It's Yummy Tea Time

Dear awesome you! 

It's so hot that all that you want is to chill in a very cold swimming-pool. 

I totally understand :)

Hot doesn't mean no snack. It may mean no tea, but no way to miss delicious pancakes!

** Wonderful Pancakes **

 (for 12 pancakes)

1 cup whole wheat flour (Mitsides flour = Perfect)

1 Tsp baking powder

2 Tsp of muscovado sugar

 a pinch of salt

1 cup vanilla soya milk 

1 Tsp vanilla extract

2 Tsp coconut oil + oil for the pan

In a bowk, whisk together the flour, the baking powder, the sugar and the salt.

Pour all the liquids (soya milk + vanilla + coconut oil) into the dry mixture. 

Mix until smooth and fluffy.

When the surface of the lighly oiled pan is hot enough that a drop of water sizzles on contact, you can start cooking the pancakes.

 

Enjoy your tea time & its amazing snack !

Bon appétit !

*

Three legumes' summer salad

Dear awesome Vegans!

Craving for easy cooked food? Check the recipe below: fast & delicious!

Three legumes' summer salad

50 g of red lentils (organic if possible!)

50g of greens lentils (organic is better)
50 g of black eyed peas
1/2 onion
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/2 raw zucchini
olive & balsamic vinegar/ Salt & pepper (to taste of course!)

Rinse legumes and be careful to pick over for bad peas or small stones!

To cook the lentils and the peas, always follow the instructions, but don't forget to taste if it's enough cooked for you.

To prepare the black eyed peas, it's better to leave them overnight in a bowl full of water (in order to rehydrate them and to make them smotther!)

I usually eat this salad for lunch whenever I exercise on afternoons (Yoga Power!).

Enjoy your meal & your day!

Easy coming back

Warm holidays & chilling = light & simple salad mood!

Spiced tofu salad

seasonal, light & simple

75 g of Philosophen Tofu

/4 of an onion, cut in small cubes

4 slices of one unpeeled zucchini

4 small long tomatoes

a pinch of oregano

4 sliced black (Kalimata) olives

olive oil & balsamic vinegar/ salt & pepper

Tofu will match perfectly with tomatoes and rocket salad. You will find organic Philosophen Tofu in every good shop in Cyprus. Enjoy your lunch!

It's Apricot season

Dear awesome Vegans!

It's Apricot season in Cyprus. It's also time for baking pies :)

You will never need any cow butter to bake a delicious pie... check this here!

Ingredients

(for one pie)

200g of whole wheat flour

(or 150g of whole wheat flour + 50g of chesnut flour)

20g of muscovado sugar

10cl of water (can be replaced by vegetal milk)

5cl of vegetal oil (I use coconut oil)

a pinch of salt

Mix flour, sugar and salt. Then, add water and oil. Gently press the dough into a ball.

The dough needs to rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (1 hour is even better, if you can resist! ;).

Remove the dough 15 minutes before working quickly on it.  First, generously dust a clean, dry surface with flour. Then, Start rolling at the center of the dough and work outwards. Roll the dough into a circle. 

I generally bake the pie 10 minutes at 180°C before adding the fruits.

I also cook separately some fruits before baking them on the pie.

Bon appétit!

Amazing Carob Cake

Dear Vegan food lovers!

Carob* is very famous on Aphrodite's island. You can find it everywhere. 

In the past, our grandparents, when their families could not afford chocolate, they were cooking with carob. The carob can be replaced by chocolate in this amazing recipe, but it's one hundred times better with carob.

Amazing carob fondant (Marie's recipe)

340g of silken tofu

90g of organic white flour

100g of coconut sugar

60g of carob powder

3/4 tsp of salt

few pinches of cinammon

1 shot of warm espresso coffee

80g of virgin coconut oil

Mix all together and bake it at 200°C for 25/30 minutes. When the cake is in the oven, it needs a lot of attention in order to be very fondant!

Pic to come ;)

Bon appétit!

*Did you know that the word "carat", the unit for gemstones, refers at the orgin to "carob". 

Friday night apéritif

Dear Vegans, Vegans-to-be and Vegan-friendly!


It's Friday night: time to relax and to enjoy even more life!
You want to impress your friends while having a drink together at your place.
You can cook a very quick and delicious dip: mouhamara.
It's a traditional lebanese recipe, which is already vegan (lebanese cuisine is awesome), but I adapted it to my taste.

Mouhamara (Marion's way)

3 roasted red peppers

1 cup of blanched almonds 

(blanched = with no skin. 

If you want to learn how to blanch almonds: here we go)

(Lebanese cook it with walnuts, 

but I prefer it with almonds!)

4 tsp of extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp of pomegranate molasse

3 minced garlic gloves

To taste:

a pinch of red chili

a pinch of salt

a pinch of black pepper

a pinch of cumin

[Some people also had 1 tsp of bread-crumb. But not me :)]

Wash the red peppers. Rub off membranes & seeds. 
Then, place them in the oven at 210°C and roast them for half an hour. Rinse them under cold water. Then, drain them. Wait until they are cold. Remove their skin.

In the food processor, mix the almonds first, then all the other ingredients. 
Drizzle the dip with olive oil and garnish with some almonds. It's time to enjoy it!

Tip 1: If you can, cook it one day in advance: it will be more tasty :)

Tip 2: If between 8 to 12 hours before the recipe, you presoak the almonds into a bowl of water, you'll increase the vitamins C, B, etc! It will also help your body to assimilate magnesium, potassium, calcium, zinc & iron.

Tip 3: I love eating mouhamara as a dip for fresh vegetables as salad leaves, carrot or cauliflower. Yummy!

Picture to come: I ate it too quickly ;)

Bon appétit!

Where to eat vegan in Cyprus?

Not an easy question!
Where to go to avoid Souvla or even the boring omnipresent Village Salad?

It's difficult to accept for a vegan to go to places where thet do sell meat, cheeses, eggs...but I guess that here, in Cyprus, you don't have the choice, do you? Except in Limassol, at the excellent Fico café, the only 100% vegan restaurant of the island. Unfortunately at 1 hour from my place :(

The restaurants I like and I recommend in Nicosia are:

* Inga's Veggie Heaven : a paradise for vegetarians, not perfect for vegans, as there are only 1 or two options available. But very good food. Not gastronomic, but family-made.

Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday 9:30 a.m to 5:30 p.m (No dinner yet unfortunately!)

The boring thing: only cash accepted (and the closest ATM is 10-minutes'walk!!! Don't forget your money!)

* The Syrian-Arab Friendship Club is one of my favourite place in Nicosia. The atmosphere is very kitsh. You will see belly dancers on Fridays and Saturdays. This place is the paradise for vegans! The service is great: they allow you to change the mezze according to what you are eating. So you can order ONLY vegan stuffs as delicious baba ganoush (grilled aubergine caviar), tasty magmour (aubergine salad), my favourite: mouhamarah (dip with red peppers, walnuts & pomegranate juice), amazing falafel balls with an extraordinary tahini sauce, great taboule salad, great fattoush salad...and they bake their own syrian pitta (so very fresh & tender)!

Sawa restaurant has the same owner. But according to me, the Syrian-Arab Friendhip Club has better food.

* 48 Bistro is the only restaurant in Nicosia where there is one page full of vegan dishes. I don't recommend the vegan burger nor the sweet and sour dish. Otherwise, nice experience. The guacamole is just perfect (I heard that the manager is Mexican)! Cocktails are great.

* India India has two vegan curries. My favourite one is the vegetable curry (vegetables cooked in curry sauce with tomatoes) [6.50€]. There is also vegetable jalfredi (vegetables cooked with onions, tomatoes & capsicums) [7.00€] and dal tadka (yellow lentils) [6.50€]. I also recommend their garlic naan!

* Sushi Yum Yum is according to me the best sushis place in Nicosia. My favourite dish there is NFM Roll (outside tempura flakes inside shitake Mushrooms, wakame salad, secret sauce and roasted brown sesame seeds). [8 pcs: 7.50€]. There is another vegan option "The single vegetable roll" (inside cucumber or carrots or avocado), but really less tasty.

*If you are lost in the Old Town with your friends - unfortunately craving for a meaty meal-, you can go with them to Anamma. Book in advance, as they have a lovely court/garden, where you forgot that you are in the Ledras street. On Fridays and Saturdays, you will have the chance to enjoy your dinner while listening some Greek songs.
I highly recommend the Ledras Salad (figs, dried apricots, walnuts and an amazing dressing with pomegranate melasse. Really cheap (it looks like a fast food from outside, but the food is much better!) They also make a delicious nestisima plate with some grilled vegetables skewers and some AMAZING fried potatoes. Sometimes you can also get some zucchinis fritters (with no egg and no cheese, but ask to be sure. Enemy is everywhere ;)

* Oi Koumbaroi is a traditional taverna in Engomi, a bit far from down town but really worth going there! You need not to be frightened by the meat (7 dishes of meat in the mezze). Vegan, you can have delicious tahini, tasty fried vegetables (especially the mushrooms with lemon juice on the top), fried courgettes, really good roasted pita bread with lemon and origano, and good french fries. The owner, who looks like the Cypriot Santa Claus, is really nice and classy, always very dedicated to vegans!

*D.O.T have very nice brunch on Saturdays and Sundays. Come at 11 a.m as the place is very trendy and does not accept any booking. I recommend the berry smoothie (made with coconut milk and oats) and the vegetables foccacia: you have to ask it without cheese.

I'll carry on that post when I get new addresses. Please feel free to share the places you love to go. It will help a lot all the vegan community in Cyprus.

* The places I need to try in Limassol area:

Smoothie & Sweety Pissouri Bay. Have you ever been there?


Enjoy your cruelty-free meal!

Very easy & extremely flavored crêpes

Dear food lovers!

Tonight, I'm preparing for one of the cooking classes that I will give in few weeks and I wanted to share one of the recipes I'll cook with you on that day: crêpes or French pancakes!

They are thin and delicate. You can accommodate then with sugar, jam, chocolate, etc. But they are so good without anything as well.

Very easy & extremely  flavored crêpes 

200 g of whole meal flour

30 g of cornstarch

20g of brown muscovado (cane sugar)

2/3 liter of vanilla soy milk

20 ml of coconut oil

20 ml of orange flower blossom

A teaspoon of vanilla essence

¼ of a teaspoon of salt

In a large bowl, 

sift together all the ingredients, 

except the vanilla soy milk. 

Then, beat the mixture with an electric mixer, 

while slowly adding the vanilla soy milk.

Heat a lightly oiled (with coconut oil) griddle 

or frying pan over medium high heat.

Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle,

using approximately 4 tablespoons for each crêpe.

Tip and rotate pan to spread batter 

as thinly as possible. 

Brown on both sides and serve hot.

                                   Bon appétit !

Looking forward meeting you

How to sort out your casein addiction?

The happy road to vegan cheeses!


Dear food lovers!

Dear confirmed vegans or vegans-to-be!

When I started to be vegan, I did it overnight. Even though I had been vegetarian for almost 15 years, I was kind of lost and I didn’t know what to eat, except vegetables and fruits: how boring!!! At the beginning of this transitionning time, I was so much in love with cheese. My friends used to called me "Mademoiselle Camembert". 

I had to quit eating cheese up and it was as hard as to quit smoking or drinking! But I’m the kind of person who does according to my brain decisions. I quickly learnt how to cook dairy-free cheese with everything that I could find: cashews, almonds, etc. (I will write about these great recipes as soon as I can). Although you can definitively not compare vegan cheese (nut cheese, "vromage" or "faux-mage" which means "not-real-cheese") to dairy cheese (fromage), me, a French in love with very stinky cheeses, found happiness.

If you are a bit lazy to cook them, there are some processed cheese sold in organic shops and even in supermarkets in Cyprus (it doesn't mean that I encourage you to go in these places of mass consumerism! Prefer organic shops!). It's a pity that none of the processed cheeses sold here is locally produced: they mostly come from Greece (so happily not from the other side of the planet!).I recommend these two: 

For eating like that or in sandwiches or wraps

For pizza or any menu in need of melted cheese!

I will try my best to actualize this article in order for you to know what processed vegan cheese is the best.

 While discovering some websites which really inspired me (100% végétal, Antigone XXI, Mlle Pigut, VG Zone…), I realized that Marie, one of my highschool friends had become a vegan chief and a true star of veganism with her blog and books. I remembered our time together and laughed a lot as we used to warm our tasteless and processed cheeses in the microwave of the school during lunchtime. We were almost fired from the canteen as it was too smelly!!!! Cheese was my passion. But I’m so glad not to eat cheese anymore, especially since I discover how much cruelty was linked to cheese production. I couldn’t have it since.

I highly recommend you to watch Cowspiracy. If you are not convinced by the Vegan way of life, you will be.

Enjoy your Vegan meals and life!
Take care!

Big Vegan day

Today is the big day: I decided to officially launch my Vegan cooking lessons!
I cooked for my friends and family. I taught some of my friends how to cook and now I wanted to share my passion for cruelty-free food and to give the opportunity  for some of you to learn how to cook vegan cuisine.

I'm looking forward meeting you!

If you want to register, all the details are here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/492852704245577/

Cyprus vegan

Being Vegan in Cyprus: what a nightmare, you will think!

It’s a bit true at the beginning: I must admit that I was quickly bored of eating Village salads (tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce and some timid onions) and tahini!

I felt that I was persecuted by Souvlakia and other meats. The meat smoke can be everywhere in Cyprus. The climax was during Tsiknopemti (“The Thursday of Tsikna”), the day of meat smoke – 40 days before the Greek Orthodox Easter, when I could not hide anywhere… Some even say that if we look at the Island from the slky, it disappears under a huge smoke cloud! So nice…

Vegan Zombie must eat GRAINS!

Then, I discovered the taste of Cyprus vegetables (the kind of tomatoes that really smells like tomatoes and which is….surprisingly red!), the farmers’ markets* and my life changed. I tried a lot of fruits and vegetables that I had never eaten before: loquat, pepino, taro, etc.

I also found very nice places to have lunch and dinner: Inga’s Veggie Heaven, Utopia (on Fridays), Bistro 48, etc. I will try my best to give you soon some tips in order to be a Vegan Cypriot!

My Vegan attitude could not stop and I decided not to convert all Cypriots to Veganism: that would be impossible, I guess. But I wanted to share my passion for delicious cruelty-free food. It’s why I decided to teach how to cook Vegan food! That’s how the whole adventure started!

* There are two farmers'markets in Nicosia:

- the Oxi Square Market, on the Avenue Konstantinou Palaiologou, on Constanza Bastion, in the Old town, every Wednesday and Saturday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.

- the Organic Market, organised by Riverland Bio Farm, close to Jumbo Nicosia, every day.