Happy Sunday, beautiful kittens! We’re getting into Autumn, time to start taking the cosy clothes out of the closet and preparing for some time on with a hot beverage. And while I know that these Potatoes Arrabbiata by the Jewish Vegetarian Society are meant more for Spring (for Pesach, Passover which is in April), I feel that they are very good for Autumn too (as well as Winter!).
I saw this recipe not that long ago and made it just a few days ago: look how inviting it is! And obviously, so easy to make it’s beginner’s proof. So, without further ado, the recipe.
Ingredients
Handful of baby potatoes (skin on)
1 garlic clove, sliced
Pinch of dried chili flakes
200g passata
Handful of spinach
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Method
Cook the potatoes in a pan of salted boiling water for about 10 minutes, until cooked through. Drain.
Pan-fry the sliced garlic in a splash of olive oil over a medium heat for a few minutes until it starts to brown, then add the chili flakes, passata and cooked potatoes.
Season generously with salt and pepper and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add the spinach and simmer for a further minute until wilted, then squash each potato with the back of a fork, remove from the heat and serve.
Enjoy!
Let me know if you knew this recipe already or if you made it.
Hello my cats! How is your Sunday going? This has been the third Saturday I was working and … Today’s recipe is something that is really delicious: a vegan omelette made not only with chickpea flour but also with tofu, a Spanish Omelette. My mouth is watering just at the thought! The recipe I usually follow is the Vegan Tortilla-Spanish Omelette by ForkfulOfPlants. Obviously, easy and quick!
Add the sliced potatoes to a saucepan, cover with boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes, draining and rinsing with cold water once cooked.
Meanwhile, make the batter mixture. Add the chickpea flour, silken tofu, water, black salt, turmeric, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and a grind of black pepper to a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a 20-25cm non stick frying pan frying pan over a medium heat.
Add the sliced onion and fry it for 3-4 minutes until lightly browned and softened. Add the cooked and drained sliced potatoes to the pan. Stir the potatoes and onions to mix, then arrange the potatoes in a flat layer.
Pour the batter over the potatoes and onions in an even layer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the top has no runny liquid left sitting on it (it will still be soft).
When the first side is cooked, it’s time to flip the omelette! Take a large, flat plate, and place it upside down on top of the pan.
With your hand on top of the plate, flip the pan upside down, moving the tortilla onto the plate. Then, carefully slide the tortilla back into the pan on the uncooked side.
Cook for 3-4 minutes on the second side, then slide the cooked vegan omelette on to a clean plate to serve.
Happy Sunday, kittens! I hope you’re having a nice weekend. Here it has been very hot for a few days, with a very clear sky and temperatures around 27°C which is exceptionally high for where I live! Today I decided to go to the shops to get a little present for a colleague: the shop I wanted to visit is not in the town centre and I can reach it in 15 minutes by walking, so I went to the shop, got the present and when I went out it started raining. I got literally soaked! Wasn’t expecting that. Oh well, that’s life. Anyway, enough of my adventure! Because it is so warm, I wanted to share the recipe for a dessert that doesn’t need too much heat to prepare and is still extremely delicious: Vegan Chocolate Covered Strawberries by Nutriciously!
I made them quite recently and are already on my list of favourite recipes. In addition, if you omit the white chocolate these are also a great snack or dessert for when you do the Limpia.
Ingredients
1 lb fresh strawberries (450 g)
Vegan chocolate coating
1 cup semi-sweet dark chocolate, chopped (100 g)
1 tsp almond butter (optional)
½ cup vegan white chocolate, chopped (50 g)
Toppings
Instructions
Prepare the strawberries
Rinse and drain the strawberries without removing the green leaves.
Pat dry with paper towels and place them in the fridge.
Make the chocolate coating
Get two clean bowls and put the chopped dark chocolate in one, the chopped white chocolate in the other.
Fill two pots ¼ of the way with water and bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat, then place the bowls inside — make sure they are big enough to cover the pots!
Let the chocolate melt over the sightly boiling water, stirring occasionally.
When the dark chocolate has melted, add the almond butter and stir to incorporate.
Dip & coat your strawberries
Remove the strawberries from the refrigerator and get a tray lined with parchment paper.
Gather your toppings: melted dark chocolate, melted white chocolate, crushed almonds, shredded coconut and cocoa nibs. Make sure each of them gets its own little bowl or plate.
Grasp your first strawberry by the small green leaves and dip it into the melted dark chocolate, aiming to coat the strawberry evenly. Shake off any excess, then put your coated strawberry on your prepared tray. Repeat with the remaining strawberries and place them in a single layer on your tray. Drizzle a few of them with more black or contrasting white chocolate by using a fork or a piping bag.
Finally, add some crunchy toppings! Roll your chocolate-covered strawberries in the prepared bowls with crushed almonds, shredded coconut or cocoa nibs.
Refrigerate the decorated strawberries for 30 minutes before serving.
Easy-peasy! I hope you’ll enjoy these snacks perfect for the summer.
Beautiful kittens, I hope you are well and had a good week. Mine was very busy as at work I have had requests for 3 pieces of research while also having to look into the possibility of applying for two grants to help the library. Yesterday I felt like making these Vegan Crispy Lentil Fritters by the VietVegan: this is my go-to recipe for when I want comfort food while keeping it healthy. It was not the first time I made them, but never talked to you about them, so I am here to fix this!
Oh my goodness, they are delicious, extra easy and quick and so simple, I am sure you’ll love them. Bonus point, this recipe also talks about feminism and Lisa’s experience as a feminist in Canada.
Soak the rinsed split red lentils and water together for 1 hour, until they have absorbed the water. Transfer soaked red lentils, onions, chives, salt and pepper into a food processor and process until smooth. It may seem a little watery but don’t worry, it’ll fry up beautifully. [I have to say that when I make them, I never use the onion nor the chives – I just go for some dried herbs like oregano and rosemary]
Preheat oil in a pan. Gently drop scant tablespoonfuls of the lentil batter into the oil. Fry 3-4 spoonfuls at a time turning occasionally until golden. Remove from oil and let drain on a paper-towel-lined platter. Enjoy!
The recipe calls for mayo and chipotle, but honestly, they are already so good I’d eat them straight from the pan!
I hope you’ll make them and enjoy them as much as I do.
So, some time ago I went to the beauty salon in the town where I live. Despite being a little salon, all the products that they use are cruelty-free with a choice of vegan products too: this is thanks to the owner of the shop, a lovely lady that loves animals and is a firm believer that animals shouldn’t be exploited in the beauty industry (she’s not vegan, but she’s doing her little bit by making a choice that I snot made that widely in the place where I live).
Anyway, I go there once in a while to have my nails done (and last year I was invited to three weddings so I felt I would have liked to have my nails and hands looking nicer than they usually do) plus the staff is always so nice and we often have a good chat and laugh.
The last time I went there, with the young lady that was doing my nails we were talking about making food, how good is it to have dinner ready when going back home after a long day at work and this kind of stuff. A bit of context, she is not a vegan nor vegetarian but sympathises with the cause, however, she lives with her fiance who is most definitely a meat-eater and also quite picky so it can be difficult to have him eating vegetables.
Then we started talking about how food cultures are different everywhere: for example, while here it’s almost unthinkable to eat a horse, she was quite surprised to know that where I grew up, horse meat is not that unusual. From there we went on that in many Asian Countries, dog and cat meat is also very common, and there she said: “Well, yes, in the end, what’s the difference between cows and cats? If you can eat a cow, why can’t you eat a cat?”. Like that. She talked about one of the main principles of veganism so casually. And I’m like “this is all veganism is about!”. It was very interesting and a different point of view from the usual one that I get in the village where I live: most of the people keep sustaining that eating meat it’s good, it’s only natural. True, here there are a lot of farmers meaning that not only the farm workers but also their families are more inclined to think this way.
Go Vegan word-art
So I am here basically alone in my veganism (after 4 years living here, I still haven’t found a single vegan despite media saying that vegans are on the rise here in the UK), and I this girl is talking about eating cows is the same as eating a cat!
This made me think that then the message is out there, we need a bit more advocating, showing that we are not extremists, just that a life it’s a life: it doesn’t matter if it is a sheep, a dog, a horse, a rabbit etc. A life it’s a life: as vegans, we probably have stopped, watching the heartbreaking videos of cows before being slaughtered, how you can see the fear and anguish in their eyes. It is undeniable. I always wonder if those killing them do see it, if they have thoughts on this. Even the animals raised “well and with care”, left out grazing: they have then to kill them. Don’t they see what we see?
The message is there, my kittens. We just have to keep going, keep spreading the word the way you are doing. But. Keep. Going. We can do it.
Hello peeps! Today I would like to share something that has helped me for almost 7 years when suffering from chest infections and bronchitis: the tomato and turmeric soup. I hinted in another post that that’s my remedy for this kind of illness, although it hasn’t worked for the Covid symptoms.
Now, I must say that this is not really a recipe of my own, but first of all, despite good research online I haven’t been able to find the original recipe again, and secondly, it is almost 7 years that I’ve been making it and I would say that it is become kind of my recipe, at least the one I am going to write about.
Then
One of the ailments that affected me since I was a child, was chest infections: when I was younger, I suffered these a lot, I got bronchitis so many times (sometimes twice a year) and I also got pneumonia twice (not that it’s something I’m proud of)! But it’s to give you a picture of my health. And obviously, each time meant taking loads of antibiotics. Obviously, when you are young, you just want to get rid of the illness, so you take whatever they can give you, so I took so many medicines.
Now
When I moved to the U.K., roughly 7 years ago, I obviously caught a chest infection. That time I went to the GP and took the antibiotics. However, I started developing the idea that there might be something else to help with chest infection problems. I started looking for information online using keywords such as “natural remedies chest infection”: this research conducted to several of the usual websites when you’re looking for medical assistance, such as WebMD and HealthLine, all of them giving the same remedies such as hot water and tea. [The best result I found is this one – Turmeric Tomato Detox Soup: however, it is not the “original recipe” and I haven’t tried it, so if you decide to make this recipe please let me know!] But then at some point, I found a page on another website providing the recipe of a tomato and turmeric soup perfect for chest infections, giving also all the specifics of how every single ingredient and their measurements worked its magic. The turmeric/black pepper ratio has to be 3:1 in order for them to activate in the right way. With the following recipe, I have been trying to keep those ingredients and measurements.
Since then, I have never had to get chemical antibodies again (and hopefully, it will stay that way!) and I get rid of the infection in 3-4 days.
Before proceeding, I have to say that I decided to share this recipe because is something that has always worked for me and never needed other drugs, but always consider to seek advice from a doctor if you are unsure.
The Recipe
The best way for this recipe to be effective is to use fresh tomatoes, however, tinned tomatoes can also be effective: I’ve made it a couple of times this way because I was out of fresh tomatoes and in no condition of going out to buy them so I used what I had.
Ingredients for two soups:
5-7 big vine tomatoes, chopped;
3 red onions, chopped;
5 garlic cloves, minced;
1 tablespoon olive oil;
1 tablespoon turmeric powder;
1/3 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
Method:
In a pot, heat the olive oil and when hot add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds, then add the onions and cover to let cook until soft. At this point add the tomatoes and cover again for 3 minutes, until the tomatoes have released some juice.
Now add the turmeric and black pepper and give a stir to mix everything. Turn the heat off, cover and let cool off for a few minutes.
Finally, blend everything.
Serve hot.
Note: If you make this for your dinner, be prepared to sweat. A lot. This is great because the concoction is working.
I hope you won’t ever need to make this soup, but if you find yourself afflicted by bronchitis or chest infection and you make this recipe, let me know how it goes for you!
Hello dearest friends! I have been wanting to write about travelling as a vegan for quite a while and it would be safe to say that this was one of the main aims of TheVeganCatLibrarian. Then, reflecting a bit on the various themes as well as on what happens around you and the people that you meet, I thought it would have been better to set some foundations on veganism and take it from there. While I believe that there is more to say on the basics of veganism, I would like to get started on the travelling-as-a-vegan side of the blog. And I would like to start with Iceland.
Introduction to Iceland
Sooo, Iceland was on my bucket list for ages. All those that know me, do know that I LOVE the cold: this goes to cold weather, cold countries (maybe less cold people but some are okay). Since I was a child, I have romanticised on these cold places as where I grew up didn’t get much snow and even in Winter, there is a thermal excursion of up to 20° C (meaning that even if we were to reach -10°C at night, during the day it would easily go up to +10°C). Also, for a kid heavily bullied because of her physical appearance, cold weather means not having to strip off the essential layers of comfy protection (see oversized sweaters). And another reason for which I love the cold is that it’s much easier to cope with it than with the heat: if you have enough clothes, you can survive, and you can also move without fearing to faint. Note: I am talking of up to -15, being well wrapped up or being able to have a warm shelter and warm food; I am not talking of extreme situations nor I am saying going to below zero temperatures without being well equipped, I am not *that* naive; and I know that there are people who thrive in the heat. The fact remains, that I have always loved autumn and winter much more than spring and summer (so much so that spring makes me feel unwell and you can read more here).
Iceland sits on the Northern Hemisphere, almost in between the European continent and North America: it is very frequent for flights to stop in Reykjavik to refuel and people are also stopping there for one or more nights on their way to the other continent. Iceland is also close to Greenland and it is possible to do a day trip from Reykjavik (although it is expensive). From the UK, the easiest way to get to Iceland is by flight and it takes roughly 2hours.
The whole Icelandic island is a mixture of perennial glaciers, wonderful waterfalls, spectacular moon-like scenery and bare land; to this, add geysers, volcanoes and much tundra. It also has beautiful fjords, especially in the North-West of the island.
Okay, taking into consideration all this, clearly the main source of food is not vegan (see fish and cattle and all that derives from them: all of them swim or roam free during their lives, and while here we don’t really condone eating animals, there is this meagre consolation.). But, as we are resourceful vegans, we can survive and thrive even in a not-that-vegan-friendly place.
Jökulsárlón
Litli Geysir
Vegan Iceland
To be honest, the first time I went to Iceland in 2014 I didn’t look too much into vegan places: I booked the 6-day trip very quickly basically from one day to another almost as a spur of the moment kind of thing and I hadn’t planned nothing. Also, I wasn’t too sure about the chance of Iceland having dedicated vegan places. As I relied on hostels, I was able to cook stuff for myself and the meals were mostly sandwiches and fruit. The sandwiches were consisting of bread, vegetable spread and salad ingredients. The brilliant thing was the presence of few healthy shops like Holland&Barrett, so there was quite a lot to choose from for my sandwiches. I survived well for the whole trip, from Reykjavik to Akureyri in the North, the East Coast and back to Rekjavik passing by the Vatnajokull and Vik in the South. There were also many 7/11 markets where I would grab snacks and I stopped for a couple of dinners to get chips from local restaurants.
The second time I went was in 2017 for a Rammstein concert and I was much better-prepared thanks to a classmate who told me when she went to Rekjavik she actually had food in a vegan place, apparently quite famous: Mama Reykjavik. For my 3-day trip to the West Fjords (one part of the island that I didn’t manage to visit in 2014) I relied on some premade vegan-friendly food that I could find on the road as well as local cafes for small snacks along the road trip (that area is not very populated and you could go for several miles before being able to find some houses, but you would be surprised by what you could find in these isolated cafes these days -see vegan snickers at Stúkuhúsið – Café!).
Food from Mama Reykjavik Snickers by Stúkuhúsið – Café
As you can see, it is possible to cope well as a vegan in Iceland: you can go almost everywhere and be able to eat more than decently. I don’t know if it would be possible to live for months or years in this country, but there are vegan places in Reykjavik so probably there are some “permanent” vegans (as opposed to the tourist ones).
It must be said that this food is not very cheap, but also Iceland, like the other Northern Countries in Europe, is generally speaking quite expensive. Both times I went, it was on a budget (£ 1,000 for food, accommodation and travels for 5-6 days): I looked for the best flight deals, stayed in hostels (which, by the way, are the best, cleanest, friendliest hostels you’ll ever find) and ate out 1-2 times each vacation, relying as I said, on markets.
Conclusion
Iceland is a fascinating country and if you can go, do it because it is worth it. This was a tick on my bucket list, and I am extremely happy to have been able to go there twice. If you think that as a vegan, it would be difficult, I hope this post helped in showing you that there are really no issues! The only slight problem might be the costs, but even if you do only one holiday per year, go to Iceland to spend a few days in one marvellous land.
Please, let me know if you have any questions or feedback 🙂
Everybody is doing it, so I’ll do it too: “What I Eat In A Day”, but not on a regular day. As I am doing La Limpia again (but reduced, therefore instead of 50 days it’s 25), I would like to share what I have been eating these days which is something a bit different from other vegan “WIAIADs”.
As I hinted in this post, La Limpia is a way of detoxifying your body (from head to toe to reproductive system) by taking specific herbs first thing in the morning, then basically is just avoiding processed foods and any type of flour. Needless to say, it is advised to avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs during this time. Last time I went for the whole 50 days: this time I decided to do it reduced because I wasn’t feeling great for few months at the end of last year and felt I needed to do some kind of detox.
The main rules are:
For 50 (or 25) days, you will have an herb first thing in the morning with empty stomach and the herb changes every 10 (or 5 for the reduced Limpia) days starting with Garlic (a whole clove of garlic to be swallowed with some water, like a pill), then Plantain, Dandelion, Horsetail and Mugworth;
No processed foods, from pasta&bread to sugar and all the flours (no chickpea omelette :((( nor crispy tofu made with cornstarch). Not even home-made stuff;
No deep-fried food.
So, as a vegan, what would one eat?! Is this the situation where one will be able to only eat salad? I can tell you that absolutely no! There is plenty of delicious food to enjoy even with these restrictions. And I am not even telling you that you’ll need hours of meal prep or just enormous quantity of time to prepare these dishes (however, a bit of meal prep is useful), because you can make food that will take just few minutes as well as more elaborate foods.
Generally speaking, as you can eat ALL the veggies and fruit (fresh and dry) and nuts and legumes and all the wholegrains, you already see that there is plenty of choice for foods.
Honestly, I like a bit of meal prep, but don’t get confused as my meal prep is actually very lazy: is the kind of putting beans to soak on a working morning while the kettle is boiling so that I don’t have to think about it until when I come back from work, when I’ll just change the water and put the beans to cook. And you can make an extra batch of rice/millet/quinoa while you get ready in the morning as if you put them in enough water you don’t really have to pay much attention for the next 15/20minutes. However, you can always get the tinned legumes if you are pressed for time.
While the rules don’t contemplate processed foods, you can still make your own patties and burgers as well as your own mayo. Tofu and tempeh are also in the midts.
In terms of sweets, things are just slightly trickier but don’t despair because we are resourceful vegans and we can definitely do this.
A Day Eating For This Regimen
Let’s get to the point: what am I eating during this time?
I am on my 16th day of Limpia, currently having Dandelion in the morning, and I’ve been almost always had porridge made with water. I have it with a spoon of peanut butter and either a chopped apple or banana.
Should I feel peckish mid-morning I’d have fruit, but the porridge it’s really quite enough to get to lunch.
For lunch, it’s usually millet or rice with veggies and/or legumes.
True, La Limpia is a restrictive diet and even more on a vegan diet. But, it is very rewarding because you’ll feel better: it is a small sacrifice to pay and it’s only for like 25 or 50 days. As I am writing, I am actually feeling quite energised: can’t still really get up at the time I would like to, but as soon as I do the day goes on quite smoothly without much need to rest. Is it La Limpia? I honestly don’t know, but I believe it is helping and I have fewer toxins in my body.
So, my suggestion is that it won’t do harm and you could even get something positive out of it.
I’ll try to update you at the end of this, but please let me know if you’ll try to or you want to try it so that I can give you some advice.
Beautiful peeps! I hope you are all doing great and have survived the holiday period (and maybe enjoyed it, too!). I have been lucky enough to have enjoyed this time as I had a few days off from work and oh my, I needed it: the last months of 2021 had been quite demanding at work and hadn’t managed to get a proper balance in my personal life, so getting almost 10 days off had been fabulous. A lot of relaxing and recharging, much needed. It has been also a good time to catch up with some reading and researching and I am going to share with you the fruits of such research!
Today I wanted to expand a bit on what I was writing about in my last post, where I was referring to the Veganuary website suggesting to use certain foods and ingredients as substitutes for their non-vegan counterparts, while they are owned by big multinational corporations such as Coca Cola, Unilever, etc. that are really not vegan nor have animal and environment welfare as part of their principles.
An example, is the Alpro brand. Oooft! I know, it is everywhere, it is convenient and it has a wide variety of non-dairy products. Unfortunately, Alpro is owned by Danone, a massive multinational company with a focus on dairy products (it literally started as a yoghurt producer).
These are just few of the most popular brands that are taking over the vegan and dairy-free market of milk substitutes.
You might find this frustrating because these brands are easy to find and fairly cheap, and now you might wonder if there can be alternatives to these plant-based milks, as it seems that as soon as a brand becomes just a bit more available, any of the multinationals want a bite of them! Well, don’t despair! There are plenty of smaller and independent plant-based milk brands that are fairly easy to find and still maintain their ethical essence.
Among these are (and no, I am not sponsored by any of them):
The good thing about these smaller/independent businesses (at least in theory and from what they advertise), is that they use fewer and more genuine ingredients and it is easier to hold them accountable for what they are doing.
I am going to keep a watchful eye on the situation and will keep you updated with any changes.
It’s officially 2022. Today it’s the very first day of a new year and I am very excited to see what it will bring (but I don’t want to jinx anything as we’ve seen how the past 2 years have gone, generally speaking). And with the new year, it comes also Veganuary. Let’s take a look into it.
Veganuary is an initiative by the UK organisation with the same name, that promotes veganism by simply asking whoever want to take part to try a vegan diet during the month of January. I think it is quite a simple and fairly effective initiative and it can surely benefit the vegan cause: they provide facts to raise awareness without being too pushy, in their website you can find recipes to get you started as well as nutrition tips. They are making it very easy for people to potentially go vegan, without excuses of not knowing what to eat, of vegan food, being too difficult to make or that the dishes are not balanced. On the Veganuary website, you’ll find all the relevant information.
The initiative started in 2014 and seems to go quite well. However… I still have to find a person that decided to go vegan because they tried Veganuary. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I live in a small rural town, but it also seems that the places where I can get a vegan takeout or even sit in for a meal, have either closed or significantly reduced the variety of vegan food on offer. Yes, supermarkets are providing some ready meals or quick to make stuff, which is great when you are in a hurry and didn’t manage to cook anything the night before. But they are not for everyday consumption. So I am wondering where are all these vegans? Are they only in the bigger cities? If you know, please share your knowledge.
Now, going back to Veganuary and its effectiveness. I applaud the initiative and the organisation because they are raising awareness not only in the UK but all around the world, and as the old saying goes “The more, the merrier”. But I have to raise a concern (no, I don’t have to-have to in the categorical sense, but that I feel I should. Then why you don’t say that? Because I don’t want to. Now let’s proceed.): some of the ingredients they are suggesting people should use, are from brands owned by multinational companies such as Coca Cola, Pepsi, etc, which we established are not vegan (you can find a list of non-vegan companies, as well as a chart of the multinationals and the brands that they own). I know that many vegans are very excited about this initiative, and again, I am too and I am very supportive. Also, I understand that they are promoting the use of certain foods because they might be cheaper than buying them from smaller, independent companies and it’s also easier than making them yourself: all factors that can help people approach veganism.
Nevertheless, I strongly believe that any money given to these companies is just protracting the suffering of animals: it doesn’t matter that that product is labelled as plant-based and vegan-friendly if it comes from a business that is exploiting animals, its employees and the environment (you can read some more of this here). There are really plenty of small businesses that make vegan food and ingredients, that are true to vegan ethics because they were born as vegan and ethical companies. There are several places where you can find lists of such businesses for vegan food, clothes etc. and if you find yourself stuck in terms of beauty products and snacks, FreedmStreet is the website for you (no, this is not a paid post, it’s just that I have been buying stuff from them for the past 3 years and I am always 100% satisfied, hence why I am suggesting it).
So, go vegan, try it for January, for a few months or for your life, but try to do also some research: there are many resources online that you can consult and this blog wants to make your life easier, plus there is a massive community online and many charities and organisations to whom you can talk about going vegan.
If you need any assistance, please leave a comment or get in touch!
And to conclude, here are some easy recipes to get you started
The Vegan Cat Librarian 