Christmas Eve in Poland means fish flavors.Even if it’s just herring and carp, there must be fish. Herring, the basic fish of Hamburg and North German street food (Fischbrötchen, the classic fish-in-a-bun), is a people’s fish — staple food for fishermen and villagers along the Baltic and North Sea coasts for centuries. In plant-based cooking, … Read more
Once very popular in traditional folk cooking, today these ingredients are truly underappreciated and underused. Various grains, seeds, and nuts — from sunflower seeds to hemp (with their phenomenal protein content), pumpkin seeds, and walnuts. On the one hand, they no longer play the role they once did, when even a hundred years ago, nuts and seeds … Read more
Stuffed vegetables are my personal comfort food — not just for the taste itself, but for the memories they bring back of the best thing from my INGREDIENTS 50 g TVP (soy protein granules)Marinade for the TVP: 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1 tbsp Crema di Balsamico Filling: 100 g millet … Read more
Hail Seitan (Not to be confused with Satan. I had to — the phonetic similarity still cracks me up. Though honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone out there took it seriously and saw in seitan a satanic conspiracy.) Ingredients: 200 g seitan powder 50 g hemp flour 50 g sun-dried tomatoes in oil 50 g oil from sun-dried … Read more
This soup has a bit of an Advent feel — it’s something quick, made with what’s on hand and what you know you won’t use otherwise. For example, I didn’t end up using the sweet potato for a salad. I originally bought it with soup in mind, but I also had leftover kaffir lime leaves and yuba. … Read more
Gryfny Shalad for Advent. That’s about the extent of my Silesian, which is barely better than my German. These languages are very much relevant here because *Hekele* is a Silesian Advent salad, sometimes also served on Christmas Eve. And Silesia is one of the most fascinating corners of Europe. Situated between Poland, the Czech Republic, … Read more
TVP: texture vegetable protein. Until recently, only TSP, or “textured soy protein,” was available on the market. These are all those products like dry soy cutlets (affectionately called “sawdust cutlets”), pieces, granules, steaks — large, rectangular cutlets with a fibrous texture. TSP products had their time, at least in Poland, in the 1990s, when they were pretty … Read more
No, Not Sweet Nuts are somewhat underrated in our daily diet. In plant-based cooking, cashews or other seeds are often used as substitutes for yellow or white cheese. But apart from such niche recipes and desserts or cakes, nuts, or other seeds, are rarely seen on our tables. In traditional cuisine (not folk, more like … Read more
Ice cream is chilled fat with sugar and protein. If you want to make good plant-based ice cream, remember these three components. The first records of chilled, icy desserts date back 2,500 years to Persia, where they prepared desserts resembling today’s sorbets. Icy desserts appear in a Roman cookbook from the 1st century and in … Read more
I like the name “Traditionally roasted Soymeat” The fact that something is traditionally roasted (especially if it’s wood-fired…) nobilizes what ends up on the plate.What’s funny is that it’s part of the mythology of the Golden Age, present in human cultures forever. INGREDIENTS:10 previously soaked soy cutlets (see Notes)2 onions (about 150 g)1 bell pepper … Read more
