Ethiopian dinner, raw blueberry cheesecake and more

The awesome thing about being a vegan is that it’s always delicious.

Even if you throw the wrong ingredients together, sample a new recipe, or are just having fun in the kitchen, it’s always delicious.

The thing is, you can’t really go wrong with fresh, whole delicious foods.

(Frankly, the key here is that it is delicious.)

Last week was my mom’s birthday, and my mom is a really great lady. That being said, a great lady calls for some great foods.

In my city there is an incredible book warehouse with slashed prices on loads of brand new books. The other day a flyer came to my house boasting an additional 50% off all of the cookbooks. I went to go have a “look”, limiting myself to two.

And I did! (Although I bought a slew more for others as wonderful gifts).

One book I came across was World Vegetarian Classics: Over 200 Essential International Recipes for the Modern Kitchen.

Generally my cookbook-buying-regime consists of purchasing, photograph-looking, recipe reading, and keeping on standby when I’m bored in the kitchen waiting for something to cook so I sit on the floor to read.

Anyway, my mom and I were flipping through it (meaning, I was flipping through it talking about food while she rolled her eyes), and I suggested a lentil dish for her birthday. Although we both love all vegetables, the rest of our diets are quite dissimilar but we both have an affinity for the humble legume. So, our Sunday night dinners at my place generally revolve around it’s creamy goodness.

The book featured an Ethiopian stew that I decided to prepare for dinner. It’s really hard for me to follow recipes – as most folks who love to cook would agree – but I decided to make the effort. After all, the stew featured a simplicity of flavours that had me hooked – I needed to know what it was supposed to taste like.

Additionally, I would like to expand my Ethiopian dishes that I prepare. My nephew is adopted from there and I’d love to perfect some dishes – the best I can living across the world without ingredients always on hand.

The stew turned out fabulous and four days later, I can’t stop thinking about it. However, knowing I had a few ingredients I needed to use up, I made a few changes to the original.

The recipe consisted of red onion, garlic, a load of fresh ginger and basil, some dried basil, salt and turmeric, all mixed together with brown lentils. In my version today, I added a load of cremini mushrooms and about 1/3 a can of diced tomatoes – two ingredients in my fridge that needed using.

Served on Tinkyada.

Terrible glary photo - but still full of blueberry-ness

The result was delicious, although admittingly, I enjoyed the original more. I believe it was the mushrooms – they overpowered this version and although I absolutely love their earthy flavour, I had really enjoyed the simple lentil/basil infusion of the real deal.

Rewinding to the birthday days before, I also made a raw blueberry cheesecake and chocolate pudding cake. Enjoyed by all, both for cookbook. If you want to recipe test, feel free to send me an email!

Now fast forwarding again back to this book (World Vegetarian Classics) – I have to say, there are so many recipes that look absolutely delicious and that I’ll be trying soon enough. Does anyone own the book with recommendations? Working my way through it will definitely build my ethnic-kitchen-savvyness!

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