Vegan Rum Christmas Cake (With dried strawberries, baby)

That's a santa hat covering the coy vegan christmas cake

Ola Bats!

I totally lied. I said the last post was, uh, the last post for 2016. Turns out I totally WON at making bomb-ass vegan christmas cake. You can easily customize this with other fruits/nuts, but this combination was a true winner. It's rich, it's wholesome, it delicious.

Ok so get your santa hats out and let's get started.


What you need

1/2 cup  refined sunflower oil

3/4th cup almond mylk/soya/cashew/coconut

1 cup brown sugar (or regular)

8-9 dried strawberries ( I got them from MK retail) or Fresh (or use dried apricots or any other dried fruit)

1/4th cup walnuts chopped

1/4th cup almonds blanched and peeled

1/2 cup black currents or black raisons

1/2 cup rum of choice

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1 teaspoon nutmeg powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda (optional)

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar


How to Make

First put your chopped nuts, currents,and dried fruit in a bowl with the rum Let is soak for at least 30 minutes.

Them nuts and fruits getting drunk off old monk

In a bowl mix your oil, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, apple cider vinegar, and salt. Whisk well.

Add half of your milk and mix again. Now slowly add your flour and baking powder/soda and mix continuously. Add more mylk to get a very thick but slightly pourable batter. It's ok if it's a little dry, it's a richer cake, but it should kind of lump-drop into your pan. Add your soaked rum-nuts-fruits-currents and mix well.

Nice & Thick now

Preheat oven at 170c

Spoon your batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake for about 40 minutes, but check after 30 to see how it's doing with the classic knife test.

Right before I popped into the oven!

Here's wishing you merry merry holidays and super-amaze-balls 2017!

Till Next Year (For Real) Keep It Real!

Strawberry Cake & Chocolate Glaze (Vegan, Baby)

Ola Cats!

It's been a bit, and this will likely be my last post for 2016. To take a quick stock, I transitioned from Vegetarian to Vegan in May 2016,  so we're almost at 7 months now. Things I've learned.

1. It's not THAT hard

2. If you love to cook and love food, then veganism actually lets you appreciate food and ingredients all the more ( Really)

3. Militant veganism changes no one. Ethical eating, thinking about where your food comes from, and understanding how it increases apathy, distances from our ecosystem, and damages the environment is something everyone can do. I advocate being a conscious eater, and you don't have to be perfect to do that.

4. I want to inspire people to play in the kitchen with vegan ingredients

5. I am not a fancy-pretty-cute baker. I'll always be reckless in the kitchen.


Ok, so if that wasn't nauseatingly self aggrandising for you, don't worry I have more to boast about- this super delish strawberry cake with chocolate glaze. Plus it's easy to make.

Here's What You Need for the cake

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 cups Flour (Maida)

1.5 Teaspoons Vanilla

1.5 Teaspoons Baking Powder + 1.3 teaspoon of baking soda

1 Cup pureed fresh strawberries

1/3 cup virgin coconut oil

5 TB vegan curd/yogurt  ( I used peanut curd from Veganarke) OR 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar

3/4th cup almond/soya/cashew.coconut mylk ( I used almond)

A thick pinch of salt


And for the Chocolate Glaze

3 cups sugar

3/4th cup pure coca powder ( I used Hersheys)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Strawberry Puree 

How to Make

In a large bowl mix the sugar, oil, vanilla, and salt. In another bowl sieve the flour, baking powder/soda and keep aside. Now add the puree to your wet mix and give it a good whip. Now slowly add your flour to the mix and whisk. Pour your vegan mylk of choice slowly into the mixture until you have a cake-like batter consistency (thick but pourable).

Pre-heat oven to 180. Grease a large or two small pans with coconut oil and pour you batter in. Now bake for about 30 min (check with a knife).

Meanwhile, in a pot on low flame add sugar, 1/4th cup water and stir.. Add cocoa powder and salt (add as much cocoa powder as you like to get the sweet-cocoa flavour ratio you like). Let it simmer. You can add less/more water to get it thinner or thicker. Screw precision.

Before Frosting (Still Yummy)

Once your cake is baked, let it cool for 10-15 min. Add your glaze on top and enjoy that sweet-fruity mash-yum-blub-blub on your tongue!

Till 2017 <3 Be kind. Keep it real

3 Local Vegan Start-Ups to Hook Up With (YOLO Bangalore)

This ain't just for the vegans on the ship. Everyone who is good and holy at least cares about animals and systematic cruelty (see what I did there?) So, If going vegan is not in your life cards, then supporting some vegan places should be. Here's why.

(i) The more local vegan business boom, the more options we vegans have, the more 'normal' it becomes to appreciate animal-free products

(ii) You let people live their dreams

(iii) Only some vegan business are aware they are actually making a vegan movement, for example we have coffee here which everyone drinks ( we totally advocate caffeine, we're not going to argue about that )- and another one here started because the entrepreneur's son was allergic to dairy and soy. But the deal is, if businesses also understand they are catering to ethical foods, they get to understand their market value in new way. This is good for the economy. I think.


So let's get to these Bangalore sweetspots shall we?

(1) Black Baza Coffee

Holy shit, if coffee wasn't vegan I would have a very potent problem. Black Baza Coffee was founded by Arishiya Bose, and she is really into her shit. I mean she can talk about biodiversity farming for more than an hour (that's long time in bio diversity time). In their own words: Our first four years were spent speaking to over 300 growers – documenting shade trees, coffee yields, value chains and simply understanding the challenges of farming sustainably.We found that although India has one of the most sustainable production systems in the world, our coffee was moving rapidly from shade to sun grown

So we started selling coffee in 2015 to support coffee growers to follow biodiversity-friendly farming, which we define as coffee grown under the shade of indigenous forest trees, without chemical pesticides and with active re-forestation of wildlife-use areas on farms.

Black Baza on The Shelf

Hipster Coffee is Serious Coffee

 Order their amazing coffee (our office Write Leela Write  refuses to run on anything else) and check them out here

(2) Veganarke 

Flying Unicorn Shit! The founder is Abhay Rangan, and get this, he's flipping 19 years old. I wasn't making any kind of world impact at 19. I am not going to even tell you what I was doing at 19, so that I can maintain some for of social respectability. Anyway, I digress, so Abhay here is a very dedicated animal activist, and is specifically devoting most of his life  to animal rights. What's more is his vision. He's ditched them rose-tinted glasses. In the young lad's words:  I believe veganism should be accessible to everyone. Most vegan businesses today overprice their offerings, and this ensures that only privileged, cash rich people are able to afford them. We want to ensure that everyone, regardless of economic status, can buy high quality vegan products.

Peanut Curd by Veganarke 

So 19, with a firm understanding of trickle down economics, and the pitfalls of elitism- I give you folks, a very cool dude. This is why you need to support this. You can get vegan peanut curd delivered to your house every week- and let me tell you this curd/yogurt is the bomb, you can make raita, buttermilk curries or make facial masques out of them- whatever floats your boat. His vision his big, so they are expanding into Cashew, almond, soy, and peanut mylks! Bonus Points? His rock is his mother, who is head of operations and makes all this from scratch at home. Check out Veganarke Here and give a shoutout to our boy Abhay on FB- he's a popular kid.

Abhay and his Momma! The heart of Veganarke 

(3) Jus'Amazin

That, my friend, is some dairy-free cheese! 

Shilpa Mogilishetty has a masters in Social Anthropology, and if she could demand an imaginary life, she would lock herself up in a library and be a total geek. She also has a cute-button of a son who is allergic to dairy and soy. The Momma bear that she is wouldn't let her son go without yummy, nutritious treats. She made the kitchen her lab and soon she had made some delicious treats that everyone wanted. I personally am in love with her Salted Cashew Carmel Spread. But she makes nut mozzarella, feta, and sun-dried tomato plant-based cheese spreads too! Oh also, a seed butter to die for. What are you waiting for? Order her lovely little treats by emailing her : shilpa@jusamazin.com or call : 7899737378

Seed butter, chocolate almond spread, and salted cashew caramel spread. Slurp.

So there you have it cubs! Yummy, ethical treats for everyone. Connect with these fine people, make a new friend, share your new food, and if you don't share your coffee, I'll understand. 

Soon.

Vegan Lemon Cake (Tangy Baby)

Hello Tangy Buddy

Hello Parrots!


 Fall comes, and I say screw Pumpkins, they get far too much press in October. We're doing lemons here. A sweet-tart bliss in the mouth. Here's a plant-based lemon cake that is super yummy for breakfast with coffee. It also works if you happen to have High Tea like the British.

Ok, so I like things tangy, so I have added a bit more lemon juice than traditional recipes require, but in my (esteemed) opinion, I think it kicks the sweet factor to new levels of yum on the tongue. I've also got a super quick vegan sugar frosting to add to the sweet-ass factor.


What You Need

Cake Ingredients 

2 cups Flour

1 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup vegetable/olive oil

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (adds moisture)

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 (small/Indian lemon/limes) juiced

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind


Frosting Ingredients

2 cups powered sugar

11/2 lemon juice

1 -2 tablespoon water

How to put the Baby Together 


In a large bowl whisk your oil, sugar, vanilla, salt, lemon juice, and vinegar. Add baking powder +soda to a bowl filled with your flour and mix gently. Now add this to the wet mixture and keep stirring till the batter is smooth.

It's smooth enough now

Preheat you oven to 185c. In a greased pan pour your batter and put it in the oven for about 25-30 minututes. Do the knife-check to make sure it's done.

When your cake is in the oven, start making the frosting.

This is super simple, in a bowl dump you powdered sugar, make sure there are NO lumps. Now add your juice and beat. It will be thick and lumpy, add a table spoon of water. Add tiny amount of water till you get the consistency of a thick glaze, as shown in the picture. Yum. Set it aside.

Don't screw up the consistency 

Once your cake is done let it cool for at least an hour. Now you can dump your glaze over it. Tah-dah! It's done. Be wise and always share your cake.


Aite, that's what I have for now! Enjoy. Be kind and keep it real!

Vegan Coconut Milk Jelly (Jiggle Baby)

It's Snowing Jelly!

 Sup Polar Bears!

Today I made a snappy quick treat. I am a fan of chewy-jelly-sweet--things. In Vegan Land using cow bone (gelatin) is a big no-no, therefore,we have out vegan saviour, agar-agar or China Grass as we know it locally. You need a stove, a pot, and glass dish for it to set and your jelly treats are good to go!

So how to make this crowed pleaser?

All you need is a bunch of white stuff. 

What You Need

1 cup pure coconut milk

2.5 cups water

1/2 cup of sugar (or 3/4th if you want it super sweet)

A pinch of salt

1/4th cup agar-agar (china grass) powder/flakes

1/4th cup  dried coconut powder (optional)


How to Make

Grab a pot and se that baby on a stove. Keep your flame medium-high. Now add your coconut milk and china grass/agar-agar and give it a quick stir, it will get thick fast. Quickly add sugar and mix, then add you water and salt. Now keep stirring out the lumps and make sure it gets smooth. It will get thick pretty quick, keep stirring for 5-8 minutes.

Stir out all the lumpies

Put off the flame and pour immediately  into a glass dish. Set on the counter, it will start to set in a matter of minutes. Add your dried coconut powder on top. Check on it after 30 minutes, if it's firm (it should be), pop it out of the glass onto a plate. Slice it in shapes you fancy. Put those babies in the fridge and let them chill.

All Set

Take them out after 30-60 minutes and enjoy! Makes for the perfect light dessert. Also great for Netflix binging.

Happy Jellying!

Vegan Blueberry Cheese Cake Bities (That's Right)

Hello Ants! I've been slacking hardcore on the  blog, so I decided the this one had to be worth the wait. I've been researching vegan cheesecake for a while now, and my requirements to make my own version were few:

• Simple
• Keep exotic ingredients to the minimum
• Semi-foolproof 

I finally found the best inspiration on the Minimalist Baker blog, and basically tried to recreate it with a few original touches. Their blog is way prettier than mine, so if you ditch my post and follow the instruction on that site, I can't blame you. 

This is a rather decadent vegan dessert, so eating too much of it is not good for you (although ethically it's way better than regular cheese cake, so fill up on your karma points, folks).

So let's get to it. Disclaimer: I had to spend money on this one, because it required stocking up on nuts. However, if you come at me saying "oh, so being vegan is expensive" I will hit you. Because I am choosing to make the fancy stuff, and there is plenty you can do with a vegan budget if you cut out money on your normal food/dairy/meat intake. Anyway, not getting into vegan politics now, let's get into the recipe. 

What You Need

For the Crust

1 cup walnuts

1 cup pitted dates

For the Filling

1 cup cashews (Soaked for 2 hours)

200ml/ 3/4th cup Coconut Milk

Juice of 2 small lemons

3/4th cup sugar  (you can also use golden syrup/maple syrup)

1/4th cup coconut oil

1.5 teaspoons vanilla essence

25 frozen blueberries (also can use chopped strawberries)

How to Make

Dates in a cup, say what's up?

In a muffin tin line each section with a cupcake wrapper. If you don't have this, use foil. 

In a blender, blend your walnuts and dates real well. It might take some stirring and blending repeatedly. It's ok if it's uneven, Use this mashup to press a 1 inch layer in the bottom of each cupcake liner. Set aside. 

Pie Base be Crumbly

Now in a larger blender add your coconut milk, vanilla, coconut oil, lemon juice, sugar, and cashews together. Blend together well until you get a rich creamy mix. 

Pour this mixture on top of the date-walnut crust, fill it till the brim. Now top with blueberries. Hurray! Now all you have to do is freeze the tray for about 6 hours. When you want to eat them, pop them out of the freezer and let them thaw out for about 10 minutes. Enjoy frozen as well.

Pre-freezer picture.

That's what I got for September.  Enjoy, and be kind. 

Chocolate Chunk Walnut Cookies (Vegan, Duh)

All Ready to Be Dunked in Some Cold Almond Milk

Ola grasshoppers!

It's been a while. I've been cooking, just not posting. Let's just say that most of my cooking happens at the end of the work day, and my phone is out of battery, unwilling to take pictures, and I am too lazy to charge it in time. Yup, blogger fails.

Anyway, Yesterday I made my favorite cookie in the whole wide world. Chocolate chunk walnut cookies. I used to make a lot of chocolate chip eggless cookies before I went vegan, but I realized that this version is healthier (and delicious, promise) because we use flax seeds for eggs and olive-pomace oil instead of butter.The important thing here is to use brown sugar.That's what gives it a classic cookies taste, so don't go using regular sugar on me, k? You can get brown sugar on amazon, here you go. So let's get right to these beauties, shall we?

What You Need

2 cups flour
1/2 cup olive/blend or even sunflower will do
2 pinches sea salt
1.5 ts vanilla
3/4th cup almond milk (or soy milk)
1 cup brown sugar (please don't use regular)
1 large bar AMUL Dark Chocolate (this is the only Indian-vegan chocolate I know of, you can use imported vegan chocolate too)
3/4th cup walnuts (you can crush or keep them whole, up to you, puppy)
2 tb ground falx seeds
1 ts baking powder
1ts baking soda


How To Make

First things first. Take your 2 tb of flax seeds and put them in a  small blender so they become a powder.

In a bowl add your oil and almond/soy milk, whisk. Add your brown sugar, vanilla, and salt. Mix it up. Slowly add you flour and keep mixing, add your baking powder and soda, and flax seeds. combine fully.

To the right, ground flax seeds, to the left, oil and almond milk. 

Now take out the cover of the chocolate and while it's still inside the foil wrap, crush it with a hammer or something heavy ( I used a pressure cooker, so I appeared to the average onlooker, completely insane). Let it basically become big chunks of chocolate, tear open the foil packet now and pour into the batter. Add your walnuts. It will stick out of your batter- that' fine. Mix it up good, make sure it's a proper dough. You can use more flour if it's too wet, or some splashes of almond/soy milk if it's too dry.

That's how it should look once you have everything in. You pop this into the freezer for 15. Isn't this fun?

Preheat oven to 180c. Put your dough in the freezer for 15 min. This helps it keep form. 15 min later, divide batter into medium balls and flatten onto a greased pan. You should be able to make 12-15 cookies. Bake for 15 min each. Let cool and enjoy. Super delish, I tell ya.

I am going to go check on my new vegan mayonnaise I made from scratch with coconut milk. You will just have to wait for the post, which I swear will be here soon.

Toodles!

Vegan Peanut Butter Brownies (Heck Yes)

Hello, Brownie

Wassup Kangaroos,

Sorry I've been off the radar for a couple of weeks. I can mostly owe it to being distracted by discussions on FB, debating, trolling, and reading about other people.  Anyway, we digress.
So, I know, I am getting repetitive, this is my second brownie recipe. But if you don't like brownies (and all possible variations of them), then you might need to reevaluate your priorities.


 Today we have a recipe that will delight them chocolate and p&b lovers. This creamy-chocolaty vegan heaven. So I've used a blended olive-pomace oil. (pomace is basically oil extracted from grape skins and olive skins and seeds). It's rather neutral so, it's not as strong as coconut oil. You can also use coconut oil if you want (but in m y opinion it will dilute the peanut butter taste), or you can also use regular vegetable or canola oil. Anyway let's get to it.


What You Need

1 cup almond milk (or soya)
3/4th cup pure cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 cup olive-pomace oil (or vegetable/canola)
2 tb chia seeds (soaked in 6 tb water to get it gel-like)
1tb sea salt
1 cup brown sugar (or regular)
1ts Vanilla
1.5 ts baking powder
1.5 cups flour
1/2 cup peanut butter



How To Make

In one lovely bowl add your oil, almond milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Give it a stir. Now add your chia seeds (that should be gel-like after soaking them in the water for a couple of minutes). Now add your cocoa powder and stir till you have a nice chocolate paste.

Chocolate Paste, Lover

Done? Cool, now add your baking powder to your flour and mix. Go ahead and add your flour (slowly) to the chocolate mixture  and keep stirring. You will get a thick slightly wet dough.

Get your oven pre-heated to 180c

On a greased pan press your chocolate brownie dough to fit the pan, about 3/4th inch in thickness. Now pop your peanut butter in the microwave (or on a stove) and melt it for 30 seconds, you don't want it to be complete liquid, just to soften it up a bit.

How it looks once it's pressed into the pan (melted peanutbutter saying hi on the right) 

Dip into the soft peanut butter with a fork and graze the top of your brownie dough. Keep grazing all over till there are Peanut butter stripes all over. Now pop it into the oven for 20 minutes.

Once it's all grazed with peanutbutter. Pretty cool, eh?

You're done! Let it cool for a few. Cut into pieces and enjoy them blissful brownies. Go back into the world, rejuvenated. Share your brownies. Be kind. And tell the haters to go home.

Mocking Meat (Vegan Chilifry Meat)

That shit is vegan?

Ho Ho Ho Cubs!

I did it, people, I did it. I recreated meat and it tastes spectacular. OK, it tastes like how meat should taste - plant-based, cruelty-free. Maybe that's why it tastes bombass. But here is my serious note: vegan processed cheese (for the most part) is shit. But vegan meat has so much potential. If you really love animal meat but feel badly about the horrendous industry, consider substituting, at least some of the time. The impact of going meatless a few times a week (consciously) can have ridiculous amounts of positive impact on our environment and help create more of a demand for plant-based meat.

In other countries, mock meats have been created so well that meat-eaters can't tell the difference, and as we move forward into an unsustainable world, it's really time to start thinking about the fantastic movement towards plant-based meat.

Now my blog (as promised from the start) is not about lecturing you on veganism or showing you PETA videos of cow torture. But thinking about sustainability and living in a less cruel world should be something we should all be thinking about - vegan, vegetarian, or not.

So anyway, this vegan meat is homemade seitan. If I was in the U.S, I could've bought this off the shelf, but in India, not so much. It's basically gluten meat made from wholewheat. The good news is that we have all the ingredients to make it in any stereotypical Indian kitchen. The bad news? It takes a fuck lot of time. But it did get me thinking: when we consume meat and it ends up on our plates, we are so distanced from the whole act of processing. Chicken drumsticks and pork ribs - think about the process, the feathers, the skinning, the cutting. It's our distance that keeps us from thinking about the reality. So when I was making my 'meat', I had new respect for adding the processing time to my meal. I understood what I was creating from my hands. Literally, the form from atta (roti bread batter) to 'meat' happened in my hands. Let's get to it:


What You Need

A cow. Just joking.

6 cups of atta (whole wheat flour)
1.5 cups of water (maybe more, you will figure this out when you start kneading)
3TB sea salt
3TB seasoning of choice (I used chili flakes, pepper, some minced garlic)
A big pot filled with water and more seasoning (salt, pepper, soy sauce, chili flakes, anything)



How To Make

OK, so first we'll make our regular roti-dough. In a bowl, start to knead your wholewheat flour with your hands with some of the water. Keep adding until you have a smooth (not dry, not too wet, bread-kind-of-dough). You should knead it for approx 15 min. Set aside for 5 minutes to let it hold its composition. Now get a big strainer and another bowl and get to your sink. Put the strainer on top of the bowl and run the faucet. Using your hands 'wash' the dough by gently massaging it. You'll see white water (starch) pour out into the bowl. Dump the water out and repeat. You will repeat this about 30 times. In other words, this will take you 20-25 minutes. The atta/dough will start to reduce, and become gummy, seriously, like a wad of chewed up gum. Keep going. Only when the water washes out clear are you done. At this point, your atta/dough would have reduced by half. Now squeeze out the water. You can take a pair of scissors and chop off pieces. It will be gummy-meat like. Now, fill your big pot of water up, add your seasoning and then dump your meat pieces into the pot of water. Set on a medium flame for 35-45 minutes. Your meat is cooked! All you have to do now is strain out the water by squeezing your meat pieces (which would have swollen after being cooked so you get a little more than you thought). This meat is ready to be fried, deep fried, stir-fried, or cooked in a curry. Here's a video of a super stoic woman showing you how to do it.

That't ain't no goat (uncooked seitan, after washing and chopping into pieces)

Chili Fry?

This is is easy. In a small bowl, add cornflour, your favorite "meat masala" and some salt. Make a paste with some water. Dip your meat pieces into the cornflour paste and drop them into a pot filled with oil (deep fry or shallow fry). Let them fry for 5-10 minutes, while turning the pieces gently. Drain out the oil and blot the oil from the pieces.

Deep-frying the 'meat'

I basically made a dry chili fry paste by mixing ginger-garlic paste, more meat masala, onions, spring onions, tomato and salt, and 4 sliced green chilies. Then I added the corn-flour fried pieces to this mix and stir-fry for another 5-8 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and onion.

Added the fried pieces to that hot masala gravy. 

SLURP. This shit is amazeballs. So try it, puppies. It's worth the patience. I promise. Keep it real.

The Case Of The Vegan Mozzarella (Shit Got Weird)

Hello Stretchy-Sticky Vegan Blobs

Ola Orangutans!


You know you're a  vegan newbie when you go ahead and try to make every non-vegan favorite into something vegan. Some vegans even get annoyed by it, but I am all for mock-meat, mock-cheese and veganizing everything, because hey chances are you'll replace some of your dairy and meat with some inspiration, right? Right.

Anyway, pardon my whole annoying  "look what I just veganized" phase. It most likely will be temporary for a few reasons. The number one being that becoming vegan means really having to let go of some things, we can try to make things like them old dairy-meat filled days, but the answer more likely lies in just making new things with vegan ingredients instead of obsessing over recreating .But hey, this is a damn chemistry experiment, and I was no good at chemistry, so this is like a life win for me. So pretend to get excited about it.

I got my basic recipe for this here

So if you want to try this out yourself there is both good news and bad news. Let's start with the good news. It's actually rather quick to make and you don't need too many things. OK, bad news, those 'few things' you need are probably not in your cupboard right now. But thanks to amazon you can have all of them in 5- days.

Aite so let's get at this shall we?

What You Need

2 cups of soaked cashews (soaked for about 2-3 hours)
6 TB of tapioca starch (amazon puppies)
3TB nutrional yeast
1TB sea salt
1TB black pepper
1TB red chili flakes (if you want, you can ditch this)
2TB lemon juice (fresh)
400ml hot water
A large bowl of ice-cold water with salt

See? It doesn't take much.

How To Make

Now all you do is take ALL you ingredients (including the freshly boiled hot water) and dump it into a blender. Now pulverize that stuff real good, don't burn your hands because the blender will be really hot.

After you Blend, shit looks like this

Now dump this milky mess into a pot on a medium flame and keep stirring it for about 10 min. It will start to thicken, and at one point it will really be stretchy-sticky. Keep stirring till you have the consistency of semi-melted mozzarella. Now put of your heat.

Your hard work at stirring always yields  results 

Grab your pot of ice-cold water with salt and scoop out balls of your thickened mozzarella and dump it into the cold water. You can re-shape them in the cold water, but it will most likely still look like white turds floating in a toilet bowl.

Told you it ain't pretty

Now just wait like 30 min for them to firm up, and voila you have your fresh vegan mozzarella balls ready! You can cut them up and put it on pizza, salads, and sandwiches. When you heat it it will melt.

I made pizza with it. I got store-bought vegan pizza base, made my tomato sauce (blended 3 juicy tomatoes and  put it in a pot with salt, pepper, chili flake, brown sugar, basil and oregano) topped it with green peppers, onions and mushrooms and hunks of my mozzarella and baked at 180c for 20 min.

Before Baking

After That Baby is Baked

Mozzarella Notes: Can you live without vegan mozzarella? Hell yes. But it does taste rather nice on pizza. You don't need to put too much, and you must eat it hot.

Now you guys have a stellar-ass Sunday!

Vegan Mac & Cheese (Say What?)

Mac & Nutritional Yeast. I hipster, shoot me. 

Sup Baby Caterpillars?

I totally made vegan mac and cheese today. I went full Desi on it by by adding lots of green chilies, green peppers, onion and tomato. So, this is a good recipe to kind of make your own.

This recipe needs nutritional yeast, which is not the most Indian-grocery-friendly thing to get. But don't panic, I did get this  most economical version available for only 400 rupees. Buy it here 

OK, so let's get to it, chop chop.

What You Need

2 cups macaroni
1 firm tomato diced
1/2 medium onion diced
1 green pepper (capsicum), diced
1/4th cup nutritional yeast
2 cups soya or almond milk
3 tablespoons of  cornflour, arrowroot powder or flour
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or juice of half a lemon)
2-3 green chilies chopped (omit if you can't take the heat)
1 tablespoon mustard
1 table spoon black pepper
3 garlic pods minced
 sea salt to taste
1 tablespoon sugar/brown sugar
Italian seasoning/oregano and any other seasoning of choice
1 tablespoon crushed chili flakes
4 tablespoons oil ( I used olive)

That's the red star stuff I was talking about

How You Make It

In a pot bowl your water and add some salt to it. When the water is bubbling add your uncooked pasta. Cook for exactly 11 minutes, drain, and rise under cold water and set that baby aside.

Set a pot on medium flame. Add oil and garlic. Now add your soy/almond milk and stir. It won't really mix because the oil will separate your mylk. Now add your cornflour/flour and keep stirring until it starts to thicken. You can add your nutritional yeast now, and keep stirring. Add more soy/almond milk and cornflour/flour to get your desired quantity and thickness. Now add your pepper, salt, seasoning, sugar, chili flakes and vinegar/lemon juice and mustard. Add your veggies to this bubbling sauce. I really like my veggies to be crisp and semi-raw not over cooked, so if you are like me, then put of the flame about 4 minutes after you add the veggies. If you like your veggies soggier (yuck, ok no judgement) then let it cook some more.

Now add your cooked pasta to the sauce and give it a good stir. Check for salt. Eat this lovely baby-bum soft pasta piping hot. Makes for a great (healthy-essh) dinner.

Vegan Cheese Sauce Notes : Nutritional yeast gives a nutty cheesy flavor. Mustard and apple cider vinegar balance the nutty taste with that fermented taste of cheese. This combination gives you the closest cheese replacement. It's also the least complicated and usually you can make it without bursting into tears mid-recipe.

It's Friday tomorrow. Get your groove on.

Vegan Chocolate Brownies ( Yeah Baby)

Betty Crocker got Nothing on Me

Ola Pumpkin Chops!

What's rolling? Out here in V-land I've been playing with cocoa powder. I've been making batches of chocolate and stuffing slabs of it in my freezer. Anyway, today, after a stressful day at work I thought I'd switch out chocolate for brownies. I never made them vegan brownies before.

The only cruelty to animals in this recipe involves driving my dogs crazy with the smell of baked goods they CANNOT eat (because chocolate). Meh, my conscious is pretty clear.

This one is pretty easy, and it's a rather flexible recipe too. I had a bunch of walnuts at home so I used them, if you don't have them, no sweat.

What You Need

2 cups flour (maida)
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup vegan chocolate chips ( I got mine at natures basket/ just check to make sure there are no milk solids in the ingredients)
1 cup pure unsweetened coca powder
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
1 cup sugar ( I used brown)
1 teaspoon vanilla powder/essence
1 cup almond milk/soyamilk
1/2 cup water
1 and 1/4th cup coconut oil OR vegetable oil Or Olive oil ( I used 50-50 coconut and olive)
1.5 teaspoons sea salt

Some of Them Ingredients 

What Do I Do?

Grab two large bowls. In the first one, mix your flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking powder. Set aside.

Now is a good time to preheat your oven at 180c

In another bowl add your sugar, water, soya/almond milk, and vanilla. Mix till smooth. Add your flour mix and let it get thick and smooth. Now add your walnuts (if you want) and your chocolate chips.

Damn, that's some tasty brown goo

Grease your pan and put that batter in there. Let that baby bake for about 25-30 min. Let it cool, cut  into squares and dust some powdered sugar over them. Best had with a cup of black coffee or a glass of cold almond milk.

I messed up a little bit today, my brownies are a tad dry, which is why I increased the oil in this recipe.

Free Sexy Making Out With Henna Pic

Alright pups, it's Wednesday, you still have much of the week to conquer. So do it. Be kind. Be amazing. And always Keep It Real.