I was inspired by a vegan menemen made with tempeh. We were undergoing an atypical detox, but the vegan menemen tasted like the classical menemen that I love and have served so many times!

What do you need for a vegan menemen?

4 tbsp of olive oil

1 onion

2 bell peppers                                                                   

3 tomatoes

a pinch of dry oregano

a pinch of sea salt

a dash of pepper

How to make it?

Sauté the onion over low heat for 2-3 minutes.

Add the diced bell peppers; simmer them for 5-6 minutes.

Dice the tomatoes and mix them in with the oregano, sea salt, and pepper.

Add the tofu 3-4 minutes later (chop it in the pan or dice it before adding it).

 Serve it warm! Enjoy your meal!

You may wonder what Vegmezan is. If you click this link and then this one, you will understand that I wanted to come up with a savoury recipe from the vegan goodies wholeheartedly made by NoMoMoo*!

Well, Vegmezan is a cashew parmesan.

I used white spelt (whole spelt is trickier to use for bakes; with white spelt, you’ll get a fluffier dough) because I felt they’d complement each other!

Which were all the ingredients?

Well, I used—

250g white spelt flour

5g yeast

3g sea salt

1 tbsp of olive oil

160ml water

+olive oil

+white spelt flour

+(optional) 4-5 tbsp of tomato juice

+1 large tomato

+1 pc Vegmezan

My method?

Add the first 5 ingredients into a bowl in the specified order. Start kneading. When the dough feels compact and not sticky, let it sit for 1 hour.

Brush olive oil on a pizza baking pan, flour it, and spread the dough.

If you wish, pour homemade tomato juice (with basil) onto the dough; it is optional.

Place the tomato slices onto the pizza dough, then bake for 10 minutes at 220°C.

Sprinkle Vegmezan over the pizza after removing it from the oven.

My Dad was visiting; he was thrilled. He confessed that he didn’t even notice that the pizza was vegan.

*I’ll return in October with new vegan recipes that include other NoMoMoo goodies. Until then, already-tested but unpublished recipes will keep you company, along with the new recipes discovered throughout the detox that we’re undergoing again.

For a different pizza (but a filling one!), you’ll need—

100g quinoa (+500ml water)

a pinch of salt

1 tbsp of olive oil

60ml water

+tomato juice

+2 tomatoes

+salt

Optional: avocado

How can we bake a pizza from these?

Pour hot water over the quinoa.

Let it sit for half an hour. Drain the quinoa thoroughly. Then, add it into a blender with the salt, olive oil, and water.

Spread the batter onto a pizza baking pan over baking parchment. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes at 200°C.

Remove from the oven. Spread tomato juice over the crust, place the sliced tomatoes, add the salt, and bake for 15 minutes more at 200°C.

Add avocado slices over the pizza if you wish after removing it from the oven the second time.

Enjoy it! I have a hunch you will!

 

What to use?

5g dry yeast

350ml water

a teaspoon of sugar

500g Graham flour

7g sea salt

2 tbsp of olive oil

Mix the water, dry yeast, and sugar; let them sit for 5 minutes.

Add the sea salt to the Graham flour; then, pour the olive oil and the mix of yeast and water mentioned above over the flour.

The mixture will be quite liquid. Use a wooden spoon to homogenise it; let it rise for one hour.

Line a pound cake tin with baking parchment; pour the batter into it.

Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven at 200⁰C.

I’ve tested ciabatta recipes before – mini-ciabatta recipes, to be more exact –, but this recipe seems the optimal version. I keep baking it because it is in demand. :D

For 2 ciabatte, you’ll need:

400ml water

5g dry yeast

2 teaspoons of sugar

500g flour (+ flour for the baking mat)

10g sea salt

1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (+ 2 more tbsp for the baking mat)

It takes a bit more, but it is worth the work and wait!

Let the water-yeast-sugar mix sit for 5 minutes.

Then, pour it over the flour on the opposite side to where we added the salt in order not to deactivate the yeast.

Add the olive oil. Then, knead until you incorporate the entire flour amount. The dough will be sticky.

Let it sit for 10 minutes in a bowl.

* Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil onto the baking mat, knead the dough through it, pull it, and let it sit for 10 more minutes.

** Repeat this step twice more without adding more olive oil.

*** Add flour onto the baking mat, knead the dough through it and let it sit for 30 minutes.

**** Divide the dough. Spread one of the dough pieces into a rectangular shape. ’Stick’ the large sides. Then, turn your ciabatta onto the other side and place it in the baking pan lined with baking parchment. Do the same with the second ciabatta.

***** Bake in the preheated oven, at 220⁰C, for 10 minutes. Then, reduce the temperature to 180⁰C. Bake for 3 and a half minutes more.

Let them cool and... enjoy them! ♥

 

And I didn’t use all the classic ingredients; I adapted them—

30g basil

2 garlic cloves

20g walnuts

3 tbsp of olive oil

2g sea salt

a drop of lemon juice

Blend them. Then, store the pesto in a small jar in the fridge.

It’s not only great with pasta, but with some fresh or crunchy slices of bread, too! 

P.S. For this year’s pesto jar (I am trying to make one each year), I used

45g basil

2 garlic cloves

30g pine nuts (I still had some bought in Tunisia)

4 tbsp of olive oil

3g salt.

It turned out very creamy, with a rich, fresh flavour.