Vegan Split Pea Soup

This split pea soup is really tasty and super comforting. We are working on a pretty tight budget right now and until our CSA basket starts up again we are trying to use up some pantry ingredients. I had two big jars of split peas in the cupboard so I made my own version of a recipe from the Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen.

The recipe below has been doubled from the original and should serve 4 for dinner. Also I find this soup needs to cook for a good few hours so usually I make it a day before or start it in the morning.

Vegan Split Pea Soup
Adapted from The Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen

1 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 onions, coarsely shopped
3 large carrot, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 a cabbage, coarsely chopped
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 tsp smoked paprika
10 cups vegetable stock
3 cups green/yellow split peas, rinsed (I use half green and half yellow)
Freshly ground black pepper


Place a large stockpot over medium heat. Add oil, onions, carrot, cabbage and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the rosemary, bay leaf, and paprika and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Add the stock and split peas and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 2 - 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

When ready serve with your favorite biscuits or bread.

Yeast Free Vegan Cinnamon Buns

These bad boys are really YUMMY. And super simple. I think I might be in trouble because they took so little time to whip up and were awesome. Normally I make a biscuit dough base cinnamon bun that comes from Get it Ripe. They are delicious but the dough can be a bit finicky.

I came across this recipe over at this lovely blog called Smith & Ratliff (Go check them out- the photo's are stunning). It was pretty easy to turn them into vegan cinnamon buns.

They rolled out beautifully and cooked up really well. Soft and pillowy with lots of cinnamon sugar flavour. (Yikes - I am in trouble!).

Vegan Cinnamon Buns
Adapted from Smith & Ratliff

For the dough:
2 3⁄4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1 1⁄4 tsp. baking powder
1⁄2 tsp. baking soda
3⁄4 tsp. salt
1 1⁄4 c. "buttermilk" (Mix 1 Tbsp vinegar with just less than 1 1/4 cup of soy milk. Let sit for 5 minutes)
6 tbsp. melted vegan margarine

For the filling:
2 tbsp. melted vegan margarine
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon

For the glaze (Optional)
2 tbsp. water
3/4 to 1 c. powdered sugar

First, make your "buttermilk". Measure 1 Tbsp of white or apple cider vinegar into a 2 cup measuring cup. Fill the measuring cup to 1 1/4 cups with soy milk. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Mix all of dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then add in the melted margarine and the "buttermilk".

Kneading it for a few minutes, it should become a bit smooth and more elastic than wet. If it still seems wet, go ahead and add some more flour.

Once it’s a bit neater, roll it out into a roughly 12″ x 9″ rectangle, about a 1/2″ thick. It doesn’t need to be perfect. After that, top the dough rectangle with melted margarine and your mixture of cinnamon and sugar and roll it up.

Cut the roll into 8 pieces. (Smith and Ratliff had a great tip which was to use some dental floss to cut the rolls. Just wrap it around the roll and pull the two ends across and it will cut the rolls very nice and neatly.)

Put your perfectly-cut rolls in a greased baking pan and bake at 425 degrees for about 15 - 17 minutes.

While they’re in the oven, you can mix your glaze with however much powdered sugar you want, thinned with just a bit of water. Pour it over the rolls while they’re fresh out of the oven, so it gives them a nice caramelized layer and absorbs into the roll. (I didn't use the glaze and the rolls were still delicious, up to you if you want!)

Vegan Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake

Firstly just a note to say sorry for having been an absent blogger. P and I were back in our home town over the holidays for a very special event...Our Wedding! Anyway I thought I would have more time to blog but it was so busy so here is a belated post. At some point I will post pictures of the day but I will say it was so AWESOME.

Anyway back to regularly scheduled programming:

Our office holiday party is always a pot-luck (actually most celebrations at work are pot-luck style - which I love). I had been feeling like gingerbread so I thought I would try making some gingerbread cupcakes. But they failed miserably and it was to late in the afternoon to go shopping for new ingredients. I did have a few fresh lemons and some shredded coconut in the freezer though so I whipped up this bundt cake from Epicurean Vegan. It was really yummy (Although mine did not come out of the bundt pan). I served with a simple lemon glaze. Not very wintry I'll admit but tasty indeed.

Vegan Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake
From Epicurean Vegan

1-1/2 C granulated sugar
2/3 C canola oil
1 (14-oz) can coconut milk
1/4 C soy milk
1/4 C lemon juice
3 Tbs lemon zest
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 C shredded unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease an 8 or 10″ Bundt pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine the granulated sugar, oil, coconut milk, soy milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla. Stir to combine.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the wet ingredients in batches, mixing well after each addition. Stir to combine, then stir in the coconut.

Pour batter into the Bundt pan, Bake 1 hour or until a knife inserted through the cake comes out clean.

Lemon Glaze

2 cups confectioner's sugar
3 - 4 Tbsp lemon juice
Lemon zest from one lemon

Mix all ingredients and pour over cooled cake.

Vegan Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes With Raspberry Jam Glaze

One of our best friends was in town for the weekend to celebrate her birthday. I asked her what kind of cake she would would most like and she said "I love lemon and raspberry anything".

Lemon and raspberry are flavours I often do not bake with so I went searching for a cupcake recipe. I like the way this one turned out but I wish it would have had a stronger lemon kick. P and I are also trying to get away from using refined sugar which always leaves me stumped for good non-chocolate icing ideas. This time I thought why not use raspberry jam as a glaze. I think the glaze was my favourite part about these cupcakes it was so yummy.

Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes - Yields 18 cupcakes

½ cup vegan margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
⅔ cup soy milk
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Zest from 2 lemons
1¾ cups flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup diced raspberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease or line a cupcake tin.

Beat together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy, then add vanilla, soy milk, lemon juice, and zest.


In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Combine flour mixtures with wet ingredients just until mixed. Do not overmix. Gently fold in diced raspberries.

Fill cupcakes about ⅔ full with batter and bake immediately for 16–18 minutes or until done.

Raspberry Glaze

1 cup raspberry jam (I used a no sugar added type)
2 Tbsp lemon juice

In a small pot heat jam and lemon juice until it is liquid. Set aside to cool slightly. When cupcakes are baked and cooled spread glaze over each cupcake. The glaze will cool and stiffen. Serve cupcakes with a little lemon zest as garnish.

Grapefruit and Fennel Salad

This is a super easy and refreshing salad for hot summer days. The fennel and cucumber came from our CSA basket while the mint came from our patio herbs.

Grapefruit and Fennel Salad
1 fennel bulb
2 grapefruit
1/2 cucumber
Handful of fresh mint
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Slice the fennel thinly using a mandoline if you have one. I chopped some of the tops to add to the salad but this isn't neccesary.

Zest grapefruits then peel and segment each one. Squeeze out the remaining juice from the left over pulp and reserve the liquid.

Chop cucumber and mix in a bowl with fennel and grapefruit. Chop mint finely and add to salad. Mix grapefruit juice with olive oil to make a dressing. Pour over salad and add salt and pepper to taste. Finally garnish with grapefruit zest and enjoy.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

These cookies are really yummy. I like to use super dark chocolate for some bitterness. I brought these to a work event and they were devoured. The recipe was adapted from Sarah Kramer's Vegan a Go-Go. Make a double batch!

Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

Egg replacer to equal one egg
1/2 cup vegan margarine
3/4 cup sucanat (or use regular sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup vegan dark chocolate cut into squares


In a food processor or large bowl, blend or mix together the egg replacer, margarine, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, coconut and chocolate chips. Add the margarine mixture and stir until well incorporated. Roll dough into balls, lay on cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Let cookies cool 5 minutes before removing from sheet.