Daves Veganeria

Vegan Miam Khang, Chaplu Leaves

David Lorenz — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 11:27:12 GMT

This one has it all sweet, sour, spicy, flying away like Aladin on a carpet of taste and joy 💖

Prep Time (Cutting, Frying)	~5-10 minutes
Total time	less than 15 minutes
Servings	1
Glutenfree	✅

Ingredients for 1 Miam Khang Leaf

Multiply the ingredients for each leaf you want to serve. As a starter dish I recommend maximum 2 leaves per person.

The ingredients listed for the sauce are sufficient for at least 10 Leaves.

Fillings chopped in small cubes

1tsp of red onion
1 tablespoon of Tofu
1/4tsp Ginger
1/2tsp Roasted Peanuts
1/2tsp Organic Lime

The other ingredients

A big Chaplu Leaf
1/4tsp Fresh Birds-Eye Chilis, cut in thin slices
1/2tsp coconut flakes

Ingredients for the Sauce

2tbsp brown Coconut Sugar (Palm sugar) ^[1]
1/2tbsp Hosin Sauce
1tbsp Water
2tbsp Soy Sauce
5mm of galangal (or ginger)
1 Kaffir lime leaf
1/2tsp Lemongrass (simply cut small/thin)

^[1] alternatively you can take 1tbsp of Brown Sugar

Instructions

Prepare the filling ingredients

Roast the peanuts in a pan slowly on medium level until they get a nice brownish color
As described in the ingredient list, chop the red onion, the tofu, the ginger, the roasted peanuts and the organic lime (with peel!) into small cubes and put each of them aside. Also cut the chili into thin slices.
The tofu, cut in very small squares gets roasted in the pan together with some oil. Once it gets brownish, add a tablespoon of soy sauce to it and eventually throw the tofu into a serving bowl.

Make the Sauce

Cut the Galangal (or Ginger) in very thin pieces
Cut the Kaffir leaf as small as you can with a sharp knife (very thin stripes are recommended)
Take a pot, put the sugar in it and heat it up until it caramellizes
Add the rest of the ingredients, stir well and cook for 1 minute whilst stirring
Put the ready sauce in a small bowl for it to be served

The Miam Khang Leaves

Wash the Chaplu leaves and then simply serve the ingredients, the sauce and the leaves nicely so that everyone can fill their own leaves
Now fill the leaf with all ingredients. In theory the order does not matter but the best visual experience is given when you add the sauce and then afterwards the cocounut flakes as the last filling. Do not forget to add more chili if you want more spicyness.
Once your leaf is ready you can serve it e.g. on eggcups / shot glasses.
The leaves are then enjoyed as one bite, alltogether in the mouth 👌😍 - A wonderful experience that is very very unique and refreshing

Vegan Croissants 🥐

David Lorenz — Sun, 02 May 2021 15:38:09 GMT

Everybody loves fluffy, freshly-baked Croissants. With jam or chocolate or whatever. Croissants rock!

Now I already hear the background voices whispering: "Well, a vegan croissant without egg is not gonna taste as good anyway".

So wrong because the egg essentially is only used to make it shiny at the end. The dough is egg-free either way so there is no need of replacing it 👌

The first time we had Vegan Croissants (from a local organic market) we expected them to taste dry or simply worse than normal ones. But we were oh so wrong: We never had better Croissants - ever 😍

The typical Croissant dough is not much different to typical puff pastry dough. At this point people have prejudices again that it's the "most complex thing one can make". But that really seems to be an urban Myth because there are certainly more complex things than making puff pastry - e.g. tax declaration or a proper sour dough.

Honestly: There is nothing really "complicated" about this dough. The only thing you need to bring is reading skills and a little bit of patience and love.

If you are looking for a recipe like "Just throw everything in a pot and stir-fry" then yes, this might be the wrong recipe for you. Besides that: I know you can do it and you will love your homemade croissants 💖

The Best is yet to come: The ingredients in this recipe are providing you with ~6 Vegan Croissants. Which means you get just enough for the whole week and you do not have to bake all of them at once since you can store them in the freezer.

Tip: If you double the amount to make ~12 croissants for the next weeks then make 2 doughs and not one big dough. The risk of breaking the dough apart is way higher if you use such a big dough.

Total Prep Time (includes resting time)	~4 hours
Baking Time	~20 Minutes
Yields	~8 Vegan Croissants

What you will need

If you need to feel the pain that it takes to make a proper dough then you can simply use your hands and you are good to go.

However I recommend using a proper kitchen machine that helps you making the dough soft and the ingredients in the dough distributed equally.

Here are some if you need inspiration: Kitchen Machines.

Ingredients

Ingredients for the Vegan Croissant Dough

20g Fresh Yeast
70ml Plant Milk, room temperature
120ml Sparkling (!) Water
375g All-Purpose Flour (e.g. EU Type 550)
40g Sugar
6g Salt
1tsp Vanilla Sugar
30g Plant Oil
1tsp Bicarb

Ingredients for the Layers (Tours)

175g vegan Butter
Baking Paper

The Puff Pastry is made of 2 components: The actual dough plus the block of butter. The block of butter is the "butter layers" which lead to its fluffiness whilst baking since the butter splits up layers of dough making up the typical croissant structure.

The Croissant Recipe

Instructions for the Croissant Dough

At first we mix the yeast with 2 tablespoons of our milk until the yeast is completely dissolved in the water.
We then add the rest of the milk to add and put the milk-yeast mix to a warm place e.g. near a heater (covered with a lid).
Let it rest for 1 hour.
After the resting time you can add the rest of the ingredients for the croissant dough. Knead it properly. I normally use the KitchenAid 2mins on medium level.
Let the dough rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
Knead it again for 1-2 minutes.
Let it rest again but this time in the fridge for at least 1 hour (better 2 hours).

Meanwhile: Preparing the Block of Butter

Accordingly to our chosen amount of dough we need to prepare a fitting block of butter - square format. Sounds complicated? Not really: We simply reshape the butter you bought 👌

Again: Please read all of it and do not let yourself down by stuff that sounds complicated but is actually super easy 🥳 - Also check some of the photos to get a glimpse of its simplicity.

For the base amount of this recipe we need a roughly 15x15cm shape of butter. If you do not have a ruler and you feel that this is "too complicated" then here is an easier solution: Wait for the croissant dough to be ready, flatten the dough to a ~1cm thick square and then make a butter block that is roughly the half of that size. In case you have a ruler you can use baking paper and fold it at exactly 15cm so you see where to place butter pieces.
Tear apart the butter e.g. with a knife. I like to use the existing butterblock and try to cut a few rectangles out of it which I then lay next to each other making already roughly a square shape - that is the easiest way I found doing it.
Now fold the baking paper from the sides on top of the butter such that the butter is now covered by baking paper. Now you can use a rolling pin to distribute the butter equally and form a square shape.\
It is completely normal that the butter distributes unequal first. Open the folded baking paper again cut some off with a knife and redistribute. Repeat this until a equally distributed block of butter is given in square shape.
Now put the block of butter with the baking paper into the kitchen such that it hardens up again.

Folding the Vegan Croissants: Touring and Rolling

Now that are dough had proper resting time and we prepared a block of butter we need to start the get-together of the butter and the dough to make the final croissants. Before rolling them we need to "tour" the croissants 3 times - this is what the folding process is called that creates the butter layers in the dough.

Attention: It is really important that you do the fridge breaks as proposed. Otherwise the butter is becoming to soft in between und you will not get the typical croissant consistency because of the softened layers. But do not worry too much: Tastewise it would still be yummy. Just different.

Take the croissant dough and roll it to a square shape of roughly 1cm thickness such that it is ca. double the size of your butter block.
Get your block of butter out the fridge and put it diagonally on your dough square.
Fold the dough from the sides to the middle on top of the butter such that the dough covers the butter.
Put this "envelope" now back to the fridge for 30mins such that it hardens.
Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it primarily in one direction. This means that the square envelope dough packed with butter is rolled to a lengthy rectangle of ca 1cm thickness.
Now the first "tour" starts.
Fold the dough from the long side once from one side and then fold the other side on top if it such that a new rectangle is created with 3 layers of dough, equally sized: Bottom dough part, middle and top.
Back to the fridge for 30mins.
Since you folded the dough inwards from the long sides the long side became the short side. This is good because we follow this intuitively by now rolling the dough from the longer side. Or in other words: With each fold the long side naturally changes and you just always roll the long side. No reason to even think about it.
Same as in step 7 you will now fold it from the long side in making again 3 new layers of dough: bottom, middle, top.
Now same game: Back to the fridge, then get it out again, roll it, fold it.
Now in the fridge for 30mins (last time, I promise) and then just roll it to a rectangle - no folding anymore.
Cut out lengthy triangles from that rectangular dough that will make your croissants.
Now just roll these triangles tightly from big to small end. There is your croissant!
Now put the finished croissants on baking paper and let them rest again for 1 to 2 hours.

You can see the single butter layers in the dough.

Baking the Croissants

Preheat the oven to 190°C (374°F) - Standard Two-Sided Heat, no air circulation.
When the oven is hot bake the croissants 18-22mins depending on your preferred color.
Get 'em out, let 'em cool down and enjoy these wonderful, lovely, vegan croissants! 💚 🤩 🥐

Croissants for the whole Week: Freezing Croissants? Sure thing!

After having rolled your Croissants and having them given the proper final rest you can simply freeze them - pre-baking of course.

To avoid them glueing together you can simply take a plate or a box with baking paper and then distribute the croissants on it with 2cm distance so that they cannot freeze-glue to each other.

As soon as they are frozen (after ~2 hours) you can use a baker's bag and just throw them all in the same bag. There is no risk of glueing together anymore and this will make room for even more croissants 🤩

I simply love this recipe. It took me ages to come up with the final solution but even more so am I happy with the result. It just works and the Croissants are so wonderfully light and fluffy and soft 👨🏽‍🍳

Quick & Easy Pizza Dough, vegan

David Lorenz — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 10:42:34 GMT

I already have a wonderful Pizza Dough Recipe for a real italian pizza with a lovely crust. But what if you do not have the time to do all of that Pizza dough work? I got you covered!

This recipe is an instant success - promised! I didn't have much time but I wanted to eat pizza so I just threw some ingredients together hoping they would do well together and well it turned out great! A good fluffy pizza with a proper crust. Yummy but fast! ♥️

Pizza in 2 Minutes just like in Italy: The Ooni Oven

Besides a good recipe all magic behind pizza lies in a good oven. So if you happen to want the best experience then checkout the Ooni Pizza oven that is probably to be mentioned as very affordable yet wonderful Pizza oven Ooni Koda 12 Gas Powered Pizza Oven .

Prep Time	~20 Minutes
Baking Time	~20 Minutes
Yields	1 medium-sized Pizza

Ingredients

Mother Dough

20g fresh yeast
150ml warm Water
1tbsp Sugar
7g Salt
70g Semolina

Main Dough

Mother dough
230g Flour (e.g. Type 550)
30ml Olive Oil
2tsp Plant Milk
For the Garlic Bread Version: 1tsp Garlic Powder or 1 crushed Clove and 1tsp Italian Spices

Instructions

Heat up your oven to ~35°C (95 °F) (or use a warm place).
Put all ingredients for the mother dough together and mix it thoroughly.
Put it in the low-level pre-heated oven with a closed lid (e.g. use a pot) and let it rest there for 20mins.
It should already have risen and show air bubbles by now.
Take out the mother dough and mix it with the main dough ingredients and knead thorougly again. At this point you can already start pre-heating the oven to 220°C (428°F).
The dough is a little bit moist so to avoid it sticking to your hands throw a little bit of flour onto the dough such that you can form / flatten it.
Your pizza dough is now ready to be flattened and topped 🥰
Once topped with your favorite ingredients put it in the oven at 220°C (428°F) and bake it for around 22 to 25 minutes in the upper third. Now enjoy that pizza or garlic bread or whatever you made with it 🚀

My Garlic Bread Variant:

Pre-baking spread a bit of tomato sauce on the dough plus a bit of basil. Then after 10 minutes of baking add Garlic Oil or Olive Oil with Crushed Garlic. Wonderfully garlicish and serves also as a very good side dish e.g. for tomato soup 👌

Lemongrass-Mint Pea Soup, vegan

David Lorenz — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 17:34:00 GMT

I promise you that the simplicity and power of this dish will catapult you to taste heaven. Promised!

I wanted to make a dish that comforts on the one hand but is healthy and colorful on the other hand. I started off by creating a pretty standard pea soup and then eventually ended up giving it more freshness.

The cool thing about this soup is that it is so versatile in its taste that it works equally good in every season. Cold enough for summer but hot enough for winter. I just love it.

Prep Time	0 Minutes
Total Time	~30 Minutes
Yields	3 Servings of Soup

Ingredients

2 medium-sized Potatoes
1 Clove of Garlic
2 Shallots
500g Green Peas - frozen
3tbsp Vegetable Stock Powder
1 Stick Lemongrass
Juice of 1 Lime
1 green Chili
10 Mint Leaves
500ml Water

Optional Ingredients for the Garnish

1 cup of chickpeas
1tsp Sweet Pepper Powder
A pinch of salt
1tsp Chiliflakes
a bit of Soy Whip

Instructions

Making the Pea Soup

Peel the potatoes and quarter them
Cook the potato quarters for around 20mins in a pot with water covering them.
Take out the potatoes (they can still have a good firmness) and quench them with cold water.
Cut them into small squares now.
Put some oil in a pot and start heating the potatoes in oil.
Cut the garlic, the shallots and the lemongrass in thin pieces and add them to the potatoes - make sure to cut off the very bottom of the lemongrass.
Add the vegetable broth powder and stir.
Heat this mix and start adding the water from the ingredients list bit by bit. Add water, let it cook until the water dissolves and add more water.
Once all water from the ingredients list is gone we will make sure that only a little bit of water is still left and the rest is dissolved through steam and soaked by the potatoes.
Now add the still frozen (!) peas and stir for a bit so they thaw properly. Also add the mint leaves and the lime juice.
Cook for 2 minutes.
Cut the green chili and add it to the mix.
Blend everything until smooth and enjoy this wonderful green dish 💚.

Soup garnish

Take a pan and add some oil.
Add the chickpeas, the red pepper powder, salt and chiliflakes and fry until it gets a brownish roasted color.
Serve the soup with a bit of soy cream and the fried chickpeas on top 😋.

I hope you will like this dish as much as I do. Healthy and lovely 🌱

Simple Vegan Strawberry Tart

David Lorenz — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 06:31:00 GMT

Simple and Tart? Do those words even fit together? Yes! Since there is literally not much manual work involved other than switching the flip on your blender this one is definitely to be highlighted as "simple".

This smooth strawberry torte is all but too heavy to digest. Instead of heavy cream we make use of fresh strawberries, yoghurt and Aquafaba to get a fluffy cream. Simply fresh-fruity-delicious. 🍓

Prep Time (Cream)	~10 Minutes
Baking Time (Base)	~30 Minutes
Yields	Ø26cm Cake

Tools you need

We need a Blender and a Mixer cause the cream ingredients need to be blended and the Aquafaba is way better done by a mixer than by hand. A common electric hand mixer should be sufficient but even easier is getting a kitchen machine such as these: Kitchen Machines.

Got no Blender? This recipe uses the massive power of crushing pieces into fluids - that's what Blenders can do 😌 Better get one now if you do not have one already. E.g. check a little Ninja here 👻

Ingredients

Strawberry Cream

500g Strawberries
1½ Banana
9tbsp Plant Milk
165g Powder Sugar
10 tbsp Chickpea Water (that is the water that comes with chickpeas in a glass) ^[1]
1½ tbsp of Sparkling Water
A bit of cream stiffener or 1/4tsp Guar Gum
150ml Yoghurt
1½ tbsp firm Coconut Oil
25g Agar Agar

^[1] Chickpea water is simply the water that comes in a glass full of chickpeas 🤓. It has awesome characteristics for baking and desserts similiar to whip cream.

Cake Base

150g Flour
105g Sugar
1½ tsp Baking Powder
A small knife tip of tumeric
A small pinch of salt
1 Pack of Vanilla Sugar
30g Plant Oil
30g Margarine
185ml Sparkling Water (important! We need the sparkling one)

Additionally

200g fresh Strawberries for putting on the cake base

Instructions

The Cake Base

This is the easiest part: Throw all ingredients for the base together and mix them.
Grease your baking dish and then put the mass on the bottom of the baking dish. Distribute evenly.
Bake at 180°C (356 °F) for ~30min goldbrown.
Remove from oven, carefully flip and let it cool down on a cake rack.

Prepare the strawberry cream

Pour the chickpea water in a bowl and add the powder sugar. Then mix it with your kitchen machine or hand mixer on highest level for 3-5 minutes. The result is somewhat firm and somewhat liquish. It should look white and creamy. Add a very small amount of guar gum or a little bit of cream stiffener and mix it so it stays firm.
The washed strawberries for the cream, the banana, yoghurt and coconut oil together in the blender. Blend until smooth.
Info: We are not yet fully done with the cream but we will do the rest in the last step of the following steps.

Let's get the cake base married with the cream!

It's very important that the base has cooled down so everything works out neatly.
Take a cake ring and place it around your base.
Take the additional strawberries, cut them in quarters and spread them evenly on the base.
Take a bowl and pour the Yoghurt-Strawberry-Cream in the bowl.
Now take a pot and put the plant milk together with 7 tablespoon from your cream in it. Heat it up whilst stirring and add the Agar Agar one by one. You will notice that it starts to thicken pretty fast so be careful that it does not burn.
After 1-2min of thickening and stirring you will add the thickened mass from the pot to your Yoghurt-Strawberry-Cream and mix it evenly.
Lastly take your prepared Aquafaba foam and fold it in. Do not use a machine here or you will destroy the fluffy consistency.
Now pour the finished cream onto your strawberry-covered base and let it cool down in the fridge for 1 hour.
After ~1 hour it should be pretty firm and ready to be cutted.
To get the cake off the cake ring you can slide a big knife between cake and cake ring carefully. Then you can take off the cake ring with ease.
The last bit is: Cut it, serve it, enjoy it! 🍰 😋 🍓

Tip: If you also want a bit of nice pattern on your cake you can take a red-colored fruit powder e.g. cranberry powder and rub a bit of it on top of the cream before letting it cool down in the fridge. You can distribute the powder with a fork to get a bit of a random pattern 👌.

Easy & Fresh Tomato-Fennel Soup

David Lorenz — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 09:08:00 GMT

There's gotta be something special here and there in any recipe. Even if it's simple. And the specialty here is the very wonderful mix of simplicity and taste contrast. The Soup itself is blended chunky and topped with juicy, slightly caramelized cherry tomatoes.

I am recommending this in all seasons but winter. Winter could come a bit too cold for this dish since the tomatoes on top are served at room temperature.

Prep Time	~10 Minuten
Cooking Time	~10 Minuten
Yields	~2-3 Servings

Blend time 🍅⚡️

Got no Blender? You either need a hand blender or a normal blender for this recipe to come alive. Better get one now if you do not have one already. E.g. check a little Ninja here 👻

Ingredients

400ml Chunky Tomato Sauce
1tbsp Tomato Paste
1tbsp Maple Syrup
1tbsp of Sugar
1 Fennel (size does not matter. A big one just adds more "fennely" taste)
1 Onion
2 Garlic Cloves
250g Cherry Tomatoes (with the green stem end if you like more contrast)
A small chunk of carrot
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Optional: Some fresh Basil and Chili Flakes

Instructions

I am a big fan of going step-by-step to avoid missing out on anything. However if you want the most minimal description: Fry the tomatoes in the pan separately with sugar and fry and blend everything else.

But let's stick to the plan going step-by-step.

Prepare the caramelised tomatoes:

Add a bit of oil in the pan and heat it up to medium heat.
Put the cherry tomatoes into the pan and stir-fry them evenly. They should get some brownish spots here and there - this probably takes around 5 minutes.
Once they get brownish spots and become a little bit soft add the sugar and stir for one more minute such that it can caramelise.
Take out the tomatoes from the pan and put them aside.

Making the Fennel-Tomato Soup:

Cut the fennel in big chunks
Crush the garlic
Cut the onion into small cubes
Cut the carrot into small pieces
Add some olive oil in a pan and stir-fry the fennel, the onion, the carrot and the garlic for 3 minutes
Add the tomato paste (not sauce) and the maple syrupand stir-fry 2 more minutes
Take the blender, put the ingredients from the pan into it as well as the tomato sauce. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper and blend it on medium level such that it becomes a slightly chunky soup.
Bring the blended mass back to the pan (if big enough) or into a pot and reheat it real quick. Make the taste test and add more salt and pepper if needed.

Serving the Fennel-Tomato-Soup the right way:

Take deep plates and add the soup to it. Do not fill it up completely but keep it rather flat (~3cm high)
Add the caramelised tomatoes in the middle on top of the soup
Add a little bit of fresh basil, maybe chili flakes and sea salt.
Now enjoy this fresh Fennel-Tomato-Soup 🍅🍃 🥰

Vegan Moroccan-style Flatbread 💯

David Lorenz — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 20:41:08 GMT

I am not the biggest TikTokker but I try to use it in a targeted way for me to get the high quality content. So when I was making some nice Indian Lentil soup I was scrolling through TikTok Recipes and found one that showed how to make so-called Moroccan Msemen flatbread.

I tried it immediately. It was a straight 8/10 but I saw its potential to go to a 10/10 and here we are in this 10/10 Moroccan-style flatbread recipe.

The differences between the one I found on TikTok and mine are slight but important. I played around with giving it a little bit more flour as well as fresh yeast and longer rest time. Also I found it to be having its peak by adding some cumin and garlic powder.

I am not lying: This is just 10/10 and so easy but wonderful and when enjoyed right after frying it gives you that feeling of relaxation cause it is so damn good.

Prep Time incl. Rest	~3 hours
Cooking Time	~2 Minutes
Yields	~5 Flatbreads

Ingredients

150g Semolina
170g Flour (I used German Type 550 Flour)
200ml Water
5g Fresh Yeast
2-3g Salt
1/4tsp Cumin
1tsp Garlic Powder
2tbsp Olive Oil
A chunk of Vegan Butter

Making the Flatbread Dough

Dissolve the yeast in the Water
Mix all ingredients except the butter together
Knead them thoroughly so you get a good, slightly gluey dough
Add a bit of Flour on top so you can form a dough ball and let it rest for at least 1 hour
Cut the dough into big hand-sized pieces and form smaller balls respectively. This time you surround the smaller balls with olive oil.
Let them rest for another hour.

Finalizing and frying the Flatbread

Melt some vegan butter (e.g. in the microwave for 30sec)
Take a dough ball and spread it flatbread like on your surface - Tip: use a baking mat.
❣️ Important step: Spread some melted vegan butter on it and cut the flatbread with a knife to its center (so you cut from one side until you hit the center of the flatbread).
Now roll it from here as if you were to roll an ice cream cone.
Take the cone (which encloses the butter now) and press it on your surface to spread the flatbread again. Add just a little bit of semolina on each side.
Now you are ready to fry that flatbread on high heat for 1-2 minutes on each side depending on how brownish you like it.
ENJOY this wonderful flatbread e.g. with some soup or hommos 💚 🌱

Vegan Scallops

David Lorenz — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 12:14:00 GMT

Vegan Scallops have become trendy lately and this trend is amazing. King Oyster Mushrooms have been available everywhere since very long time but their creative forms and possibilities these provide have been uncovered with vegan becoming more and more popular.

I mean I'll be honest: I have been eating scallops before the time I was vegan but I do not remember the exact taste anymore so I wouldn't there to tell you: You will not notice a single difference. That's on you to find out. What I can tell you is: These vegan "scallops" really will brighten up your food since they are simply delicious👌

And they come so well with so many good recipes such as e.g. the Vegan Seafood Paella.

As this recipe is actually super easy let's make sure it being a quick one and start right away 🚀

Ingredients for the Vegan Scallops

2 Big King Trumpet Mushrooms
1tsp Sugar (best: Palm Sugar)
1tbsp Mushroom Sauce (alternatively Soy Sauce but I really recommend Mushroom Sauce)
1tsp Dulse Algae Flakes

Instructions

Cut the Trumpet Mushrooms into 2-3cm (~thick as a thumb) thick round pieces.
Scratch the mushroom pieces 4 to 5 times on the surface roundabout 1mm (as if you were trying to make a pattern on it).
Mix the Mushroom Sauce, the Algae and the Sugar and marinate the mushrooms with that mix. Let them soak for 1-2 minutes.
Fry them in a pan with a bit of oil - each side for like 1-2mins.
Vegan Scallops are ready to be served 😋 🐟🐚

Vegan Seafood Paella

David Lorenz — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 12:14:00 GMT

Paella per se is the traditional dish of the spanish region Valencia. The term actually derives from the word patella meaning a big "bowl" made of metal. That is also traditionally in what the paella is cooked in. So if you want so: The paella is made inside of paella.

When people speak of traditional paella they often refer to the Paella Valenciana. However you need to be aware of that a discussion about "What is Paella" is really senseless since Paella comes in a lot of variations. Still, traditionally people refer to the yellow-colored rice (through saffron) with Seafood ingredients plus sometimes chicken breast, red bell pepper and whatnot...

So let's face it: A traditional paella comes fishy and meaty. So how are we going to create a Vegan Paella then? That's the big question ain't it?

Well there is multiple tricks involved here. First is that we will use my other base recipe: Vegan Fish Stock. With the Vegan Fish Stock we will make sure that the paella gets the taste from the sea. Secondly we will try to imitate traditional Ingredients: Vegan Scallops, Chorizo and Chicken Breast.

Vegan Chorizo Alternative nowadays can be found in pretty much all organic shops (hopefully) and most of them quite often resemble the original taste quite well if fried thoroughly and used within a bigger recipe. So we got that.

The same actually goes for Chicken Breast. I cannot speak for the whole world but for chicken breast there is such awesome vegan alternatives based on soy or pea protein that you probably won't be missing a single thing.

So let's jump into the ingredients and create an awesome Paella 😋

Prep Time	~15 Minutes
Cooking Time	~25 Minutes
Yields	A Family amount of Paella

Ingredients

250g Risotto Rice
1,5-2L of Vishstock (if you are too lazy to do this you will miss out on special taste but you can replace it with Vegetable Broth then)
1 or 2 Vegan Chorizo Sausages (Most organic markets have those on stock. In Germany I can recommend those from "DM")
200g Cherry Tomatoes
1 big Red Onion
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
1 Red Bell Pepper
50g Olives, cut in slices or halves
A big handful of (frozen) green peas
1 Organic Lemon
100ml White Wine
~7 Saffron Threads
1/4tsp of Tumeric Powder
150g Vegan "Chicken" (optional. Tastes also awesome without it)
1 Nori Leaf (optional)
Olive Oil

Ingredients for the Vegan Scallops

2 Big King Trumpet Mushrooms
1tsp Sugar (best: Palm Sugar)
1tbsp Mushroom Sauce (alternatively Soy Sauce)
1tsp Dulse Algae Flakes

So what makes this recipe better than some of the other Paella recipes is the fact that we do not cook everything for 30 minutes until everything is as soft as cream 😅.

We will try to make this paella taste as fresh as a paella can be by cooking and frying separately. Before we will start the cooking session we will do the preps to not get overwhelmed with multitasking whilst cooking ☝🏽.

Preparations

Take a small glass and add 3tbsp of water, the saffron threads and the tumeric and stir it in the glass.
Cut the Onion into quartered slices.
Cut the bell peppers into big, sliced chunks.
Cut the lemon in big slices.
Cut the Trumpet Mushrooms into 2-3cm (~thick as a thumb) thick round pieces. With a sharp knife scratch the pieces 4 to 5 times on the surface roundabout 1mm (as if you were trying to make an invisible pattern on it).
Cut the Chorizo in round, flat pieces.

Recipe Instructions

Making the Paella Rice

Take a big pan e.g. a Wok and add a good amount of Oil (~7tbsp) and heat it up to medium-high heat
Start frying the raw risotto rice together with the onion and stir well such that it will get slightly brown. Do this for ~3mins.
Add the white wine and deglaze the rice with it
Add the saffron-tumeric mix that we prepared in the glass
When the rice has soaked the wine we will start adding the broth and the nori leaf. For that we will always only add around 200ml and then let the rice soak the liquid. Once the rice has soaked the broth add once more 200ml and so on and so forth until all Broth (Vishstock) is gone. Whilst this process we will make sure that the rest of our ingredients gets ready.

Cooking the Ingredients

We are cooking the ingredients separately to maintain the best taste and consistency overall.

Take another pan and start frying the peppers such that they get a barbecue-grill-like texture. Put them aside.
Do the same with the small tomatoes and give them a brownish skin by frying them.
Fry the chorizo pieces.
Fry the "chicken" pieces.
Take the sugar, the mushroom sauce and the algae and marinate the mushroom pieces for 1 minute. Then put the marinated mushroom pieces aside. We will fry them right before serving.

Finishing up the lovely Paella

Once your broth is fully soaked by the rice and the rice has a good soft consistency we will add all of the side ingredients on top of it.
Add the frozen green peas and fold them in the paella rice and slightly cook altogether for 2 minutes so that the peas can thaw properly.
Add the olives, the chorizo, the "chicken", the pepper and the lemon pieces now and stir.
Add the tomatoes into the paella now.
Lastly fry the Vegan Scallops (your marinated mushroom pieces) on each side for 1 minute.
Now serve the Paella on plates with the Vegan Scallops on top of it.
Enjoy your selfmade Paella 😌 🌱

Vegan Oreo Cheesecake

David Lorenz — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 18:56:00 GMT

If you like Oreo and Cheesecake then you will just love this recipe. Right upfront: The oreos are not in the cream but in the base! That's what makes the base delicious and the cream stay cheesy.

This is another original recipe. Fun fact: This recipe is the result of 5 failed tries of coming up with a Russian Chocolate Cheesecake - no this one is not the Russian one, this is the Oreo Cheesecake. I really really wanted to come up with a "Russian Zupfkuchen" recipe at the time but either my cream was too runny after baking or the cake just broke apart. Honestly I was like "How on earth can I make 5 times the same cake and fail it every single time in some way". I started comparing well-known recipes for "Russian Zupfkuchen" from other blogs as part of my tries. But even those weren't at all like what I wanted tastewise. So maybe my aspiration for good cake is too high or whatever.

Long story short: One day it hit me like "I never tried to process silken tofu for cheesecake cream". So I threw away my desperation and said to myself: "Well let's make cheesecake instead". And due to some experiments I did before I knew that orea base works fine. If the cream would work out: Well it's an experiment.

The result was this absolutely amazing cheesecake recipe which I am superproud to present.

Prep Time	~10 Minutes
Baking Time	~45 Minutes
Yields	Ø26cm Oreo Cheesecake

Long time no Blender?

Ingredients

Cheesy Cream Ingredients

130g Peeled Almonds
160ml Plant Milk (I cannot recommend Oat Milk here)
500g Silken Tofu
2 Packs of Vanilla Sugar
100g Sugar
60g Vanilla Pudding Powder
80g Margarine
Juice and Zest of 1 Lemon

Oreo Base Ingredients

2 Packs of Double Oreo Cakes (that is 157g per Pack)
1 flat teaspoon Baking Powder
40g of Margarine

Instructions for making the Oreo Cheesecake

Prepare the Base

Making the Base is extremely easy. That's probably the best part about this recipe.

Crush all Oreos into very small pieces.
Add the Baking Powder and the Margarine
Make a grainy dough out of it. It doesn't have to be a smooth dough but it shouldn't be very big chunks. If you want you can use the blender for that as well.
Grease your cake baking dish
Put the Oreo Base on the bottom and distribute it equally. Give it slight steep edges on the sides (1-2cm)

The Cheesy Cream Instructions

Put the almonds together with the tofu and the milk into the blender and smooth it up!
Add the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the margarine and run another quick blender round
Lastly add the lemon zest and juice and the pudding powder. ⚠️ 👉🏽Attention: Do not put the pudding powder in as long as the mass is warm (some blenders easily heaten up the mass). So in case it's more than room temperature warm please cool it down before adding the pudding powder. Otherwise the mass would thicken before baking and would destroy the whole process!
Finally add the creamy mass onto the base

The Baking Experience

I found that if you add "experience" after anything it sounds way cooler 😁

Preheat the oven to 160°C (320 °F)
Put the cake in and bake for ~45mins
Before finally taking it out make sure it got kinda equally "golden". That's a good sign.
Let it cool down completely (if you miss out on this process you risk it falling apart)
Enjoy this wonderful Oreo Cheesecake 🌱 😋

Vegan Fish Stock

David Lorenz — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 06:30:00 GMT

Orignally seafood based recipes often use Fish Stock as a base. From a non-vegan but ecological standpoint its a good thing to not throw away parts of the fish when they can be used for creating fish stock instead. However from a vegan standpoint how can we create seafood-like dishes then? Simply deny oneself the pleasure of the taste of the sea? That fishy smell? No french / international taste then?

Let's have that still! The magic about fishy smell is actually the algae in the sea. Well and algae are vegan. So where's the blocker now?

With this fish stock / fish broth we can bring the marina back to our vegan plates. 🐟 🐠 🐡

Prep Time	~5 Minutes
Cooking Time	~40 Minutes
Yields	1600ml Broth
Glutenfree	✅

Ingredients

5tsp Algae (Dulse) Flakes
3 Nori Leaves
1 big Onion
Juice of ½ Lemon
1 Bay Leaf
3 Garlic Cloves
1tsp Sea Salt
3tbsp Vegetable Broth Powder
1 Coriander with Root
A pinch of Safran
~8cm stick of Celery
1600ml Water

Instructions

Cut the Onion in 3 very big pieces
Get a big pot and fill it with the water
Start cooking the water
Now add all ingredients together
Put a lid on the pot to avoid that the stock vaporizes / vanishes into the air
Cook it 15min on medium heat
Turn the heat off and wait for at least 2h to allow the taste to permeate
Strain all hard ingredients with a strainer to filter your pure fish stock liquid 😋👌

I am not a biologist so do not take my following words for granted but if fish eat algae and smell fishy and algae smell fishy as well it is probably due to the fact that algae have a fishy smell. That being said: Often in meat/fish based recipes the dish specific taste does not necessarily come from the animal but from the other ingredients being used. And this recipe shows clearly what can be done 😌

Vegan Hungarian Goulash

David Lorenz — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 10:30:00 GMT

Soy cutlets are sometimes referred to being tasteless or loosing taste but the magic trick is the way how to prepare them. Cause if you get it right you can imitate meat pieces in very different way. And this Hungarian Goulash is the perfect partner to do it. There is quite a vibrant taste in this recipe and I just love it 😍

Classical Goulash is a Ragout that intensifies its taste by waiting and letting the taste soak into the dish. The same goes for the vegan soy cutlet version.

Prep Time	~30 Minutes
Cooking Time	~20-40 Minutes
Servings	~5 Plates
Glutenfree	✅

Ingredients

For the Soy Cutlets (our Beef replacement)

150g Soy Cutlets
1 Onion, cut in quartered slices
1L Water
1tbsp Vegetable Broth Powder
40ml Dark Soy Sauce
2tsp Smoked Salt
1tsp Peppercorns
2 Bay Leaves
2tbsp Red Wine
1½tbsp Red Pepper Powder
2tsp Starch

For the Sauce

275ml Red Wine
2tbsp Tomato Paste
1 Onion
3 Garlic Cloves
6 Cherry Tomatoes
3 Small Pickles
2 Red Sweet Peppers
100ml Vegetable Broth
350ml Water
1tbsp of Flour (glutenfree if you want)
Margarine or Vegan Butter for Browning

Even though it looks like a lot of ingredients and a lot of work its actually quite straightforward.

Instructions

Beefy Soy Cutlets

Take all ingredients listed in the Soy Cutlet section - excluding the starch and onion - and put them into a pot alltogether.
Start cooking these cutlets slowly but steadily. The goal is that they soak up the delicious liquid nearly completely (~90%). This takes a while. Do not use a lid but let the steam flow.
Whilst stirring always check how much liquid is left. If you feel like they soaked enough (probably around 20-40mins) then make a first consistency/taste test.
With the rest of the liquid now add the starch and stir. It should transform from normal liquid to a bit thicker liquid. Stir well.
Now prepare a pan with a good amount of vegan butter or Margarine and the onion and then put the wet soy cutlets in there with a straining spoon.
Now stir-fry them on very high level. This process will make the thick liquid even thicker and the soy cutlets sticking on it. Get it brown but be careful not to burnit.
Put them into a bowl and put em aside so they can dry and cool down a bit

The Goulash Sauce

Cut the onions into small squares
Cut the garlic cloves into thin pieces
Cut the red pepper into coarse pieces
Cut the Pickles into small squares
Quarter the cherry tomatoes
Use a big pan (e.g. baking dish, wok), add some vegan butter and fry the onions and the garlic in it.
After 1 minute add the flour to it so it becomes a sticky mass
Now add the vegetable broth liquid and stir
Throw the tomatoes and the pepper into the mass and stir
Add the wine and let it boil a bit so that the alcohol is cooked away
You will notice that the sauce starts to thicken again - That is good.
Add the tomato paste now and stir
Add the remaining water and let it boil again. Make sure nothing gets burned by stirring thoroughly.

Bring it together

Okay so we got our Hungarian Goulash Sauce and our Hungarian "Beefy" Soy Cutlets.
Add the cutlets to the sauce now
Let it cook on very low level for another 20 minutes at least (better: 30-40 if you can spare some more time).
Enjoy your Hungarian Goulash with e.g. noodles as side dish 😍😋

Lemon-Garlic Bok Choy

David Lorenz — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 20:50:00 GMT

I was scrolling around instagram food inspiration and stopped right at the post from @natuki.ch - It was just Bok Choy on a plate presented textually with lemon and garlic. See I am a big fan of minimalistic food but I could see immediately that there can be more to it. So I didn't check the linked recipe since I did not want to bias myself. I mean: With literally 3 ingredients described in the title there cannot be a lot of variation but that's where we hook in.

I was like: What can be added without the feeling of having added something on top? A little bit of sliced trumpet mushrooms and avocado wouldn't hurt the simplicity too much since they both come very soft and without a strong taste. Now as a contrast to the sour-strong lemon-garlic I felt that only a little bit of sweetness would just bring this dish to perfection - maybe not but it was worth a try.

And let me tell you upfront: This one is a straight 10/10 . I wouldn't dare to improve this recipe in any way. Without being arrogant: This is perfection. Extremely simple to prepare but so tasteful. I was just stunned. I hope you will be as well.

In this recipe you will not need any special hardware. Just a good knife.

Prep / Cutting Time	~10 Minutes
Actual cooking time	~4 Minutes
Results in	2 Servings

Ingredients

2 big Bok Choy
1 big Avocado
A bit of fresh Mint
4 big King Trumpet Mushrooms (sometimes referred to as King Oyster Mushrooms)
1 Lemon
A pinch of sea salt
4 Garlic Cloves
1tsp Sesame Oil
5tbsp Mushroom Sauce (it's a sauce you will find in any asian market)
1tbsp Palm Sugar
1tbsp Water

Instructions

Calm Down, we're already at it! Let's go making our Lemon-Garlic Bok Choy with Avocado and Trumpet Mushrooms 😍

The order of the following tasks is quite important to have everything ready right in time.

The first thing is to re-assure that the dish itself is cooked in less than 4 minutes so the essential part lies in preparing the rest
First things first: Cut the Avocado open and then cut the avocado halves flesh into thin pieces. Once you did that try to make a nice shape with these pieces on each plate - so one half of avocado on each plate.
The Lemon-Garlic Sauce: Crush the garlic, squeeze the lemon, take 4-5 small mint leaves, some sea salt and add it alltogether.
Add also the sesame oil and the water to that lemon sauce. There you go: Sauce done.
Mix the Mushroom Sauce with the Palm Sugar and then spread it across a big flat plate. (No we are not going to eat the plate)
Cut the Mushrooms in vertical slices each about 3mm thick (rather a bit thicker than thinner)
Read carefully here: Now use your knife to cut 3 long cuts on each side of the cutted mushroom slices. So you take a mushroom slice and carefully make some superficial cuts on one side and then on the other side. You do not CUT the mushroom slices into smaller pieces but you add cuts into the slices such that the sauce can go a bit into it.
Remember your mushroom sauce plate? Use it now to marinate your trumpet mushroom slices on each side.
Cut your bok choy in halves
Now be careful about the order of action again!
Take a pan and a pot parallely. Heat up enough water for the bok choys in the pot until it slowly starts cooking (do not yet put the bok choy in). When that happens make sure that your pan is heated up now as well.
Add a bit of olive oil to your pan and make sure your water in the pot is still cooking
Start frying the mushrooms - all at once if feasible - for 90seconds on one side
Turn the mushrooms and fry them for 60seconds on the other side
NOW put the bok choy halves in the pot with the cooking water
Wait another 30seconds
Take out the bok choy on a clean plate and take out the mushrooms from the pan
Now fry the bok choy for 30-45seconds on each in the same pan in which you fried the mushrooms.
Take out the bok choy and put 2 halves on each plate to be served next to the avocado half and the mushrooms.
Pour the Lemon-Garlic Sauce over the bok choy.
Done. Many atomic small steps for a wonderful taste experience 🥑🍋😍

Chili con Tofu

David Lorenz — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 20:40:00 GMT

According to Wikipedia the origin of "Chili con Carne" what many simply call the "Chili" dish is unclear but most likely to be found in the South of Northern America. It is found in the Tex-Mex-Cuisine as of today. The Ingredients differ from recipe to recipe. Most of them share Kidney Beans as common grounds. Originally only the meat and the chili were the common ground.

What I like the most about the Chili dish is that it is pretty easy to prepare, even for a big amount of people. And compared to other dishes it is really not a thing that you couldn't eat 3 days in a row 😁 That means: Prepare a lot of Chili con Tofu and then have some more the other days and/or put some in the freezer for next week.

The good thing about Chili is that there are no special requirements. Only a big pan or pot and here we go.

Preparation	~20 Minutes
Results in	5 servings

Ingredients:

500g Tofu
500g Kidney Beans
230g Sweet Corn
1 big Onion
800ml Tomato Sauce
2 Birds-Eye Chilis
4 Garlic Cloves
1tsp Sweet Red Pepper Powder
4tsp Vegetable Broth Powder
2tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
2tbsp Maple Syrup
100g concentrated Tomato paste

Instructions:

Mash the Tofu into little pieces e.g. with a potato masher or a fork
Put the Tofu into the frying pan
Heat it up to high level and dry the tofu a little bit without oil
After 2mins of "dry-frying" add the tomato paste and the red pepper powder and continue dry-frying for 2 more minutes
Now add a bunch of Olive Oil, crush the Garlic, cut the onion in squares and add them. Fry and stir.
Pour the tomato sauce to the mix
Add the Kidney Beans, the corn and the chilis (cut in slices), then stir
Add the broth powder, the Soy Sauce and the Maple Syrup, then stir
Now shut off the heat and let it rest for 1 hour at least so that the taste soaks itself through the ingredients. You could eat it immediately but the longer you let it stand the better it can permeate with taste.
Enjoy your Chili con Tofu with a bit of Whip Cream and mexican Oregano 😋 🌶

Coffee Cashew Butter

David Lorenz — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 18:30:00 GMT

Even though the recipe is all original the idea is not: I saw an Instagram post of @magicroasters and got especially inspired of the idea of having coffee in a cashew butter. I mean I just love Peanut Butter but Cashew Butter with Coffee sounded like something I should definitely give a try.

So there we go. Me sitting and thinking of what's the best ratio of ingredients. Thinking does only do a little though since you gotta try it either way. That's that. So well it turned out extremely good in the first try already - admittedly making cashew butter in general is rather simple - so I went on and refined the ingredients and tada: Here we are now - having a wonderful Coffee Cashew Butter recipe.

Prep Time	0 hours
Duration	~15 Minutes
Result	A big glass of Cashew Butter
Glutenfree	✅

Get a Blender first

Since this recipe requires a strong blender (not just a Smoothie Mixer) there is no way other than making sure you have one at home 😌

Check for options on Amazon here https://amzn.to/3r2DSG8

Ingredients

250g Cashews
35ml Maple Syrup
1/4tsp of salt
120g Coconut Oil (deodorized ^[1])
1tsp Ground Coffee

^[1] Deodorized is a term that describes that the specific taste of the ingredient is removed since we do not want it to taste like coconut. This is normally a natural process by simply cooking the smell out.

Raspberries with Coffee Cashew Butter and a bit of Mint

Instructions

Take a pan, put it on medium heat and add the raw Cashews to it and let them get roasted by stirring. They should get a brownish color and release some roasty smell. At one point some of them should start to look a little bit shiny. This is when you know they release fat.
Put the roasted Cashews into your Blender and start blending them on very low level (high level will only throw them to the sides)
Now there is a little bit of effort involved. Since the mass will become more and more powdery and sticky it will stick to the sides and not hit the knives anymore. Shut off the mixer then and push the Cashews back to the center then blend again.
Blend until the mass is more creamy than powdery.
Add the salt, the Coffee, the Coconut Oil and the Maple Syrup now and blend again on low to medium level. With the help of the coconut oil the cashew butter should become really creamy.
Continue until the desired consistency is reached.
Enjoy your selfmade Coffee Cashew Butter 💖 🥖🧈