Homemade vegetarian "deli meat"

The other day I baked dinner rolls to have as a simple supper with Gouda cheese that we got from a relative abroad. After being deprived from Dutch cheese for so long, there's nothing better than just a bun or sandwich with cheese! 

And then I thought of something else we regularly had on a bun/sandwich, especially in our leaner periods. That was deli meat. Only, I usually made it myself. "Real" deli meat was quite expensive, especially the ones that weren't heavily processed. And we wouldn't eat just any meat anyway for religious reasons, the ones suitable for us were either ultra processed or expensive. There were also the vegetarian substitutes, which were ok but still quite processed. So after some trial and error I came up with my own homemade version. While we can afford more now, and having moved to Tunisia, there are no issues with supermarket meat anymore, I still like to control what's in our food I guess 😀 So I decided to make us some deli meat to have alongside the cheese. 

It was a long time ago (as in, years...) that I made these and I don't think I've written down this recipe, I tried to do my best to come close to my own original recipe and it really worked out well. 

Here's the recipe: 

Half a cup of water

2 eggs

3 heaped spoons of chickpea flour 

3 heaped spoons of all purpose flour (or whole wheat) 

2 bullion cubes for a somewhat meaty taste (for a stick vegetarian version, use vegetable or mushroom bullion)

1/3 cup of oil of your choice, I used olive oil to make it healthier

A spoonful of tomato paste 

More seasonings: onion powder, ground cumin, dried parsley, black pepper, garlic paste 

Dissolve the bullion cubes in very hot or boiling water. Then add to that the chickpea flour and stirr well (using a whisk) until there are no lumps. Then add the eggs, the oil, seasonings and tomato paste. Mix well. Then add the flour. The mixture should still be a bit liquid but not too runny, probably similar to a pancake batter. Then take some plastic wrap (about 50 cm/19 inch long) and pour it onto the wrap, then wrap it tightly, make a knot on the sides so that no batter can come out. Cover the plastic wrap with aluminum foil, and let it steam for around 45 minutes. Let it cool off completely before taking the "sausage" out of the wrap. 

Then use however you like- it's not limited to sandwiches: I used it a lot in pasta salad, for example. There you have your meat alternative without all the weird ingredients. 

Doesn't it look delicious? 

After slicing

No wasted milk - and turning muffin batter into pancake batter

The other day, my husband did an attempt to make buttermilk for my mother in law. The thing is, it just didn't settle. It was probably the chilly living room temperature (despite the jug with milk being covered in a thick blanket). Or he didn't use the right amount of yogurt. Whatever it was, we were left with one litre of milk- not tasting good enough to drink as is, nor suitable to use as buttermilk. So I figured it would be best to use for baking. Most baking recipes are very forging when it comes to the milk you're using- I've used spoiled milk, plant "milk" (such as rice/oats), very watered down milk, watered down yogurt or even whey. So I knew it was possible to use this failed buttermilk for baking. 

Baking pancakes was a no brainer, but I already made quite a large batch of pancakes that I froze to have a quick breakfast. And we had waffles two days ago. So I thought it would be better to make something different. Muffins it was- the children are always happy to have a nice after school snack anyway. I usually use white flour when baking muffins but I was in for something more adventurous today and decided to use a mix of white flour, whole wheat flour and oat flour. I used half of the milk but there was some batter left over, since I didn't have enough muffin molds. So I added more milk and flour mixture to bake another batch of "muffins", in a cake pan. Sometimes you just need to be creative, right?

And then, there was *still* some batter left- I was afraid the cake would rise too high and I'd end up with a messy oven if I'd add all of the batter into the cake pan. So, I used my trick to turn muffin batter into pancake batter, by adding around 1/2 cup of flour and as much liquid as needed. This is because muffin batter contains slightly more baking powder than pancake batter. And there I was left with some more pancakes anyway! Which is OK, I'll just have some pancakes for lunch today, and possibly some more for tomorrow's breakfast, and the rest can be frozen. 

See, this is how many low waste/frugal people live their lives: they're led by whatever needs to be rescued, rather than sticking to a certain plan. I'm sure it's more convenient to just toss that nearly-spoiled milk out and follow whatever meal plan you already made, but for me it's become such a habit, it doesn't even feel like a hassle. 

Easy hummus recipe

Making hummus from scratch is beyond easy. It's a staple at our house and is ready in a few minutes! The hardest thing I always find is to wash up the food processor. 

All you need is chickpeas, aquafaba (chickpea brine), lemon juice, olive oil, tahini (sesame paste), and some salt/seasoning. I don't usually use measurements but I fill up the smaller bowl of the food processor untill it's almost full. I'd guess it's about three cups of chickpeas, and make sure they're a bit warm as this will ease the blending process. Then I use about a cup of aquafaba, also lukewarm, it can be a bit less if you like your hummus firmer (we like it a bit more on the runny side, as we scoop it out with bread), a generous drizzle of olive oil, half a cup of tahini*, some ground black pepper, ground cumin, and salt. Finally squeeze out half a lemon on top of all this. Just blend until it's smooth and that's it! Serve on a plate with additional olive oil, sprinkle some extra (unblended) chickpeas on top and devour! We serve this with homemade flatbread. It's such an easy, delicious meal. 

*Tahini is hard to find where we live, so I make my own mock "tahini" in the blender with olive oil and sesame seeds. This is a bit more runny than real tahini, but since I mainly use it for these kind of recipes it doesn't really matter. I've heard that others even substitute the tahini for peanut butter, and I don't see why that wouldn't work! In fact, I usually make hummus after I've made peanut butter- the food processor it quite a hassle to wash up so this way I'll "use twice, wash once". 

Other substitutes: since we've got our own lemon tree, we kind of refuse to buy lemons. So when they're off season we rather find a lemon substitute than to buy off season lemons for a high price. The best lemon substitute I have yet found is whey. I personally wouldn't recommend vinegar. 

This probably is not the most authentic recipe out there. We're not middle eastern, so that probably plays a role too, but I hope this comes at least a bit close to real authentic hummus. 

Multi grain pancakes

There was some homemade buttermilk sitting in the fridge that smelled a bit off, so it needed to used up quickly. The thing with making things from scratch is that it usually doesn't last as long as store bought stuff, because it's lacking preservatives and other funny ingredients. So you need to plan ahead or at least make sure to make use of it within a limited time frame. 

Usually we go through the buttermilk quickly but somehow that didn't happen this time. Fortunately, there are still ways to use it. A lot of recipes call for buttermilk and the good thing is, when using buttermilk when baking it doesn't really matter if it's not in the best condition anymore. What's important that it's still sour, and that's the very thing which make it "taste off"; it's become a bit *too* sour. So this morning I decided to make pancakes, it's one of our go-to breakfasts, especially when I need to use up something that would otherwise spoil (like whey, oatmeal pulp, or buttermilk). I used half white flour and half healthier grains (whole wheat and oatmeal). I tried a lot, and usually they came out either too dense, too dry or too fluffy. While eating more whole grains is our goal, by using only whole grains for this pancakes it just didn't come out with the right texture. So that's why I used half/half, that way at least it's somewhat healthier than when made completely with white flour. 

For a big batch of pancakes, you'll need:  

2 cups of white flour

1 cup of ground oatmeal 

1 cup of whole wheat flour

4 teaspoon of baking powder 

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda 

To taste: A dash of cinnamon, vanilla, some sugar

4 cups of buttermilk (since it was so sour I used 3 cups of buttermilk and one cup of potato boiling water that I kept in the fridge)

4 heaped spoons margarine or butter, melted 

4 eggs, or 3 if they're large

Mix the dry ingredients with a whisk and set aside. Melt your butter/margarine and let it cool. In a big bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, and butter until the eggs are lightly beaten. Now add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients. Stirr well using a whisk; make sure not to mix it, I just use the whisk to make the stirring easier but you can also use a large wooden spoon. A few lumps in the batter should be fine. Now let it sit a few minutes in order to get the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda started and meanwhile heat up a griddle. It should be very hot or the pancake batter will spread out too much. If it's really hot, grease the pan using a bit of butter or oil and pour in some batter, 1/3 to 1/2 cup at a time. When bubbles appear it's time to flip the pancake. This is a large batch and was enough for the four of us, with some leftovers that will be eaten tomorrow. 

My annual most dreaded task

Spring is most people's favourite time of the year. It's my favourite season too; especially since my seasonal allergies haven't been as bad for the past few years. Spring is the time of birds chirping, beautiful (and edible) flowers such as dandelions and jasmine, the cat enjoying more time outdoors than indoors (which I don't necessarily enjoy more but he certainly does!) and above all the weather becomes so nice. We have relatively cold winters and very hot summers so spring is defenitely something we do enjoy. 

But there is this one task in spring that I really, really dread. 

And no, it's not spring cleaning. For years now already, every year I make a year's supply of garlic paste. Garlic is something I use in nearly every dish we eat, so throughout the year we go through a lot of garlic. I always hated it so much to have smelly cutting boards, knives, hands and garlic presses are such a hassle to clean. I once read that someone did the same with ginger and I was like 'I could try that too with garlic instead'. And so I did, and it was such a life safer! (At that time I didnt make a years supply, so it wasn't a mammoth task to tackle.) At the time we bought imported dried garlic, which wasn't the best tasting garlic ever. Currently we live in a place where there's always an abundance of fresh garlic during spring. Fresh garlic is much easier to peel. Above all, fresh garlic is much more gentle for one's hands- peeling a huge amount of dried garlic results in the same kind of burn as chopping hot peppers with your bare hands. Aside from the benefits of fresh garlic, it's still quite a chore that I don't particularly look forward to doing, yet at the same time I'd rather do this once a year kind of smelly and tiring thing than to chop and endlessly wash off all the garlic smells throughout the year. 

So here is my garlic supply waiting and staring at me :), and I'm ready to go, i'm telling myself no more procrastinating. After all the work is done I'll keep my garlic in the fridge (because after all the peeling I'm honestly just too tired!), blend it in the food processor and then transfer it to small containers. I reuse yogurt containers for this, since yogurt here comes in small portion sized containers, which I cover tightly with aluminium foil. Every few days I take out one container of garlic paste and let it defrost in the fridge. It's so convenient to have this on hand, and it's well worth a day or two of endlessly peeling garlic. 

Chard based pesto recipe (vegan)

Probably most people think of basil when they hear the word pesto. I used to think that too- at least when it comes to the green variety of pesto. But a few years ago, I learned that pesto can be made from nearly every green (that fits the flavour profile). So that means that even if basil isn't available where you live, or outrageously expensive, it's still possible to make your own pesto from scratch! 

Where I live there isn't really much convenience foods, processed foods and ready made condiments. Most convenience foods that are available are quite expensive. That makes making your own a necessity; and not just cooking the meals you eat, but also condiments you'd use for flavouring up a dish. Even though I already made quite a lot of foods from scratch, before I moved here I never made pesto myself. I just bought the small jars of green pesto at a cheap grocery store or from a generic brand at the bigger grocery stores. They were good, but I'll admit-- homemade pesto really is next level, taste wise. That's another benefit of making your own things from scratch. Homemade foods really cannot be compared to the stuff being sold in the stores. To make the them last longer or taste better, the food industry usually adds ingredients that certainly don't belong there, such as sugar and hydrogenated oils etc. So moving here defenitely made me even more active in the kitchen, because we didn't want to miss out on certain foods that we were used to. 

Homemade pesto is kind of tricky though, because it uses a variety of ingredients that can be quite expensive, at least where I live. Pine nuts, for example, as well as cheese. And cashews are even more expensive than pine nuts. That brings me back to the beginning of this post, because I thought that pesto was a basil-based condiment. I'm yet to find basil here; only dried basil is sold in the supermarket. (If I'd ever go back to my home country to visit family, I'll defenitely bring some seeds to grow my own!) 

So basically, I made a LOT of substitutions. So much so that there's hardly any ingredients that could be found in the commonly known pesto- I was even a bit hesitant to call it pesto even. But then I remembered that an online friend of mine who is from Italy, makes pest with about every green. And I hope I'll be forgiven when I substitute the nuts AND cheese. Yes, no cheese so this pesto is 100% plant based. But we don't really miss a cheesy flavour, and this way it saves us loads of money. (I sometimes make my own grain-based cheese if I happen to have that on hand I'll use that but this time, I didn't have it and it takes about 2 weeks to make. There was a lot of chard in my fridge that really needed to be used up quickly, so no time for waiting two weeks for making cheese!) I read that during lean financial times, some Italians use bread crumbs instead of cheese. While I always have homemade bread crumbs on hand, I think that oat is an even better replacement because of the creamy flavour it naturally has. And oat will also absorb more liquids, which I like, because homemade pesto tends to be a bit more liquid than the store bought version. 

Chard based pesto 

4 bunches of chard (or just guesstimate; my two bunches filled up a big colander when washed and chopped) 

Two lemons (the zest and the juice), preferably organic

Two tablespoons of dried basil and oregano 

Four tablespoons of ground almonds 

Four tablespoons of sesame seeds, cress seeds or flax seeds 

2/3 cup of coarsely ground oatmeal 

1/2 cup of olive oil 

Salt to taste and white or black pepper (optional)

Two tablespoons of tomato paste 

Devide all the ingredients in half: I made two batches with these ingredients, only half of the ingredients fit in my food processor. To make the pesto, just fill your food processor (or a heavy duty blender) with the ingredients, blend until fine and you're done. Then repeat with the next batch (or just use half of the ingredients if you only want to make one batch). If you're not tight on money or you simply want to stick to a more traditional recipe, feel free to use cheese, cashews and/or pine nuts!

This pesto obviously doesn't last as long as the store bought pesto. So unless you're planning to use it right away, or within a few days, to avoid wasting food, I'd suggest you freeze it. I don't always use a lot of pesto at the same time so I freeze it in very small amounts, using silicone muffin moulds. After they're completely frozen I transfer them into a container. You could also use very small containers, which is what I sometimes do as well. Or even in ice cubes. 

Oat milk recipe

While I'm not a vegan (not even a vegetarian), I know that eating a more plant based diet has so many benefits- for your health and environment, among other things. Non dairy milk aren't available where I live though, but fortunately it's  very easy to make your own! 

While nut milk are quite expensive to make, this oat milk is even cheaper than cow's milk, even though oats are quite expensive round these parts. 

This is what you'll need: 

1 cup of oats (80 grams)

3 cups of water (750 milliliter) 

Some sweetener of your choice (optional) 

In a large water jug, put the oats and the water. Let is sit for at least three hours, but preferably overnight. 

Then when it has sit long enough, add your sweetener of choice, then blend it thoroughly. Pour it through a sieve, I use a mesh sieve for this. If you only have regular sieve, you could use a cheese cloth as well. 

Don't throw away the remaining oats! You can use it in many ways, like waffles, cookies, muffins etc. I've even added them to homemade pesto :) 

Homemade egg free mayonnaise

A lot of what we eat is made from scratch. 

This is for various reasons. First of all, as a homemaker I just really enjoy doing all these kitchen DIY activities! Secondly, it saves us loads of money. It's usually also healthier as you can control how many salt, sugar, fats etc you put in your food, without a lot of other chemicals and additives that processed foods usually contain. In most cases it's more environmental friendly as well, as you use your own containers and you don't have all the extra packaging that goes into a landfill. For us, another reason is simply the lack of availability. Living in a country where simply a lot of the "western" stuff isn't available can sometimes be a challenge when it comes to food, so you end up making a lot of things at home. But in the end, I think that's a good thing. 

Homemade mayonnaise is one of those things I always have on hand. It's just so easy to make when you use this method-- No endlessly whisking! I think that's the main thing that withholds most people from making mayonnaise from scratch. But then there's also the raw egg issue. There's some controversy on whether or not raw eggs are healthy, but to be on the safe side you can easily make homemade mayo with no eggs. Of course, there is also the issue of dietary restrictions and allergies, so no one has to miss out on this delicious condiment. Probably the best thing of all is that no one will even notice that it's eggless!

Though there are many egg alternatives out there, like flax seeds and even bananas, the secret ingredient here is chickpea brine, also known as aquafaba. Since we eat a lot of chickpeas anyway, I just save the brine for making mayonnaise and freeze it. So this ingredient is basically free. 

For one batch, you'll need: 

One cup of oil of your choice- any oil is fine, except for coconut oil (250 milliliters)

About 1/4 (60 milliliters) to 1/3 cup (80 milliliters) of aquafaba (this depends on the thickness, and using canned vs home cooked chickpeas can also make a difference) 

1/4 teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of honey or any other sweetener, a tablespoon of vinegar, a teaspoon of mustard. 

Put aquafaba in a narrow shaped mug (but still wide enough for an immersion blender to fit in). Then put the salt, mustard, vinegar and honey in the mug and finally the oil of your choice. Starting at the bottom, start to blend. Blend for a few seconds before slightly lifting your blender. Blend for another few seconds again before lifting your blender, untill all of the oil is mixed in and has thickened. Now, refrigerate for a few hours; if the mayonnaise is still on the runny side, usually after refrigerating for a few hours makes the mayo thicker. If you happened to have a runnier batch that won't thicken upthere's still a lot of ways how to use that, but I'll try to elaborate on that in another post. My mayonnaise is always perfect when using this method, though I've heard some people saying that theirs is a bit runny. Possibly it's a matter of trial and error as to how much aquafaba to use.