Actually, when I look at this, there wasn’t much “cooking” involved, as they were all raw recipes that were simply warmed a little. But anyway, let’s start from the beginning: A friend, Therese, and I decided to arrange a vegan-cooking-&-eating-day taking the time to research recipes, buying all the fresh ingredients together, before cooking, preparing and decorating. Then, of course, eating all we made!

After being inspired by our favourite blogs, it was clear: Gazpacho (cold Spanish vegetable soup, made after Vegan Guerilla’s recipe) as a starter, zucchini-lasagna-rolls (from this (r)awesome blog) as a main, and healthy vegan chocolate lava cakes (adapted from the lovely Gluten-free Vegan Girl) it is!

So first we went shopping…

I won’t post the recipes here, as they can be found following the links above, but I’ll show you the process of preparing and the end results. Cooking, preparing and decorating food is just like a relax therapy for me and very enjoyable – even more so when sharing these hours with friends. It’s a wonderful way to create something that you’re proud of and also spend some quality time together.

Luckily, Therese brought a food processor (Küchenmaschine) over from her parents – what a pleasure! It was my first time using such an elaborated tool, meaning I didn’t have to spend ages crushing nuts with a hand blender. So we put all the ingredients for the Gazpacho in the machine, pressed the start button, and watched the magic happening.

We put it in the fridge until dinner to keep it chilled.

Next step was the main course: the zucchini-lasagna-rolls. The dish includes cashew ‘cheese’ as the white sauce, and a pesto as the vegetable filling. We used the broccoli pesto from the recipe, as per the blog mentioned, and created a second variety ourselves which consisted of mushrooms and dates. What an exotic and delicious combination…

After making the fillings and spicing properly, with a wonderful Asian sauce called Sambal Manis (not Sambal Olek, but similar – available in Asian supermarkets), Therese started to create the lasagna. The zucchini was sliced thinly and used as the ‘pasta’ layer. The layers were filled with either broccoli or mushroom pesto and cashew ‘cheese’. This step wasn’t that easy, but Therese did a perfect job – ignore the mess in the kitchen on the pictures ; )

We also made some healthy vegan ‘parmesan’ from soaked walnuts and nutritional yeast (Hefeflocken). Find the recipe here.

The last step was to prepare the dessert – molten chocolate lava cakes with a liquid filling and made completely without refined sugar or syrup, flour or processed ingredients. Hell yeah!

Meanwhile, Franzi and Delia arrived, waiting for us to serve dinner…

After more than three hours of research, shopping and preparing, we finally started with the Gazpacho, fresh and chilled out of the fridge.  We garnished with onion and bell pepper, plus fresh ciabatta on the side.

This was followed by the delicious veggie lasagna rolls – no cheese, no processed foods or ready-made powders, low-carb but high in vitamins, fiber and healthy fats. We topped it with sprouts, cherry tomatoes and the walnut ‘parmesan’.

The original recipe is raw, so not warmed, but we put it in the oven for about 10 minutes – apologies to you raw vegans out there, we just couldn’t resist the warmth of a cheesy creamy cashew sauce ; )

As dessert, we served the chocolate cakes with coconut flakes, frozen berries and a glass of wine on the balcony – yum! I’ve made this recipe twice now, once raw and cold, but on this occasion I warmed it up a little. Actually, I’d have to say, it tastes better cold and raw (hope this makes up for the warmed up zucchini lasagna ; )) – the chocolate sauce in the center has the perfect gooey consistency when cold and almost tastes like ice cream. Anyway, it was delicious.

So in the end, we were a happy bunch of girls, completely full and a bit tired from all the food preparation ; )

Hope to repeat this soon again girls!

P.S. If you plan a vegan dinner for your friends or family and need any help on recipes, where to get certain foods, how to spread the vegan message, or not (not always clever to start a political debate over dinner, but on the other hand it can be a perfect occasion for piquing people’s interest), or any other suggestions, feel free to contact me.

/Thanks for reading! If you like my stuff (or have suggestions), feel free to like, share and/or leave a comment. You can also find me on Facebook. Every comment welcome!