Category Archives: Vegan

Lazy chocolate truffles

Making sweet dishes isn’t that simple in our home. Although I love all types of sweet things, mainly the chocolaty ones, my partner is extra picky when it comes to sweets. I usually go back to the same old cookies that were tried successfully or to the cheese cake that somehow passed the impossibly high bar. But sometimes I do want to explore and try new sweet things so usually they’ll be small and easy, so it will make sense to make them just for myself.

I firstly encountered the following recipe in some comment in Facebook but since I’ve seen it all over the net in various blogs and pages (here for example). It is practically based on two ingredients – chocolate and some fatty ingredient like tahinni, peanut butter or even almond butter. It might even work with other “butters” made from nuts or with coconut oil. This simple combination of two ingredients magically creates impressive and tasty truffles with just 5 minutes work.

There are infinite variations to this recipe, you can keep it simple and not add anything or add any type of spice you like and/or any type of nuts, whole or chopped. It can be coated with coconut shavings or cocoa powder if you want the sophisticated look. Details and some more ideas below.

The truffles are stored in the freezer, a fact that allows you to prepare a large amount in advance and eat whenever you feel like it or serve for surprise guests.

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Bella’s Chrein

My family isn’t really close to the Jewish traditions. We don’t celebrate most of the holidays and the various Jewish customs aren’t really present in our lives. However there were always two holidays that are celebrated in a large and festive meals – Rosh HaShana and Passover Seder. For every such event my grandma prepares a very specific menu that includes chicken soup with Kneidlach (Matzah balls), Gefilte fish and Chrein, all hand made from scratch. In Passover the menu include also Charoset and rice with surprises.

If there is a dish in the world that I would never eat it is Gefilte fish… but Chrein is a different story. Every Seder I find myself drawn to this super hot and totally addictive spread and eat lots of it on top of a Matzah. You can’t compare store bough Chrein with the home made one, the taste is different but the main differentiation is the extreme and magical pungency of the home made version. The type of pungency that goes up to the forehead and down to the nose opening all your Chakras 🙂

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Onion Pakora

Fried, hot and crunchy is probably enough to make anyone happy, even someone who is vegan + non-gluten. Just be careful not to prepare that when you’re alone at home since you might end up eating too much and being completely full for the coming two days…

Onion Pakora (also known as Onion Bhaji) is an onion patty with chickpea flour and spices that is deep fried and served with various chutneys as an appetizer. In general, Pakoras are made of one or two main ingredients like onion, capsicum, eggplant, potato, spinach, paneer, cauliflower, chili etc. which is dipped in a chickpea flour and spices mixture and then deep fried.

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Lemon rice

Despite my apparent liking of spicy and hot food I usually don’t like to change anything in rice – white rice is just perfect as it is and there is really nothing better to accompany and tone down my adventurous kitchen experiments. However, rice is one of the main players in Indian cuisine and a lot of times it appears not just as a side dish but as the main course.

Rice as main course has endless amount of versions – rice with varying spices, Biryani and many more. The most common rice dish in south India is lemon rice full of crunchy surprises.

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Aloo Tikki – Indian potato patties

Everyone have their own weird internet hobbies. Mine is viewing funny videos in YouTube of Indian grandmas making all kinds of weird and intriguing dishes. Those videos are usually in Hindi or some other Indian language and it took me quite some time to be able to understand the recipe without understanding the language.

Lately I’ve encountered somethings called “Ragda Patties”, which is a Chaat dish based on potato patties covered with a full-of-spices chickpeas curry, topped with yogurt, fresh tomatoes, onion, more spices and chutneys. A magnificent feast indeed. This dish will definitely be unraveled one day but in the meantime I decide to start with something less ambitious – the potato patties (= Aloo Tikki).

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Red Kidney Bean Curry

I really like beans in general and especially red kidney bean, which has a deep and rich flavor that improves with longer cooking time. Red kidney beans pair really well with meat but can also be served as the focus of the main course. The following dish is called “Rajma Masala” or simply “Red Kidney Bean Curry”. “Rajma” means red kidney bean in Hindi and “Masala” is the general name for a spice mixture which is either dry or wet. In this case the Masala is wet and based on onion, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and lots of spices. Once the Masala is ready the cooked red kidney bean is added and they are cooked together.

This curry can be served simply with white rice or as an exotic side dish. There are lots of versions for Rajma Masala out there, this version celebrates ginger, cinnamon and the hotness of red chili.

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Aloo Masala for Masala Dosa

Waking up craving hot and spicy food? Don’t worry! You are in good company together with 1 billion Indians 😉 Masala Dosa is one of the most common dishes in south India and in India in general and people like to eat it for breakfast or as a street food. Masala Dosa is practically a Dosa (thin and crispy crepe made of rice and lentiles – recipe here) filled with Aloo Masala, which is spicy and hot mashed potatoes.

As expected of such a famous and tasty dish it has lots of versions for the Masala itself, but also for the various serving options and side dishes. One of the more famous variations is called Mysore Masala Dosa in which you spread hot red chilli chutney on the dosa prior to filling it with Aloo Masala.

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Dosa and Idli

Dosa and Idli, the “Indian Pita”, are two basic dishes common in south India. Both Dosa and Idli are serverd for breakfast or any other light meal during the day. Dosa is actually a large, thin and crunchy crepe with a slightly sour taste and it is usually filled with some spicy vegetable puree and served with chutneys and Sambar (a thick lentil soup). Idli is actually prepared from the same batter but instead of being cooked as a crepe the Idlis are steamed and so the Idli is thicker and soft. Idli is served with practically everything… curry, sambar, chutney, podi (spice mix with oil) and many more.

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