Updated Recipe: Vegetarian Liver

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I'm posting an updated NUT-FREE version of this recipe, because I no longer make it the way it appeared on this blog back in 2014, due to a nut allergy.

I've been making variations of this recipe for years, and it's been a big hit with family and guests.

It IS vegetarian, so I'm sure it does not taste like REAL chopped liver, but I haven't eaten chopped liver in over 3 decades, so what do I know? It's our favorite vegetarian version, though.

I hope you'll try it out and let me know what you think!

Vegetarian Liver

1 cup water
1/2 bag frozen green beans (about 400g)
1/2 bag frozen peas (also about 400g)
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
oregano
1 cup toasted sunflower seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Place green beans, peas, and water in a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 min.

(watch to be sure you don't boil out the water, add water if needed)

Set aside to cool.

Heat olive oil in a medium size frying pan (I usually use my cast iron pan) and saute onions and garlic with oregano flakes, until caramelized and very fragrant.

Combine peas, green beans, some of the cooking water, onion/garlic mixture, sunflower seeds, salt, and pepper in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse to puree. Add more cooking water or regular water if needed.

(If you don't have a food processor, you might want to consider getting a light duty one for the times you want to make recipes like this! Here's one to take a look at that ships from within Israel (link updated 31.1.2024 so it's valid again!).)

Transfer to a container and refrigerate before serving. Serve with cherry tomatoes, pickles, olives, and crackers!

I'd love to hear what you think of this recipe!

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Sweet Potato and Carmelized Onion Kugel (GF, Pesach friendly, pareve) Recipe

Here's a really yummy way to use those sweet potatoes! I don't know about you, but I got some sweet potatoes this week for less than 4 shekels/kilo! That means a lot of yummy orange foods on our table. 

While I really love spicy roasted sweet potatoes and even sweet potato muffins, sometimes I find myself relying on the good ol' kugel to coax my family into eating their veggies - somehow the act of turning a vegetable into a kugel makes my children less attuned to their vegetable-ness...

So here's our Pesach friendly, gluten-free, pareve sweet potato kugel recipe!

my sweet potato pile

Sweet Potato and Carmelized Onion Kugel

2 LARGE sweet potatoes, diced and steamed (I use a steamer basket in a pot on the stove)

2 LARGE onions, sliced or diced, cooked in a heavy pan (I used my cast iron pan, my favorite) with olive oil till they begin to carmelize.

4 eggs
1 cup non-dairy "milk", like coconut milk, soymilk, almond milk or whatever you prefer
1/2 cup water mixed with 2 tablespoons of potato starch.
fresh basil (lots) - torn into pieces
salt and pepper to taste


 

First spread the sweet potato out, covering the bottom of the pan. Then, layer the carmelized onions on top of the sweet potatoes.

Mix the eggs, non dairy milk, water and potato starch mixture, and seasonings together. (mix very well)

Pour the mixture over the sweet potatoes and onions.

Bake for about 1 hour at 425 F. 
This kugel is best served warm, but it's decent when cold, too.

Enjoy!

Let me know what you think!

Cinnamon Cake (pareve, vegan option)

This is my new go-to cake. I make it wheat-free (using spelt flour) and nut-free.

Makes one 9 x 13 inch baking pan, or 2-3 loaf pans

2 eggs (or 4 tablespoons flaxseed mixed with 1/2 cup hot water, allowed to cool for 10 min)
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups sugar
1 cup water + 1 tsp vinegar (I made it with water and vinegar)
3  cups flour (I used whole spelt, you can make it with whole wheat or white wheat, or a mix too)
pinch of salt
3 tsp baking powder

Topping (option 1): 150g walnuts, crushed coarsley
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
 OR
Topping (option 2): 
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon oil
mix together eggs, oil, vanilla, sugar, and water-vinegar mixture. Combine flour with salt and baking powder. Slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients. Mix well to combine (this is best done with a mixer or a whisk).
Pour HALF the batter into 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
 
Mix topping together, and sprinkle half over batter. Cover with remaining batter. Cover the top of cake with remaining topping mixture.
Bake for about 1 hour at 175 C (check with toothpick to make sure it's done)
Allow to cool before cutting.
Enjoy!

Vegan Kishke

This kishke recipe was inspired by a facebook post by my friend Devra. I don't remember her recipe anymore, but she posted about making some vegetarian kishke for her cholent. I decided it needed to be healthified, and needed some garlic too, and after a few different attempts, my family decided this one worked well!

So here's my recipe for Vegan Kishke (not only vegan, but also nut-free and can be made wheat free - that's how I do it) - you'll stop buying store bought kishke once you see how easy it is!



1 onion
10 garlic cloves
6 carrots 
1/2 cup corn meal
1/2 cup oat bran or wheat bran
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
small amount of water, if needed 

Place onion, garlic, and carrots in food processor (fitted with the bottom blade) and pulse till chopped.
Add the rest of the ingredients and process for a few minutes until well combined, adding water if needed to get a smooth consistency.

Spoon 1/3 of the mixture onto a piece of aluminum foil and wrap tightly. Repeat until you've wrapped 3 kishke  packages, using up all the mixture. 

Place in freezer, and keep frozen until you're ready to use it.

To cook, add the frozen (do not defrost) kishke to your cholent pot right before Shabbat starts (I made a vegan cholent - find the recipe here). It will cook and be perfect by the time you serve your cholent for kiddush or lunch! I use one per week, unless we have a lot of guests. If you eat a lot of kishke, you'll want more than one, I assume.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try it out!

Vegan "Ice Cream"! (free of gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, nuts, and added oils!)

I miss ice cream. It's probably the hardest thing to give up when you give up dairy, at least for me. Especially when it's been such a LONG, HOT summer and everyone around me seems to always be finding their way to a scoop (or two) of ice cream!

So this week, someone suggested that we bring vanilla ice cream to a local get-together, as it would go well with all the apple-themed desserts that we're having there. And I did NOT want to be left out again, so I volunteered to create some vegan, nut free "ice cream" to share. And then I wondered if I was crazy to commit to this endeavor!

Yeah.
Well. What happened was this:

Non-Dairy Vanilla Bean Frozen Dessert
1 cup chick pea cooking liquid (reduced)*-see note below
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
2-3 vanilla beans

First, I put the chick pea liquid and cream of tartar in my mixing bowl, and set it to whip for a good 10-15 minutes.

In the meantime I put the sugar and vanilla beans into my coffee grinder and ground them up well.

Once the chick pea liquid had magically transformed, I added the sugar-vanilla bean mixture and whipped it some more. When it was all incorporated and seemed like it was as stiff as it was going to get, I scooped it out into a container, covered it, and dug out a spot for it in the freezer!


*Note: If you are using the cooking liquid from home-cooked chick peas, you will need to remove all the chick peas from the pot, bring the liquid back to a boil, and then simmer for about 1/2 an hour. You will see it "reduce" in volume by about 1/3. It should be about the right consistency at that point. Apparently, the liquid from canned chick peas is often already the right consistency. Done!

Now I just need it to freeze!

And it turns out it is not only dairy free and nut free, it's also gluten free, soy free and free of any added oils!

(I did taste it before putting it in the freezer, it was light and fluffy and very promising as a non-dairy frozen dessert!)

Have you ever tried out this new "aquafaba" technique? I'd love to hear about your creations with this amazing liquid we all just used to spill down the sink! (Making this creation "super frugal", as well!)

Vegan Black Bean Crumbles (Ground Beef Substitute) or "meatballs"

I used to buy the soy-based ground "meat" substitute to make all sorts of things - and one of my favorites was a pasta sauce that we could top with cheese.

I stopped buying that stuff for a number of reasons, but today I wanted to make that "meaty" tomato sauce.

So here's what I did:

2 cups cooked black beans, drained
1 onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
3 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
salt, pepper, dried parsley flakes to taste

Heat olive oil in a frying pan, and saute onion, red pepper and garlic, till fragrant and beginning to brown.

Combine all ingredients in food processor bowl, and pulse till you have a relatively smooth paste (you can do this in a mixing bowl with an immersion blender if you don't have a food processor).

Spray olive oil on an 8" baking pan, then spread black bean mixture in the pan.

Bake for 25 min at 200C (about 425F)

Allow to cool. When cool, crumble the mixture into tomato sauce, heat, and serve over pasta or rice. This can be used to make a taco filling or sloppy joes too. It's really versatile!

Note: You can also shape these into "meatballs" or patties for "burgers". Just shape them and place them on a cookie tray (greased or lined) and bake at 200 C for about 15-20 min, but watch them to be sure your oven isn't faster than mine!

I'll try to take a picture next time I make this! I didn't have the camera handy today, sorry.

UPDATE: Here's a picture of this recipe, made as meatballs: