Nalli Kai Salad Vegan MoFo day 7

And so the uphill climb of Vegan MoFo has finally begun for me. Last week went super smoothly because most of my Dessert posts had been in various stages of blog readiness before time. But this week I'm not as prepared as I was. That means I need to think up and make something each day from scratch and then share it here with you all and also on my Veganosaurus Page on Facebook.

It'll be a challenge and probably a good one at that. Besides, I signed up for Vegan MoFo being fully aware of what it would mean for my daily life. Thankfully, my crisper is full of fresh veggies and greens so I have no lack of inspiration. Now all we need to do is wait till Friday to see if my sanity is preserved until the end of the week. :oP

Until then, here for your pleasure is today's recipe in this week's ongoing theme on my blog - Soups and Salads.

In today's Salad, I've featured one of my favourite fruits in the world, the West Indian Gooseberry, known as Nalli Kai in my language, Kannada. These super tart local fruits (not to be confused with the regular Indian Gooseberry/Amla/Bettada Nalli Kai) are usually sold on street-side carts outside schools, tossed with salt and chilli powder. However, the tastiest ones are always found on old trees in people's backyards.

Last week, when we were at someone's place, my sister spied a Nalli Kai tree in their garden with big, ripe, irresistible fruits that made us drool uncontrollably. Our hosts were really nice and asked one of their staff to climb onto the roof and pluck some Nalli Kais for us. And this kind soul hand picked and filled a big bag with the fattest, juiciest fruits which we brought back home.

Most of the loot was handed over to my mom so she could make her delicious Nalli Kai Uppinkai (pickle) for all of us. But a portion was kept aside to be enjoyed straight, dipped in salt. Chew on each sour fruit and then spit out the seed, such a relaxing way to spend time. :)

I also concocted a Nalli Kai Salad as a MoFo special. I just tossed a bunch of random things together - spiced peanuts, veggies from my crisper, herbs from my kitchen garden... and there is was, this gorgeous salad!

This is a very flexible recipes, the variety and quantity of ingredients can be adjusted to suit your taste buds. Just remember that Nalli Kais are very rich in vitamin C, so iron heavy greens and herbs make a very good combination with them.

I've used Congress Kadlekai from Veena Stores in Malleshwaram. If you want to make some of your own, here's a nice recipe by Deesha of Vegetable Platter. But you could also just use peanuts which have been roasted plain or with salt. In that case, a pinch of turmeric and some spice, like red chilly powder or green chilly paste would make a good addition.

Nalli Kai Salad

Nalli Kai - seeds removed and roughly chopped
Congress Kadlekai
Spinach
Mint
Tulsi (Indian Holy Basil)
Capsicum Tomato
Sesame Seeds
Salt

Toss everything together in an airtight box.
Chill in the fridge for a few hours (can also be left to marinade overnight).
Serve over lettuce leaves.
Enjoy! :)

What kind of super sour berries do you get in your part of the world and do you like them?

Carrot Hesarubele Kosumbari - Vegan MoFo day 6

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful, drool-alicious weekend visiting various MoFo-ers blogs and also coming up with more delicious vegan food posts for your own. I'm really looking forward to blog hopping and seeing what you all come up with for week two of Vegan MoFo! :)

My last week's theme was Desserts. This week it's Soups and Salads. I'll start off with a traditional, South India Kosumbari - a salad that is topped with a basic Indian tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida that have been heated in oil. Kosumbaris can be made with different combinations of veggies and soaked/sprouted lentils/beans.

They are one of the first few things which are served on the Banana Leaf 'plates' during meals at traditional events like festivals, weddings etc...

Today I'll be sharing a quick and simple Carrot Hesarubele Kosumbari. Hesarubele is the Kannada word for Moong Dal (Split Mung Beans). It a lentil that can be enjoyed raw. It's healthy and tasty.

Carrot Hesarubele Kosumbari

For the salad:

1/4 C Moong Dal (soaked for at least 2 hours and drained)
3 large Carrots (grated)
2 Green Chillies (crushed)
Salt
Lime Juice
A pinch of Turmeric

For the tempering:

2 tsp Coconut Oil
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 T fresh Curry Leaves
1/8 tsp Asafoetida Powder

Mix all the salad ingredients together in a large bowl.
Use your hand and squeeze everything lightly as you mix to get the spice, salt and lime juice into the carrots.

In a small pan, heat the coconut oil on high for 30 seconds.
Add the mustard seeds and cover the pan immediately (with a small gap to let the steam escape).
When the mustard seeds almost stop crackling, add the asafoetida powder and mix for a few seconds.
Add the curry leaves and stir for another 30 seconds or so.
Turn off the heat.

Now pour the tempered ingredients over the salad and mix lightly.

Serve immediately and enjoy! :)

Banana Walnut Cinnamon Vanilla Crème Vegan MoFo day 5

Yay first week of Vegan MoFo successfully completed! :) This week's theme was Desserts and the mystery sub-theme was Mostly Raw. I hadn't initially planned on focusing on raw desserts, but after my first two Vegan MoFo recipes, Avocado Orange Chocolate Mousse and Fig and Cinnamon Ice Cream turned out to be mostly raw, I decided to keep going with the rawsomeness.

'Restricting' myself to making the desserts as raw as possible with the ingredients I already had in my pantry was a challenge and it pushed me to use my imagination and come up with creative ideas. The response to them has been great so it has been totally worth the effort. After four days of sharing mostly raw recipes, today I present a completely raw dessert.

This recipe came together in a very unplanned, organic method. I started out by putting the bananas, vanilla and a pinch of salt into the blender, thinking I could attempt a raw custard of sorts, but as the blending process continued, the other ingredients asked to be included and I couldn't help but oblige. The end result was a creamy, versatile fruit dip of sorts. A very grown up kind of dessert. The cinnamon and vanilla begged for a fancy name, hence Banana Walnut Cinnamon Vanilla Crème. :oP

I've served it with guava but I think it'll go very well with a variety of fruits like apples, pears, green grapes, moosambi or perhaps even pineapple. It can also be used as a fruit salad dressing, in a parfait, as a topping on pie or cheezecake...there are so many possibilities! And the best one of course is to just chill it and eat it by the spoonfuls. :)

A quick note to my fellow Mofo-ers before I move on to the recipe - if you have word verification/CAPTCHA text enabled for comments, please do consider disabling it. Those CAPTCHAs are very discouraging to visitors who are potential commenters. Especially during Vegan MoFo when people blog hop like crazy, the easier you make it for them to leave comments, the more comments you will get. If you're worried about those darned spammers, just put your comments on moderation. That way, you can just publish the genuine comments and report the spam ones.

Banana Walnut Cinnamon Vanilla Crème

2 large Bananas (pachbalé hannu)
2 inch Vanilla Pod
1/4 tsp Cinnamon Powder
8-10 Walnut Halves (handful)
2 Pitted Dates
Pinch of Salt

Blend everything together, adding up to 1/4 C water, until you get a creamy mixture.
Pour into glass bowl and place in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
Whip vigorously with a wire whisk.
Serve over fruit.
Enjoy! :)

Cashew Barfi Truffles and a Video Vegan MoFo day 4

Just when I had the Vegan MoFo blogs all organized, I discovered Rando and he created chaos in my life!! Randomofo.com is a brilliant tool created by the people of Vegan MoFo. What it does is that every time you visit the link, a random Vegan MoFo blog post gets loaded. The surprise factor makes it so much more fun that I've blog hopped on it all day yesterday and my Newsify app pretty much got ignored. :oP

Cashew Barfi is a very common Indian sweet. It's made by grinding cashews into a paste and cooking it with cardamom powder and sugar. The paste is then spread onto a plate in a thin layer and scored in a criss-cross pattern. Once the paste cools, the Barfis harden and can be removed and served as individual diamond shaped pieces.

This sweet is vegan by default, except when some idiot decides the plate needs to be greased with ghee (yuck!). Cashews have plenty of oils on their own and the plates really don't require any greasing to begin with. And if a person wants to make things easier, they could just line the plate with a sheet of plastic or foil and it becomes super simple to pop off the set pieces of Barfi.

I started out making a mostly raw version of Cashew Barfis but I soon learnt that the cooked paste sets to a firm consistency, whereas the raw paste remains sticky and soft, even after being chilled in the fridge for a few hours. That's why I decided to shape the paste into balls and make truffles out of it. The texture turned out to be perfect for truffles!

I rolled some of my truffles in cocoa powder and the others in saffron strands, just for variety (and because I really hadn't intended to do yet another chocolate based post today). One could also use coconut powder, toasted sesame seeds or a variety of other things to coat the Barfi Balls.

I had mentioned in September that my theme for Vegan MoFo would be dishes for a four course meal with each week featuring recipes for one course. My first week's theme is Desserts. But if you've been following my posts all week, you might notice that there's a sub-theme going on. Can you guess what it is? :)

Cashew Barfi Truffles - vegan, gluten free, mostly raw

1 C Cashews
2 T Sugar (the only non-raw ingredient)
2 Cardomon Pods (use only the seeds, the skins can go into your tea powder to add a mild flavour)
1/8 tsp Saffron Strands
Pinch of Salt

Cocoa Powder
Saffron Strands

Grind everything in a food processor for a few minutes.
Scrape down the sides of the grinding jar once in a while through the grinding process.
Continue processing until the cashews start releasing their oil and you get a smooth, buttery paste.
Transfer the paste into a bowl and chill for half an hour.
Shape the paste into balls and roll onto cocoa powder and saffron strands.
Chill in the fridge for a little more time.
Enjoy! :)

And now for the video I promised (in the title of this post). You might all be familiar with my dear friend GiGi of Veganville, who did a guest post on my blog earlier this year. She's doing a series of video interviews called "Who Dat Vegan" on Thursdays through Vegan MoFo this year. I'm stoked to be the first person to be interviewed. :)

Here's the question video she sent me:

And here's my long, rambling reply:

Visit GiGi's blog, Veganville to read more about her Thursday program, Who Dat Vegan and also read her other hilarious recipe posts for Vegan MoFo. You'll thoroughly enjoy her write ups and laugh your head off at the videos. Check out her MoFo intro video along with her hubby, Crazy Boy aka Psycho Boy aka Larry. They're even all dressed up for it! haha

Also, if you live in the USA, then order some delicious Veganville Voppee Pies made by GiGi herself.

Mostly Raw Hazelnut Mocha Mini Cheezecakes Vegan MoFo day 3

Day 3 of Vegan MoFo already. I've been having a blast hopping through other MoFo-ers blogs and the Newsify app has been a real blessing to help me do this efficiently. I've been gawking at so much amazingly delicious food that it's driving my drool glands on overdrive!! :oP Here, see for yourself on the Vegan MoFo 2012 Blogroll, a the list of 600+ participating blogs from all over the globe .

Continuing on my Desserts theme this week, I present to you Mostly Raw Hazelnut Mocha Mini Cheezecakes. This turned out to be the most popular photograph yet in my Vegan MoFo Sneak Peek album, with many people asking for the recipe. And I'm very happy to be sharing it today! :)

These blissful desserts are little bites of heavenly goodness!! Mine are only 'mostly raw' because I used regular coconut oil since I didn't have virgin coconut oil on hand. Also, I've used some sugar for additional sweetening and I have no idea where to get raw instant coffee or raw cacao powders from.

I'm happy with 80-90% raw desserts because it means using ingredients which are usually readily available in my kitchen. But if you are particular about making these cheezecakes completely raw, then use agave nectar, virgin coconut oil, raw cacao powder and cold pressed espresso.

The coconut and walnuts make it really heavy so it's advisable to have only one small piece at a time. Even though the main flavors are supposed to be hazelnut and mocha, the coconut flavor tends to shine through. So this is a dessert for coconut fans.

Mostly Raw Hazelnut Mocha Mini Cheezecakes

For the crust:

1/2 C Walnuts
1/2 C Almonds
1/2 C Pitted Dates (tightly packed)
1/4 tsp Salt
1 inch Vanilla Pod

Grind the nuts, salt and vanilla pod to a coarse powder.
Add the dates and grind until you get a sticky, crumbly mixture.
Line the insides of mini tart pans with cling wrap.
Make 1 inch balls of the crust mixture and press into the bottom and the sides of the tart pans to form shells.
If you run out of patience after lining and pressing the crust mixture into about 6 or 7 tart pans (I did!), just line a plate (the kind with walls) with wax paper and press the remaining crust mixture into it.
Keep all crusts in the fridge to chill.

Meanwhile...

For the cheeze filling:

1 C Hazelnuts - soaked for two hours, drained and rinsed
1/2 C Raisins - soaked in 3/4 C filtered water
3/4 C Almond or Cashew Mylk
1 T Instant Coffee Powder (I use Bru Gold)
2 T Cocoa Powder
2 T Sugar
A pinch of Salt
1/2 C Coconut Oil (at room temperature)
1/8 tsp Soy Lecithin Granules (optional emulsifier)

Blend together the drained hazelnuts, raisins (along with the soaking water), cocoa powder, coffee powder, sugar and salt.
Add a little almond/cashew mylk at a time and process till you get a smooth, creamy mixture.
Add the coconut oil and soy lecithin (if using) and blend well until the oil has been incorporated into the mixture.

How to proceed...

Pour the cheezecake filling into the prepared shells and freeze for half an hour (just to speed up the setting process) or chill for 2 hours in the fridge.
Remove the mini cheezecakes from the tart pans by gently lifting out the cling wrap.
Peel off the cling wrap and place the mini cheezecakes on a plate and store in the fridge until ready to serve.
The mini cheezecakes can be served as individual dessert pieces and the larger one in the plate can be sliced carefully and served.

These cheezecakes taste *best* after sitting in the fridge for a couple of days because the coconut flavour mellows and melds with the other flavours well.

Enjoy! :)

This recipe has also been submitted to 'The Green Foodie Recipe Challenge' conducted by The Alternative, an online publication on sustainable living, for Nature On My Plate, connecting consumers to organic food at BioFach India 2012.