If I were to link bananas and berries for a cake, I’d choose raspberries. Here’s why, for a vegan banana pound cake, we’ll need—

2 bananas

3 tbsp plant-based butter (e.g. peanut butter)

60ml coconut milk

35g coconut oil

120g flour

4g baking powder

60g dates

15g walnuts

90g raspberries

How to bake it?

Mash the bananas using a fork. Add the plant-based butter, the coconut milk, and the coconut oil.

Slowly mix in the flour and the baking powder. Clean the dates and walnuts and cut (break) them into pieces.

Add the raspberries last because they're so fragile – either fresh or defrosted. Moreover, they tend to fall to the bottom of the bakes. The pound cake will also deflate when you remove it from the oven.

First of all, though, you should bake it: 35 minutes in the preheated oven, at 180⁰C, in a pound cake baking pan.

It’s delicious and perfect for breakfast!

The crust

100g buckwheat flour

50g tapioca flour

a pinch of salt

50g water

1 large tbsp flax seeds

1 tbsp vinegar

50g coconut oil

25g agave syrup

The filling

150g coconut milk

200g vegan chocolate chips

2 tbsp cornstarch

200g berries (blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries)

+coconut oil and tapioca flour -> your baking pan

This recipe’s great after the Holidays. Do you know why? Because you’ve had enough of everything. And because the hard-working people surely have berries left in their freezers (some living in the Southern Hemisphere even have fresh berries!).

You can use this recipe for the tart crust.

Bake it separately, in the preheated oven, at 170°C, for 15 minutes (use baking beans if you have them).

While the tart crust is cooling, make the filling.

Mix the coconut milk, the vegan chocolate chips, and the cornstarch in a pan and place it on medium heat. Let it boil. After it cools, fill the tart crust and place the berries on top.

Savour it!

…a dessert with a long tradition in our home, perfect for breakfast, especially during hectic weeks. You can make it easily using—

2 bananas

15g coconut flakes

2 tbsp coconut milk

6 (big) strawberries

(makes 2)

Blend the bananas, coconut, and coconut milk. Serve this paste in two bowls, with strawberries on top.

Here’s to beginnings full of ☼!

I’m a vegetarian. An ovo-lacto-vegetarian. I’ve been one since I was three. I simply stopped eating meat. This does not mean that I don’t respect those who eat meat or those who are vegan. Because I am somewhere in between. J I have my moments when I love eating vegan food.

As proof, here are these cookies. I first tried them 2 weeks ago. Marcel loved them, too, so I thought I’d share their recipe.

Here are the ingredients for 16 cookies—

1 banana

230g flour

50g brown sugar

1/2 sachet baking powder

a pinch of salt

60g coconut oil (room temperature)

60ml coconut milk

vanilla extract

40g vegan chocolate chips

Mash the banana. Add the flour, the brown sugar, the baking powder, and the salt. Mix them and continue adding the wet ingredients – the coconut oil (usually solid; now – at room temperature), the coconut milk, the vanilla extract. Knead a bit to combine the ingredients, and then add the chocolate chips.

Cut the dough in half and roll one of the halves on a kneading board. Then, cut it into 8 ’slices’. Make a small ball out of each slice and flatten it out on the baking pan lined with baking parchment. Continue with the second dough half in the same manner.

Bake the cookies for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, at 180°C.

Warning! They finish fast. :D

I tried salep for the first time (I didn’t even know its name!) in Iran. Right before going snowboarding in Dizin, I felt like catching a cold; our host Shookoo then poured some powder into a hot water cup – I even found psyllium seeds inside the composition that had turned gummy. It helped me feel better and I went to the pharmacy to take some for home.

Last month, Marcel and I arrived in Gjirokaster and were welcomed dearly. The following morning, Erland helped us out with the translation while Emine, his Grandma, shared some Albanian cuisine insights; I did the same.

Among others, she mentioned a mountain orchid tubercle; she then made a drink, explaining that it was best drunk in winter or when catching a cold. She insisted that the powder she used was fully ’organic’. Bingo – I connected the dots and told them my Asian story.

Here’s the recipe for 2 portions; hope it’s useful!

1 teaspoon of salep powder

200ml water

Variant: 200ml milk (even vegetable milk – I tried it out with coconut milk)

Leave the water with the salep powder on medium heat for 6 minutes.

Let it cool for 5 minutes.

Pour into 2 cups and drink it as such or add milk to it before drinking.

It is wonderful to travel with an open heart – for new friends and new experiences!