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.
Oat Milk
Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup cashews
4 cups purified water
Date (if wanting sweetened)
Method
In a high speed blender blitz all ingredients for 30 seconds. Any longer can release the starches.
Pour through a cheese cloth in container of choice and store refrigerated for up to a week.
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.
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!!
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 ;)
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!
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!
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.
Brazilian Manioc (Tapioca pancakes)
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.
