Cashew Spread

Intrigued by the possibility of vegan cheese I tried out this recipe of Vegan Pepper Jack Cashew Cheese.

The recipe calls (optionally) for agar powder. But as I couldn't find it anywhere I left it out.
The recipe also calls for a specific brand of pectin: Pomona's pectin. I had seen this brand in shops for kitchen supplies but didn't have the chance to pick it up before I tried the vegan cheese recipe. Instead I used pectin for jam.

The result was a rather un-cheesy cashew spread with a hint of sweetness. I wouldn't make it again in the same way I made it. But it tasted promising enough that I would be up for trying it again and sticking more closely to the recipe :)

Baked Eggplant

Half a loaf of bread dried out so I cut it into little pieces and used the blender to make breadcrumbs. I wanted to make an eggplant dish using the breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast. After looking up a couple of recipes, I combined some ideas. This one for Eggplant Parmesan with Crisp Bread Crumb Topping is the closest to what I ended up making.

My version:
- 1 small eggplant (or half a big one)
- egg mixture
  1 egg
  1/2 tsp basil
  1/2 tsp parsley
  pepper, salt
- breadcrumbs
  3 tbsp breadcrumbs
  3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- tomato sauce
  4 small fresh tomatoes
  2 tbsp tomato paste
  1/2 onion
  1/2 tsp basil
  1/2 tsp parsley
  pepper, salt
- olive or canola oil
- mozzarella
Wash eggplant and cut into 1/2 cm round slices.
Blend the ingredients for the tomato sauce except for the onion. Cut the onion into small pieces and add to the sauce.
Mix ingredients for egg mixture and ingredients for breadcrumbs in two separate bowls.
Cover the bottom of an oven proof dish with oil.
Dunk eggplant slices in the egg mixture and then in the breadcrumbs. In the oven proof dish, arrange one layer of eggplant, add one layer of tomato sauce. My dish was small enough to add another layer of eggplant and tomato sauce. Finish with a layer of mozzarella slices.
Bake for 15 min at 450 F.

Raw Kale Salad

Second best way to eat kale? Raw, with an amazing sauce!
This recipe is from a friend and ever since I first tried it, I wanted to make it myself. I think, this sauce is the secret reason I wanted to have a blender! I could eat this three times a day!

Cashew-Nut-Sauce for Raw Kale Salad:
Base ingredients:
1/2 cup cashews
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tbs olive oil
1 lemon (for juice)
Salt + pepper to taste
Other ingredients:
1/4 cup nutritional yeast and 1 tsp miso (Genmai)
or
1/4 cup parmesan and 1/2 tsp Better than Bouillon (stock base)
Blend all ingredients, add a bit of water to get the blender started.

Savory Madeleines II (filled with cheddar)

So this is the second time I made Madeleines and then liked them so much that I made a second batch on the same day. They are just so easy and fast to make and only bake 10 minutes!

On the same day after I added a blended mix of parsley, nuts, nutritional yeast and cheddar to this recipe of Parmesan-Herb Madeleines, I wanted to make them again. But instead of blending the ingredients, I mixed the chopped parsley and pine nuts into the dough. Then I filled the Madeleine pan with half the dough, added the grated cheddar and spread the rest of the dough on top.

It tasted so much better than when I blended the ingredients! The taste of the pine nuts and cheddar was much richer. We ate them all before I could take a picture..

Savory Madeleines I

For Christmas I got a Madeleine baking pan. I have yet to try a sweet recipe, but so far I've tried out this savory recipe of Parmesan-Herb Madeleines.

The first time I tried it I thought it would be a good idea to add some veggies (and/or bacon for the meat eaters) and the result was quite good. For some reason they turned out to be very salty, though. The recipe only calls for 1/4 tsp of salt and I didn't put in any other salty ingredients. That made them wonderful snacks to have with some beer!

Today I tried the recipe again and only put in a pinch of salt. Instead of veggies, I blended the following ingredients together to add to the dough:
1/2 bunch of parsley
1/4 cup of pine nuts
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
about 50g cheddar

The result tasted very good. The madeleines didn't rise much, but I don't know which ingredients could have interfered with the baking powder. The result was still very tasty and I am sure I will make it again.