Alice in Veganland

Happy February!

2009-02-01T15:33:00.000-08:00

TGIF has a new meaning!

I teased you all with those awesome marinated cold chickpeas last week and never posted the recipe. Well, here it is:

400-500 g cooked chickpeas
1 lemon (or only half if it's a juicy one)
1-2 garlic cloves
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp dry ginger
1/2 tsp spicy paprika
4 Tbsp olive oil
salt

Mix well olive oil, lemon, minced garlic, turmeric, ginger, paprika, salt and half the cumin. Pour the mixture over the cooked chickpeas. Mix carefully with the other half of the cumin. Let sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Ready!

Here I used brown chickpeas because I saw them in the supermarket and couldn't resist, but I'm sure it's even better with normal chickpeas. This time (following the recipe, ahem...) was extremely tasty and this will soon become a staple in my diet. So good.

Last week I got an awesome unexpected gift from my boyfriend. A LOMO!

I hope I can take some cool pics with it! I'll be sure to post them!

And I don't want to jinx anything, but I'm starting to get lots of calls about jobs. I don't have any offers yet (the processes are always long and require several interviews) but I think I can say that it's going fine. So this week I'm going to be a busy bee going here and there for interviews! Wish me luck!

I didn't mean to abandon you for such a long time bloggies! But

2009-01-25T16:03:00.000-08:00

I didn't mean to abandon you for such a long time bloggies! But I had a flu, and then my boyfriend had a flu, and then I just had another terrible January. January and I aren't good friends, let's put it this way. It probably has something to do with how the weather has been awful.

While I was at my grandparents over Christmas, my grandmother made some great veggie meals, and I loved how she roasted some mushrooms filled with parsley and minced garlic. It tasted just awesome! I've tried to recreate it, but meh, it needs some work (and some fresh parsley!)

On the side I had roasted carrots and parsnips. I tried parsnips for the first time and they taste great! Sweet and nice!

Another thing I've tried to recreate are the marinated cold chickpeas my dad's girlfriend made for us last November when we went to Barcelona. They are marinated with curry spices and served cold!

Again it needs some work (well, what it needs is that I have a look at the recipe she sent me next time).

I made a nice lasagna, also filled with carrots and parsnip (and mushrooms, did you notice I'm saving in groceries?).

It turned out OK, and I discovered that making bechamel sauce relaxes me in ways I couldn't have imagined... Weird stuff!

I tried red quinoa for the first time (it was new in the supermarket!) and I'm SO HAPPY. It tastes great and I love it. I like it a lot better than regular quinoa.

My fridge is completely empty right now! And my pantry doesn't really look better... I have a lot of seaweed though! I guess it's time to go grocery shopping...

Happy New Year!

2009-01-08T06:07:00.000-08:00

Long time no seen! I'm still alive and kicking!

I spent the holidays in Spain and didn't have time or inspiration to blog, so this will be a long post with Christmas eats pictures.
On Christmas eve (well, and leftovers on Christmas day) we had a veggie pie-quiche-pizza-whatever, with potato gratin and avocado salad. Tasty tasty.

And for dessert, baked apples. My mom makes awesome baked apples!

It's maybe nothing spectacular, but we don't really celebrate Christmas season.

On New Years eve, I had a seitan stir-fry with pineapple, spinach and pine nuts. I cooked it with pineapple juice and soy sauce.

It was good but, after trying my homemade seitan, I don't think I'll like the store-bought version ever again...

And then, for the 5th & 6th of January, I made a traditional Roscón de Reyes, veganized!

I forgot to take the picture until we had already started, oops! I found the recipe in a Spanish vegan blog, called El Delantal Verde, which has amazing recipes. I specially like how she veganizes lots of traditional Spanish recipes!

So how's been 2009 for you this far? I would like to skip it and go directly to 2010... I've been feeling a bit blue since it started. I've had weddings announced (I've been invited to two weddings this year and they're both the same day, can you believe it?), a relative died, I got back to an ice cold Germany instead of staying in fun Spain and have a sore throat from all the weather changes.

You'll be hearing from me in your blogs very soon, but first I need a small break till my head and throat stop hurting.

Getting to know an old enemy a bit better

2008-12-18T14:37:00.000-08:00

There are lots of vegetables I didn't like when I was a kid. Like broccoli for example. I remember giving my mother a very hard time over some pieces of broccoli. The thing is, my mother gave up quite easily... OK, there were lots of vegetables I liked too, so it's not that I didn't eat my greens (spinach with bechamel sauce was my favourite meal for a long time).

When I moved out, I started eating all those vegetables I didn't like before, and all the vegetables and spices my mom didn't like. And I realized they were all very tasty! yum broccoli!

But Brussels sprouts were different because of a story with which my mother terrorized me. She told me that once she was eating some, and she opened one and it was full of worms. You probably think it's not big deal, but I hate HATE bugs of all types. I cannot be around them. Never. And that day I decided to never ever eat Brussels sprouts in my life.

And then I grew up.

No, seriously, I realized that at least I had to try again. And most importantly, I had to try not to boil them (I figured it wasn't the best way to find out if I like them or not...). And I saw some of you have roasted them so...

I mixed them with a bit of olive oil and a bit of maple syrup and a bit of cream of balsamic and to the oven they went!

I had them with salad. Awesome salad by the way!

And with a soy Schnitzel from Aldi (which I liked the first time but this time...meh...I don't know if I'll buy it again, it tasted too fake!)

And with shiitake pickles and savory vegan biscuits. OK, these were my first biscuits ever, and I know realize why it's usually covered with gravy. I've learned my lesson! They were very good, but they tasted a bit boring just plain.

So, are you waiting for a verdict? I mean... I ate them three times! that must be a good sign! Well, I'll tell you, I liked them. Yes, I like Brussels sprouts.

And I halved them all to avoid disgusting surprises!

Homemade Seitan

2008-12-11T08:14:00.000-08:00

The first amazing vegetarian meal that completely captivated me was a batch of homemade seitan made by my friend's mom while we where in high school. Well, actually, that woman had been my neighbor for many years, and I've been informed that she already stole my heart one day I ate at her place when I was a preschooler.

When I started eating vegetarian, my mother would buy me seitan and veggie burgers all the time, since we didn't have a lot of time to cook, and I didn't really know how to cook. Now I barely eat them, because I pretty much hate those things after so many years.

But, since I wanted to use what I had in my pantry (I'm watching my euros, mind you) and the package of gluten was half full (haha, I must be an optimistic!), I decided to try my hands on seitan. I used the recipe of Veganomicon, minus the nutritional yeast because I'm out and it's expensive.

The final result was just amazing. My boyfriend loved it and we ate it all in a couple of days! As you can see, I sliced it thin and made a stir fry with black eyed beans and kale (with pasta!). And also...

With carrots and potato salad (my boyfriend's parents made this, quite tasty, although by the time we ate it at home it had marinated too long, an euphemism to say it was old).

I also made cookies last week, and they came out great! I'm not going to take credit for it, it was Veganomicon's recipe for Terry's favorite almond cookies, but changed: with one tablespoon blackstrap molasses instead of the rice syrup, and with ginger but without the sesame touch. Oh! and whole wheat and with brown sugar, of course!

Last, but not least, my latest atempt to like quinoa. I want to like it, because I know it has a lot of calcium, but I surely don't enjoy it as much as millet, for example. This time, I fried garlic and onions before adding the quinoa, and I used homemade veggie stock instead of water. It was a lot better!

Phew! that was a long post, wasn't it? To prepare you for the next post... I'm gonna give a second try to an old foe of mine. Stay tuned!

Cinnamon-Raisin Muffins

2008-12-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

I used to love raisin bread. But it's difficult to find vegan ones in a normal bakery. I've only found one so far, but they just offer it from time to time. That was the inspiration for these Cinnamon Raisin Muffins based on this recipe. They were good, but not the texture I was looking for.

But they were tasty nevertheless and now they're gone because apparently I cannot stop eating when I'm home all day.

Thankfully, I also eat healthy things, including huge amounts of kale. This meal came out so good that I had to share!

1 onion
1 cup cooked brown lentils
6 leaves kale (or so)
2 dried apricots, chopped

Sauté ingredients together and add the following sauce:

2 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp water

We ate it with polenta (made with thyme and lots of nooch) and raved for hours!

I keep the stems of the kale I eat everyday and make veggie broth every week. And the broth is as good as the kale itself!

I'm still sending applications, but everything's moving a bit slow, probably because of the financial crisis? and the upcoming Christmas? So no news from that front yet.

Japanese Dinner

2008-11-27T07:20:00.000-08:00

I'm back from Barcelona! It was a nice trip, specially food-wise, but I don't have any pictures to prove it... My dad's girlfriend is such a good cook AND a veggie lover. It's just a perfect combination.

I found a bag of sushi rice while cleaning the pantry and I made a Japanese dinner!

First we had miso soup:

It had rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, wakame and miso paste.

Then fried tofu pockets filled with rice:

And onigiri! Filled with umeboshi plums and a black-eyed peas paste.

And some boiled and salted edamame:

This all looks very fancy, at least to me, but it was only one evening... Actually what I've been eating all week is this:

It's a stir-fry with garlic, kale, millet, black-eyed peas and tahini sauce. It's to die for!

7 Facts and Chili Sauce

2008-11-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by River from Wing it Vegan! to do the 7 random facts meme! Go check her fantastic blog if you haven't done it yet!

1. I don't like bestsellers. I mainly read classics, but have a soft spot for two writers who are alive: José Saramago and Paul Auster.
2. I hate westerns and movies for kids. I like "special" movies. Those that change you a little bit inside.
3. I'm making a list of things to do before I'm 30. One of the things I want to do is to go to a karaoke and sing. But not just easy like that, no no! I want to go out in a normal night to have a beer with my friends and end up in a karaoke at 2 am singing tacky songs. Probably drunk.
4. I wish I could ride a bike. I mean, I can, but not safely. So I don't use my bike because I'm scared. I'm specially scared of cars, since I'm not that experienced with the bike...
5. Until I started living alone, I didn't eat mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, parsley and a lot of other things I actually LOVE. My mum doesn't like them. Or as she likes to say "they don't agree with her stomach".
6. I love potatoes. Cooked in all possible ways!
7. My boyfriend and I have a sort of list of "running gags". We've been making the same jokes and stupid things for years and apparently, none of us gets tired!

And now the chili sauce!

We bought a lot of chili to make pickles a while ago, and we never did it! We're slackers! So last week, when the remaining were starting to look ...bad? I decided to make a chili sauce.

I had to chop so many of those little nasty peppers! so many! I found a recipe in internet, something like:

A lot of chili peppers
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon rice wine
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt? Not sure, I didn't use that much for sure

It's tasty! It's like these chili sauces in Asian restaurants!

But I put my finger in my eye twice that night, as usual...

Lazy Week

2008-11-16T05:06:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have no excuse. Since I don't have a job, the only real excuse I have for not blogging more often is... well... laziness!

I went to Milan and had a great time with my friends. What can I say, I miss them so much...

The food was absolutely not blogworthly: we ate at the apartment, mainly rice, pasta and salad (and some veggies and fruit, don't worry!). It came out as a very inexpensive weekend. The flight back took me an eternity because my flight got canceled, and by the time I was sitting in the plane I was extremely grateful that I didn't get to spend the night alone in an airport in Milan.

I made some nice meals the week before I went to my trip and I still have to show them to you! First a not-so-interesting green soup, made with kale, lettuce, potatoes, carrots, leeks, and topped with panko bread crumbs.

But also, a lot more interesting, black eyed pea - millet croquettes, adapted from VWAV. I didn't have any quinoa, and they came out perfectly with millet. The only downside is that they were a bit dry and kind of falling apart.

We've been having a lot of salad lately, and my favorite salads have always warm ingredients. I've discovered that stir-fried kale with millet is my favorite combo! With some lettuce and raw veggies, mmmm.
I really had to tell you about the kale and millet...

But the last picture I have is actually something else. A bolognese sauce made with TVP over pasta. I'm not a big fan of meat substitutes, but this TVP thing tasted like the real thing. It was even a bit creepy!

In other news, I have two interviews this week! A phone interview tomorrow and a face-to-face one on Wednesday. I'm a bit scared, don't know why...

And on Thursday, I'm going to Barcelona with my boyfriend to visit my father. He just bought a new apartment and moved in, and he was very excited that we're coming to visit.

I still have to do a meme because I've been tagged! And I have a couple of new things to show, so I promise I won't continue to be lazy and will post more often. And expect a visit to your blog soon!

Tofu Scramble! I did it!

2008-11-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

Well hello unemployment!

I know, I know, maybe I shouldn't be so happy, and I certainly won't be happy if I don't find a job soon, but hey! I think positive and I'm pretty sure I'll find something to start in January latest, which would be awesome because I could enjoy Christmas at home knowing I have a job when I come back after the holidays. OK, these are all speculations, I know...

Last week we made pan-seared dumplings and it was a lot of fun. First, I made a filling with TVP granulate, Chinese cabbage, tomato paste and spices. And then I started forming the dumplings with less success than I thought. Let's say I'm not exactly virtuous when it comes to manual work. Thankfully, my boyfriend was there to save the day, and they ended up awesome!

Seriously, one of the best things I've eaten in a long time. We ate a lot of dumplings, and I could have eaten a lot more. Yeah, lack of moderation is one of my weaknesses.

I'm still playing around with VWAV, and I decided to make a tofu scramble. I know, everybody has tried tofu scramble already, but I hadn't. Actually, I was pretty sure I was going to mess it up, specially since I didn't follow the recipe at all. I didn't have all ingredients, so I just used tofu and spices, and still it was tasty!

This month, I'm going to try to cook with the things I have in my pantry. Not exclusively (hello fresh produce) but mainly. Let's see how that goes...

I also have a picture of a leek pumpkin pasta casserole, which was good but a bit too sweet for me.

I drove my boyfriend crazy with the casserole, because I left it in the oven when it cooled down and he was running around yelling "where is that thing that smells so good!?". Muahaha!

Also, I'm flying to Milan tomorrow to meet my friends. We organized the trip a long time ago, and being unemployed is not really an excuse, since I paid for the ticket a while ago and I don't think that we're going to spend a lot of money.