VEGAN MOFO 2010: DAY 30 – The Finale Post and The Survey

So today is the last day of Vegan MoFo 2010 and therefore this is the last post…. aw *sheds a little tear*. I have posted something every day which has been a challenge! I have had overseas visitors most weekends and needed to prepare a lot of posts beforehand. It has been lots of fun though. I have had a great time finding new blogs and book marking a lot of new recipes that I will get around to making one day! I have enjoyed getting comments from people and have really felt part of this very big vegan community, which at times can seem very small when you’re walking the streets of Germany. My next challenge is to get through all the items in my reader!!! I think that will take me all of December and there will be a lot of late comments popping up on blogs. I also need to come up with a regular blogging schedule – once a day is a bit full on but maybe once a week!
In honour of the passing month I thought my final post should resemble the post I started with – something about me. I couldn’t think of any recipes that would be good enough and my stock pile of food photos has dwindle down to nothing so I decided to do the Vegan MoFo 2010 survey.
Alright then lets proceed!
  


What is one food you thought you'd miss when you went vegan, but don't?
I was a vegetarian before I was vegan so nothing meat related. I guess it was cheese I thought I would miss the most. Now though I only buy good quality vegan cheeses for their melty quality to add more texture to something. White chocolate might be the other thing I thought I’d miss! But to be honest I can’t really remember so I can’t be missing it that much anymore!


What is a food or dish that you wouldn't touch as a child, but enjoy now?
Broccoli! I hated the stuff as a kid but I absolutely love it now. Others include mushrooms and olives!
What vegan food or dish do you feel like you should like but you don't?
Tempeh and too much nutritional yeast (a little goes a long way).
What beverage do you consume the most of each day?
Water and sparkling water. Most days I also have an organic cola!
What dish are you famous for bringing to gatherings?
A lot – I go overboard. But I usually supply a dessert.
Do you have any self-imposed food rules (like no food touching on the plate or no nuts in sweets)?
Raw and cooked separate. Even though it doesn't matter in a vegan world I still won’t chop something cooked on a board I chopped something raw, even though I might throw them into the same salad.
What's one food or dish that you eat too much off when it's in your home?
Potatoes



What ingredient or food do you prefer to make yourself despite it being widely available repackaged?
Almost everything but I guess the main thing I always make rather than buying is bread, pasta (unless the shape matters) and seitan.
What ingredient or food is worth spending extra money on to get the good stuff?
Avocados, vegan cheese (why bother otherwise), chillies.
Are you much of a snacker? What are your favourite snacks?
No I’m not but when I do snack (usually in front of the TV or a movie) I like home popped warm popcorn with a little bit of vegan margarine and salt……..mmmmmmmm
What are your favourite vegan pizza toppings?
Mike’s Mediterranean Madness and Caramelised Onion
What's your favourite fruit and vegetable?
Tough one!!!! I love onions, potatoes, chillies, raspberries, coconut, avocados.
What is the best salad dressing?
When I make a small salad as a side it is usually to cleanse the palate and freshen things up a bit. Consequently I’m lazy and just like putting a little bit of White Balsamic Crème over everything. Otherwise it’s a meal in it self and needs a specific dressing.
What is your favourite thing to put on toasted bread?
Hands down my Avocado Spread. I’m addicted to it.
What kind of soup do you turn to on a chilly day or when you don't feel well?
On a chilly day I love the Chilli Sin Carne Al Mole from Vegan with a Vengeance, it’s so hearty. When I’m sick I usually make nothing because I can’t be bothered but when Mike is sick I always make a Chinese Vegetable Noodle Soup full of lots or ginger and garlic.
What is your most-loved weeknight meal?
Brooklyn Pad Thai from Vegan with a Vengeance.



What is your favourite cupcake and icing flavour?
Coconut everything all the way!
What is your favourite type of cookie?
Hmmm well I’m not a cookie person so that’s tough. I like anything with a filling or that melts in your mouth! Or the Magic Coconut Cookie Bars from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.
What is one food or dish you enjoy but can't get anyone else in your house to eat?
Nothing, I’m the fussy one. I am blessed with a husband that will eat anything I cook for him even if he doesn’t really like it and will follow me on any diet or culinary decision I make.



How long do you spend in the kitchen a day on average?
Another tough one. Some days almost all afternoon, other days no time cause I cooked so much the day before. Some days the bread has run out. On average though probably 2-3 hours.
So that’s it everyone!!! Thanks so much for all the lovely comments left on my blog during MoFo too!! What will my next post be? Until then here is a photo of Skadi all rugged up to survive her first European winter.

PRODUCT REVIEW: Vegusto No-Muh Melty

 
Ahh vegan cheese….. you are either addicted and spend your entire vegan life searching for cheese that resembles cheese you used to have on your pizza or you you’re not really fussed by it and may buy it on a whim occasionally. As most vegans will tell you – vegan cheese is not the same as real cheese and there are very few products out there that come close, although the selection has vastly improved over the last few years. I’m in the not so fussed category. I like vegan cheese as it adds another element to a pizza when melted but I can take it or leave it. However when a new cheese becomes available we like to try it!
We buy our vegan cheeses online and purchased Vegusto No-Muh Melty for the first time last week after eating it at a vegan café in Köln. I thought it would be best to write a product review by comparing it to Cheezly because Cheezly is a brand most vegans know, have tried and is available more widely than other vegan cheeses, for example Daiya (we can’t get that here in Germany). Now I rarely do product reviews for two main reasons:

1. I like to make my own versions of things and only rely on processed products when in a hurry or for convenience. Therefore those meals are not worthy of a blog post.
2. People who read this blog could be located anywhere in the world and may not be able to source the reviewed product.

But I thought it might be nice to do a full examination of this cheese! I have created a scoreboard based purely on what I look for in a product and created a scoreboard to track which product I thought won the category and then deeper analysis on why that product came out on top. So you don’t need to read the entire post!
Just to clear some things up before we start this is based solely on my personal opinion and I bought each product with my own money, nope no free samples or independence issues here. I am also comparing the products that I can obtain here in Germany and therefore they may vary slightly from country to country. So my Cheezly may not be exactly the same as your Cheezly. Alright here goes!!!!

The Scoreboard

Category	Winner
Ingredients:	Tie
Uses/ Usability:	Vegusto No-Muh Melty Tie
Taste:	Vegusto No-Muh Melty
Price &Value for money:	Vegusto No-Muh Melty
Company	Tie

OVERALL WINNER: Vegusto No-Muh Melty. I recommend you try this cheese next time you’re purchasing a vegan cheese and see what you think. We will be buying more and trying the other products in the Vegusto cheese range. 

Ingredients

• Note I have added the e codes and explanation for some of the ingredients in pink so you can look further into them if you wish!

Vegusto No-Muh Melty	Pural BIO VEGI-CHEEZLY Mozzarella
Water, vegetable oils and fats, starch, yeast, nut butter, rock salt, wheat fibre (gluten free), rice flour, flavouring (vegetable), carrageenan (E407 - seaweed Stabilizer - vegan alternative to gelatine), spices, citric acid (E330), colour (turmeric (E100))	German version (on packet, translated): water, vegetable oil *, tofu, soy flour *, sugar *, wheat starch *, thickeners: carrageenan (E407 - seaweed Stabilizer - vegan alternative to gelatine)* locust bean gum (E410), salt, yeast, vinegar *, calcium carbonate (E170), natural flavours, yeast extract (* = from certified organic)
Nutritional value for 100g: Energy: kcal 1038 kJ / 249, Protein: 4.5g, Carbohydrates: 18g, Fat: 17.7g	Nutritional value for 100g: Energy: 1184kJ/283kcal, Protein: 5.1g, Carbohydrates: 6.3g, Fat: 26.1g
Other: gluten free, cholesterol free, dairy ingredients, lactose, casein and any materials of animal origin free Contains no artificial colours and additives are not tested on animals As this is a Swiss based product it contains no GMO ingredients, as the Swiss population voted to initially prohibit the use of genetically modified animals and plants until 2010, which was extended for another 3 years in February 2010.	Other: Cheezly is also free from hydrogenated fats, gluten*, artificial colours/preservatives, cholesterol and GMOs.

Opinion: Both products seem  pretty good with no nasties hidden in the listings (note though that I am reviewing Bio/Organic Vegi-Cheezly). Both are gluten free and from what I can tell No-Muh Melty is soy free too so it is better for people with allergies, although it does contain nut butter. I always choose an organic option if available so I like that Cheezly offers a Bio option and also states that they do not use GMO ingredients.
Winner: So I think it is a tie for this round with Cheezly maybe sneaking ahead due to the organic option.

Taste:

No-Muh Melty

Pural BIO VEGI-CHEEZLY Mozzarella

This cheese is full of flavour and super creamy. It’s pretty rich for a vegan cheese. It is so flavourful you could eat it on it’s own on a cracker. It must be the nut butter that gives it this creamy melty taste and feel. What I like about this cheese is it doesn't conform to a type of cheese, for example Mozzarella, and therefore isn’t limited by trying to achieve a certain taste. This is super tasty and super creamy.

Cheezly has a mild taste. It is perfect for when you want a mild flavoured cheese melted onto something, however the cheese taste isn’t that great on it’s own. I certainly wouldn’t eat it unless it was melted on something and that something would have to be pretty flavourful. So really this is a melty cheese for texture and I don’t think it adds a lot taste wise.

Winner: Based on taste it is definitely the No-Muh Melty.

Uses / Usability:

Both of these cheeses are considered melty cheeses perfect for pizzas and well anything you want melted cheese on!

No-Muh Melty	Pural BIO VEGI-CHEEZLY Mozzarella
This cheese is a lot softer than the Cheezly and consequently not as easy to grate. However it does appear to melt better and the end result is very creamy. Due to the taste being more creamy and rich it can be used in more ways. We used it as a Bocconcini-style cheese in a tortilla pizza and as a Mozzarella-style cheese on a pizza. Overall this cheese is more versatile.	This is a harder cheese and is easier to grate. Unfortunately though I can’t see many more uses for it other than grating it on something to melt. The taste isn’t overly strong and the texture isn’t all that creamy so I probably wouldn’t use it for anything else other that a pizza. It also doesn’t melt that great. I mean it’s ok but I think it gets a little dry.
Photos:
Bocconcini-style: Tomato Basil Flatbread Bruschetta
Mozzarella-style: Caramalised Onion Pizza Before
After

Winner: No-Muh Melty.

Price & Value for money:

• prices were obtained from alles-vegetarisch.de as indicative prices only

Vegusto No-Muh Melty	Pural BIO VEGI-CHEEZLY Mozzarella
Price: 4,59€ Quantity: 230g Per kilo: 19,95€	Price: 3,15€ Quantity: 190g Per kilo: 16,58€
This cheese is more expensive but has more uses.	The usage of this cheese is limited.

Winner: Based purely on numbers and price it’s Cheezly but based on value for money it’s the No-Muh Melty. Although the No-Muh is more expensive you can do more with it therefore I think you get greater value from it. Cheezly’s usage is more limited so I think it is really only an ingredient for one type of meal, for us that is pizza. Therefore I think this winner of this round is No-Muh Melty.

Company:

Vegusto No-Muh Melty	Pural BIO VEGI-CHEEZLY Mozzarella
Vegi-Service AG is a Swiss family company developing since 1997, only 100% plant foods.	Owned by Heather Mills.
No reported incidents.	No reported incidents.

Winner: Tie

AVOCADO SPREAD

 

It is a little bit of a crime to call this a recipe, as there is not much to it and I’m sure anyone could have come up with it in an instant, but this is my most favourite spread. I love avocados and this is so simple with everyday ingredients that I can make it anytime I want without planning and preparation. I’m sure every vegan has a list of these little gems that they throw together when they’re really hungry and need something quick that doesn’t involve chopping or a lot of cleaning afterwards. This isn’t a fancy spread but I have served it at lunches and people love it. I think this comes from how simple it is and how present the avocado is. This is a perfect little combination of creamy (avocado), nutty (avocado), sweet (sweet chilli sauce), tangy and sour (lime), salty (salt and pepper) and hot (depending on how hot your sweet chilli is and whether you add the hot sauce).

My favourite avocado is the hass avocado and the one I use in this recipe (how common!) but I think it has a nuttier creamier taste. This recipe is all about convenience, so considering Hass avocados are today the most common and produce fruit year-round which accounts for 80% of cultivated avocados in the world, it’s pretty convenient.

Did you know that:

• All Hass avocado trees have been grown from seeds (or were grafted from the cuttings) of a single tree which was grown from a seed purchased in 1926.

• The mother  tree died when it was 76 years old and was cut down on 11 September 2002 after a ten-year fight with root rot.

This is best served liberally in a big heap on your favourite piece of fresh homemade bread.

Ingredients

• 1 hass avocado (or avocado of choice)

• 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

• 1 tsp lime juice

• salt and pepper to taste

• Small dash of hot sauce (optional)

These are suggested quantities but really it’s best to add and taste till you get the flavours you want. Just remember to go little by little as avocado has a subtle taste which you don’t want to loose by adding to much lime juice or chilli sauce.

Directions

1.

Scoop out all the flesh from the avocado into a bowl. Mash the flesh with a fork (you could also use a potato masher but I like to use a fork so there are still some chunks of avocado left). Mash until it is the consistency you like and then add stir in the sweet chilli sauce and lime juice tasting as you go. Then add and stir in the dash of hot sauce, if using and season to taste.

• This dip can be served on bread, a cracker or anything. It is a great dip or spread for when you can’t be bothered or have no time to make guacamole!

Vegan MoFo 2010 Day 28 This post uses material from the Wikipedia article Hass Avocado.

TOFU AND RED PEPPER CURRY

Just a real quick post again as I have been out all day and am exhausted. This recipe comes from La Dolce Vegan and is on the quick and easy list of meals I go to when I have no time to cook but need to eat. This is a really tasty dish that can be thrown together in minutes. You can serve it with brown rice and chapatis (home made of course) or white rice because it cooks quicker! Simple, quick, and super good – a winner in my book!

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 200g firm tofu, cubed
• 1 onion
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 red capsicums
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 large tomato

Directions

1.	Chop all the veggies and tofu.  Sauté the tofu and onions in the oil on a medium high heat until the onions are soft and the tofu starts to brown. Add everything else and reduce the heat and simmer/ cook until the veggies are cooked.

• I serve this with brown rice and some chapatis but you can serve it with whatever you have handy.

Vegan MoFo 2010 Day 27 recipe comes from: La Dolce Vegan!: Vegan Livin' Made Easy by Sarah Kramer This book is the go to for quick meals!!!

BLUEBERRY ICE CREAM

    

Another post about ice cream! I know you must be sick of them but as you can see I am not over my ice cream maker. When spring arrived in Germany so did all the berries (or maybe it was that we had an apartment and started to settle in, rather then running around like maniacs trying to organise things, and actually had time to notice the berries) and they arrived in abundance. We had not seen so many fresh berries! All the fruit and veggie stalls had so many different berries and a large quantity of each. So of course we ate a lot of berries. I don’t really eat much fruit (I don’t really snack unless I’m watching a movie and at that time I like to eat junk) unless it’s prepared in some way. I think it may come from the fact that in Australia sometimes the fruit selection (especially in the country when I was a kid – it has some way to travel!) can be pretty poor or expensive. So your options can be an apple, nope not for me, raw apples and I are not friends as I can get a  stomach ache from them, orange, nope too messy, banana, hmmm nice but I wouldn’t walk over hot coals for one. So yeah not really a fruit person, although I love trying exotic fruit. But anyway raspberries are the exception to my distant relationship with fruit. They are my favourite berry and we made smoothie after smoothie. So you’re wondering why a blueberry ice cream then?  Well blueberries are Mike’s favourite berries! So we made some ice cream. This ice cream was not my favourite but Mike enjoyed it!

Yields approximately 600g

Ingredients:

Ice Cream Base

• Vanilla Ice Cream (this is the base used for many flavoured ice creams)

Flavour base

• 1 cup blueberries

• Splash of lemon juice

Directions:

1.	Mix blueberries, 1/4 cup sugar from the vanilla ice cream ingredients, and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Heat until boiling and some blueberries have burst. Set aside.
2.	Make the Vanilla ice cream mixture with remaining 1/2 cup sugar (steps 1 to 3). Then add blueberry mixture, stirring to combine.
3.	Refrigerate mixture until chilled, approximately 2 to 3 hours. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Vegan Mofo Day 26 recipe comes from: The Vegan Scoop: 150 Recipes for Dairy-Free Ice Cream that Tastes Better Than the "Real" Thing (Paperback) by Wheeler Del Torro If you’ve liked all the Vegan MoFo ice creams this month you really should buy an ice cream machine and this book – it’s fantastic!!! Check out the website here.

SUN-DRIED TOMATO & PINE NUT SEITAN SAUSAGES

 

When I saw a link to these babies pop up in a Vegan MoFo blog (I can’t remember which one as I have become totally overwhelmed with all the action going on) I knew I had to make them and I had to make them soon. I never ate sausages when I was a meat-eater as I never liked the crappy meat they use in them. It always scarred me what could actually be in that sausage. So yeah free sausage sizzles at Bunning's did nothing for me. These on the other had sounded great! Sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts and my new found favourite,  seitan, what could be better. None of the ingredients were overpowering and the sausages fried up beautifully in the pan with a crisp brown skin.  Served up with some homemade pasta and a simple tomato sauce and a little balsamic crème these made a perfect meal. Now that I have braved these ones I will have to come up with a few flavours of my own.

This yummy recipe comes from Veggie num.num. Although not 100% vegan I recommend you check it out to see what other wonders you can find!!

 

Makes 4 large Sausages

Ingredients

For the sausages

• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

• 1/2 a red onion

• 1 red chilli

• 75g sundried tomatoes

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1 1/4 cups vegetable stock

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 250g gluten flour

• 1 tsp dried thyme

• 1 tsp paprika

• 4 x pieces of cheesecloth 30×30 cm each

• 8 x pieces of kitchen twine

For the cooking broth

• 6 cups vegetable stock

• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

• 2 bay leaves

Directions

1.	By hand or in a food processor finely dice/mince the toasted pine nuts, red onion, chilli and sundried tomatoes.
2.	Whisk the stock with the olive oil and tomato paste until smooth.
3.	Combine the gluten flour with the dried thyme, paprika and processed pine nut/sundried tomato mixture in a large bowl. Slowly add the stock mixture to the dry mixture, combine until you have a smooth, elastic dough.
4.	Divide the dough into four equal portions, roll out each portion to form a sausage, place each sausage onto a piece of cheesecloth, roll tightly and tie off each end securely with pieces of twine.
5.	Bring the stock, garlic and bay leaves to boil in a deep-sided pan, add the sausages, side-by-side and turn down the heat, allow to gently simmer for 45-50 minutes until the sausages are firm to the touch.
6.	Once the sausages are cooked remove from the pan and allow to cool before carefully removing the cheesecloth. {Sausages can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week in an air tight container with the cooking liquid}
7.	Sausages can then be fried in a pan until golden and added to your favourite recipes.

• I served this with Homemade Pasta and Fresh Grape Tomato Sauce from Vegan Yum Yum

Vegan MoFo 2010 Day 25 recipe comes from: Veggie num.num Check out Trudy’s beautiful blog for another serving suggestion and more photos.

BASIL-TOFU RICOTTA RAVIOLI with SUN-DRIED TOMATO–MINT PESTO

I love dumplings and after making pierogi for Mike a little while ago we decided to buy a ravioli/pierogi maker for a couple of Euros. I know it looks more rustic if you do it all by hand but my little maker shapes them easily, and as someone that would eat dumplings daily if she could, I love this little contraption. So with my ravioli maker all ready to go I wanted to make some! I wanted to make tofu ravioli so I hunted on the internet for recipes. How do I make it? Do I cook the tofu first? Well due to the absolute magical awesomeness of Vegan Mofo I managed to stumble upon Nice Things post where Ditte examined vegan cheese recipes. Her post mention that the Basil-Tofu Ricotta from Vegan with a Vengeance was perfect for a ravioli filling. I have that book, sounds good with one minor modification, lets give it a try! So with my filling chosen I needed to find a sauce. After reviewing the filling I could tell that it would be fairly mild so I wanted a strong sauce to pack a punch. I also wanted something quick and easy because the folding of the ravioli would take me forever. So I flipped through a couple of cook books and came across this pesto from Vegan Italiano. This pesto was really good. Usually I worry about sun-dried tomatoes, as I find them a little strong and I don’t like tomato that much, but the mint helped freshen this pesto up so well. It also worked really nicely on fresh bread! As the pesto was a little thick, we served it on the side so people could take as much as they wanted with each bite. The ravioli carried the pesto nicely and the Basil-Tofu Ricotta filling would be perfect in any ravioli with a strong sauce.

This recipe makes about 20-22 ravioli.

All together you need:

• 1 batch of Basil-Tofu Ricotta
• 1 batch of Sun-Dried Tomato – Mint Pesto
• 1 batch of Simple Pasta Dough

Basil-Tofu Ricotta

Ingredients:

• 400g firm tofu, pressed
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1-2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Dash of fresh black pepper
• Handful fresh basil leaves, finely chopped (ten leaves or so)
• 2 tsp oil
• 4 tbsp nutritional yeast

Directions:

1.	In a large bowl, mash tofu with hands until crumbly.
2.	Add lemon juice, garlic, shallots, salt, pepper, and basil. Mash with hands until mixture reaches the consistency of ricotta cheese.
3.	Add olive oil; stir with fork.
4.	Add nutritional yeast and mix all ingredients well with a fork.
5.	Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

gap

Sun-Dried Tomato-Mint Pesto

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained but save some of the oil for the pesto
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup packed fresh mint leaves
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2-4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1.	Combine the tomatoes and liquid, walnuts, mint, oil, tomato paste, garlic. salt and pepper in a food processor fitted with the knife blade or hand held blender. Process until smooth.

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Simple Pasta Dough

Ingredients:

• 250g all-purpose flour
• 125ml mineral water
• 1/2 tsp ground tumeric (optional, but this makes the dough a lovely yellow colour without changing the flavour)

Directions:

1.

Pour the flour into a bowl and create a well in the middle. Add the water and stir until it is combined with the flour. Knead the mixture with your hands until it is completely pulled together and consistent. If the mixture is too dry, add some water, if too sticky, add some flour. A good mixture should be soft and moist but never stick to your fingers.

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Assemble

1.	Divide the dough into three pieces and knead for a minute. Follow your pasta makers instructions. I found that rolling out the dough to thinness No.4-5 is about as thin as you want to go. At this stage the dough is thin enough to wrap around the filling and still look nice after boiling. Stage 6 makes it a little thin but still workable. Once it is rolled out it’s ready to be cut into 10cm circles.
2.	Use a ravioli maker with a cutter or a 3-4 inch glass to cut circles out of the rolled out dough. Place 1- 1.5 tsp of filling into the centre of the cut out circle. Wet one half of the edge of the circle to help it stick when you fold the circle. Fold the circle in half to make a ravioli (half moon) shape or bring the sides of the ravioli maker together. Press down to seal. You can use a fork or your ravioli maker may do it for you to crimp the edges.
3.	When you can no longer fold anymore ravioli get a large pot of salted water to a boil. Once boiling, cook the ravioli for 10-12 minutes. Test one to make sure it is cooked to the consistency you like.
4.	You can serve the pesto warm or cold. I like to heat it in the microwave for a minute.
5.	Serve the ravioli and spread the pesto over the each ravioli or serve the pesto on the side so people can have as much or little as they like.

	Vegan MoFo 2010 Day 24 recipe combines recipes from: Vegan with a Vengeance : Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock by Isa Chandra Moskowitz  This recipe can also be found on Food.com
	Vegan Italiano: Meat-free, Egg-free, Dairy-free Dishes from Sun-Drenched Italy by Donna Klein This recipe can also be found on Spark Recipes