Food

Experience and explore vegetarian food

I enjoy cooking, baking, and exploring food. I’m partial to vegan or vegetarian food.
My specialty in baking is 100% rye bread. Rye has low gluten content, resulting in a stickier dough and less rise in the oven (oven spring) compared to wheat bread. You can mix in some all-purpose flour with the rye to make the dough easier to handle. However, I prefer to use all rye. Although it doesn’t contain much gluten, rye should still be avoided by people with celiac disease. It also contains secalin, a protein similar to gluten.

Since our daughter-in-law has celiac disease, I also keep a gluten-free sourdough culture. But not everything in my baking revolves around sourdough. In fact, two breads I make often are made with dry yeast: 100% rye bread and a gluten-free buckwheat boule.

Here are the breads I make on a regular basis. For sourdough, I use a rye starter.

• Sourdough Rye Bread with 100% Rye, made with scalded rye—my favorite rye bread.
• Sourdough Rye Bread with 100% Rye, made without scalding.
• Rye Bread, a 100% rye bread made with instant yeast.
• Gluten-Free Bread, made with psyllium husk.

Some of my favorite vegan and vegetarian recipes are:

• Eggplant Adobo, a vegan version of the original Chicken Adobo.
• Borani Banjan, a vegetarian eggplant dish with Greek yogurt.
• Bagara Baingan, another vegetarian eggplant dish with Greek yogurt and peanut butter.
• Eggplant Parmesan, an Italian eggplant dish. Opt for water buffalo mozzarella, if possible.
• Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Halloumi and Lemon.
• Roasted Cauliflower with Feta, Almonds, and Olives.
• Vegan Sticky Sesame Chickpeas.
• Brown Butter Lentil and Sweet Potato Salad.

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