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The Best Vegan Potato & Kale Salad

Posted on February 8, 2021February 7, 2021 by Carolin Vater

Last week, I’ve made The Best Vegan Potato & Kale Salad salad. A couple of days ago, I received the request to publish a dish which makes you feel full long. In event of my recently published meal-prep ebook, I decided to make it a meal-prep recipe. It is also a meal, that qualifies as seasonal, regional, gluten-free & vegan – isn’t that just the best f****** combination ever? It’s made with potatoes, lentils, kale & tomatoes.

Therefore, today, I am showing you how to prepare The Best Vegan Potato & Kale Salad ever. I am also including several substitution options, in order to adapt it to other seasons and to make the preparation even faster, depending on your personal circumstances.

Possible Substitutions

As promised, please find the possible substations below.

Dried lentils:

First of all, the lentils. In order to make the preparation quicker, you could use pre-cooked lentils. Just make sure to wash them before using them. The liquid is usually a bit starchy & full of FODMAPS, which can irritate the stomach. You may use any type of lentils, you’ve got left in your cupboard , Just be aware, that the cooking time varies for different types of lentils.

Raw potatoes:

You could use pre-cooked baby potatoes, if you can find them, to decrease preparation time.

You could also use sweet-potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes or even pumpkin instead of regular potatoes, in case you can’t or don’t want to eat them.

Kale:

Any leafy green is suitable, really. As it’s a winter green & grown in my area, I like to use kale. But you could perfectly use rocket leaves, spinach or even lamb’s lettuce. I also like the taste of kale. Sautéed for a short while, it retains its texture yet gives off an incredible taste. Substituting it, I would most likely go for rocket leaves, I think, as they provide a lovely nutty flavour.

Walnuts:

You can use any nuts you like. So make use of what you’ve got left over in your cupboards, depending on your preferences, food allergies, etc. You can also mix different nuts. A lovely addition, in my opinion, are toasted almonds or pine nuts.

Cranberries:

It’s the same for cranberries, really. It makes sense, though, to use small dried fruits or cut them into small pieces. I’d recommend raisins or apricot, as they’ve got a little acidity. Other dried fruits, like dates, can be really sweet, which could lead to an overpowering sweetness for the overall dish.

Proteins:

If you want to add an extra portion of proteins, I can recommend some pan fried tofu or some feta cheese.

Recipe: The Best Vegan Potato & Kale Salad

Print Recipe

The Best Vegan Potato & Kale Salad

The Best Vegan Potato & Kale Salad is perfect for meal-prep. Super nutritious and full of fibres and complex carbs. Seasonal & regional products, making a fully gluten-free & vegan meal.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time30 mins

Total Time45 mins

Course: Main Course, Salad

Cuisine: gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian

Keyword: gluten-free, lactose-free, soy-free, vegan, vegetarian

Servings: 4 portions

Ingredients

15 baby potatoes
200 g dried green lentiles
250 g kale
1 red onion
2 cloves of garlic
150 g walnuts
100 g cranberries
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamico vinegar
1 lemon
salt
pepper
maple syrup
cumin
1 tsp mustard
150 g cherry tomatoes

Instructions

---- Should you use pre-cooked lentils & potatoes, please skip this step ----
First of all, we have to cook the lentils & potatoes. Let's start with the potatoes. Please wash them & add them to a pot with salted water. There is no need to peel the potatoes. Bring to a boil & reduce to low heat. Let them simmer for around 15-20 minutes (until done, but not too soft). Next, on to the lentils. Add 1.5 cups of water to a cup. Add salt & the bay leaves. Bring to a boil and add the lentils. Let them simmer for around 15 minutes, on low heat.
Once, the potatoes & lentils are cooked, drain them & let them rest for a minute.
While the lentils & potatoes are cooking, cut the onion into slices and chop the garlic into small pieces. You should also wash & cut the kale at this point. Half & quarter the cherries tomatoes. Make use of the time, you're waiting!!
Pour the cooked lentils into a bowl & add 2 tbsp of olive oil, the juice of half a lemon and the tomatoes.
Put a pan on medium-high heat & add the walnuts. Be careful not to burn them. Once they've taken some colour, get them out and chop them up roughly.
Now, that the pan is hot, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to it. Add the potatoes & roast until they start to get brown. Turn down the heat to medium & add the onions. Sautee them for 2-3 minutes, then add the garlic. Add the kale & sautee for another 2-3 minutes.
Season with salt, pepper, cumin and smoked paprika. Add 3 tbsp of balsamico vinegar, for sweetness & acidity. Let it reduce for a minute, then add everything to the bowl with the lentils & tomatos. Add the chopped walnuts and cranberries & mix everything.
The dish is already great that way, but i recommend you to add some of my vinaigrette (see in notes) when you eat it.

Notes

For my vinaigrette, please check my following recipe: Quick & Easy Endive Salad (gluten-free)

Last but not least...

Lastly, if you want to learn more about Meal Prep – what it is & how to do it & you want to try more recipes, check out my Meal Prep eBook.

I’ve included 5 recipes, a printable weekly meal planner and shopping list. I’ve also added the most important tips and a list of things you should always have at home.

I also want to let you know & you might know this already, that I focus on recipes, which are naturally gluten-free & so is this one. Furthermore, it has a lot of complex carbs, is high in fibres & very low in sugar. Eating it for lunch, it should keep you full for the rest of day. If you feel, you want to add an extra amount of protein, please feel free to do so.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the recipe for The Best Vegan Potato & Kale Salad. If you try it, I’d love to get your feedback, in the comments below. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Happy Cooking,

Carolin 💕

Gluten-free & Vegan Banana Bread

Posted on January 24, 2020February 7, 2021 by Carolin Vater

Banan Bread

What better way, than to start my holidays with a gluten-free & vegan banana bread? That’s right, there’s no better way. That’s why I decided to finally publish my own banana bread recipe.

It’s a very basic recipe, which doesn’t need any additives, sugar, gluten, eggs, soya or anything else. It’s the perfect bread for almost anyone with food allergies or intolerances.

Why doesn’t it need any of those additives? Well, because there are 6!! bananas mixed into the dough. I know, it sounds a lot – but let’s be honest: it’s a BANANA bread. The bananas make the dough sweet & perfectly sticky.

One of the most important things about the recipe is, that you should do everything by hand. That means, mash the bananas with a fork – yes, all 6 of them. Mash them well, until it’s almost like a thick smoothie. I also recommend using a spatula for mixing the rest of the dough later on. Using a food processor & electric mixer will destroy too much of the structure & the bread won’t turn out as great. Just trust me with this.

Print Recipe

Gluten-free & Vegan Banana Bread

inspired by hawaiian banana bread with very little ingredients, a lot of bananas & buckwheat flour.

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time1 hr

Total Time1 hr 30 mins

Course: Breakfast, cake, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: gluten-free, vegan

Keyword: breakfast, gluten-free, lactose-free, soy-free, vegan, vegetarian

Servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients

6 bananas almost completely brown!!
200 g buckwheat flour
75 g tapioka starch
20 g baking powder
200 ml almond milk or any other plant-based milk
3 tbsp maple syrup or any other syrup
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 pinch salt
150 g chopped walnuts

Topping

1 banana cut into half
3 tbsp finely chopped nuts any nuts will suffice (great way to use any leftovers)

Instructions

Before starting with the banana bread itself, pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees & prepare your loaf tin with baking paper.
Start with adding the 6 bananas to a large bowl & break them into smalelr pieces with your hands. Next, mash them with a fork until creamy. This step is really important, as the banana is what makes the bread stick together. You could use a mixer, but it is THAT much better when using a fork & mashing them slowlely.
Next, add the maple syrup & almond milk & mix with a spatula. Again, using a mixer is possible, but the results are better doing it by hand.
Last, but not least, add all the remaining ingredients, apart from the chopped walnuts. Mix the dough until well combined & quite goeoey. I hate to repeat myself, but if you still can, mix it by hand, please.
As a last step fold in the chopped walnuts & transfer everything to your prepared loaf tin.
Top the banana bread mass with the chopped nuts & the banana. Make sure to press the banana slightly into the dough, so it doesn't burn.
Bake for aroung 60 minutes. Take the banana bread out of the loaf tin immediatly, as to allow any excess moisture to evaporate.
Enjoy! 😊

Ingredient substitutions

So, once you reached this point, you’re probably asking yourself if you can exchange some of the ingredients… Yes, you can. Here’s a list of what & how:

Buckwheat flour: You could exchange it for brown rice flour or chickpea flour I would start with using 175g first as they need more water & if you need add some more almond milk.
Tapioca Starch: You can use any starch, but tapioca will have the best results. Try adding 50 grams of potato or corn starch & after that go tbsp by tbsp.
Maple syrup: While Maple syrup has a very unique taste, which fits perfectly with the nutty buckwheat, the walnuts & banana, you can use any syrup, from agave syrup through coconut sugar syrup to rice syrup.
Walnuts: You don’t have to use any nuts at all. I, personally, just really like the crunch & texture & also the taste of anything that combines maple, banana & walnut is a dream come true to me.

There’s also the possibility to make cupcakes out of this dough, but make sure to use a non-stick cupcake try, because it WILL stick to the usual paper inlays. Also the dough will be good for around 24 cupcakes. You could also use 2 smaller loaf tins.

Banana Bread Cupcakes
gluten-free vegan banana bread

With my gluten-free & vegan banana bread recipe I’m leaving for holidays & I will be back with a new recipe in February.

I hope you’re enjoying this recipe & as always leave comments, should you have any questions or you wanna share your results.

Feel like baking something else? Try my CarrotCake.

You can find all my recipes here.

Have a lovely day.

Love, Carolin 💕

The best gluten-free Carrot Cake

Posted on January 3, 2020February 7, 2021 by Carolin Vater

So, here it finally is: the recipe to my signature dish – my gluten-free carrot cake.

I thought long & hard, if I really wanted to share this recipe on social media, before releasing it. Here it is now, though. I only left out my secret spice mix – so feel free to get creative, if cinnamon is not “enough” for your taste buds.

This cake is a real treasure, because it is so simple, but so delicious. I’m making this cake a good 10-15 times a year… basically, every time I’m with my family or I need a little “pick me up”.

So, lovely reader – I hope you’ll enjoy it!

My German readers are probably thinking: “Why carrot cake? It’s an easter cake!” Well, the might be so in Germany, but it just is my favourite cake, so why only make it once a year for easter?! There are also several variations possible for this cake – so just continue reading below! 😊😊

Don’t like gluten-free Carrot Cake? Well, you should try this one first, but if you’re still not convinced, try my cheese cake or courgette-chocolate cake.

Recipe Variations

Flour:

Ground nuts are usually quite expensive, so if you want to make this cake a little bit cheaper, you can replace another 50-100g of ground nuts with flour. I would stick to the ones you’re already using (rice flour + tapioca starch in my case).

I also tried using golden millet flour, cornstarch, cornflour, buckwheat flour & brown rice flour. They all worked fine, actually every combination works fine. It’s a great recipe for using up all your “left-over” flours, the bits and pieces that are just piling up in your cupboard.

Vegan:

In all honesty, I haven’t tried making it vegan, but you have 2 options which should work: either use aquafaba as an egg white substitute or buy some “egg replacement” in any organic supermarket. As for the egg yolk, you can make a flax or chia egg instead. I, personally, don’t like using aquafaba or egg replacer, as my diet is based on a natural approach. Therefore, I don’t want any additives or chemicals in my food. But feel free to try it & I’d be happy to hear how it turned out. 🙂

Nuts:

Many people do have nut allergies, but can eat some of them. Simply replace with the nuts you’re not allergic to. The ideal replacement for almonds would be pecans. Nevertheless, you may use whichever you like & simply grind them with your food processor.

Glazing:

As for the glazing, I’m personally not a fan of frosting, cause it’s very thick & way too creamy & heavy for my taste. if you do prefer a frosting though, you can replace my glazing with a basic cream cheese & lemon juice frosting. The vegan option would be a cashew frosting (also with added lemon juice). I wouldn’t leave out the lemon though, as this gives the exact right balance between sweet & nutritious.

Print Recipe

The best gluten-free Carrot Cake

the very best gluten-free carrot cake & my signature dish

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time1 hr

Total Time1 hr 30 mins

Course: cake, Dessert

Cuisine: gluten-free

Keyword: gluten-free, lactose-free, soy-free

Servings: 12 pieces

Ingredients

Batter

500 g organic carrots
200 g ground almonds
200 g ground hazelnuts
50 g rice flour
50 g tapioca starch
150 g roughly chopped walnuts
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 pinch salt
200 g coconut sugar
6 eggs
50 g olive oil
1/2 lemon zest & juice

Glazing

3 tbsp lemon juice
200 g icing sugar coconut icing sugar if you can find it
2 tbsp chopped & roasted nuts to sprinkle on top

Instructions

Batter

Before we start with the actual preparations for the cake, let's start by pre-heating the oven to 180 degrees & greasing a ~24cm tin. I normally add baking paper to the bottem, as the cake is quite moist & it'd be difficult to get it off the tin after baking, otherwise.
Let's start with grating the carrots, as fine as possible. I would usually use my food processor. Add them to a large bowl with the ground almonds & hazelnuts, walnutds, flour, starch, baking powder & cinnamon.
Next, in a seperate bowl, mix the egg yolks with the coconut sugar until creamy, almost a little foamy. Add the olive oil, lemon juice & zest. Mix, preferably, with a wooden spoon.
In another seperate bowl beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff.
Last but not least, add the sugar-egg yolk mix to the flour-carrot mix. Mix well with the wooden spoon. Afterwards, fold in the eggwhites carefully - the more cautious you're with this, the better the baked cake.
Bake for ~60 minutes - the cake will rise quite a bit, so don't choose a tin too small (I used a 24cm tin). Once finished, let it cool completely before adding the glazing. You can take off the outer part of the tin direcly, so the cake won't stick to it lateron.

Glazing

Mix the icing sugar with the lemon until thick & creamy. Add it to the top of the cake. If you want, you can add some marzipan carrots & some chopped & roasted nuts. You could also make little flowers from another carrot & place it on top. Next - Enjoy.

After having spent 6 months building this page, creating recipes, thinking of marketing strategies, having server issues, learning how to code & at the same time, studying & working, I was offline for the month of December. I’m honest, it has been a real challenge to keep going at times, as 24 hour-days simply don’t seem to be enough.

Nevertheless, I am very proud of the results of my blog, as well as my instagram & I started building a real community.

At this point, I want to give special thanks to Steffi from Kochtrotz, who although she has soooo many followers, always took the time to answer all my questions & took a real interested in my ideas. I learned a lot from her book & her very informative posts. Hopefully we’ll be able to organise a get-together in the future, Steffi!

For 2020, my goals are easy: finish my nutrition certificate, get my barista certificate, publish more recipes, giving a better insight into living with food intolerances & starting to educate & coach people on personalised nutrition.

I hope to see you along the way! I wish you all a happy new year & a lot of energy for 2020!

Enjoy my gluten-free carrot cake, eat well, drink good coffee & relax!

Love, Carolin

Gluten-free Sourdough Waffles

Posted on October 24, 2019February 7, 2021 by Carolin Vater

Gluten-free Sourdough Waffles – need I say more?!

Everyone feeling, like I’m overdoing the whole sourdough thing a bit? Might well be, but it’s so essential in the gluten-free kitchen. The thing is, that gluten-free flours don’t rise naturally & also they don’t stick together naturally (the missing gluten part and all that…). If you add some sourdough to your mix though, you’ll be surprised how well the dough forms and how well these waffles (or whatever else you’re baking) rises. Really, you should try it. They even convinced my gluten-eating family: “They don’t even taste gluten-free.”. Probably one of the nicest compliments a gluten-free cook can get…

What about us Vegans?

While I try to eat as little animal products as possible, it is quite the challenge to bake gluten-free & vegan. I’ve tried a few thing and they were okay, but every now & again I indulge in a little “proper” soul food. BUT:

you can replace the egg-whites with aquafaba.
and the egg yolk with flax eggs (2 tbsp ground flax seeds + 6 tbsp water in this case)
you could also try and use 2 mashed bananas. It won’t raise as much, but it’d be tasty af (I’d reduce the sugar amount in this case though, or it could become too sweet)

Now, without further ado, the recipe ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Print Recipe

Gluten-free Sourdough Waffles

Very delicious waffles, that will make everyone around you quite happy. Doesn't matter if you serve them for breakfast or tea-time. They're an all day kind of dish.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time15 mins

Resting Time30 mins

Total Time1 hr

Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: gluten-free

Keyword: breakfast, gluten-free, lactose-free, organic, soy-free, vegetarian, wholefood

Equipment

Waffle Maker

Ingredients

200 g (brown rice) sourdough starter from the fridge
150 g brown rice flour
150 g buckwheat flour
50 g white rice flour + some more, if too liquid
75 g coconut sugar
200 g oat milk (or any other) + some more, if too thick
2 eggs seperated
1 pinch salt
2 tbsp coconut oil very soft or melted
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp vanilla sugar / extract
1 tbsp baking powder

Topping Ideas

berries
apple puree
yoghurt
icing sugar

Instructions

Start with adding your sourdough starter to a bowl & add the brown rice flour. Mix it well (it will be quite dry).
Next, add the buckwheat & white rice flour & baking powder, as well as the egg yolks, milk & coconut sugar. Mix until everything's incorporated.
Last, but not least, add the coconut oil & cinnamon & vanilla sugar / extract & incorporate.
Now, add the pinch of salt to your egg whites and bbeat them until stiff and fold them into your waffle dough. The dough is going to be quite thick, which is perfect for waffles.
Bake the waffles as per instructions on your waffle maker & serve topped with icing sugar, yoghurt, berries and / or apple (or other fruit) puree.

Chocoholic?

Well, me being me, I got a little carried away & decided I wanna change it up a litte. If you want to do the same follow these steps just before baking the waffles:

Take enough dough for 2 waffles & add it to a separate bowl.
Add 2 tbsp of baking cacao to that bowl & mix well.
Now to get the marble look, add the normal dough to the waffle maker first, but don’t spread it out evenly, just drop a few bits here & there.
Then, fill the holes with the cacao dough
Bake as usual & enjoy.

Not chocolatey enough? Yea, not for me either. I made a waffle from the cacao dough itself & it was a fabulous idea. For the extra chocolate satisfaction, I can recommend adding some chocolate spread, chocolate chips or some. cacao nibs to the dough before baking it. 😍

I hope you guys enjoyed this recipe. Let me know how you get on making my gluten-free sourdough waffles (below in the comments or use #carroskitchen on instagram). You can also follow me on Instagram so you won’t miss any updates.

For more recipes with sourdough, try my sourdough pancakes.

For any other recipes, click here.

Happy Eating & until next week,

Carolin 💕

Gluten-Free Sourdough Pancakes

Posted on October 17, 2019February 7, 2021 by Carolin Vater

“Oh, lovely Sunday, you’re my favourite of all days, please give me gluten-free sourdough pancakes!”

As Sundays are my favourites, I tend to celebrate them with a big brunch. A highlight are my gluten-free sourdough pancakes, which taste just like “real” American pancakes.

I love to prepare a big brunch, because I also celebrate life & everything I am currently happy for. I tend to take some time for myself. My Sunday brunch is an entirely stress-free zone and I avoid looking at my phone, the laptop or anything else. It’s just me, my pancakes & some music.

A lot of you are probably thinking: “Why more breakfast recipes?!”. Well, to be honest, I only recently made these pancakes for the first time and they’re the best gluten-free pancakes I’ve ever met. Now, for me, this was reason enough to post them. Also, a couple of days ago, it was #worldpancakeday – so this is my contribution. Without further ado: The Recipe! ⬇️⬇️

Print Recipe

Fluffy Gluten-free Sourdough Pancakes

Gluten-free pancakes, that don't even taste gluten-free. Fluffy, delicious & so easy!!

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time15 mins

Resting Time30 mins

Total Time1 hr

Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American, gluten-free

Keyword: breakfast, gluten-free, soy-free, vegetarian

Servings: 10 pancakes

Ingredients

200 g sourdough here: brown rice sourdough
120 g coconut milk
2 tbsp coconut sugar or4 tbsp maple syrup
100 g brown rice flour
100 g ground almonds / almond flour
2 tbsp coconut oil + some more for frying
2 eggs
4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
pinch salt

Instructions

Before you do anything else today, start mixing the dough as it has to rest for 30 minutes.
To start the pancakes, mix sugar / maple syrup, eggs & butter until creamy.
Next, add the remaining ingredients, one at a time and mix until everything is fully incorporated. It should be a thick dough, just like usual pancake dough. If it's a little too thick, you might add some more milk.
Before we continue, let the dough rest for roughly 30 minutes. Ideally to prepare the table, get dressed, have a shower or whatever else is part of your morning-routine. 🙂
Now, after 30 minutes, place a pan on medium heat and add some coconut oil, once hot. Add pancake dough, one at a time & fry for roughly 2 minutes on each side.
Place finished pancakes on a plate & store in an oven on 50 degrees until all of the pancakes are finished.
Serve with fresh fruits, some seeds, cacao nibs & maple syrup. If you're feeling creative, you might even wanna add some apple puree* - you've got 30 minutes resting time you could use to make some. 🙂 (I always prepare some ahead of time and have it stored in the freezer / fridge). You might also add some whipped cream (vegan or not) or clotted cream.

For overnight sourdough pancakes

Mix Sourdough with 100g rice flour & 100g water and let it rest overnight. Proceed with the rest as above.

Notes

*Apple puree

For the apple puree, simply cut 1 kg apples. Add them to a pot and add a little water - just about 1cm. Also, add some cinnamon, around 2 tbps. Let the apples cook with the lid on for roughly 20-30 minutes, until soft. Either puree with a food processor or a blender and store in glass jars. If you want to keep it longer then a week, it's better if you freeze them.

As for the apples, I use whichever ones I get from the market, but remember green ones are slightly sour & red ones are slightly sweeter. You could also mix them.

Now, I’m obviously wondering, what your favourite pancake recipes are. So please don’t hesitate and tell me; just use the “comment” space below. 🙂 Also, please comment below, if you have any further questions or if you made these pancakes and you took a picture. I’d love to see your results.

For all those, disappointed, because this is not a French Crepes recipe: Don’t worry. There’ll be one very soon! 🙂

Now everyone, I hope you enjoyed this recipe. You might also enjoy my Quinoa Buckwheat Granola as addition to your Sunday Brunch.For all other recipes, click here.

If you never wanna miss an update, follow me on Instagram and Facebook or sign up for my newsletter on the top of this page. ⬆️⬆️

Happy Cooking & until next week,

Carolin 💕