Soy Lihapiirakka ‒ Soijalihis

This is a bit of a deviation from the "seasonal" theme since lihapiirakkas are sold rather evenly around the year. The name literally means "meat pie" which gave me some trouble naming the soy version since I don't think anyone would understand if I just called them soy pies. You do see a lot of naming variance like "meatless pie" or "soy meat pie", but I decided to go with a shortening in Finnish and keep the English name intact since it's already detached from the original meaning. Anyway, they're deep-fried pastries made from a doughnut type of dough and filled with rice and minced meat. Or, in the vegan version, usually rice and TVP.

Lihapiirakkas are an extremely popular fast food in Finland. You can find them cheap from practically every food store's convenience food section. Non-chain-owned street kiosks sell them even in the smallest villages with one shop and no restaurants, along with french fries and hamburgers. In bigger cities you have a chance of finding them all self-made and vegan. Quite often they're cut in half and filled with things.

When I was a teenager, a friend of mine ate at least one of them every day after school, filling them with ketchup and liver sausage, along with a glass of cold cocoa as the drink option. To her and her parents' defence I have to say my diet at the time wasn't exactly from the healthiest end either.

The regular kiosk filling includes what I like to call "the grill spices", the holy trinity of ketchup, mustard and cucumber relish. In case of cheap cucumber relish raw onion is also often added for crunchiness. With a little extra fee the fillings may include different meat products, but nothing stops from using the same forms made from plant-based ingredients, like bean patties, chickpea omelettes or soy weeners. The kiosks often serve their own specialities and understanding the subtle differences takes a real connoisseur. For a little vocabulary, these have become regional dishes known nation-wide:

Atomi and vety (Lappeenranta): "Atom and hydrogen". Vety includes a boiled egg and ham, atomi either one of these.
Hotsi (Hämeenlinna): It's role model probably being hot dog, hotsi is filled with half cut lauantaimakkara or "Saturday sausage", a certain thick and floury sausage type. In Forssa two wieners are used instead.
Möttönen (Helsinki): An especially big and thick lihapiirakka which were originally sold at the main train railway station.
Riihimäkeläinen (Riihimäki): Includes a fried egg and a minced meat patty. In Rovaniemi the same version is called ropsilainen after the local football team.
Lörtsy (Savonlinna): The good people of Savonlinna are probably going to hang me from balls for implying these are the same thing, and I do need to write a separate post about them sometime later. I haven't been able to find a recipe for lörtsy or any "official" difference in their dough, but lörtsys are about twice as large and always flat. They're one of the oldest variants and have been around since the fifties. Originally they had an apple jam filling instead of meat but nowadays you can find them in all possible sweet and savory flavours.

The dough
- 14 dl wheat flour (many prefer a version where some of this is graham)
- 6 dl oat milk
- 50 g yeast
- 2 tbsp rape oil
- 1 tbsp dark syrup
- 1 tbsp salt

 The filling
- 2.5 dl soy crumble
- 1.5 dl barley grains
- 1 dl roasted onion
- 1 dose of stock
- 2 tbsp rape oil
- 1 tbsp apple wine vinegar
- smoked paprika
- white pepper
- salt

Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water. Add the oil, the syrup and the salt. Knead in enough flour to achieve a consistency that doesn't stick to the bowl but still feels a bit runny. Cover with a towel and let rest for an hour.

Cook the barley. Soak the soy crumble in water where you've added the stock. Fry on the pan, adding the spices as you go. Combine the barley, the soy and the onion.

Divide the dough into 16 pieces. Roll each of them round between your hands, flatten and roll into a disc of about 15 cm in diameter. Keep more flour at hand to help the dough from sticking. Scoop a spoonful or two of the filling in the middle of the disc. Fold one edge on the opposite one and press it to keep it closed. Secure the edges by pressing with a fork.

Deep fry from both sides until golden in neutral tasting oil that is fine with high temperatures, for example non-virgin rape oil.

Nutritional values / 1 lihapiirakka / 114 g (before deep frying):
energy 299 kcal
fat 7 g
protein 10 g
carbohydrates 48 g
fiber 4 g

Beggar's Nettle Purses ‒ Kerjäläisen nokkosnyytit

My spouse loves making crepes although I need to watch his back since he can get quite picky on which ones looks absolutely perfect and which ones he tries to dump into bio waste bucket. It usually falls into my responsibility to decide how to top them. This time the fresh nettle leaves I had just been picking  were the oblivious choice.

I do fully admit using nettle inside crepes is really just another variation of making classic nettle pancakes. But it's a nice one, no way around it. And wrapping the crepe around the filling into a surprise package does give it a whole new touch. Somehow wrapping thing inside each other always feels more exciting than just placing them next to each other on the plate. The original beggar's purses are mini-size appetizers filled with caviar so for these more filling versions, I came up with the idea of using beluga lenses which are sometimes called "vegetarian's caviar".

The crepes:
- 1 litre oat milk
- 3 dl barley flour
- 3 dl wheat flour
- 1.5 dl melted margarine
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- oil or margarine for frying

The filling:
- 1 l fresh nettle leaves (or 150 g blanched and frozen)
- 2 dl beluga lenses
- 2 dl oat cream
- 2 tbsp tar liqueur (or 1 tbsp dark syrup and 1 tsp liquid smoke)
- salt

For decoration:
- Spring onion stalks

Whisk the flours into the cold milk little by little. Add the rest of the crepe batter. You can also sprinkle a little bit of turmeric Leave alone for an hour or so. Heat up the frying pan and make sure you're using enough oil to keep the crepes from sticking. Pour a ladleful of batter evenly on the pan. Tilt the pan to make sure it spreads evenly but thinly. When the edges start look golden and the center also holds together. Loosen with a spatula and turn around. When the other side is done as well, move aside and add more oil before continuing with the next crepe.


Rinse the lenses. Wash the nettles, cut out bad parts or stalks and chop the rest into smaller pieces. Put all the filling ingredients into the same pot and add enough water to almost cover them. Cook until the liquid has absorbed and the lenses are done. About 30‒40 minutes should do.

For the serving, place a spoonful of the filling on the crepe. Collect the edges into a perfect looking package.and tie carefully together with a string or a spring onion stalk.

Nutritional values / 2337 g (without the frying oil):
energy 3671 kcal
fat 149 g
protein 114 g
carbohydrates 452 g
fiber 68 g

Ohratto for Springtime ‒ Keväinen ohratto

This blog has been a break for the past couple of years now, and I must say that has bothered me quite a bit. Since food blogging is really fun and tends to improve my cookings about 200 % I thought I'd start writing again, and while I'm at it, do some other, hopefully helpful changes as well. We'll see about them, but now, let's move to the most important thing, food.

Ohratto has become quite a popular Finnish version of the Italian delight risotto. The basic difference is it's made of a more domestic grain, that is barley or ohra in Finnish. I actually wondered if I could translate it barleyetto or something, but that just sounded awful so I leaved the Finnish name intact. (Edit: seems like I've done that already.) They can be prepared as sidekicks, but more often they belong to that simple yet wonderful category of nutritious one-pot meals. Ohrattos often get their taste from seasonal vegetables. In autumn this might mean mushrooms, during the peak grilling season you could add grilled fruits in it. Now that the Sun has started to shine again and my first herb seeds are pushing those teeny-weeny green leaves I feel it's time for fresh and crunchy tastes.

From many ohratto recipes the one I mostly used was this one. But I also wanted to add those first asparaguses I've seen in the store this year since I never seem to be able to just pass them by. If you're using whole barley which hasn't been precooked you may want to soak them for a few hours to shorten the cooking time.

- 300 g asparagus
- 200 g frozen peas
- 1 onion
- 3 dl barley
- 1 l water
- 1/2 lemon
- 2 dl oat cream
- 1 tbsp rape oil
- 1 dose of stock
- 1 tsp apple wine vinegar
- 1 small punch of fresh coriander
- 1 garlic clove
- black pepper
- salt

Mince and sauté the onion in the oil. If the asparagus stalks seem thick and hard, peel them carefully. Then chop them for nice mouth-fitting pieces and throw in with the onion. When the asparagus has turned deep green but not lost its crunchiness yet, add the barley. Keep stirring for a few minutes before pouring the water to the pot as well as the stock and salt.

While the barley is cooking, juice the lemon and crate its peel. Also, take the peas out of the freezer, chop the coriander and mince the garlic. After the barley seems cooked but not turned all soft, add the rest of the ingredients. You can save some of the coriander leaves for decoration on top.

Nutritional values /  2242 g:
energy 1433 kcal
fat 41 g
protein 51 g
carbohydrates 207 g
fiber 47 g

Stuffed Holiday Roast with Cranberry Glaze ‒ Täytetty juhlapaisti karpalokuorrutteella

Yule ended last Thursday with Talvennapa, "the navel of the winter". It's said to be the coldest day of the year. The Great Oak is symbolically cut down from covering the Sun so it gets to shine and daytime starts to grow longer again. Most people celebrating the day choose a weekend instead of the "official" day when there's more time to relax.

This roast should be a perfect centerpiece for any feast table. I took the inspiration from Vegan Dad's seitan roast and tofu glaze. The latter one especially turned out excellent. The stuffing portions need some adjusting as I got quite a lot of leftovers. But don't worry, you can eat them while waiting for the roast to cook.

- 1 dough for seitan roast

Stuffing:
- 1 dl barley
- 1 dl pine nuts
- 1 dl horse beans
- 1 dl grinded celeriac
- 1 dl frozen cranberries
- 0.5 dl roasted onion
- 1 tablespoon margarine
- 1 tablespoon wheat flour
- green pepper
- salvia
- thyme
- herb salt

Glazing:
- 2 dl frozen cranberries
- 1 dl water
- 0.5 dl dark sugar
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- cinnamon
- allspice

Roast the nuts if you wish. Cook the barley and the beans. Mix all the stuffing ingredients together. While it's cooling down, prepare the seitan part.

Roll out the seitan dough into a thin rectangle. Spread the stuffing in the centre lengthwise. Make sure it's firm. Roll the seitan tightly so the edges will touch each other. Seal the roast and wrap inside a tin foil. Roast for an hour in 175°C oven.

In the meanwhile, prepare the glaze. In a saucepan, cook the cranberries with the water until they're soft. Blend smooth. Stir in all the other ingredients. Refrigerate. When the roast comes out of the oven, let it cool down as well. Then move the roast into a casserole and cover all over with the glaze. Bake 10-15 minutes more.

Enjoy hot or cold!

Nutritional values / 1680 g:
energy 3318 kcal
fat 121 g
protein 242 g
carbohydrates 321 g
fiber 56 g

Turnip Porridge ‒ Naurispuuro

I know I just posted a dish combining turnip and barley but they happen to work so well together. Besides, I had to use the rest of the turnips somewhere so one of the numerous Finnish root vegetable porridges felt appropriate. This very same breakfast meal is just as often done with potato but you might also want to try carrot or rutabaga. The relation between turnip and barley varies quite a lot in different recipes; I prefer mine with more turnip and less flour.

- 700 g turnips
- 2 dl barley flour
- 7 dl water
- salt

Peel and chop the turnips. Cook them until soft. Puré with the water. Add more water if the result looks too thick (sometimes beer is used but in that case you should be very careful). Sift in the flour and the salt. Simmer for another 20 minutes. Eat while still hot!

Nutritional values / 1530 g:
energy 575 kcal
fat 5 g
protein 18 g
carbohydrates 113 g
fiber 23 g

Tarry Barlotto ‒ Tervainen ohratto

One-pot meals are quick to prepare which is just perfect this time of the year when you just want to get all the possible extra minutes to take a walk outside. I'm not always so certain whether they really require a recipe but at least different recipes are good for sharing combination ideas. This is a colourful, savoury dish that features some of my favourite ingredients.

- 4 dl whole barley grains
- 150 g tempeh (or smoked tofu)
- 2 turnips
- 1 carrot
- half a leek
- 5 dl water
- 1 dl oat cream
- 0.5 dl tar liqueur
- 1 tablespoon rape oil (I prefer cold pressed type)
- 1 dose of stock
- rosemary
- curry
- salt

Sauté the barley. In the meanwhile, peel and chop the veggies. Cut the tempeh as well. Move the barley aside for a moment and do the same for the turnips, the carrot and if you wish, the tempeh. When they're starting to look tasty, throw in the rest. Let the barlotto simmer until most of the liquid has vaporized (about half an hour).

Nutritional values / 1300 g (not counting the liqueur):
energy 1726 kcal
fat 48 g
protein 72 g
carbohydrates 256 g
fiber 52 g

Barley and Raisin Casserole ‒ Ohra-rusinalaatikko

Happy Yule! The Sun has born again! You can clearly see how the day is now longer again... Well, at least if you use a lot of imagination.

One of the four classic casseroles of the Finnish Yule table is liver casserole. That's something bound to divide opinions even amongst meat eaters. Some get repulsed by the sheer idea of eating organs while I remember loving it as a child. One person I know even explained she's a vegetarian most of the time but has this perversion (that's the term she used herself) of eating a whole liver casserole once a year.

Making a vegan version without that dreaded body part isn't complicated at all but it's much harder to make up the name. Yeast is what gives a special flavour into this but using it in the name has the same problem as its predecessor: doesn't sound too appealing, no matter how quickly the stuff tends to vanish at our home. So instead I named this after the other distinctive ingredient, raisin though I think I could try some dried berries next year instead. Feel free to suggest a better title.

The original version of this was posted here.

- 2 dl barley grains
- 2 dl soy crumbles (TSP)
- 0.5 dl soy sauce
- 1 red onion
- 1 dl raisins
- 2 dl oat cream
- 2 tablespoons dark syrup
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 teaspoon marjoram
- 100 g yeast paté (for example Tartex or Marmite)
- 2 tablespoons margarine

Soak the raisins in water. Cook the barley. Chop the onion and sauté together with the soy crumbles and soy sauce. Mix all the ingredients in a buttered casserole. Top with margarine pieces. Bake 45 minutes in a 175°C oven. Enjoy with lingonberry cram.

Nutritional values / 800 g:
energy 1613 kcal
fat 73 g
protein 55 g
carbohydrates 180 g
fiber 37 g

Karelian Pasties ‒ Karjalanpiirakat

Yesterday was Finland's Independence Day. In most countries, that's a lively carnival. In Finland it has evolved into a more dignified, even pious day, largely consisting of remembering World War II and honouring the veterans who ‒ as the only nation ‒ managed to fight back against Stalin's invasion. For my generation which doesn't even remember there ever existed a place called Soviet Union it's more about gathering together some friends, burning candles, eating well, talking about new laws that threaten our freedom of speech or right to privacy and of course, laughing at the dresses of the president's ball that YLE broadcasts every year.

While others played a game where you get a point every time you know a name of a ball guest and another one from knowing the reason they're invited I pinched up some Karelian pasties. From numerous hand-size Karelian pie types these are the ones that have an almost iconic status so I thought they'd make an appropriate snack for Independence Day. They have a thin rye crust and just about anything as a filling. Nowadays rice porridge is the filling number one and potato second but barley, talkkuna, buckwheat, carrot or rutabaga would make them a bit more "authentic" (what a terrible word). They can even have a sweet berry porridge inside. This time I used a simple turnip filling and a crust recipe straight from a flour bag.

The crust:
- 5.5 dl sifted rye flour (if you can only find normal kind you should replace some of it with wheat flour)
- 2 dl water
- 2 teaspoons salt

The rest:
- 1 kg turnip
- white pepper
- 100 g margarine
- 1 dl oat milk

Cook the turnips. Peel and mash them together with the pepper and half the margarine. While the filling cools down, mix the crust ingredients together with your hands. Roll the paste into a thin layer (use extra flour generously so it won't stick). Take circular pieces from the layer with the help of a floured water glass.

Now roll each circle into an oval. Lay a spoonful of turnip mash on it and fold the edges with your index finger and thumb, from both sides simultaneously, pinching "wrinkles" on the filling as you go along. Bake about fifteen minutes in a 275ºC oven.

Melt the rest of the margarine and add the milk into it. Butter the oven-fresh pastries from both sides and lay them into a bowl over each other. Cover with a towel and let them soften up for about an hour.

Serve hot or cold, perhaps together with tar syrup.

Nutritional values / 1785 g:
energy 2084 kcal
fat 82 g
protein 48 g
carbohydrates 284 g
fiber 78 g

Fist Rieska ‒ Nyrkkirieska

If you want to see two Finns fight ask them what kind of a bread is rieska. In different parts of the country the same word is used to describe very different types of leavened and unleavened breads. Generally younger people of the day already share a common view: rieska is the kind of flat, unleavened, usually round or rectangular bread sold in all Finnish grocery stores. It's most typically made of barley or potatoes with possibly wheat as a binding agent. Around Scandinavia there are probably hundreds of ways to use rieska.

For starters, here's one very basic rieska recipe:

- 5 dl ice cold water
- 0.5 tbsp salt
- 9-10 dl barley flour (preferably coarse kind though it's hard to find)

Dissolve the salt in the water. Add the flour little by little. Mix the dough with a wooden fork rather than your hand since it should stay cold. Knead quickly on floured table. Pat the dough into four thin (about 0.5 cm thick) discs (or make one big layer and use a bowl to cut circles from it). Sting holes on them with a fork. Place into a 300°C oven for about 5 minutes. If possible, use a plain grate instead of a tray so they'll get more evenly baked.

Rieskas are done when they've got some colour. If successful, they feel light, the cover is crispy and the inside is done but a bit sticky. Wrap them inside a towel to soften up (mine never do cause I keep forgetting them in the oven for too long).

Rieska can be eaten as it is in the same manner as Indian naan bread or French baguette. You can also use it for wrappings like Mexican tortillas, cover it with toppings like Italian pizzas or crumble it into cold oat milk or gravy like um... Well, I'm sure there's some example of this one too somewhere in the world. In any case, rieska is best when still fresh.

Nutritional values / 1 rieska:
energy 509 kcal
fat 3 g
protein 13 g
carbohydrates 105 g
fiber 12 g

Gallop Sausage ‒ Laukkamakkara

I'll post this experiment for making up usage for leftover mash (from beer making) as well though it didn't really work out. The idea is nevertheless so interesting I think I'll want to keep on trying. And of course I hope that someone can help me.

There are several traditional Finnish sausage types that contain no meat. Unfortunately, I haven't found any recipes for them and I'm doubting if there are any. This type of dishes tend to be made up from things you happen to have in your closet and the expertise comes with trial and error.

Laukkamakkara's name may make a Finnish speaker think about garlic since it's nickname is "fingernail gallop" (laukka is one of the many names for onion). This is what initially made me want to use garlic as a spice, purely traditional or not. But actually this time laukka comes from Swedish lake which means salty water. This is because these type of sausages used to be preserved in salty broth.

Since I couldn't keep the sausages from crumbling apart and the taste needs some adjusting as well I'm not going to tell you any (apparently wrong) amounts. Perhaps I'll try with some potato flour or other gelatinous agent. And try to make a way to preserve them in liquid while still keeping them in one piece. In the photo they're coming from the oven, lying on a sauerkraut bed and covered with apple slices. There's also a basic seitan-based sausage between them.

- mash
- cooked potatoes
- barley grains
- garlic
- salt
- black pepper
- stock

Cook the barley grains with water and some stock. Mash the potatoes. Mix everything together and shape into phallic symbols. Wrap them tightly into folio and steam as long as needed (apparently more than 45 minutes).

Mash Cake ‒ Mäskikakku

It's not that easy to decide what kind of food to make for Kekri. Nearly all of our Kekri traditions and dishes are nowadays known as Christmas traditions and dishes. But somehow malty flavours and food with a lot of grain seem the most appropriate to me.

I'm currently trying to brew some sahti for a 20 person's Kekri feast. (Yikes!) Of course there's always that leftover - a big pot of barley mash - so I've also been trying to make up some uses for it. This cake recipe uses the leftover mash after the wort has been drained from it. I think it'd be pretty safe to replace it with (unknown amount of) non-used malts or mämmi if you just check that the structure seems moist enough.

At first I thought I'd use the mämmi cake recipe The Finnish Mämmi Association gives but that had eggs in it and didn't seem that interesting otherwise either. So instead I kind of combined it with a Christmassy sounding sour milk cake recipe with some additions of my own.

- 3 dl barley mash
- 2 dl soy yogurt (apparently, soy milk thickened and soured with lemon juice should do as well)
- 1 dl potato flour
- 3.5 dl wheat flour
- 100 g margarine (for example Keiju 70%)
- 1.5 dl dark syrup
- 1.5 tsp soda
- 1 dl dried cranberries
- 1 dl dried apple pieces
- 1 dl brandy
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- margarine and breadcrumbs for the mold

Pour the brandy on the dried cranberries and apple pieces. Let them soak for a few hours. Mix the ingredients well together. Butter a cake mold and powder with breadcrumbs. Pour the paste in the mold and cook about an hour in a 175°C oven.

The cake is nicely spicy on its own but I decorated it with a mixture of cocoa butter, oat cream, icing sugar and a drop of lemon juice.

Nutritional values / 1100 g:
energy 3513 kcal
fat 74 g
protein 55 g
carbohydrates 495 g
fiber 32 g

Stuffed Turnips ‒ Täytetyt nauriit

Another nice thing to stuff and cook in the grill is turnips. Anything you normally use as a stuffing for baked potato works terrificly with these sweeties as well, only they have more taste of their own. This time I decided to use smoked tofu and tar liquer which both taste like they were designed especially for turnips.

- 1 kg turnips (about 7)
- 270 g smoked tofu
- 1 onion
- 2 dl tar liqueur (or beer and 1 tablespoon dark syrup)
- 50 g soy cheese (or margarine)
- breadcrumbs
- salt
- black pepper
- oil for frying
(fava beans, barley grains, mushrooms...)

Cook the turnips about ten minutes in salty water. Hollow them carefully with a sharp knife and set the scooped out pieces aside. (Some people use them in the stuffing. I find the idea of stuffing turnips with turnips a little dull so I just foil them into the next meal I cook.) Chop the onion and the tofu and sauté them. Add some black pepper and stuck them in the turnips. Pour the liqueur on them. Put a piece of the cheese on each turnip and perfect by sprinkling some breadcrumbs on top. Grill until golden brown.

Nutritional values / 1 turnip (without the liqueur):
energy 154 kcal
fat 8 g
protein 10 g
carbohydrates 11 g
fiber 4 g

Rievä of Tampere ‒ Tampereen riävä

Not sure why my attempts to make white loaf from levain always end up in the trash can. They're usually just tough, dry and bland. I've already thrown away two baking sheets of rievä, the local soft barley bread (the very name of which means fresh.) Third time I just took a basic recipe that uses a huge amount of yeast but even that didn't go as planned. I kept adding more and more flour to the dough and it kept looking runny enough to be used for pancakes. Comparison between different rievä recipes helped to identify the problem: looks like the amount of water had been doubled at some point!

So I did manage to make edible barley bread eventually. Still, I'm doing something wrong. It's just normal white bread, not that kind of fluffy and soft-textured it's supposed to be. Anyway, here's the edited recipe for you to defeat me:

5 dl lukewarm water
2 tsp salt
70 g yeast
9 dl barley flour
6 dl soft wheat flour (At least I think this is the English term though in Finnish it's called "coarse flour" for a reason unknown to me.)

Dissolve the yeast and the salt in the water. Add the wheat flour and stir even. Keep adding the barley flour until the dough starts to detach from the bowl. Even the surface sprinkle some flour on it and make a cross on it with your fingers. Cover with a towel and leave it in a warm place for half an hour.

Flour the table and your hands. Knead the dough until it feels firm. Form four hemispheres of it, put them on a baking sheet and press them gently lower with your palm. Cover them with a towel and come back after half an hour. (Longer rising time makes them tougher.)

Punch holes on the surface of the rieväs with a fork. Bake them in a 250°C oven for 35 minutes. The orthodox way to eat rievä is with fingers, untouched by a knife. Perfect for a picnic!

Nutritional values / 1 rievä:
energy 815 kcal
fat 5 g
protein 26 g
carbohydrates 165 g
fiber 14 g

Mushroom Soup ‒ Sienikeitto

I used to hate mushrooms. Every autumn dad took me to the nearby forest to pick up russulas and milk-caps. It was fun. But when we got home he minced our mushrooms and fried them with a half a kilo of butter into a sloppy mush I thought repulsive. Later on my attitude was strengthened by those slimy canned champignon slices that cheap eateries use.

One day I just got disgusted by my own pickiness, bought a box of fresh champignos, chopped them a little, fried well with a drop of oil and realized they were delicious. Nowadays I even eat canned mushrooms from time to time. Next autumn I'm planning to go hunt them from the forest myself and dry for the winter.

Besides frying, another simple way to use them is in a creamy soup.

- 500 g or 1 l mushrooms (chanterelle is a classic)
- 1 red onion
- 1 stock dose (in my case 1 dl)
- 5 dl water
- 2 dl white wine
- 2 dl oat cream
- 1 tbsp potato flour
- 3 garlic cloves
- black pepper
- margarine for frying
- (2 dl barley grains)

In case you use barley first cook it with the water and the spices. Chop the mushrooms into chunky pieces. Chop the onion into semicircles. Sauté both and add to the soup. Let it boil for couple of minutes.

This also makes a nice sauce. Just leave out the water and the barley and only use 200 g mushrooms. And of course the same method can be used with many different soups. Just replace the mushrooms and the barley with your favourite veggie and soy strips. The fun thing about soups is you can experiment a lot without much fear of failing.

Nutritional values / 1 l (with barley) :
energy 1250 kcal
fat 32 g
protein 34 g
carbohydrates 167 g
fiber 31 g

Cabbage Rolls ‒ Kaalikääryleet

I just love cabbage. It's savory and one cheap head feeds a family for a week. One of the home made dishes everyone's mum used to make is of course cabbage rolls, though I suspect the recipe was originally borrowed from Russians. Which is probably why one thing you should definitely also try is a mushroom filling.

- 1 white cabbage
- 3 dl textured soy protein crumbles (that is, soijarouhetta)
- 2 dl barley grains
- 1 dl oat cream
- 1 onion
- 1 chili
- 3 garlic cloves
- syrup
- margarine
- blue-style soy cheese (For example Sheese)
- broth

Boil the cabbage head for about twenty minutes. Be sure not to throw away the tasty broth. Peel of about 15 biggest leaves. (The rest of the cabbage can be used to make a cabbage soup.) Thin the petioles with a knife. Cook the oat grains and fry the soy with chopped onion, chili and garlic. Mix the cream into the oat pot.

Now you're ready to roll! Everyone has their own technique with this. The main thing is just not to stuff them too full. I usually lay one teaspoon of oat and one teaspoon of soy on each leaf, top the thing with a pat of cheese and fold both ends together so that the result is more of a square than a roll. Now quickly turn it over into a casserole, so the seam side stays closed. Lay the rolls tightly side by side. Scoop broth on them enough to fill the casserole half way through. Pour syrup on the rolls with a liberal hand. Top with margarine pats and let them bake in 225°C for an hour. If they start to look dry in the oven baste them with a little more broth and syrup.

Serve with lingonberry jam and potatoes.

Nutritional values / 1 roll / 100 g
energy 116.7 kcal
fat 5.1 g
protein 4.5 g
carbohydrates 13.1 g
fiber 3.1 g