Lemon Cake II: the “healthy” version

Last night we had some friends over for dinner who are of the low fat, considered nutrition mindset. Despite this, I knew I couldn’t help myself but to make a dessert. Out of lemons, because, sooooo many lemons.

I used almond meal again and spelt again, added some polenta, removed the lemon juice, and swapped the oil and tofu for a little sour cream (vegan of course), and the sugar for agave syrup. Instead of icing the cake, I had a syrup to go with it.

The result was fabulous. Mr mentioned that he though it was a “little on the grainy side” but I thought it was fine, and it got good reviews from the adults and kids alike. It was dense, but not fudgey – I think it would be best eaten within 2 or 3 days of baking.

I got shy, and didn’t take a photo, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Low-Fat Vegan Lemon Cake

• 2/3 cup almond meal
• 1 1/4 cup spelt flour
• 1/2 cup polenta
• 2 tsp baking powder
• zest of two large lemons
• 3 Tbs raw sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/3 cup agave syrup
• 1/4 cup vegan sour cream (you could use yoghurt)
• around 1/2 cup almond milk (I got sloppy with the measuring here, sorry, so it could have been more)

topping

• juice of two lemons
• 2 tbs raw sugar
• 1 cup icing sugar
• up to 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup flaked almonds

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees celsius, line and grease a round cake tin.
2. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together well.
3. Add the agave, zest, vanilla, and sour cream, and beat until just combined.
4. Slowly add milk, beating with a wooden spoon until a cake batter consistency is reached. Sorry I can’t be more specific – thicker than pancake batter, thinner than muffin batter.
5. Pour the batter into the cake pan, and bake for around 35 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
6. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on a rack.
7. For the topping: in a small saucepan mix the juice, sugar an icing sugar together until there are no lumps. Add hot water, a little at a time, stirring. I used about 3 tbs. Over high heat bring to the boil and stir until the mixture thickens into a syrup. Pour 1/3 of the syrup onto the cake while the syrup is warm and he cake is cooling. Scatter the almonds on top of the cake, and reserve the rest of the syrup for serving. Reserving the syrup meant that sweet-tooths (Mr and I) could have at it with the sugar, but others could be more conservative.

I also made pasta out of spelt and he nettle that is overtaking my veggie garden. I didn’t get a photo of that, either, nor did I measure, but watch out for nettle recipes in a future post.

 

When Life Hands You Lemons…

…Make Lemon Cake!

The rental place I’ve moved into has a meyer lemon tree, which is going great guns at the moment.  I have lemons coming out of my ears, even after I’ve given bags of them away to the neighbours.

As a result, I’ve been experimenting with all things lemon flavoured. The latest semi-success was a lemon and almond cake I made this week.

I’ve never really had the knack with citrus in cake – they tend to turn out sort of like pudding, and this was no exception. I intend to look it up, but I suspect there’s some chemical reaction between the acid and the baking powder.

Anyway, despite the dense texture, this cake was delicious, so here’s a recipe for anyone willing to try it out. If you improve it, let me know!

Vegan lemon cake – only one piece left!

 

Lemon and Almond Cake

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 1/3 cup white flour
• 2/3 cup almond meal
• 2 tsp baking powder
• zest and juice of 2 meyer lemons (or any lemons)
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup silken tofu
• 1/3 cup soy milk

Icing

• 2 cups icing mixture
• juice and zest of one meyer lemon
• 1 tbs margarine
• 1/3 cup flaked almonds

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees celsius, and grease and line a round cake tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl mix sugar, flour, almond meal, and baking powder until well combined. Add all other ingredients and mix with an electric mixer until well combined.
3. Pour mixture into the cake tin and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.
4. Let the cake sit for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.
5. To make the icing, beat sugar, magarine and lemon juice and zest together until creamed. Smooth onto cooled cake.
6. Toast the almonds in a dry, non-stick pan, then sprinkle over the icing.

Vegan in Turkey, Part the last – outside of Istanbul

For our second week in Turkey we visited some sites outside of Istanbul, including Canakkale (Troy and Gallipoli), Kirazli (Ephesus), and Pamukkale (Heiropolis, Travertines).

As in Istanbul, we ate a lot of simit, nuts, fruit, and pringles (because you can get them at the bus stops), but we also had a few standout meals about town.

In Canakkalewe stayed at the Kervan Saray hotel, and found that the Ev Yemekleri next door was stocked with vegan foods. I didn’t manage to write down the name of the place, but if you head there, look for the hotel, and its the place to left of the door. The staff were really helpful, paid attention to the vegan passport when we couldn’t explain things properly, and we had a great vegan meal.

Leeks, beans, stews and salads

We then headed to a small village called Kirazli, which is close to the ruins of Ephesus. We found a place to stay through AirBnB- a one bedroom/studioish flat being rented out by some expats. It turns out that the woman who owns the flat is also a fabulous cook, and we enjoyed two vegan dinners and one breakfast while we were staying there.

Menu Karyn made us (click to enlarge)

One of Karyn's gorgeous breakfast dishes

The food was really good and the flat was gorgeous, so I figured I should share with any future vegan visitors. It isn’t a vegetarian household, but we had one of the best meals we got in Turkey here. I definitely recommend it to any vegan travellers who’d like a break from the busy city and the battle for food.

Totally moreish coated cashews

Next up we travelled to Pamukkale, home of Heiropolis and the Travertines (natural hot springs flowing down the mountain to form baths and blinding white calcium formations). While every hotel was claiming to offer vegetarian food, most of the restaurants inside were actually closed for the winter. So, we went in search and found two passable options for the vegans to follow.

The reason to visit Pamukkale - that's not snow, it's calcium

Mehmet’s is a large restaurant space, covered in carpets and memorabillia, serving traditional Turkish food. Mehmet himself has very good English, and we found it easy enough to explain our requirements. He assured us the soup was vegan, so we ordered that and a platter of appertisers.

Unfortunately, while he understood that we did not eat stock, I think maybe he failed to let us know that the soup was packet mix. I don’t like to guess at these things, but it had that chicken-flavoured-flavour that I remember from powdered soup (none of which is vegan). We put it aside.

The apertiser plate was fabulous though. Fried eggplant in tomato sauce (like I made in Turkey week), stuffed vine leaves, stewed leeks (leeks seem to be season), and other delicious bits and pieces made sure we didn’t starve.

We enjoyed the food and the atmosphere here, and our host was very kind. Just don’t go for the soup.

We also ate at the Kale hotelrestaurant twice, and enjoyed it each time. The hosts made sure the food was vegan for us, and we got a specially made eggplant and zucchini dish with rice and home made chips the first time, and Imam biyaldi eggplant, rice, salad and fries the second time. They even gave us some of the homemade pomegranate juice the family was sharing, which was kind, and really tasty.

Special vegan meal at the Kale hotel

Vegan in Turkey Part 1 – Veg Restaurants

There are a few vegetarian restaurants in Istanbul, if you want to get an easy meal with no stress or confusion. We skipped the ultra-chic one attached to a club, because I didn’t know where it was, but we visited three others.

Parsifal

Parsifal was our first foray into Turkish vegetarian cuisine, and I have to say I had high hopes. I was really looking forward to a fuss0free vegan meal with Turkish flavour.

There were only a few vegan options on the menu, but they looked decent. The meal started off looking promising, with some on-the-house warm and delicious bread served with olive oil, to start us off while we waited for our meal. The bread was some of the best I’ve had while we’ve been away, which is saying something!

Best Bread

Our mains came next. I ordered the vegan patties, which came out fairly plain, with just a side salad. For me, the size was ok, but it would have disappointed most people, just three patties and some lettuce. The patties tasted good, if a little bland, but were too dry, and could really have used a sauce.

Patties

Mr ordered the eggplant dish (I cant remember the name). It was a disaster. It looked bad, all yellowy-green and mucus-like, and it tasted shockingly bland.  It may sound hard to believe that bland could get so sever as to cause shock, but this was the case. The only flavour was a slight tinge of smokeyness, but without salty, tangy, spicy or anything else to lift it into something you’d actually want to eat.

Eggplant thing

Based on the prices and the disappointing mains, we didn’t order dessert, but vegan travellers should note that there was a vegan brownie and a pumpkin sweet on the menu, and the tea was lovely.

The service was great, and the place is easy to find near to Taksim Square, and has a great atmosphere. Shame about the food.

Max Green Co.

Max Green Co is a little sandwhich and juice place in the food court at the Akmerkez shopping mall. Its a bit of a hike if you’re planning on checking out the city centre, but it was on my way home to our share-place. Actually, I found it by accident when I was sick and wandering around looking for Lysine – I went up the escalator and was confronted by a sign for raw and vegan food. Awesome.

I got a roasted zucchini and cashew cheese sandwich, and a kiwi fruit and pineapple smoothie. It was heaven. It was served up beautifully, with raw nuts and some salty olives on the side, and tasted great. I’m sure the smoothy filled with vitamin C goodness helped my cold, too.

The other downside, besides the location, was the prices. At 15 lira for a sandwhich, in a city where a cooked lunch can be 5 to 8 lira, it was pretty pricey. If you’re missing your vitamins or you’re into raw food though, this might be the place for you.

As with basically everywhere in Turkey, service was super friendly, and there was a menu in English.

Loving Hut

Everyone’s favourite international vegan cult has expanded once again, and there is now a Love Hut franchise in Istanbul.

The place is really small, so don’t plan on going with a part of more than four (and even then, you need to get thetable), but its has good food and ridiculously cheap prices. It is located a little ways from Taksim, about a 40 minute walk, or a 15 minute walk after a short ride on the 559 bus. You can find them at ıhlamurdere Cad. Şair Veysi Sok.no 4/B beşiktaş/İstanbul.

The menu here is unlike most Loving Hut locations in that it has no mock meat or tofu (because they aren’t really available in Turkey). Instead there is a soup, felafel, a burger and a roasted vegie roll, as well as salads and cakes. We tried everything they had in the time we were there, and I can recommend it all. It isn’t a classy, gourmet meal, but its decent and filling. The cake is really nice, too.

Vegan sweets at Loving Hut Istanbul

In all, I was way more impressed by the meals we got at non-veg places, and I’ll post them soon.

 

 

Sweet Baby Jesus, KFC and 13 Desserts

I’ve been remiss in my continued Christmas posting, but I have three new Christmas food traditions to tell you about so I can make up for it.

 

Cougnou, Belgium

You know that nursery rhyme about blackbirds being baked in a pie? I always though that was a bit gross (notwithstanding the fact that at the time I ate chicken pie very happily).

For some reason that’s the first thing I thought of when I came across this Christmas tradition from Belgium. Yup, bread shaped like baby Jesus. I suppose it makes perfect sense, really- break this bread, its my body and all that – but I just keep balking at the idea of eating a baby. Personally, I don’t really see the resemblance, so if I came across a vegan version I just might tuck in.

13 Dessert, Provence

I was pretty darn thrilled when I heard that there was a legitimate Christmas tradition of eating 13 desserts. Of course, this fabulous food tradition is from France.

The desserts include dried and fresh fruit, nuts, bread, cake, biscuits and nougat.  Some desserts have specific reasons for their inclusion. Light and dark nougats represent good and evil, dates are included to represent the journey from the middle east, dried fruits and nuts represent four monastic orders, a bread to break (not to be cut), and a famous Provencial dessert, Calissons d’Aix.

I am considering doing something like this, because, hello, 13 desserts! If I could do it in Australia I would have:

1. Dates stuffed with marzipan
2. Almonds
3. Raisins
4. Figs
5. Hazelnuts
6. Vegan Christmas log (a log made out of rum ball mixture, instead of yule log, because I’m just not a fan of sponge)
7. Sweet Olive Oil Bread (already vegan)
8. Mango (the French use oranges, but I don’t like them much)
9. Cherries (because why use winter apples when there are cherries in season?)
10. Chocolate fudge (non-traditional, my addition)
11. Mini vegan cheesecake (non traditional, my addition)
12. Gingerbread (not traditional, my addition)
13. Vegan Calissons, because they look fantastic.

If I do it here in Tbilisi, I will have to come up with something to sub for the cheesecake, hazelnuts and Calissons, and I would use the traditional winter fruits (apples, pears, citrus). I wouldn’t be using light and dark nougat to symbolise good and evil, because food is never evil and neither are dark colours.

 

Fried chicken with your honey, Japan

It turns out the Christmas is becoming a widely celebrated event in Japan. The celebrations are generally secular (most Japanese not being Christian), and is generally celebrated on Christmas eve, with a partner or lover. They have a special Christmas cake, a white sponge with cream an strawberries, and like to eat KFC fried chicken for Christmas eve dinner. Yup, you read right.

Apparently KFC may have become popular as a Christmas meal due to an ad some decades ago. It seems to have worked, as people are known to place their order weeks in advance, and line up around the block to pick up their bucket.

If I had anything here that was worth battering and frying I would totally get into this tradition, because I love the “Southern Fried” flavour. Sadly, I am without any tofu, tempeh, seitan, or any other mock, so I think I will make do with nut roast.

(I can see this Christmas food traditions research could turn our meal into a truly decadent event – 13 desserts, deep fried something, bread-babies – its all sounding pretty good.)

A little shout out to the lonely Christmas vegan

Hi there,

I noticed you found my blog, at least three times now, by googling “vegan alone at Christmas” and “vegan–xmas alone”.

I don’t know how you feel about being alone at Christmas, but I guess you’re searching for recipes for one, or things to do? If you want to be less lonely, leave me a comment, and we’ll totally skype you from our own, semi-lonely, Christmas for two.

Well, in case you are looking for inspiration, here’s what I would do, if I were alone this Christmas:

Presents: I would get myself a present, even if it were something free, like a book I already have but haven’t read, or cheap, like a once-off face mask or bubble bath or food I liked. If you save it up, you have something to look forward to.

Contact: If you’re in contact with family, or have friends, I would try to call or Skype them at some point during Christmas day. Just be sure to have something fun planned for afterwards, because sometimes contact people at a party when you’re alone can leave you a little bummed afterwards. If you’re working, why not take something special to work, to share with whoever you meet? If you’re not working, you might also be able to volunteer somewhere at Christmas, and get your social contact that way.

Food: If it was just me for Christmas, I would still focus on good food. If I were in a cold climate, with access to fake bacon, I would make myself some creamy, facon-y pasta, some green beans and brocoli with oil and garlic, and a hot chocolate or mulled wine, and I would buy a Christmas pudding from the shops and microwave it, to have with vegan ice cream. If I didn’t have access to vegan stuff (like here in Tbilisi), I’d chop one carrot, one potato and roast them with herbs and garlic, and make myself a mini stuffing. There are some good recipes here. I’d still have the hot chocolate, and I might dip some chocolate into my hot chocolate, for good measure.

If I was in a warm climate (hello, down there!), I would make myself some panzanella. Its easy and yummy – fry some chopped bread in oil, and set aside. Chop a tomato, a bit of parsely, a clove of garlic, and any salad veg you like. Toss together in a bowl with some chickpeas and walnuts, olive oil, add the bread, add some salt, pepper and herbs and you’re all set. Awesome. I’d also have some cherries or mango, and some favourite ice cream. Instead of hot chocolate, I’d have some sweet, sparkly wine or some apple cider.

Entertainment: I would have a bath, then set myself up on the couch with a good book (maybe a christmas present book), some hand cream (for self-given foot rubs), a blanket (in cold weather), liquids (preferably hot chocolate), and some cherries or strawberries, and a nice, big pile of movies.

When I’m alone, I love me some romantic comedies – a little weepy, but happy in the end- a buddy movie, or something no one will watch with me. Some Christmas favourites of mine are The Holiday, Love Actually, and the Family Stone. TV shows are good, too. I don’t know about you, but the other thing I do when I’m alone is sing along to everything and anything I can find in my music collection.

Tips at Random

My totally subjective tips for being alone on special occasions (and I’ve had some practice with many a birthday or Easter spent on my own):

• Act like it was a choice – whether or not it is, acting like you want to be alone, and focusing on doing what you like, totally helps.
• Celebrate – for me, at least, ignoring it doesn’t work. Bring on the Christmas music and a little tinsel.
• Pick a few things you love, and do them.
• Do stuff your friends/family/partner don’t like doing. This could be eating food you love but they hate, watching something they wouldn’t sit through, going out to to something that bores them, what have you. It helps make it special.
• Cake, but not alcohol. I have found that some “special” food like a really nicely decorated cake, or boxed chocolates, or what have you, makes it feel like a celebration. A little wine also feels celebratory, but a bottle of wine leads you to drunkenly calling everyone you ever liked and sobbing about your aloneness.
• Ditto on the staying up late. If you’re not usually a night owl, go to bed on time. Watching movies at 3am seems to have a similar affect as the whole bottle of wine.
• Light some candles. If you’re like me, and live somewhere with shitty fluro lighting, this helps. Its means you don’t have to choose between being in the dark and being in the harash, glaring light of up-too-late-watching-bad-movies.

Good luck, Vegan Alone At Christmas, and don’t forget to leave me a comment if you want a solidarity skype session.

xoxo

The last Turkish supper

Sadlly the supermarket has run out of lentils AND chickpeas, and I am doomed to two weeks of kidney beans. This also means that I can’t make the last dish on my Turkey list, cabbage and lentil salad. Sigh.

I did, however, come up with the ingredients for the other final Turkish dish: raw kofte.

Cig Kofte, or raw kofte, used to be what it sounds like: raw meat balls. Apparently the health authorities in Istanbul outlawed it due to the health risks of eating raw meat, and vendors adapted, coming up with a vegan, low risk version using bulgur instead of minced cow. Works for me.

At home, and potentially in restaurants outside of Turkey, this dish is still made with meat – so beware – but there are plenty of recipes approximating the Istanbul street-vendor version.

The recipe calls for fine bulgur, which of course I don’t have, so I tried to pound some ordinary bulgur with a rolling pin. No luck there, unfortunately. I also added some pounded walnuts, added tomato sauce for colour, added some chopped capsicum… and basically changed the recipe so much that it only resembles the original.

It tasted pretty darn good, and I quite like the idea of it as a wrap-filling for work lunches (when I finally get home and get a job again). It was a nice alternative to the deep fried felafel, also.

If you want an authentic version, check out the link above, but here’s what I ended up with. You might want to cook the bulgur and potato the day before, or fudge it like I did by sticking it the freezer (actually I put it on the balcony, but its -3 here, so its almost as cold as the freezer).

Cig Kofte, salad and some beetroot relish

Vegan Raw Kofte

Makes about 15 balls

• 1 medium potato, peeled and diced
• 1 cup bulgur, and water to cook it with
• small handful of walnuts, crushed
• 3 tbs minced parsley
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 spring onions, minced
• 1/2 a red capsicum, chopped finely until it looks smooshed (important technical term, that)
• 2 tsp chilli paste – I used ajika
• 3 tbs tomato sauce (tomato paste would be better, or you can use all chilli paste – I can’t because I get gastritis)

1. Boil the potato until tender. Allow to cool completely.
2. Cook the bulgur following the packet instuctions (if you have some). I just boiled it in a little water, adding water as needed, until it was mushy-looking, and it took me about 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
3. Make sure all the other ingredients are very finely chopped, then mix all them together to make a grainy paste.
4. Add the cold potato and bulgur and mush with your hands until all big lumps are removed and the ingredients are well combined.
5. Taste check here. As per usual, add salt if you want, or lemon juice (I didn’t have any, but I think it would have made a nice addition).
6. Roll large spoonfuls of the mixture into balls, and smoosh a little with your hands, to leave finger marks.
7. Serve with salad and some flat bread.

 

I served mine up with some salad, some potato chips made with the skin of the potato in the kofte recipe, and some beetroot relish. I invented the relish today, because I hate beetroot and have been looking for ways to use up the 2 kilos Mr bought (practicing his Russian) that don’t suck. It turns out I like it cooked this way, so I figured I share.

Bonus, non-Turkish recipe, Beetroot and Cabbage Relish

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 medium onions, large dice
• 2 medium beetroots, peeled and chopped into sticks (juliene, half length)
• 1 cup shredded cabbage
• 3 tbs brown sugar
• 2 tbs white wine vinegar
• dash salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp dried thyme

1. Fry the onion in a non-stick pan until the onion is well and truly translucent. This will take at least 10 minutes – don’t skimp.
2. Add the cabbage and beetroot and fry, over a medium heat, until the cabbage is tender.
3. Add about 1/3 cup water, the brown sugar, salt, pepper and thyme. Cook witht he lid on until the water has evaporated.
4. Check the beetroot – if it is tender continue to the next step. If not, add more water and repeat. I did this three times, using about 1 cup of water all up.
5. Once the beetroot is cooked through, remove the id and continue to fry, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes. Any remaining water should evaporate off, and you should have what looks like a mixture of sauted veg with some jam.
6. Serve hot or cold with anything you like. I think it would go well with a faux meat dish and some mustard.

 

Red Lentil Soup

One of the things I enjoy most about writing this blog is that I am always learning new things about what the world eats. I had no idea at all that red lentil soup, a winter staple at my place, was so popular in Turkey. I (silly, privileged Aussie) just thought it was something that vegans made up after eating a lot of dahl.

I was wrong, and it seems the soup I’ve been making every winter is actually Turkish, right down to the dash of red pepper.

I have read many recipes for this soup, all slightly different- some use carrot, some add tomatoes, some add a little cream, etc. My recipe is pretty basic, though I add a little tomato paste for colour and flavour. If you give it a try, play around with it and add whatever you like.

Vegan Red Lentil Soup

Red Lentil Soup

serves 4

• 1 medium onion, dices
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup red lentils
• 1 potato, peeled and diced (I usually don’t bother peeling, and just deal with the skin bits, because I am lazy the skin is nutritious).
• 1 litre of stock. I like to use strong (but not salty), home made stock, but use what you like.
• 1 tbs tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt to taste

1. In a soup pot, fry the onion until translucent.
2. Add the garlic and fry for a further 5 minutes.
3. Add the lentils, stock, potato, tomato paste and pepper and bring to the boil.
4. Return to a simmer and pop the lid on loosely. Allow to cook for 40 minutes, until the lentils are cooked.
5. Remove from heat and carefully blend (trying not to burn yourself – ouch!).
6. Taste and add salt if needed.
7. Serve with a little coriander on top.

Unfortunately I have no access to blending equipment at the moment, but I decided to make the soup anyway. I had hoped I could cook it until it all fell apart and blended of its own accord, but I was wrong. So, I tried pushing it through my colander, with minimal success.

Smooshing action shot

Eventually I resorted to serving it up with the solids artfully heaped in the bottom of the bowl, and the liquid poured on top. It worked, kinda, and it tasted good regardless.

Heaped solids - now tell me that phrase doesn't make you hungry!

 

 

More Pilaf, Cabbage and a Salad

Pilaf with home made stock

I have now real and followed so many pilaf recipes, that I’m actually getting pretty good at making my own. Success seems to lie in the stock. In Australia, I usually just use easy-peasy Massel stock powder, but I can’t get anything approximating vegan stock here in Tbilisi, so I make my own, and it works out well.

In my stock I use a handful of chopped mushroom stalks, the outer cabbage leaves and any left over cabbage stalk, parsley stalks, carrots, a tomato, brown and red onion skins and ends, and all the little tiny garlic cloves I can find (I use the ones from the middle because I have chopping them later, and using them in stock means I don’t have to feel guilty for being lazy). I add a tiny bit of salt, and sometimes a little sugar. I generally make about 1.5 litre at a time.

Pretty Pilaf

Keira’s Pilaf Recipe

serves 3

• 2 tablespoon olive oil
  
• 1 cup white rice (long grain)
• 1 medium brown onion, diced
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• any vegetables you want, small dice
• 2 cups strong stock
• water as needed
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt and pepper, to taste
• sultanas or raisins, if desired.
• dash of chosen spices – I use cinnamon, clove, coriander seed and some curry, depending on what I feel like.

1. In a large, non-stick frying pan, heat the oil, and add the rice. Fry on medium heat for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the onion and fry until translucent, stirring frequently.
3. Add the garlic and any vegetables or fruits you will be using, such as capsicum or zucchini, and fry for a furhter 5 minutes.
4. Add one or two squeezes of lemon juice now, to help break up the rice.
5. Add the stock. Leave until all of the liquid has been absorbed. This took me about 15 minutes.
6. Test – you may need more water, depending on what type of rice you used.
7. Remove from heat when the rice is cooked. Taste, add rest of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and spices. Fluff with a fork and serve with other dishes.

Note: If we’re having pilaf at lunch I like to add a little nooch at the end. Don’t do this at dinner tough, because the B6 in the nooch tends to stop people from sleeping.

 

Cabbage with Tomatoes

I Have no photo of the cabbage and tomatoes dish, because it wasn’t actually until after I made it that I found out it was Turkish.One of the only green vegetables we can get here is cabbage, so I had planned to fry some up with onion and garlic as per usual. I added a chopped tomato, a little stock, a little tomato paste and some cayenne pepper, on a whim.

Turns out what I made closely approximates this dish, so there you go – I’m a food psychic, or something, because I didn’t see this site until long after we ate the meal.

 

Chickpea Salad

The salad wasn’t so much Turkish as Turkish-inspired. I just threw together some onion, garlic, parsley, coriander, chickpeas and red capsicum, to add some protein and crunch to the meal.

Chickpea Salad

 

Georgian Vegan Cooking: The End of Week Review

It turns out, to my surprise, that Georgian food completely rocks, and is plenty vegan friendly. In fact, I do wonder that there aren’t any Georgian restaurants (that I know of) in Oz – any industrious, Australia-bound Georgians out there should know that Aussies are into world foods, and there seems to be a gap in the market for you

My favourites, of the recipes I attempted myself, are the mushroom khinkali (I’m always a sucker for a dumpling), the red bean salad, and the mushrooms in cream. I have loved basically every single thing we’ve found available as ready-to-eat food, too.

The only food I have tasted here so far without instantly loving are the frozen khinkali (just a bit odd), and the lobio (cooked red beans), which was a little bland.

I was disappointed that I couldn’t pull off the eggplant in walnut sauce, but others should definitely try it, as the bought versions I have had are wonderful. I will be trying to cook this when I get home, and have access to a blender again. Mum has already told me she expects a world-of-vegan-food feast when we visit next, and Satsivi is definitely on the must-cook list.

This wont be the end of my Georgian experience, as we’re here for another month (landlords permitting), but it is the end of my blogging about it. Next up, I’ll try to replicate foods from Turkey (ingredient availability permitting).

Restaurant Review

Finally we broke our confinement and went out for dinner. We went to a place in Liberty Square, Tbilisi. I can’t remember the name, which I didn’t write down because I decided it would be easy to remember. (I’ll add it here when I find out). They had an english menu, with fasting options (meat free, milk free) noted with an asterisk.

We ordered the eggplant walnut rolls, ajapsandal (eggplant based dish, sort of like ratatouille), tarragon pies, rice with vegetables (pilaf), a pear fizzy drink, and a tarragon fizzy drink.

Everything was good, but the ajapsandal was particularly wonderful – so soft and flavoursome, it was like a mix between ratatouille and baba ganoush, with lots of cinnamon and cloves for extra warmth, and not too much tomato.

A note on the drinks: I am really enjoying the pear flavoured soft drink which is everywhere here. It tastes a bit like creaming soda, but with pears. The tarragon flavour is a local speciality, but its not my favourite. It is bright green, and tastes a lot like aniseed, though not as harsh.

I’ll leave you with some photos from our most recent (and fabulous) dining out experience, and be back soon with some info and recipes from Turkey.

Eggplant rolls with walnut, tarragon pies, and ajapsandal

 

Fizzy drink in wine glasses