Label For The Ginger Beer

This is not a new recipe, but just a fun example on how a simlpe think can turn into a nice gift. YES you can gift treats, food and other yummy things. This is me giving some tasty Ginger Beer away.

To make your own label your will need a good program to work with on your computer, using vector graphics is to prefer. I used Adobe Illustrator making mine. Also a good printer is a must. Then it's only your imagination that needs to be inspired and you to start making lables.

Recipe for Ginger Beer found here

Swedish Tea Bread

Healthy and traditional. This bread contains the great source of fibre, zink, iron and protein, Wheat Bran. The bread taste great warm from the oven, with only dairy free margarine or as a open sandwich for breakfast or tea.

You will need:

500ml Oatmilk, 50g Fresh Yeast (or equivilant in dry yeast), 1dl (0.4 cups) Sugar, 100g Dairy Free Margarine, 1 pinch of Salt, 1½dl (0.6 cups) Wheat Bran and 10-12dl (4 1/4 - 5 cups) Plain Flour.

• Melt the margarine and add your milk to it. Reheat to 37C / 98F.
• In a large bowl mix crumbled yeast with the warm margarine/milk liquid until the yeast has dissolved.
• Add the sugar, salt and wheat bran.
• Start working in the flour. The dough has enough flour once it starts loosening and not sticking to the inside of the bowl. You shouldn't use all the flour for the dough, it will get to solid and you will need some for shaping your tea bread.
• Leave the dough to rest under a clean kitchen towel for 30-45 min or until it's double in size.
• Knead your dough and shape it to round palm sized tea breads.
• Poke the bread with a fork before baking in the oven at 225C / 440F for 8-10min.

Vanilla Chocolate Swirl Muffins

You Will Need: (for 9-15 muffins, depending on your muffin cup size)

5dl (2 1/4 cup) Plain Flour, 2½dl (1 cup) Sugar, 1tbs Baking Powder, 2tsp Vanilla Sugar, 1-2tbs Cocoa Powder (dark european style), 100g Margarine and 350ml Soy Milk (or 100ml Soy Cream + 250ml Soy Milk)

• Melt the margarine and mix it with the soy milk (and soy cream if used).
• Mix all dry ingredients (exept for the cocoa powder).
• Then add your margarine and milk mix and whisk with a electric whisk to combine well.
• Divide your batter into 2 bowls and add the cocoa powder into one of them. Mix and add more soy milk if needed (the chocolate batter should be the same thickness as the vanilla one)
• Fill the muffin cups with 2/3 of batter, layering them for the marble effect.
• Bake your muffins in a oven preheated to 200C / 390F for 12-18min. 
• During the baking time check your muffins with a wooden tooth pick. When they are ready the tooth pick will be clean after poking the middle of your muffins.

Brands I recommend in this blog are:

• Alpo Soya, The Soy Milk
• Oatly, iMat Cooking Cream
• Fazer, Cocoa Powder

Ginger Beer aka Ginger Ale

My fiancé truly miss the Aussie Ginger Beer, it reminds him of home. So what fiancé would I be if I didn't make him some homemade fizzy drink. 

You will need:
10cm / 4inches of Fresh Ginger, 1½dl (0.6 cup)Sugar, 1liter (4 1/4 cup) Water, 1 large Lemon and 1 large Lime.

• Peel and cut your ginger into slices. 
• Juice your lemon and lime.
• Make a sugar syrup by gently simmer all the ingredients for 5min.
• Leave the syrup to soak up all the flavours and to cool for a minimun of 2hours.
• Mix 50/50 (or to your taste) syrup and soda water (or sprite). 
• Taste great to serve with lots of ice and some mint.

This recipe is inspired by and taken from the great swedish blogger Björn Gadd of Vegankrubb.

Crushed Crispy Potatoes With Greens

This is a quick lunch or dinner, filling and simple. Made with day old, left over potatoes. The crushed potatoes can be baked in the oven just drizzle with oil and spices or like in this recipe blogg just fried in a hot pan. 

You Will Need: (for 1 big/ 1 small servings)

4 Almond Potatoes / Fingerling Potatoes (Or small potatoes of your choice) Cooked with the peel left on the day before, so they are cold and firm. Vegetable or Olive oil, Salt, Black Pepper, Paprika Powder, Grill Mix Spice, 1 Large Mushroom, 1-2inch Cucumber, 1 Carrot, 4-8 Cherry Vine Tomatoes, 1 handful Of Baby Spinach and 1-2 Iceberg Lettuce leaves.

• Crush your potatoes using the back of a spatula (still keeping the peel for crispness).
• Preheat a non-stick pan and add your oil. Fry your potatoes with salt, pepper, paprika powder and optional grill mix spice. 
• Once your potatoes got a golden colour and crispy skin, take them off the heat and leave them to drain on a clean kitchen towel/ paper.
• Cut all your vegetables/lettuce for your salad and arrange on a plate. 
• Add your potatoes to the salad and enjoy.

If you want to roast the crushed crispy potatoes in the oven, drizzle with oil and add the spices. Then roast them in a oven at 220C / 430F for 20-30min or until golden. (remember to check and flip them during the oven cooking time) Theese tasty spuds can be eaten as a side dish to any tasty meal.

To know more about the potatoes have a look at:

• Almond Potatoes
• Fingerling Potatoes

Soft And Gooey Chocolate Cake

In swedish this cake is called "kladdkaka" meaning messy cake or sticky cake. The name describes it correctly, it is sticky, gooey and lovely soft chocolate cake

You will need:

175g Vegan Margarine, 2tbs Light/Golden Syrup, 3dl (1 1/3 cup) Sugar, 1dl (0.4 cup) Cacao Powder (dark european style), 3dl (1 1/3 cup) Plain Flour and 1 1/4dl (½ cup) Dairy Free Cream. (margarine and plain bread crumbs for the tin)

• Melt the margarine and add the light/golden syrup to it and mix.
• Add the sugar to your margarine mixture.
• Add that to a bowl and start adding your cacao and flour, alternating it with adding your cream.
• Mix until it's all combined into a thick and smooth chocolate mess.
• Grease your tin with margarine and sprinkle over the top with a thin layer of bread crumbs. (this will prevent the cake from sticking) Add the batter to the tin.
• Cook in a oven pre-heated to 175C / 350F for 20min. (the cooking time is calculated on a tin with a 20cm / 7.9in diameter (or 1½ liter)
• Once your cake is baked, leave it to cool before eating / flipping out of the tin. (the cake will be very runny coming out of the oven, but don't worry, that is normal and will set more once cooled)
• Serve with vegan whipped cream seasoned with vanilla and a little sugar. (making a minty vegan whip is great with this. Just add pepper mint exstract or crushed mint candies)

MEATOUT 2011

This is a special post dedicated to the Meatout 2011. My blog might help new vegans, old vegans or people just interested in a healthy diet. Eating green will help not only you, but the environment, the planet, starving people and abused and used animals.

This blog post will feature some new and old recipes for you eating a vegan diet.

This is Creamy Potato Gratain, Veg Schnitzel and Salad with a tasty vinaigrette.

You will need:

Potato Gratain: 8-10 Potatoes, 2 medium sized Onions, 1-2 cloves of Garlic, 500ml Dairy Free Cooking Cream (made from soy, oat or rice), 2 Cubes of Vegetable Stock, Pepper, Salt and Mixed Herbs (for eg. basil, thyme, marjoram and rosemary)

Salad w/ Vinaigrette: Lettuce of your choice (I use Iceberg), Tomatoe and Cucumber. (You can add the veggies that you want, I like adding avocado and red onion aswell) 1 clove of Garlic, 3tbs of Balsamic Vinegar, 3tbs of Olive Oil, Salt, Black Pepper, 1-3tbs Sugar (taste to see how sweet you like it)1tbs Mustard and 8-10tbs Water (depending on how strong you want it)

The recipe for the schnitzels can be found here.

• Start making your potato gratain.
• Peel and thinly slice your potatoes and onions.
• Mix the spices, vegetable stock and garlic with the cooking cream in a big bowl.
• Add your potatoes to the mix and then add into a oven proof dish.
• Cook in the oven at 200C / 390F for 45min-1h. Check the potatoes with a toothpick before taking them out to make sure they are cooked all the way trough.

• Mix all the ingredients for the vinaigrette in a bowl.
• Make sure you taste your vinaigrette before mixing it with the salad. Adding more spices, sugar or water depending on your taste and liking.
• Right before serving your salad, cut your lettuce and vegetables and add them to the vinaigrette bowl. If the salad is mixed to far in advance it will make the salad wither.

This is just a small amount of work for a very tasty vegan dinner. Below you can find some more, just click on the pictures/links to get to the desired recipe.

I hope this can help you make healthy and happy choices for you, your family and your friends. We here at The Vegan Swedes are more than happy to help you make good choices, so if there is anything your thinking about or if you just want to give us feedback on the blog or the recipes. Comment or email us as theveganswedes@gmail.com

Syrup Cookies

Crispy outside and chewy inside. They can also be called fudge cookies and are a very tasty treat.

You will need:

100g Dairy Free margarine, 1dl (½ cup) Sugar, 1tbs Vanilla Sugar, 2tbs Light/Golden Syrup, 2½dl (1cup) Plain Flour and 1tsp Baking Powder.

• Combine the margarine with the sugar, vanilla sugar and syrup. This step is easier if the margarine is at room temperature.
• Add the flour and baking powder to the margarine mix.
• Work the dough until it stays together, it can seem too dry when you start kneading, but keep on going and it will form a great and smooth dough.
• Divide the dough into 4 equal sized peices.
• On a oven tray with a baking sheet, roll your cookie dough into long rolls. (doing 2 rolls on one tray, otherwise they will melt together) Gently push the rolls with your fingers, to just slightly flatten them.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes in a oven preheated to 175C / 350F (the cookies are ready once they get a light golden colour)
• Once the cookies are out of the oven, cut them on a angle. This has to be done right away, if not they get hard and can't be cut at all.

Cauliflower & Broccoli Canneloni

This is a veganised canneloni recipe made with tasty vegatables, "creamy cheese sauce" and smooth tomato passata.

You will need:

1 packet of Egg-Free Canneloni tubes. 

Canneloni Filling: 1 small-medium sized Cauliflower head, 1-2 small-medium sized Broccoli heads, 2 Garlic cloves, Chilli Flakes, Salt, Pepper, 1-2 vegetable Stock Cubes and Water.

Tomato Sauce: 1 jar/tin (approx. 500-700ml) Passata Tomatoes (or smooth/mixed crushed tomatoes), 1-2tbs vinegar, 1tbs sugar, Salt and Pepper.

Creamy Cheese Sauce: 50g Dairy Free margarine, 250ml Vegan Cooking Cream, 3tbs Plain Flour, 500-800ml Water, 2 Vegetable Stock Cubes, Salt, Pepper and Parmazano Powder (or other vegan cheese, this step can be skipped)

• Cut your cauliflower and broccoli into chunks and gently boil in lightly salted water until just soft enought to mix. Drain the water off the cauliflower and broccoli(save some liquid). Mix until smooth and add your chilli flakes, garlic, salt, pepper and vegetable stock. If your mix is just too thick add some of your cooking liquid from the boiling earlier until smooth and muddy texture. Let the cauliflower and broccoli mix gently simmer for a few minutes, just for the spices to come out more. Taste! Add more spices if needed. 
• Let the mixture cool down.
• In a ovenproof dish add your passata, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Mix it around and taste.
• Start filling your uncooked canneloni tubes with the cauliflower and broccoli mixture. Layer them evenly on top of your passata.
• Melt your margarine for the cheese sauce in a saucepan. Add the plain flour and whisk into a paste. Start by adding your cooking cream and vegetable stock cubes. Mix and keep on adding water slowly during the cooking until you get a thick but still runny sauce. Add your salt, pepper and vegan cheese powder (or cheese of your choice)
• Taste!
• Pour the sauce on top of the canneloni and cook in the oven at 200C / 390F for 30-45min. The top should be golden and the pasta al dente. (test the pasta with a toothpick)

Brands I recommend in this blog are:

• Oatly, iMat Cooking Cream (made from oats)
• Life Free From, Parmazano, Grated Hard Cheese Replacement

Vegan Waffle Day

According to Swedish tradition March 25th is Waffle Day, but we cheated and had some before. This recipe can be used to make both sweet or savoury waffles. 

You Will Need:

2½dl (1cup) Water, 2dl (0.8cup) Dairy Free Cooking Cream or Non Dairy Milk, 1 pinch of Salt,  3½dl (1½cup) Plain Flour, 2tsp Baking Powder, ½dl (1/4cup) melted Dairy Free Margarine.

Sweet Toppings: Vegan Whipped Cream, 1tsp Sugar, 1tsp Vanilla Sugar (or vanilla essence) and Raspberry Jam (or Strawberry Jam).

Savoury Toppings: Vegan Sour Cream, Salt, Pepper, Red Onion, Chives, Dill and Seaweed Caviar.

(Waffle iron to cook your waffles in)

• Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. While whisking add the liquids. (the melted margarine must have cooled down before adding to the batter) Keep on stirring while adding to avoid the batter getting lumps.
• Leave the batter to "swell" for 5-10 minutes.
• Whip your vegan whip cream with the sugars or if you are making savoury waffles mix your sour cream with salt, pepper, chives and dill.
• Now that your waffle batter has rested, cook them in your hot waffle iron.
• Eat the waffles warm straight out of the waffle iron.

Brands I recommend in this blog are:

• Alpro Soya, Soy Milk
• Go Green, Whipped Cream
• Tofutti, Sour Supreme
• Abba, Seaweed Caviar

Picture of savoury waffles

Shepards Pie

Mashed potatoes has to be one of my favourites, then put it in the oven so it gets a golden top, even better! This is my recipe for a great and hearty VEGAN shepards pie.

You Will Need:
Mash: 8-10 Potatoes, Salt, Pepper, Dairy Free Margarine, Vegan Cooking Cream and Nutmeg.
Mince: 400-600g Vegan Mince (or TVP), Salt, Pepper, 2 Carrots, handful of Peas, Mushroom Soy Sauce, 200-400ml Water and 1-2 Brown Onions. (1tbs Plain Flour mixed with 100ml Water)
(Large oven-proof dish and oil for frying)

• Peel your potatoes and boil them in water with some salt until soft.
• While the potatoes are cooking, peel your carrots and onions. Cut them into even chunks.
• In a pan heat your oil. Gently fry your onion and carrots for a few minutes. 
• Add your mince, salt, pepper and mushroom soy sauce. Also adding 200-400 ml of water. Let the mince gently simmer until the carrots are soft.
• Now add your peas and let it all simmer a few more minutes. Add your flour and water mix if you desire a thicker and creamier mince.
• Taste and spice more if needed. You might also have to add more water if most of the liquid had been evaporated during the simmering.
• Mash your potatoes and add margarine and cooking cream until soft and smooth. Spice your mash with salt, pepper and a few pinches of nutmeg. Taste!
• Now assemble your shepards pie with the mince mix on the bottom and gently spreading the mashed potatoes on top.
• Cook for 20-30min (or until golden) in a oven pre heated to 200C / 390C.

Bulgur Salad

Cooking won't get easier than this. Simple and very tasty bulgur salad.

You Will Need:
Bulgur, Salt, Pepper, Garam Masala Spice Mix (or 5 spice), Paprika Powder, 2 inch Cucumber, 1 Tomato, 1 Red Onion and Iceberg Lettuce.

• Cook 4 portions of bulgur, according to the directions on the packet. But add your salt, pepper, garam masala (or 5 spice) and paprika powder to the boiling water.
• Start cutting and preparing your greens. Slicing your red onion very thin.
• Once the bulgur is ready and has cooled down slightly add that to your greens and mix them all toghether.
• Now it is ready to serve. As a meal on its own with a slice of bread or as I do with a side of guacamole. This can also be served as a side dish.

Vanilla Buns

This sweet bun, or scroll, can be filled with various sweet fillings. All from cinnamon, cardamon, almond paste and blue berries. But my favourite is vanilla. YUM!

You will need:

Dough: 150g Dairy Free Margarine, 500ml Vegan Milk, 50g Fresh Yeast (or dry yeast equal to 50g, read on packet), ½tsp Salt, 1½dl (½cup) Sugar, 2tsp Cardamon (powder) and 1.3 L Plain Flour.

Filling: Dairy Free Margarine, Sugar and Vanilla Sugar

Topping: Vegan Milk and Pearl Sugar

• Melt your margarine and add your milk to it. Heat until finger warm (37C / 98F)
• Dissolve the yeast with the milk/margarine liquid in a big bowl. Add salt, sugar, cardamon and around 2/3 of the plain flour.
• Work the dough until shiny and add more of the flour. Saving 1-2dl (½-3/4cup) for the rolling of the dough later on. The dough is ready when it isn't sticking to the sides of the bowl longer.
• Sprinkle with flour and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Leave to rise in room temperature with out a drag until the dough has doubled in size. (approx. 30-50min)

• Once your dough has risen, put it on a floured work bench and knead.
• Cut the dough in half and roll with a rolling pin. Leaving it around ½inch thick and square shaped.
• Spread your soft dairy free margarine over the square dough and sprinkle with alot of sugar and vanilla sugar.
• Roll up the dough and cut into even sizes. (sometimes the ends will be a little smaller and can be put two in one paper)
• Lay them with the cut side up in individual paper baking cups. (if you can't find paper cups with a low edge you can bake them just on a parchment paper)
• This recipe should make between 45-55 vanilla buns.
• Now leave them to rise in their paper cups, until they have doubled in size.
• Brush them with your vegan milk of choice and sprinkle with pearl sugar.

• Bake for 8-10 min in a 225C / 440F  convection oven (fan based) or 250C / 480F Conventional / Deck Oven.
• They are ready once they get a light golden colour.

If you feel like trying a new filling simply change the vanilla sugar for cardamon, cinnamon or blueberries.

Brands/Products I recommend in this blog are:

• Alpro soya, Soy Milk.
• Vanilla Sugar
• Pearl Sugar. It can be ordered online (to buy in the US)

Crispy Dumplings

You might know them as Gyoza or Potstickers, either way I know them as delicious! 

You will need:

Dough: 2 cups of Plain Flour and 1/2 cup luke-warm Water

Filling: 1 Carrot, 1 clove of Garlic, 1 inch of Leek, 1/4 Chilli Pepper, 1-2tbs Fresh Ginger, 1/4-1/2 White Cabbage Head, 3-4 medium sized Mushrooms, Black Pepper and 2-4 tbs Mushroom Soya Sauce. (plain vegetable oil for frying and water for steaming)

• Start by preparing your filling. Finely chop or grate all the ingredients and add the spices. 
• Taste your filling, it should have alot of flavour. If not add more of the pepper, soya sauce or ginger. To your taste.
• Now make sure you have a surface to put your dumplings after you have filled them. Sprinkle that area with flour to prevent the dumpling from sticking later on.
• Mix the plain flour and warm water for your dough, make sure you use warm water, that will help keep the dough elastic and soft. (I usually cheat and make my dough just by feel, first adding the flour and then water until i got a dough that is as soft as possible without falling apart or being to sticky)
• Work your dough until it's smooth and silky on a floured work bench.
• Now start making the dumplings.
• This stage is alot easier and quicker if one person rolls the small round balls of dough into the round wrappers and another person helps to fill and close the dumplings. (when filling and closing the dumplings: hold the dough in one hand and fill the round and thin dough with maybe 1tbs of filling in the middle of the wrapper. Then close the dumpling after gently brushing water onto half the round with a finger)
• Line your filled dumplings on the area prepared with flour, with the flat side down, leaving the seam sticking up. (a trick to get a nice seam is to push your dough toghether while filling and then using a sissor to cut a nice clean seam)

• In a large non-stick pan add a small amount of oil, when the oil is hot add your dumplings. Flat side down.
• You might have to turn the heat down to prevent them from burning. Now leave them in the pan and just gently move them around (still flat side down) Once the bottom has become golden and crispy add water. But just enough to cover the bottom of the dumplings.
• Now gently steam them under a lid until the dough starts looking transparent and most of the water has evaporated. (Add more water if your dumplings need a longer cooking time in the steam)
• Now let them cook without the lid until all water is gone and the dumplings are back to being crispy on the bottom.
• Serve your dumplings crispy side up with rice and a dipping sauce. Either bought sweet chilli or home made sauce. (soya sauce, vegetable oil, rice vinegar, fresh ginger, garlic and chilli)

• How to wrap your Dumplings/ Gyoza/ Potstickers

Swedish Sandwich Cake aka SmörgåsTårta

This is my own vegan version of the swedish classic, smörgåstårta.  The sandwich cake dates back to before the 1940 and are a common thing to serve on occasions as birthdays, midsummers eve, anniversaries and other big holidays.

You will need:

1 pre-cut loaf of white square bread, Vegan Mayonaise, 2 Vegan Sour Cream (Tofutti Sour Supreme), Dairy Free Margarine, Vegan smoked Ham or Bacon, 250ml dairy free cooking cream (or Aplro Soya Natural Yoghurt), Tartex Vegetable Paté w/ Herbs, Cornichons (also know as gherkins), Salt, Pepper, Paprika Powder, 1 Apple and 2 inches of Leek.

For Decoration:

Lettuce leaves, Lemon, Radishes, Cucumber, Dill, Cherry Tomatoes and Vegan Seaweed Caviar.

Mix for first layer

Ham and apple layer

• Peel and cut your apple into cubes. Add them into a mixing bowl.
• Dice your vegan ham.
• Clean and cut your leek into small pieces.
• Add into the apple bowl and mix with 1 tub of your vegan sour cream,1-3tbs of vegan mayonaise, paprika powder, salt and pepper. 
• Taste!

Mix for second layer

Herbed Paté and cornicons layer

• Empty the tube of tartex vegetable paté into a bowl.
• Cut your cornichons (or gherkins) in small chunks and add them in with the paté.
• Add ½ tub of Vegan sour cream, 1-3tbs vegan mayonaise, salt, pepper and 100ml of dairy free cooking cream (or Aplro Soya Natural Yoghurt).
• Taste!

• Cut the crust of your square white bread and figure out what size you want and what tray you are using for your cake. I used 7 squares of bread laying 2x3½ slices.
• Spread the dairy free margarine on your first layer of bread. (this stage is important as the margarine prevents the bread from going soggy and works as a glue keeping your cake together)
• On top of your margarine covered bread, spread the first layer filling.
• Layer another layer of crust-less bread over the first filling.
• Also spread this layer with the dairy free margarine and then covering with the filling for layer two.
• Now do your last layer of bread and margarine.

Mix for top cover layer

Margarine, mayo and sour cream cover.

• Mix your remaining ½ tub of vegan sour cream, 4-6tbs vegan margarine, 100-150ml vegan cooking cream (or Aplro Soya Natural Yoghurt) and 1-3tbs vegan mayonaise.
• Add salt and pepper.
• Taste.

• Now here starts the real fun part of the cake.
• Spread your cake evenly with the top cover layer and start to decorate it.
• I usually use the lettuce leaves as the border around the cake and then let your imagination have a little fun and create the cake that looks the most appealing to you. Using things like the vegan seaweed caviar, lemon, cherry tomatoes, dill, cucumber and more.

Brands I recommend in this blog are:

• Alpro Soya, Cooking cream and Yoghurt Natural Flavour.
• Tofutti, Sour Supreme.
• Abba, Seaweed Caviar.
• Tartex, Vegetable Paté.