Tempeh; carrot+cumin hummus; pasta salad

I can't get to grips with tempeh.  To start with, it looks kind of off even when it's fresh...  I also haven't yet worked out a good way to cook it - the taste and texture often end up a bit odd.

So I saw this recipe and thought 'ah, steaming, maybe that's the secret'.  I tried it last night:

8 oz packet tempeh

2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup veggie broth
2 tablespoons white balsalmic vinegar (used 1 tablespoon regular balsamic)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (used lime juice instead)
1/4 cup fresh thyme, leaves whole, soft stems roughly chopped (used basil instead)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Slice tempeh into 2 squares. Slice the squares sandwich-like into two thin squares. Cut each square into triangles, to make 8 thin triangles.  Steam the pieces for 10 minutes.

Mix the remaining ingredients together in a big bowl. When tempeh is ready, add it to the bowl.  Marinate for 1 to 4 hours, flipping occasionally.

Grill or fry in a pan.  In pan, cook for 10-12 min, turning every so often.  Attached bits of herb are a good thing - they go pleasantly crisp.

Note - the marinade can be re-used:  I pressed some firm tofu while the tempeh was in the marinade, and bunged the tofu in and into the fridge once the tempeh was out.

Hmmmmm.  It's definitely a good way of cooking it.  But ultimately it tastes good because the weird tempeh taste is being masked a bit.  I like the texture of tempeh, I just don't 100% like the taste.  Tempeh is way better than seitan though, seitan is really not very good.  Think they both appeal more to people who miss meat more.


Carrot and cumin hummus

A variation on hummus, merging with carrot spread.

~ 1 cup chickpeas, defrosted
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted
small piece garlic
3 smallish carrots
salt+pepper
lump (~50g) of tofu (extra firm silken, as that's what I had open)
juice of ~1/3 lime
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp honey (just to boost the carrots' sweetness)

Grind toasted cumin seeds in spice grinder.  Peel the carrots and steam for ~10 min.  Put all ingredients into blender cup and blend til smooth.  Add water to get desired texture; add seasoning and oil / juice to taste.  Considered adding coriander too - might be good another day - but decided to keep it simple for today.

This came out well - the carroty sweetness and earthy chickpeas balanced out, and the spicy cumin taste finished it off.  The tofu adds a kind of creaminess I think - it's an interesting addition as a texture enhancer.


Pasta salad

S and I have an ongoing disagreement about pasta - in short, he would happily eat it for every meal, I wouldn't (although it's OK once in a while).  This tends to resolve itself in him cooking pasta every time he cooks, and me never cooking it.  There was some leftover pasta (gemelli I think - kinda fancy twists) from one of his escapades, and I thought I would surprise him by making something pasta-based.  This is really so simple it doesn't need a recipe, but it did go down well, so here it is.

1 1/2 cups pre-cooked pasta
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 large 'leaves' raw fennel, chopped
1/4 of a purple pepper, chopped
1/2 an avocado, chopped
6 small radishes, sliced
2 small spring onions, finely sliced
small handful mixed leaves (rocket+lettuce), chopped

handful frozen sweetcorn, defrosted
2 tbsp pumpkin and sunflower seeds, toasted
1-2 tbsp fresh basil, torn into pieces
salt+pepper
olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dress

Prepare all ingredients, put in a bowl, with dressing and seasoning to taste, and toss.


Simple and colourful and tasty - nothing fancy but definitely pleasing.  A high proportion of veg for a pasta salad - prob about 50:50.  Lots of room for variation.

Pecan Pie (waiting for Irene)

We are forecast a hurricane for tonight / tomorrow.  Right now it is raining like mad but not windy.  I spent the morning at the community garden, which was such a good decision as I don't think I'll be getting out much for the rest of the weekend...

In the meantime S went shopping - apparently Trader Joe's was a bit nuts.  He took photos, but it looked like a normal Saturday to me (supermarkets are such depressing places)...  It's been an odd week - last night Allston was overrun by flying ants, we had the earthquake on Wednesday, lots of rain and muggy weather...

S was getting worried we wouldn't have enough tasty things to eat during the hurricane, so I decided to test a pecan pie recipe to assuage his fears - pecan pie is one of his faves...  With the weather as it is, this seemed to be the best way to spend the afternoon...

I've never made pecan pie before, but was inspired by this recipe and this one to give it a go...

I used the Wind Attack crust, same as for the lime tart I made last weekend (I had half the quantity in the freezer).

I used the ppk recipe for the filling (used half quantities):

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (didn't have any brown, so used double white)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup margarine
6 oz extra firm silken tofu (1/2 of a tetra pack)
1/4 cup cold fake milk (used soy)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups pecan halves

Press crust into a pie dish (no need to pre-bake).

To make a caramel, mix the sugar and maple syrup in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring often with a whisk. Once small bubbles start rapidly forming, stir pretty constantly for about 10 minutes. The mixture should become thick and syrupy. It shouldn’t be boiling too fast.

Add the margarine, and stir to melt. Turn off the heat off, transfer mixture to a mixing bowl. In the meantime, prepare the rest of the filling, working quickly so that the caramel doesn’t completely set.

Put the tofu into a blender or food processor, along with the milk, cornstarch and salt. Puree until smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender.

Preheat oven to 350F.

With the caramel still warm in the mixing bowl, add in the tofu mixture and the vanilla, and mix well. Fold in the pecans.

Transfer to prepared pie crust and bake for 40 minutes, til set.

It turned out good.  The texture of the filling was perfect.  The colour was a bit grey but suspect if I'd used the brown sugar as suggested that would not be noticeable.  I thought my caramel had gone all wrong, but even so the recipe worked out OK.  The crust was as before (perhaps more crumbly) - if I used it again I might try finer cornmeal.  Or try a different recipe (perhaps with gluten).  All in all, yummy.  And not too fussy either (especially with the crust pre-made).


I also made this bread... Not that there's any way we will starve anytime soon - we have a pantry crammed with dried fruit, nuts, seeds, preserves, nut+seed butters, crackers, bananas, cereal, fake milk etc etc etc.  But now S gets to eat favourites even if the power goes out...

Gluten-Free Wedding Desserts: Carrot+Pinenut Cake, Chocolate Black Bean Brownies, Lime Tart

Our friends Hannah and Orion got married this weekend.  So we were at Earthlands in Western Mass for the party (+camping Sat night).  H asked me to bring some gluten-free desserts as my contribution (she eats GF).  S and I decided that first up would be as many cherries as we could get from the Haymarket for $20 (below is about 2/3 of them).

I also decided it would be a good opportunity to test out some gluten-free dessert recipes I was curious to try.  Another advantage of vegan food, I have realised, is that it is typically pretty resistant to going off - all this stuff was kept at room temp on a sunny day and was absolutely fine. 

1) Nigella's carrot and pine-nut cake

I found this one on the BBC website, and figured Nigella would know good cake.  I got doubly excited when I realised I could use some carrots we harvested from the community garden last weekend (H+O and I met through the garden).  I also used 2 eggs Sadie gave me the other day when she had loads from her CSA - I feel like eggs are OK if I know they come from a good source, especially if they would otherwise go to waste!

3 tbsp pine nuts
2 medium carrots (approx. 200-250g/7-9oz)
75g/3oz golden sultanas
60ml/2¼fl oz rum (used Pimms instead)
150g/5oz caster sugar
125ml/4½fl oz regular olive oil, plus extra for greasing
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 free-range eggs (used 2 plus 1 flax egg (=1tbsp ground linseed+3tbsp warm water); reckon would work fine with 3 flax eggs)
250g/9oz ground almonds
½ tsp ground nutmeg, or to taste (forgot to put this in)
½ lemon, finely grated zest and juice

For the carrot cake, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line the base of a 23cm/9in round springform cake tin with baking paper and grease the sides with olive oil.

Toast the pine nuts by browning in a dry frying pan; set aside.  Or use pre-toasted ones and skip this.

Coarsely grate the carrots, then sit them on kitchen paper to soak up excess liquid. Set aside.

Put the golden sultanas in a small saucepan with the rum / Pimms, bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer for 3 minutes.

Whisk the sugar and oil until airily mixed.

Whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs and, when well whisked, fold in the ground almonds, nutmeg, grated carrots, golden sultanas (with any rum that clings to them) and, finally, the lemon zest and juice.

Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula. The batter will be very shallow in the tin.

Sprinkle the toasted pine nuts over the cake and put it into the oven for 30–40 minutes, or until the top is risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out sticky but more or less clean.

Remove from the oven and let the cake sit in its tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then unspring and leave it on the rack to cool.  To serve, transfer the cake to a plate.

This was dense and sticky and yummy.


2) Chocolate Black Bean Brownies

Stumbled across this recipe (liked the blog too) and thought it would be worth testing...  Here's an alternative that might also be worth a try.

~1 1/2 cups black (or black-eyed) beans, defrosted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup applesauce (edit: tried subbing this with blended silken tofu plus a little more sugar - worked fine)
1/4 cup flour (rice flour for GF)
1/4 cup ground linseed
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
good handful walnuts, coarsely chopped
handful chocolate, coarsely chopped

Heat oven to 350F, and lightly oil a baking pan.

Blend the beans until smooth.  Measure the dry ingredients (except nuts and chocolate) into a bowl and mix with a fork.  Add the applesauce and black-eyed beans and mix thoroughly with a fork.  Add 3/4 of the nuts and mix.

Spread mixture in pan, and bake ~35 minutes, until the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Sprinkle the top with chopped chocolate and nuts, and cool well so that the chocolate re-sets before eating.

These were really simple, and really, surprisingly tasty (quite solid though).  Might need to find an alternative to the applesauce as that's the one thing I don't often have in the cupboard.  I used black-eyed beans as I discovered I didn't actually have any black beans in the freezer, and they were fine.  Often rice flour can impart a nasty gritty texture to baking, but here I think it is in a small enough proportion that it doesn't matter.  I made this again already (since I'd opened the jar of applesauce...)!  This time I sprinkled some chopped walnuts on top as well as the chocolate, so it looked prettier.


3) Lime Tart

I was interested in making something with agar and found this recipe on ppk.  I needed a GF, vegan piecrust, and remembered a nice-looking pie here.  So...

For the crust:
2 cups ground almonds
1 cup ground linseed (used a mixture of linseed and chia)
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp water

For the filling:
1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest (~2 limes)
2/3 cups fresh lime juice (~6-8 limes)
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk, at room temperature
2 tablespoons agar flakes (or two teaspoons agar powder and skip the soaking step... used powder)
1 16 oz can coconut milk at room temperature
2 tablespoons tapioca flour (used cornstarch)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Heat the oven to 350F.  Mix the almonds, linseed and cornmeal with a fork, then blend as well as possible, while adding salt and cinnamon. Keep going until the mixture becomes forms crumbly clumps. Then add in the water and maple syrup and keep mixing until well combined.  Transfer the mixture to a 9 inch pie plate (lined with foil) and press it into the bottom and sides to form the crust. Make sure the tops of the sides are not too thin.  Bake the crust for 10 minutes, remove and set aside.

Mix the almond milk and agar powder in a saucepan (or soak agar flakes for 15 min).  Separately, mix together coconut milk, cornstarch, sugar and vanilla.  It’s important that the coconut milk is at room temperature so that it doesn’t affect the agar when you add it.

Turn up the heat on the agar and bring to a boil.  Keep a close eye so that it doesn’t boil over.  Immediately reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes, until agar is dissolved.  If using powdered it will only take about 5 minutes to dissolve.

Once dissolved, slowly whisk in the coconut mixture and then the lime juice and zest (don't add too quick - that'll make the agar gel too soon).  Then whisk often for about 10 minutes, until it has thickened.  If it isn’t thickening, turn the heat up, but you don’t want it to boil.

Pour into the pie crust and let cool for about half an hour.  Then move to the fridge for at least 3 hours, until fully set.  Garnish with lime slices, if you like.

I wound up with about twice as much pie crust as I needed, so froze the other half.  I also had too much filling so poured the rest into a bowl and added some pink food colouring.  Probably half quantities would be fine for making one tart in future.  When it was all set I cut the pink stuff into 2cm cubes.  Then I cut some of those into thin hearts to make kitschy decorations.

I liked it, but the jellyish filling and robustly textured crust might not be to everyone's tastes?  The colour was a bit off - could have been more green.  I expected the crust to fall apart but it was fine.  It was quite a lot of work squeezing the limes!


Everything disappeared without trace, so I take that as a good sign!

S's Brezeln / Pretzels

S missed real German pretzels so much he decided to make his own. He's gotten really good at it now - he rolls them out all identical like a pro. He translated his recipe for the gardeners at JIC a while back, and I took note too.  We (he mostly) just made some for our friends' baby's first birthday party - her initials are LP so I tried to make Ls and Ps and 1s as well as regular pretzel shapes...

Dough
500 g white bread flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
250 ml lukewarm water
~ I use 2 tsp of dried yeast
20 g butter

salt crystals + seeds (sunflower/sesame/pumpkin) to sprinkle on top

For the basic dipping-solution:
3% NaOH solution (in water)

What you need to do:

Mix dough ingredients together until it is a smooth dough, then cover and let stand at a moderately warm place for ~ 20 min or so. The dough amount should increase up to twofold.

Then use a bit of dough (this recipe can give up to 15 Brezeln - sometimes 10) roll it out to a string that is a bit thicker in the middle. Form it to a Brezel like shape. In fact any other shape also works of course.

Put the formed Brezeln in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Dip them into the 3% NaOH solution (or bicarbonate of soda solution), wear gloves for that or avoid touching the NaOH covered dough by using metal tools.

Transfer the dipped Brezeln on a greased baking tray. Slice the thick brezel part open a little bit and widen it so that the underlying level gets exposed.

Sprinkle the Brezeln with salt, seed ...

Pre-heat oven to 200C and bake Brezeln for 15-25 minutes until nice and brown.

The NaOH solution can be re-used.

Speedy pizza

A lazy morning, and we suddenly got hungry.  Something with bread, using some of the spinach and the yellow peppers needing eating...  I remembered this post on hipsterfood - no-knead, no-wait pizza dough?  Too good to be true?  Worth testing out, for sure...

1/2 cup warm water
1 tbsp dry yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups flour (plus more for rolling out)

1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 large yellow pepper, sliced
1 bag spinach
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
olive oil
salt+pepper

pesto (~4tbsp)

balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to ~400F.  Put the tomatoes, pepper and garlic into an oven tray with a little olive oil and seasoning.

Put the warm water in a medium sized bowl and mix in the yeast.  Let sit for ~5 min.  Then add salt, olive oil and flour and mix to a pliable dough.

Roll out dough on a baking sheet.  Rub all over with olive oil and put in the oven for 5 min.  Check on the tomato mix.

Wash and trim the spinach and put into a large pan.  Heat medium high until it is all wilted.  Transfer to a colander to allow liquid to drain.

When the crust is looking like it's started to firm up (5-10 min cooking), remove from the oven.  Spread on the pesto.  The tomato mix should be cooked by now - spread it over the pesto.  Add the spinach, spreading it out in clumps.  Put some salt and pepper over the top.  Return to the oven for another 5-10min.  Remove from the oven, sprinkle some balsamic vinegar on top and serve.


Definitely worth trying...  The crust was totally up to scratch - not perfect pizza, but let's face it we don't have a wood-fired oven here...  Might try splitting the dough and making 2 thinner ones another time.  Rolling out directly on the baking sheet was a good idea - much easier to avoid splitting.  Really surprisingly good - and how often do you feel like pizza and then feel like waiting for all the rising steps etc before you can eat it?

I am not a fan of fake cheese.  Real cheese or none at all.

Baking produce

I have this thing where if I have the oven on I need to try and use it for a bunch of stuff to justify heating it up in the first place.  Sometimes this works, and sometimes it leads to hours in the kitchen...

Last night it worked.  I wanted simple, summery food - veggies / fruits and herbs / spices.

Baked courgette with rosemary and lemon

2 courgettes (super fresh from the farmers market), sliced into thick (~1in) rounds
olive oil
~6 cloves garlic, peeled but not chopped
salt+pepper
rosemary
lemon juice

Heat oven to 375F.  Rub the base of an oven dish with olive oil, then lay out the courgettes, cut sides down/up.  Slip the garlic cloves into spaces between the courgettes.  Sprinkle with a little more olive oil, salt+pepper and roughly chopped rosemary (fresh would be better, but I only had dried).  Put in the oven for about 45min, turning the courgette pieces about halfway through.  Take out and squeeze a little lemon juice over the top then serve.



Baked tomatoes with onion and basil

1 small tub cherry plum tomatoes
~4 cloves garlic, roughly sliced
1 onion, roughly sliced
handful fresh basil leaves, washed and roughly torn
salt and pepper
olive oil
balsamic vinegar (optional)

Heat oven to 375F.  Put all the veggies and basil in an oven tray, add salt and pepper and olive oil to taste and shake to coat everything with olive oil.  Put in the oven for ~45min, shaking about halfway through to keep things cooking evenly.  Add a little balsamic vinegar when you take it out if you like - it complements the tastes pretty well.



Baked, spiced plum and blueberry compote

3 large black plums
handful blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 a star anise (optional)
sprinkling of sugar

Heat oven to 375F. Chop the plums into ~eighths and arrange in a baking tray.  Add the blueberries, a sprinkling of sugar and the cinnamon stick (and anise if using... a rosemary sprig also a good option).  Put in the oven for ~ 30min.  Careful to avoid eating the spice / herb bits.


Ate the veggies with some cous cous.  All tasty and simple, and pretty quick.  Wasn't that sure about the anise but S said he liked it.

Stuffed squash

These little round squashes were so cute I had to buy some...  I didn't really know what they were, but turns out they are a kind of spherical courgette.  They were so pretty I couldn't bring myself to cut them up and decided to bake them whole and stuff them instead.  I wanted to fill them with fresh, summery tastes - peas, mint - so decided to try preparing the filling separately so the peas etc didn't get overcooked during the oven baking process.

2 little round squashes ('8-ball' squash)
1 cup brown rice (I used brown sushi rice as that's what we had)
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp mint, chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 tbsp sunflower seeds, toasted
1 1/2 tbsp black olives, pitted and chopped
~30g frozen edamame (a good handful), defrosted
~30g frozen peas (a good handful), defrosted
salt and pepper
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
olive oil

Put the rice in a small pan with 2 cups of water and boil for ~25 min until tender.

Cut little lids in the squashes  like you were making pumpkin lanterns.  Remove flesh from inside, leaving about 1cm thickness.  Put the lids back on, put the squashes on a baking tray and put in the oven at 400F for 20min.

Meanwhile, chop the innards.  Heat ~ 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and then add the onion and garlic.  Fry until softened (4-5 min).  Then add the courgette innards and fry over a moderate-high heat.  A lot of liquid will come out of the courgette, so keep frying pretty high until it is all evaporated and the stuff is golden and tasty.  Season to taste.

When the rice is ready, mix the rice and onion and courgette mixture in a large bowl.  Make sure it is cool enough not to discolour the herbs, but still warm.  Add the olives, defrosted peas and edamame, toasted sunflower seeds and herbs and mix well together.  Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

When the little squashes are tender to the point of a knife, remove them from the oven.  Take off the lid again, pour out any excess liquid, and fill them up with the rice mixture, so it's bulging out of the top.  Balance the lids back on top so they look cute, and eat before they get cold.




They worked out pretty good - fresh and tasty.  Lots of the inside mix is left - perhaps we can stuff some peppers with it in the same way tomorrow, or it'll work just as a sort-of risotto.

Baked quince with anise

Saw some quinces at the market so of course had to buy them... then figure out what to do with them.  They didn't ripen up very well and I had to cut off quite a lot of brown, but there was some good flesh there and Google led me to this Nigel Slater / Guardian recipe, full of sweetness and aromatics.

4 heaped tbsp sugar
500ml water
4 cloves
2 star anise
4 smallish quinces
½ a lemon
4 tbsp maple syrup

Put the sugar and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the cloves and star anise. Peel and halve the quinces and rub them with lemon to stop them browning.

Lower the quinces into the sugar syrup and let them simmer till tender. They may be ready in 25 minutes or perhaps take a little longer, depending on their size and ripeness.

Set the oven at 180C/350F/gas mark 5. When they are tender to the point of a knife, lift the quinces out and put them in a shallow baking dish or roasting tin. Take 150ml of the cooking liquid, add the maple syrup and, together with the aromatics, pour over the quinces.

Bake for 30 minute or so till very soft and tender. Serve with their cooking juices.

Lentil and bulghur wheat cakes

I thought I should try more different things with red lentils, and spent an evening poring over books and websites trying to figure out what.  I found this recipe in my New Covent Garden Soup Company cookbook ('Soup and Beyond').  It's a wonderful book - it was a present from my eldest (step) sister years ago, and taught me how to make soup / inspired me to make interesting ones.  I have a few favourites in it - there are lots of exciting vegetarian / vegan soup and bean recipes I've made and more I haven't tried yet.  This is one I hadn't tried yet.

110g (4oz) red lentils
425ml (3/4 pint) water
1 tsp salt
110g (4oz) butter (used olive oil instead)
75g (3oz) bulghur wheat
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 orange pepper, finely chopped
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 tbsp mint, chopped
1 tsp paprika
salt+pepper
oil for frying

Put the lentils, water and salt in a pan and simmer for 20 min until lentils are tender.  Add more hot water if needed.  Stir in some olive oil and the bulghur wheat.  Simmer for 2 more minutes, then turn off the heat, cover and set aside for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil and fry the onion over a medium heat for about 10 min til golden.  In a large bowl, mix the onions and bulghur / lentil mixture.  Add the pepper, spring onion, parsley, mint and paprika and mix well.  Knead for ~2 min until well mixed, then season to taste.  Make the mixture into patties.

Heat some oil and fry the patties on both sides over a moderate heat til golden.


They tasted good, but rather falling-apart in the pan - they stuck together well enough until I started cooking them, but then went to pieces.  Was it because I skipped the butter?  I made a quick salad / fresh relish with chopped cherry tomatoes, coriander leaves, a few beansprouts, some salt+pepper and a dash of balsamic vinegar, which went very well.

Á Næstu Grösum

I just found some scraps of paper with notes from our trip to Iceland when we were moving to Boston.  I wanted to note down this place with more permanence.  We just had a few days in Midwinter, based in Reykjavik, on an Icelandair stop-off with all our belongings...  So we knew it'd be cold and we wouldn't be able to travel much.  I looked up some stuff to do before we went, and one thing I found was this vegetarian restaurant.  As far as I could tell it was the only veggie restaurant in the city if not the country, and considering this is a country with cuisine known for dried fish, whale meat and no vegetables, I thought the whereabouts of a veggie restaurant might be valuable information for us.

When we arrived to our hotel, struggling through the snow with our massive suitcases, I realised we seemed to be just around the corner from Á Næstu Grösum.  It took us a while to find it though - it is tucked away upstairs above the street, with a subtle entrance up the stairs from a side street.  We found it after a thorough hunt on our second day, and it was so good we kept going back!

It was a counter service set-up, serving generous plates of your choices of salads and hot meals, with interesting dressings too.  There were specials every day of hot food and soup, and everything was different each day, making it easy to eat with great variety.  Everything I tried was tasty and interesting, and since you could choose as much or as little of everything it never got dull or bad.  There was help-yourself water and an unpretentious ambience.  The best thing of all was the help-yourself bread (robust and seedy), hummus, date spread and toasted coconut.  Seriously, I could have eaten just that stuff and been happy as could be.  I wasn't vegan then, but I'm pretty sure we tried a vegan dessert and it was pretty good.

We hardly ever go to places more than once when on holiday - this place was such a veggie haven, everywhere else we looked with just one or two un-fresh sounding veggie options seemed so unappealing next to what we knew was waiting right by our hotel...

www.anaestugrosum.is