Black Bean and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

I have had a hard time coming up with savoury recipes that don't include hummus or chickpeas in some form (some people smoke, others abuse chickpea dips, what can I say) but then these utterly delicious and chickpea-free quesadillas came to me in a flash of inspiration. A Pinterest flash that is- always my runner-up source of vegspiration. (Instagram comes first!) They're filled with sweet, spicy, savoury amazingness and topped with a goddamn gorgeous green guacamole. Add the simplicity and I know that this will nick a place as one of my top ten lunch recipes.

Make these for yourself, double the recipe and share with a friend or multiply the ingredients by ten and serve it on the buffet table! You could even prepare these the day before (without grilling them of course) and have them for lunch the next day at work or school! They're best eaten warm so a microwave oven would be a plus but they could absolutely be served cold as well, no problemo.

Hope you enjoy this recipe just as much as I did!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

Yields: 1 serving

- 1 gluten free brown rice tortilla (or tortilla of your choice, I use BFree wraps)

- 1 small sweet potato (approx. 100 g when peeled)

- 4 tbsp canned black beans, drained and rinsed

- 2 tbsp tomato salsa/sauce

- 1 tbsp vegan sour cream (optional)

- A handful baby spinach leaves

A pinch each of: 

- dried coriander

- cumin

- paprika powder 

- salt

Guacamole:

- 1/2 avocado

- 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast

- 1 tsp lemon juice

- Salt and pepper to taste

- Dried chili flakes (optional)

How to:

1. Start by making your guacamole: Place all ingredients into a small bowl and blitz with a hand blender a few times. Intuitively, the longer you blend the smoother your guac will be so stop when you've reached the desired consistency. Set aside while you prepare the quesadillas.

2. Peel and slice the sweet potato thinly, then steam or boil the slices until they're soft enough to pierce with a fork. This will take approximately 5-10 minutes.

3. Mash the steamed sweet potato with a fork and spread it out evenly on half of the tortilla.

4. On the layer of sweet potato, divide the black beans evenly and sprinkle with cumin, coriander, salt and paprika powder.

5. Cover the other half of the tortilla with a layer of vegan sour cream mixed with tomato salsa and stick a handful of baby spinach leaves to it. 

6. Fold the tortilla in half and cut in 4 "pizza slices".

7. Grill in a grill pan (or a regular but then it won't be as beautifully charred) for a couple of minutes on each side, top with guacamole and serve!

Carob & Zesty Lime Pancakes with a Chocolate Sauce

Carob & Zesty Lime Pancakes

5 tbsp buckwheat flour

2 tbsp coconut flour

1 tsp baking powder

5 tbsp almond milk

2 tbsp plant-based yoghurt (could sub for more almond milk)

1 chia egg (1 tbsp ground chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp of water, left to swell for a couple of minutes)

For the lime pancakes:

1/2 tsp wheatgrass (could sub for chlorella/spirulina/matcha)

Zest of one lime

1 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice

1/2 tbsp liquid sweetener of your choice (preferably brown rice syrup as it won't spoil the green colour)

For the carob pancakes:

1/2 tbsp liquid sweetener of your choice (preferably date syrup, as it adds a lovely brown colour to the mix)

1-2 tsp carob powder

How to:
1. Place into a bowl the buckwheat flour, coconut flour and baking powder. Stir well to divide the baking powder evenly throughout the mix.
2. Add in the almond milk, chia egg and yoghurt and mix it all together with a fork.
3. Now, divide the batter into two and place half of it into another bowl.
4. To this bowl, add all of the ingredients for the lime pancakes and stir until smooth. You might have to adjust the amount of wheatgrass to get the green colour you want.
5. To the other bowl, add all of the ingredients for the carob pancakes and once again, stir until smooth.
6. Let the batters rest for a few minutes while preheating a non-stick pan or a regular frying pan with a spoonful of coconut oil to medium heat.
7. Fry spoonfuls of the batter for a few minutes on each side, stack and serve!

Chocolate sauce

2 tbsp peanut flour

1 1/2 tbsp almond milk

1/2 tbsp date  syrup

1 tsp cacao or cocoa powder

How to:
1. Stir all ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. Add more almond milk if needed.
2. Pour on top of your pancake stack and devour immediately!

Rocky Road Fudge

It's nearing December and I hope that you are as excited as I am about the upcoming holiday festivities! Sinatra blasting on the radio, the first snow wrapping everything in a soft blanket of white, the comforting crackling from the fireplace and Christmas decorations as far as the eye can see. But no jolly Christmas without something to munch on, right? Be it hot cocoa, mandarins, gingerbread cookies, christmas candy... Tell me if you're drooling yet because I sure am.

If you're one of those people that claim to not like this time of the year (do they even exist?) then I suggest you stop reading right here. Because from now on, my plan is for this blog to be stuffed with all things Christmas, from saffron treats to rice pudding desserts.  This I can assure you, Yuletide addicts- you won't be disappointed.

So first on the list was Rocky Road Fudge. Way out of my comfort zone to be honest, the only rocky road us Swedish people know of, is the one that leads us home after a few too many shots of our favourite holiday liquor: "snaps". Okay so now I'm rambling but what I wanted to say was that I felt this sudden strong urge to make a batch of this Rocky Road deliciousness after seeing it on Pinterest the other day. Only I wanted a vegan and refined sugar-free yet still delicious fudge. This one ticks all the boxes, I have to say. It's wonderfully rich, soft, chewy and 100% cruelty-free!

Rocky Road Fudge

1 cup tightly packed soft dates

1/4 cup melted cacao butter (could sub for coconut oil but cacao will be MUCH better)

2 tbsp cocoa or cacao powder

1 heaped tbsp carob powder

1/2 cup raw almonds (or nuts of your choice)

1/2 cup dried mulberries

How to:

1. Place your dates, cacao butter, carob powder and cacao powder into a food processor and blend on high until smooth. Stop to scrape down the sides a few times to incorporate all the ingredients properly.

2. Take the mulberries and almonds and put them into the food processor with the chocolate paste that has formed and blitz a few times. You want the nuts to be broken up into big, crunchy chunks, not tiny pieces, so make sure not to blend too much. (As you can see, I did a pretty poor job here ;)

3. Press the fudge out into a small, lined, rectangular baking tray. It might not fill the whole tray but it's firm enough to only fill half of it and still get thick pieces of fudge.

4. Put in the fridge or freezer to set, at least for a couple of hours. Remove from the fridge and cut into squares. Store in the freezer if you want the mulberries to be crunchy! (Hint: you do.)

Have a wonderful day!

Tilda

My Basic Hummus Recipe + Oven-roasted Squash

Happy birthday to me! Or happy belated to be correct, my 18th was this Monday. Yay! I can now... uh, buy beer, vote and (in the best of worlds) get my driver's license. Fun! But what's got me really excited is my birthday presents. Can you tell from the picture below what I got?

You guessed it: CHICKPEAS! My wonderful parents gave me a whole truckload of these gu... Wait a second. I'm just kidding. No offence chickpeas but you don't really make the best birthday presents. Okay so if you still haven't figured it out, I got a camera. A Canon EOS 700D that I know absolutely nothing about and have no idea how to use but still - a camera! C-A-M-E-R-A. Meaning this blog won't be nearly as boring from now on. So onto today's recipe:

There are many things that I've learnt to love since going vegan. Bananas, avocados, bell peppers, tofu bur first and foremost I've come to appreciate the beauty that is a perfectly creamy hummus. Everyone who's been following me on Instagram for a while probably knows that I've got a real sweet tooth and rarely choose savoury food if there is any kind of fruit around. With one exception. Hummus. A thick layer spread on a rice cake and my day is made. Hopefully you all like this recipe as well!

My Basic Hummus Recipe

Yields: 1-2 servings

2/3 cup cooked chickpeas

1 tbsp almond milk (Or olive oil if you want an even creamier texture)

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1-2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salt to taste

Optional: 1/2 tsp Paprika powder 

Blend well!

How to:
1. Place chickpeas in a colander in the sink and rinse to get rid of any excess sliminess from the can.
2. Blend all ingredients in a small bowl using a hand blender. Food processors are not recommended for this recipe.
3. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or drizzle with olive oil. Serve as a condiment to falafels, pita bread dishes, salads or maybe the roasted squash below!

Oven-roasted Herb-rubbed Winter Squash

Yields: 2 servings

1/2 small muscat pumpkin or winter squash of your choice

1 zucchini

1 tbsp olive oil

Herbs such as rosemary, thyme and oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

How to:
1. Pre-heat oven to 225C.
2. Cut your squash into halves and scoop out the seeds and the slimy, stringy things surrounding them. Save the other half of your squash in the fridge, unless you want bigger servings, then go ahead and use both halves.
3. Slice the squash about 1/2-inch thick for each slice and put aside.
4. Cut the zucchini lengthwise and slice in 1/2-inch thick slices.
5. Place the vegetables on a lined baking tray and rub with first olive oil then herbs. Spread out evenly on the tray and rosy in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the squash is soft enough to pierce with a fork.

Chocolate 'Cheese'cake

Once again, I've neglected this poor little blog in favour of numerous school assignments threatening to squish me under their weight. Teachers don't care about Instagram, recipes or blogs. Teachers care about incomprehensible theorems, calculators and serving horrible non-vegan food. That's what they do. Plus the lighting this time of the year S-U-C-K-S so I obviously don't have a lot to post at the moment. This being said, I did find the time to do a little baking this weekend and I proudly present to you this Vegan Chocolate "Cheesecake"! The ones I made were miniature versions which means you can enjoy a slice whenever you want to. There's always room for a tiny slice of cake. As far as I'm concerned, there's always room for muh-assive wedges of decadent chocolate cakes of any kind, but mind you, I know everyone doesn't agree. So here we have it, small in size but big in flavour!

(Oh and I know I've been inconsistent with the measurements in this recipe, grams here and cups there. If you don't have access to a kitchen scale, just play it by ear, taste as you go, and I'm sure you'll do just fine!)

Chocolate Cheesecake (No-Bake!)

Filling:

About 15-18 medium sized dates (175g)

1 heaped cup raw cashews, soaked overnight (150 g unsoaked)

1 can full fat coconut milk, chilled overnight in the fridge

1 tbsp coconut oil

3 tbsp cacao or cocoa powder

A pinch of salt (to enhance the chocolate flavour)

Crust:

150 g dried figs

1/4 cup oats

1/4 cup dried mulberries

Chocolate topping:

2 tbsp coconut oil, melted

2 tbsp cacao or cocoa powder

1 tbsp liquid sweetener of your choice

How to:

1. Place the figs and oats in a food processor and blend on high until you have a sticky ball of fig-oat deliciousness.
2. Divide the dough in two parts and press each part out into a non-stick springform pan, about 10 cm/4 inches across. You could also use a bigger cake tin, about 15 cm/6 inches in diameter.
3. Open the can of coconut milk and spoon out the hard, creamy layer that has formed on top, into your food processor/high speed blender along with the rest of the filling ingredients. Save the leftover "water" for smoothies and such, it's packed full of wonderful coconut flavour.
4. Blend on high until silky smooth. Be patient- it takes time. But the more you blend the better your filling will be. Stop now and then to scrape down from the sides if necessary.
5. Once the filling is done, pour it into the springform pan(s) and leave for at least 7 hours to set in the freezer.
6. When the cheesecakes have set, mix the ingredients for the chocolate topping in a small bowl until they're well incorporated. Let the "sauce" cool down a bit before you pour it on top of the cheesecakes, that way you'll prevent a runny, chocolate-y mess from happening.

Let each slice thaw for a few minutes before serving!

Enjoy and have a wonderful day!
Tilda