Grimgrains — a plantbased cooking blog
This is a recipe we developed this summer to cook some of our favorite legumes and grains faster. Grinding brown lentils, chickpeas, buckwheat and rice into flour greatly reduces cooking time. We grind the flour in advance and keep them in jars. When we are ready to cook, we mix the chosen flour with water and add a variety of spices and fresh vegetables before cooking the mixture in our…
We once had a vegetarian cookbook aboard by Louise Hagler that mentioned coffee made from soybeans, although their recipe was very short and devoid of detail. The authors grew their own soy, and made a variety of dishes using it as a base. As you know, we have been experimenting with soybeans ourselves a lot this year, and we finally roasted some to make a coffee alternative. The first time was an…
In the winter aboard Pino we add soymilk to our morning oatmeal so we stay full longer, we don't have a fridge but the area under the sink is cold during that time of year. We cannot drink soy milk in the summer, since it doesn't keep. We've been wondering what we can add as an alternative in the summer, this year we had an idea: what about kinako? Kinako(golden flour) is roasted soybean flour.…
Rek's dad has always been a huge fan of the Nestle chocolate turtles. We made some for him many years ago for Christmas, he really loved it, and we decided to make some again this year to serve as a dessert for a family dinner composed mainly of non-vegans. We wanted to serve a dessert that anyone could enjoy, and that didn't use any cryptic, hard-to-find, ingredients often present in vegan…
We like to prepare pancakes aboard Pino, especially when we run out of bread for our morning peanut butter toast ritual. Like bread and cookies, there are several key rules to making good pancakes. In the following notes we have tried to outline these rules as clearly and as thoroughly possible. Baking powder . If you want to double the recipe, keep in mind that the baking powder to flour ratio is…
Making pizza on the stovetop is very possible(essential in our case because we don't have a oven), it is different than its oven-baked equivalent, but we think it is a great and satisfying alternative. It involves cooking the pizza dough and toppings separately (no way to broil the top of the pizza). Baking the crust on the stovetop requires the use of a heavy pan and a good lid(to help trap the…
When we visit our parents out east during the holiday season, we like to prepare millet tourtières(millet pot pies). It is a recipe we like but that we can't prepare aboard Pino because we don't have a working oven (no way to bake the tourtière). This year, we got the idea of making Japanese-style dumplings(gyoza) but with the pot pie filling we use for tourtière. We can prepare this meal on the…
This recipe is a mixture between two things, Japanese kare(カレー) a milder and more basic version of Indian-style curry, and a poutine roux; ca parait qu'on est Québécois, right? We make both Japanese kare and poutine at home, and eventually these two recipes became one because we liked it that way. To make your own curry powder see this page , and to make your own garam masala mix see this page .…
Meals with faux-cheese doesn't always have to include nutritional yeast. We love nutritional yeast, but it's not cheap to buy, so we use it sparingly. Mixing a few other simple ingredients together we find is enough to make a good and satisfying cheesy sauce. In the above image, we added brussel sprouts. It's not part of the recipe because it is a strange ingredient to add to mac and cheese, but…
A simple dish that we prepare in the winter time a lot. The sauce we prepare on the boat is very chunky, because we use a small hand-operated grinder(see our model ) to process our beets. We only ever run the beets though the grinder once, and the texture, we think, works well enough for a sauce. For those with blenders, it is possible to puree the sauce (if a smooth texture is preferred), but it…
There are now many good vegan cheese options to choose from, varying in complexity and cost, but we like to prepare a simple 'cheese-like' mixture when making a grilled-cheese. It takes less than 5 minutes to mix all the ingredients together, requiring no special tools. The result is a thick, spreadable, and cheese-like mixture. Substitutions Plant milk : If you don't like soy milk, any non-dairy…
A hearty, warm dish. The above photo is the day-after portion. When making chili, we swap vegetables in and out depending on what we have. For instance, we might add only carrots, or two parsnips, or potatoes. Parnips, like carrots, are cheap and plentiful in winter. Celery is common in chili recipes, but we omit it because Devine isn't a fan. Beans . For beans, we try and use black beans as the…
Corn pone has been part of our diet since 2016, ever since our good friend Claudia from the sailboat Essencia made some for us. Corn pone is a simple version of cornbread, it is heavy, crunchy and thick, rather than fluffy and light. This recipe is versatile, we use whatever vegetables we have on hand for the topping. If we have kimchi, we put kimchi, but this recipe is also delicious with…
Over the years, we've experimented with various ways of making tofu, our favourite recipe is made from milling, and then soaking, the ground soy beans for a short time. We prefer making our own soy flour with a grain mill. It's possible to buy pre-ground flour, but make sure it isn't de-fatted. Tofu is cheap to make. In Canada, 400g of soy beans costs about 0.35$ in bulk and makes a brick of tofu,…
Every fall we volunteer with a local organization to pick apples on private property that would normally go to waste. This year we got a lot of fruit so we decided to process some. We are not huge fans of compote, but we do like chunky-style jams. Apples We can't say for certain what kind of apple we picked, they looked like spartans or fujis, either way they are sweet and crisp and lend well to…
In British Columbia, we like to walk around to pick blackberries in the summer. There are blackberry bushes everywhere. We brought a bowl with us, and filled it up in one short hour! We made a cake with the berries that same night. Substitutions: Milk: Oat milk works well as a substitute. Flour: You're welcome to use all purpose flour, or a mixture cut with spelt. We used 100% whole wheat because…
A recipe for the March 2021 Merveilles Cooking Jam. Our default buckwheat recipe is Buckwheat Tea . Buckwheat is difficult to work with, especially if the aim is to make 100% soba (most are cut with wheat flour). So this recipe is a way to eat more buckwheat in our diet without defaulting to soba. Substitutions Buckwheat: It is possible to use pre-ground flour, I just like to grind my own because…
Sourdough flatbreads are the more complex version of my quick flat bread recipe. The added complexity is a small price to pay for a delicious, sour pita. I like to use 100% spelt flour, but for a better rise add up to 2 cups of all purpose and 1 cup of spelt flour (note: my starter is also 100% spelt). Spelt has more gluten than some other ancient grains, like einkorn . It's also higher in protein…
These days, I've been experimenting with baking without an oven. This limits what recipes we can make, but also gives us plenty of opportunities for learning how to do things differently. We prepared the 'dough' on the stovetop, using a cast-iron pan. Any kind of pan will do, we just really like cast iron. The resulting texture is very moist compared to a traditional cookie, but it is very…
A recipe we've prepared several times on long ocean passages, it's a one-pot recipe that is very versatile, filling and quick to prepare. How to serve We sometimes just eat it as is, or serve it on top of pasta (as a sauce) or basmati rice . We also like to serve it with flat bread . This dish is also delicious with chili pepper flakes . Another alternative is to serve it as a side dish, to omit…
Sourdough bread has been around for a long time. People are still making it today, even with the existence of baker's yeast. The fermentation required to prepare it improves the flavor of the dough, and makes it easier for the body to absorb the dietary minerals present in the grains. Making sourdough bread begins with a sourdough starter. The starter is a fermenting mixture of flour and water…
A quick no-yeast flat bread recipe, ideal when you want bread but don't want to wait. The flat bread is ready in under 45 minutes (includes resting time), and it's possible to prepare under 15 minutes—we do this a lot—if necessary (without the resting time). Allowing the dough to relax after kneading makes it easier to work with, but if you skip that step it's still possible to roll it out, it'll…
In Quebec we call french toast 'pain doré', which translates to 'golden bread'. A fitting name. Pain doré is best made with older, and softer bread. Rek's family recipe differs in the way that it requires dairy and eggs. Substituting eggs in recipes is never easy, but not impossible. We've tried many alternatives over the years and finally ended up using chickpea flour. It's an ingredient we…
While in Japan, we didn't have access to chickpeas and so we started to make hummus with soybeans. The result is amazing, and both of us now prefer this version. Soybeans have a rich, creamy texture, and a neutral flavor. Recommendations: Acid: We sometimes add lime, or apple cider vinegar if we don't have access to lemon. Doing this doesn't alter the flavor. Soybeans : It is possible to make…
A simple recipe, for people with an allergy to tree nuts. Sunflower seeds come apart well, and like cashews or other nuts, create a pleasant texture and taste. We made this parmesan to use over lasagna, it adds a bit of crunch to the top layer. It would also be delicious if sprinkled over pasta. Food chopper . Aboard, we use an old meat grinder to grind nuts and seeds, it works well. If using a…
Végé pâté is Quebec staple food. It's great with veggies, on crackers and in sandwiches. My recipe is grainy because of the use of rolled oats, but don't worry, it still holds itself well together. Purchasing it pre-made can be expensive, and not all brands are good. Making your own is no trouble, and if frozen, it can keep for a long, long time. Substitutions A lot of végé pâté recipes call for…
A friend from Japan gave us some soba cha そば茶 last month, it's something we've had before but that we never thought of making ourselves. It's a type of tea that is served in some soba shops, as a companion drink to buckwheat noodles. It has a subtle nutty flavor, and is perfect to drink after dinner, or later at night as it doesn't have any caffeine. We roast the groats as we need them, but it's…
We've been making chocolate chip cookies for a while, but never thought it worthy of a recipe because there are so many online already. In the interest of posting absolute basic recipes though, we felt it deserved to be written down, especially because cookie chemistry is difficult. Slight differences in moisture content, altitude, fat content and sugar content can alter the look and texture of a…
Making mayo is easy. This is a basic recipe that doesn't take long to prepare, and that requires few tools. It's possible to add other spices and ingredients to augment the flavor, like smoked paprika, garlic or fresh herbs. This recipe lends well to substitutions: Substitutions Oil : It's possible to use other neutral oils like sunflower oil, but we wouldn't recommend using olive oil as it will…
Making tzatziki is easy. This is a basic recipe that works well enough with all kinds of substitutions, depending on dietary restrictions. Substitutions It is possible to use sunflower seeds and tofu to replace the hemp seeds. In this recipe, we used half hemp and half soy, because hemp, while being nutritious, is not cheap. Using just shelled hemp seeds is very possible. If using sunflower seeds,…
An ingredient that is important in our galley, is chickpea flour , also known as garbanzo flour, gram flour and besan flour. It is not an essential ingredient, but we really love it. It helps to give our meals variety, plus it has a long shelf life due to the low-moisture and low-fat content. Chickpea flour has a texture and taste that is ideal for savoury pancakes or faux-omelettes. As this…
If someone was to ask us which food we could eat forever without stopping, we'd answer chickpeas. There's a TON of different ways to prepare them, and all of these ways are delicious. Chickpeas are delicious when baked, squished, pureed, ground and sprouted. Their versatility make our lives easier, we can eat them everyday and it doesn't ever get boring. Nutrition : Legumes is an important part of…
This is a quick, nut-free cheese recipe, that you can add onto if you want different flavors. It's simple to prepare, and ready under a few hours. Substitutions In this recipe we use kanten , which is similar to agar agar except that it's made from a different type of red algae (tengusa). You can swap it 1:1 in a recipe, although the resulting texture will not be the same. Adding agar agar will…
In our galley we have a few recipes that we consider staples, that we're always in the mood to eat. We usually rotate these throughout the week, adding maybe a new recipe or two to change things up. This sweet and sour lentils recipe is one of our favorites. You can eat the lentils as is, or scoop it up with crackers. We enjoy eating it wrapped in salad or cabbage leaves. We've cooked sweet and…
Coffee jelly is a popular dessert and drink (you could say) that is served in coffee shops in Japan. It is very simple to make, it doesn't require refrigeration to become jelly and it is delicious! The key ingredient in this recipe is kanten, or agar agar, a gelling agent that is algae based and that is widely available in asia. It is available in powder form, and also in sheets. Sheets can be…
Okonomiyaki (meaning, 'grilled as you like it') is a Japanese dish, similar to the American omelette, but the main difference is the variation of ingredients. Typical okonomiyaki are made with eggs, and often include meat or fish. Making it without meat is simple enough, but without eggs? Back when we lived in Tokyo, our experience in cooking with plants was limited, but now we've been doing it…
No knead bread is the easiest kind of artisan-style bread you can make at home, it requires little effort and absolutely no kneading what-so-ever. This forgiving recipe allows for substitutions and additions of ingredients without altering the final texture of the bread. If you bake a whole wheat loaf, you might want to add 5 g of gluten flour to help it rise. The bread can be left to rise…
Seitan (say-tan) or wheat meat , is very meat-like, it's prepared using a variation of spices and other seasonings. It is the base of Buddhist vegetarian cooking, and has been documented in China since the 6th century. It's an ingredient that is also present in Japanese cuisine, for Shojin Ryori (vegetarian cooking)—an important term to remember if you don't eat meat and are traveling there.…
Making crackers is simple. There are no downsides to knowing, and in a bind it's a useful skill. What's great about a basic recipe is that you can swap ingredients with little consequence (most times) and you can add to it to suit your needs and cravings. We love to eat crackers as snacks, usually between breakfast and lunch, a cracker with some peanut butter to quiet our stomachs. We rely on…
We always try our hardest to buy as few packaged foods as we can, and if we do buy pre-made goods we aim for glass, this too through isn't always possible. We ran out of mustard the other day, and couldn't find any at the store that wasn't packaged in plastic. We decided then that it was better to make our own. It requires few ingredients, little time to prepare (25 min for prep, few days for…
Yes, another breadfruit recipe! This fruit is one of the most versatile ingredients we've ever cooked with, it's cheap and pairs well with just about anything. When we returned to the south pacific last June, you can be sure that the first thing we went looking for at the market was this lovely green wonder. It's become a staple for us, a treat and food we are excited to cook and eat. While in a…
We arrived in the Marshall Islands 3 weeks ago . We are settled in, but one thing remains difficult for us: finding fresh produce. The vegetables in Majuro are imported from either Guam, or Hawaii by cargo ship, and because they spend much time at sea they are frozen. Freezing fresh whole vegetables is never a good idea, the vegetables rot before they make it onto the shelves. When possible, we…
Before we arrived in the Marquesas, people made a point of telling us how difficult it was to find vegetables there. We heard that if we wanted tomatoes, we would need to get up at 0400 to get them at the market. We are early risers, but we lack the will to take the dinghy to shore in the dark. It's just as well, because others we met who had tried, came back empty-handed. In the Marquesas, most…
We have arrived in New Zealand, the land of plenty. All of the foods that we like and miss are here. Foods like nutritional yeast, miso and soba (to name a few). With a fully re-stocked pantry, we started to make faux-cheese again, a recipe from Vegan Richa that is simple to make and that we love. The recipe is for a cheese that can be cut into wedges, or that can be grated over pizza. I had an…
We are about to leave Tonga, the tropics and the land of bountiful breadfruit . This versatile fruit can be cooked into fries, eaten with coconut milk , made into chips, or like this recipe suggests, it makes good gnocchi. Breadfruit has a taste and texture that resembles that of potato , and so it makes sense that it too can be made into gnocchi. The flesh of the fruit can be kneaded with ease,…
This recipe is typically done using masa, but it is not easy for us to source and so we use cornmeal. The main difference when preparing it is that with cornmeal you need to add boiling water so you can roll the mixture into balls. If you were to use masa, you wouldn't need the added moisture. The texture of the dumplings is fun and chewy. The outside is soft, but the inside is like that of dense…
Making popcorn on the stovetop is not a recipe perse, it's a reminder that it's easy to do and that it doesn't require any specialized tools or ingredients. It doesn't require a microwave, just a pot and source of heat (stove). When Rek was a kid their family used Jiffy Pop, unpopped kernels, oil, and flavoring agents that come in a heavy-gauge aluminum foil pan. Rek enjoyed seeing the foil rise…
Breadfruit trees are everywhere in French Polynesia, but sometimes the fruit aren’t mature enough to pick. To make things more difficult, grocery stores don’t sell them (they don’t sell fruit at all). The Polynesians don't buy fruit, they don't have to, they have plenty growing on their property. Getting our hands on a breadfruit was no simple task, on every island we would ask the locals, but…
In the last couple of years, we've removed most pre-made cleaning and hygiene products from our lives. In fact, we don't use shampoo at all anymore. We make our own toilet cleaner, kitchen cleaner, and we also make our own toothpaste. Chances are you already have all of the ingredients at home to make it. The recipe consists of baking soda , coconut oil and peppermint oil (food grade). You can…
The idea of making beer bread came from a book written by Lin Pardey called "The Care and Feeding of the Offshore Crew". In this book, Lin talks about cooking at sea, and has an entire chapter dedicated to baking onboard. In this chapter, the author talks about the many ways to make fresh bread while sailing, including a quickbread recipe that uses 3 basic ingredients: flour, sugar and beer. Beer…