Vegan Afternoon Tea Experience - Jacksonville, FL

I was lucky enough to attend the Vegan Afternoon Tea Experience with two of my closest friends. The entire event was vegan and gluten free! It's so rare as vegans (especially GF ones) that we get to eat food at fancy soirees so I was so excited about this and it was just delightful!

The afternoon tea was created and catered by Belgian Chef Danielle Maupertuis, the UK’s premier executive vegan pastry chef and the author of "Vegans Deserve Better Than a Fruit Salad". You can see I was looking very nonchalant as she signed a copy of her book for me LOL. There are a number of gluten free recipes in the book but Chef Danielle told me her forthcoming recipe book is ALL vegan & gluten free! YAAAYYYY!

The event was organized by Green Luxury Living and hosted by Vevetas Tapas by Pink Salt. 

Vegan Korean Kimchi Soup (Kimchi Sundubu Jjigae)

Veganized from original recipe on Korean Bapsang. This dish was very pungent but in all the right ways. So delicious!

Vegan Korean Kimchi Soup (Kimchi Sundubu Jjigae)

Ingredients

1 package (12 ounces) extra soft/silken tofu

⅓ cup thinly sliced kimchi

3 ounces faux beef (I used Meati mushroom steaks)

1 to 3 teaspoons gochugaru (Korean red chili pepper flakes/paste)

2 tsp minced garlic

1 Tbls sesame oil use a little more if using more gochugaru

1 cup water 

1/2 Tbls vegan fish sauce (or Ume Plum Vinegar)

3 Tbls juice from kimchi

Pinch black pepper

Salt to taste

1 scallion, finely chopped

1/2 tsp Black Salt (to substitute the egg taste)

Optional: fishy vegan products such as Dulse flakes

Method

Cut the vegan steak and kimchi into small thin strips. 

Add the kimchi, meat, gochugaru, garlic and sesame oil to a small pot, and place it over medium heat.

Stir-fry until the meat is almost cooked, 3 - 4 minutes.

Pour in water, vegan fish sauce and the juice from the kimchi. 

Bring it to a boil, and continue to boil for 3 - 4 minutes. 

Add the soft tofu in big chunks. Stir in the salt and black pepper. 

Cook for 4 -5 minutes. 

Add the chopped scallion just before removing the pot from the heat. 

Oat Milk

 It’s easy to make your own oatmilk!

Do not precook the oats! The milk will be slimy if the oats are left long enough for the starch to release.

My favourite version was with added pecans and quinoa flakes, it was so creamy!

Oat Milk

Ingredients 

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup cashews

4 cups purified water

Date/Agave/Maple Syrup (optional but adds a touch of sweetness and a natural preservative)

Method

In a high speed blender blitz all ingredients for 30 seconds. Any longer can release the starches.

Pour through a nut bag (or fine sieve with cheese cloth) in container of choice and store refrigerated for up to a week.

You might need to shake before using.

Vegan Béarnaise Sauce

I veganized two recipes from Simply Recipes and Classy Vegan to get this delicious Vegan Béarnaise Sauce - served here with mushroom based Meati "Steak".

Vegan Béarnaise Sauce

Ingredients

3 Tbls vegan butter/margarine

2 Tbls brown rice flour

Pinch of turmeric

1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk

Big pinch of cayenne pepper

2 Tbls nutritional yeast

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 Tbls Vegan Mayo

1/4 cup vegan dry white wine

3 Tbls whte wine vinegar

1/4 cup shallots, chopped finely

1/4 tsp black pepper

1.5 Tbls fresh tarragon leaves chopped and divided (or 2 tsp dried)
Salt and pepper to taste


Method

Make the tarragon base:

In a small skillet or saucepan over medium-low heat, simmer the wine, vinegar, shallots, black pepper and 1/2 tablespoon of tarragon until most of the liquid has evaporated, but the pan is not completely dry. 

There should still be a tablespoon or two of liquid in the bottom of the pan. 

Set aside and let cool to lukewarm.

Heat a small saucepan over medium low heat add the vegan butter and heat until it is sizzling and boiling quite a bit.

Whisk in the flour all at once to make a paste and continue to whisk it constantly for about a minute.  Add in a small pinch of turmeric for color and mix well (you want your sauce yellow, but you don’t want it too yellow).

Slowly whisk in soy milk and bring sauce to a boil, whisking frequently.

Boil for 2 to 3 minutes and remove from heat.

Whisk in the cayenne and nutritional yeast.

Add the lemon juice and mix well, add salt and pepper to taste.

Stir the tarragon base into the sauce and stir in the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons freshly chopped tarragon. 

Lastly, add the vegan mayo for a little bit more creaminess.

Taste and add salt/pepper to taste, or a little more lemon juice, to taste.

Chocolate Pear Pudding

Original recipe by Nigella Lawson :) I didn't use the chocolate sauce when I made it but I left it in the original recipe for optional indulgence!

Chocolate Pear Pudding

Ingredients

For pudding;

830g pear halves in juice (2 cans)

125g GF flour

25g cocoa powder

125g vegan sugar

150g vegan butter

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 egg replacers or 1/4 cup apple sauce

2 tsp vanilla extract

For chocolate sauce (optional)

200g vegan dark chocolate pieces

120ml 1 teaspoon instant coffee made up with ½cup boiling water

90g vegan sugar

120ml vegan cream/coconut cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400ºF and grease a 22cm / 8½ inch square ovenproof

dish with vegan butter.

Drain the pears well and arrange them on the base of the dish.

Put all the remaining ingredients in a food processor and blitz until smooth, or use a hand held mixer.

Spread the brown batter over the pears, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Let stand out of the oven for 5 or 10 minutes and then cut into slabs and serve with chocolate sauce.

To make the chocolate sauce, place the chocolate pieces in a heavy based saucepan with the coffee and

sugar and melt over a low heat, stirring occasionally.

Once it has nearly melted stir in the cream, and once it has made a smooth sauce take off the heat and

pour into a jug.

Vegan GF Chocolate Mug Cake

This recipe was so good, and very quick and easy. Five minutes, maybe less, to delicious comforting mug cake!

I had to change the recipe by Nora Cooks slightly for GF but it still worked great!!

Vegan GF Chocolate Mug Cake

Ingredients

2 Tbls GF flour

2 Tbls cocoa powder

2 Tbls vegan sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 Tbls vegetable oil (I used avocado oil)

3 Tbls non-dairy milk

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 Tbls dairy free chocolate chips

Instructions

Add the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and baking powder to a mug and whisk to combine.

Pour in the oil, non-dairy milk and vanilla into the mug with the dry ingredients and stir well with a spoon. 

Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top.

Cook in the microwave for 40 seconds for gooey in the middle or 50-60 seconds for fully cooked.

Serve immediately alone or with vegan vanilla ice-cream!

Note: to be a little bit sneaky I make a few ahead of time with just the dry ingredients and put them in the pantry. That way I only have the three wet ingredients to add ;)

Note for the health conscious!

With oil the stats are here;

But if you use unsweetened apple sauce instead of oil you can have your cake and eat it too! I mean it’s still cake but, you know…

Brazil Trip!

Pirenópolis, GO, BRAZIL

We drove (mostly uneven dirt trails so you need an SUV) to a Santuário de Vida Silvestre Vagafogo (Vagafogo Wildlife Sanctuary), a beautiful rainforest hike (very mild hike) with a natural spring and small waterfall that you can swim at. It also boasts a 300 year old twin tree. The Farmhouse that you park at lends you walking sticks. It has a sitting room with a library of local flora, fauna and art books plus a little children's area with toys. Outside there are swings, hammocks and climbing areas and they also offer more daring experiences such as ziplining and a treehouse.  and has an amazing brunch from 9am-5pm that is almost like a degustation menu. The owners introduce to you to local fare through jams, chutneys, pickles and spreads organized in what they believe to be the harmonizing of tasting notes. It's quite the experience! Most were vegan but not all. We brought our own bread for me to eat with them as they did not offer gluten free bread. If your lucky you will also meet their little parrot who will sit on your finger and loves to eat pens. A very aesthetic and relaxing experience!

My friend bought the bread and some other vegan/gluten free goodies from Belini Pani & Gastronia.

We stayed in a wonderful hotel resort called Pousada Cavaleiro dos Pireneus. Our bungalow had a private pool area. It is expensive by Brazilian standards (around US$180-$320 per night) but since we had two rooms each with their own bathroom you could easy have four people comfortably in the bungalow. The resort also had complimentary yoga/breathing session, a gym & sauna, infinity pool with a view of Pirenópolis, spa and volleyball court. We only ate breakfast there but they gave me a lot of fruit and a Brazilian manioc (tapioca crepes) with onion, peppers and tomato in the middle which was delicious. I took a picture of the spread that I couldn't eat just because it was so beautiful!

In the hotel room were these little candies common in Brazil called Paçoca which are basically just grounds peanuts and sugar. They crumble easily so the trick is pop them in your mouth as a square before they crumble. I crumbled mine by accident and had to lick mine out of the packet...like a lady lol

I saw mini capybara at the hotel! The tend to stay by lakes so I saw larger ones later at the gardens of the President's house.

Brazilian manioc (tapioca crepes)

The center of Pirenópolis is extremely picturesque and touristy due to the 18th century colonial buildings. It shines by day and sparkles by night.

A few restaurants in the "fun street" of Pirenópolis were able to give my vegan options including this one at Bistro Bar e Som (R. Nossa Sra. do Rosário, 16 - Centro, Pirenópolis - GO, 72980-000, Brazil)

Between Pirenópolis and Brasilia there was the Outlet Premium Brasilia so we stopped for some light shopping and lunch! Actually owned by a US company of outlets so I recognized many of the brands! Of course I was there to buy my body weight in Havaianas ;)

The Jerivá Restaurant (a chain eatery and Brazilian grocery) was in the front of the outlet mall and had a very nice buffet with plenty of vegan/gluten free options.

My friend also bought me these vegan pamonhas to try (one sweet, one salty). I prefer the salty one, it reminded me of polenta.

Brasília, GO, Brazil

The city was founded in 1960 and designed by Oscar Niemeyer. As Le Corbusier seemed to influence heavily in the modern buildings design I was very interested to see all of them! Internally only the Palace (through a tour) and the Cathedral were available to see. The city is designed in the shape of an airplane with the government buildings in the head and cockpit and the ministries running down the middle. The wings are the apartments where the people live and also every few blocks (walking distance to your apartment) are schools/restaurants/shops etc.

In Brasília my friends lived in Asa Sul (the south wing) so some of the restaurants we went to were in the wing areas but some were in other areas while we were sight seeing.

I found lots of vegan/gluten free options at Green's Restaurante buffet!

We stopped in at a place called Saucker which Happy Cow had recommended, they did have a couple of pastas with plain red sauce but I decided I wanted something else but I did get this soda I had been curious about! Guarana is a soda made from Brazilian berries and to me tasted like ginger ale with a hint of cherry or raspberry. It was very nice :)

Although stuffed we stopped for coffee at Choices - Confeitaria LowCarb (IG: @choices.lc) a small coffee and cake spot (Asa Norte Comércio Local Norte 406 BL B loja 46 - Asa Norte, Brasília - DF, 70847-520, Brazil) where I got to try vegan/gluten free and sugar free Brigadeiro's which I had been wanted to try but is traditionally made with condensed milk. SO yay!!!

One night we went out with friends to a place called The Plant (they had a menu in English too!) which had a few different vegan/gluten free options. They had symbols on the menu to identify allergens. It was a pretty restaurant with a lot of ambience :) I had the Arroz Meloso, it cost around US$11.

One of my favorite places I came upon by accident. A lot of the places recommended by Happy Cow unfortunately either were closed the days that we went (Sunday's a lot of places are closed) or weren't really restaurants, they were catering or private chefs. We found a vegan hamburger place but accident in the same block as Choices but it was closed on Sunday but then we noticed the place across the road that said Apetit Natural (IG: @apetitnatural.bsb) so we thought it was worth asking. And was it ever! A completely vegan buffet!! And open Sunday!! AND US$8 for this huge plate! They also had some light grocery options.

The city park located outside the South Wing was popping on a Sunday when all the healthiest people I've ever seen were out walk, running, biking and relaxing by the lake! There were samba bands and yoga groups. My favorite were these green coconuts for around US$1 which they open for you to drink the refreshing coconut water and if you ask they will slice it open for you to scrape the jelly. Scrape gently. I'm used to brown coconuts so I was trying to eat the meat and it was very sour, the jelly tastes like the water though :)

Pontão do Lago Sul was an area of restaurants on the lake front on the opposite side of the city.

It was a beautiful atmosphere for a meal, a drink or a walk (or all three). It was busy the day we went because the entertainment space was being used for a communal wedding <3

I wasn't looking for vegan options as we weren't eating there but there were many restaurants and it's just a nice area to walk.

I was lucky enough to have homemade items by some beautiful women (namely my friends mothers) and I am going to try and recreate these at home and link the recipes below as I make them. The rice and beans I had at all the buffets was amazing so I'm going to look into that too! The list below is just to remind me ;)

Brazilian Manioc (Tapioca pancakes)

Brazilian Cuscuz (steam mounds made from corn meal)

Bolo de Cenoura (a Brazilian/Portuguese carrot cake with chocolate sauce)

Fried plantains

Brazilian beans and rice

Pao de Quejo -cheese bread

Brigadeiro -chocolate truffle

vegan pamonhas 

Finally, not at all food related but the National Park of Brasília had a very mild hike and a beautiful clear spring pool that locals love to swim in. The spring starts above the pool and continues down feeding into the large lake of Brasília.

Cute little Coati!

Monkey madness, they weren't aggressive but were happy to walk past the people the trashcan.

A beautiful moth or butterfly I saw.