I guess these past weeks have shown us that it is the time to discover new sites, of ourselves, of our behaviours, of our routines, of our surroundings… It’s the time to try out new things, learn new things, be aware of different things.
To bring something fresh to my “quarantine routine” and something new to my culinary repertoire I decided to make a vegan week. I started by thinking about ingredients I never bought before and recipes I would like to try (or some that I have done before but that I would like to cook again). So for a little overview, in case you feel inspired by also trying a vegan week, here comes my “menu”.
for breakfast
I was either eating Porridge (which was just simply oats with oatmilk, cinnamon and grated apple) or Müsli (own mix of oats, nuts, seeds) with fruits and fermented coconut “yoghurt”. Of course for my typical Sunday pancake breakfast I made some Chocolate Pancakes with chocolate sauce and strawberries.
for lunch
In general I’m always eating Sandwiches so I just needed to get some vegan spreads. I really like to make different types of hummus. My favourite one is with chickpeas and beetroot, but I also like different types with lentils, beans or peas as basis. I always mix it with some kind of herbs of veggies. Apart from this, also avocado, peanut butter, olive oil, or some vegetables like cucumber, tomato, lettuce, or grilled aubergine/ courgette are very nice toppings for sandwiches.
for dinner
I started with something easy like a Lentil vegetable curry with rice. Just very basic with onion, carrots and celery. Another day I made some homemade Falafel and Naan bread. This was very delicious together with lettuce, cucumber, grated carrots, an avocado-coconut dip and a sweet and sour ginger dip. Coming to an ingredient I never cooked with before: tofu. I decided to buy the smoked one cause I was curious about its taste. After I freezed it for one night to get out the water more easily, I marinated it for 3 hours. After it became part of a Asian style vegetable-noodle pan. I must say it was tasty but I could also eat with pleasure just the vegetable noodles without missing the tofu. I think its more something I would cook with if I would rely on its protein. And a last great meal I had was a Vegetable strudel. I think this is a very easy way to make a kind of more special dinner in a very simple way. You can just take any kind of vegetables you like, spice it up and just roll it into a strudel dough. It’s amazing! This time I filled it with a potato and onion spread, and fried cabbage-turnip, carrots and spring onions. I spiced it with curry and parsley.
All in all it was a great and refreshing experience. But at some point I was really wishing for cheese, so I guess that is the main point why I don’t want to be vegan forever. In general I just like to have this wide range of possibilities, so that I can choose day by day if I want to eat vegan, vegetarian or animal products according to how I feel like. I think its just very important to have a balanced diet with which you feel physically, mentally and ethically good and responsible.
I hope you got some inspiration and if you feel like trying any of these meals, just leave me a comment to get the recipes.
Lena C.