Vegan Orange Cacao Nib Ice Cream (Bright Flavour, Creamy Cashew Mylk)

Happy Day Zebras!

Today I have a creamy-bright treat for you to try. You don't need no ice-cream maker for this either.
Ice-Cream weirdly is not something I miss too much since going vegan. On a hot summer day, I'll admit, I can be a tad sad and whiny when I see a person hold a solid cone with a hefty but perfect round of ice-cream. Other than that, I experiment with so many sweets and treats at home (and eat Amul dark chocolate all the time) to miss ice-cream on the regular.

Perhaps, that's the reason I really haven't done ice-cream on this blog before. Last night, I realized we had a bag of oranges left in the fridge, and I thought why not try to make some sorbet? But sorbet, I quickly realized was boring, I could get sorbet outside. Why not add that whole creamy effect? I did have a new bag of cashew too, just waiting to be used. I suspected the creamy cashew would harmonize well with the bright flavor of orange. Plus I've added cacao nibs that give you a rich chocolaty taste that manages to compliment the orange instead of overwhelm it. 

This recipe is fairly simple, but you need to have some patience and planning because you will have to reblend the ice-cream in a blender once frozen so you break-down the ice crystallization. And then wait some more for it to freeze. And then stir it up again. But it's worth it. Preferably do the main work the night before you want to eat it.

What You Need

3 Oranges
1 cup cashews
2 cups water
3/4th cup sugar (or more if you like it sweeter)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons pure virgin coconut oil
5 tablespoons cacao nibs (or itty bitty pieces of  vegan dark chocolate)



How to Make

The night before:

Peel your 3 oranges. You need to juice all of them and also take out some of the pulp (with your fingers) and put them in a separate bowl. You want to do this because adding bit of pulp adds to the texture and flavor.  So now you should have two small bowls, one with the juice of 3 oranges and one with some of the pulp. See the picture down below:

Juice in one, pulp in one. Make sure to remove all the pesky seeds

Now in a blender add your cashews (preferably soaked but it's ok if it's not), water, sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla. Blend well. You're 'cream' is ready!

In a tub (that you plan to put in the freezer), add your cashew cream and dump in the orange juice and orange pulp. Stir it up.

Now go ahead the sprinkle all the cacao nibs on top. Don't worry about working it into the mixture, you'll be blending again.

Alright! Your ice-cream is ready for the freezer. Pop that in overnight (or 6-8 hours).

The Next Morning (Or after 6-8 hours) 

Take out your tub from the freezer. It will be frozen but icey. We need to make it more cream-like in texture. Let the tub thaw out for 15 min. Then break up the ice and depending on the size of your blender re-blend it in batches. You might need to use your spoon to help break it down for your blender a bit. Once you've blended it all you'll see that it's way more creamy.

After re-blending the frozen ice your ice-cream should look like this

Now put this make in the freezer for another 2 hours. Before serving, let your tub thaw for 10--15 min, then take a large spoon and whisk it up again until it's a bit softer. Serve immediately!

This makes a perfect dessert to cap off a meal. It's light, bright, and leaves a pleasent after-taste. 

Yay for Vegan Ice-Cream! 

Till next time. Keep it kind!

The Vegan Lunch Party (Quick Tricks To Make Some Killer Compassionate Eats)

Every couple of months I'll call a few guests and then get really excited to create a menu that will dazzle. The result is a wrecked kitchen that takes double the time to clean. I am inspired by youtube videos and the internet in general. But the fun part is using that inspiration and making it your own. It's really not that hard to create a 'fancy dinner party' menu if your desire is such.

Please note, I am very conscious of the fact that I am choosing to make fancy vegan food with a lot of expensive ingredients. This doesn't mean you can't eat vegan on the cheap, you can and it can be delicious! It's just that I love to indulge every once in a while (and have the privilege to), so therefore THIS.

I had my Uncle and his partner Vasanti come over today to share lunch, life updates, and exchange notes on movies and books we've watched and read. The menu I planned required prep work the night before. So lets' start with the menu:

To Start

Cashew-Cheese Log studded with Roasted Almonds & Dried Blueberries + Baked Pita Chips

Roasted Sweet Potato Coins + Peppered Cherry Tomato

Main Course

Pear & Carrot Salad/Romaine Lettuce + Coconut Cream Balsamic Dressing

Millet Casserole with  Zucchini & Mushroom in Herbed Creamy Sauce

Vegan Sausage Fry + Green Peppers

Dessert

Apple Pie Crumble +Lemon Cake Base +Whipped Cream Cups



So it's a 6-course meal that's pretty light on the stomach but hella satisfying. Here are some basic notes on how to 'think' about making them. I am not going to write exact recipes for everything, this more for you to gauge how you can make stuff pretty easily.

On Starters

Think dip! There are so many vegan dips to make, the obvious one being hummus. You could throw in a habanero pepper to make it spicy, or add a special seasoning of your choice for a new flavor. But this time I decided to make a cashew cheese log. You need a high-powered blender for this.

Quick Recipe for Cashew Cheese Log

1.5 cups cashews that have been soaked in regular water for 6 hours OR one hour in boiling hot water
3 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar (optional)
One pod garlic
1 tablespoon brown or white sugar
Pepper and Salt to taste
1 tablespoon seasoning of choice (like Italian, thyme, dried basil) (optional)

In a blender add all ingredients and blend in rounds, taking breaks to stir it around and unclog any clumps. Please make sure not to run your blender for more than 30 seconds at a time- it can be dangerous. Take breaks! One it's all creamy and smooth pour out into a plastic cling-wrap and wrap it over. Shape like a log and put it in the fridge overnight (or at least 6 hours). Once it's taken shape, gently cut the plastic and roll in anything you wish. I rolled it in roasted almonds and dried blueberries. Serve with vegan crackers or pita chips.


Sweet Potatoes

Are yummy on their own. Simply cut into desired shapes, put on an oven tray, splash some olive oil, herbs of choice, pepper and salt and bake at 180c for about 25-35 min. Make sure to flip them in between. After they are cooled you can get inventive and top them with greens or olives or cherry tomatoes (like I did) and add toothpicks.



On Main Course 

The millet bake came out really well. It's super easy to make. Just use 1 cup of raw millets (I used little millet, you could use foxtail, or even quinoa). Cook the millets with water, drain and keep aside.

In another pot fry some onions, garlic, with desired veggies  (i used zucchini and mushroom) and herbs of choice ( I used thyme and Italian seasoning and red chili flakes). Now add 3/4th cup of coconut mylk or any other plant-based milk and 3 spoons of nutritional yeast. Add lots of pepper! You can even add chili sauce to it.

Then just grease a baking tin, cover the bottom with bread crumbs, pour out your veggie sauce and then cover that with all your millets. Don't forget to season the millet with salt/pepper/seasoning of choice. Now bake at 180 for 15 min. You're done!

Something 'Meaty'

If you don't have access to vegan sausage ( I get mine from Namdhari) you can use soya chunks that are soaked and then fried with green peppers, chili powder, salt, and a splash of jaggery syrup and seasoning/sauce of choice.


On Salads

Salads can really brighten up a meal. I love using fruit. Today it was sliced pears, shredded carrots, and romaine lettuce. Just three things here and they all stood out well. Dressings can get really inventive. Today I used 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar + 3 tablespoons of coconut cream + Italian seasoning. You can do all sorts of things to make yummy dressings. Want something creamy? Toss in some cashews, plant-based mylk (soya, coconut, cashew, rice, whatever!) and seasoning to a blender- you're done! Want to brighten it up some more? Add a splash of orange juice to the cashew mix and you have a creamy orange salad dressing. Or add a green chili to the blender to make it spicy! You can even add some fresh cilantro for a 'green' dressing. Just experiment.


On Dessert 

Apple Pie Crumble

I was going to make a lemon cake for dessert but I managed to burn most of it. So instead I took off the unburnt parts and pressed them into small bowls. Then I chopped up some apples, put them on an oven tray with coconut oil and added oats, 4 tablespoons of flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. I mixed it up on the tray and baked it for 15 min at 180c. Once cooled you have apple pie crumble!
I added the crumble on top of the lemon cake base and then swirled on some vegan whipped cream. If you don't have vegan whipped cream, you can use the thickest part of coconut cream- just whip it for 15 minutes (off and on) with powdered sugar till it forms stiff peaks.


And that my friends, is the story of today's vegan lunch party!

I hope this gives you some inspiration <3 p="">

Pina Colada Cake (Hella Vegan)

Ok, totally guilty. I casually skipped a month and didn't post ANYTHING in August. This is the first time I've behaved so badly with my blog since I started it. But I have a hell of an excuse. I've been really working hard on last edits for my forthcoming novel, THE BODY MYTH, that's out in the U.S by Unnamed Press in L.A  in February 2019.  I am so excited about the birth of this novel. It's taken more than a couple of years (and loads of rejections) to get here. Sneak peek at my Goodreads page here.

I'am also a Pitchwars mentor this year, so I am in the process of going through some lovely fiction submissions and making a call on finding that one mentee I think I can help the most. If you are a writer and don't know about Pitchwars please click here for more on that.

So, therefore,  catching up with my second passion had to be on the back burner. If you've read so far, thanks for spending the time on my writer self-promotion. I am sure you're over it.  Let's get back to VEGAN FOOD.

 Today, I made an epic Pina Colada cake with non-dairy whipping cream. You can try to get Rich's Whip topping (the blue one) at your local bake supply store if you're in Bangalore like me.

I  used coconut flavour for the cream when I whipped it. This classic cake has the tang and sweetness of pineapple rounded off with fresh coconut. What a delight. At least for me because I am a huge fan of pina colada. If coconut is not your jam, then this one is not for you.

 You're going to need some patience, not only for whipping the cream but to really let the cake cool so that you can cut it in half and add cream in the middle. Since this is homemade and I have very little patience, my cake is very uneven and wobbly. Oh well.

What You Need

2 cups vegan whipping cream base (cold and defrosted)
2.5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup soy/almond/cashew mylk
3/4th cup chopped pineapple
3/4th cup fresh shredded coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
1.5 teaspoon coconut flavour/essence
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3/4th cup oil


How to Make

First, we'll make the cake. In a large bowl combine sugar, oil, soy mylk (or whatever plant-based mylk), salt, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar. Stir together well.

Then add flour, baking soda and baking powder and stir it up. You'll get a nice thick wet batter. Now add your pineapple and fresh coconut and mix it up again. Your batter is ready.

Pre-heat oven to 180c. In a thick (depthwise) cake pan, pour your batter. Make sure you line it with baking paper otherwise it will be a huge disaster when you try to take it out of the pan.

Pop the cake in the oven for 45 minutes. Let it cool for at least 90 minutes.

Meanwhile get out your chilled vegan whipping cream. In a large bowl start to whip with a motor whisk. Trust, you need this. Whip the cream in batches of 4 min otherwise, you'll burn your motor. You'll need to keep doing this until it thickens and forms soft peaks. I recommend popping the bowl back in the fridge everytime you take a whisking break so the cream remains cold. Keeping it cold allows it to become thick with more ease.

If you do this on and off for 30 min you should have a nice thick (but soft) cream to frost your cake with. Keep the whipped cream in the fridge.

When your cake is completely COOLED, gently take it out on a plate. Use a large knife to cut the cake into two from the middle.

 Then add a thick layer of cream to one side and sandwich the cake. Frost the entire cake with the remaining whipped cream. Decorate with fresh coconut and pineapple.

Eat for dessert! Share with your neighbours!

Till next time, keep it real. Keep it kind.

Cherry Almond Chocolate Chip Delight (The Vegan Cake of Holy Awesomeness )

It's fair to say when you run a cooking blog you are fairly confident in your skills. And it's also safe to say we toot our own horns a lot and say we make the SHIZ when it comes to our area of expertise. Listen, I can't sing, dance, or play a musical instrument. I don't have a good memory either. But I can cook and I can write. I'll toot if I have to.

So here goes: This cake was seriously one of the BEST CAKES I've made in my life.

Maybe it was the contrast of cherries with dark chocolate and almonds. Maybe it was the perfect splash of apple cider vinegar to get that moistness. I dunno but it's mind blasting good.

I don't find fresh cherries often but if you do, you must buy some and make this. If you are like me you don't have a cherry pitter, because honestly no one ever thinks about having a cherry pitter as a basic necessity until you have 50 cherries staring right at you and daring you to make a cake out of them

staring cherries

So I took the challenge and cut up the cherries and separated them from their pits.

I did what I had to folks. Someone has to.

This can be your life too

What you need

For the Cake 

2 cups of fresh cherries (cut up)
2 cups of flour
1 cup of almond mylk (or soya/cashew/oat/rice)
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Apple cider Vinegar
1/3rd cup oil (vegetable or coconut)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1/2 cup chopped almonds
10 squares of dark chocolate broken into small pieces (I used Amul dark chocolate)

For the icing & drizzle 

1 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
2 tablespoons water OR plantbased mylk
Extra whole cherries for garnish
Berry Jam/Compote


How to Make

In bowl combine almond mylk, sugar, oil, vanilla, almond extract (if using), salt, and apple cider vinegar. Mix well. Add flour, baking soda and powder and mix batter. Add chocolate chunks, almonds and cherries. You'll have a nice pourable batter. If it's too thick add more almond mylk and if it's too runny add just a bit of flour.

in goes them cherries

Preheat oven to 180c. Line a baking dish or grease one. Pour batter in and bake for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile in a bowl stir your icing sugar with two tablespoons of water/mylk and make into a smooth paste. Add almond extract if you want to. Make sure it's not too runny, add more icing sugar if it is.

In a ziplock bag pour in some berry jam or compote and snip the corner.

cooling before icing and jam drizzle

When you're cake is out let it cool for at least 30 minutes or it will break. Take out cooled cake and pour over icing. Drizzle with jam and decorate with cherries. Eat the best goddam cake you've ever eaten. Or at least pretend it is the best goddamn cake you've ever eaten.

Share with people you'd like to extract favours from at a later date.

Till then keep it kind.

Bangla Style 'Mutton' Curry (VEGAN, Hell yes)

Ola Chickens!

It's been a while. I was truly busy last month with my rock star co-organisers making Wilderfest happen.

Today is Eid and I thought why not recreate the most authentic (well sort of) vegan version of Bangla mutton curry ( Kosha Mangsho) in celebration? My partner and sister Kala had made her version of this curry using the vegan meat and it came out so incredible. No meat eater could make out the difference. Don't trust me, I haven't eaten meat in 9 years. But there is validation below. Wait for it.

See folks, it's very simple. Food technology is catching up and replicating old tastes with 100% vegan versions. The future is where we don't have to have to be breeding and keeping animals in horrific conditions and then killing them. The future is about minimising impact to our lovely world. I urge you start trying new substitutes and see how wide a variety of foods you can eat that's all plant based.

ready and served with rice and fresh salad

Listen, I can go on and on about the environmental reasons and some of the health benifits of eating a vegan diet, but for me it's only one cause and that's the ethical part. I just don't see a reason to kill animals when we don't need to for our survival. It's 2018 and Bangalore is one of the most vegan friendly cities to live in India. It's up to us the privileged to make changes and create a world that is far more loving and compassionate. To me animal rights and human rights mirror each other, they  are to sides of the same coin. When we subject millions and billions of animals (literally billions, folks) to a short terrible life without questioning it (because it's an invisible ethical issue for most of the mainstream world), then you know that we can do the same to humans just as it seems 'ok' enough to do, and believe me, when we step out of our happy bubbles we witness just how strange and cruel humans can be.

But I am only seeing positive beautiful things in my everyday. If I concentrate on the overwhelming mess we've got ourselves into I'd have to stay in bed weeping.

That's why, vegan mutton curry folks.

First of all if you've not heard of Good Dot vegetarian meat you should. It's affordable and easily brought right to your door step via amazon. I don't doubt they will be in everyday stores too in the very new future.

The texture is incredible and the taste amazing. You can replace any meat curry recipe using it the same way you'd use regular meat. One pack of it that's 180 rupees can easily feed 3. DISCLAIMER: I am a customer of good dot and haven't been signed up with them to promote them on my blog. I am promoting them because they are damn good product and feel like everybody should know about them.

Ok so how to make?

I used the basic recipe with little tweaks of my own. Feel free to replicate how you do it in your house. I didn't use mustard oil just because we rarely use it, so I didn't want to buy. I used regular sun flower oil. However, it's most authentically done with mustard oil.


What You Need :

1 packet of Good Dot vegetarian meat (amazon link is above)

1.5 to 2  teaspoons of the following (add more or less depending on your taste):

jeera powder
jeera seeds
mustard seeds
peppercorns
chili powder
haldi (turmeric)
sugar
ketchup (optional)
garam masala or meat masala

2 sticks cinnamon
1 bay leaf
3 dried red chilis
4 green chilies (whole or chopped if you like it spicy)
Salt to taste
4 tablespoons oil

8 cloves of garlic
2 inches of fresh ginger
1 large onion
3 small patatoes
2 small tomatoes
1 fistful of fresh cilantro (dhanya pata)

How To Make

Open up  you package of the vegan meat. Pull apart the pieces and put in a pressure cooker. Add water to cover it by at least 2 inches. Let is cook for one whistle and switch off.

In the meantime peel you potatoes, cut them into desired chunks and rub some turmeric, salt, and chili powder on it.  Now, in a large pot add the oil and let it heat. Add the seasoned potatoes and fry it for 6-10 minutes until they are golden brown. Remove from the oil and set aside.

In a blender add water and chopped onion. Make into a paste. Set aside. Do the same thing for the tomatoes and then for the ginger garlic. So you should have three bowls: onion pulp, tomato pulp, and ginger -garlic pulp. It's ok if it's watery because of the water you added to blend.

tomato pulp, onion pulp, and ginger garlic pulp

Start the fire in the same pot you fired the potatoes in with the oil that's been retained from frying. Add cinnamon sticks, bayleaf, red chilis, mustard seeds, peppercorns, and jeera seeds in. Fry for one minute. Now add the onion pulp and fry for another minute. Add ginger garlic and toss in the pot for 3 minutes. Finally add the tomato pulp and ketchup (if using) and let it boil. Add all your masalas in now (jeera powder, haldi, salt, sugar, chili powder, garam or meat masala).

Now look to your pressure cooker. Open the pressure cooker when cooled and take out the vegan meat. Wow that looks scary-real nah?
Don't throw the broth, you'll be using that.

Yes, it's vegan. No animals here. This is how it looks after it's pressure cooked after one whistle. 

Add the vegan meat pieces into the boiling curry you've been making. Now dump the friend potatoes in to it as well.  Add some of the broth water and do a quick taste check for salt/spice levels and adjust accordingly. Now add you green chilis and let it simmer on low for about 10-15 minutes. In between keep adding a little more of the broth water. Add the fresh cilantro to the pot and turn of the heat.

Serve with rice and a side salad. Now what would a good vegan kosha mangsho be without Bengali boy validation? Here is my boy Indrayudh Ghoshal digging in. He said it's beyond fantastic. So ok?

He said it's been his best meal in a long while

Enjoy! Keep it real. Keep it kind.

The Vegan Mysore Pak Story : Aravindan V and the Quest for Cruelty-Free Tradition

So just this past weekend, we finished up Wilderfest, Bangalore's First Annual Vegan Fest at VR Bangalore. As a co- organiser, I was so so grateful for an opportunity to push veganism into the mainstream. Because of it, I had a chance to meet some of those seemingly mythical vegan businesses I'd only heard about on the magical place that is the internet. One of the hottest stalls at the fest? It was Vijay Sweets. 
Wait for it. They are India's first vegan sweets and snacks company. They run out of Coimbatore. The most famous product that had all the vegans buzzing was their Mysore Pak. Ah Mysore Pak. Usually known as that melt-in-your-mouth sweet made out of gram flour, sugar, and ghee. You'd think there was no way to make great tasting Mysore Pak without, gasp, the ghee, right?

Wrong.

Meet the guy behind the most incredible vegan Mysore Pak,  Aravindan V, a vegan from Coimbatore. 

That's him! That's him! 

Aravindan had a simple vision. He wanted to keep all the tradition involved with our foods but ethically challenge the way we thought about familiar tastes and practices. To do it he was aware he had to make a rather sizeable dent on the Indian infatuation with ghee. There was only one thing to do: Make a vegan sweet taste so good that people couldn't even tell the difference between his version and the original. I can legit tell you that non-vegans are raving about this sweet. We're finishing packets of it at my office as I type this. It's delicious and I challenge you to tell me otherwise. Aravindan describes himself as a simple middle class Indian man who has dreams and desires most of the country can relate to. He also collects knives which is compelling given he's a vegan. Aravindan are you secretly a serial killer? :) I was thrilled when he said I could pester him with some questions about his business and his vision in general. So here goes! 

RM: Vegan Mysore Pak! You've hit on not just an amazing local idea but executed it so fabulously. Vegans and non-vegans alike are raving about your sweets. It tastes incredible and most of us can't stop at one piece. Tell us how this idea popped up in your head one fine day.

AV: It's a family business. We have been selling sweets and namkeens for the past 30 years. When I quit my job I knew I wanted to take up my family business. But my ethics came first. I didn't want to earn money by running a business that used animal products. I started experimenting with ingredients. Soon i had a few veganised products. Once all the products were vegan I set myself up for a new challenge. What sweet seemed hardest to master in a vegan way? That's when Mysore Pak popped in my mind. Technically speaking, it was not making a vegan Mysore Pak that was challenging. The challenge was making a version that tasted very close to the dairy version and retailing the same at a cheaper rate when compared to its dairy version.

How they look. Too good to be true. But it's true.

RM: How long did you experiment with the recipe? Did you have different versions over time? Are you happy with the recipe you currently have?

 AV: It took us around 2 months to get the ingredients right. We experimented with lot of plant based milks to get the perfect taste. Finally found the right combination which tasted very similar to the dairy Mysore Pak. Our customers are happy with the current version and that means we are also happy.

RM:You are India's first vegan sweets and snacks company- so tell us what other products are you offering? Can we get a sneak peek into the future?

AV: We offer more than 40 varieties of traditional Namkeen and a few varieties of sweets. Yes, we are planning to come up with a varied range of affordable traditional vegan sweets.

Other things on offer like halwa and namkeens

RM: As a vegan entrepreneur with a vegan product, what are the most important learnings and wisdom you've accumulated? What's important, in your opinion, to consider when trying to make impact on ethical grounds?

 AV:  As a vegan entrepreneur it's extraordinarily important for me to be careful with taste and quality. I am not representing just food here, I am representing a movement. We don't compromise on taste and quality. We have a very simple vision: to provide affordable, tasty, and traditional sweets & snacks in the most ethical way possible. 

Sweet-Sweet Samples at Wilderfest

RM:  Since we live in a time where the cruelty animals endure for us to consume everyday foods is invisible to most, what would you like to tell the people of our country right now about plant-based foods and substitutes? 

AV: I think everybody is a compassionate person on the inside. But most people are taught to believe  that there is no cruelty on their plates. We're taught not to think about it and just accept it.

I want to tell everyone that you don't have to compromise on taste. We just have to make a stronger effort to find cruelty-free versions of what we love most. I believe we can. 

Boxed Mysore Pak from Vijay Sweets

RM: Has there been a kitchen disaster at Vijay Sweets that would make our readers laugh?

AV: Well I remember this one time when we were experimenting with a sweet recipe using different plant-based mylks. Some of the combinations were obviously a bit weird. So we had fights about who would taste them and we just laughed a lot because of the weird expressions we made when we tasted our 'experiment'.


How excited are you to try some vegan Mysore Pak? Hop onto FB and place an order today. Click HERE to get on their page.