Meatless Monday: Home Made Peanutbutter

I recently made my own peanut butter for the first time! Technically, it is more a nut paste because it features three different nuts. But you can make plenty of variations! This recipe is inspired by the book Home Made Winter by Yvette van Boven, it makes enough for a large jar of peanut butter. And it is so easy, that I can hardly call it a recipe. Please make sure you get nuts unsalted!

The result before we transferred it to a jar

Peanut butter:
- 100 gr peanuts
- 100 gr hazelnuts
- 100 gr almonds
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 100 ml sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp apple syrup with cinnamon

Add all the ingredients into the kitchen machine and let the machine do the work. You can make it creamy or chunky, whatever you prefer. If it is too dry, add some more oil. Make sure you taste when it is done if it is to your taste, adjust accordingly.

This does make a sweeter peanut butter than I am used to. I think because the almonds and the apple syrup and sugar are all sweet. I think we will use cashews next time instead of almonds and I think it will be even better then. Feel free to use whatever nuts you like, as long as it makes 300 gr total, it should be fine. As suggestion it is also given that you can add a bit of chocolate for a nutty chocolate paste, but I haven't tried that yet.

This post is part of Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays.
MMMM is a weekly carnival dedicated to those interested in improving their personal health and the health of the planet by reducing meat consumption one day a week. Every Monday you have a chance to feature a link to something meatless. It doesn’t have to be a recipe {although that would be nice}, it can be a picture of a meatless meal you ate that week, an interesting article you read about meat consumption, a post on your blog about going meatless, perhaps a post on someone else’s blog you found helpful, anything Meatless Monday appropriate.

And also part of Meatless Monday on Vegetarische Blogs. 

Book Review: Home Made Winter by Yvette van Boven

It is almost spring, but I was happy that it was finally my turn at the library to collect the book before it was spring. Next to vegetarian and vegan cookbooks I also love seasonal cookbooks and I was very curious about this book. However because it is not a vegetarian cookbook, I didn't want to buy it before I could try it.

Title: Home Made Winter
Author: Yvette van Boven
Subject: Winter cooking, home made cooking
Publisher: Fontaine uitgevers BV.
Release date: 2011
Length: 252 pages

Summary:
Home made winter is a book full of comfort food and the follow up of Home Made. Home Made Winter is the first of a series. Home Made Summer will appear later to make it all complete. This book is inspired by Irish recipes, but also French ones. Yvette gives an easy recipes for dishes that people think are hard to make. It is full of recipes that will warm you up.

Personal opinion:
While this book isn't a vegetarian cookbook, it does have plenty of vegetarian recipes. Also I love the fact that the author states in the beginning of the book that she uses free range eggs and organic meat. This book is very nice to use in combination with my organic vegetable bag in the winter because it is full of seasonal recipes. Most are easy and original. I tried tree recipes from the book so far and they all came out good to great. The book is styled in a creative way with lots of gorgeous pictures. However in this case it does make the book a bit less practical to use. The recipes are not in a set format. Some are handwritten, some are printed and others are written over the pictures. For me this makes a book harder to use. It also has recipes related to the Dutch holidays in winter. Unfortunately these aren't in the right order so, that makes it a bit illogical. A last note is that plenty of recipes require more expensive ingredients, so it is not a budget cookbook. I am not saying it is a bad book, because it isn't and it will be great for a lot of people. But it isn't a book that I would buy personally even though I do like it, it is not practical enough for me. I will however check out her other books, because the recipes are great.

Purchase links: bol.com
Challenges: Foodies Reading Challenge

As always a recipe, my favorite from the book. I was looking for a way to finish my green cabbage and this sounded like an interesting recipe, and I just love mashed sweet potatoes! Here is my adjusted recipe.

Sweet Potato and Green Cabbage Mashpot: (serves 4)
- 1/2 a green cabbage, in small shreds
- 1.5 kg sweet potatoes, peeled and in chunks from about the same size
- 2 tbsp fresh thyme
- 100 gr rich butter
- some milk
- salt and pepper

Cook the cabbage for about 15 minutes in some salted water. Cook the sweet potato in water in another pan until done. Drain both pans. Make a creamy mash from the sweet potatoes using a handheld mixer with the butter and some milk. Add the thyme and some salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the shreds of cabbage.

A note on the cabbage: it is always best to remove those thick outsides leaves of a green cabbage because they have a really chewy texture. Use the leaves that are more on the inside of the cabbage for this recipe. I always feed the outside leaves to our rabbits, they love it!

This post is part of Weekend Cooking. Please make sure you check out the other participants as well :)

Vitatas #16

This vegetable bag gives me a very summery feeling!

In the bag there is a red bell pepper, bok choy, mix for vegetable soup, sugar snaps, tomatoes and a zucchini. Still because the veggies are in rather small portions, it was a bit of a challenge to make a menu. Luckily I have a leftover butternut to throw in the mix.

The menu for week 11/12 will be:
Friday: Leftover Vegan Chili from last week
Saturday: Turkish bread topped pizza style with veggies
Sunday: Gnocchi with courgettesauce
Monday: Egg curry in roti pancakes inspired by a recipe from Tess at Home
Tuesday: Maybe take out sushi with a groupon
Wednesday: Butternut risotto
Thursday: Sweet cabbage stir fry (with bok choy, bell pepper and sugarsnaps)

Recipes from the gnocchi, butternut risotto and sweet cabbage stir fry can be found in the recipe index.

#122 - Bell Pepper Cake bento

This is the bento I took with me to school last week :) I loved the bell pepper cake and it is perfect for a bento.

In the top tier I have leftover chimmichurri with a rice and potato mix from dinner. And in the bottom tier there are two slices of bell pepper cake, cut in half, and a wedge of laughing cow cheese. Nothing too special to look at but taste wise it was such a good and filling lunch with plenty of veggies :)

Snack Review: Cocoa Dusted Chocolate Pocky

I do love Pocky, that is no secret and this flavor seemed nice so I thought I try it.

This is one of the more luxury kinds of Pocky and falls more in the category of dessert Pocky. It is presented in 4 packages that have 6 sticks each. The sticks are a lot thicker than the regular chocolate Pocky and they have also a much thicker layer of chocolate around the biscuit base. On top of that there is a thin layer of cocoa powder. I love the quality of this chocolate. The taste is sweet and creamy and it has a certain depth. It is not quite like regular milk chocolate and the cocoa gives it a slightly bitter counter taste. For me the pre packaged portions of 6 sticks are just perfect because they are quite filling. They are however on the expensive side with $4 for a package. You can get this snack on J-list.

Meatless Monday: Bell Pepper Cake

When I encountered this recipe in a Dutch magazine called Vegetarisch Fit, I knew I had to make this! I just loved the sound of it and I never made a hearty cake before unlike plenty of muffins ;) This recipe does take quite a while to make but it is mostly unattended. And it is just great in a bento too!

Bell Pepper Cake (makes 12 servings)
- 2-3 bell peppers (red, yellow and/or orange, green is not suitable)
- 200gr self rising flour
- a dash of sea salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp paprika powder or chili powder
- 5-6  tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 6 large organic eggs
- 4 tbsp olive oil (and some extra)
- 100gr old cheese, grated

First we are going to grill the bell peppers. For the people who have never done this (like me before making this recipe) here is how. Halve the bell peppers, remove the seeds and place them with the peel up. Sprinkle some olive oil on top and place them in the oven for about 60 minutes on 160 degrees in a grill-oven. At least those were the settings for my combination microwave oven. You have to grill them until the peel forms blisters, then they are done. The key is to do this slowly or else you might burn the bell peppers.Let the bell pepper cool down until you can handle them, and them remove the peel under cold water. Now cut the bell peppers into small cubes.

Sift the flour with the salt and baking powder in a bowl. Mix with paprika powder and parsley. In another bowl beat the eggs and mix in the oil. Then add to the flour mixture with the bell pepper and the grated cheese. Cover the cake tin with a sheet of baking paper and add the batter in the tin. Place in a pre heated oven on 200 degrees (180 microwave-oven) for 50 minutes.

This post is part of Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays.
MMMM is a weekly carnival dedicated to those interested in improving their personal health and the health of the planet by reducing meat consumption one day a week. Every Monday you have a chance to feature a link to something meatless. It doesn’t have to be a recipe {although that would be nice}, it can be a picture of a meatless meal you ate that week, an interesting article you read about meat consumption, a post on your blog about going meatless, perhaps a post on someone else’s blog you found helpful, anything Meatless Monday appropriate.

And also part of Meatless Monday on Vegetarische Blogs. 

Weekend Cooking: Tahini-yoghurt sauce

Picture this: You want to make hummus for the first time and you buy a jar of tahini (sesame paste) but you only need a spoonful of tahin for a whole lot of hummus, so what to do with the rest of your jar? That is why this Taste of Tahini blog hop is starring tahini. You will have 4 recipes to your the rest of your jar of tahini :)

I made a tahini-yoghurt sauce from the cookbook veggie burgers every which way by Lukas Volger. This was a double challenge for me because I don't make my own sauces that often and I am fairly new at it. I served this sauce as a topping on bean burgers and it tasted great.It has a really fresh flavor and is perfect for spring.

Tahini-yoghurt sauce (makes 1 1/4 cups - enough for 6 bean burgers)
- 3/4 cup Greek style plain yoghurt
- 1/2 cup tahini
- 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp cumin
- some salt

Just combine all the ingredients and adjust seasonings if needed. That's it! I was surprised myself how easy it is to make your own sauce if you know what to combine. Additionally you can add a dash of hot sauce if you like a more spicy sauce.

For the burger I slapped some sauce on the bottom bun, just a spoonful and spread it. Then I put some lettuce and cucumber on there and the bean burger. Lastly I added more sauce on top before placing the top bun. 

I linked some related recipes for your convenience:
Bean Burgers
Hummus
Cauliflower Soup with tahin

And of course there is more tahin inspiration if you read the posts of the other participants:
Chinoiseries made summer rolls
Graasland made roasted eggplant and tahini soup
JannyAn made vegan falafel

This post is part of Weekend Cooking. Make sure you visit the other participants as well :)