A Most Yummy Vegan Carrot Cake

With no diary and no eggs, baking vegan can be a challenge. Here’s a recipe that you’ll want to bake over and over.

One of my closest friends is a vegan and when she came over for dinner a few weeks ago, I wanted to make sure she was also treated well at dessert time. This cake is so moist, tasty (and healthy) that we all piled into it and enjoyed it – vegan or not. I barely had any left to photograph!

The raisins are what keep the cake extremely moist, and give it an almost Christmas cake feeling. I haven’t tried it, but I suppose that if you soak the raisins in brandy instead of water, you would really inject that festive season flavor into this cake. (Let me know) This is a nice dense cake and works well in the winter when you don’t mind that extra padding at the end of a hearty meal.

I made this with a luscious lemon glaze, but you can just as easily serve it without. Just make sure you don’t overbake it.

VEGAN CARROT CAKE

Ingredients

1½ cups finely grated carrot

½ cup maple syrup

¾ cup non-dairy almond milk

1/3 cup light extra virgin olive oil or other oil

1½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

1½ cups whole grain spelt flour or whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup raisins, soaked for 10 minutes in warm water and drained

¼ cup chopped walnuts

Lemon Glaze Ingredients

½ cup Tofutti cream cheese

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Icing sugar to reach a thick pouring consistency (about 1 cup)

How to do it

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a small loaf pan (20cm x11cm x 6cm) with baking paper and spray with non-stick spray.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the carrot, maple syrup, milk, oil, vanilla, vinegar, and lemon zest.

3. Add the dry ingredients – flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until just combined. Fold in the raisins and chopped walnuts – do not overmix.

4. Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

5. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, and then transfer the loaf to a wire rack to cool completely.

6. For the glaze, mix the Tofutti cream cheese and the lemon juice in a small bowl till combined well. Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth, and a thick pouring consistency. Drizzle over the cake by pouring it across teh top and letting it pour over the sides.

Serves 10.

Looking good – Thai Beef Curry

My one son wanted to take food to the army for the week, as he always does. He’s not a fan of army food. I told him to please take the meat balls from Shabbat because I wanted to keep the beef curry so I could take a picture of it for my blog. My daughter quickly piped up, “But the beef looks like crap now!”. True, it had been made the day before and had spent the night in the fridge, so didn’t look as pristine as it had when it was fresh out of the slow cooker. But still, I wanted to share this wonderful recipe on my blog, and that meant taking a picture. So I took this as a challenge and got to work. Instead of my usual quick snap with my SmartPhone, I made a little bit of an effort, hauled out the big guns, my Canon EOS 760D, and set out to prove my daughter wrong.

I hope you enjoy the result. I promise to do better with my photography in the future, as long as my family doesn’t eat everything before I have a chance to make it pretty for a photo shoot.

But back to the food. That’s why we’re here after all. This is a simple and delicious slow cooked beef curry that relies on a red Thai curry paste that can be bought pretty much everywhere these days. If I can find it in my little supermarket in the boonies of Israel (seriously, I shop in a supermarket that is surrounded by orchards), then anyone can find it. If you don’t have a slow cooker, a couple of hours on low on the stove will also do the trick. But my slow cooker is one of my favorite appliances and I highly recommend buying one if you don’t have one yet. They’re very inexpensive and turn the toughest cut of meat into a tender delicious feast.

RED THAI BEEF CURRY

Ingredients

2 kg stewing beef cut into chunks

2 tablespoons oil

2 medium sized onions chopped

4 tablespoons red Thai curry paste

4 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

800 ml (28 oz / 2 cans) coconut cream

400 ml (14 oz) chicken stock

4 teaspoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

4 kaffir lime leaves (optional)

Juice of 1 lime or lemon

1 can baby corn cobs sliced thickly

200g (7 oz) mangetout/sugar snap peas topped, tailed and cut into bite sized pieces

2 carrots finely julienned

1 bunch asparagus cut into bite sized pieces (optional)

2 large red peppers thinly sliced

Coriander leaves roughly chopped to garnish

How to do it

1. Heat the oil in a large pan or skillet and fry the onion over medium heat for a few minutes till it starts softening. Add the curry paste and ginger and stir for a minute or so. Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, stock, sugar and lime leaves and bring to the boil, stirring.
2. Lightly grease the slow cooker pot and add the beef pieces. Pour the sauce over the beef, cover and cook on low heat for 8-9 hours, until the beef is very soft.
3. After 8-9 hours, add the vegetables, mix through, and cook for another 15 minutes or until the vegetables are just cooked. (Don’t overcook the mangetout. They should be very crunchy.) Add the lime/lemon juice once it’s all cooked. Serve hot.
4. If you don’t have a slow cooker, after Step 1, add the beef to a large pot, cover with the sauce. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat, and simmer covered for about 1½-2 hours or until the beef is very soft, then add the carrots, peppers asparagus and corn, mix through and cook for another 20 minutes. When they are just soft, add the mangetout, mix through and turn off the heat. Add the lime/lemon juice.
5. Garnish with roughly chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with white rice. Serves about 8.