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.

How Not To Be A Vegan Asshole (And Still Celebrate Ethical Choices)

The joke goes like this.

Priya meets someone new, says "Hi, I am Priya, who are you?"

And new person says "who me? I am Vegan."

So yeah, Vegans have a terrible reputation for making their (mostly ethical) dietary choice their  raison d'etre. The argument for this is that the meat and dairy industry are becoming increasingly and devastatingly cruel, so why not make it a part of our active purpose to bring it to public attention every chance we get? When you look at the amazing number of human problems we've created, cruelty to animals sure stands large and looming. After all it's our sheer ego that makes us believe that our perception of the world is the most intelligent and required (for god knows what ultimate end). This belief is the cause of many suck-ass evils like war, massive environmental damage, poverty, and animal cruelty. OK, so we're all going to agree on that last one, right? Right, so to further the vegan propaganda machine argument - there are loud-mouthed activists for all sorts of social evils: anti-war, anti-capitalism, anti-plastic, anti-exotic pets, yada-yada, so why not the vegan cause?

Well today my regular recipe post is going to be swapped with some ethical thinking. Don't worry, it's not about telling you why you need to be vegan. In fact it's quite the opposite, I am here to tell you the traps of vegan policing and why it matters for both sides - vegans and non-vegans.

The vegan police are no different from any extreme form of thinking. They hold on to a few beliefs: 1. Everyone  should be vegan and if you're not, you're a low-life with a heart made of coal. 2. Be vegan already. 3. You're vegan, but you still use a night cream that was tested on dogs? Fuck you. 4. You say you're vegan but you eat honey sometimes, so really you are a terrible flaky person. 5. Vegetarians are the most idiotic of all, because they support the dairy industry and still think they are compassionate, fuck off vegetarians!

It's no different from any system that controls one level of perceived virtue and then waits for any form of anomaly to occur to pounce. Don't get me wrong, community groups are heaven-sent. If you are a part of a book club, an environmental club, a cooking club, or even a spiritual club you know what the benefits of those communities (offline or online) offer. So when I finally started my vegan journey (something I have wanted to do for years) I was happy to be a part of the vegan community online. I saw mostly good things, helpful things, supportive things, But I also saw a lot of vegan policing within the group itself - a reminder that people are people no MATTER what. Even in a group that, by definition, tries to be the most compassionate.

But, surprise! Being vegan does not make you a better human being by virtue of this one practice. It does not account for the ego, for rabid thinking, insecurity and also for the sense of frantic validation all humans look for. Nor does it necessarily make you more self-aware. I once joined an Indian social media group that supported veganism and child-free living, thinking it was for people who simply choose to be child-free and vegan and let them discuss their lives. Man, was that place a judgement house of horrors. I wrote a friendly introductory post there, saying it was great for a a sturdy number of people believing that that there were indeed enough human problems and consciously not procreating was a choice that should indeed be respected - fair enough, I am one of those non-procreators myself. But I also wrote about how nobody knew how the world actually holds together. Our purpose, our ills, our compassion, and our learning are all part of a gigantic puzzle and for many people, children were a part of that purpose and I respected that. I also shared that we needed more thoughtful parenting, that groomed a child to be more curious of its world instead of being caught up with standard urban pursuits that were obviously facilitating our environmental demise. The responses I got to this rather benign introduction note? Violent to say the least. I was called a "spiritual mystic garbage talker"  and that "no one should EVER have a child no matter what" and how all people who had children were "Stupid and unthinking". So yeah, wowza. Anyway my usual self told them to suck it and I left the group.

I guess this whole experience just taught me the most important part about life: you are here for a reason, and for a lot of learning. You have to follow your own path because that's most likely going to show you the holes in this world that need filling. Every individual has a bucket to fill. These buckets might be different colors but each bucket filled will lead to a better planet. It was a good time not to lose sight of everything: extremism had no place in my life, but nor did apathy and shying away from talking about things that mean something to me.

So, I looked into my own immediate community of friends and thought about the conscious things they were doing. Things that had a purpose to make some kind of impact on our world. And that's the strong extreme answer I have for everyone: if you are blindly living on this planet (and you are on the upper end of Maslow's hierarchy of needs) without making any conscious choice that will affect the larger world, you're kind of being a parasite. Which of course can be argued in favor of: being a parasite is embracing our most primary biological reality, so why shouldn't it extend to everything I do? Well we gotta draw the line somewhere, and honestly if your whole purpose of life is to extract, and extract without a purpose, accumulate things, and then die, well, bah I mean sure be a parasite, but you're going to be a deathly bore.

Anyway, back to the small conscious choices. Here are 4 stories from my immediate circle of friends I admire that illustrate how doing just one thing means you can be compassionate and thinking, and forward moving - because we can't measure human wholeness and the complexity of compassion on a single scale.


Let's start with my own life partner Indra. He's your standard Bengali boy with a love for fish, meat, and a fair amount of dairy. He's come to understand the meat and dairy industry a lot more, and after having being a dog dad for more than 2 years, understood the human-animal bond on a much grander level. He has switched out his daily milk with cereal for soya milk/almond milk and reduced his chicken and meat consumption by 50%. The vegan police would shrug their shoulders at that, but that very act has reduced his carbon footprint significantly and also put money towards the vegetarian economy. That's a conscious choice, and that's a choice of someone who is fully aware of the cruelties and environmental impact of meat and dairy consumption, which proves it's NOT a lack of compassion or understanding of the industry that prevents him from being vegan - it is the complexity of habit, culture, and personal ability and motivation to the cause. And that is fair enough because he is actively choosing to reduce his consumption of these things.

Soy can be better than a MOO

Ok so let's forget diet impact. Here is Sohini who, for as long as I've known her (mostly through social media), has been one style queen. She has got her hair, makeup and smile in place, this lady. Stunning and all she is. But you won't catch her wearing the regular brands (read: the most accessible forms of cosmetics) that test on animals - and let me tell you, from your floor cleaner to your shampoo, most of that crap is tested on animals. This is especially terrible because we don't need to test on animals for cosmetic reasons (it's enough they test human medicine on them). Sohini researches all the brands that test on animals, puts up lists of cruelty-free make up and cosmetics on FB to let people make that simple decision of choosing vegan cosmetics. It seems simple now that you read it, but let me tell you that I still have products in my house that are animal-tested. I've been inspired by her to be a conscious consumer now and educate myself on those brands that are kinder. Although let me tell you,  finding everything you use in your life that has NOTHING to do with an animal is fairly impossible. It's not about being a puritan, it's about making a conscious choice of doing the best you can.

Killer Lips. Non-Killing Lipstick

Love at first sight

Now let's move to Kalabati, dearest business partner and sister, who's been composting like a rockstar for more than a year now. If you haven't heard of daily dump yet, you should click and head there now. But it's not just about getting excited about getting a compost pot, it's sticking through that process for life. And that is hard. When Kala decided to get a composting pot, she decided to buy a larger one even though she lives alone. This is because she offered to put the pot downstairs and let her neighbors also use it. She told them how much wet waste could be recycled and left out of the garbage mines, they all enthusiastically agreed. I don't think it lasted very long, soon she was the only one composting. This is what she says about it: 'I am a person who handles her own garbage. my help doesn't get rid of it. i do. So everyday I tie it together, I smell it. I get my hands wet.' That was kind of nasty, amirite? But she continues:

'So within few weeks of composting, I realized how drastically the garbage quantity goes down. I was taking out garbage now only once in 3 days. and it was completely dry and so much more manageable. How much of your garbage is kitchen waste is shocking.(60% of the city's waste is organic.) I mean we all know these things but till you see it you don't understand the gravity of it. Also after your first cycle of composting, which took about 2 to 3 months  for me, it's magical to see what those kgs of kitchen waste reduce to. I went and distributed the compost in my lane."

Now let's move to her second cool thinga-ma-jig....

A symbiotic Life. Kala's plants live off her wet waste. A composting garden looks pretty bomb, eh?

Kala's cousin Chiquita who inspired her to take care of streeties

Paanch the dog and her friend getting treats at Kala's house

Kala does one more thing very consciously and that is feeding a couple of her streeties regularly. When I asked her about that she said: 

"I have nothing to say about feeding and adopting streeties." - a bit of a climax pooper there, thanks Kala. But then (thankfully) she continued:

"Except chiquita (her cousin) inspired me. She feeds crazy amounts of dogs everyday. and she has been doing this from a very very young age."

Kala's compassion and curiosity for animals does not have to be proven, you can see it by the way she interacts with them. The vegan police would call her a hypocrite, but here's another example of the complexity of human compassion, it works in different ways, and it lights up in different paths. 

Now onto Rahul whose story is especially cute. He keeps industrial sized amounts of  biscuits in the back of his car. A conscious choice he makes to give out to traffic-light beggars and kids. His wife Namita is the one behind this inspiration, and one he gladly picked up. I think it's especially cute because it's that simple act of good faith, a small token of respect from one human to the next. I know lots of people who offer food to those in need, but very few who actively carry packs of it in their cars no matter what day it is. 

Free swag included in Rahul's car

Rahul the boy on the Left. With his friends (yay) 

So what's the moral of the story puppies? Well if you're a nihilist, you could say jackshit. Nothing is nothing. Fair point. But if you're a Wednesday night cough-medicated blogger like me, then I'll have to sum up with more gusto.

The moral is that doing everything purely out of ethics, morality, and a love for the environment can't be done by one person at full capacity on all levels. But that's not an excuse to not be aware. Learn from each other, be aware. You don't have to make the same choices, but you can be inspired to see what part of what issue or cause lights your soul up (because every muthafucking soul can be lit up), and then you need to examine how high the bonfire you can make with that issue. Whatever it is, it's something, and we need it. We need it to evolve, to be more than we are today, to appreciate the good in others, and to tell the world that love and compassion will always win because our army might wear different boots, but we're still in the same army. I have no idea why I used that military reference, I am not even pro-military. See? Nobody's perfect.

Don't make your life about what you can make other people can do (that's the problem of every extreme group out there, ethical or not), but ask yourself what you can do for the world. Did I just plagiarize and jumble a couple of cheesy quotes from the Greats? I think so, but you get the picture.

Next time there'll be a recipe. 

Cashew Coconut Ice Cream with Blueberry Vegan Tarts (HELL YES)

Hey you. Let's get together.

Ola Flamingos

I just spent 40 minutes writing this blog and managed to royally f*&k it up by not saving and I deleted it by mistake. Sigh, so here I go again.

Today is a bit of a stunner. It took me 2 days to make. Mostly because ice cream takes 8 hours to freeze. I was sick most of today, and needed some serious recovery time in the kitchen. Staying in bed all day is really boring. This recipe is slightly difficult, you will need patience and dexterity ( I am low on both)

No time for gossip there is too much to write.

What You Need

For Cashew Coconut Ice Cream

2 cups coconut cream ( turn your can or tetra pack upside down and pour from there you will get the thick part, discard the watery part)

1 cup of brown sugar (I used coconut sugar)

1/2 cup of cashew paste (use a little water or almond milk to help make the paste)

sea salt ( just a dash)

1/4th cup crushed almonds

1 tablespoon Vanilla powder/essence


For the Blueberry Tarts

2 cups flour (maida)

10 teaspoons of ice-cold water

5 tablespoons solid coconut oil (cold/scoopable, if you have liquid coconut oil just toss it in the freezer for 15 min)

2 cups blueberries ( I used frozen)

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/2 cup water


How to Make This Puppy

First things first, let's make the ice cream the night before.

We're going to make vegan condensed milk first (hellz yes). In a pot add 1/2 cup coconut cream and all the sugar. Let is simmer in a pot for about 15 minutes. It ill be all thick and gooey. Let it cool.

coco cream and sugar about to get CONDENSED 

Meanwhile in a pre-cooled bowl add the rest of your coconut cream, vanilla and salt. Beat that baby for a good 10 minutes so it get some air in it. Should be shiny, creamy, and thick-ish. Add your crushed almonds. In a blender make your cashew paste and fold into your coconut cream and beat it some more. Add your cooled vegan condensed milk and beat it one more time. Pour into a container and let it freeze. After two hours give the ice-cream a good mix and then let it set over night.

From the Right now: Coco cream/almonds/salt , condensed vegan milk (brown because I used coconut sugar) and cashew paste. 

You're done with that! Break out into a hot dance move.


Now for them tarts!

In a bowl add your flour. Add a teaspoon of sea salt and 1/4th cup sugar to it. Now add a few spoons of your solid cold coconut oil and a few drops of ice-cold water and start to mix with your hands. Add (Slowly) more coconut oil chunks and ice-cold water until you have a crumbly dough. Basically not  baby-smooth but cohesive enough to roll out.

Flour with Solid Coconut oil chunks

Roll our your pastry and cut circular shape parts out. Don't go for perfection here, let the the sides hang from each muffin holder. We're looking for a rustic look here. In the muffin tin add your dough to each section, you should have enough for 6 medium sized tarts plus a little extra to make strips to put on top.

Now in a pot put your berries, 1 cup sugar, vanilla and 1/2 cup water and let it boil for about 10 minutes. It should get good and gooey. Don't panic. Spoon this mixture into each tart. Top each tart with a strip/strips of pastry dough however you damn please. Pop that baby into a pre-heated oven ( 185c) for 20 minutes.

Rustic Look, Baby

Now plate your puppy up! Scoop out some ice-cream and serve immediately.

This is great combination to to impress people. If vanity is not your thing, you can always binge eat them while watching netflix. It is however, in your spiritual interest to share.

Sidenotes: Vegan ice cream has no preservatives in it. This is why it's kind of runny (also I don't have an ice cream maker) I will have to fiddle with the recipe to get it to hold it's ice-cream like shake for more than 4 minutes. But it tastes damn stellar. Promise.

The Nutritional Yeast Factor - Vegan Cheesy Pasta Surprise

                                                                The Noodle Girl

 

I wasn't planning on doing another blog today. But I came home and saw that my nutritional yeast came in the mail today! Hurrah. I have been dying to try this stuff out. For those of you who are in the pitiful dark, nutritional yeast is the vegan cheese ingredient. It's basically a deactivated yeast that adds a nutty-buttery-cheesy flavour to food and can be used in a whole bunch of things.

I decided to try it out even though there was daal and cauliflower already made for dinner. I present to you fine folk my vegan-cheesy-pasta. Let's get right to it.

That baby in the bottle is Nutritional Yeast

What You Need (serves 2)

1/2 packet of spaghetti
3 garlic pods
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1.5 ts black pepper
sea salt to taste
one tomato diced
1/2 onion
1 green pepper (capsicum)
1/2 cup cashew nuts
1/2 cup almond milk
5 tb olive oil
3 tb flour (maida)
2-3 green chilies (optional if you like it spicy, I sure as hell do)
an assortment of your favorite seasoning ( I used chili flake, oregano, dried basil leaves, thyme, and some KEYA brand all-purpose seasoning)


How to Make

First we'll make our cashew paste. In a blender add your cashew nuts, chilies, garlic pods, onion, pepper and some sea salt. Add a little bit of almond milk and blend. You should get a slightly thick paste.

Now, we'll make the vegan white sauce. On a low flame heat up your olive oil and add your almond milk. It will look weird, acknowledge the weirdness. then slowly add your flour in and keep stirring constantly, you want to avoid any lumps. Once the sauce starts to thicken add your cashew paste and stir.

That's how vegan white sauce looks. Don't judge.

Hopefully you've heated up the water and added your spaghetti, cook it exactly 11 minutes and drain.

You can add your tomatoes and green peppers to the sauce and let it cook for a couple minutes. This is a great time to make it your OWN- add all the seasoning you want at this time. Go crazy, taste for salt, and add whatever till it tastes like heaven.

You don't want the tomatoes or the peppers to overcook, you kind of want them semi-raw for full flavour. Put off the heat and add your spaghetti to the sauce mix well and eat HOT.

Notes on Nutritional Yeast: It does give it a very creamy nutty texture. I wouldn't go so far to say it tastes like cheese, but you can make it cheesier in other recipes by using vinegar or miso paste. But that adventure will have to wait for another time. I do think it tastes like alfredo sauce, so this is a great vegan alternative to alfredo pasta!

Now Pretend You're in Italy

Aite, I should go get ready for bed. I also should shower because I am disgusting from my core hatha yoga class this evening. Until then, be good, be wise, and keep it real.

Coconut Almond Vegan Cookies (Serious Spectacular)

They may look  plain Jane but they taste like sexy Samantha 

What's up Bunnies?

Here in Rheea Land, life is getting out of control. I am messing up my kitchen every chance I get. The thing is, since I turned vegan, I've become kind of obsessed with how many disco-parties you can create in the mouth using ingredients that don't come from cows and chickens. Think about the great alternatives: chia seeds, flax seeds, coconut/almond/cashew milks (known as mylk in veganland, there's your trivia for the day), dates, vegan chocolate, coconut oil, olive oil, nuts, getting the picture?

So you are like, that's great Rheea, but how do you keep stock of all this shit? It's simple, vegan cooking means inculcating some fairly easy grocery habits. Here are the rules:

1. Always buy a big supply of various nuts (especially almonds and cashews). Yes they are expensive, but if you are primarily on a vegan diet, I promise you, nuts are worth the wallet nudge. You will save money by not buying processed shit once you realize how much these damn nuts can do.

2. I just found out about Vegan Arke which is Bangalore's first home delivery service for very very very reasonably priced vegan staples like cashew, almond, coconut milk, vegan peanut curd (which tastes super good by the way), vegan ice cream and a bunch of other stuff. Order and be amazed at both the prices and quality.

3. Always have dates and brown sugar

vegan goodies da bomb

That's all  You are all hooked up for major vegan creations.


Anyhow, today I made these bomb-ass cookies because I wanted something sweet and satisfying, I know, that whole 'sweet and satisfying'  is such an over-used expression, and I really wish I could have come up with something more original, but eh, I kind of want to post this blog in a hurry.

{will this girl stop talking and get to the recipe?}

Yes, I will. Let's go.

What Do I Need?

1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4th cup almond milk
3/4th cup rava (sooji/cream of wheat)
3/4th cup flour (maida)
1/2 cup of oats
3/4th cup brown sugar
1 ts cinnamon powder
1 ts sea salt
2.5 tb chia seeds plus 3-4 spoons of water to get it all gel like
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup almond (whole or halved)
1/2 cup fresh coconut shredded
1.5 ts baking powder
1 ts baking soda


What Do I Do?

Well, we are using the chia seeds (soaked in a few spoons of water) as eggs and we are using coconut oil as butter. So what we do is combine oil + chia seeds first. Then add your sugar, coconut +almond milk and stir (it will be a little lumpy, don't fret)  now add your cinnamon, sea salt, almonds, fresh coconut, and finally stir in your oats, flour, and rava along with the baking powder and soda. You will get a nice wholesome mixture, a little wet (but make sure it's not runny, you have to be able to mould it)

Getting my wet mix on

In a pre-heated oven (180C), make balls and flatten (I made my batch big ones, you can make them smaller too) and bake for about 16 min (depending on your oven) they are ready when you can see it crusty at the bottom but soft on top. They will firm up a little more when you let them cool for 10 minutes.

Right before these puppies go in the oven

Enjoy! Breakfast cookies or as an after-work treat. Super protein too.

I gots to go now lovelies. Till then keep it real!

Magic (Because They'll Disappear ) Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Hello Baby, how you doin? 

Howdy Penguins!

Today I have such a glorious treat for ya'll chocolate and peanut butter lovers. Think Reeses Cups, but better because they are vegan and sort of healthier.

I always have me some virgin coconut oil in my house, so all I had to do was get some 100% cocoa powder. I used Hersheys. You will also need a muffin tray and some liners. This treat is super as a after dinner bliss-out or just whenever you need a major hit of antioxidants, because puppies that's what pure chocolate is all about, without all the nasty dairy and hydrogenated oils.


What do I need?

1/2 cup of pure coca powder (unsweetened)
1/2 cup of pure coconut oil
1/2-3/4th cup (depending if you like it sweeter) brown sugar - you can us regular white too
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4th teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons water or almond milk
6 tablespoons of peanut butter (one for each cup)

What do I do?

Prepare by lining your muffin pan with paper liners and keep aside.You can also use foil if you have no liners.

In a small pan (on very low flame) heat up your coconut oil. Now in a cup mix your sugar with your 3 tablespoons of water/almond milk till it's pasty and add to your coconut oil, dissolve by stirring continuously on low heat. Then add your vanilla essence, sea salt, and cocoa powder and keep STIRRING, until it's super smooth. Make sure there are no lumps. As it heats up it will began to thicken just a little, before it start to really boil, turn off the heat.

Now spoon in a layer of your chocolate sauce on each muffin liner. Then add one spoon of peanut butter in the middle of each muffin section.

One layer of chocolate, one layer of peanut butter. Only one more layer to go!

After that just top on another spoon of chocolate over each one so it covers the peanut butter. You should have enough for 6 medium muffin sections. Now pop that pan into the freezer for an hour. TAH-DAH you have bomb ass chocolate peanut butter cups and none of them cows had to MOO for it!

This is how it should look before you pop it into the freezer. Add a nut for garnish, or just go rouge! 

Pro-tip- sea salt really pop the flavour of chocolate, don't ever leave it out. Salt for the most part always brings out the flavour in sweet so 1/2 -3/4 teaspoon can make many bakes delicious.

Now groove to a trendy beat, eat your peanut butter cup, pray for more world peace and less bull shit!

Till next time.