Vegan Hazelnut Butter Chocolate Ice Cream

I admit that I am verrrry partial to the combination of toasted hazelnuts with chocolate over other flavours so my claims here might seem like they're coloured by this favoritism, but believe me when I say that is not the case.

This ice cream starts tasting amazing even before it becomes ice cream! Each step of the recipe process is more delicious than the previous one - the simple nut butter, the sweet chocolate hazelnut cream, the heavenly pre-ice cream mylk... OMG the things they did to my tongue!!

I took a lot of will power on my part for this thing to actually reach its goal of becoming ice cream. But I am so glad I pushed through because this is THE BEST ice cream that I have ever made. Period.

And the kicker? It is dangerously simple to make!

So without further ado, I present to you...

Vegan Hazelnut Butter Chocolate Ice Cream

3/4 C Hazelnuts
3/4 C Cashew Nuts
6 T + 2 tsp Sugar
2 T Cocoa Powder
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Soy Lecithin (optional)
Handful of Ice Cubes
3 C Filtered Water

Toast the hazelnuts to bring out their flavor and set aside until they are cooled completely.

Rub them between your fingers to remove as much of the skin as possible.

Grind the hazelnuts and cashews together, with breaks in between to scrape down the sides of the jar, until they start releasing oil and turn buttery.

Add the sugar, cocoa powder, salt and soy lecithin (if adding) and blend again.

Add 1 C of water, a little at a time and bring to a creamy consistency. Throw in the ice cubes and blend well. Add the remaining water and blend and whip for a minute or so until it's a nice, frothy mixture.

If you have the patience, let this chill in the fridge for a few hours and then pour into your ice cream maker. I didn't have the patience nor the confidence in my resistance to glug, therefore I skipped the chilling step and went straight to the ice cream making step.

In the ice cream maker, it will reach a soft-serve consistency. After it's ready, transfer to an airtight container and freeze for an additional hour or two to get a scoopable consistency.

If you don't own an ice cream maker, don't worry. Just pour the pre ice cream mylk in an airtight container and freeze. Every half an hour, take it out of the freezer and whip vigorously with a spatula. Repeat this step 3-4 times. Then finally freeze for an hour and you have your ice cream ready.

After a day or so in the freezer, I've seen that home made ice creams become slightly hard/icy. For the perfect consistency, transfer the container to the fridge and let it thaw for half an hour before serving.

Enjoy!! :)

Macaroni Potato Salad

I love eating fresh, vegetable salads as a meal in themselves but hubby prefers to have some carbs involved. He says that if he eats just a salad for lunch, it fills him up quickly, but then he gets hungry again very soon. So I've started adding a bit of pasta into my salads to add body to them and that's been a nice compromise.

I used macaroni here because I'd run out of penne but it worked out nicely enough for me to try again even when I have regular pasta around. The texture of the macaroni goes well with this soft and filling salad.

Macaroni Potato Salad

Here are the ingredients, the quantities are completely up to you.

Macaroni - cooked, drained and rinsed in cold water.
Potatoes - boiled and cubed
Fresh Mint - chopped
Carrots - scrubbed clean and grated
Green Chillies - crushed to a paste
Red Chilli Powder
Lime Juice
Agave
Salt

Toss everything together and serve with freshly crushed pepper and nutritional yeast sprinkled over it.

Enjoy! :)

Steamed Ragi Sweet, my guest post on Tongue Ticklers.

Want to know what that is and how to make it? Check out my guest post on Tongue Ticklers (that website has unfortunately disappeared now).

Tongue Ticklers is a vegan blog run by Harini. It's filled with beautiful food photography, interesting recipes and lots of handy tips on vegan and gluten free cooking and baking. I'm super happy to have a guest post featured on it. :)

Vegan Tofu Scramble Salad Rice Paper Wraps.

I disliked eggs (aka hen periods) even during my pre vegan days. I only ate them when they were hidden in cakes and mousses and such desserts. If by mistake I put anything with the slightest eggy smell into my mouth, I immediately gagged and discarded it. So it's no surprise that after I turned vegan, I never really went out of my way to try out savory vegan egg-style dishes. The only time I had one was the Tofu Akuri made by Dr.Nandita Shah of SHARAN at the Reversing Diabetes with Dr.Neal Barnard seminar a few years ago. I liked it but not enough to inspire me try making it myself.

But last month, my friend Heather of Worceatsveg wrote a post about Vegan Eggless Salad and it got me curious enough to attempt a version of my own. I decided to turn it into rice paper rolls along with a few fresh veggies and the result was simply delicious!!



For the tofu filling:

2 200gm packs Tofu (rinsed, drained and patted dry)
1 Small Onion (finely chopped)
1 Medium Tomato (finely chopped)
3 T Nutritional Yeast
Turmeric (a pinch)
1/4 tsp Chilli Powder
1/4 tsp Pepper Powder
1 T Lemon Juice
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Agave (small splash)
Salt (Black Salt works best but I didn't have any so I used regular salt)

In a large bowl, crumble the tofu.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Taste and adjust the seasonings.



To proceed:

Sliced Vegetables - carrot, capsicum, cucumber.
Tapioca Sheets

Dip a tapioca sheet in warm water and place it carefully on a flat surface.
Place some tofu mixture in the middle of the sheet.
Top with sliced veggies.
Carefully roll up the tapioca sheet by folding the bottom half over the filling, then the sides and then the top half.

Enjoy immediately!

Vegan Hazelnut Kahlua Dark Chocolate Truffles

There's this story my paternal grandma used to tell us when we were kids. It's the Mysore Pak story. My granny is super adorable and she made all these sounds and expressions when she recited it. It was an absolute delight for a child to watch! :)

One day, a man says to his wife, "Darling, I have a hankering for Mysore Pak. Please make some for me".
The wife replies, "I don't know how to make it sweetheart but I'll ask the auntie next door to teach me".
And so she asked the neighbor who very sweetly agreed to teach her.

The wife asked her husband to buy all the ingredients from the market and the following day she went to the neighbor's house for a cooking lesson. She learnt how to toast the flour and add the sugar and the oil (yes, I'm veganizing it!!) and how to spread the mixture into a tray and slice it after it's cooled. As a thank you for teaching her, she gave the neighbor auntie half the Mysore Paks and brought the rest back home.

The Mysore Paks looked and smelt amazing!! The wife bit into one and her eyes went wide. "Mmmmmmm", she said, "my hubby's going to looooove these!!" She couldn't wait for him to come home from work that evening and taste them.

After sometime, she thought to herself, "I have got to eat another, they are so very tasty!" And so she did. A little while later, she couldn't resist having another one.

As the evening neared, she started pacing up and down on the front porch, waiting for her hubby. The excitement was too much! She kept going up to the table where she's placed the Mysore Paks to check on them and each time she checked, she couldn't help but pop one into her mouth. One, then another, then another one.

In this way time passed by and finally the evening arrived. She saw her hubby walking in through the gate. She ran up to him and excitedly told him all about the delicious Mysore Paks she'd made just for him!! She took him lovingly by the hand and led him to the table.

On the table, he saw one lonely Mysore Pak sitting in a tray with a few crumbs here and there.

"Is this all??" asked the hubby with shock.
"There were more", she replied sheepishly, "but I couldn't stop myself from eating them".
"But, but, HOW did you eat them all?" he asked, and regretted it the very next moment because his wife hypnotically reached out to the Mysore Pak, picked it up and said, "Like this!" and as a he gaped in amazement, the Mysore Pak disappeared into her mouth forever.

The End. :oP

Now why did I tell you this story? Because that is EXACTLY what has been happening to these Vegan Hazelnut Kahlua Dark Chocolate Truffles. Need I say more? :D



1/2 C Hazelnuts (toasted)
1 Bar 100% Bitter Dark Chocolate
1/2 Bar Semi-Sweet Dark Chocolate
1/4 C Brown Sugar + Agave for more sweetening as required
Kahlua (and/or Dark Rum)
2-3 T Soymilk

Keep half the toasted hazelnuts aside and crush the other half into a medium fine powder (I used a mortar and pestle but you could use a grinder if you like).

Melt the chocolate using the double boiler method. Basically one kettle/pan/vessel at the bottom and another, slightly larger one on top, covering it. Water in the bottom one and broken chocolate in the top one. Place on medium-low flame (water should get hot but not start boiling) and stir chocolate till half of it is melted. Then switch off the stove and continue stirring until it's completely melted.

Add sugar and mix well and keep stirring for a while longer.

Take the chocolate vessel off the water vessel and let it sit until it comes down to room temperature. VERY IMPORTANT!

Add the kahlua and/or rum and the soymilk and mix well. As soon as the alcohol hits, the texture changes slightly but that's absolutely okay.

Let the mixture sit in the fridge for a couple of hours.

With your palms, shape the chocolate into balls and press a whole hazlenut into the center of each ball as you form it.

Chill for another hour in the fridge.

Start popping them into your mouth and be transported to heaven.

The End. :oP