Vegan Food in Jyväskylä

I spent two days in Jyväskylä this week. It was a work related trip, so I spent nearly all the time in the Craft Museum of Finland. I had searched the Internet for restaurants that serve vegan food so I could easily find something to eat on the lunch break. It looks like there’s two restaurants that are easy for vegans: Soppabaari and Katriina.

On the first day I went to Soppabaari with two other women. I had been there earlier, and I knew it’s a nice restaurant. The vegan soup of the day was carrot and coconut soup and it was served with bread. My omni coworker had the same soup, and her soup was garnished with cream and mine with fresh herbs. The food was good, and the other ladies were pleased that I took them there.

On the second day I went to vegetarian restaurant Katriina. The restaurant reminded me of a school canteen, but you can’t expect a fancy restaurant with such low prices: soup lunch was only 6 Euros (2,70 for students) and regular lunch was 7 Euros. The soups of the day were pureed carrot and bean soup, lentil and vegetable soup and another pureed soup, which I already forgot and the regular lunch was a rice and bean casserole. The salad selection was rather boring: cabbage salad with few cucumber and radish slices, and peas, corn and mung bean sprouts. Again, like a school canteen. I had the lentil soup, some salad, a slice of rye bread and a bread roll. The bread roll was really good, I think they might make those themselves. And there were also peanuts you could add to your soup or salad. The soup was a bit too salty for my taste, but in general everything was okay.

I think Soppabaari is better than Katriina, but I could go to Katriina again. I think most of the customers were students, and I can understand why it’s popular among students.

Good Life in the Caribbean

We were married in October and now we’re on our honeymoon in Barbados. The food here is based on fish and chicken, but we’ve always managed to fid something to eat.

We also found a vegan restaurant called The Good Life located near Accra Beach, Christ Church. It’s not far from our hotel, about 30 minutes walk, and a bus there takes only few minutes. Their menu was filled with dishes that sounded delicious, so it was hard to decide what to order. Finally we chose Deluxe Vegetable Wrap and Good Life House Salad.

The wrap was very tasty and it was the first time I ate plantain. Tofuhead’s salad was topped with almonds, pumpkin seeds, raisins etc. and it was also very tasty and filling.  We had beer with dinner and for the dessert we ordered fruit smoothies. Prices in the restaurant were very reasonable, all this costed about 30€. We definitely recommend trying this restaurant if you ever go to Barbados.

Attempt to Grow Beets at Home

I’m trying to grow beet shoots on the window sill. They would be a nice addition for salads.

I just cut a slice on top of the beets, put them on a plate and water them every day. They’ve been growing a week now and most of them already have small leaves.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 10 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Advent Calendar

Some years ago my sister made me an advent calendar, I think it was 2005 or 2007. The calendar is made of two green ribbons and there are 12 small bags on each. Each bag contained a recipe and a small surprise (stickers, candy etc.). Next year I filled the calendar and sent it bag to my sister and we’ve been sending it to each other every year since.

This year it was my turn to fill the calendar. I won’t tell you what I filled it with, because she’ll probably read this post. But I think it’s safe to tell that on 5th day she got dried chili (grown by us) and a recipe for a soup.

Sunny Sweet Potato Soup

1 onion (or piece of leek)
2-3 garlic cloves
1-2 mild chili peppers
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp thyme
200 g passata
1 l water
juice of 1 large orange and 1 tsp grated peel
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1 sweet potato (400 g)
200 g frozen peas
salt and pepper

plain soy yogurt for serving (optional)

Chop or thinly slice the onion. Mince the garlic cloves and chili peppers. Heat the oil in a pot and sauté the onion and thyme couple of minutes. Add garlic and chili and continue sautéing until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the passata, water, orange juice & peel, cinnamon and bay leaf. Bring to boil and add peeled and diced sweet potato. Simmer until the sweet potato is soft, add the peas in the end of simmering. Season with salt and pepper and remove the bay leaf. Serve with or without a spoonful of plain soy yogurt.

The Grand Finale of Vegan MoFo 2012

This post is the last post of VeganMoFo 2012. The month has passed quickly, and we hadn’t tried all the interesting recipes we have found from the old cookbooks. You may see recipes from 1920′s in the future too.

Cabbage rolls are tasty and filling. Making them is time consuming, but they’re definitely worth it. The usual filling is rice and  minced meat, but the old cookbook had a recipe with a mushroom filling. We’ve always baked the cabbage rolls in oven, but this recipe instructed cooking them on stove top. Nearly all cabbage dishes are served with lingonberries here in Finland, and we had these cabbage rolls with lingonberry jam, boiled potatoes and rosolli.

Cabbage Rolls with Mushroom Filling

1 cabbage
water

filling:
1 dl rice + water for cooking
1,5 dl salted mushrooms + water for soaking
2 tbsp oil or margarine
1 small onion
1 dl cream
pinch of white pepper
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp dry bread crumbs
(salt)

margarine for frying
water or vegetable broth
1 dl cream
1-2 tbsp wheat flour (optional)

Boil the cabbage leaves until they’re soft enough to roll. You can either separate them first and then boil, or boil the whole cabbage head and then separate the leaves, I prefer boiling it whole. Cut the thick center vein thinner.

Cook the rice according to the instructions on the package. Soak the mushrooms until they’re not too salty. Then chop finely. Chop the onion and small inner leaves of the cabbage. Heat the oil in a pan and fry onion and chopped cabbage until lightly browned. Add the rest of the filling ingredients.

Put about 1 tbsp filling on each cabbage leave and roll. Melt the margarine in a pan and fry the first batch cabbage rolls until browned. Transfer them to a large pot. Rinse the pan with small amount of water and pour to the pot. Continue with the rest of the cabbage rolls, rinsing the pan after each batch. Cover the pot with lid and simmer until the cabbage is soft. Put the cabbage rolls on a serving dish, whisk the cream to the sauce (and add wheat flour mixed with small amount of cold water if you want thicker sauce). Simmer 5 minutes and serve the sauce with the rolls.

A Salad From The Finnish Mid-West

This one is a great and simple salad. It possibly originates from the area of Häme in Finland, from where it spread to other parts of country. It is made from simple ingredients, and nowadays mostly eaten at Yule time, but in the centuries past, it was likely a much more common salad, as in some parts of Finland it was called sallatti (literally “salad” in english) instead of rosolli. The original recipe called for herring and whatever, but we naturally skipped them entirely, as it represents just one of the million variations of this salad.

Rosolli

3dl cubed beets
2dl cubed carrots
2dl cubed potatoes
1 small onion
1 cubed pickle
1 big sour apple
grinded white pepper

Boil beets, carrots and potatoes, peel them and cube them. All ingredients are mixed together in a bowl and seasoned with white pepper. Serve with vinegar and/or oat cream or soy youghurt.