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New Menu September

We begin the last quarter of the year with a new menu, which brings all the flavour of an autumn meal. Sit in our dining room or backyard if the weather allows and enjoy a delicious artichoke soup accompanied by our baked seed crackers. If you have more space, you can order our already classic lemony lentil curry!

Take a look in our Today's menu section, where you will find not only our homemade main courses but also our variety of desserts and snacks. Our kitchen is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday. Sunday until 6 p.m!

You are very far from our store but would you like to try our menu? Find us at Thuisbezorgd, we deliver throughout Amsterdam. 🚲

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Recipe of the month: Vegan Lasagna

This month we bring a delicious recipe that many of you have already tasted at our little restaurant: Vegan lasagna with melting mozzarella, from our cheese supplier The Nourishing Garden.Β  It is very easy to make and it will surprise to your not vegan guests!

Ingredients:

For tomato sauce

  • 2 onions
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 parsnip
  • 1 cup soy mince
  • 50 g tomato puree
  • 2 cans tomatoes

For Bechamel sauce

Other ingredients:

  • Lasagna sheets
  • Vegan melting mozzarella

First let's make the tomato sauce. Start by chopping the onions and garlic. Cut the carrots and parsnip to thin julienne sticks and then dice them to small cubes. You can also use food processor to mince the carrots and parsnip to save time.

Heat up olive oil in a large saucepan and cook the onions for few minutes, then add the carrots, parsnip and garlic. Keep cooking for few minutes until lightly browned. Lower the heat a bit and add the soy mince and plenty of spices, black pepper and salt. Mix well and add the tomato puree, canned tomatoes and the balsamic vinegar. Rinse the cans with some water and add in the pan. Bring the tomato sauce to boil and let simmer on low heat, mixing every now and then until everything else is ready and prepared. If necessary, add some water if the sauce gets too dry.

Meanwhile make the bechamel sauce.

Peel and chop the onion and garlic. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the onion and garlic and cook on mild heat until all starts to soften a bit. Add the flour,Β  mix very well and cook for few minutes on low heat. If the mixture feels too dry, add a bit more butter. And if it looks too wet / runny, then add a bit more flour.

All the butter should be absorbed, the β€˜dough’ should be shiny, looking like play dough and not crumbly.

Add the soy milk and mix constantly to get the butter-flour mix dissolved in the milk. Keep heating slowly, mixing continuously until it’s all smooth and starts thickening. Season with salt and pepper.

When the sauce starts to boil, lower the heat to minimum and let it bubble slowly about 5 to 10 minutes. The sauce should be thick but pourable. Add some soy milk if it’s too thick or thicken with some soy milk-flour mixture.

Once ready, check the taste and season if necessary and turn the heat off.

Lastly grate a generous amount of vegan melting mozzarella, I like to use it a lot!

Also taste, season and finish the tomato sauce.

To assemble the lasagna, lightly oil the bottom and the sides of a lasagna pan. Pour or scoop few large spoons of both sauces on the bottom of the pan, add some grated mozzarella and mix around, then cover with lasagna sheets. Continue making these layers until the lasagna is thick enough, the last layer being the sauces and loads of grated mozzarella.

Bake 180Β° 45-60 minutes until the pasta is soft. Let cool down a moment if you can resist before eating!

 

 

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New Collaboration! – The Nourishing Garden

When you think you have tasted everything in terms of vegan cheeses you discover The Nourishing Garden and say to yourself: β€œWhere have they been all this time?”

The founder and creator of this lovely artisan cheese factory is Mariluz, a passionate chef who is also interested in meditation, spirituality and leading a healthier lifestyle.Β 

When approaching the raw vegan world, she noticed that there were a lot of sweet bites but very few savory options. There was a need to fill! After experimenting with different ingredients and fermentation methods, Mariluz hit the spot! Thanks to his creativity, dedication and perseverance, today you can enjoy a wide range of vegan cheeses made entirely by hand and available in our store.

From mozzarella cheese balls, through the exquisite chèvre and the impressive pizza cheese (it really melts!) to her latest creation: feta cheese!

But The Nourishing Garden lives not only on cheeses: we also have available her water kefir in two flavours: hibiscus and natural.

Come to our store and ask for a taste! In the meantime, find out more about The Nourishing Garden and Mariluz in this interesting interview done by Flavors From The Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUJdMRUC6ak

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Recipe of July: Vegan Pasta Bolognese

Many people have asked at the store how to use the soy chunks we sell. Say no more! Here you have an easy recipe that will surprise everyone, vegan or not!

This recipe was planned for 3 to 4 portions.

Ingredients:

Start by mincing the onion and garlic. The carrots and parsnip can be grated, but personally I use a small food processor to mince them and save time.

In a pot, heat up the olive oil and fry the onions for about 5 minutes until they soften and get some light brown color.Β 

Add in the garlic, minced carrots and parsnip. Keep frying until the rest of the vegetables have soften and get some color. Next, add in all the spices you are using, mix around and also add in the pot the soy mince. Here is a tip: there is no need to soak the soy mince; this way the soy really sucks up the flavors and spices and stays crispier.Β 

Add in the puree and crushed tomatoes. Rinse the cans with water and add it in to the pot. I like to add a generous amount of homemade ketchup to tomato based sauces for the acid it needs and everyone usually has some ketchup at hand. If you don’t have ketchup use apple cider vinegar, wine or lemon juice instead.

Let the sauce simmer on low heat for up to an hour, half an hour minimum and taste.Β 

Serve with some cooked spaghetti, fresh basil and vegan parmesan.

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Recipe of June: White Asparagus with Tomato Vinaigrette

Surprise your diners with this appetizer of asparagus with hot tomato vinaigrette that we bring you this month. A very easy recipe to make that will give a fine touch to your starter.

This recipe is for 2 to 3 people. You only need very basic ingredients:

Start by peeling the asparagus carefully, making sure to remove the first layer completely. Then, cut the last 3 cms. of the stem away, as it is usually too hard to cook. Reserve for later.

Chop the onions along with the garlic in small cubes and add them in a small pot with the two tablespoon of olive oil. Stir everything over low heat and leave it for about 5 minutes or until the onion is soft. Add salt and black pepper to taste while increasing cooking to medium heat. Next, add the apple cider vinegar, coconut sugar, chopped tomatoes and stir for a few seconds, letting the mixture to boil a bit for a couple of minutes. You can add a bit of water if it looks too thick. Let it boil slowly for extra few minutes. Finally, add the herbs, a pinch of lemon juice and turn the heat off.

You can adjust the level of sourness or sweetness by adding apple cider vinegar or coconut sugar to taste.

Let's jump to the asparagus! Very easy: just put them to boil for 3 minutes, adding at least 6 teaspoon of salt to the water to let the asparagus absorb as much as possible.Β  The asparagus must be crunchy so be careful to not over boil them.

Finally, serve and decorate as you wish. We suggest accompanying this entry with a refreshing Chardonnay, totally ad-hoc for summer evenings!

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Recipe of January: Spiced Pumpkin Soup

The past few months we were serving β€˜Spiced pumpkin soup’ at Little Plant Pantry and we often hear comments like β€˜I love the spices!’, β€˜exactly what I needed’, β€˜so creamy’ and many times: β€˜can I have the recipe?’.

And as we still have plenty of cold and dark nights to enjoy warm and hearty soups like this one, I’m more than happy to share the recipe with you!

You’ll need (all organic of course):

pumpkin
Pumpkin soup

Let's do it!

There is no secret to this recipe but few tricks that make this soup so rich and full of flavors. First is to let the spices simmer slowly and a long time to release and infuse all the lovely aromas.

The second is to roast the pumpkin in the oven with some olive oil, salt, and a bit of coconut sugar. This takes the pumpkin to a whole new level with the deep, roasted, and caramelized flavors.

Start by washing the butternut pumpkin (no need to peel it for this recipe) and cutting it to smaller pieces. I cut it in half from the spot where the thick part starts. Then I cut the thick part in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon and cut in smaller chunks. The thinner part I cut to 1-2 cm rings and then to smaller chunks.

Pile all the chunks on baking tray and drizzle with olive oil, tablespoon or two coconut sugar and few pinches of salt. Then mix around and spread evenly around the tray. Bake 180Β° until it turns nicely brown and caramelized. Check it every 5-7 minutes.

Opening the oven often for quick check also releases lots of moisture so it will also roast better instead of steaming.

It is good to remember when you open the oven, that steam is hot and will burn you if are not careful.

While the pumpkin is in the oven, peel and cut the onion, garlic, ginger, and carrots. In a large pot, heat some olive oil on medium heat and throw in all the vegetables. Let them sizzle and roast for few minutes mixing every now and then, lower the heat and add the cinnamon, cardamom, star anis, cloves and ginger.

Now you’ll just need to be patience and let everything roast, bake, infuse, caramelize and so on. You know, a lot of good things are happening there, and you will smell it and probably so will your neighbors.

Just keep an eye on it, adjust the heat if needed and mix regularly, the color should deepen, and everything caramelize but don’t let it burn. I like to let it simmer for about half an hour or more.

Once the pumpkin is done roasting and the vegetables and spices have been simmering long enough it’s time to add the pumpkin in to the pot, mix around for few moments and cover with water. Bring to boil, lower the heat and let simmer for half an hour or more. Season with salt, black pepper and blend until smooth. If it’s too thick just add hot water when blending. Pour through a fine strainer to strain out any pieces of spices.

I like to garnish it with chopped spring onion, roasted pumpkin seeds and serve with our homemade crispy seed crackers.

Pumpkin soup

Should serve 3-4 people but some might want a second round so maybe it’s worth to double the recipe 😊. Personally I like to make bigger batch and freeze any leftovers to make a perfect backup lunch for a busy day.

This is not strict recipe at all, feel free to play around with the amount of ingredients and spices to your liking and let us know how it turned out to be!

Pomi