Kasha Varnishkes

Being half Russian and a quarter Polish, I enjoy my kasha (buckwheat). Here is my kasha pilaf recipe that my aunt veganized for me. This is another simple Eastern European dish that I enjoy. I think it would go good with pierogies and cabbage!

Kasha Varnishkes

* Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
* Cook Time: 20-30 minutes
* Ingredients:

• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 cup button mushrooms, sliced
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil or vegan butter*
• 1 cup buckwheat (kasha)
• 2 "egg replacers", follow box instructions*
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 cup bow-tie pasta, cooked

* Recipe:

1. In a deep skillet or large pot over medium heat, add 1 tbsp olive oil or butter and cook the onions and mushrooms until the onions are translucent.
2. In a bowl, combine the egg replacer and kasha. 
3. Add the kasha mixture to the skillet and cook until the kasha starts to toast or brown further. 
4. Next, add the vegetable stock, salt, pepper, and bring to a boil. Let the kasha cook covered until tender.
5. Add in the cooked bow-tie pasta and the remaining olive oil or butter. Combine well.

* Note: I used olive oil for my version and for egg replacer, I used Ener-G.

Chicken and Buckwheat Waffles with Mixed Berry Preserves

Happy 2011! For Christmas every year, I hand make all my presents. This year, I sewed some Christmas ornaments with cute vintage holiday tags attached, sewed some cat nip toys for people with cats, made homemade dog cookies for people with dogs, prepared my own spice mix using spices from a local spice house near my place, made my own preserves from scratch, pickled my own pickles and cocktail onions, and made my annual variety of vegan cookies for everyone. I start sewing around October and do the pickling, spices, and preserves before Thanksgiving. The cookies I make in December and freeze them until I can give them to everyone. I used my mixed berry preserves for the waffles in this recipe!

Chicken and Buckwheat Waffles with Mixed Berry Preserves 

* Prep Time: 24 hours
* Cook Time: 3 1/2 hours (2 hours for seitan, 1 1/2 for rest)
* Ingredients (for seitan):

• 1/2 cup chickpeas
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tbsp red wine
• 2 tbsp soy sauce 
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp dried mustard
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp sage
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp ground fennel seed
• 1/2 tsp ground fenugreek seed
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten flour  

• 10 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup soy sauce

* Ingredients (for fried chicken):

• 1 1/2 cup self rising flour*
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp season salt
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• pepper, to taste
• 3 "eggs" via egg replacer (follow box instructions)*
• 1/4 cup prepared mustard
• 1/2 cup water
• peanut oil, for frying

* Ingredients (for buckwheat waffles):

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 "egg" via egg replacer (follow box instructions)*
• 1 cup almond milk*
• 1 tsp white distilled vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp soy butter, melted

• fresh berries (raspberries and blackberries), to top waffles

* Ingredients (for mixed berry preserves): *

• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 1 1/2 cup sugar*
• 1/2 lemon, seeded
• 1 pound of mixed berries (blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries)

* Recipe (for seitan):

1. Combine wheat gluten and nutritional yeast flakes in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Combine all the rest of the ingredients in a blender. Blend well.
3. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the bowl. Mix well. Let the wheat gluten mixture rise for a few minutes.
4. While you wait, add the vegetable broth and soy sauce into a big pot. Mix. Do not turn on stove yet.
5. Form the wheat gluten mixture uneven semi-round masses. You want it to somewhat resemble a "steak" for the rest of the recipe.
6. Put the seitan into the pot and now turn on the stove to medium heat. Place pot cover on, but allow some room for the steam.
7. Cook for 2 hours, rotating the seitan here and there.
8. To store, keep the seitan in the broth mixture and refrigerate. 

* Recipe (for fried chicken):

1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, nutritional yeast, salt, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, combine the prepared mustard with the water. Add in the egg replacer and mix well. Add 1/3 cup of the flour mixture to this mustard mixture and blend until all bumps are gone.
3. Drain the seitan of all its liquid by squeezing it firmly.
4. Coat each seitan chicken piece with the mustard mixture completely then the flour mixture completely. Do this for each piece until finished.
5. When done, wrap in cling wrap and then foil. Freeze for up to 24 hours. This helps the seasoning stick better when you fry it.
6. Heat up a semi-deep skillet with peanut oil. Once hot, place chicken in the skillet, enough that they all fit (if you have to do batches, do that). Cover and fry all sides until golden.
7. Drain in a strainer lined with paper towels. 

 * Recipe (for buckwheat waffles):

1. Combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl.
2. In a cup, combine the almond milk and vinegar. Set aside for 5 minutes. This is your "buttermilk".
3. Combine the milk, butter, water, and egg replacer in another bowl. Fold into the dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Heat up the waffle iron. Add 1/2-3/4 cup batter into the iron and close. Wait for the iron to stop steaming. The waffle should be slightly brown and crisp.
5. Pry the waffle out of the iron with a fork. Set aside. The recipe makes 2 waffles.
6. Add the fresh berries and the preserves to top the waffles!

* Recipe (for mixed berry preserves):

1. In a large saucepan, toss the strawberries with the sugar and let stand, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is mostly dissolved, about 1 hour.
2. Squeeze the lemon over the strawberries, add it to the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until the strawberries are just softened, 5 minutes. Add the mixed berries and cook over moderate heat until the liquid runs off the side of a spoon in thick, heavy drops, 20 to 25 minutes.

* Note: If you can't find self rising flour at your grocery store, try this recipe. For egg replacer, I used Ener-G. Feel free to use another non-dairy milk other than almond milk. The preserve recipe came from this website. For the preserves, make sure the sugar is vegan!

Miss Suzy Q

Now to the cooking. When in Groton/New London, the boy and I made stir fry, though I did not take any pictures. It was pretty basic: Asian rice noodles, veggies, vegetarian stir fry sauce. We also made chicken enchiladas and margarita's at the same time, haha.

As stated before, I like to make care boxes. Here is yet another gloriously themed box, Easter! I refused to tote this crap in a suitcase across the country, so I mailed it. Besides, its more fun that way. You all know you like to get homemade packages in the mail to dig through, admit it. (I had enough stuff for him from myself and his mother and his sister - half my suitcase was his stuff, don't ask.) This is not all of what was in the box, but you get the idea. I'm going to make the boyfriend fat with all the baked goodies and candy I send, haha. I put a blueberry cake in there, which I posted about in a previous entry. For the trip, I hand-sewed a drawstring bag in old merchant looking ships (try from like 1700s) and put vegan stout cookies in it (leave me alone, they are sailors and I like themes! - hello look at my care box). Plus, I told him to share. The link is the recipe. As it states, most stout in not vegan. I used Young's Double Chocolate Stout, which is vegan. I'm starting to think it is the only vegan stout out there. The link on the "drawstring bag" text is the tutorial as to how one makes it. Also, I carried homemade fortune cookies with me all the way there. It was hard. I had to put them in my messenger bag and make sure I didn't crush them the whole trip. The things I do for baking and being super girlfriend-y!

Oh, so there was this debacle with a coffee cake I baked around this same time. It sort of went nutty on me. I'm blaming the tin baking trays I use. Nothing ever turns out in the right amount of time or the way it is exactly supposed to be in those. I need to obtain ceramic ones. Let's just say, the nice top caved inside the actual cake, it overflowed as a result in the oven, started to burn on the oven floor, caused the condo to smell like burnt cake, and overall was a mess. But, I salvaged it. I hope it is good?

This summer, I am creating an apartment balcony vegetable garden (as I'll actually be in Chicago for more than a month at a time). I have most of my necessary tools to do so. I will begin in two weeks. It is going to be all organic. My balcony is going to be oh so cute with its vegetables, herbs, flowers, little ducks and bunny garden figurines (I'm so girly, it's sickening), little mosaic solar powered lamps, miniature gas grill, and my sweet bicycle. I am going to have to industrial velcro the figurines and the lamps so they don't blow 21 floors over the edge. Eep.

Couple more links on balcony gardening: More apt. gardening, tips on how & what to grow in hanging baskets, and the Topsy Turvy Hanging Tomato basket (which I really want but unfortunately, I can not hang things). Oh, I ordered my organic seeds from Seeds of Change.

This website is incredible, by the way. I'm in love. Go vintage and old things in general.

Above is my homemade Ginger Carrot Beet (& Sweet Potato) Soup recipe. When I make my own recipes, I don't really follow any measurement levels, I just sort of go with it. So, these directions may be a bit odd, haha, but I bet it will taste good when it is done!

* Prep Time: 15 minutes

* Cook Time: 45 minutes

* Ingredients:

• 1 large beet (diced)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 of a medium onion (chopped)
• 3-4 large carrots (diced)
• 1/3rd small ginger root (minced)
• 2 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 4 cups of vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2-1 teaspoon ground ginger
• dash of onion powder
• dash of garlic salt
• dash of all-purpose seasoning
• dash of oregano
• dash of dried dill weed
• Optional: 2-3 small sweet potatoes (diced)

* Recipe:

1. Add olive oil and all the spices to medium pot. Add chopped onions and sautee until translucent.
2. While onions are cooking, peel the beet and carrots (and sweet potatoes if using). Chop 'em up.
3. As the onions begin to cook, add the garlic and ginger root to the pot.
4. Add the carrots, cook for 5 minutes.
5. Put the beets (and sweet potatoes) in and the vegetable stock. Simmer for 30-40 minutes.
6. Optional: when done cooking, put in a blender to make a puree. I was too lazy, clearly, and it was good just as it cooked.

* Notes: I used black carrots for this recipe which is why the soup base looks so beet colored (black carrots have the same coloring and dying affect that beets have). Okay, so I really like spices (I have a whole freaking cabinent of them), so don't mind me with all my dashes of this and that. You don't have to, I'm just weird, haha. Oh, I had some sweet potatoes lying around so I added those too. Not normal to this soup, I know, but it was good! Ah, and you'll notice in my picture, I don't chop too fine. I like big pieces of vegetables in my soup, but if you are putting this in a blender, I would advise to chop as small as possible.

Indian Spiced Lentils & Vegetables

* Prep Time: 15 minutes
* Cook Time: 1+ hour
* Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 bag of lentils (sorry - my mother gave me the lentils in a baggie, not sure of the measureent quantity)
• 3/4th of medium onion (chopped)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 4 carrots (chopped)
• 3/4th of a bag of green beans (chopped)
• 4 small sweet potatoes (skinned and chopped)
• 1/3rd a head of cauliflower (chopped)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes w/ juice
• 5 cups or more of vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• dash of oregano
• dash of all-purpose seasoning
• dash of dried dill weed
• dash of nutmeg
• dash of thyme
• dash of ground ginger root
• several dashes of dried sage
• dash of garlic salt
• dash of onion powder
• dash of garlic powder
• several dashes of turmeric
• several dashes of cumin
• several dashes of dried parsley
• pinch of coriander
• pinch of celery seed

* Recipe:

1. Place chopped onions and garlic in bigger pot with olive oil and the spices. Cook until the onions are translucent.
2. Add the carrots, green beans, sweet potato, cauliflower, and tomato. Cook for 5-10 minutes.
3. Add the lentils and the vegetable stock. Cover lentils + 1 more cup of stock.
4. Cook until the vegetable and lentils are soft. Keep adding stock if it evaporates.

* Notes: I didn't make mine into a soup per say, it was like half submerged or less. I also lacked a can of diced tomatoes, so I used cherry red's that I cut up and squished. Used orange cauliflower too.

Indian Spiced Potatoes & Vegetables

* Prep Time: 15 minutes
* Cook Time: 30-40 minutes
* Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 5 small baby red potatoes (diced)
• 1/2 of medium onion (chopped)
• 1/2 cup of pine nuts
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• 2-3 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
• 3-4 teaspoons of masala
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• dash of oregano
• dash of all-purpose seasoning
• dash of dried dill weed
• dash of nutmeg
• dash of thyme
• dash of ground ginger root
• several dashes of dried sage
• dash of garlic salt
• dash of onion powder
• dash of garlic powder
• several dashes of turmeric
• several dashes of cumin
• several dashes of dried parsley
• pinch of coriander
• pinch of celery seed

* Recipe:

1. Place chopped onions in medium pot with olive oil and the spices. Cook with the pine nuts until the onions are translucent.
2. Add the potatoes and mix well with masala and dijon. Add the water. Cook for 20 or so minutes.
3. Add the peas and cook until they are no longer frozen.
4. Cook until the vegetables are soft.

* Notes: So, this dish should look yellow in color, FYI. Keep adding turmeric if you wish. I personally like it a lot.

Indian Spiced Rice

* Prep Time: 15 minutes
* Cook Time: 30 minutes
* Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups of white rice
• 1/2 of medium onion (chopped)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 2 small bell peppers (chopped)
• 1/2 cup of raisins
• 1/2 cup of pine nuts
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• dash of thyme
• dash of ground ginger root
• dash of garlic salt
• dash of onion powder
• dash of garlic powder
• several dashes of turmeric
• several dashes of cumin
• pinch of coriander

* Recipe:

1. Place chopped onions and garlic in medium frying pan with olive oil and the spices. Cook until the onions are translucent.
2. In the mean time, cook your rice in a rice cooker or in the microwave or the stove (follow whatever directions you need for the device you use to cook it).
3. Add the bell peppers, pine nuts, and raisins.
4. Cook until the vegetables are soft.
5. Add to the rice - mix it up well!

* Notes: Again, this should be yellow in color. Add more turmeric if you wish. I used green bell peppers, just fyi.




I was missing curry powder for all the Indian recipes and each should have had at least a teaspoon. Add that to all the dishes if you plan on making these.

Gretschka Kasha (Buckwheat Pilaf)

So, this is a traditional Russian recipe gone vegan. My mother translated it into English for me from my aunt.


* Prep Time: 15 minutes
* Cook Time: 30-40 minutes
* Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups of buckwheat (gretschka kasha)
• 2 cups of water
• 1/2 of medium onion (chopped)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1 medium bell pepper (chopped)
• 2-3 carrots (diced)
• 1/2 bag of green beans (chopped)
• 1/3rd of a block of tofu (diced)
• 3 stalks of green onion (chopped)
• Lots of mushrooms - use a variety! (chopped)
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• dash of parsley
• several dashes of dried dill weed
• dash of garlic salt
• dash of onion powder
• dash of garlic powder

* Recipe:

1. Put the buckwheat in a large pot with water. Let it boil and then turn it down to a simmer. Keep a lid on it the whole time.
2. Place chopped onions and garlic in medium frying pan with olive oil and the spices. Cook until the onions are translucent.
3. Add peppers, green beans, tofu, mushrooms, and green onions to the onion mix. Stir fry it until the vegetables are cooked/soft.
4. Simmer the buckwheat until it is completely cooked and soft. You may need to add more water during this process.
5. When buckwheat is done cooking, add the stir fry vegetables to the pot and mix thoroughly.

* Notes: You should be able to find buckwheat with the ethnic food section of your normal grocery store. It will probably be located near the Jewish food.


Oh, over Easter, I made a carrot cake out of The Joy of Vegan Baking. It was a HUGE hit. I also made some more cornbread, also a hit. I really recommend the carrot cake, yum!


Use Tofutti for the cream cheese frosting of the carrot cake. You should be able to find it at most groceries that have a vegan/vegetarian/special diet section. If not, try a health food store.

Vegan Stout Cookies: 5/5!
Fortune Cookies: 3/5 (these were hard to make and REALLY sugary)
Carrot Cake: 5/5!
Cornbread: 5/5


Until I cook some more!