Mini- Strawberry Cheese Cake (It's Vegan, You Know It)

I couldn't wait for it to firm up. Because blog comes first.

Hello Pigeons!

I took a break from blogging since my little Goa excursion. I ran out of cooking gas last week, some could say that was my excuse. But I was just lazy. Today I used my microwave to get the job done, and let's just say it worked.

So here's a tremendously delicious vegan dessert which has all the rich-creamy-slightly-tangy cheesecake taste, all in a 3-bite size cupcake form! The magic is using cashews, coconut cream, lemon juice and vanilla. Mmmeh, it's got all the cheese cake delight without any sad Moos.

Hello, Delicious

So let's get right into it, then!

What You Need

3/4th cup cashews

3/4th cup coconut milk (Use the creamiest part)

2 tablespoon vanilla

2 pinches salt

1.5 teaspoons agar-agar (china grass)

5 tablespoons jaggery

1/4th cup sugar

1.5 cups fresh strawberries (or frozen)

1/2 the juice of one lemon

3 tablespoons coconut oil (let it harden a bit in the fridge)

one packet of Vegan digestive biscuits (check the label, some brands have milk solids in them)


How to Make


In  bows crush one packet of digestive biscuits. Add one tablespoon vanilla and one pinch of salt. Now add jaggery and your slightly firm coconut oil. Mix with your hands till you can squeeze the biscuits crumbs into a like a pie crust.

All the good stuff in that pie-crust, you're about to make

Prepare a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Now pat down a layer of pie crust on the bottem of each cupcake liner.

Leave it alone for a bit, don't worry it won't be lonely for long.

They won't be solo for long, promise

Now in a blender add your cashews, coconut cream, lemon juice, one more tablespoon of vanilla, and sugar. You can add a bit of water too. Now blend away to glory. You should have a nice pourable (but thick) cashew cream-cheese filling. Taste it, it's yummy.

Now pour on top of your pie-crust filled cupcake liners. done? Super. Pop it into the freezer while you prepare your strawberry glaze.

That's the good stuff! 

I used a microwave because I had no gas, but this is best done in a stovetop. First blend your strawberries with with about 2-3 tablespoons of sugar ( You can add more, but let's try to keep the sugar on the low, k?).

Blended Glory

In a saucepan heat up your pureed strawberries and sugar. Once it starts to simmer add your agar-agar powder and stir completely to avoid any lumps. Pop out your cakes form the freezer, and spoon a nice layer of the strawberry glaze on top of each.

Right before them beauties go back in the freezer!

 Put that baby back in the freezer for two hours. Pop them beauties out, Un-wrap the cupcake liners for full-beauty effects. What's the point of making a 3-layered thingie if you can't see it. Share with other humans for best results.

Have a great week pups! Be good, keep it real, and keep it kind!

Vacation Vegan (Eating Vegan in Goa)

Look! It's a Vegan on Vacation! 

Good Day Gooses!

Today I have you some visual treats. I just went to Goa with my partner Indra. It was a much needed break from intense work and the hardships of being doggy parents. Oh whatever, it was a break from our privileged urban lives, who am I kidding.

 Goa has always had many culinary connotations to it. From pork vindaloo and Bebinca to batter-fried calamari and masala king fish. The list was never ending. It was one of those places that brought up that old cliche- Goa it's a foodies paradise. Now let's talk about this  goddaman 'foodie' business.


What the fish is a 'foodie' anyway? And why does it mean that vegans can't be 'foodies'. I assert my clucking rights- I am a vegan and a Goddamn Foodie. In fact, I'll argue that being vegan makes you even more of a foodie than the non-vegan counterpart. Oh please, stop rolling your eyes. Think about it. When you live in an essentially non-vegan world, you have to actually work with food differently. You have to think about textures, tastes, mixtures, and combinations far more intricately than the average non-vegan.  Being vegan doesn't mean you eat apples all day.

That said, nothing wrong with eating delicious fruit all day. Here's a fruit cup at breakfast.

So this was my first time to Goa as a vegan and it wasn't very hard at all. You have to bug the waiters a tiny bit, and hunt for local jaunts that are taking the Vegan Movement ahead in the country. Did you know there are 3 fully-vegan cafes in Goa ( Bean Me Up, Maa Cafe, and Shantaram)? There might be more and all places can offer vegan food if you just think through some of the standard vegetarian fare. For example most places offer a vegetarian Mushroom Xacuti ( a classic Goan curry) that is default vegan, well, because coconut.

Mushroom Xacuti with Rice and Salad

Order some rice, mushroom Xacuti, and a side salad. You got some spicy-good vegan lunch!




In the city we found a small darshini near the bus station. We asked if he could do a pav-bhaji without butter. He nodded and made sure I didn't want any butter on the Pav either. And there you have it, vegan Pav-Bhaji!

No Butter Here!

Gobi Paratha for Breakfast. Say NO to Curds and YES to pickle!

A simple salad at a shack. Fresh Vegetables dressed up with olive oil, lemon salt, and pepper. So good!

We went to Maa Cafe (Ashwim Beach) which is a raw-vegan cafe, yes, that means not only is it vegan but it's all uncooked food. And boy was it delicious. Here's where the creativity kicks in - using dehydration techniques you can make 'chips'  and even sprouted 'breads' that involve no baking. In fact we had to-die -for chocolate pancakes with bananas, strawberries and coconut cream. We washed it down with a green avocado smoothie with a hearty  amount of soaked chia seeds in the bottom- it was like pudding, for real.

Maa Cafe Goods. See how BOMB it looks?

Raw-vegan by itself can be more of a lifestyle thing,  but being vegan (regular cooked food and not using any other animals products or by-products like leather, or gelatin) are at its a core an ethical movement. This was my guiding factor- I know why I am vegan, so the questions of being 'tempted' didn't arise. Of course I am prone to getting crabby when I am at a restaurant with very limited vegan options, all I want to do is go home and cook myself a grand vegan meal at home. Most of our food can be easily veganised, the more demand there is outside, the more the economy will follow it.

Bruschetta Toast Thingie. Just tell them 'Skip the Cheese Kind Sir' 

Anyway, instead of going on and on, I hope you enjoy all these pictures of what I ate in the land of sea, sand, and regrettable speedos.

We ended up eating mostly beach shack-food. Look out for Hummus, toast without butter and ask them to add toppings like mushroom, tomatoes, or baked beans.

Down below are some more Maa Cafe treats. We had Raw burritos with mushrooms and avocado, a mushroom 'burger' with raw sprouted bread and  coconut 'ice-cream':

Coconut Vegan Ice Cream at Maa Cafe 

Raw Corn 'chips' at Maa Cafe, with fresh salsa and gauc. I could have munched on these lovelies for eternity.

Raw Burrito at Maa Cafe

Falafel! Hummus! Salad! VEGAN!

It's back to work for me goats! Till my next cooking experiment keep it real, and know that travelling vegan is as easy as making vegan cookies!

3 Healthy Vegan-Ass Things to Make (And Eat)

Ola  Pups!

Today is a mish-mash of things I've been doing in the last month. A lot of it has been turning the focus away from just vegan baking and moving my passion to manic vegan-cooking in general. After you go vegan you become obsessed with food and trying new things. Like I always say, once you stop whining about what you CAN'T have, and start focusing on what you CAN have,  life gets a whole lot better. And trust, there is a plethora of stuff you can make food with.


So here are 3 cooking activities to try.


All-Rounder Award Oats

Let's start with a wholesome breakfast. It's oats, and oats, yes, can get dreadfully boring. So do this once a week, and it will start becoming more appealing promise.


All you need to do is cook 1 cup of oats with a plant-based mylk (like almond, coconut, soya, or cashew mylk) and then stick one table spoon of pure coconut oil in it. Then go ahead and add one to two tablespoons of jaggery and top with fruits. I used strawberries. Here's the thing: the oats give you a healthy carb, the coconut oil gives you a health fat (that keeps you full) and fruit, because fruit yo!

Also add some crushed almonds for protein and top with Cinnamon powder. Slurp. What a solid meal no?

Now let's move on to the art of making your own masala. Our head editor at Write Leela Write, Satya, taught me to make my own south-Indian masala to use for sambar, rasam, or vegetables. It's totally flexi and you can do your own thing. But this is what I did.


Basic South Indian Influenced Masala

3 tablespoons of coriander seeds, fennel (sauf), methi seeds (fenugreek)
2 tablespoons of Pepper corns, mustard seeds, channa daal(split chick pea lentils),  cumin (jeera)
10-12 dried red chilies and one table spoon jaggery powder


Take all your ingredients and roast in on a pan for 2-3 minutes. Let the natural oil emerge, and fill your house, try not to cough. Then add it to a blender and blend away. Store your potent magic powder in an airtight container and use it all up in 3 weeks. Keep it fresh, you know?

Before and After

Now Let's move to what you could do with this powder.

Make a vegetable daal that goes with rice and salad.

Here's what I used

1 cup chopped potatoes

1/2 onion chopped

2 tomatoes chopped

1 cup chopped Spinach

one big bunch of fresh dhanya (cilantro)

3-4 tablespoons of your magic masala

2 teaspoons turmeric

a dash of hing (asafoetida)

One cup fresh grated coconut

One capsicum (green pepper) chopped

3 green chilies

2-inches of ginger chopped fine

1/2 cup masoor daal (or any lentil you want)

Salt to taste


To make

Blend onion and  green chilies into a paste

In a pressure cooker add some cooking oil.  Add hing. Then the green chili -onion paste and tomatoes. Fry for 3-4 minutes.  Add the 1/2 cup daal and dry some more. Add your potatoes and capsicum and mix well. Now add your fresh coconut and masalas (your special powder, turmeric, and salt to taste)

After frying it all together for another 3 minutes add 2.5 cups of water and seal the pressure cooker. Let it go for 2 whistles. Enjoy with brown rice and fresh salad!

One Healthy Vegan Dinner, Coming Right Up!

And lastly, we have the Fox-Tail Millet Salad with Soya chunks. And boy do I have a treat for you because it's on video. Carrots, the vegan restaurant in Bangalore invited me to live demo it.

So watch it here:  Click here for Demo Video 

Watch the Video for this HERE

And that's that Puppies! Enjoy the coming week. Keep it kind.