use horseradish Cantadou cream cheese and chopped sun dried tomatoes to get this done in less than five, but in this version I chopped up the tomatoes myself and mixed cream cheese with a handful of grated horse radish that I had in the freezer from last summer.

Cut the dough plates in half into squares and place a small spoonfull of the filling on half of the square.

Fold over and press the edges together with a fork. Press some holes on top of the folded triangle with the fork, and  glaze them with  a beaten egg or some water on top. I sprinkled on some sesame seeds as well.

Bake for about 12 minutes at 225C (or at whatever temperature the dough packing suggests), let cool a bit and munch on!

LONG TIME NO SMOOTIE

I haven't made a morning smoothies in ages due to many reasone (or actually two; time and money) but today one of pinapple, banana, coconut milk and frozen wineberries and cherries from last summer came togehter. Pinkacolada!

Long time no rawbars too! But here they are again. These ones with cashews, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, dates, blueberry powder, cocoa, vanilla extract, coconut oil, coconut flakes and dried berries. All just woom-woomed mashed together in the mixer and then refrigerated.
Raw food stuff always sound rather pretentious but these are actually made of basic supermarket stuff and it's like having cake for breakfast! Woop woop.

FAVA BEEN PROTEIN GRANOLA

Alright, don't let the protein -headline scare you away! We are not talking body builder or trendy carb-loathing granola here, but a yummy one with a perhaps somewhat surprising content; fava beans.

This granola is made of organic products that have all grown on our farm. Truly homemade! The recipe was developed by one of the local guys over here who has made lots of breads from our grains and seeds as well. 

Fava beans (bondböna, härkäpapu) have been cultivated in Finland as early as in the 1000th century, and is now making a comeback. It is a good domestic alternative to chick peas or soya beans, as it is rich in proteins.

You will need:
200grams (about 2 dl) fava beans
5 dl oats
approx.1 dl honey

For a vegan version switch the honey to maple syrup! Adjusts the sweetness to your own taste.

Mash the fava beans in a mixer or food processor so that they are crushed into smaller pieces. Let them soak in water for about two hours. The skin of the beans that rises to the surface can be removed. Change the water then cook for about 20 min.

Let the water dry off a bit in a drainer, and put them out on a baking paper on a tray together with the oats. Pour over honey and blend well. Put in the oven preheated to 200C and roast.

You need to take the granola out and give it a mix a few times, so it is roasted evenly. The granola is ready when it has reached a nice dark golden colour and seems "crunchy".

Store in an air tight jar.

You can choose to add flax, pumpkin or sunflower seeds or dried berries as well.

I like my granola with berries on top of porridge (here with lingonberries and hazelnut milk. Plus some mulberries and almond butter and other stuff. Pretentious as hell, I know.), but most of all mixed with kefir!