Yummus Hummus

Tonight was a vegetarian dinner - Mediterranean-style hummus... or as my husband calls it, "Yummus".

Yes, those are cucumber strips instead of circles. Easier to dip into the hummus, or jam into a pita bread. Unless your toddler only will eat cucumber slices, of course. The total time to make this meal is about 25 minutes (if the carrots are already prepped- peeled and chopped and stored in a container in the fridge, soaking in cold water. Great tip from my Mother-in-law: they stay fresh, crunchy, and you can prep them ahead of time for snacking.)

I would love to say I made the Falafel myself, but I took a short-cut and had my buddy, Albert Heijn make it. Just pop these beauties into a pan with a bit of oil, and fry them up for a nice, crunchy exterior.

Inform your two-year-old that these are meatballs and risk wasting one (unless you don't mind it ABC- already been chewed).

The key to this fabulous meal is of course, the Hummus. A recipe I found online long ago here: (and modified slightly)
Yummus Hummus
1 jar of chickpeas (trying to cut down on canned foods because of the BPA), drained but reserve the liquid (360 grams or 16 oz)
1/4 cup (60ml) of reserved chickpea liquid
juice from 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup or 60ml)
2 Tablespoons Tahini paste* (about 30ml)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped fine (or if you don't like raw garlic, roast it first)
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (plus more for garnish)

Blend everything in a food processor for 3 to 5 minutes, or until creamy. Add more reserved chick-pea liquid if desired, but don't add too much or you'll end up with soup.
To serve, place in a bowl and add a Tablespoon or so of olive oil as a garnish on the top.  Make it look pretty with a carved carrot flower or creatively placed tomatoes. Use cut veggies to dip, or stuff a pita-pocket (also AH supplied! and the par-baked pita pockets bake up nice in only 5 minutes!) with the hummus, falafel, veggies and a drizzle of oil if you like.
* = Tahini is sesame paste. If you don't have it and can't get it, you can use a mortar and pestle to grind up sesame seeds until they are a paste and use that instead. I've done it this way when I was out of tahini and craving hummus. It works okay, but you really have to work to grind up those seeds and it takes a long time.

Yummus!

Vegan Cocoa Cake

My neighbor, Inge (pronounced "ING-ah") has two boys. One is allergic to milk (I find it so sweet how the Dutch say the word for milk: melk... but they pronounce it "Mel-ek" with two syllables- cute!!) and the other is allergic to eggs. In general, cooking anything cake-related without eggs seems like blasphamy in my mind but I really wanted to help my friend's kids eat cake, so I began a quest for a vegan cake.

My daughter, not to be fooled, was skeptical of such a cake.

Indeed, I too was skeptical. But, I spent some time improving a recipe I found on the internet named "BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE EVER." Also, I discovered that the right frosting carried this cake to greater heights. Starting from a frosting recipe I had in the Belimar book, I made it vegan, too. Both of Inge's boys enjoyed this version and I was surprised at how moist and tasty this frosting/cake combo became.

Chocolate Vegan Cake 
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (300 g Zeeuwse bloem)
2 cups granulated sugar (440 g)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (70 g)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups coffee (500 ml)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup (166 ml) vegetable oil
2 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Grease two 9" round pans, then line the bottom with baking paper. Then, grease the baking paper.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just to combine. 
3. Pour batter into two 9" round pans. (if you are precise, it is about 680 g of batter in each pan, just over half-way up the sides of a 1.5" tall pan)
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) for 35-45 minutes. Check your cake by doing the toothpick test (toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean), and also the spring-back test (lightly press your finger into the center of your cake- it should spring back almost to its original shape).
5. (EDIT:) Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks and allow to cool completely before frosting. Remove the baking paper after they are turned out.

Chocolate Vegan Frosting
2 & 2/3 cups powdered sugar (400 g)
8 Tbsp margarine (120 g)
1/3 cup oat milk (83ml) (this is key, do not substitute soy milk- oat milk is the consistency of cream. It is lovely, actually)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (70 g)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat all ingredients together until creamy. This frosting is a bit sloppy and so does not make a really attractive cake, but if you don't mind using crisco instead of the margarine, then it will hold its shape better and allow you to pipe it, if desired. Inge minds using crisco, so I didn't do it.

Aside from making this for Inge's boys, I doubt I'll be making this often. For egg-eaters, I have my favorite chocolate cake recipe, which is a story for another day.

Happy Birthday, Inge!