Berry nice

There are so many reasons to visit the Green Edge, as I try to do every time I’m in Brisbane. (See here and here.) Usually I go for lunch and I’m too full to try any of their delicious sweet treats. But on my last visit, my Mum suggested that we buy something sweet to take home for afternoon tea. What a great idea!  I chose this gorgeous concoction: I’m afraid I can’t remember what they called it but I think it involved raspberries. This is what it looked like when I took the end piece of chocolate off with my fork, before demolishing it. Berries, chocolate, what’s not to love?

This was the ‘before’ shot. (I should have included a fork or something, for scale: it was maybe 10cm long. It almost looks like it could be the size of a loaf of bread!)

Berry nice

It’s really hot in Sydney at the moment. Really, really hot. So a frozen treat is always welcome. I know I’ve mentioned this recipe for seven-ingredient vegan cheesecakes (from Minimalist Baker) before, but it is one of my favourites. Last time I mentioned it, my big realisation was that I could substitute almond pulp for the nuts in the base, which works really well. Today I mention it simply to say that you should also add a big handful of frozen berries in the topping. These berry cheesecakes taste delicious and look very pretty.

In this batch I also blended the base for longer, leading to a much softer consistency . This was an improvement, I thought, so I’ll do it this way from now on.

Individual vegan pavlova

I made individual vegan pavlovas using the chickpea meringue recipe I’d made before. This is the first ever time I attempted a pavlova, having never been brave enough to try in pre-vegan days. I decided to try to shape the meringue with a spoon, rather than by piping it. The result, as you can perhaps see, was a rather shapeless blob… but a sweet and delicious TASTY shapeless blob.

I think my meringue looks a little brown for two reasons: I used raw sugar instead of white sugar (ground up finer using a stand blender), and I think I overcooked the meringue a bit, unfortunately. So the meringue was crispy all the way through, which is not my preference: I like some soft marshmallowy centre to my pavlova. But the thing is, when you put whipped coconut cream and beautiful fresh fruit on top, it’s still gorgeous. I went with berries, kiwi and passionfruit.

If I make a more pulchritudinous pavlova one day, I’ll be sure to promptly post a picture here. Meanwhile, I’m actually quite happy about these (and my partner and kids were too).

Baked oatmeal

Last year I visited my friend Eva in Milwaukee. She made baked oatmeal for breakfast and it was yummy. From time to time I made it on a weekend as something different. Eva based her oatmeal on this recipe from Cookie and Kate, with just a couple of adjustments required to make it vegan: omit the egg (it doesn’t need to be replaced with anything) and use vegan margarine in place of the butter.

The batch I made recently used soy milk and homemade almond milk, instead of coconut milk. I also used mixed frozen berries instead of the blackberries suggested by the recipe. I used a little less cinnamon and a little less maple syrup than suggested. I also ended up making only half a batch, since I had only 1 cup of rolled oats in the cupboard, and it was just enough for the 4 of us.

I only baked my oatmeal for about 20 or 25 minutes, not 45 minutes as suggested. Possibly the shorter time was enough because I had only made a half batch, so the mixture wasn’t very deep. But I suspect you might not need 45 minutes even with the full quantity.

Three of us really liked this: Child #2 did not. But that made Child #1 happy because they got to eat all of Child #2’s leftovers!

Berry slushy

I haven’t managed to get my kids to try a green smoothie yet, but when I make myself a berry smoothie, my daughter often asks for “one without the green stuff”. I use frozen berries, some frozen banana and homemade almond milk. It turns out more like a slushy than a smoothie! For her, it’s a delicious treat, and I’m happy to see her enjoying my almond milk.

Cake!

Scrumptious vegan cake from Edeni Vegan. Practically worth the trip to Budapest for this cake alone!

Mixed berry coconut yoghurt

The other day I saw a tub of Coyo mixed berry yoghurt in the fridge at my local “health food” store. This was a surprise to me, because this shop’s definition of “health” seems to mostly relate to body-building (and you really don’t want to look too closely at most of those products).

So anyway, back to the yoghurt: I saw it, I bought it and I ate it. I liked it. The coconut taste was present but not too overpowering, and I’m a big fan of berries.