Ola,
It's been a crazy year with lots of big changes.
I recently moved to Brazil.
And started cooking a lot.
The ingredients are a bit different here, however more or less similar.
I've taken a stronger stance against packaged foods. Hence have started making more foods from scratch.
I've been making cakes almost every day. I know sugar isn't the best, however it seems that people here are enjoying it, and have been requesting them :) So, any chance to make vegan sweets for people who otherwise aren't vegan, I think is a good thing.
Some of the foods I have made this week are:
Lasagna -- home made whole wheat pasta -- found a recipe here http://minimalistbaker.com/homemade-vegan-pasta/, for the ones I made, I only used whole wheat.
Tofu Ricotta -- http://allrecipes.com/recipe/229285/tofu-ricotta/ I used the juice of one whole lime, plus some agave for sweetness and a few cloves of garlic.
Lentils -- I cooked lentils in the bare amount of water so they remained al dente, and added some smoked paprika along with this middle east seasoning mix that I have from India, which has cumin , coriander and a few other spices.
10 tomatoes -- I boiled these tomatoes down, plus 1-2 tbsp of basil, 2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp salt, a little bit of agave, and juice of half of a lemon, plus I added a vegetable here called chuchu, otherwise known as chayote in English. I hadn't seen this vegetable before coming here, also a zucchini could be substituted.
brazilian pumpkin (a small regular pumpkin could be substituted) pumpkins here are a blackish color and the quality of them when they are baked is unbelievable, they are creamy and super tasty.
I cut into 1 " pieces and baked for 30 minutes
I wanted to make a sunflower cheese for the top, however I ran out of time and I was starving.
After cooking the pasta, I layered pumpkin, lentils, tofu and then the tomato sauce, followed by more pasta, pumpkin, tofu and another layer of tomato sauce. I would have liked to put some cashew or sunflower cheese on top, but ran out of time.
The recipe I would have gone for would have been.
1/2 cup ground cashews or sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of veggie broth, 1-2 tbsp of tapioca starch, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp lemon juice-- I probably would have played with the flavorings.. but this is roughly what I would have tried to do. And then topped the lasagna.
I baked the lasagna for 20 minutes at something like 250 celcius.
Some things that I miss quite a bit here, okay one thing that I miss a lot is nutritional yeast. They have their own version of nutritional yeast here, it tastes like beer. It's okay, however I really miss the kind that is easily found in the states.
Would be nice to know how to get it here :)
I also made 'tacos'
Chili powder is not available here, but I learned essentially it's paprika, cumin, oregano, and garlic powder maybe some cayenne pepper.. however tastes are fairly mild, people here generally don't eat much spice as I've noticed, at least not the people I've been generally spending time with here in the south.
I used kidney beans, 6 tomatoes, 1 zucchini, the seasonings listed above and lime juice, I would have added cilantro but wasn't available at the store.
I also made a sunflower seed sour cream.
I soaked about 3/4 cup of sunflower seeds, and then blended them with lime juice, garlic powder and some salt. I also chopped up some onion and tomato for a pico de gallo, added some salt, and lime juice.
I tried to make my own tortillas but unfortunately they were a failure, they tasted fine, but they were more like crackers? I used only whole wheat, maybe they needed a more refined flour to have worked properly? I'm not sure.
Will post cake recipes soon :)
It's been a crazy year with lots of big changes.
I recently moved to Brazil.
And started cooking a lot.
The ingredients are a bit different here, however more or less similar.
I've taken a stronger stance against packaged foods. Hence have started making more foods from scratch.
I've been making cakes almost every day. I know sugar isn't the best, however it seems that people here are enjoying it, and have been requesting them :) So, any chance to make vegan sweets for people who otherwise aren't vegan, I think is a good thing.
Some of the foods I have made this week are:
Lasagna -- home made whole wheat pasta -- found a recipe here http://minimalistbaker.com/homemade-vegan-pasta/, for the ones I made, I only used whole wheat.
Tofu Ricotta -- http://allrecipes.com/recipe/229285/tofu-ricotta/ I used the juice of one whole lime, plus some agave for sweetness and a few cloves of garlic.
Lentils -- I cooked lentils in the bare amount of water so they remained al dente, and added some smoked paprika along with this middle east seasoning mix that I have from India, which has cumin , coriander and a few other spices.
10 tomatoes -- I boiled these tomatoes down, plus 1-2 tbsp of basil, 2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp salt, a little bit of agave, and juice of half of a lemon, plus I added a vegetable here called chuchu, otherwise known as chayote in English. I hadn't seen this vegetable before coming here, also a zucchini could be substituted.
brazilian pumpkin (a small regular pumpkin could be substituted) pumpkins here are a blackish color and the quality of them when they are baked is unbelievable, they are creamy and super tasty.
I cut into 1 " pieces and baked for 30 minutes
I wanted to make a sunflower cheese for the top, however I ran out of time and I was starving.
After cooking the pasta, I layered pumpkin, lentils, tofu and then the tomato sauce, followed by more pasta, pumpkin, tofu and another layer of tomato sauce. I would have liked to put some cashew or sunflower cheese on top, but ran out of time.
The recipe I would have gone for would have been.
1/2 cup ground cashews or sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of veggie broth, 1-2 tbsp of tapioca starch, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp lemon juice-- I probably would have played with the flavorings.. but this is roughly what I would have tried to do. And then topped the lasagna.
I baked the lasagna for 20 minutes at something like 250 celcius.
Some things that I miss quite a bit here, okay one thing that I miss a lot is nutritional yeast. They have their own version of nutritional yeast here, it tastes like beer. It's okay, however I really miss the kind that is easily found in the states.
Would be nice to know how to get it here :)
I also made 'tacos'
Chili powder is not available here, but I learned essentially it's paprika, cumin, oregano, and garlic powder maybe some cayenne pepper.. however tastes are fairly mild, people here generally don't eat much spice as I've noticed, at least not the people I've been generally spending time with here in the south.
I used kidney beans, 6 tomatoes, 1 zucchini, the seasonings listed above and lime juice, I would have added cilantro but wasn't available at the store.
I also made a sunflower seed sour cream.
I soaked about 3/4 cup of sunflower seeds, and then blended them with lime juice, garlic powder and some salt. I also chopped up some onion and tomato for a pico de gallo, added some salt, and lime juice.
I tried to make my own tortillas but unfortunately they were a failure, they tasted fine, but they were more like crackers? I used only whole wheat, maybe they needed a more refined flour to have worked properly? I'm not sure.
Will post cake recipes soon :)
