FALAFEL WITH HOMEMADE WHOLEMEAL TORTILLA AND MINT-LIME YOGURT

I´m so happy that the spring slowly arrives germany! And because it was really warm today i took a fancy to a fresh and light dinner. So i decided to make this, a bit time-consuming but delicious recipe.
Possibly this isn´t the absolutly best tortilla recipe, but for my first try they are very well done.

 Ingredients for the tortillas:

• 160g all white spelled flour
• 180g wholemeal spelled flour
• 1 coated teaspoon salt
• 4-5 tbsp oil
• 180ml warm water

1. Mix the salt with the flours and add the oil. Mix until it´s crumbly.
2. Now pour the water to the flour and knead everything to a soft dough.
3. Devide the dough into smaller pieces and roll every piece out into really thin circle. 
4. Heat a pan without oil and place the tortillas on the pan. It only needs a few seconds on each side until it´s ready. The tortilla should remain soft to fill it easily.
5. Cover the tortilla with foil to keep them warm. 

Ingredients for the Falafel:

• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 big garlic clove, chopped
• 4-5 tbsp flour
• 2-3 tbsp bread crumbs
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1,5 tsp paprika 
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp turmeric
• salt, pepper and chili-flakes to taste
• a few drops lemon-juice
• 1/4 bunch of fresh parsley

1.  Heat a pan with oil and fry the onion and the garlic briefly.
2. Crush the chickpeas with a folk. You can also use a food processor. 
3. Add everything to the chickpeas and knead by hand. The mixture shouldn´t be sticky anymore.
4. Form little balls or patties with the mixture. Now you can fry them in a pan (that´s what i did to get it low-fat) or in a fryer to get them really crispy!!!

Ingredients for the mint-lime yogurt: 

• 150g natural yogurt
• 10-15 mint leaves
• some lime zest and juice
• chili-flakes, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar to taste

Mix everything and let it rest in the refrigerator.

You also need tomatoes, cucumber, salad and tomato sauce/ or red pesto for the filling!

VEGAN GNOCCHI TWO WAYS

Ingredients for the gnocchi:

• 1kg potatoes
• 200g - 300g flour
• 1tsp salt

1. Boil potatoes in their skins until tender and then peel.
2. Use a folk or a potato press to mash the potatoes.
3. Work in the flour into the potato-mixture. it shouldn´t be sticky anymore.
4. Add the salt and mix well
5. Now gently roll the dough into a snake-shaped log, roughly the thickness of your dumb and cut pieces every 3cm. To shape the gnocchi hold a fork in one hand  and place a gnocchi pillow against the tines of the fork.
6. Set each gnocchi aside. dust with a little more flour until you are ready to boil them.
7. Heat a pot with salted water and add the gnocchi carefully. When they float to the surface they are ready. Just remove them with a slotted spoon and set them in a strainer to drain off the excess water

Ingredients for the creamy mediterranean style gnocchi:

• some soymilk
• tomato paste
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 1 zucchini, cut into thin strips with the vegetable peeler
• fresh thyme
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat some oil in a frying pan. add garlic and onion and saute until golden brown.
2. Add the zucchini and the bell pepper and saute for another 2-3 minutes.
3. Mix some milk with tomatopaste (it depends how many gnocchi you use), until the milk becomes lightly pink
4. Add the gnocchi to the pan and fry them lightly
5. Now pour the milk-mixture and simmer for a few minutes.
6. Season with salt and pepper and add the fresh chopped thyme to it.

Ingredients for the gnocchi in sage-butter:

• 3 - 4 tbsp margarine
• 10 sage leaves
• garlic, chopped
• salt, pepper and chili flakes to taste

1. place margarine in a large frying pan over medium heat. Cook until melted then add sage leaves and garlic to pan. Cook margarine and sage leaves for 4-5 minuten until sage leaves are crisp.
2. Add gnocchi to pan and mix well.
3. Season with salt, pepper and chili flakes!!

GRANDMA`S POTATO SOUP WITH POTATO PANCAKES

I know... maybe this soup doesn´t look exceptional.... but as they saying... back to the basics!!!!
It´s my grandma´s recipe and i love this soup since i´m a little child!!!

Ingredients for the soup:

• 1,5 liter vegetable stock
•  5 large peeled potatoes
•  2 carrots
•  1/2 celery with its leaves
•  2 tomatoes
•  some lovage leaves
•  salt and pepper to taste
• about 2 tbsp cumin
• 2-3 tbsp dried majoram
• a dash of cream 

1. Cut all vegetables into small pieces and put it together with the broth into a large pot.
2. Cook with lid until the vegetables are soft.
3. Now puree the soup and add a dash of cream (depends on how creamy you like the soup)
4. Add the cumin and the majoram to it and season with salt and pepper. 

Ingredients for the potato-pancakes (sorry i don´t know how much i have used from each ingredient. but don´t worry. It´s definitely easy to prepare. 

• peeled potatoes
• 1 onion
• flour
• salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste
• margarine or oil
• maybe you can use an egg-replacer

1. Grate potatoes and onions in a food processor
2. Put the mass into a sieve and let the water drain into a bowl. Pat it with paper towels. If you wait a minute, the potato starch settles to the bottom of the bowl. pour off the water and add the starch to the potato-mass
3. Add some flour to get a thick mass.
4. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
5. In a large non stick pan, heat margarine or oil. Drop about a 1,5 tablespoons into the pan and flatten it. Saute until golden brown.
6. Drain on paper towels and serve it to the soup or applesauce.

VEGAN CINNAMON ROLLS

Ingredients:

• 110g sugar + 200g sugar for the filling
• 250ml warm soy-milk
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 6 coated tablespoons cornstarch + 6 tablespoons water + 3 teaspoons bakingpowder, mixed          (= egg-replacer)
• 75g margarine (melted) + 75g margarine, melted (for the filling)
• 450g all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2-3 tbsp cinnamon

1. Mix the flour with the yeast and the salt in a bowl.
2. Mix well the milk, the sugar, the "egg-replacer", the salt and the margarine.
3. Slowly add the flour to the mixture and knead for about 5-7 minutes. If the dough is sticky, add more flour to it. 
4. Place dough in a bowl, cover and allow to rise until dough is doubled in sized.
5. Combine the cinnamon and the sugar. Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Spread melted margarine on the dough and sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar. 
6. Now roll the dough. Cut small rolls and place in a buttered casserole form or use muffin tins (to get equal pieces)
7. You can bake it now or let it rest for further 30 minutes.
8. Preheat oven to 200°C and bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until lightly brown.
9. You can spread them with frosting or serve it with vanilla sauce.

VEGAN APPLE CAKE OR "APFELWEINTORTE"

The apple-cream cake was the second cake for the concert-catering. I absolutely love that one. It´s not as boring as a pound cake and not as complex as to prepare a cream pie. Another good thing is that the dough contains very little sugar, but the apple-mass makes the cake fruity and sweet to the taste. So but now i´ve raved enough. Just try it out and see for yourself =)

Ingredients:

• 150g margarine
• 70g sugar + 150g sugar
• 1 egg-Replacer
• 1/2 package baking powder
• 2/4 liter apple-juice + 1/4 liter water
• 1 package vanilla-sugar
• 250g all-purpose flour
• 1 kg apples
• 2 packages custard-powder
• 1 pack whipping cream (i used soyatoo)
• powdered sugar (to taste)
• some cinnamon

1. Mix the flour with the baking powder and sift onto worktop. Make a well at the centre.
2. Place the mixed egg-replacer, the margarine and 70g sugar in the well and knead until the dough is soft. Let the dough cool until you prepare the apple-mass.
3. Peel the apples and cut them into small pieces. 
4. Slightly damp your apples with 150g of sugar for about 10 minutes. 
5. Mix well the custard-powder with about 10 tbsp of the water. Heat the rest of the water together with the juice. Add the custard mixture to the hot juice and stir well. Let it cook for about 1 minute. Then slowly fold in the apples.
6. Butter a 26cm springform pan. Roll out the dough and place into the pan. Don´t forget the sides!
7. Fill the apple mixture to the springform and put it in a 175°C oven and bake for about 60 minutes. 
8. If the cake is ready, take it out of the oven and let it cool completely before adding the whip cream. 
9. Whip cream until stiff. Add powdered sugar and cinnamon to taste and spread it over the cake.
10. Sprinkle with a little bit of cinnamon-sugar and put it in the refrigerator until you need the cake!!

VEGAN DONAUWELLE

 

Some of my friends and i often organise concerts with a lot of vegan food for the visitors. Today is the next show and this is the reason for my big baking-session yesterday. I decided to make a vegan donauwelle (cause this is the favourite for every celebration or event), my mum`s famous nutwedges, an apple-cream cake and cinnamon rolls.

The recipe for the donauwelle is quiet easy. It needs a little bit time, but it is worth!!!
It´s creamy, fruity and chocolaty. So what could you get more?


Ingredients for the dough:

• 500g all-purpose flour 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 300g sugar
• 250g margarine
• 3 tsp vanilla sugar
• 2-3 tbsp cacao-powder
• 2 large glasses of cherries
• 8 level tbsp cornstarch + 8 tbsp water + 4 tsp baking powder
• 250ml soymilk

Ingredients for the buttercream:

• 1 package vanilla pudding
• 500ml soymilk
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 250g margarine

for the glaze you need about 200 - 300g chocolate coating.

1. Mix the cornstarch, the water and the baking powder.
2. Stir the margarine until creamy and add the sugar, the vanilla sugar, and the cornstarch mixture.
3. Mix the flour with the baking powder and add it slowly, together with the milk, to the rest.
4. Half the dough and put one part on a greased baking sheet
5. Add the cacao powder to the other part in the bowl and mix well. Then spread out dark dough on to the white dough.
6. Distribute the cherries over the top. Press them a little bit into the dough.
7. Put it in the oven and bake in a 200°C oven for 20 - 25 min.
8. Prepare a pudding with the pudding powder, the milk and the sugar and let it completely cool. 
9. For the buttercream, stir the margarine until creamy and add the cold pudding until creamy as well. 
10. Spread dough with the buttercream. Melt the chocolate and spread them on the cake.

SPAGHETTI WITH LENTIL BOLOGNESE

Today it was pasta time!!!

Since weeks the red lentils in my pantry are smiling at me, but i hadn´t had any ideas to prepare them. To add them into a kind of bolognese sauce was a really good decision i think. I used red lentils, but you can use every sort of lentils you like. The convenience of red lentils is, that they don´t require a long cooking time. This is a cheap and easy recipe that everybody can cook!!! And the best thing of all is that it tastes absolutely delicious!!!

Ingredients: (Serves 3 - 4)

• 350g Spaghetti
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1-2 garlic cloves, chopped 
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 tsp powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 150g mushrooms, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 180g dried red lentils
• Tomato paste
• 1 can tomato puree
• 1-2 bay leaves
• 1 thyme branch + 2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme or basil
• ca. 500ml vegetable stock
• some water
• Salt, Pepper and dried Chilis to taste

1. Cook your pasta according to package directions, drain, sprinkle with some olive oil and set aside. Don´t pour the pasta water away. You will need it for the sauce, cause the water contains starch which makes sure that the sauce clings to the pasta.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion and carrot and the powdered sugar and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and the balsamic vinegar and cook for another 2 minutes or until the vinegar is reduced.
3. Add mushrooms and pepper and saute until the vegetables are soft.
4. Add the lentils and stir well. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Mix in some tomato paste and saute everything for about 2 minutes.
6. Now add the tomato puree, the vegetable stock, the thyme branch and the bay leaves and cook everything for 20-35 minutes or until the lentils are soft. If the sauce becomes too thick, add some pasta water to it.
7. Remove the thyme and the bay leaves and add some chopped fresh herbs. ( i used thyme and basil)
8. Season with salt, pepper and chili.
9. If you haven´t used the pasta water till now, than add some of it to the sauce, toss through the spaghetti and mix well
10. Serve it with parmesan cheese (vegan or vegetarian) and ready is your lentil bolognese!!

             !!BON APPETIT!!

MINI PEACH-YOGURT-CAKE

This is my first cake without using any recipes. And i´m so proud that nothing collapses :)
I have to practise using agar agar, cause the peach-cream is a little bit too soft.
I haven´t had a good vegan whip cream, perhaps this was the reason.
This recipe could be made with every other fruits i think. Berries would be great!

I don´t  wanna publish this recipe now cause i´m going to bake this cake again to improve the recipe. 
Overlooking the small mistakes, i can say that the cake was sooooooooo good!