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.
Hello beautiful kittens! Here the weather has been quite benevolent, not too hot (only a couple of days with unusually high temperatures two weeks ago, whew!) so I’ve been able to cook and bake and all – love it! One of the recipes I tried is this Roasted Buckwheat with Vegetables by WhereIsMySpoon: probably the third recipe I made with buckwheat and it’s lovely. Obviously nice and easy and quick.
As buckwheat is not a cereal but a seed similarly to quinoa and amaranth, it can be used in recipes that also would call for a cereal, making for the perfect gluten-free lunch/dinner (and limpia-friendly too!).
200 g/ 7 oz/ about 1 cup buckwheat groats Notes 1 and 2
350 ml/ 11.8 fl. oz/ 1 ¾ cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions about 150 g/ 5.3 oz
2 garlic cloves
2 bell peppers
1 leek about 120 g/ 4.2 oz (Note 3)
15 cherry tomatoes
½ teaspoon smoked paprika powder
1 teaspoon sweet paprika powder
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ – ½ teaspoon hot chili flakes to taste
juice from 1 lemon
250 ml/ 8.4 fl.oz/ 1 cup vegetable broth
salt and black pepper
Instructions
Chop the onions finely, the garlic as well, cut the peppers into thin strips, halve the leeks lengthwise, if very thick, and cut the halves into thin half rounds.
Bring the vegetable stock used for cooking the buckwheat groats to a boil. When the liquid boils, add the rinsed buckwheat groats, cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer on low heat until done to your liking.
Heat the oil in a larger and deeper pan. Cook the onions for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, peppers, and leeks. Stir well and cook for about 3-4 minutes or until slightly softer.
In the meantime, halve the cherry tomatoes. Add them to the pan with smoked and sweet paprika powder, turmeric, chili flakes, lemon juice, and vegetable broth.
Cover, turn the heat down to medium-low, and cook the vegetables, occasionally stirring, for about 10 minutes or until done to your liking.
Add the cooked kasha to the vegetable pan and stir well but carefully.
Adjust the taste generously with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and the remaining lemon juice.
The recipe calls for a carrot and yojurt sauce, but I haven’t tried it with that and it was already spectacular.
Happy Sunday, my kittens! Today I wanted to share with you the best vegan brownies recipe: you won’t need others as this is THE ONE. A premise though, because I love the soft brownies and I am not too much of a fan of those big, chewy brownies that you find around. These are soft and almost spongy, my favourite kind!
This recipe is by ChocolateCoveredKatie: she makes delicious vegan as well as keto and paleo recipes.
1/3 cup white sugar, unrefined if desired, OR stevia baking blend
2 tbsp cornstarch, or ground flax
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips optional
Instructions
Whisk the first 3 ingredients, then set aside. (If using flax, whisk it in as well.)
Preheat oven to 330F. Grease a 9×13 pan (or 8×8 for thick brownies), or line with parchment paper, and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly combine all dry ingredients. Stir wet into dry.
Pour into the pan. Smooth down. Bake 16 minutes, or 24 in 8×8.
The brownies will look a little underdone when they come out, but that’s okay! Refrigerate – they start to firm up after a few hours and are nice and cut-able by the next day, and the taste is much better the next day as well.
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.
Beautiful Kittens! This is a “Recipe Sunday on a Monday” – yesterday has been a very busy day and didn’t really manage to sit down and write. So here we go today! The recipe is for these beautiful and healthy Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies by HealthyLittleVittlle: I know, it’s warm and it’s not ideal to get the oven going, but I need comfort food at least once a week. But here’s the kick: the recipe I am sharing today is also very healthy!
3/4 cup maple sugar* (may substitute with coconut sugar)
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter (or other nut/seed butter)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Method
Cook one serving of quinoa per package directions.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Make the flax eggs by combining the flaxseed meal and water together in a bowl and let it sit to ‘gel up’.
In a large bowl, whisk together the tapioca starch, baking powder and maple sugar. Add the cooked quinoa, vanilla, peanut butter (or other nut/seed butter) and flax eggs to the bowl and mix until a batter forms, then fold in the chocolate chips.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then using a large cookie scoop (about 2-3 heaping tablespoons of batter per cookie), scoop the cookie dough onto the baking sheet leaving a few inches in between cookies.
Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes, they should just start to look golden- avoid over baking unless you like crunchier cookies.
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for about 5 minutes, then using the back of a small bowl or measuring up gently flatten the cookies, not too flat. Let them cool to set up completely and then enjoy!
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.
Happy Sunday, kittens! Here in the UK, we’ve had a couple of days of very spring-y weather with some sunshine, but without being terribly hot. And I feel that this is still muffin weather. I tried this recipe a few days ago and oh, my goodness! it’s just too delectable.
Before reading this recipe, I was thinking I wanted to do something gluten-free and lo and behold, looking through my emails I found the newsletter by Delightful Adventures where she shared her recipe for Vegan Gluten-Free Chocolate Banana Muffins. It sounded perfect, I had all the ingredients, only a few steps and there you have an amazing result.
The only thing I modified is the flour as I used ground oats: the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour and I used the same amount of ground oats. The result is excellent!
At the same time, I have been a bit more generous in the scooping part, because I have one set of silicone muffin cups and they can yield a good amount of batter, so I got 8 muffins. Which is great because they are the perfect breakfast for the workweek, or you could have them as a quick snack for whenever.
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!
Happy Sunday beautiful kittens! For today’s Recipe Sunday I wanted to share with you a delicious recipe, perfect comfort food for this time of the year: full of veggies and warming you from inside. This Vegan Spinach and Artichoke Dip by Running on Real Food is perfect as a delicious side dish!
As usual, I like to share recipes that are really easy and delicious, as I think we all need something nice to eat especially during these even crazier days.
This recipe has ingredients that are found in your regular vegan pantry and fridge like cashews, plant-based milk, olive oil, garlic cloves, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, fresh spinach and artichoke hearts.
Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C)
Soak cashews for 6-8 hours or for 15 minutes in hot water: drain and add to blender with milk, water, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt and pepper until creamy and smooth.
Sauté minced garlic in non-stick pan.
Add garlic, spinach and artichoke hearts to blender until you get a chunky texture.
Transfer everything to a baking dish and bake for 15-20 minutes.
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 🙂
The Vegan Cat Librarian 