Recipes
We've got a big box of walnuts as a gift and therefore it's walnut season in our kitchen. I'm going to prepare the next dishes with this valuable and delicious ingredient. A big thanks to the sponsors of the walnut box :)
You can prepare the walnut parsley pesto in two versions: less or more caloric. To reduce the number of calories I used more broth instead of olive oil. If you don't care about calories, add more olive oil - then the pesto will be more creamy.
You can serve the walnut parsley pesto with pasta or fresh bread.
When the heat is troubling you and you need immediately refreshment and cooling down, try this strawberry lemonade recipe. The lemonade will help beat the summer heat for sure. I hope you already have ice cubes in the freezer :)
When it comes to sweeteners, I usually suggest using your favourite sweetener. Today I chose a low-calorie product that goes perfectly with fruit, i.e. floral-herbal sugar.
I can't imagine strawberry season without beverages with these delicious, healthy and low-calorie fruits, so I prepared a recipe for a lemonade. I think you'll enjoy a delicious combination of strawberries and pineapple. Ginger will add a bit of character, and lemon juice will increase the vitamin C content ;) The portions are large, so the strawberry-pineapple lemonade can replace a meal. In very hot weather, serve the lemonade chilled in the refrigerator or with ice cubes.
I bake this bread quite often recently, because it is tasty and nutritious, and, most importantly, very simple to prepare and doesn't require too much time, which will certainly please those who are always busy :) The amount of sourdough was checked by me several times - if I added less sourdough, the bread didn't rise enough. If I added more sourdough, the bread was too wet.
This roasted carrot spread is easy to prepare and very tasty. Its energizing colour will certainly put you in a positive mood from early morning. It goes well with any greens and pickled cucumbers. You can also serve it as an appetiser with vegetables cut into sticks, e.g.: cucumbers, zucchini, peppers and celery. I recommend the carrot spread with buckwheat bread – the recipe here. Enjoy!
Today I share a recipe for my favourite pâté, which you can serve with probably all possible toppings: sprouts, watercress, horseradish, beetroot, red pepper, fresh cucumber, pickled cucumber, tomato, radishes and chives, lettuce, hot, cold, for breakfast, for brunch, lunch, dinner, and even as an appetizer. It is universal, tasty and easy to prepare. I recommend it especially for Easter.
Indian cuisine is perhaps the most flavourful cuisine I know. I appreciate it especially in winter, because Indian dishes are often prepared with a large amount of warming spices. The following dish includes a quite spicy tandoori masala. You can buy it ready-made or prepare according to your flavour preferences.
A recipe for a homemade tandoori masala spice mix here.
Delicious and crispy, perfect for coffee, tea and cocoa, for work and for a trip, actually for any occasion, but especially on Valentine's Day ;) And the most important thing, the cookies are made with sugar. Oh yes! Sugar is coming back into favour, because after two years experience I must admit that there is no better sweetener in the universe than sugar. And the white wheat flour shouldn't be demonised. Surely, everything within reason and in moderation. I still use the whole grain products, and agave and date syrup are still my favourite sweeteners, while xylitol and other types of sweeteners such as erythritol are not any more.
What could be more warming and uplifting than pumpkin soup? The warm and energizing colour and the harmonizing taste will surely warm you up from the inside out and boost your mood during the autumn months. I recommend it for dinner or supper after an evening walk :)
The strawberry season is still ongoing, so I've prepared a delicious and light salad that will be perfect for hot days such as now. I used vegan feta cheese for the first time and I am delighted with its taste, so I plan to introduce it to the menu of Flavours from Vega :) Thai basil has also made its debut in my kitchen, but the usual one will also be okay.
It's time to start the culinary season for asparagus! The asparagus is not only tasty, but also very healthy, so it's worth eating it in larger quantities during the asparagus season, which, unfortunately, is too short. The asparagus is low in calories, has anti-cancer properties and is also a source of many vitamins and minerals. Folic acid, vitamins C, E, A, potassium, phosphorus, and calcium are just some of them.
To prepare the risotto with asparagus I used a lot of fresh herbs, but you can also use the dried ones, e.g. the herbs de Provence is perfectly matched here.
I recommend the risotto with asparagus for lunch, dinner or supper.
I prepared this breakfast bowl for children, but it will surely find fans among adults, because it is delicious, maybe even the most delicious of the breakfast bowls I've prepared so far. As always, choose the toppings at your discretion - today I chose carambola, kumquats, peaches, cashews and roasted coconut chips (I bought the roasted ones).
A chocolate porridge shouldn't be missing among the breakfast bowls, because there is nothing better than chocolate – every child knows it :) This time I sweetened the porridge with dates, the sweetness is very pleasant. You can garnish the breakfast bowl as you wish – today I've chosen pomegranate seeds, chocolate shavings, roasted almond flakes and a pinch of green colour – the mint leaves.
I promised that there will be more smoothie bowls for kids on the blog, so I keep my word and have prepared today the second smoothie bowl. I wanted a nice green smoothie in the company of blueberries and hope your children will share my enthusiasm for such colours and flavours :)
The smoothie bowl is perhaps the best breakfast idea you can imagine - a colourful, eye-pleasing bowl that is also packed with vitamins and nutrients. No toddler will despise such a wonderful feast for the senses. When you want to eat the leftovers of your toddler, you don't have to worry about gaining weight :) And the most important thing: you will prepare such a delicious and colourful breakfast bowl in 15 minutes, so no excuses! Let's do it! Today, mango and raspberries are starring, but I plan to prepare other breakfast smoothie bowls, which will soon appear on the blog.
I prepared this silken tofu mayo for the stuffed avocado, which contains a lot of fat (healthy fat), so it should be served with a light mayo. The silken tofu mayo is light and dietary, and at the same time very tasty. I used sarepska mustard to prepare the mayo, but you can add any other mustard that you like best. This mayo you can also add to all kinds of sandwiches, burgers and salads.
Instead of traditional stuffed eggs, which are popular in Poland and served for different occasions, I prepared stuffed avocado that can taste similar to an egg if you add Indian black salt – the Kala Namak salt. This salt is commonly used in South Asia and, due to its egg-like taste and smell, it is often used as an egg substitute in plant based dishes.
I recommend serving the stuffed avocado with silken tofu mayo, which is very light because it is oil free. Such mayo fits very well here, because avocado contains a lot of (healthy) fat and if we added traditional mayo to it, the dish would be a calorie bomb.
You can eat the stuffed avocado raw, but it's also possible to bake it. I recommend baking it covered in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. If you plan to bake the avocado, don't take the skin off and serve the mayo separately after baking.
This apple pie is probably the easiest cake to make that I know. It can be prepared without the refined sugar, and it’s delicious anyway. Besides, it can be modified in many different ways, which applies to both flour and semolina as well as fruit. In the traditional recipe for this apple pie, the basic ingredients are wheat flour, semolina and a large amount of refined sugar, but it’s possible to make this cake gluten-free and without the refined sugar. You can sweeten the apple pie with blended banana or blended dates (then add them to the grated apples). You can also add raisins and very sweet apples, so that you don’t have to sweeten the cake with sugar, because it’s sweet enough then. Try also to prepare this cake with apples and pears – it’s really delicious, maybe even more yummy than with only apples.
This apple pie is the second dessert, which I decided to prepare with the floral-herbal sugar and I must admit that this sugar works great in fruit desserts. As previously mentioned, you don’t have to use it too much.
If you want to sweeten your life a little bit, but you are on a diet or can't eat sweets with refined sugar, I recommend healthy oat flake cookies with nuts and raisins, which I sweetened with sugar made from flowers and herbs. This sugar is my great discovery of the year 2021. It has only 0,1 calories per serving and a low glycemic index, but it still tastes very pleasant and can match the taste and the sweetness of ordinary refined sugar. I am very happy about this discovery and I can't wait to try this sweetener in all kinds of desserts. Give it a try and let me know if you share my enthusiasm.
These are the ingredients of the floral-herbal sugar: juice concentrate of arenga flowers, citron extract, cornflower petals, lotus petals, rose petals, sweet chili, safflower petals, hibiscus petals, natural vanilla aroma (contains vanilla fruit), root of a beetroot, cardamom seeds, orange peel, sunflower petals.
The power bowl is a good way to eat more raw vegetables. Sometimes it's difficult to just reach for carrots or greens and eat them with taste, but in the company of other bowl ingredients with yoghurt sauce, dressing or simply with olive oil and lemon juice it is much easier and more pleasant for the taste buds.
The power bowl aka Buddha bowl is supposed to resemble the round belly of the Buddha figurine, to be filling and, above all, to make you happy. It should be composed according to certain rules, but I personally don't stick to them rigidly. As a wholesome meal the power bowl contains in certain proportions protein and carbohydrate components, vegetables (baked, raw, blanched), fruits and healthy fats. The percentage of the individual ingredients is as follows: proteins should make up approx. 20% of the bowl, carbohydrates 20%, vegetables 20%, healthy fats 15%, greens (leafy vegetables) 10%, fruits 10%, topping 5%.
The Buddha bowl is also a great culinary opportunity to diversify your meals, because it can be composed in many different ways choosing the ingredients from the particular groups that you like best. Today I would like to present to you one of my favourite power bowls.
In the wintertime, when it's often gray, gloomy and depressing outside and you miss vivid colours and sunlight I recommend preparing the red cabbage salad with orange and tempeh. With this salad you can improve your mood and energise yourself in a quite simple and uncomplicated way. I also added tempeh to the salad to make it more filling. Instead of tempeh you can add tofu, but please try to find a tofu of good quality. I often hear the opinion that tofu tastes terrible, but I can't agree with that. A high quality tofu is delicious, although its flavour is quite subtle. Today I prepared a rather plain marinade for tempeh / tofu, but it will add character to the salad and you don't have to wait a very long time for the tempeh to be ready, because the marinade works very fast. You can of course marinate tempeh / tofu much longer, but it's not necessary.
As a first culinary proposal in the New Year I prepared a delicious salad. There are many reasons for that: a New Year's resolution that there will be more salads on the blog - so far there are only two, and now three :-). My detox consisted of consuming only raw vegetables and fruits for three days, after which I felt great and it motivated me to eat more raw food. Besides I've been thinking about preparing a dish with celery for a long time, because of its beautiful, light green colour, which brings spring to my kitchen. Add fresh marjoram to the salad if you can, it fits here perfectly. If you don't have marjoram, add your favourite fresh herbs or parsley. However, I would recommend adding marjoram, which is really the main character here, even though it may not seem to be one at first glance.
Yoghurt smoothie with berries will be perfect as a snack or a healthy diet dessert. You can prepare it at any time all year round, so it is worth having a stock of fruit in the freezer to enjoy them even in the winter, e.g. when you come back home after training and need a nice refreshment. There are many ways to prepare such a refreshing smoothie. You can use frozen fruits or fresh fruits and add ice cubes to them. Instead of agave syrup, you can blend a ripe, sweet banana that has also been previously frozen. Freedom also applies to plant-based milk and yoghurt – I've chosen rice milk and coconut yoghurt.
The mango smoothie with ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and turmeric will surely tickle the fancy of those who like Indian flavours. In addition to the taste and aromatic qualities, the above spices have also many health benefits. Turmeric has anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Ginger also has anti-inflammatory as well as analgesic, antioxidant and even slimming properties, it also prevents arterial hypertension. Cinnamon exhibits anti-cancer, antiseptic and refreshing properties. It also strengthens the body, but it shouldn't be used in excess. Cardamom has a refreshing effect and is recommended for digestive problems. These are just a few properties of these spices chosen by me.
Kale is a great plant for preparing any kind of healthy smoothies. It's also worth adding yoghurt to the smoothie to take care of the intestinal microbiota and to give an interesting taste, because yoghurt also contributes to increasing the taste. This yoghurt smoothie owes its sweetness to ripe bananas and sweet apples, which, besides lemon, contain vitamin C. The vitamin C is very important for the absorption of iron provided by our wonderful green plant. If you add hemp protein containing omega-3 acids, you'll get an extremely nutritious meal. You can drink such a smoothie e.g. for brunch.
The cashew spread with herbs and garlic and the tomato spread with herbs de Provence caused a sensation among my family members, so I decided to prepare one more cashew spread - this time a sweet version. The composition of ingredients is similar - cashews are the base of the spread and the natural yoghurt gives the flavour of processed cheese. Don't be afraid of so much cinnamon - some of this aromatic spice will stay in the pan after roasting the cashews.
It got a bit monothematic on the blog because of my culinary obsession with vegan processed cheese, but not for long!
It's necessary to try the recipe! This cinnamon spread is yum-yum! It goes well with coffee in the morning and even for dessert!
The tomato cashew spread with herbs de Provence was created together with the cashew spread with herbs and garlic. It is also easy and quick to prepare and very tasty and can be visually attractive when you decorate it. If you are a culinary lazybones and do not want to peel and fry the onion and garlic, then you can use dried onion and powdered garlic. Just put the dried onion into the glass blender together with coloured peppercorns and herbs de Provence to make this cashew spread even faster and less complicated to prepare.
Recently, I am very preoccupied with plant-based cheese spreads, which are slowly appearing on supermarket shelves and also conquering the hearts of other culinary bloggers. As a carnivore, I liked all kinds of dairy products more than meat, but when I started eating vegan, there was not so much choice of plant-based dairy products and I must admit that I missed all kinds of cheese and yoghurt. Fortunately, today plant dairy products can be found more and more often in organic stores and supermarkets. You can also prepare processed cheese on your own, of course, and season it the way you like best. The cashew spread with herbs and garlic is my debut. I hope you will like it.
Kale has become a permanent feature of the Vega menu because of its health benefits. It has a very high nutrient density and is loaded with vitamins: A, C and K, micro and macro elements: iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and folic acid. Moreover, what is extremely important, the kale has anticancer properties.
The salad also includes oil free oven baked sweet potatoes. To give character to the sweet potatoes you can roast them accompanied by dried thyme. Of course, it is important to add some fat to the salad (e.g. in a dressing), because it assists with the absorption of the above-mentioned vitamins A and K as well as vitamin E, which can be found in pumpkin and sunflower seeds and apricots.
The kale goes beautifully with the pomegranate in terms of colour, also in terms of taste of course. Instead of pomegranate seeds, you can add dried cranberries. I think that thanks to such a healthy and colourful salad, many people will come to like the kale and will reach for it more often.
This vegan pasta with spinach is a main dish for everybody who prefers to cook quick and easy, with pleasure and wants something tasty. It was created spontaneously, using ingredients currently at hand and in a hurry. The frozen spinach played first fiddle in the original version, but I decided to use the fresh one on the blog. The dish tastes very good with fresh spinach as well as with the frozen one, and by the way it is always worth keeping stocks of spinach in the freezer.
The second fiddle is played by smoked tofu and chickpeas - you can of course add only one of these ingredients, but I suggest to include in the dish, both protein components, because they are really well matched in terms of both taste and texture.
Buckwheat flakes bread is nutritious, tasty, filling and ideal, especially for breakfast or brunch, because it will give you a lot of energy for the whole day. Super fast and super easy to prepare, you don't have to wait until it rises, you don't have to wait for the sourdough, which usually needs a few days to be ready – unless you have it ready – and the most important thing: it always succeeds. It is also worth mentioning that the ispaghula husk included in the bread is very healthy and has a lot of healing properties.
I bake buckwheat flakes bread once a month as a stepping stone from sourdough bread and buckwheat bread and eat especially with plum jam and in the company of hot cocoa. Yummy!
Children often grizzle during mealtime and it is difficult to convince them that, for example, spelt flakes are healthy. However, if we combine them with hazelnuts and dates, I think that many kids will ask for their preparation once again, and pout and grimaces will go out of the window. I also think that spelt hazelnut pudding will tickle the fancy of many parents, grandmas, grandpas, uncles and aunts too, so actually it is a healthy dessert for the whole family.
I prepared a very aromatic meal for supper this evening – green asparagus with ginger carrot purée. The spiciness of the ginger carrot purée is soothed by the mint-flavoured rice, which owes its refreshing taste not only to the fresh mint, but also to such seasonings as the lemon grass and the lemon pepper. Obviously, the dish is completed with the green asparagus sprinkled with roasted almond flakes, which give a nice crispiness to the dish. Such a supper is a real feast for the senses and a great alternative to sandwiches. Admittedly, sandwiches are prepared faster, but this dish does not require a lot of time, and the culinary game is worth the candle.
It's time for a dessert! It should be very sweet of course, and the chia balls with bananas and dried apricots are just like that. I recommend them to all foodies who need very sweet taste experiences. I added fried bananas to the chia balls, but you can go a healthier path and just cook them in a little water for a while. Obviously you can make it raw by adding raw bananas and a little more lemon juice to preserve them in a natural way and to stop the process of browning and spoiling. The strong point of this dessert are the chia seeds, which are known for their nutritional properties and health benefits.
Kale is worth introducing into your diet for good, because it is a real vitamin bomb and a source of antioxidants. Maybe it is not the most delicious vegetable itself, but when you combine the kale with other ingredients, it tastes really great.
Linseed and hemp seeds provide among other things, the omega-3 fatty acids and must be included in the menu. All these ingredients, which are so important for vegans, can be combined for example in a green smoothie that can perfectly replace a meal, e.g. a brunch or an afternoon tea, or maybe even a dessert for those who are on a slimming diet. In addition to the above-mentioned ingredients, it is necessary to add your favourite fruit – I have chosen apples and pears. If they are not sweet enough, it is worth adding a few dates. Cheers!
The classic Italian pasta dish, spaghetti, needless to say, is probably liked by everyone. I dare to say that vegan spaghetti Copernicanese even the carnivores will come to like, and they won’t even realise that it does not contain meat. Instead of meat, I have added red lentils, which give an interesting flavour to the dish and also thickens the tomato sauce very well. I cook spaghetti very often and with various ingredients. This time I present the spicy version with red peppers, button mushrooms and olives. You can choose from different types of spaghetti – I decided on the gluten-free one.
Chickpeas are a very versatile legume, because it is possible to prepare plenty of dishes with them. Personally, I have not tried desserts with chickpeas playing the lead role yet, but I will certainly reach this stage just like every vegan that experiments in the kitchen. I associate chickpeas especially with hummus, which has been my favourite spread for many years. Once, some chickpeas were left over and so I blended them spontaneously with a few other ingredients that I just had in the fridge. I realized only later that this simple chickpea sandwich spread with an Italian twist is very delicious, when it disappeared in the blink of an eye. The spread is also quick and easy to prepare, which will surely please every culinary lazybones.
Pears and walnuts are certainly a perfectly matched pair. The juicy sweetness of pears and the slight bitterness of walnuts harmonise very well with each other. Together with red onion, parsley and spices, they form a successful composition of flavours.
It is a piece of cake to prepare such a salad, and it is also quick and painless. The salad is a good idea for brunch as well as for a starter, which you can treat your guests to before the main dish appears on the table.