Hi all!

Yesterday two friends came to see our place and have dinner with us. I decided to keep it quite light, as we’ve had quite a few dinners lately and I am a bit worried about sugar overload, especially when it comes to desserts. You will have to excuse my crappy (crappier than usual) picture quality, because I only remembered to take pics 10 minutes before our guests arrived. Still, they will give you a general idea.

We started with a soup.

Mushroom onion soup

Ingredients

• 2 cups onions, sliced
• 2 cups oyster mushrooms or other mushrooms of your choice, chopped up
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup string beans, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• some fresh lemon grass or 1/2 teaspoon pickled lemongrass paste (it’s in the Asian foods aisle)
• the juice of one lemon
• 1 tablespoon vegetable stock powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Heat the olive oil in the soup pot.
• Add the onions and stir over medium heat, until they become transparent and maybe a little brown.
• Add the frozen peas and stir until they are thawed.
• Add about 2 liters and a coup hot water (I used the boiler to heat it up)
• Allow the water to start boiling again and add in the mushrooms, green beans, vegetable stock, lemon juice and lemon grass.
• Cook over low heat for 30 minutes.
• Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy.

Our table setting sans food.

Our main dish was vegan sushi. I stuffed them with:

• avocado
• bell peppers
• carrot
• dill
• button mushrooms
• green beans

We ate them with soy sauce and wasabi using our hands, as I didn’t manage to find chop sticks. You can find the sushi recipe here.

We ate the whole thing. I didn’t wake up very well today and I blame the tons of wasabi.

The trick to cut sushi rolls neatly is to use a heavy knife and keep it wet.

For dessert I made us a thing that has no name yet, but we can call it Layered Coconut-Cherry-Berry Goodness.

Layered Coconut-Cherry-Berry Goodness

Ingredients

• 2 grams agar agar. You can find it in your local health food store or Asian market and it is the vegetarian/vegan alternative of gelatin. It usually comes in packs of 6 grams, with 2 grams in each package.
• 1 can coconut milk (the one I got contained 400 grams)
• 1 full cup strawberries
• 1/4 cup almond milk or other non-dairy milk of your choice
• 1 can sour cherries or strawberries or whatever berries you prefer. Those or the canned fruit that people will use to top cheese cakes or tarts with.
• 1/3 cup sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 tablespoon raw sugar
• 8 strawberries cut in slices
• about 1/4 cup dark chocolate, melted in the microwave or in a double boiler.

Instructions

• Take your 4 serving bowls and put about 3 tablespoons of the canned fruit at the bottom.
• Blend the dairy-free milk alternative with the strawberries.
• In a pot put the coconut milk, strawberry shake, 2 tablespoons of sugar and agar. Bring to a boil and simmer for 4 minutes.
• Divide the pink coconut deliciousness in the serving bowls, on top of the canned fruit.
• In a non-stick pan put the 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon water and the sesame seeds. Toast them for about 5 minutes, or until they become golden.
• Let the sesame seeds cool and the agar jello set a little bit.
• Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top of the agar.
• Top each bowl with sliced strawberries.
• Sprinkle more sesame seeds on top.
• Pour some melted chocolate, for added deliciousness.
• Done!

Top view.