Enchiladas

Enchiladas are really great! This vegan version bakes in the oven without cheese, but if you find any good vegan cheese go ahead! I made these enchiladas with seitan, but once again you can easily substitute the seitan with TVP or Tofu. Heck you can easily just do a veggie filling.

3 Tbsp Olive oil
1 big Onion, diced
2 Cloves of garlic, diced
200g Seitan
1 green or red Bell pepper, roughly diced
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/4 tsp Salt
350g Enchilada sauce

1. Dice the seitan or cut it into slices. Whichever you prefer.
2. Sautée the onion and garlic in the olive oil. Add the bell pepper. Cook it in medium heat for 5 minutes.
3. Add the seitan, seasonings and cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Allow it to cool, the procede to stuff the tortillas! ay caramba!
5. Roll'em up, and spread sauce all over!
6. Bake at 180ºC for 10min.

Attention all crew on deck, this recipe yields 450g of filling. This is more than enough for 8 super filled tortillas. I prefer the wheat variety, but to each his own. Refer to the picture for filling instructions.

Papaya soup with Cashew cream

I once worked in a restaurant where they served fresh fruit soups. Now these soups I like!
This recipe is for a super fresh papaya soup topped with creamy cashew.

To make the soup just put in a blender:

2 Papayas, flesh only
1/2 Pinneaple, flesh only
0,1L Mango juice

To make the creamy cashew just put in a blender:

1 cup of cashew per 1/2 cup of water.
Add more water if needed, according to the consistency you prefer.


If you like something to bite on, you can always dice an extra papaya into cubes and add them to the soup. Or chunks of pinneaple or mango, or any other fruit actually.

Hash Browns

Hash browns are really famous on TV! Very frequently you will see an order for hash browns in a typical American diner serving breakfast on some road stop. Use this recipe to make your own at home.

4 large Potatoes, peeled and shredded
2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast
1 medium Onion, diced
1/2 tsp Salt
1 pinch pepper

2 Tbsp Olive oil

Mix all the ingredients well. Mold into patties, and fry them golden in the olive oil.

Banana bread

Cakes are great treats for the weekend. I really like this Banana bread and it's super great to get rid of those over ripe bananas. I don't like ripe bananas, blergh.

Ingredients:

3 Bananas, ripe
50 g vegan butter at room temperature
100 g Brown sugar
50 g White sugar
200 g Flour
2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC
2. Crush the bananas with the butter and sugar.
3. Add the salt and baking powder. Mix well.
4. Add the flour, mix well.
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

Observations:

Makes a really good cake!!

Mushroom Stock

Making your own stock, although pricey (it's super more expensive than store bought, ouch!) guarantees you a quality product. Most bouillon cubes are filled with some nasty extra ingredients you don't really need (they are also really bad for your health). The same thing goes for broths in a can or tetrapak, be it "normal" sodium or "low" sodium.

This recipe for mushroom stock is great for risottos! My favourite risotto is red wine mushroom risotto. Although I sometimes cook risotto with white wine, red is the best!

4 Cloves of garlic
1 Leek, green leafs only
1 Onion
2 tsp Salt
30 g Shiitake mushrooms, dried

Place these ingredients in a large pan with 1,5L of cold water, and leave it in medium-low heat for 15 minutes.

2 sprigs of Oregano
3 sprigs of Thyme
6 sprigs of Parsley
2 small Carrots
250 g white mushrooms
2 Bay leaves
1/2 tsp Black peppercorns

Add these ingredients, plus 2 more liters of cold water. Raise to a boil and leave it at minimum heat for 1 hour.

Cool down, and filter using a cheesecloth.

Potatoes

I really love potatoes. They are great both as a side dish and as a complete meal! The 3 suggestions I make in this post are based on potatoes as a side dish. Later I will make and post delicious pictures and a recipe for a german potato salad I learned about in Berlin.

Suggestion #1: Roasted potatoes with Herbs

1,5 Kg Fingerling Potatoes
5 Garlic cloves, diced
1/4 cup Parsley, fresh, chopped
2 Tbsp Rosemary, fresh
2 Tbsp Thyme, fresh
4 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Tbsp Salt

1. Pre-heat the oven at 190ºC.
2. Wash and cut the potatoes in half.
3. Spread the herbs, olive oil, and salt over the potatoes.
4. Bake them for 1h15m.

Suggestion #2: Patatas Bravas

1 Kg Potatoes
3 Tbsp Garlic paste
3 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 Tbsp Paprika
1 tsp Chili Powder

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC.
2. Cut the potatoes into cubes.
3. Roast them for 1h. More if necessary.
4. Don't forget to stir them every once in a while.

Suggestion #3: Grilled Potatoes

0,3 Kg New potatoes
2 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 lemon zest
1/2 lemon juice
Salt and Pepper

1. Pre-boil the new potatoes for 10 minutes.
2. Brush them with the olive oil, lemon marinade.
3. Finish them on the Grill.

Tex Mex Quinoa

Tex Mex Quinoa is a great side dish. Also quinoa has a great nutritional profile. Of course after it's been cooked it's more water than anything else, but still great nutritional value per bite.

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp Olive oil
1 medium Onion, diced
2 Cloves of garlic
1 pinch of salt
200g Quinoa
400g Tomatoes, peeled, diced
1 pinch of Chili
0,25 L Water

Procedure:

1. Sautée the onion and garlic in olive oil.
2. Add Quinoa. Let it absorb the olive oil for 2 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes (canned is just as good) and chili powder.
4. Add Water, raise to a boil.
5. Cook 15 minutes in minimum heat.

Observations:

This recipe yields 800g. The cost is at 3,2€ per Kg.

Coming back to Portugal and my recipe for Burrito Filling

After a bumpy ride of approx. 1 month and a half in Berlin. I'm back in Portugal! Although there were a ton of bad things I managed to make the best of what was good. My friends Ana and Paulo, the nice people living in the house where I was at, some of my co-workers were also quite nice! And of course the noms. I managed to eat a lot of vegan cheese, tofu rosso and vegan ice cream.

On Friday I went to yoyo something vegan restaurant, with my swedish vegan co-worker and I loved the food! It was amazing! :) So I def recomment the restaurant. Also I had a burger, fries with extra soy mayo, and a mango lassi for 7,99€. Super sweet.

Anyway without further ado: my recipe for burrito filling.

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 small Onion, diced
1 Clove of garlic, diced
300g Seitan diced
1+1/2 Tbsp Mexican spice mix
3 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp Chili Powder

Procedure:

1. Sautée the onions and garlic in the olive oil.
2. Add the Seitan and stir well for 5 minutes on medium heat.
3. Add the mexican spices and chili powder.
4. Finish with the lime juice!

Observations:

This recipe yields 450g of filling. This leaves it at close to 5€ per Kg to produce at home.

Then to assemble your own burrito, just get some nice wraps. I like mine with only lettuce and onions, but you can add tomatoes or whatever you prefer!

My favourite DOS games Part 2 Sports!

In this second installment of my favourite DOS games, I will focus on sports! Well, actually sports games weren't the games I paid the most attention to, but they still got a reasonable amount of my gaming time.

Kings of the Beach

Oh man, kings of the beach. I loved this game, it was my second favourite sports game. The first favourite sports game if also of volleyball. Funny fact: I actually have no real life interest whatsoever in the sport of Volleyball.

You can get the ROM here.

Arcade Volleyball

Mama mia! Arcadea volleyballa! This was one of my overall favourite games, you know the favourite games within your already favourite games. This game ranks as #1 sports game in the WORLD.

You can get the ROM here.

Winter Challenge

Winter Challenge featured a series of games you can usually find in the Winter Olympics, and they were all equally addictive.

You can get the ROM here.

NBA: Lakers versus Celtics

I never had a great affinity with soccer "simulators", but this basketball one sure got me hooked at the time.

You can get the ROM here.

My favourite DOS games Part 1 Vrroom Vrroom

I miss playing on DOS a lot. Some of the fondest memories I have as a kid are renting Transformer tapes with my uncle and playing on his computer. Over 20+ years ago, the computer was running on DOS, I later also played some pretty sweet games on Windows 95. Anyway, first things first, do you also miss DOS? Have you never used DOS?

The emulator I use is DOSBox. Just install and after you get your DOS roms, drag your rom on to the DOSBox desktop shortcut. Maybe there is an even easier way, I just do it like this.

Grand Prix Circuit

I spent a lot of time back then on the different tracks, and I always kept crashing on the damn tunnels. I never finished it though, I don't remember ever having finished any of the several games I played. And therefore I shall make this my quest!

You can get the ROM here.

Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road

I definitely didn't allocate as much of my available gaming time to this offroad vrrom vrroom, but I still enjoyed whatever little time I spent on it.

You can get the ROM here.


Stargoose

Stargoose is more of an action game than a racing one. But you do quite a lot of space shipping around, so it semt legit to include it here. I spent as much time on this game as on the previous two together.

You can get the ROM here.

Insert X here Bolognese

I usually make Bolognese with Seitan or TVP, but you can also make it with Tofu. Below is the recipe for the Seitan version I make.

Ingredients:

1 small Onion, diced
1 Clove of garlic, diced
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Basil
300g Seitan, crumbled
500g Tomato sauce

Procedure:

1. Sautée the onion and garlic in the olive oil.
2. Add the seitan. Oregano and basil. I use dried. If you are using fresh, please add only at the end.
3. Add the tomato sauce. Omomomom.

Observations:

This recipe yields 900g. The cost to prepare 1 Kg of this delicious concoction is 2,85€. Please keep in mind I make my own Seitan and thus my calculations include a cost of Seitan at 3,7 € per Kg.

Enchilada sauce

This is another really simple recipe. Later I will post a recipe of when I made enchiladas using this sauce! For an improved recipe, try making the tomato sauce using mexican spices instead of mix spice and replace for the tomato pulp in this recipe :)

Ingredients:

200g Onion, diced
1 Clove of garlic, diced
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Kg Tomato Pulp
2 Tbsp Powdered chili
1/2 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Salt

Procedure:

1. Sautée the onion and garlic in the olive oil.
2. Add the tomato pulp.
3. Add the spices.
4. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.

Observations:

This recipe yields 1,1 Kg. And by Portuguese prices making 1 Kg of this will cost you 1,2 €.

Tomato sauce

One of my staple recipes is the one for tomato sauce. This tomato sauce is super versatile, you can eat it as is, use it for all kinds of other sauces: bolognese, enchiladas, lasagna, pizzas. Also when some recipes call for tomato pulp, you can substitute it with tomato sauce for extra flavour.

Ingredients:

1 large Onion, diced
4 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Mix Spice
800g Tomatoes, whole, peeled
1/2 tsp Sugar
1/2 Tbsp Salt
200g Tomato, pulp

Procedure:

1. It's advisable to use a large pan.
2. Sautée the onions in the olive oil. Add the mix spice, I like curry.
3. Add the tomatoes. I usually use canned whole peeled tomatoes.
4. Cover and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Actually 5 on maximum would not be a problem, it just won't be as good.
5. Season with sugar and salt. The sugar is used to counter-balance the acidness of the tomato.
6. Grind everything to a nice sauce.
7. Add the tomato pulp. For improved taste, simmer for 5 more minutes. Correct seasonings.
8. Enjoy!!

Observations:

This recipe yields 1,2 Kg. And it costs about 1,3€ to make per Kilogram in Portugal. How much does it cost to make in your country?

tofu reviews and product comparison

The state of tofu in Portugal is actually quite nice. We have affordable bland tofu for our own seasoning purposes. And we have some varieties of pre-seasoned tofu. None has amazed me so far. That is, before I came to Berlin and met Tofu von Taifun yooooooosh! So far I have acquired and tried the 4 different varieties I saw for sale at Vitalia. They belong to the Mediterranean Tofu line of products. They are all priced at 2,29€ per package. It is naturally more expensive than buying bland tofu, but the quality is so great, it's an amazing price for the deliciousness it delivers. I am not aware of their prices for straight up simple tofu, so at the moment no direct comparison available. And now my top 4 Taifun Mediterranean Tofu:

Number 1: Tofu Rosso (6/5 noms) I could eat this all day, everyday. My favourite way of preparing it, is with some mushrooms and cherry tomato, then proceeding to eat it on toast. Is nice!
I have no idea why it lists pepperoni on the ingredients, as it is a vegan product. Maybe they meant pepperoncini? Or just a troll translator? Anyway I e-mailed them about this.

Number 2: Tofu Curry-Mango (5/5 noms) A really nice combination, and another superbly executed tofu. Next time I eat it, I'll be sure to chop some onions and garlics, add some tomato sauce, puree it, add the crumbled tofu and just a bit of coconut milk. Then eat it with some fragrant basmati rice. Yumyum.

Number 3: Tofu Olive (3/5 noms) It is indeed tasty. What I most enjoy about eating it are the big bits of olives omom.

Number 4: Tofu Basil (son I am disappoint) I had so high hopes for this tofu, being basil one of my favourite herbs. It was the most bland of the lot, and quite meh. I'm not saying it isn't good though, and you should definitely try it yourself. But for me, it's no match for the others. It's a matter of taste I guess!

I hope to start posting some recipes soon, stay tuned!

vegan cheese reviews and product comparison

Finally found a template, I kinda really like! Now I need to learn how to work with it, the characters seem so small. Too bad I'm uber n00b. Moving on to the cheddar.

Although there are several vegan cheese recipes on the webs, and I've tried a few ones out, I am still not pleased. As for buying vegan cheese in Portugal, kthxbai. It's pricey and not tasty. By not tasty I mean completely unedible. why? T_T

The brand in question that stole my heart is the German Wilmersburger. So far, I have tried the cheddar, and the classic versions. And I have a very seemingly tastylicious Paprika version next to me.

The cheddar version is tasty, but it's not like the dairy cheddar I remember eating. As for the classic, my caramba, it tastes JUST like the kind of cheese we normally eat in Portugal. It smells like it too. That kind of Flamengo cheese sliced.

Alright, time to talk money! In all the 3 varieties I bought, you get 6 big slices of cheese for 3,19€. You can easily make a grilled cheese, or a normal sammich with just 1,5 slices, making the cheese food cost of your tasty treat at 0,8€ a pop. Vegan cheese in Portugal is also usually more expensive. I wish they would sell this brand there. Maybe I should e-mail these guys and ask them to be a sales rep in Portugal for them, in exchange for ALLTHECHEESE!

Stay tuned for the next post on the state of Tofu.

Fist post - Being Vegan in Berlin

Welcome! This is my first blog post ever. After years of lurking other vegan blogs, I have finally decided to create my own. What I intend with this blog, is sharing with you my favourite recipes (I actually have a degree in Culinary Arts and some professional cooking experience), some of my favourite vegan eat outs, and some of my favourite products available on the marketplace.

Originally from Portugal, I am now in Berlin doing a summer internship. I don't know yet how long I'll stay but Berlin is indeed one of the most vegan friendly cities in Europe and I intend to make the best of it :)

You can see below my first bounty!

I'm going to spend some time understanding this Blogger stuff, and later I will post a review of these products and include a comparison to the products available in the portuguese market!

Thank you for sticking around :)
Hope to see you soon