STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE (VEGAN, RAW, GLUTEN-FREE)

Crust:

    • 1 cup buckwheat flour

    • ½ cup walnuts

        • 8 Medjool dates

    • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

      • ¼ teaspoon salt

Filling:

• 2 cups soaked cashews

• 1 cup coconut milk

• ¼ cup coconut oil

• 4 dates

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• Juice of 1 lemon

• ¼ teaspoon salt

Strawberry frosting:

• 2 cups strawberries

• 4 Medjool dates

• Juice half a lemon

Place walnuts and buckwheat flour in the food processor and pulse into a flour.

Add dates, vanilla and salt and process until mixture begins to stick together.

Press the dough into a 9-inch pan to make the crust.

Combine the filling ingredients in a blender, except the coconut oil.

Melt the coconut oil and add into the mixture until well combined.

Pour the filling into the crust and place in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

Blend the strawberries with the dates and lemon juice until smooth.

When the filling is hard enough take the cake out of the freezer and pour the strawberry frosting on top.

Garnish with some fresh strawberries and serve.

Vegan Tomato Soup

  1 cup diced onion (about ½ onion, diced)

1 large clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon + 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (divided, optional)

½ cup raw cashews (soaked for a few hours, if you're not using a high-speed blender)

½ cup water

4½ cups stewed tomatoes (about three 14.5 ounce cans)

¼ cup coconut milk

1½ teaspoon dried basil (or a few tablespoons of fresh, if you have it)

¾ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

In a pan, saute onion and garlic in 1 teaspoon olive oil for 1 to 2 minutes, just until they are soft and fragrant.

Place cashews and water in blender. Blend on high for about 30 seconds, or until the mixture is fairly smooth and creamy. If you need more liquid, add a cup or two of your stewed tomatoes and blend again until all the cashew pieces have disappeared.

Add your sauteed onion/garlic and remaining stewed tomatoes to blender and blend until smooth.

Pour blender contents into a saucepan on medium to medium-high heat. As soup begins to simmer, stir frequently to prevent lumpiness and burning. Simmer for about 8-10 minutes, or until soup color has darkened slightly.

Add remaining ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil, coconut milk, granulated sugar, dried basil, and salt to your saucepan.

Taste for salt and serve immediately

                Total calories: 1050

                Per serving: 260

These super easy cookies are really delicious, and well who doesn't like cookies?

Vegan and Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cookies

1 ½ cups gluten-free flour blend

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 cup packed dark brown sugar 

¾ cup peanut butter 

½ cup Earth Balance vegan butter (or Spectrum shortening) 

1 tsp pure vanilla 

¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

organic cane sugar 

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and xanthan gum. Set aside. 

With an electric mixer, combine all other ingredients and mix until smooth. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients. 

Roll the dough into balls then roll in cane the sugar. Flatten the cookies with your palm or use a fork to make traditional cross marks.  Bake at 375F (191C) for 6 to 8 minutes. This recipe makes about 15 Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies.

Calories:

160 per one cookie

compare to regular cookie 220 calories

Fig, Coconut & Blackberry Nice Cream

4 cups (1 liter), servings: 4 

10 fresh ripe figs

6 tbsp water

lemon zest, from 1 lemon
1/3 cup dried shredded coconut, unsweetened

fresh ginger, 1 inch, minced (optional)

1/2 cup (1,2 dl) agave nectar (or honey  if non-vegan)

2 cups (5 dl) coconut milk

lemon juice, from 1/2 lemon

2/3 cup (1,6 dl) fresh blackberries

lemon balm

Start by removing the ends from the figs. Cut each fig into 8 pieces. Put them in a saucepan, add water, lemon zest, coconut flakes and ginger. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until the figs are tender. Add honey and around 10 blackberries. Continue to cook for about 15-20 minutes (you might want to lower the heat a bit) until it reaches a jam-like consistency. When it’s done, remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Use an immersion blender or food processor to quickly mix it together with the coconut milk and lemon juice. Don’t mix too hard, it’s nice with some fruit pieces here and there. Chill well in the fridge (otherwise you will have yourself a fig milkshake) before you put the mixture in an ice cream maker for about 25 minutes or however long your brand of ice cream machine suggests. Serve with fresh blackberries and a few leaves of fresh lemon balm.

Total calories: 440, per serving 110!

Compare to regular vanilla ice cream: 170 calories

This is one of my favorite recipes. Especially at winter time this warm lentil soup is just perfect. You can do the full recipe and eat the rest in next four days. It is so tasty so you won't get bored. To make your food experiences more interesting, you can change the side. Some days you can eat it with bread or different rices. In the end I will tell all the calories with different sides.

Lentil Soup

5 servings

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large carrot, diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
garlic (optional)
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus additional to taste
1 cup red lentils
4 cups water or low-sodium broth
1 whole bay leaf
2 tablespoons lemon juice from 1/2 large lemon

In a medium  saucepan heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the carrot, celery, onion, and 1/4 teaspoon salt, stir to combine, then cover and let the vegetables sweat until the onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add the lentils, water or broth, and bay leaf. Bring up to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and let simmer, covered, until the lentils begin to fall apart, about 20 minutes.

Turn off the heat, stir in the lemon juice, and add salt to taste. Ladle into bowls and serve. Leftovers will keep refrigerated for 4 days.

Calories per serving: 106

Soup with 1 white bread: 160

Soup with 1 whole wheat bread: 180

Soup with 1/2 cup white rice: 200

Soup with 1/2 cup brown rice: 205

Hello!


This is my first blog post, and I’m going to tell what this is going to be about. As it is noticeable from the name that my blog is going to be about vegan lifestyle. I will be posting recipes, reasons why to be vegan, health benefits, why I am vegan, history and vegan life style around the world.

I haven’t been vegan for a long time, but vegetarian yes. I did some research and I realized how healthy vegan lifestyle is, and how animal products are bad to our bodies. Products from other animals were never meant to be eaten by human. It is also proven how animal products are unfavorable to ourselves and to the environment. Producing animal products are extremely harmful to our planet and it’s using a lot of our water sources.

By writing about this I don't want to change anybody’s opinion. I’m not here to judge anybody. These are things what I have chosen to my life and I would love others to try some vegan food, and try if it’s good and see if there is difference. Also by knowing vegan options, it is easy to understand that there is huge variety of food available.