Voodles in peanutbutter sauce

When visiting Indonesia I realized how much I've underestimated peanut butter sauce. It is sooo yummie and the other day I found how easy it is to make = vegan happy dance! This probably means that this is going to be my new addiction food.

Voodles (=Veggies and Noodles, clever, huh?;) in peanutbutter sauce

You'll need:
olive oil
1/2 butternutsquash, peeled and cut up into chunks
1 brown onion, finely chopped
3 fresh chili fruits, finely chopped
1 cup water
1 large head of broccoli, cut up
1 large zucchini, cut up into chunks
1 red pepper, cut up into chunks
3 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons smoked sesame oil
2 cups peanutbutter

Vegan noodles (I used organic noodles made out of beetroot, so good!)

Make it:
Put on the oven on 200 degrees. Cover an oven bake tray with olive oil and pour in the butternutsquash and put into the oven for about 30-40 minutes.
In the meantime, pour in some olive oil in a frying pan and put on medium heat. Pour in the onion along with the chili and some salt until soften. Add the water and put in the broccoli, pepper and zucchini. Stir well, season with half of the soy sauce and half of the sesame oil and cover the pan with a lid for about 5-10 minutes.

While your waiting, make the noodles and put on the side until you're done with the sauce.

Pour in the peanut butter sauce in the veggie mix, along with the rest of the soy sauce, sesame il and some more water if it is too dry. Stir around everything well. Mix it with the noodles in a large bowl and put the lovely colorful butternut squash on the top.

The perfect day for a foodie

The last day with helpx:ing at Trish and Martin, I was allowed to cook as much as I wanted the whole day. It's easy to go nuts as a vegan in their kitchen (especially when Martin took us to NewWorld to food shop whatever ingredients we wanted) with the wide range of stuff I can use to cook with.

I started to make the chocolate balls (see recipe in the previous post), continued to make a two (!) taco pies, which always is a hit, especially with meat eaters, I've noticed.

After that I made some chimichangas, a tortilla cake (or tortilla stack or tortilla lasagna or whatever you want to call it), salsa and of course, guacamole - which is mandatory with a Mexican meal if you ask me!

Oh my. What a food feast, eh! Thank you Trish and Martin for letting me use your kitchen for vegan experiments! 

Vegan tortilla cake

You need:
1/2 large pumpkin, peeled and cut in chunks
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large brown onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, cut up in chunks
1 zucchini, cut up in chunks
1 bag taco spice
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon chili powder
4-5 vegan sausages, cut up in thin slices
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can black beans, drained
salt and pepper to taste

4 large tortilla bread

1 cup nutritional yeast
2 cups soy milk (or other plant based milk)
1 tablespoon oregano
2 tablespoons herbsalt
1-2 tablespoons chick pea flour
Salt and black pepper to taste
thinly sliced zucchini, or whatever you prefer to decorate the cake with

Make it:
Put the oven on 200 degrees. Fill a oven tray with olive oil and put in the pumpkin chunks. Use your hands to stir around so every chunk get covered with the oil. Season with some salt and pepper and put into the oven for about 30 minutes.

Put some oil in a frying pan and put in the onion, pepper and zucchini. Fry until soften and add the spices. Stir around well and leave it alone for a few minutes before you add the vegan sausages. Add the crushed tomatoes, the black beans and the pumpkins from the oven. Season.

Make the sauce that goes on top by mixing the yeast well with the soy milk in a sauce pan. Add the spices, stir well and put on high heat while mixing it with the chick pea flour. Keep stirring until it starts to boil up, lower heat, keep stirring until the texture of the sauce is a bit creamy.

Take an ovenproof baking tray with high edges and put some olive oil in the bottom. Put the first tortilla bread and cover it with well the pumpkin-bean filling, continue the same way with the next layers. The top tortilla (and the edges of the cake), you cover with the cheesy nutritional yeast sauce and decorate with the zucchini slices.

A Swedes absolute favorite: chocolate balls!

This is one of the first things I ever learned how to make. I remember when I was a kid and me and my friends made tons of chocolate balls for our bake sales outside of my house, to be able to make money to buy candy or something. Why we just didn't settle for eating the chocolate balls that we already had in front of us.

Anywho. This is such a good quick fix for when your chocolate cravings are way too high.

"Chokladbollar" aka Chocolate balls

You'll need:

4 tablespoons coconut oil

4 tablespoons peanutbutter

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups oats

3 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder

3 tableapoons cold coffee

Coconut flakes

Make it:

Melt the coconut oil and mix it well with the peanutbutter and the sugar. Add all the dry ingredients, but wait with the coconut flakes. Mix everything well before you add the coffee (add more coffee if it's too dry or if you want like the coffee flavor :) Now it might be easier to just use your hands and knead the chocolate bash. Roll into balls and then roll them in coconut flakes. Put them all in the fridge for about an hour to get the best flavor. Yum!

Road trip, burger-happiness and Root vegetable curry with chickpeas

Yesterday we said our good byes to Lake Taupo and our camper life and went on a mini road trip back to Rotorua. Even though the trip isn't long at all, we were still dreaming of burgers in the end of it and decided to treat ourselves with a visit to Burgerfuel. 

Me and Danni shared the tofu burger and the chickpea-pumpkin burger, the strawberry soy shake and some kumara fries (aka sweet potato fries). After this meal I couldn't imagine feeling hungry again for the rest of the day.

4 hours later I was inhaling curry for dinner anyway, after we were back home at Trish and Martins. I just love cooking here! I get inspired to cook from whatever ingredients that are available in the house. So I made up a curry with root vegetables and chickpeas, that you can easily eat as a burrito with rice wrapped in a tortilla bread. Yum!

It is safe to say that I definitely went from a greasy not-so-healthy day to end it with a very nutritious meal that I think my body really appreciates :)

Vegan root vegetable curry with chickpeas
Enough for about 7 people

You'll need:

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 yellow pepper, diced

1 teaspoon dried ginger

2 heaped teaspoons curry powder

1 tablespoon garam masala

1 teaspoon green curry paste

1 teaspoon cumin 

4-5 large potatoes, chopped in large chunks

3 carrots, chopped in large chunks

2 cans crushed tomatoes

1 can coconut milk

1 heaped tablespoons chick pea flour

2 tins chickpeas

Roasted canned pepper, finely chopped

1 teaspoon dried mint

Rice and/or tortilla bread to serve with

Make it:

Put some oil or water in a large frying pan on medium heat. Put in the mustard seeds and when they start to pop, fill the pan up with the onion, celery and pepper. Season with the ginger, curry powder, and garam masala, fill up the pan with some more water, stir everything, and put a lid over it and let it steam for a few minutes.

Remove the lid and add the curry paste, stir well. Add the potatoes and the carrots along with the crushed tomatoes, the coconut milk and some more water if needed (or if you prefer, use some vegetable broth for extra flavor!), let it simmer for about 15 minutes before you add the chick pea flour. Mix well and let it simmer for another 5 minutes before you add the chickpeas, canned pepper and the drier mint. Add salt to taste and let it simmer for another couple of minutes before serving. 

Veggie power team work and a quick visit to India and Mexico

Our happy camper life truly became more happy after Danni and Scott joined us a few days ago. We've had such an amazing time with much laughter (mostly because of Ross in Friends), crazy kayaking on shallow water, loooong Monopoly game sessions and cooking.

As the foodie I am, I love that we all are four veggies! It just makes cooking together so much more fun (not to mention much faster and easier) and you learn so much from each other. 

Yes, what a rockstar veggie cooking gang we are! We've definitely have had the best team work going on in the kitchen (even though, I have to admit, it was mostly Danni and Scott who took care of most of the cooking, with finding yummy recipes and actually do the cooking.. but I guess chopping is a part of cooking too ;)

So me and Guy have definitely been spoiled here. The other day Scott made us garlic fried mushrooms on toast with hummus and basil for brunch and Danni cooked the most epic pumpkin curry for dinner.  That Indian inspired night we all agreed that pumpkin is way underrated!

Promise to try this recipe (!!), which you'll find here. 

Last night we had a Mexican night (or southwestern US night, as chimichangas is apparently very common there..) as Danni came up with the brilliant idea to make Chimichangas with wedges and salsa made from scratch. I'd never heard about Chimichangas before, and the fact that I've gone 25 years without this kind of burrito, is something I will never forgive myself for - because it is freakin' amazing!

There are many different recipes for vegan Chimichangas out there as you can fill the burrito with almost whatever you feel like. We used a recipe found on Pinterest, with pumpkin, black beans and peppers. 

Thank you Scott and Danni for making our camper life more glam (and yummy)!

The epic Mordor (Tongariro) crossing - in ma fake vans.

Yesterday was such an epic day! Guys brother Scott and his girlfriend Danni joined us on Wednesday evening, which is great cause now we have our little travel gang :)

Anyways. We got up in the early dark morning to get picked up by a bus that took us to the Tongariro National Park - one of UNESCOs World heritage centers.

At 7:30 we started our seven hour hike in the famous Tongariro crossing. This hike is described as the best one-day hikes in New Zealand so we were all sooo excited!

The trek took us from alpine meadows to mountain summit with stunning volcanic features along the way. We walked across landscapes of craters, active volcanoes, lakes and climbed a thousand steps (the devils steps) through mountains.

As a lord of the rings fan, this was especially cool and starstrucking, as the  Mt Ngauruhoe that we got a close look at, is actually Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings (!!!)

So basically you can say that we walked in Mordor yesterday and it was awesome (and exhausting and freezing and sweaty, all at once!)

The down hill part, the last two hours were the worst though and when we thought we where close to the finish line, it was more roads to walk. My feet were killing me as I didn't really have proper hiking gear, only my fake vans from Bali that I probably won't be able to wear again.. But anyway. It was definitely with it!

When we got back I had a well deserved power nap and in the evening Danni cooked the most amazing peanut butter sauce with veggies and rice noodles with brownies for dessert, yum! The rest of the evening we treated ourselves with beers and a loooong game of Monopoly.

This was definitely the best day we've had in New Zealand so far!

Happy camper!

Once again I'm gonna blame internet connection for my crappy blog updates. But here it goes. The last few days of our camper life have been good. We been working, kayaking and swimming in the lake.

But when the weather hasn't been on our side though, there is not much to do around here. So it's good that we have our cozy little caravan anyway, (with a heater!) where we've been able to take a insane amount of weird selfies, watching movies and playing a lot of card games.

Also, we been living a true camper/backpacker life with cheap pasta and curry sauce like every day. Good thing we both could never get tired of pasta, otherwise we would never survive! 

The real treat is when we find cheap tofu to go with it - oh what a superstar life we do lead here ;)

Soya marinated tofu with guacamole, "cacon" and pasta

Due to a barbie on the camp site that was covered in meaty left overs, I decided to skip using it and fry the tofu we bought instead (but let's still call it BBQ-night, it just sounds so much cooler).

 The tofu was pretty easy to make. I just made a marinade with soy sauce, loads of garlic, a little Dijon mustard and black pepper. 

Anywho, the Iranian New Years dinner turned out to become a very multi cultural one, with Japanese soy marinated tofu, Mexican guacamole, Italian pasta and North American facon, or cacon - a tasty fake bacon, made out of carrots!

Cacon - the vegan carrot-bacon

For 2 people

You'll need:

2 large carrots

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Make it:

Use a potato peeler for the carrots to slice them up with, so you get plenty of thin strips.

Cover a frying pan with olive oil on high-medium heat. Add the carrots and salt and pepper. Fry until the carrots are on the edge of being burned. Put the carrots on paper towels, to get rid of some of the oil. Ready to eat! 

This is so easy and yummy, and sometimes I have it on top of a hummus sandwich, as a side dish or in a salad.

Camper life - nz style

Yesterday we said goodbye (for now) to Trish, Martin and Rotorua to head out south - to a little camping site on the south side of Lake Taupo, the biggest lake in new zeeland, and, the second biggest lake in Southern Hemisphere.

It is so lovely here. We fell in love with the place as soon as we arrived to our new home. So here we're gonna work for a couple of hours a day and live a true caravan life.

Last night we enjoyed the lake view and met all the friendly staff working here and today they lend us a kayak (a first timer for me!). We paddled around the lake and found a sweet spot when we went through some bushes, absolutely stunning and the only sound we could here were the birds around us (unfortunately I don't have any photos, as I didn't want to risk having one of my many clumsy moments and drop my phone in the water..). 

Anyway. The nature here is breath taking! It feels like I'm living in a movie here. Sweet, sweet life!

Oh, and today's the Persian new years so we just had a tofu barbecue, yummm. Sale no mobarak all you Persian peeps out there!