Vegan Recipe: Lime-and-coconut takeover

Spring disappeared temporarily, so why not go for a lime-coconut cupcake-party in yo mouf' until the sun comes back? I mean, look at that beauty up above! Martina Martinez shows you how to do the delicious.

Before you think, Another cupcake?, take a closer look at this one. See the half-nude beau—or belle, whatever rocks your boat—juggling coconuts and limes under the sweltering skies and luxuriant trees of the tropics? Well, this is that inside a paper liner. Sweet and tangy and precious-looking. If there were one cupcake apt to take over the world, this one would get my vote.


Stuff you'll need:
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp coconut extract
1 tbsp grated lime zest
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup coconut


For the icing:

1/2 cup shortening (Blesk-Malinda Baker's Fat by Natural works well despite its dubious name. You can get it in any of those bio stores.)
1/2 cup margarine (Avoid softening the margarine by leaving it out of the fridge. That won't work with icing.)
3 cups confectioner's sugar (Yes, that's three cups.)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp grated lime zest
1 cup flaked coconut
thin slices of lime


As usual, preheat the oven to 170C and line the cupcake pan with liners. In a bowl, mix the oil, sugar, coconut milk, soy milk, vanilla, coconut extract and lime zest. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix till smooth. Add in the coconut, and mix. Let bake for about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile get your icing gear out. Beat the shortening with the margarine until what might qualify as fluffy. Add the sugar and beat some more. Now, just add the lime juice, zest, and vanilla, and beat to combine. Chill until the cupcakes are completely cool, then heap the frosting onto them. Spread the coconut flakes onto a plate and roll your cupcakes around in it. Decorate with lime slices, and tadah! (Oh, do keep them refrigerated for aesthetics' sake.)

Vegan Recipe: Can the Real Peanut Sauce Please Stand Up?

It's that time again: The Vegan Recipe of the Week by our lovely contributor Martina Martinez. Get jiggy with some peanut butter and tofu over the long weekend!


A rich peanut sauce poured over a shitty meal will make you want to dip your fork in it, atop a mediocre meal will make you sing and streak, and, if coupled with something delicious, might just melt your heart. If flat beans sound a little too healthy, you can substitute them with pretty much any veggie you like, though they add that vibrant green and needed crunch to it all and are in season: so, easy and cheap to get.

Stuff you'll need:
1/2 cup rice
1 shredded carrot
1 cup flat beans (Oyster mushrooms cut into stripes work magically as well, but, unless you don't mind chewing away your teeth, stay away from the stringy snow peas.)
1 package of tofu
pinch of salt
vegetable oil for frying (Peanut oil works nicely.)

For the glaze:
1 tbs mirin
1 tbs soy sauce

For the peanut sauce:
1/2 cup peanut butter (The crunchy kind spices up the texture.)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs soy sauce
heaping tsp of crushed ginger
juice of 1 lime

Adding flavour to your big white tofu:
1/3 cup mirin
2 tbs tamari
1 tbs vegetable oil (Sesame or peanut works well.)
chunk of ginger, diced
2 cloves smashed garlic


If you're short of time or effort, feel free to skip the marinating bit, though, you'll like yourself more if you let the tofu swim, even if just for an hour. So, basically, all you have to do is cut up the tofu into 2cm cubes, mix the marinade ingredients and immerse your very-white and still-bland tofu in it, flipping it every 30 or so minutes.

Get the rice cooking! Cut the beans into thirds and shred that carrot. Boil some salty water and blanch the beans, boiling them for just about a minute and then running them under ice-cold water.

Meanwhile, you can put together that aaaah-mmmmm peanuty concoction by, well, blending the six ingredients.

Once the rice has done its time, just fry it for about 5 minutes on high heat, adding the carrot and frying for another 3 or so minutes.

Afterwards also fry the tofu, marinated or not, for about 3 minutes on each side until golden. Once the heat is off, throw in those crunchy flat beans and the mirin-soy sauce glaze. Just toss it around for the flavours to blend.

The climax, then: Plate the fried rice, layer with the tofu-bean mix, and top with the peanuty sauce.

Vegan Recipe: Confetti Rice Cakes

Friday is vegan-recipe-day over here at praggeist. This week, our resident vegan cooking and baking godfairy Martuna Martinez has a nice and healthy spring snack for you. Enjoy!

Confetti risotto cakes

Yes, this is like a party in your mouth--when anise, orange zest, and minty caramelized onions get together and start popping carrot confetti and juggling rice grains.

To make this spring fest of four, you'll need:


1/2 cup uncooked rice, whichever you prefer
1 shredded carrot
1/2 pack of tofu, around 100-150g (You can store the rest immersed in water in an air-tight container for a couple of days if you remember to change the water daily.)
1 tbs of anise
juice of 1 orange
1 tsp of orange zest
1 squeeze of lemon juice
pinch of salt
pinch of cardamon

2 smaller or 1 gigantic onion
2 tsp of sugar
handful fresh mint leaves
sunflower oil


Rinse and then cook yer rice with some of that salt. Don't overcook! Looking ahead, you might wanna preheat the oven to 170C and lightly grease the muffin tins.

Meanwhile, crumble the tofu into a bowl or blender. Squeeze the life out of the orange and not all that much out of the lemon, add the zest, and blend till creamy.

In a bigger bowl, mix rice with carrot, anise and a tad of cardamon, and fold in that tropics-smelling tofu cream. Fill up the muffin tins all the way and smell the cakes bake for 25-30 minutes. (You can use the same ol' toothpick/ knife/ chopstick test with these.)

For the rooftop partay, you'll just need to heat up the oil on low heat, slice the onions finely into rings, and toss them along with the sugar. Let them sit, stirring very infrequently for as long as the cakes are baking (20-30 minutes). Feel free to add more oil if the rings are sticking to the pan. Once the heat is off, throw in the whole mint leaves and give it all a toss to blanket them in that finger-licking juice that required so little effort to make.

Cool the cakes before attempting to get them out. Dress them pretty with the minty onion. Now all you need is some Andrew WK.

Peanut butter, chocolate (and tofu) invade yer oven

Yay! We have a new contributor. The wonderful Martuna Martinez is a very talented writer and vegan baker, which makes us super-happy and proud to have her on board. Vegan baking in the Czech Republic ain't easy, but this lady makes it seem as effortless as shoving a burger in your mouth (and much more delicous). Enjoy!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Frosted Cupcakes
Unlike mufiny (read moofineeh), cupcakes are hard to find around Prague--much, much more so if you're sniffing for the vegan kind. Well, a vacuum-packaged muffin just won't do when you've got that cupcake itch, so, here's a totally indulgent and totally cruelty-free sun-kissed vanilla cupcake with chunky chocolate-peanut butter frosting.


Stuff you'll need for the cupcake part: (Makes about 12)

paper cupcake liners (unless you like scrubbing)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbs applesauce
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup soy milk or any other non-dairy milk (though soy milk is the cheapest)
1 tbs sunflower oil
3 tsp vanilla extract

You'll want to preheat the oven to 170C. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. In yet another bowl, combine all the other stuff and pour in with the dry mix. Stir, stir, pour into cupcake liners and bake for about 25 minutes. (I assume everyone's familiar with the toothpick test, right?) Let cool before smearing on the frosting.


For the frosting:
(Makes more frosting than you'll need, so that you can enjoy it by the spoonfuls while the cupcakes are bakin'.)

1 chocolate bar, about 100 grams (if you're going to go vegan here, watch out for ingredients like sušené mléko, mléčný tuk and syrovátka)
1/4 cup of peanut butter, crunchy or smooth, whatever you like
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 package of tofu
2 tbs plain soy yoghurt

Break the chocolate into small chunks and melt them in a double boiler, or, if you're lazy, a microwave.
Crumble the tofu with your fingers and, using a hand mixer or a blender, smooth everything until creamy.


Be smart:
Because there's tofu and soy yoghurt involved, if you don't devour the little wonders in a day, you'll want to refrigerate them.