Month: April 2023

Recipe Sunday – Vegan Yachaejeon (Korean Vegetable Pancakes)

/ thevegancatlibrarian / 1 Comment

Beautiful kittens, how are you? Last week has been hectic, was back to work after a couple of days off and felt it would have been nice to treat myself to some delicious food for my dinner: I already eyed this recipe not long ago and was waiting for the perfect time to make it, a Monday night after a busy day. I ended up making a bit more and it lasted for Tuesday’s lunch and dinner: from one recipe I got out 3 meals! So, without further ado, here is the recipe for delicious Vegan Yachaejeon (Korean Vegetable Pancakes) by TheFoodieTakesFlight!

Vegan Yachaejeon (Korean Vegetable Pancakes) by TheFoodieTakesFlight

Ingredients 

  • 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 4 tbsp corn starch or potato starch
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt or black salt (for an “eggy” flavour)
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder optional for colour
  • 1 1/2 cup room temperature water, plus additional 2-4 tbsp water to adjust consistency

Vegetables of Choice (see notes)

  • 1 medium zucchini, sliced into match sticks
  • 1 small sweet potato, sliced into match sticks or shredded
  • 1 medium carrot, sliced into match sticks or shredded
  • 1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 long green chili or jalapeño, optional for heat
  • 1 bunch scallions or green onions, around 2 cups, chopped or thinly sliced
  • Other vegetables of choice sliced
  • Neutral oil (I used vegetable oil)

Dipping Sauce to Serve

  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • 1 tsp sugar, adjust to taste
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
  • Gochugaru or chili flakes/powder optional

Method 

  1. In a large mixing bowl, add in all the dry ingredients. Mix well.
  2. Slowly pour in the water while mixing. Mix until you’ve reached a thick batter consistency. If the batter is still too thick, you can add 2-4 tbsp more water. The batter has to be thick and should coat the vegetables well.
  3. Mix in the veggies of choice into the batter and mix evenly to coat. See notes for other vegetable options and cooking tips.

DIPPING SAUCE

  • Mix everything together and feel free to adjust to your taste. You can easily make this dipping sauce before hand.

COOKING THE PANCAKES

  1. Heat a medium/large non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Note that the size of your pancake will depend on the size of your pan.IMPORTANT: I highly recommend using a non-stick pan for the best results and so that your pancakes do not stick to your pan. It’s also important that your pan has been preheated well and is hot before you add in the oil and the veggies/batter.
  2. Add enough oil to add to coat the surface of the pan. Once hot, scoop a generous amount of the batter and veggie mix. Spread these over your pan and get these as thin as possible without exposing the surface of the pan.I use a spoon to spread it evenly onto the pan.If there are holes, feel free to scoop some of the batter to cover them.
  3. Cook for 4-5 minutes over medium or medium heat or until the batter starts to dry up. You can also cover your pan to cook down the veggies.
  4. If you covered your pancake, remove the cover and allow the excess steam to evaporate. Press down on the centre of your pancake. Once the top o the pancake and sides start to dry up, carefully scrape the sides and check underneath if the it’s lightly brown or golden.
  5. Carefully flip the pancake with a spatula. Cook the other side until golden brown and crisp.
  6. If you want extra crispness, allow the pancakes to cook over low heat for another 3-4 minutes on each side or until its a deep golden brown (a slight char is great too!) to get really nice and crisp on the outside.This way any excess moisture from the batter and veggies will evaporate and you’ll get crispier and less doughy pancakes.
  7. Repeat this for the rest of the batter.
  8. Slice your pancakes into small squares or bite-sized pieces and enjoy with the dipping sauce!

I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I did!

Love,

TVCL xx

Recipe Sunday – The Best Vegan Banana Bread

/ thevegancatlibrarian / 1 Comment

Hello cuties! How are you? Did you enjoy last week’s celebrations? Here, I was craving some more sweeties, but didn’t want to overdo it with more refined sugars than what I already ate and I also had three bananas in the fridge that needed to be used. I came across this Vegan Banana Bread by HolyCowVegan and decided to make it – easy and delicious, banana breads are just that comforting amount of sweet that you can enjoy any time of the day!

Vegan Banana Bread by HolyCowVegan

Ingredients

  • 1 ⅓ cups flour (all purpose flour, a 50-50 mix of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour, or whole wheat pastry flour are all fine)
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ⅔ cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons flax meal
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil, but you can also substitute vegan butter)
  • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
  • ¼ cup applesauce
  • 4 very ripe bananas (mashed or blended until smooth with few or no lumps, You will need one more banana for the optional decorative top)
  • ¾ cup walnuts (or pecans, lightly toasted, then chopped)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/175 degrees C. Oil an 8 ½-inch by 4 ½-inch loaf pan.
  2. Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and flax meal in a bowl.
  3. Add apple cider vinegar, applesauce and mashed bananas to the flour mixture. Mix until just combined and there’s no dry flour in the bowl.
  4. Fold in the chopped walnuts.
  5. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and spread evenly with a spoon or spatula. If using a banana to decorate the top slice it lengthwise into three slices, then halve each slice. Arrange on top of the loaf.
  6. Bake the banana loaf about 50-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  7. Place the banana bread on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes, then unmold and let cool completely on the rack.

Nice and easy, let me know if you liked it!

Love,

TVCL xx

Happy Easter, Ramadan and Passover!

/ thevegancatlibrarian / Leave a comment

Happy Easter, Ramadan and Passover to all of you, kittens! I hope you are enjoying a lovely day, doing what makes you happier and if not, I hope you’ll be able to do that as soon as possible – I know you deserve it!

I also hope you are having some nice vegan food and are avoiding putting dead, innocent animals on your plates for these holidays.

A Special Year

This year is a particular one as the three Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) are all celebrating and observing main holidays in the same 2-week period with Ramadan started on the 22nd March, Passover started on the 5th April and Easter on the 9th April. The amazing fact is that these religions have many common points, from worshipping one God to having sacrifice and hope and love as their main teachings. Also, people following these religions have been (or are still being) persecuted in different parts of the world.

The holidays are always a way to celebrate life and that’s what these three religions do teach in their own way: for Christians it’s the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection after being dead for three days, for Muslims it’s celebrating the end of the fasting period with three days of prayers and special food, and for the Jewish is the celebration of the end of the enslavement of the Hebrew people.

And all this seems so hopeful and beautiful! However, the preferred way to celebrate rebirth, end of fasting and the end of enslavement is to…kill. And who to kill? The most innocent lives on this Earth, the true symbol of innocence – lambs.

Is this the real way to celebrate? It is baffling how millions of people can all think that yes, this is the way to do it.

Need For Change

Following, are three reasons why these religions should leave animals out of their rituals:

  1. So we have that in these religions, people are taught that lambs are a symbol of innocence and purity and that makes sense to kill them and eat them as a way to celebrate God. If you are killing the symbol of innocence, even symbolically, aren’t you like killing that virtue?
  2. If the killing of animals is in the Sacred Books, this probably was meant to be as a means to provide food for the people. In 2023, this cannot be the case anymore: we produce so much food and even more food is grown to feed the animals that are then going to be killed. There is no reason to keep killing animals.
  3. Killing animals is cruel and it’s even more cruel if it is done for religious reasons. Christianity, Islam and Judaism all have huge followings, all over the world and the leaders of said religions should give a much better example of compassion to all animals, humans and non-humans.

And a very wise man once said

If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1913

Recipes For A More Compassionate Easter, Ramadan and Passover

A couple of years ago, I shared “The All-Vegan Easter Menu” with ideas for starters, main courses, soups and desserts.

During Ramadan and for Eid, there are many vegan halal recipes: the VeganMuslimInitiative website gives some ideas for soups, but also the Cauliflower with Mushroom dish is an easy and tasty one. Also the Malfouf (Lebanese Cabbage Rolls) recipe by PlantBasedFolk

And the Vegan Shawarma

Atayef (Middle Eastern Stuffed Pancakes)

I did also share the Potatoes Arrabbiata for Pesach, which are absolutely divine! Other Passover recipes are

Burgundy Broccoli Sumac with Lemon and Pistachio – For Pesach

Mushroom and walnut gardener’s pie with butternut squash topping for Pesach

Pesach recipe: Vegan banana choc chip loaf

Have a great day!

Love,

TVCL xx

Recipe Sunday – Vegan Chinese Seitan and Vegetables Stir Fry

/ thevegancatlibrarian / 1 Comment

Hi cuties! How are you? The past week has been long and busy and I was working yesterday, so I wanted to make something delicious but really easy and quick: a colleague told me her husband was going to make a stir fry for their dinner and thought that was going a brilliant idea for my special Saturday night dinner. So here we go, I found this Vegan Chinese Seitan and Vegetables Stir Fry by TheSpruceEats. I also had to use some tofu and used it instead of the seitan.

Vegan Chinese Seitan and Vegetables Stir Fry by TheSpruceEats

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup vegetable broth
  • 4 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
  • 3 tablespoons sesame oil, divided
  • 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
  • 1 cup seitan, chopped into 1-inch pieces
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • 1 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
  • 1 cup broccoli, cut into florets
  • Cooked rice, or noodles, for serving

Method

  1. In a small saucepan, whisk together the vegetable broth, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, hoisin sauce, sugar, cornstarch, rice vinegar, garlic, and ginger over medium heat.
  2. Simmer just until the mixture begins to thicken, about 5 minutes or so, then remove from heat and set aside.
  3. In a large wok or skillet, stir-fry seitan in remaining 2 tablespoons sesame oil and remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce until lightly browned, about 3 minutes.
  4. Add the onions, pepper, and broccoli and stir-fry 2 to 3 minutes longer.
  5. Add the prepared stir-fry sauce mixture to the stir-fry and combine well, allowing to cook 2 to 3 minutes more, until broccoli is done.
  6. Serve your Chinese vegetable stir-fry over plain steamed white rice or cooked noodles, if you like, or your favorite whole grain, such as quinoa or even Israeli couscous.

Enjoy!

Love,

TVCL xx