Comfort food!
Potatoes.
Creamy Bechamel sauce.
Cheddar (vegan).
Crispy fried onion.
Lunch!
It looks more like a dinner plate, but I like a big meal for lunch instead of dinner.
I don’t know what to name this.
But I put all the favorite things that happened to be home today.
It turned out great!
To tell the truth, so much better than I expected.
This is the roast we’ve been buying a lot lately.
It’s great to have.
I usually like whole-food, so I tend to go for beans and lentils, and tofu (okay, it’s processed but minimally).
But variety is also important.
And this one is so convenient, and I like to have a couple, one in the freezer and one in the fridge.
It’s pre-cooked and sold frozen.
You just need to thaw it in the fridge, and it’s delicious.
And the ingredients are not bad either.
Tomato sauce, Kabocha cream, vegan roast, mushrooms, kale, fried onions, black walnuts, vegan cheese.
I just freshly made my favorite vegan cheddar cheese.
So I knew this is what I wanted for lunch today.
I also just bought a new jar of kimchi, my favorite vegan one (my current favorite is the Seoul brand), so of course it went on the plate as well.
Tasty!
This is a dream plate for me!
Everything you see on this plate is my favorite.
I made tofu Mozzarella again.
It’s so easy to make.
This time cut out balls and marinated in olive oil and thyme.
Juicy nectarines, figs, herbed T-Mozzarella balls, Shiso leaves, and sweet balsamic glaze.
Like I said I like each part.
But this plate really confirms “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts”!
Yes, we still have rye.
A lot of it.
Since we liked cooked rye berries, I decided to make another dish with them.
This time my husband suggested that I make “casserole”, and I thought that was a good idea.
Creamy tomato sauce, rye berries, soy meat chunks, and some veggies.
It was such a hearty dish.
Oh, it was topped off with homemade vegan cream cheese.
Avocado toast is one of our favorite breakfast food to eat for brekfast.
Remember the vegan Mozzarella I just made (previous post)?
I thought the “cheese”, tomato, and basil together would be great served on avocado toast.
It looked so good!
I wanted it to keep this simple.
So I just sprinkled Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and crushed red pepper, and drizzled extra virgin olive oil.
Love breakfast like this.
And yes, I had to put the homemade vegan bacon on this plate, too.
This is a perfect summer salad.
Fresh and light.
I made “Mozzarella cheese” with silken tofu.
I have another recipe for vegan Mozzarella, but this tofu version is much easier, and still delicious.
Just sprinkle salt all over the Tofu.
Wrap it with layers of paper towel, place in a container, cover, and refrigerate for 2-3 days; excess liquid is removed and the texture becomes creamy.
(Next time I will probably use cheesecloth instead of paper towel. With paper towel, I had to change it a few times as it gets soaked quickly.)
The white, red, and green color combination is just beautiful!
Served with Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Very satisfying.
I planned and prepared this for girls brunch.
But then I found out the other girl was not able to make it.
So my husband instead joined me.
I was grateful because I would have been sad if I had to eat all this by myself.
On the middle “main dish” plate you’ll find smoked V-salmon, Shiso V-omelet, and V-bacon.
On the bottom plate were V-cheddar cheese, V-cream cheese, sourdough biscuits, and dark rye bread.
Everything on the middle and the bottom was made homemade.
I was so proud of myself (lol)!
The top “dessert” plate was filled with yogurt and fresh nectarines.
Nectarine is one of my favorite fruits.
These were the first I got for this season, and they were perfectly ripe juicy, and sweet!
This afternoon tea style brunch may look hard to make, but if you plan well and do as much as you can in advance, it’s really not that bad.
And I enjoy this kind of planning and plating anyway.
The smoked V-salmon went so well with the dark rye bread.
Ooops, I almost forgot to show this condiment platter.
The fun part of this afternoon tea style meal is that you can eat a small amount of many different things.
In this case you can mix and match to make your own sandwich anyway you like, which we did.
I showed my husband the “model” sandwiches first, and he did copy me, but after the first round he was definitely going “free-style” (lol).
I was disappointed because my friend could not join me for this brunch, but hey we can always do it another time.
And I was happy because my husband really enjoyed it.
(As always I took so many pictures, and I’m just so appreciative that he always waits patiently (and encourages me to take as many as I want!) until I’m done. ❤)
Another dish showcasing the strawberries I picked from the local farm.
I wanted this dish to have some level of sophistication, and I decided to make pasta myself.
It’s always a good idea to make pasta yourself if you have time.
Every time my husband tells me how much he likes homemade pasta ( and so much better than the store-bought one).
The freshly made and cooked pasta was served with olive oil-sauteed garlic and red onion, spiced-roasted crispy chickpeas, homemade vegan goat cheese, fresh strawberries, and spinach chiffonade.
Plus a drizzle of balsamic-soy glaze.
This is another great example that strawberries can be enjoyed in a meal as well!
I absolutely loved this sandwich!
Homemade bun.
Soft and slightly sweet.
Homemade vegan roast beef.
In the middle you’ll find layers of roast beef slices, homemade vegan mayo, and homemade vegan blue cheese.
Definitely my kind of sandwich.
