Warm

Sweet potato slices with pink hummus

Sweet potato slices with pink hummus

VANELJA’S ROASTED SWEET POTATO SLICES WITH PINK HUMMUS & AVO

2 sweet potatoes, peeled
sea salt
black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200 Celsius / 400 fahrenheit degrees. Slice the sweet potatoes into half inch slices. Spread the slices onto a baking tray covered with baking paper. Pour on some olive oil & sprinkle o salt and black pepper. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the sweet potatoes feel tender. Take out from the oven. Let cool slightly. Spread on some pink hummus and top with avocado slices and microgreens or herbs + finger salt. Serve & enjoy right away!

PINK HUMMUS:

1 or a half small beet, peeled & steamed or roasted
2 cups canned chickpeas, drained
(save about ½ cup aquafaba/liquid from the chickpeas)
2 tbsp tahini
juices from half lime
5 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves
pinch of salt
ground black pepper

Blend the beets and chickpeas together in a blender or food processor until slightly combined. Add the rest of the ingredients. Blend. Add some aquafaba so that you get a smooth consistency.

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Pink Golden latte by Vanelja

Hello Love! I’m here to give you some new inspiration for warm drinks – something that makes you thrive during the cold months and something super fun to try out at your coffee or tea break, at your breakfast or as your good night drink.

Pink Latte make from beet and vegan milk

I call them Dream Lattes (Or Soul Lattes – Sweet child has many names, as we say in Finlandas they sooth the soul in such a dreamy way. The happy pastel colors and nourishing ingredients make such a beautiful winter surviving combo that your average cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate just starts to feel bo-ooring.

 

I’m a person who loves variation and I have been switching between these Dream Lattes during the last months and I love to come up with new modifications and color combos. I have never ever believed in the phrase “Don’t play with your food.” Of course you should play – Always, in every single situation you get a change! Playfulness in life is something that makes us vibrate in such a high and light level and that’s the path to true happiness and wellbeing. Through joy, you know.

Pink Latte make from beet and vegan milk

Well anyways, what I was saying about these Dream Lattes, is that few months ago I enjoyed my golden latte with different kinds of spices every evening. Then I started doing the Pink Latte, in which I incorporated beet powder (or blended cooked beet with the milk) and that was a true eye candy for me, because my color taste has stuck to what it was when I was 5, like “All pink everything”. Lately I have been doing my Smaragd Latte which is a combination Blue Latte and Green Latte, that includes matcha, chlorella and/or blue algae. And as you can see all these lattes look like some water coloring session would have just taken place – but they actually are quite potions, I tell you! Big powerful color & herb therapy session in one mug.

Then I have some news to tell!

  1. Last weekend Vanelja won the award for The Best Food Blog at The Blog Awards Finland! Yayyyyy! That was something so so miraculous, that I’m still astonished.  My updates and posts happen mainly on Vanelja’s Instagram account, and I had thought that this kind of an award is targeted mainly to more old school type of bloggers, so it was so heart-warming to notice that the jury had considered also other channels this time.  You can read my thoughts about the victory here from my Instagram post. Wanna send a HUGE warm hug to all my lovely followers for supporting me and being part of this journey.
  2. Vanelja.com is under a renovation and a new beautiful site is building up. This site functions normally until the launch, but I won’t be posting here before the new site opens. But my IG is as active as normal, so no actual radio silence happening.

Pink Latte, Golden Latte, Green Latte and Blue latte to sooth your soul

So stay tuned, my bunnies, and please do try out some of these Dream Lattes – or all of them! Tag your creations on Instagram #dreamlatte and @vanelja so I’ll see them! 

Be love and stay golden!

 

V

Pink Latte, Golden Latte, Green Latte and Blue latte to sooth your soul

Pink Latte

1 cup unsweetened vegan milk (such as almond milk, oat milk or hemp milk)

1 tsp beet powder (or a small cube of cooked beetroot)

½ tsp ceylon cinnamon

⅓ tsp ground ginger

1 tsp raw organic honey or maple syrup or agave

1 tsp coconut oil

 

Golden Latte

1 cup unsweetened mylk (such as almond milk, oat milk or hemp milk)

½ tsp turmeric

½ teaspoon cinnamon

⅓ tsp ground cardamom

a pinch of ground nutmeg

1 tsp raw organic honey or maple syrup or agave

1 tsp coconut oil

 

Green Latte

1 cup unsweetened mylk (such as almond milk, oat milk or hemp milk)

1 tsp matcha powder

⅓ tsp chlorella

¼ tsp ashwagandha

⅓ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp peppermint extract or fresh mint leaves

1 tsp raw organic honey or maple syrup or agave

1 tsp coconut oil

 

Blue Latte

1 cup unsweetened mylk (such as almond milk, oat milk or hemp milk)

¼ tsp blue algae powder (like Blue Majik)

¼ tsp ashwagandha

⅓ tsp ground ginger

juices of half a lemon

1 tsp raw organic honey or maple syrup or agave

1 tsp coconut oil

 

Pour the milk into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Whisk all the ingredients – except honey, if you’re using it. Cook on a low heat for about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan, let cool slightly and add the sweetener, honey or syrup. Top with ceylon cinnamon or beet powder, if you like. Enjoy warm!

Tip 1: You can also warm the milk and then pour all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth and frothy.

Tip 2: If you want to play with colors, make different colors of lattes, scoop off some froth from the surface and mix the froths to different colors of lattes, like pink froth to golden latte, yellow froth to pink latte and so on.

Hello, love! I have one pretty delicious weekend greeting here for you! And it comes in a form of a pizza. I hope you like sweet potato, because this pizza crust is all about it. I mean ALL about it. Totally and completely. Nothing else added.

One of the most popular everyday foods in our household are mini pizzas made on small sweet potato slices. We all love them. They are super easy to make and it takes less than 30 minutes to get them ready. The only thing that started bugging me in the whole mini pizza process was that I always have to add all the toppings separately on each and every slice. So, as a great optimizer as I am, I started to think how could I use the same idea but in a bigger pizza size.

After a few test batches I found out that when I slice the sweet potato lengthwise with a cheese slicer and place the slices overlapping on a baking tray in a form of a round pizza, it makes a great crust which cooks up quickly. And when I sprinkle on some organic mozzarella (and/or feta or vegan cheese) it works like a glue for the slices and makes the pizza easy to eat. Of course you won’t get it as firm as a normal pizza crust would be, but firm enough so you can eat it decently – and with a smile on your face, because it’s just so so tasty.

As a pizza topping I used loads of greens, lovely vegetables and fresh herbs, which made the whole thing look so generous and verdant, especially when I added some edible flowers on it, that I named it the Green Goddess Sweet Potato Pizza. Talk about life energy and abundance.

If you like it more hard core, go ahead and add some organic meat and cheeses on, if you feel you get your divine energies better that way. My kid loves her sweet potato pizza with some tomato puree, tuna (MSC certified, of course) and pineapple. And as she’s going through some picky state of life, I let her enjoy it that way and won’t push my greens on her pizza.

What I love most about this recipe is that it takes less than 30 minutes to make and you can use almost anything you happen to have in the fridge, as long as you have sweet potatoes. As a person who live is the moment, not planning too much her eatings and at the same time gets VERY hungry VERY quickly this kind of a dish is just priceless.

So, there you go! I hope this delivered you some inspiration for the weekend. May the pizza goddess light your way to the kitchen!

 

V

Makes 1 pizza

 

Crust:

2 medium sized sweet potatoes

olive oil

sea salt

black pepper

pizza spice mix

garlic clove, minced

 

Filling:

pesto sauce

4.5 oz organic mozzarella (and/or feta or vegan cheese)

a couple of handfuls baby spinach leaves

1 spring onion

4 stalks of sweet baby broccoli

artichoke hearts (cooked/from a jar)

3 slices of lemon

pine nuts

olives

fresh oregano

fresh basil

sunflower sprouts

 

Preheat the oven to 390 Fahrenheit / 200 Celsius degrees. Cover a baking tray with a parchment paper. Peel the sweet potatoes and slice them with a cheese slicer or a mandolin vegetable slicer into very thin, almost transparent slices. Arrange the sweet potato slices on the baking tray so that they touch each other, making a circle. Fill in all the holes and also the inner circle, so that you get a circle with no holes or see-through spots. Now sprinkle on some olive oil, salt, black pepper and pizza spice mix. Also add garlic. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the sweet potato slices soften. Take out from the oven. Spread some pesto on the crust and add the cheese. Add also the spinach leaves. Cut the spring onion and broccoli into small pieces and sprinkle them on the pizza. Slice the artichoke hearts and add them with lemon slices, pine nuts and olives. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until the cheese melts and the filling gets a nice tanned color. Take out of the oven and season with fresh oregano and basil + sprouts. Serve and enjoy!

Serves 4

2 cups oat milk

2 cups water

1 1⁄4 cups gluten-free oatmeal

1 ½ tsp gingerbread spice mix

pinch of sea salt

3 fresh dates

1 tbsp walnut oil (or almond butter)

Top with:

apple bites

crushed walnuts or almond flakes

ceylon cinnamon

crushed clove

crushed cardamom

ginger bread pieces

raw organic honey or maple syrup or coconut syrup

oat milk

Pour the oat milk and the water into a pan and bring to a boil. Add oatmeal, salt and spices. Chop the dates into small pieces and put on the pan. Cook in a medium heat for 5-7 minutes until the porridge is cooked. Stir in the walnut oil or almond butter.

Dose the porridge into serving bowls. Top with apple pieces, crushed ginger breads and almond flakes. Sprinkle on the spices and add a drop of honey or syrup. Pour some oat milk on, if you like. Serve and enjoy!

One year ago I dreamed about a cookbook that would save our family meals.

My dream book would have recipes that would take less than 30 minutes to make, preferably only 15 minutes, ingredients lists should be nice and short, they would not include gluten, dairy or refined-sugars and most of the recipes should be vegan. The book should offer wholesome recipes for breakfasts, dinners, lunches, snacks and for sweet treats. Kid-friendly recipes would be a big plus and also if the book could also offer better alternatives for pizzas and burgers, my man’s favorite meals. All in all, the recipes in the book should be healthy, super easy and super delicious.

Too sad there wasn’t any book like that on the market. I went through a big bunch of cookbooks and waited for a hero that would fly into my arms and save those moments where the stomach is empty and the mind goes blank at the same time. There were nice recipes here and there but a book that would fulfil ALL my needs just didn’t seem to exist.

So, I had to make it myself. And I did.

Two weeks from here my next cookbook about healthy fast food is going to be released in Finland. The Finnish name is Kiitos hyvää Pikaruokaa, and I’m proud to say that the book offers EXACTLY everything I just described above!

I am so thrilled and I can’t wait to get it in my hands – For one since I actually cook the recipes from the book everyday, and I can’t remember all my recipes in detail, and I don’t wanna go on searching for them from my computer all the time, so I really need to get the book in my kitchen and in my hands – ASAP!

Gonna let you know more about the book later, but I’m sure you guys are going to appreciate it as well. Who would not love healthy and tasty fast food!

But now, to today’s meal! This vegan meatballs and pasta recipe is not actually from my upcoming cookbook, because I created it after the book had already gone to print, but it makes an excellent and simple everyday meal also. I’m just loving this easy pasta made from sweet potato and the rich taste and great texture of these vegetarian meatballs! If you ask me it's quite an excellent mimic of the Italian classic meal, with a healthy and fun twist.

V

VEGAN MEATBALLS AND SWEET POTATO PASTA

Hello darlings, it’s been a while! Actually over a month since my last post. …Oops. I could say that I have been working like crazy and have been doing this and that and the third, which would be very much true, but as my mother always says: only a lazy person counts her work. So let’s trust her and forget explanations and concentrate on the present, and on the most essential – the goodies I brought you!

I have been doing some collaboration with Oatlet Store, which is a brilliant webshop that deals oat-based products. And as a big fan of all oat related I have been super excited to test their gluten-free oat products from Provena and to design new recipes with them.

One of my absolutely favorite thing that came out of my laboratory is this pre-christmas sweet potato oat porridge. It is just insanely tasty, comforting and rich! And it includes my favorite ingredients at the moment: Sweet potato, cinnamon, cardamom, pecan nuts and – jumbo-sized oat flakes. Oh-my-god – TOTALLY different thing than those small oat flakes, that taste like a cardboard, especially after you’ve tasted jumbo ones. So delicious, and you get beautifully textured hearty porridge out of them.

I’m planning to make this sweet potato oat porridge my family’s official christmas porridge that will be consumed every morning until christmas. Well, at least on the weekends. And maybe only in December. I would rather like this to give nice taste memories to my kid than to cause any food traumas. It is too good to be overdosed. …Although I have a tiny hunch I’m gonna do it personally anyways.

But hey, with this pre-christmas porrdige I have also a pre-christmas gift for you: With the code VANELJA you get -20 % discount when shopping in Oatlet Store and the discount is available for two weeks from now. Oatlet Store ships throughout the EU. And if you want a tip, I can recommend at least, surprise surprise, these Provena Gluten Free Jumbo Oats and also Provena Gluten Free Whole Grain Oat Flour for baking.

Have a lovely November, stay warm and eat a lot of porridge!

V

SWEET POTATO OAT PORRIDGE

Hello lover, I just dropped by to tell you that in case you were wondering what to make for lunch this week or prepare quickly in the evening, here is the recipe you have been looking for! It is especially designed for these late summer days when the sun is still nicely warming our noses but you can already feel that the chill of fall is on it’s way.

The recipe is super simple, it’s quick to prepare, takes less than 15 minutes and the ingredient list is nicely minimalistic. So it has exactly those features that an excellent everyday food should always have. And it of course tastes heavenly.

It is a spinach soup with a twist. The soup is made of ripe, juicy pears and fresh spinach leaves accompanied with coconut milk and a nice bunch of fresh herbs, coriander and parsley.

I’m loving how it is creamy and smooth, fresh and earthy, all at the same time. I couldn’t wish for better elements from my power soup.

I hope you’ll find it is a perfect match for your late August days too!

V

PEAR SPINACH SOUP

Who ordered a super tasty grain-free and yeast-free pizza? Hold your tablecloths! Here comes your waitress with so jaunty dance moves that even the pale white pizza on my tray almost blushes.

But what can you do when you have created something so tasty and phenomenal – A delicious white pizza that is build on a gluten-free, yeast-free and vegan pizza crust and which is one amazing combination of a crispy pizza and and a rich savory pie – with a hint of flaky mouthfeel to it. It is simply a hit!

I first planned to post it on friday, which is a classcial pizza day, but then thought, screw that, I´m probably going to make it on every evening this week so I must give others the opportunity to do that also. And preparing this “pizza pie” takes less than 20 minutes so you could actually make it even on your lunch break.

And wait, before you run to buy the pizza ingredients I want to highlight also these two gluten-free Vanelja Pizzas, that you could also find interesting:

Butternut Squash and Sage Pizza

Cauliflower Pizza

Try these out and find your favorite!

V

WHITE PIZZA

I love a meal of good honest oatmeal porridge. So warm and comforting in the cold mornings. So safe and secure. And yet easily – oh so boring. Especially when eaten at almost every breakfast in the cold season, as the tradition goes in many households here in Finland. Oatmeal porridge with butter. Oatmeal porridge with berries. Oatmeal porridge with milk. Oh my dear porridge, I love you, but we really need to spice things up if we want to save our relationship!

And so came the spices. Last week I got to taste this really interesting variation of oatmeal porridge in a PR event. Oatmeal was cooked with coconut milk and served with licorice sauce. The combination was so darn delicious! I had to try it at home and make my own version of it.

I cooked the oatmeal in a mixture of oat milk and coconut milk with some vanilla, and also added a ripe banana in slices. I topped the whole thing with licorice chia jam.
Oatmeal and licorice are both inherently Finnish flavours and they match beautifully with coconut and banana. There's north and south combined. There's something familiar and something surprising. Not dull anymore! This one truly perked up my porridge relationship and made the love stronger.

V
COCONUT OAT PORRIDGE WITH LICORICE CHIA JAM

Well this is something else. When you get a slice of tasty gluten free pizza, then you know you´re having a good day. I already have one nice gluten free pizza recipe here, a cauliflower pizza that is. And now here comes another champion! This stuff is gluten free and grain free, so it’s suitable for many kinds of diets. Also to people who follow enjoyism, which I do. The most important guideline in our ideology is to eat only food that we can enjoy, other we steer clear of.

The most interesting thing about this deeply enjoyable pizza is that you don’t add any tomato sauce, but instead you spread generously ricotta cheese on the base. Then you slice some butternut squash and mince some garlic on top. And enjoy it with fresh sage leaves.

-Very exquisite taste, said my husband. -Fucking good!, slipped from my mouth. And even in front of our child. Happily, she didn´t probably hear. By the looks of it, she too was following the rules of enjoyism, swinging slowly, with her eyes closed and savouring deeply her pizza slice.

PALEO BUTTERNUT SQUASH PIZZA

2 pizzas

Pizza base:

  • 2 dl Coconut Flour
  • 2 dl tapioca flour (starch)
  • 1 tablespoon psyllium husk
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 dl olive oil
  • 1 dl heated water
  • 2 organic eggs

Filling:

  • 2 dl ricotta cheese
  • 1 Butternut Squash
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • pinch of flake salt
  • black pepper
  • a handful of fresh sage

Preheat oven to 225 celsius degrees. Combine coconut flour, tapioca flour, psyllium husk and salt in a bowl. Pour in olive oil and warm water and stir. Add the lightly whisked egg. Mix until well combined. Add two to three more tablespoons of coconut flour until the mixture is a soft but somewhat sticky dough. Place the pizza dough ball onto a sheet of parchment paper. Roll out the dough until it is fairly thin. Add flour if needed, but be careful that the dough wont´´ become too dry. Place the rolled out dough into preheated oven and pre-bake for about 12 minutes.

Slice the butternut squash into thin slices, with mandolin or with a sharp knife. Take the pre baked pizza crust from the oven. Spoon on some ricotta cheese and place the butternut squash slices on top. Grind on some black pepper and sprinkle some salt finger. Chop one clove of garlic on the surface (or squeeze it on top of baked pizza with a garlic clamp). Bake in the oven for about 15 more minutes. Take out from the oven, top with some fresh sage leaves, serve and enjoy!

This year fall came suddenly. It came from the bushes, ran briskly beside me when I was on my morning jog precisely today at 8.30 am. Gave me a smile way too fresh and zesty, a smile I wasn’t at all ready for. Gave me goose pumps. Sniffling and my fingers numb, I returned home and started making some warm and comforting crumble pie. And planning my Big Escape.

No, this isn´t the kind of a post where you praise the fresh autumn days, candles and wool socks. Sometime ago, I would have tried my very best to find something good in the cold and dark season that is on it´s way, and on some level I still do it, but at the same time I’ve grown in that kind of honesty where I can admit that the upcoming winter kind of frightens me. Even though I know the season will bring me some exciting work stuff.

Honesty feels good. You don´t have to like winter. It’s ok not to be a winter person, even if you live in Finland. So, that being said, I have ordered from the universe´s mail order a second home for me and my family somewhere warm and sunny. Maybe in the West Coast of US? Maybe. We’ll wait and see for my order to be processed.

Back to that crumble pie. Its soul is made of figs and pears. I’d say it’s perfect food for this season. Warm, honest, kinda heavy, juicy, plump and sweet, still somehow easygoing. I ate the whole pie for my breakfast-lunch. Wearing wool socks. I lighted a candle, too. It was all kinda sweet, I have to admit. But the thing that warmed me the most was the thought of my big escape.

FIG PEAR CRUMBLE

Fruit Filling:

  • 4 large fresh figs
  • 1 large ripe pear
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • sweeten with vanilla stevia (or 2 tablespoons of domestic honey)
  • Cumble

  • 1 dl almond meal
  • 1 dl rolled oats
  • 0,5 dl almond flakes (or for example pumpkin seeds)
  • a pinch of sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 5 tablespoons soft butter or coconut oil
  • sweeten with vanilla stevia (or 2 tablespoons of domestic honey)
  • Preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Wash and slice the figs and pears. Put the pieces in a saucepan, add water, vanilla extract and stevia. Bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for about ten minutes. In the meantime, make the crumble.

    Apply almond flour, rolled oats and almond flakes in a bowl. Add the salt and cinnamon and mix. Pour in the melt butter and add stevia. The mixture will be chunky and crumbly.

    Pour the fruit filling into a buttered baking dish. Add then the crumble topping. Bake in center of the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the surface has a slight tint. Take out of the oven, serve and enjoy! Try for example with greek yogurt!