Sweet

CHAI SPICE PEAR CRUMBLE (VEGAN + GLUTEN-FREE)

11/07/2016 by Kati | black.white.vivid. 3 Comments

I’m not a baker. I love making raw treats. But as soon as dough is involved I have my difficulties. For a long time I even disliked baking cakes. Too much sugar, too much carbohydrates. But that’s a different story which I’ll tell you another time. A lot of things have changed since then. I’ve tried to improve my baking skills. It’s not that easy because vegan baking (and often gluten-free) is slightly challenging.

Like at this very moment, I’m on my second round of testing a vegan cinnamon roll recipe and the struggle is real. I have the feeling there will be many more rounds. It is in these moments that I treasure the simplicity of crumbles. The love for crumbles is real at our home. I love it because it’s so easy to make and absolutely nothing can go wrong. The boyfriend loves it because it’s kind of healthy and has lots of fresh fruit in it. You can also mix and match any kind of flavour and fruit, depending on the time of the year….

VEGAN MINI APPLE PLUM PIES

10/10/2016 by Kati | black.white.vivid. Leave a Comment

Hello, hello and happy autumn. I know the beginning of meteorological fall on the 1 of September seems like centuries away. But there are two reasons why it took me so long to finally welcome my favorite season into our home. First and most obvious, the weather. Istanbul was “gifted” with a hot summer and equally warm September. While I was seeing apple, pumpkin-spiced and warm golden mylk recipes popping up on my Instagram feed I was happy for every cooling food I could get my hands on. Though I was mentally ready for autumn I just wasn’t in the mood for hearty stews. Despite, the local produce in Turkey didn’t look very autumnally either. Until two weeks ago I could still buy the juiciest and sweetest strawberries. They are still available now but slowly loosing it’s delicious flavor so it’s not worth buying them anymore.

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PEACH AND STRAWBERRY 3 WAYS

09/03/2016 by Kati | black.white.vivid. Leave a Comment

Do you know that moment when you suddenly realize, the end has come? You knew it all the time but you repressed that thought. And from one second to the other your life may change completely because you know peach and strawberry season is going to end soon. Yes?! Sounds familiar? Well, I had that moment a few days ago and decided to pay a little tribute to my favorite summer fruit combination. So I created a little collection of three recipes with peach and strawberry as the main ingredients.

But this isn’t a selfless act to bring you creative healthy food. After our Lisbon trip and the overload of sweet treats I ate during those few days, I felt a little sluggish. Maybe it’s also what people call the post-vacation blues. Though I have to admit I’m quite happy being back home with my cats and to an abundance of fresh summer fruits and veggies. Either way, I don’t regret anything (because who has ever regretted a bite of freshly baked pastel de nata) but it was time to go back to my usual diet….

COLD BLUEBERRY SOUP – A RECIPE FROM FINLAND

07/21/2016 by Kati | black.white.vivid. 9 Comments

This cold blueberry soup is a reminder of my recent trip to Helsinki and its many wonderful food markets. We arrived by ferry from Tallinn in the morning and spent one day in the city, all while the sky gleamed in bright blue and the sunshine warmed the streets of Finland’s beautiful capital. It was a perfect day to explore Helsinki. Strolling the food markets became an instant favorite. They were overflowing with fresh produce from the region, colorful flowers and the occasional fish stand. One things that surprised me to see over and over again – berries of all sorts, colors and shapes….

RAW LIME CHEESECAKE

06/08/2016 by Kati | black.white.vivid. 3 Comments

When was the last time you tried something for the first time? For me, it was just last weekend. I actually tried a few things for the first time. Had a housewarming party. Served only vegan food. And offered a raw lime cheesecake which had avocado as the main ingredient. Of course, I didn’t tell anyone because I was sceptical at first too. I mean I had tried avocado pudding before. I even shared my recipe for Matcha Avocado Pudding over on The Chalkboard Mag. But making a cake version at home…for other people, some of whom are clearly no vegans or experimental eaters…that was something else. To be honest, I did prepare two other cakes. One was a peach and apple crumble and the other one a strawberry coconut tart. I knew at least these two would be crowd pleasers….

Quinoa Cashew Pudding (or healthy rice pudding without the rice)

03/16/2016 by Kati | black.white.vivid. 4 Comments

I’m pretty sure that you have noticed my affinity with cashews and this Quinoa Cashew Pudding is yet another recipe to strengthen that bond. Cashews have become my new best food friend lately. I can’t imagine life without them anymore, it’s so beautifully diverse. I always have a jar of soaked cashew nuts in my fridge. It’s almost like a daily ritual – I usually soak one cup of cashews every night before I go to bed. This morning I used up half a cup for the über-yummy Quinoa Cashew Pudding. And while I’m writing this the other half of my soaked cashews is waiting to be made into a vegan pesto with purple basil and nutritional yeast. But I’ll tell you about the recipe for best pesto in the world another time….

SWEET POTATO CHIA WAFFLES TWO WAYS (vegan & gluten-free)

02/08/2016 by Kati | black.white.vivid. 13 Comments

Making waffles is life. Sweet Potato Chia Waffles are heaven.

It’s slowly becoming a weekend tradition for us to make a batch of waffles. I like to experiment with different kinds of recipes, always vegan, sometimes gluten-free and sometimes even paleo.
When I grew up we never really had waffles on Sundays (or any day of the week) like other families. My parents didn’t own many kitchen gadgets and so didn’t I until 2015 when I bought a blender and juicer in the beginning and a waffle iron at the end of last year. It’s probably no surprise that I can’t imagine life without them anymore and I’m even considering extending the family of little kitchen helpers (I’m looking at you dehydrator).

But let’s get back to the art of making waffles. I love pancakes, I really do but the love for waffles is real. Crisp outside and light inside. Just thinking about these Sweet Potato Chia Waffles makes today’s Monday so much better. They are one of my favorite waffle recipes because you can enjoy them as a sweet treat with lots of fruit, cream and syrup or you can devour them with avocado, cabbage and some herby sauce.
Admittedly they’re pretty decadent – crispy on the outside, moist and spongy on the inside and full of those sweet potato flavours.

Okay, I’m pretty hungry now. It’s 7.15 am on a Monday morning, I got up at 5.30 am (no finger pointing here but the bf went on a business trip and dragged me out of bed with him in the middle of the night) and I need some breakfast now. Maybe I make waffles. Because who said that Monday mornings are not made for waffles.

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VEGAN LEMON CURD {Instagrammed}

01/27/2016 by Kati | black.white.vivid. 8 Comments

Creamy, flavourful and vegan lemon curd. Super easy to make, only 4 ingredients needed. Have it with your granola, smoothie bowl, on toast or as tart filling. The options are endless so I recommend making a big batch.

A photo posted by Kati – food • travel • food (@blackwhitevivid) on Jan 23, 2016 at 1:34am PST

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ROASTED PEARS WITH CASHEW CREAM AND SWEET TAHINI SAUCE

01/13/2016 by Kati | black.white.vivid. 5 Comments

I’m feeling the winter this year. Not just the crisp cold and the snow falling on my nose. The love for seasonal food. The spices of chill days. The smells of cozy evenings. The taste of roasted pears. It’s the first proper winter I experience since a few years and the first one I embrace with my new-found love for food.

I’ve always been some kind of a foodie (thanks to my dad who lives to enjoy food) but I rather loved to eat out and let others cook for me. This has changed in the last year or so. Cooking brought me closer to the ‘here and now’. I live by seasons. I create with local produce only. And I crave my regular visits to the farmers market to pick fresh ingredients and watch other people doing the same.

Cooking also got me thinking. About food traditions in my family. I remember my grandma being an amazing cook. Or maybe it’s just some blurry childhood memories. Or her semolina pudding with an extra portion of butter is the reason why I still love sweet and creamy breakfasts and desserts. And her paprika chicken was amazing, but that is not an option for me anymore. There is also my dad pancake tower he would make on weekends. For him it was almost like a competition to make the pancakes (not American pancakes but more like French crepes) as thin as possible, spread each one with plum jam and stack them to build a giant cake. But despite my grandmas puddings and my dad’s pancakes I didn’t have any other memories of childhood food. Until I ate these sweet roasted pears with nuts. The taste, the smell, the emotions, everything reminded me of …well, ehm something. And then it dawned one me. We used to have this beautiful tiled stove in our tiny apartement. And during winter season my mum would make baked apple stuffed with raisins and nuts.

So there are these roasted pears, covered with crunchy walnuts, soaked in golden coconut syrup and baked with aromatic coconut oil. And there is this sweet tahini sauce and it’s slightly bitter yet nutty taste. The cashewcream gives a fresh and simple nod….

SUPER EASY BAKED VEGAN SWEET POTATO DOUGHNUTS

11/22/2015 by Kati | black.white.vivid. 22 Comments

Let me tell you one thing first. You do NOT need a doughnut pan to make doughnuts at home. There are plenty of tips and tricks online. I personally used a muffin pan and placed piping tubes of my cake decoration set in the middle of each cavity (photo of my little experiment). A great summary on how to make vegan doughnuts even if you don’t have a doughnut pan was also written by onegreenplanet.org.

Now that this is out of the way, let’s talk about doughnuts. I had my last doughnut more than a year ago. And even before that, the few times I tried it I found doughnuts too sweet or too greasy to become a regular treat.
So here I am on a lazy Friday night scrolling through Instagram , browsing Pinterest and seeing all these healthy-looking vegan doughnut recipes. And my mind wonders ‘Hm, this doesn’t look *too sweet* or *too greasy*. Maybe I should just make my own doughnuts?! And Hey, I could even add pumpkin or sweet potato. And I don’t need tons of powdered sugar to create a delicious and shinny glaze.’. No sooner said than done. Here is my Super Easy Baked Vegan Sweet Potato Doughnut recipe with refined-sugar-free peanut butter glazing. You need less than 10 ingredients for the dough AND the glazing. Another wonderful thing about this recipe, you need no more than 30 min from taking out the mixing bowl from the cupboard till getting out the freshly baked doughnuts from the oven. But what’s even more awesome (I hope you now understand that this is the best doughnut recipe ever), the peanut butter doughnut glazing does without powdered sugar or any other form of refined sugar….