Sarah told me that she makes it all the time, and I can understand why. It’s really good. Now I make it all the time.

If I need what I’m cooking to be sweet, I usually use silan (date honey) or brown sugar. This recipe uses maple syrup. Maple syrup in Israel is pretty expensive. The best deal that I found is at Osher Ad. They bring in Kirkland brand maple syrup. It’s still more expensive than what you can get in America, but it’s something I can live with.

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes

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Sweet Cabbage

By Rena April 2, 2020

This may not look like much, but everyone really flips over this recipe.

Ingredients

• cabbage - 1 large head
• maple syrup - 3/4 cups
• canola oil - 3/4 cups
• ground ginger - 1 tablespoon
• garlic powder - 1 tablespoon
• salt - 1 teaspoon

Instructions

1. Slice cabbage into 1/4" rounds and place on baking sheets
2. Whisk all the other ingredients together
3. Pour liquid mixture evenly over cabbage
4. Roast cabbage in the oven on high for about 20 minutes, turning every few minutes until the cabbage is limp
5. Serve warm

We always have such a great time when we go to Aaron and Sarah. They really make us feel at home and we love playing with their kids. Even though we are far apart, it’s wonderful to be able to share food across the ocean. We hope to be able to return the experience when they come to Israel.

The post Sweet Cabbage appeared first on Vegan Start.

I was talking to my niece about the lack of graham crackers in Israel. I have no idea why they don’t sell them here, but they just don’t. When we made cheese cake in the old country, we always made a graham cracker crust. In Israel, you can get Lotus cookies which are much sweeter than graham crackers or you can use petit beurre cookies for the crust. (You can even use Oreos – I won’t tell anyone.)

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes

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New York Cheese Cake

By Rena May 16, 2018

I like to drizzle chocolate syrup on the top when I serve the cake. It just makes it look so pretty.

Ingredients

• Crust
• ground petit beurre biscuits - 2 cups
• margarine - 1/3 cup, melted
• Cake
• tofutti cream cheese - 2 containers
• sugar - 1/2 cup
• vanilla pudding (instant powder) - 1/3 cup
• vanilla - 1 teaspoon
• lemon juice - 2 tablespoons
• corn starch - 2 tablespoons

Instructions

Crust:

1. Mix margarine and cookie crumbs together
2. Pack them into a spring form pan

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Whip all cake ingredients together on high for 5 minutes
3. Pour on top of crust and spread evenly
4. Bake for about 1 hour - the top should start to brown
5. Let sit out of oven to cool down and then place in fridge
6. Serve cold

Allergens

Allergens

soy

5 stars - based on 1 review(s)

Shavuot is this Monday (but who’s counting ). I want to wish everyone a lovely holiday, filled with lots of interesting learning and cheesecake!

The post New York Style Cheese Cake appeared first on Vegan Start.

I started making Kubahneh after my son met his wife. Tamar is one of the most amazing people that I know, and we are so lucky that she is part of our family. My son did good.

Kubaheh is a type of Yemenite bread that you pull apart to eat. Not only is it tasty, it’s a lot of fun to eat.

I have always loved eating Kubahneh, but it just seemed so foreign to me, I also thought that it was going to be a big deal to make, but it really isn’t. It’s true that you need a special pot to bake it in, but it is definitely worth the investment!

Most Kubahneh is made with margarine. I try to stay away from margarine. They don’t sell the healthy brands of margarine that you can find in the US, and since it’s not exactly a health food, if I can replace it with something else, I do. To make it a bit richer in flavor, I chose to use olive oil. It worked out great.

• Prep Time: 2h 00 min
• Cook Time: 30 minutes

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Kubahneh

By Rena February 18, 2018

This is one of the most fun things to eat on Shabbat morning!

Ingredients

• water - 1 cup, warm
• sugar - 1/3 cup
• yeast - 1 tablespoon
• salt - 1 teaspoon
• flour - 3 cups
• oil - 1/3 cup
• olive oil - 2 tablespoons

Instructions

1. Add sugar to the warm water and activate the yeast.
2. When the yeast is nice and bubbly, add the flour and salt.
3. Combine all the ingredients together and mix to a nice dough.
4. Let sit for about an hour to allow the dough to rise.
5. separate the dough into 8 equal parts and pat them down.
6. Pour a bit of olive oil in each of the pieces, spread out and roll them up.
7. Oil the sides of the pan and place all pieces in the bottom and cover.
8. Let dough rise a second time, for another hour.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.
10. Serve hot.

Allergens

Allergens

gluten

On Shabbat day, I wrap it in tin foil and warm it up on the plata. It can’t be beat!

The post Kubahneh appeared first on Vegan Start.

My Ashkenazi grandmother use to make stuffed cabbage for special occasions, including Rosh Hashana. When I watched her make it, it always seemed like so much work, and I was sure that I was going to need hours in the kitchen. That may have been the case with the way that I used to make it, but my friend taught me a trick to make them with no fuss.

My Savta used to boil the cabbage for rolling. It was hard to get cabbage that didn’t wind up full of holes. Holey cabbage is very hard to wrap up. I am not nearly as skilled as my Savta was, and when I would try to make it in the past, I usually just gave up.

My friend Ziza told me, instead of boiling, just freeze the cabbage. After it’s defrosted, the leaves just simply fall off. Wow. This is the kind of thing in my world that I would call life changing. It turned a crazy hard dish into something that just looks hard. Nice!

• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 60 minutes

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Stuffed Cabbage

By Rena September 12, 2017

I wish my Savta knew that there was a better way. She would have loved this.

Ingredients

• cabbage - 1 large
• rice - 1/2 cup, dry
• olive oil - 2 tablespoons
• onion - 1 large
• mushrooms - 1/2 cup, chopped
• garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
• pine nuts - 1 heaping tablespoon
• tivol ground - 1/2 package (about 1 cup)
• thyme - 1 tablespoon
• salt - 1/2 teaspoon
• tomato sauce - 2 cups

Instructions

1. Freeze cabbage overnight.
2. Defrost, peel leaves gently and set aside.
3. Cook rice and set aside.
4. Heat oil in frying pan and add onions, mushrooms and garlic and cook until the onions are translucent.
5. Add pine nuts and let the brown slightly.
6. Add ground and spices and let cook 5 minutes.
7. Add to rice and mix thoroughly.
8. Place 2 heaping tablespoons at the bottom of each cabbage leaf, fold the bottom and sides in, and roll up.
9. Place rolls in a baking pan and cover with tomato sauce.
10. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
11. Serve hot.

Allergens

Allergens

gluten, nuts, soy

I have decided to always keep a cabbage in my freezer just in case I have the urge to make stuffed cabbage. That just means that I don’t have to plan a few days in advance when I want to set my menu for Shabbat or Chag.

I want to wish you all a very happy and healthy new year.

The post Stuffed Cabbage appeared first on Vegan Start.

Kreplach is not something that I really grew up eating. My Ashkenazi grandmother was a fierce blitz maker, but I guess that kreplach were not her forte.  (My Sephardi grandmother made kubbeh, which is similar in idea, but tastes completely different.) We would either buy kreplach or just eat it at other people’s houses.

Before I was vegan, I never attempted to make kreplach myself. I had no idea what it entailed until I started. All the classic recipes use a lot of eggs for the dough and ground chicken or ground beef for the filling. That is not happening here. Instead of eggs, I used corn starch and instead of meat, I used mushrooms. It worked perfectly.

• Prep Time: 40 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes

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Kreplach

By Rena February 27, 2017

The hidden miracle of Purim is represented in Kreplach.

Ingredients

• Dough
• flour - 2 cups
• salt - 1 teaspoon
• corn starch - 4 tablespoons
• water - 5 tablespoons
• Filling
• olive oil - 2 tablespoons
• onion - 1 large, chopped
• mushrooms - 1/2 cup, chopped
• salt - 1/2 teaspoon
• parsley - 1 teaspoon

Instructions

1. Fry onions and mushrooms in olive oil until onions are translucent
2. Add parsley and salt
3. Take half of the mushroom mixture and grind to make filling
4. Mix and knead dough ingredients together. The dough should not be dry
5. Roll out dough 1/4-1/8 inch thick
6. Cut dough into 2 1/2 inch squares
7. Fill with 3/4 teaspoon of mushroom mixture and seal well
8. Boil water with a pinch of salt and boil each of the kreplach
9. Remove with a slotted spoon when kreplach start floating, about 5-10 minutes
10. Put on a plate with the rest of the onions and mushrooms and serve

Allergens

Allergens

gluten

Have a wonderful Purim!

The post Kreplach appeared first on Vegan Start.

I bought a lot of potatoes in expectation of all the latkes I was going to make. Since that didn’t happen, I had to figure out something to do with the potatoes. I baked a few, made some salad and hashbrowns. And I made knishes.

Honestly, I haven’t had knishes in years. When we lived in New York, we would buy them at the deli. In Dallas, they were harder to find, but you could get some frozen, sometimes, if you looked really hard.

I haven’t seen any knishes in Israel. There must be.  I know that there is a bakery called Coney Island Bakery. I assume that they must have, but I haven’t looked because of the whole vegan thing.

Years ago, when the kids were little and I did a lot more cooking than I do now, I would would make them once in a blue moon. I’ve wanted to do it again, and having too many potatoes seemed like a good opportunity.

• Prep Time: 40 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes

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Potato Knishes

By Rena January 3, 2017

It may seem like I've overdone it on the oil to fry the onions, but they are needed for the potato mixture, so don't skimp out.

Ingredients

• Dough
• flour - 2 3/4 cups
• salt - 1 1/2 teaspoons
• olive oil - 2 1/2 tablespoons
• vinegar - 2 tablespoons
• Filling
• potatoes - 4 large
• salt - 1 teaspoons
• onions - 2 large, chopped
• olive oil - 4 tablespoons

Instructions

Filling:

1. Peel and boil the potatoes
2. Chop up the onions and fry in olive oil
3. Mostly drain the potatoes, leaving about 1/2 inch of water
4. Pour in the onion and add the salt
5. Mash together
6. Set aside and let cool

Dough:

1. Mix all the ingredients together
2. Knead dough, adding extra flour as needed
3. Let sit until potatoes have cooled

Putting it together:

1. Roll out half of the dough at a time to about 1/8th inch on a well floured surface
2. Cut dough into 6 squares and put about a 1/2 cup of potato mixture in the center
3. Wrap the mixture in the dough, putting the seams at the bottom
4. Place on an oiled aluminum lined tray
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, until they brown a bit on top
6. Serve hot, with mustard

Allergens

Allergens

gluten

The post Potato Knishes appeared first on Vegan Start.

People have a lot of fun with the mini doughnuts that I make. When I ask what I can bring to parties, doughnuts are usually the first thing that comes to people’s minds. I usually make 2 types – chocolate and vanilla. For the chocolate ones, I use my wacky cake recipe. Now I’m going to share my recipe for the vanilla ones.

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Vanilla Doughnuts

By Rena December 21, 2016

These vanilla ones are great. If you want chocolate, just use the wacky cake recipe instead. I glaze the chocolate ones with a mixture of icing sugar and water.

Ingredients

• soy milk - 1 cup
• vinegar - 1 tablespoon
• flour - 2 cups
• sugar - 1 cup
• baking powder - 1 tablespoon
• salt - 1/2 teaspoon
• nutmeg - 1/2 teaspoon
• cinnamon - 1/2 teaspoon
• vanilla - 1 teaspoon
• oil - 1/2 cup
• chocolate chips - 3/4 cup (optional)
• sprinkles - (optional)

Instructions

1. Mix soy milk and vinegar and set aside.
2. Mix together all other ingredients expect chocolate chips and sprinkles.
3. Add soy milk and mix well.
4. Heat doughnut maker and spray with cooking spray.
5. Spoon in mixture and cook according to doughnut maker directions.
6. Let cool.
7. Melt chocolate.
8. Dip doughnuts in chocolate and sprinkles.
9. Let chocolate harden and serve

Allergens

Allergens

chocolate, gluten, soy

4 stars - based on 1 review(s)

The sprinkles that I use depend on my mood. You can never go wrong with multi-color ones.

The post Doughnut Maker Doughnuts appeared first on Vegan Start.

This Friday my grandson will have his Pidyon haBen (redemption of the first-born son) at my house. I feel very honored that my kids are doing it here. It’s really something special. I can’t remember the last Pidyon I was at. It may have been my 21-year-old nephew’s. Since the Pidyon is done when the baby is a month old, that’s a long time ago.

I’ve started cooking already. I’m not alone – a lot of people that are coming are bringing food too. It will be a mixture of vegan and non-vegan fare. Here is my list (so far) of things that I’m making:

• Babka
• Israeli Salad
• Quinoa Salad
• Summer Salad
• Mac and Cheese
• Cake pops
• Oatmeal cookies
• Blueberry muffins
• Pancakes (if I have a bit of extra time in the morning)

I’m probably missing something here, but I think it’s a pretty good start.

Since I’m making quite a bit of stuff (very happily, I might add) I needed to start cooking and freezing some of the food. I started with the Babka. Honestly, it’s the perfect thing to make if you’re a grandma. After all, Babka does mean Grandmother in Polish.

• Prep Time: 2h 20 min
• Cook Time: 30 minutes

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Babka

By Rena September 21, 2016

I use aquafava that I have left over from making hummus. Since aquafava came on the scene, I've been using it in a bunch of different recipes and have been very happy with it. If you don't have, try switching it out with apple sauce.

Ingredients

• Dough
• yeast - 2 teaspoons
• water - 1/4 cup, warm
• sugar - 1 teaspoon
• soy milk - 1/4 cup
• margarine - 90 grams
• aquafava - 1/3 cup
• salt - 1/2 teaspoon
• flour - 2 1/4 cups
• Filling
• margarine - 100 grams
• sugar - 3/4 cup
• chocolate chips - 1 cup
• cocoa powder - 5 tablespoons
• pecans - 1/2 cup, toasted
• Syrup
• sugar - 1/2 cup
• water - 1/2 cup
• agave syrup - 1 tablespoon

Instructions

Dough:

1. Activate the yeast in a bowl with the warm water and sugar
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix with a dough hook until all the flour is incorporated
3. Let sit 2 hours to rise
4. Roll dough out to a rectangle

Filling:

1. Melt all the ingredients together and let cool a bit
2. Spread filling out over the dough
3. Roll up the dough so that it makes a long tube
4. Slice the tube in half and braid the two halves, one over the other
5. Place in a pan lined with baking paper
6. Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

Syrup:

1. Place all in ingredients in a sauce pan and cook until sugar is melted
2. Pour over baked Babka

Allergens

Allergens

chocolate, gluten, soy

For me, it’s counter-intuitive to have to cut the dough open and braid it with the filling sticking out. I would have never though to do it on my own. It gives such a pretty effect. I guess now that I’m a Savta, I’m going to have to start learning more things like this.

The post Babka appeared first on Vegan Start.

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 12 minutes

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Passover Turtle Bars

By Rena April 10, 2016

I don't even bother with a bowl to mix these up. Everything can be mixed in a sauce pan.

Ingredients

• matzo - 1 piece
• margarine - 150 grams
• brown sugar - 3/4 cup
• pecans - 1 1/2 cups, chopped
• salt - pinch
• chocolate chips - 1 cup
• slivered almonds - 3 tablespoons

Instructions

1. Line a pan with baking paper
2. Place matzo in the pan
3. Melt the margarine, brown sugar, pecans and salt in a sauce pan
4. Bring to a boil, lower heat and let cook for 2 minutes
5. Pour mixture on the piece of matzo and bake at 350 degrees for 1 minute
6. Take out of oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips
7. Return to oven for 2 more minutes
8. Remove from oven and spread chocolate on the pecan mixture
9. Sprinkle with almonds
10. Cut while hot
11. Let cool and serve

Allergens

Allergens

chocolate, gluten, nuts

5 stars - based on 1 review(s)

Sprinkling chocolate chips on a hot cake is a great way to make a mock frosting. I do it with cakes all the time. It’s especially fun when you add colorful sprinkles on top of the cake.

The post Passover Turtle Bars appeared first on Vegan Start.

One of the nice things about this dish is that you can serve it practically any time and to most people – it’s vegan, and free of gluten, soy, sugar and nuts. I guess it’s one of those foods that just brings people together.

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes

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Grilled Carrots

By Rena March 6, 2016

I make this as a side dish, but I could just sit down in one go and eat the whole thing by myself.

Ingredients

• carrots - 8
• garlic - 3 cloves
• olive oil - 3 tablespoons
• kosher salt - 1 teaspoon
• thyme - 1/2 teaspoon

Instructions

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees
2. Peel and slice carrots into sticks
3. Slice garlic
4. Mix all the ingredients together and place in a baking dish
5. Cover with tin foil and bake for 30 minutes
6. Uncover and cook for 10 more minutes
7. Serve warm

The post Baked Carrots appeared first on Vegan Start.