Oh My Sweet Potato Risotto.

I am on somewhat of a risotto roll at the moment. This one here is my 3rd in a week’s time. At this rate I will be a (if but self announced) risotto expert in no time! I even cooked this very same recipe over an open fire (#originalhipster) last Friday night, which added some lovely smokey undertones to the mix. Possibly as I may have burnt the onion slightly…

As you can tell, I am working hard on being able to add “great outdoorsy type” to my list of personal traits. The only problem I have found with being a GOT (yes, Great Outdoorsy Type, not Game of Thrones! So 2013!) is of course that one is bound to reek of bonfire smoke the fortcoming dayS in plural – anyone have some tricks up their sleeves on how that is avoided? Rubbing your hair in garlic cloves?

Right. A little less conversation (or monologic ramble), a little more action, as Elvis would say. He was obviously refering to cooking action.

SWEET POTATO RISOTTO

→ 2 medium sized sweet potatoes
→ 2 tbsp olive oil
→ salt, pepper, cayenne pepper (opt.)

→ 1 litre vegetable bouillon
→ 5 tbsp dairy free butter
→ 2 onions
→ 3-4 garlic cloves
→ 4 dl arborio rice
→ 1 dl white wine
→ a handful fresh or frozen spinach

Set oven to 200°C.
Cut sweet potatoes into smaller chunks, then drizzle with oil, salt and pepper. You can always experiment a bit with other spices, perhaps some cayenne, cinnamon, etc! Roast in oven for about 30 minutes.
First things first with risotto, I like to get the bouillon warmed up and ready. Leave it on low heat in a sauce pan with lid while preparing the remaining ingredients.
Then, chop onions and saute on low to medium heat until softened, about 8 minutes, adding the garlic cloves when circa 2 minutes remain.
Add rice and give the mix a good stir, before pouring the wine in. Let this cook for about 2 more minutes, before you start adding the bouillon. Add about 2 dl at a time, and make sure the liquid is absorbed before adding more. Keep stirring all the while. This will take about ~30 minutes.
Finally, add in the roasted sweet potato and spinach. Stir to mix. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Perhaps top it all of with a vegan cheese if you are in that mood. Voila!

What are your favourite things to put in a risotto? Hit me up with ideas or recipes to try!

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Also have a look at some more things sweet potato:

≥ Sweet Potato, Tahini & Roasted Chickpea Bowl.
≥ 4-ingredient Sweet Potato Falafel.
≥ Sweet Potato Pizza w/ Artichoke Cream.

ONIGIRAZU (or ‘Sushi Sandwich’) | with Sweet Potato & Fried Tofu.

So a sushi roll walks into a bar… Not any bar but a SANDWICH BAR!

What do I know, but that could perhaps have been the beginning of how the Onigirazu, or Sushi Sandwich, came into being.

Needless to say, I’m glad that it did! I stumbled over this creation in a Aqua faba-forum of the world wide web and was instantly intrigued. (I mean, how can one NOT be?!)

VEGAN ONIGIRAZU, or Sushi Sandwich (filling ideas)

→ nori sheets
→ sushi rice (I seasoned mine w/ cider vinegar and maple syrup)
→ cling film
→ pickled cabbage
→ panko breaded tofu
→ oven roasted sweet potato
→ avocado
→ spinach
→ grated carrot

HOW TO:

1. Lay your nori sheet, shiny side down, on a piece of cling film larger than the sheet itself.
2. Using wet hands, place a handful of rice in the middle of your nori and shape it into a compacted square.
3. Stack your preferred ingredients on top, before finalizing the pile with more rice.
4. Seal the four corners of your nori sheet, as you would make an envelope, around your filling. Stack one side over the other, using a little bit of water to glue them together, before continuing to overlap another side until you have a small package.
5. To finalize, bring the bits of cling film together and tie it at the top. Set the rice package aside to rest for a few minutes, giving the nori a chance to soften a little before cutting in half with a sharp knife.
And there you go! It’s not often one has such a colourful meal; I find it really appealing to look at. (Not so much that it prevented me from stuffing my face with them later, of course! 😉 )

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On another note, I’ve created a more comprehensive category system so rather than all my recipes being under “Food” they are now divided roughly into “type of meal”. xx

Sweet Potato Pizza | with Artichoke Cream.

Weekend! A marvelous time for pizza-making. There’s two pizza recipes I have stumbled over lately and wished to try, namely one made from sweet potatoes (shocker yes…) and the other with artichoke cream rather than your standard tomato sauce…

So the other week I decided to combine the two, the result is what you will find below. Of course you can just pick and mix with whatever pizza base/filling you prefer!

Let’s start off with the SWEET POTATO PIZZA CRUST, for which I used Blissful Basil‘s recipe:

→ 2 large sweet potatoes, cut into cubes
→ 1 chia egg (1 tbsp chia seeds + 3 tbsp water)
→ 2½ dl oat flour
→ ½ dl almond flour
→ 1 tbsp olive oil
→ 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
→ 1 tsp dried oregano + basil
→ ½ tsp garlic powder
→ pinch of salt, chilli flakes

1. Steam the sweet potato cubes until fork tender.
2. Create your chia egg and set aside to form.
3. Start oven at 200°C.
4. Mash the steamed sweet potato in a food processor, alternatively mash in a big bowl.
5. Add your flours, chia egg, oil, vinegar and seasonings and mix to combine.
6. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Scoop the sweet potato mixture on your parchment paper and spread into a large circle using a spatula.
7. Place in oven and bake for about 25-35 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
8. Remove from oven and let cool.
9. Add pizza toppings of your choosing (such as the artichoke cream, hey hey!) and pop back into the oven for about 5-10 minutes (depending on what you put on there of course.)

To make the ARTICHOKE CREAM you will need:

→ 1 can artichokes (à 400 grams)
→ 1-2 cloves of garlic
→ lemon, zest + about 1 tbsp juice
→ ½ dl olive oil
→ a pinch of salt, pepper

1. Drain and rinse the artichokes.
2. Mix everything together using a stick blender or mixer.

I topped my pizza with sliced courgettes, vio life’s cheese and spinach too. And burnt the edges of the crust due to using aluminium foil rather than parchment paper…

For more pizza inspiration check out: 
→ The Chickpea-zza. 
→ The Mind-changing Tomato Sauce. 

4-ingredient Sweet Potato Falafel.

It reckon about 80% of my diet consists of Sweet Potato these days…

To the extent that I even started to incorporate them in my falafels.

… Which is a darn delight, if I may say so. Let’s skip the sweet (potato) talk get straight to it!

You’ll need:

→ 1 sweet potato, baked until soft
→ 1 can of chickpeas
→ 2-3 cloves of garlic
→ 1 red onion
→ 2 tbsp ground coriander
→ 1 tbsp ground cummin
→ a few dashes of cayenne pepper
→ salt + pepper
→ sesame seeds, to garnish (opt.)

How to:
1. Start oven at 175°C.
2. Place all the ingredients together in a food processor and mix until combined.
3. Scoop up about 2 tbsp of the paste and roll into balls. Roll in sesame seeds, if using. Place balls on a tray with a baking sheet.
4. Bake for about 35-40 minutes and leave to cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

Not the most photogenic of dishes (call for a #allfalafelsarebeautiful-hashtag?) but so delish!

For more recipes using Sweet Potato have a look at:
» Thai Green Curry Stuffed Sweet Potatoes 
» Black Bean & Sweet Potato Burger
» Crunchy Sweet Potato & Satay Salad 

Sweet Potato & Roasted Chickpea Buddha Bowl | with Tahini Dressing.

I sort of “came out of the veggie closet” the other day at work, all that consumption of hummus and soy cappuccinos must have given me off. The overall reaction was the common sort of why’s and you are crazy’s and the big Q of carnivores “but what do you eat then?”

I felt a bit like well… what do I NOT eat? You know, apart from limbs from other beings etc…

And then I go home to make something as stereotypical as a bowl of veggies. But oh darn, I don’t mind being a stereotype if it tastes this good!


I follow Minimalistbaker’s recipe as a starting point, but use the following:

→ 2 large sweet potatoes
→ 1 bundle broccoli
→ 1 red onion
→ 2 large handfuls baby spinach
→ 2 tbsp coconut oil
→ 1 can of chickpeas
→ cummin
→ garlic powder
→ paprika
→ chili powder
→ ½ dl tahini
→ 1 tbsp syrup
→ ½ lemon, juiced
→ 2-4 tbsp hot water to thin
→ salt + pepper

1. Start oven at 200°C.
2. Cut sweet potatoes in halves and bake for about 10 minutes using coconut oil.
3. After 10 minutes, flip the potatoes over and add the red onion cut in wedges and the broccoli. Bake for another 10-15 minutes.
4. While veggies are roasting, toss the chickpeas with seasonings and add to a large heated skillet with 1 tbsp oil. Stir frequently until they have browned, about 10 minutes on medium heat will do the trick.
5. Mix together tahini, syrup and lemon juice. Add hot water until you have reached desired consistency.
6. Slice the potatoes in bite size pieces, divide the veg in serving bowls, sprinkle with roasted chickpeas and drizzle over tahini dressing. Enjoy!

My staple foods.

Way back in February, Frida made a post on her staple foods and I figured it was such a great concept of a post that I wanted to make one myself. (Thinking slightly of this Banksy)

So these are the groceries that are most likely to end up in my shopping basket.

The fantastic four of vegetables for me are definitely zucchini, avocado, sweet potato and mushrooms. I also tend to by plenty of broccoli (cheap, tasty, full of goods), bananas (favourite fruit) and of course ginger, onion and garlic for cooking.

I also down a pint of hot water with half a squeezed lemon each morning, so I like to stock up on those too.

I am not a big salad fan, but I adore spinach and we always have a big bag ready in the fridge for salads or working undercover in smoothies.

To bunker up on coconut cream and canned plum tomatoes are like the first aid kit for me. Not knowing what to cook? Just throw together a curry with those poor carrots that have been laying at the bottom of the fridge for the past weeks!

Same goes for rice and lentils. I also bulk buy dried chickpeas from the Asian supermarket, and use it to make hummus or blend into flour for nuggets or peazza.

A fresh basil plant often gets to adorn the kitchen window sill during the warmer months. We pinch off the full grown leaves and let the teeny ones keep growing, making sure to water it of course.

Oats are of course a must, as they are part of my daily regime and perfect to use for cookies or flapjacks when the sweet tooth kicks in.

We also get whatever plant based milk is on special, oat or soy most often.

Rice cakes and corn pasta are pretty dope to have around for us with sensitive to wheat bellies.

Soy sauce, coconut oil and vegetable bouillon to lively up the cooking…

… along with red curry paste and peanut butter aka the love of my life.

Finally, I always make sure to have some syrup, tahini and the second love of my life nutritional yeast.

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What is a must in your grocery bag? ♥

Thai Green Curry Stuffed Sweet Potatoes.

My friends and I went to this cooking class when we were in Chiang Mai. It was a great day of great food (resulting in great bellies) where one of the first steps was to create our own chili paste for some of the dishes we were to make later on. So into a massive mortar the ingredients went and our sweetheart of a chef/instructor suddenly turned into a military official and urged us to “work faster” if there was going to be any paste made within the near future.

This is of course when a piece of chili flies into my poor friend Heidi’s eye…

So for this dish, I am going with the safer option, aka sticking with the store bought green curry paste!

But fear not, it certainly does the trick in terms of spiciness. 2/3’s of the dinner party left the table as their noses started to run… As the prevailing third still sat at the table, I hope the cold I have felt creeping upon me the past days will get lost after all this ginger and spice.  
You’ll need:

→ sweet potato (1 per serving)
→ tofu
→ 2 tbsp green curry paste
→ 4 cm fresh ginger
→ 2-3 cloves garlic
→ ½ red capsicum
→ 1 can coconut milk
→ leek/spring onion
→ juice of ½ lime
→ ½ tsp cayenne pepper
→ coriander, to taste
→ oil for frying

For topping:

→ cashews
→ coriander
→ chili pepper

1. Start the oven at 180°C.
2. Cut the potatoes in half, rub some oil on the peel and place on a tray in the middle of the oven. Let bake for 40-60 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes.
3. Cube the tofu and fry for a few minutes until it starts to brown.
4. Set tofu on the side. Saute ginger, garlic, capsicum and leeks until softened.
5. Using a spoon, gently scoop the middle of the cooked potatoes and add to the frying pan. 6. Add curry paste, followed by coconut milk and lime juice and bring to boil.
7. Add tofu cubes and boil for about 5 minutes.
8. Add curry in the carved sweet potatoes, place under grill setting in the oven for ~5 minutes.
9. Sprinkle with fresh coriander, chilies and cashew nuts before serving!

The sweet in the sweet potatoes are a great opponent to the spicy curry – delicious! (Even the fussy carnivores agree!)

How are you, do you enjoy spicy foods or does your noses start running too? 😉

Black Bean Sweet Potato Burger

Having lived mainly off soups the past days our of mere laziness, I was well happy to dig into this burger last night. This is what the Mango + Ginger Salsa I posted yesterday was for!

I always use minimalistbaker’s recipe for sweet potato and black bean burgers as a starter point, but I happily just sub with whatever I have on hand. This time the mixture looked like this: 
You’ll need:

→ 4 dl mashed sweet potato
→ 2 dl cooked black beans
→ 2 dl cooked quinoa/millet
→ 1 dl buckwheat flour
→ 1 dl leek
→ 2½ tsp cumin
→ 1 tsp paprika
→ salt + pepper to taste

1. Start the oven at 200°C. Cut the sweet potatoes in half and bake until soft, for about 30 minutes, turning halfway. 2. Meanwhile, cook the quinoa/millet according to instructions. 3. Reduce oven to 190°C. Place all ingredients in a food processor and mix together. Adjust seasonings as you go along. 4. Shape the paste into patties, using about ½ dl per burger. 5. Bake burgers in the oven on grease proof paper for about 30-45 minutes, making sure to flip them over after around 20 minutes.

Serve with burger bread and toppings of choice, like avocado, red onion or do yourself a favour and try this divine mango + ginger salsa. 

Crunchy Sweet potato Satay Salad

Ever since I had that sweet potato-satay-bean-salad at Foodstory I’ve dreamt of making something similar. I’m convinced this would taste amazing using the peanut sauce I posted the other week. But lacking both peanut butter and the will to walk all the way to Holland & Barrett for a new kilogram – today will be the lazy version; using a ready made satay sauce. (Please note that these contains milk, so for a vegan friendly version use the recipe provided before.)
For a large salad, serving two, you’ll need:

• two sweet potatoes
• a batch of satay sauce
• a handful of salted peanuts
• a can of beans, like berlotti or cannellini
• spinach, rocket salad or other leafy green of choice
• spring onion (opt.)

Step one is to roast the sweet potato. Start by heating the oven, 200• Celsius. Then simply chop the potatoes up in about 2-cm chunks, sprinkle with some oil + sea salt and in the oven they go! This will take about 40 minutes; I always make sure to turn them over about half way through.

      This leaves us plenty of time to prepare the rest of the salad.

In a large salad bowl, add your leafy greens + spring onion, if you chose to add it. My number one life hack must be this: cutting the onion using a pair of scissors! Such a life saver this summer when I was making 3 cheese and spring onion several times a week at the cafe!!

      Next heat the beans + satay sauce up on medium heat on the stove. Once hot, pour the mixture in with the greens in your salad bowl. Also throw in that handful of peanuts and stir everything around.

      All left is to wait for them bloody potatoes to finish roasting. Now they may be called sweet already, but drizzling a bit of agave syrup or the likes over the ready cooked potatoes just takes them to the next level.

Mix everything together in the salad bowl. This can be eaten hot right away or cool down for a few hours before consuming.