restaurant review #338 – Yasai is a vegan catering business from Ghent. We had ordered a take away menu for Valentine’s day, and Yasai did the catering for a party my husband and I organised earlier this year. So Yasai also does catering on location outside of Ghent. Technically this is not a restaurant review, but I’m posting it in that category anyway 😉 The Valentine’s take away menu:
I still have plenty of dried figs from our fig tree. I put some on my breakfast granola every day. 🌿🌾🌿🌾
Cheese croquettes! I have eaten a lot of these in the old days, but since going vegan have only had a couple of occassions where I could eat vegan cheese croquettes. Vegan cheese croquettes are not so easily found in shops (at least not around here). I had bought some at vegan shop SHAVT (now only webshop) and also eaten these at a bistro in Louvain, but the SHAVT webshop doesn’t sell these cheese croquettes any more. DIY it is! And yes, I call these cheese croquettes! Even if there are no animal ingredients involved. I simply consider ‘cheese’ to be a processed product, that just as well can be made from cashews, coconut or other plantbased materials! Up till now, we have always used cheese from the brand Wilmersburger to make these, but any other firm cheese, with a neutral taste, will probably do. Wilmersburger can be bought in most organic shops around here.
As you can probably tell from the number of restaurant reviews on our blog, we do like to go dining out. But we also love to stay at home and experiment in the kitchen (an overview of several homemade meals can be seen here: what do you eat?). Yesterday was World Vegan Day (November 1) and for that occassion it was a bit more fancy than usual! Everything prepared by Jim, I just made the photograph (and ate it 😉 Delicious! Tower with layers of: – Chards with cream cheese and chopped roasted pecan nuts – puree of pumpkin and lentils with ginger – potatoe mash with chicory. On the side: Shiitakes and chanterelles baked in garlic, oven roasted Brussels sprouts in olive oil and herbs, soy chunks baked in ketjap manis, with onions and carrots in gravy sauce, jerusalem artichoke steamed and baked in cashew cream with parsley. Et voilà! 🙂 View this post on Instagram A bit more fancy dinner for #worldveganday! 👌☺ Tower with layers of: – Chards with cream cheese and chopped …
So what do you eat? We do not get the question that often anymore, but still, some people have a hard time grasping what vegans eat. So what’s left after you take away the animal parts in a traditional dish, nothing right? Unfortunately, some people still seem to think that. Could not be further from the truth of course! It is about making new combinations and discovering new products. And several years after going vegan, we are still on a fascinating journey of discovery! In our minds, veganism is not about leaving things out, because we simply don’t regard animal products as ‘edible things’ anymore. In this post, I let the photos speak for themselves. It is a collection of photos of our homemade meals that I posted on Instagram (I will make a seperate blogpost with desserts soon). Most of the dishes are inspiration of the moment. Some are based on recipes from vegan cookbooks. We never considered ourselves as ‘foodies’, and I was actually quite surprised that a friend did refer to us as foodies the …
‘Klaaskoeken’ are not really cookies, but more sandwich like breads. I could not find a proper English translation for it! They are traditionally eaten in Western-Flanders (most in the south of the province) around the period of Saint-Nicholas. (Sinterklaas or Saint Nicholas is on December 6, a date when children in many countries (especially Netherlands, Belgium) wake up to find toys and candy that Saint Nicholas on his horse and his helpers have brought to their homes, through the chimney – as the legend goes. The sandwiches mostly take the shape of a horse ( calles ‘kloajspèrden’) or a man or another figure (we also make ducks). Whether you particpate in this children’s feast or not, they are delicious! One eats them with a bit of ‘butter’, or with bread spead. It’s very rare to find vegan ‘klaaskoeken’, so we experimented. Note: this recipe calls for advanced preparation: the dough needs time to rise.
We were invited to dinner at friends recently. They are not vegan, but do not mind making us a lovely vegan menu. We’ve been there several times over the years, and it has always been a real treat. Not only the food in itself, but also the way they take the task of preparing a vegan meal seriously, and making sure there are no animal products in the dishes. Yes, even non-vegans can cook vegan 🙂 In the week leading to the dinner party, I received several facebook messages and e-mails from my friend, with queries about products and ingredients (even with photos of the list of ingredient included!). About the soy sauce, the curry paste, the oil for frying, the bouillon, and other things. And I really don’t mind those questions, on the contrary! I always reply to a dinner invitation that I am more than happy to provide information about ingredients or products if they have any doubts or want to check with us to be sure. Rather they are open and honest about it, than just guess and knowingly or …
A couple of weeks ago, we were invited for dinner at the house of vegan friends. We had such a lovely evening, and the food was great! So I thought I’d share the vegan menu we were served. If you are still looking for inspiration for a vegan festive menu for the coming holidays, take a look at this! For appetizers we had a trio of spreads with crackers: cashew-rucola spread, tapenade of sundried tomatos and basil and lentils apple spread. What followed was a little glass with a salad of quinoa, mango, avocado and cilantro (unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of this!). Then came leek and pumpkin cream soup. The starter was homemade (!) tagliatelle with forest mushrooms, peas and pieces of ‘bacon’, with a creamy sauce based on demi-glace and brandy. The main dish was a ‘beef wellington’ with tree variations of mushrooms and cashews, with béarnaise sauce. And mash of potatos and parsnip, and caramelised chicory and lentils on the side. Wow! By that time we were quite stuffed, but the desserts were so beautiful, we just had to …
Carbonade flamande or Flemish stew (Vlaamse stoverij) is a traditional Flemish dish. It is commonly sold at ‘frietkoten’ (fast food places selling fries, hamburgers, ..) and is often served as a ‘plat du jour’ at bistros or traditional restaurants. In 2015, Flemish stew with fries was chosen as the most traditional Flemish dish by viewers of the popular TV-cooking show ‘Dagelijkse Kost‘ (roughly translates as ‘Everyday Meals‘) and March 1, was proclaimed as ‘Flemish stew day‘. Not surprisingly of course, the dish is not vegan, as it traditionally made with cow (beef) or sometimes with pig. See also our post about Belgium’s culinary tradition here. This is our vegan version of Vlaamse Stoverij, with seitan. We’ve given it our own touch, as most often it does not come with mushrooms, nor carrots. What is typical though is the use of (dark) beer, and bread smeared with mustard. This is for 4 persons (we usually make this portion for the two of us and then freeze the remaining for later). Sometimes we use storebought seitan, but most often we use homemade seitan from …
We have plenty of apples from our apple trees in the garden. I juice them, I make apple sauce, and they are of course also great for baking. And as I also have plenty of walnuts from our own tree, so this apple pie with walnut crumble is a great combo to use both of these! Attention: making this pie requires advance preparation! you need to soak the cashews for at least 6-8 hours before you can make the pie! You also need a large (especially deep) pie pan (23cm or 9 inch) – considering that about 6 to 8 apples go in it! Ingredients 1 puff pastry* For the topping 1/2 cup flour 1/3 cup brown sugar 2 tbs chopped walnuts 1/2 ts cinnamon 1/4 ts salt 6 tbs cold vegan butter For the filling 1/2 cup cashews, soaked in water for 6-8 hours (til they are very soft) 3 tbs lemon juice (this is from about 1 + 1/2 lemon) 1/4 cup plain soy yoghurt 3 tbs flour 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 ts vanille extract 3/4 ts cinnamon 1/2 ginger 1/2 …
The Bruges Vegan 