Pimped Soy Balls ‒ Tuunatut Soijapyörykät

Soy balls are such a basic everyday meal that nearly everyone has developed their own special way of preparing them. No big surprise, I like to keep pimping them a bit differently every time. Yesterday I seasoned them with onion and pickled beet which gave them not only more taste but also this adorable pink colour. I also tried baking them in oven instead of frying on a pan as normally, but that didn't really work out. The structure came a bit too soft and many of them broke down from the bottom. Oh well, didn't effect the taste.

- 3 dl textured soy protein crumble
- 3 dl water
- 1 dose of stock
- 1 onion
- 1 dl pickled beetroot
- 1 dl breadcrumbs
- 3 tbsp soy flour
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- your favourite chili sauce
- black pepper
- 2 tbsp rape oil

Heat up the water and mix with the stock. Let the soy crumble swallow in it. In the meanwhile, mince the onion and sauté lightly. Mix everything but the oil together in a bowl. Roll the paste into balls between your hands. Cook on a pan or in a 200°C oven for about twenty minutes, in any case with plenty of oil.

Nutritional values /  718 g:
energy 1004 kcal
fat 52 g
protein 57 g
carbohydrates 76 g
fiber 20 g

Roasted Root Vegetables with Herbs ‒ Yrttijuurekset

Root vegetables are perfect seasonal food. They're cheap, healthy, filling and easy to prepare. During the deepest winter I might've used chili and liquid smoke, but now that daytime is already as long as darkness I'm starting to prefer fresh tastes again and therefore spiced these up with dried herbs. The fresh ones are growing with speed too. Can't wait to be able to snip them while cooking.

- 500 g beetroot (I used a striped variety)
- 500 g rutabaga
- 500 g sunroot
- 1 parsnip
- 1 whole garlic (rest assured, the taste softens in the oven)
- 0.5 dl rape oil
- 1 tsp rosemary
- 1 tsp tarragon
- 1 tsp dill
- salt

Oil a casserole. Peel and cut the vegetables into mouth-size chunks. Free the garlic cloves from their skin. Mix the veggies, the herbs and rest of the oil in the casserole. Put in a 175°C oven. Remember to turn them around every now and then. They should be ready in about an hour.

Nutritional values /  1705 g:
energy 1000 kcal
fat 49 g
protein 18 g
carbohydrates 120 g
fiber 47 g

Mint and Black Currant Smoothie ‒ Minttu-mustaherukkapirtelö

I haven't shared much smoothie or milkshake recipes since I feel they're something that don't need much of a recipe. I mean, you just blend together any fruits and berries yu happen to have, and getting a terrible tasting combination is just rather unlikely. Besides, everyone has their own personal taste preferences with them. But even the most experienced smoothie makers can use some fresh ideas so they wouldn't end up doing just that one and the same thing every time. This is why I thought I'd start sharing some ideas for combinations I've found especially great. After all, I do post salads as well.

- 200 g frozen black currant
- 1 small bunch of fresh mint leaves
- 5 dl soy yogurt

Crush the berries. Then add rest of the ingredients. In  case you found this too sore for your liking, add sugar carefully to balance it out. Enjoy.

Red Onion Scones ‒ Punasipuliteeleivät

I often have a hard time deciding how to translate dish names for this blog. Teeleipä, meaning tea bread in Finnish, is a small, savory and rather flat bread that doesn't need to be knead and is leavened with a baking powder. Sometimes they're said to be a form of Scottish scones, but after looking what they typically look like and contain I thought calling them scones would mislead a bit too much. Since they fit in the definition however, I eventually decided it would be wiser to use a familiar name and just explain that these are Finnish-type scones.

Scones are something most Finns have made in school during the home economics class and never touched since. But I think they're so simple to make I rather mix a batter than leave for a store just because the bread happened to run out. The beauty of them is that you can stuff them with nearly anything you'd like to get rid of ‒ meal remains, herbs about to die or those seeds you've had in the closet for a year now. One of my favourite fillings includes crated carrot, garlic and green olive slices, but this time I crowned them with red onion. Also, you can swap the flour types and other such dry ingredients to fit your closet, as long as there are about 4 dl of them altogether. As the name implies, they're a perfect evening snack with a cup of nice tea. On top they're supposed to be a little crunchy but soft inside.

- 2 dl oat meals
- 2 dl wheat flour
- 2 dl water (or oat milk)
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 1 red onion
-  black pepper
-  marjoram

Cut the onion in semicircles and sauté lightly. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, then add the wet ones as well. Cover with a towel and let it swell for a while. Portion spoonfuls on a baking sheet leaving a lot of room between them to spread. Bake about 15 minutes in a 225°C oven. Serve fresh and hot with a good evening tea and some simple bread spread.

Nutritional values /  677 g:
energy 1030 kcal
fat 35 g
protein 32 g
carbohydrates 145 g
fiber 18 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

Hemp Balls ‒ Hamppupyörykät

My blog has been sleeping under all other projects for a long time now. But today I was asked for the recipe of the balls I had prepared for this autumn's kekri table so I thought it would be almost the same to share them with everyone interested.

I've come to love hemp and its versatility more and more. Crushed seeds are something easy to throw into every other pot you happen to be cooking, but this was the first time I tried rolling balls with hemp as the main ingredient. Hemp is an excellent oil plant, which explains pretty well why people said these taste like fish and why they remind me of the oil colours my dad used when I was a child.

This recipe is an adaptation from Jere Nieminen's cook book Vegaanin kotiruokakirja (Kustannusosakeyhtiö moreeni 2010). Originally I made a portion about five times this large since we had 30 people eating them but this amount should be sufficient for about 20 balls.

- 1 mealy potato
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 small punch of parsley
- 4 dl crushed hemp seeds
- 1 dl pea flour
- 0.5 dl water
- 0.5 dl tahini
- 0.25 dl rape oil
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tablespoon mustard powder
- 1 tablespoon dark syrup
- 1 dried chili pepper
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- rape oil for frying

Peel and grind the potato. Crush the garlic. Mix all the ingredients. Blend a bit to get a sticky paste. Roll it into balls between your hands and fry with oil. Enjoy with some neutral sidekick like mashed potatoes or barley.

Nutritional values / 720 g:
energy 2851 kcal
fat 228 g
protein 109 g
carbohydrates 111 g
fiber 74 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