Vegan Chocolate cake

This is a recipe that I generally use for birthday cakes. Simple wholewheat vegan chocolate cake. When I did this I had just enough gems to make a smiley...and K thought this was my original plan! V was happy to just pick them up one by one and pop it in her mouth. This was so delicious and so healthy (if you can just manage to forget the cocoa  & the sugar for a minute)...with the flaxseed powder giving you all the omega 3 boost!

Ingredients: 

For the cake

Wholewheat (atta) - 175 gm (original recipe is with maida)

Demerara sugar (powdered)  - 100 gm (50 gm < than original recipe)

Sunflower oil - 100 ml (50 ml < than orig. recipe)

Cocoa powder - 3 tbsp

Cold water  - 100 ml (depending on the cake batter)

Baking powder - 2.5 tsp

Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp

Pureed banana - 1

Flaxseed powder (egg substitute.) - blend 2 tbsp with 6 tbsp water

For the chocolate glaze

Cocoa powder: 3 tbsp

White or Demerara sugar: 3 – 4 tbsp

Cold water

Method: 

1. Pre-heat oven to 170degC

2. Mix dry ingredients separately & wet ingredients separately 

3. Add wet to dry and mix well 

4. Add cashews & raisins if desired 

5. Add more water if mix is a bit dry 

6. Empty mix into an oven proof greased tin (I used 9 inch cake tin)

7. Keep in oven at 170 deg C for 40 min

8. Check if it is done using a knife

9. For the chocolate glaze, blend the ingredients and when the cake has cooled down pour the glaze on top

10. Use the spatula to make it tidier

Vegan Amaranth and potato curry

This particular recipe was born of a need to use up the loads of 'Mulai keerai' (Amaranth leaves) in my fridge and make up something tasty and vegan out of it. I checked out a recipe from 'Best ever vegetarian cook book' which was basically a chunky soup recipe and adapted it to what I had in my pantry and hubby's dietary needs.

Ingredients

2 medium potatoes peeled and cut into cubes

1 medium onion cut into small pieces

4 cloves of garlic cut into small pieces

A handful of Amaranth (Mulai/Arai keerai) leaves*

8 to 10 Almonds (to make 1/2 cup of almond milk)

1/2 tsp Coriander powder (Dhania)

1/2 tsp Cumin powder(Jeera)

1/2 tsp Cumin

1/2 tsp Channa masala/Garam masala

1/2 to 1 tsp of Olive oil

1/2 tsp corn flour

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Steam the potato cubes in a steam basket in the microwave or the pressure cooker

2. In a pan, saute the onion,cumin and garlic with some olive oil, until it browns a bit

3. Grind almonds with water and filter it to get almond milk (or get store bought almond milk)

4. Mix some corn flour in the almond milk till there are no lumps

5. Add cumin & coriander powder to the sauteed onion & garlic and mix

6. Add the almond milk and turmeric powder and mix well till the gravy thickens**

7. Now add the steamed potato cubes and washed amaranth leaves

8. Let the gravy coat the potato & amaranth nicely

9. Add pepper and salt and stir for 5 min

The subzi came out beautifully and tasted really good. It was really quick to make and it would be even more easier if you had made a batch of almond milk earlier or got it from the store. You could also add soaked and boiled channa, instead of potato or add it along with them (but not too much as it might make it very heavy)

* The original recipe used Spinach leaves (Palak). You could use any keerai you have.

** The original recipe used cream in the place of almond milk & corn flour mixture.

Apple Oats bar

I stumbled upon this "Apple oats bar" recipe when I was searching for dry and healthy snacks to send for school for my 2 year old. It is made from wholewheat and oats which rate really high in my health meter and it  passes for a cake which is the only meter for my daughter. As this is vegan and is a prime candidate for low fat diet I have added it in this blog. In addition you get to add apple sauce and banana which ups the nutrition even though most of the fiber is lost due to pureeing. So here goes the recipe.

 

Ingredients

 

1 cup    - Wholewheat flour

1 cup    - Quick cooking oats

1 cup    - Apple sauce (made by steaming cored-peeled apples & pureeing)

1 medium sized banana pureed

1 cup    - walnuts, almonds, cashews coarsely grounded

1/2 cup - Raisins (if desired)
1/4 cup - Sunflower oil

2-3 tbsp - honey

1 tsp      - vanilla essence

 

Method

 

1. Add all dry ingredients to a bowl and mix

2. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly

3. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C for 10 min

4. Grease a baking tin and pour the batter onto it

 

Before baking

 

 

After baking

 

5. Bake for 15-20 min till a toothpick/knife inserted into it comes clean.

6. Cut into bars and stock in an air tight container.

                                                              

This bar is wholesome and is very filling due to the oats and the nuts added to it. Instead of honey you could add any other sugar substitute like raisin/dates puree and make it more moist and nutritious. The original recipe did not have the banana. I added it because I had an over ripe banana sitting on the fruits bowl that no one wanted to eat and I didn't have the heart to throw it out. It gave a beautiful banana-ish flavor to the bar that was really yummy.

References
[1] Eating healthy cook book - Edwin Keister,Jr

 

Vegan Pumpkin cake

Ingredients

1/4 yellow pumpkin diced into cubes
2 cups      - wholewheat
1/2 cup    - powdered sugar
2 tsp        - Baking powder
1/2 tsp     - cinnamon powder
2 tsp        - vanilla essence
1 cup       - cold water
1/2 cup    - vegetable oil
2 Tbsp     - flaxseed powder (mixed with 2 Tbsp water)
1/2 tsp     - salt

Method

1. Mix all dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls (except for water)
2. Slowly mix wet & dry ingredients and then add water
3. Stir the mix (if the batter is dry add some more water)
4. The batter should reach a thick but pouring consistency
5. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and keep in pre heated oven for 15 min at 200 centigrades
6. Check if it is done using a knife or a tooth pick and cool completely

Vegan au gratin with chunky tomato dip

Au gratin is a method of baking vegetables or meat with breadcrumbs and cheese on top. This is a delicious dish but needs milk and cheese which has no place in my pantry nowadays. I have made the original au gratin with cheese and milk using potatoes and other vegetables earlier and it turned out beautiful. My husband used to love it. And why not. It was so creamy and tasty with all that cheese and milk. I was checking out some recipes in 'Eating healthy' when I came across broccoli au gratin using tofu and milk. I removed the milk from the recipe and used silken tofu instead and it became Vegan au gratin ! I tried it a few days back and was gratified when my hubby tasted it and thought that I had forgotten his diet restrictions. What a thought! As if I could forget! Now to the recipe.

Vegan Au gratin (Ref [1])

Ingredients

1                  - large potato cut into small cubes

1                  - large or 2 small carrots cut lengthwise

2                  - tomatoes cut lengthwise or small pieces

200 g           - Silken tofu (Mori-nu brand)

2  pcs           - Whole wheat bread

1/2 tsp         - Organo

1/2 tsp         - Basil

1/2 tsp         - Extra light olive oil for greasing the baking dish

1 cup           - soy milk or water

1 bunch       - fresh coriander

Salt & Pepper for seasoning

Method

1. Blend Silken tofu with water or soy milk to bring it to a sauce consistency. Add herbs, salt and pepper and keep it aside.

2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C for 10 min.

3. Steam all vegetables in the pressure cooker for 5-6 whistles or in a steam basket in the microwave oven for 6 min.

4. In a greased baking dish (use the 1/2 tsp extra light olive oil), place a portion of the steamed vegetables.

5. Pour the tofu sauce over the vegetables making sure all of them are covered in the sauce. Place the rest of the vegetables over this in a layer and pour rest of the sauce. Add some fresh coriander and some dried herbs and seasoning.

6. Then cut the bread into pieces (you could also crumble the bread for a finer layer) and place over the sauce and veggie mixture, so that it is a layer on top of the dish.

7. Keep the dish in the oven for 20 min or till the bread layer becomes brown.

8. After it has cooled down a bit, serve it with a chunky tomato dip.

Chunky tomato dip (Ref [2])

Ingredients

5               - large tomatoes

1 bunch    - fresh coriander

1 tbsp       - vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

1/2 tsp      - Extra light olive oil

Salt & pepper for seasoning

Method

1. Remove all seeds from the tomatoes. Blend 3 in a mixie and cut the rest into small cubes.

2. In a small pan or kadai add the olive oil

3. Add the tomato puree and the pieces

4. After 5 min, add the fresh coriander, the vinegar and then season it with some salt and pepper

You could blend onions along with the tomato as was given in the original recipe, but I preferred it this way.This dip is quite refreshing and goes well with the au gratin. Almost no oil and no dairy and really wholesome to the boot.

References
[1] Eating healthy cook book - Edwin Keister,Jr

[2] The best ever vegetarian cookbook - Linda Fraser

Hunt for No oil Vegan food!

Well... the plan is quite simple. No oil and no dairy for the rest of my hubby's life. His body has soaked up enough of these two all these years and it has literally reached a saturation point. While his view of his new diet has turned from shocking outrage to denial to dark mutterings and pathetic resignation, I have quite the opposite feeling. I know if I try just a little bit he can enjoy delicious food regardless of the fact that there would be no oil or fat oozing out. So people, the idea is to forage and hunt for all that is vegan & oil-free out there and while I am at it, I hope I can reproduce them in my kitchen and also post a pic here. Keeping my fingers crossed!