Category Archives: Vegetarian

Roasted Cauliflower with Orange, Mint and Pine Nuts

It’s very hard to find really bloody oranges. At the market here in Erlangen two different kinds of blood oranges are being sold: one half-blood orange called “Tarocco” and a full-blood orange named “Moro”. In the last years and during this winter as well, they were both pretty pale inside, containing only a few red pigments – if any at all. I usually try to determine the bloodiness of an orange by the color of the skin, but unfortunately a red pigmented skin doesn’t guarantee a deep red interior. Since I don’t know any better method, finding really red blood oranges remains a kind of lottery. The statistics for this current winter season are pretty disillusioning: only 1 of 20 blood oranges was truly deep red inside. I planned to use red blood oranges for this vegan dish too, but unfortunately the oranges I bought had yet again only very few red spots. Irrespectively of their color, they fulfilled their means of use by adding sourness and freshness to the dish.

Roasted Cauliflower with Orange, Mint and Pine Nuts

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Red Cabbage Cream Soup with Apple, Beets and Blue Cheese

I’ve been longing for a fruit and vegetable juicer, but never had any free space in my flat to store it. Now that I gave up my tv – which I haven’t turned on since last Easter – I bought a quite powerful juicer in its place. For the inauguration I juiced some kale leaves which I used in a previous recipe for a puree. The extracted liquid was pretty clear and the remaining shredded leaves were dry, so I was happy. Cleaning the parts is a little bit labor intensive, but it is still worth for the result. On my second attempt I extracted the juices of a red cabbage, which I used for a dark purple colored creamy soup.

Red Cabbage Cream Soup with Apple, Beets and Blue Cheese

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Pumpkin Seed Soufflé with Butternut Squash Sauce

There are plenty of different butters and purees available made purely from nuts, such as peanut butter, almond paste or hazelnut nougat. They all work great in desserts, so I thought a butter made from pumpkin seeds might work in sweets well, too. Although its taste resembles the hazelnut nougat flavor, at the same time it also has a nice pumpkin seed aroma. The consistency of the pure butter is quite thick and first it looks brown, but if you loosen it up with some water or other liquid its color turns into dirty green and the butter gets creamy again. It can be used in batters or creams to both flavor and color them. This also gave me the idea to try the pumpkin seed butter in a soufflé.

Pumpkin Seed Souffle with Butternut Squash Sauce

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Butternut Squash Kaiserschmarrn

Kaiserschmarrn is prepared the traditional way usually with apple puree and a vanilla-milk batter. With some imagination it can be turned into thousands of new variations. One possibility is the Caribbean coconut Kaiserschmarrn I posted a month ago, or another example would be this current butternut squash version – which is actually lactose-free. The squash adds both flavor and color to the final result, which is also the reason for its beautiful yellow appearance. I also experimented blending the softened squash with milk, but the result was much better when I used the reduced stock cooked from the seeds and skin of the butternut squash.

Squash Kaiserschmarrn

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Butternut Squash with Pumpkin Seeds

Thinking about vegan desserts it was surprising to me how much our usual desserts rely on animal products. Many – if not most – recipes contain either eggs, gelatin, butter, milk, cream or honey. Sometimes not even fruit sorbets are pure because adding some egg white or mascarpone makes their texture less crystalline. On the other hand, many animal products can be substituted: Instead of milk or cream you can create nutritious milk from rice or nuts. In many cases, butter can be substituted by flavorful vegetable oils. Honey too can be replaced by various natural sweeteners such as sugar beet molasses, agave or rice syrup. I believe that all these great plant-based products should not be treated as substitutions only, but rather as full-valued products. If we would stop thinking of them as substitutions and rather see them as full-valued ingredients, many new and creative desserts could be created.

Butternut Squash with Pumpkin Seeds

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