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Matcha noodles with matcha dressing

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matcha nuudelit
Matcha soba, matcha dressing and seasonal veggies = PLING! You’re awake.

Matcha, noodles.

Noodles are life! But matcha? Not so much. I’ve never really been into any tea. But, there’s more to tea than just flavor! Green tea and matcha are supposedly good for you in all kinds of different ways. And hey, there’s caffeine in there too! I LOVE caffeine. Maybe I just need to be persistent – kind of like with celery – and eventually I’ll fall in love with matcha?

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matcha nuudelit

Matcha

Matcha is finely ground green tea powder, originating from China. Matcha has been a quintessential part of Japanese culinary heritage for almost a thousand years. Whilst green tea in general is infused into the drink by steeping, matcha is blended into drinks and consumed. Just mix it up with your liquid of choice, and you’re done. That’s putting it really very simply though, there’s a lot more to matcha than that… Especially in Japan there are traditional spritual and ceremonial aspects to matcha which I really want to learn more about! But for the time being, I’m just trying to get acquainted with the flavor – not the entire thousand year old history of matcha! Baby steps, you know…

Wikipedia tells me that matcha is made from tea leaves grown in the shade, and the leaves are covered up before harvest. This way the leaves develop more amino acids and a sweeter flavor. Well, I can’t make comparisons about the sweetness, since I don’t drink any tea whatsoever. But as far as I can tell, matcha tastes like grass to me. Most drinks and foods made with matcha seem to be sweetened and I really am not into anything sweet. Hence, I’ve just never been interested in matcha.

matcha nuudelit
The matcha in pictures was gifted by Matcha Crew

Matcha Crew

I finally got in the mood for matcha, when a cute little contemporary matcha room called Matcha Crew opened in Helsinki. I popped by one day out of curiosity and ordered perhaps the second (?) matcha drink of my life. I ended up picking a “Summertime happiness” – a cold matcha soda with yuzu marmalade – and a miracle happened: the next day, I found myself back at Matcha Crew, ordering another Summertime happiness.

Perhaps my issue with matcha was not the flavor, but what it’s typically combined with? Sugar, milk, cream… Matcha itself actually has a quite interesting, complex, earthy flavor with tannins, bitterness … and yes, the grassiness. Maybe I can figure out some matcha flavor combinations more enjoyable to me?

Matcha noodles

Having gulped down a few Summertime happiness in a week, I decided to get some matcha suitable for cooking. But the kind people of Matcha Crew wanted to gift me with their product instead! Thank you so much <3

*Product in pictures was gifted by Matcha Crew*

At this point it was early June. My go-to summer dishes are all kinds of cold noodles, so I ended up brainstorming a matcha and yuzu dressing for some cold soba noodles. A kind of homage to the drink that got me into matcha to begin with!

matcha

matcha nuudelit

Hello caffeine my old friend

I ended up using matcha soba with my matcha yuzu dressing, and quickly realized that this is not a late night snack, unless you want to stay up all night. Matcha has something like 18.9– 44.4 milligrams of caffeine per gram of tea (according to this source) and a portion of my matcha noodles has 2-3 grams of matcha.

PLING, you’re awake!

As a reference, the daily recommended intake of matcha is something around 2-4 grams (although different sources give different numbers…). One teaspoon of matcha weighs 2 grams.

The caffeine buzz from matcha is however different from coffee. Again, the sources say different things, but apparently matcha has less caffeine than coffee, but it gives you a more long lasting and steady sort of energy than the sudden spike and quick crash of, say, a double espresso. If I have a bowl of these noodles for lunch, I definitely don’t need an afternoon coffee (nor matcha) anymore. This stuff is potent!

matcha kastike

Matcha noodles with matcha dressing

This uplifting and refreshing bowl of matcha noodles with a matcha, tahini and yuzu dressing is my new summer lunch obsession! I love to add in plenty of seasonal veggies, fruits and herbs for extra freshness.
Course Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine Fusion
Diet Vegan, Vegetarian
Keyword vegan, vegetarian
Servings 2 people
Author Juulia
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
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Ingredients
 

  • 200 g (matcha) soba noodles (+ salt for the cooking water)
  • 15 cm piece of cucumber (and/or other crunchy fresh veggies like sugar snap peas, new cabbage, carrots…)
  • 100 g (daikon) radish (pickled or fresh!)
  • 150 g honey dew or cantaloupe melon (or blueberries, white currants, kiwi … any seasonal fruits and berries you like!)
  • 1-2 green onions
  • 1-2 dl shredded herbs (loosely packed) (shiso, mint, chervil, tarragon, cilantro, thai basil…)
  • 1-2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (to garnish!)

Matcha dressing:

  • 2-3 tsp matcha (depending on how strong you like it!)
  • 2 tbsp yuzu juice (or lemon/lime juice)
  • 3 tbsp white tahini
  • 2 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 small clove of garlic
  • ¼ tsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1-1½ tsp agave syrup
  • ¼+ tsp salt (= to taste)

Optional:

  • 1-2 tsp grated ginger or ginger shot
  • 1-2 tsp crispy chili & garlic oil
  • ½-1 tsp yuzukosho
  • 1 rkl pistachio or pumpkin seed oil
Notes:
  • When you make the matcha dressing for the first time, take time to adjust the flavors to your liking. Remember though that the sauce needs to be strong, in order to season well the bowl of noodles.
  • In case you want to make this dish hot, don’t heat the dressing up to higher than 80°C or the flavor and colour of the matcha might suffer.

Instructions

  • Mix all the ingredients for the matcha dressing. Adjust the flavor to your liking. Optional: add in ginger and/or yuzukosho and/or crispy chili oil to taste, plus drizzle in some pumpkin seed or pistachio oil for added body.
  • Cook the soba noodles in salted water, as instructed in the package (typically 4-5 minutes). While the noodles are cooking, chop up the veggies and fruits to bite sized pieces. Thinly slice the green onions and finely shred the herbs of your choice.
  • Once the noodles are cooked, rinse them in cold water and drain well. Mix the sauce and half of the veggies, herbs and fruits with the noodles. Portion the mixture to two bowls.
  • Add the remaining veggies, fruits and herbs on top of the noodles. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and serve!
matcha nuudelit

Ps. Store the opened bag of matcha air tightly in the fridge and us within a month from opening.

Are you a friend of matcha? Do you use it in cooking? I’d love to hear your ideas for me what I should do with matcha next!

Homemade “umeshu”

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luumulikööri

Umeshu!

I fell in love with japanese plum liqueur umeshu on our first (and hopefully not the last) trip to Japan seven years ago. I wanted an umeshu on the rocks at every stop on the way! Now I’m not a big fan of any sweet liqueur out there, but there’s just something irresistible about the sour and sweet aromas umeshu has. Once back in Finland, things have continued the same. If a place serves umeshu, I’ll be ordering it for sure.

Once I realized that umeshu is often home made in Japan, it didn’t take long for me to figure out a way to make it at home here in Finland too! It actually isn’t all that difficult … although, accessing ume plums is nearly impossible. A quick trip to a store specializing in Turkish ingredients around this time of year is however a way to solve the problem! See, a liqueur made with the small tart and sour green plums they sell gives you a very similar taste to umeshu! 

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luumulikööri
luumulikööri

Homemade umeshu

You need just three ingredients to make homemade umeshu. Greengage plums, white rock sugar, and alcohol. Well, to be honest, there is a fourth ingredient, and that is time. Homemade plum liqueur takes at least half a year to develop its flavors. But it’s worth the wait!

If you can get your hands on actual ume plums, that would be ideal. But greengage plums really are a good substitute! They are sold here in Helsinki in Turkish grocery stores under the name Yeşil Erik. And whilst shopping, pop by a grocery store specializing in Asian ingredients – at least here that would be the place to find rock sugar. I’ve been opting for vodka as the alcohol, but you can of course also use japanese distilled spirits such as shōchū for a more “authentic” “umeshu”. In any case, the alcohol content should be over 35%!

vihreä luumu
kotitekoinen luumuviini

Rock sugar

Apparently homemade umeshu is best sweetend with rock sugar, because it dissolves into the alcohol slowly. The slow process gives more aromas due to osmotic pressure, but since I’m really not an expert on this topic I recommend anyone interested in hopping to Chopstick chronicles for more information on this! If I understood correctly, whilst the sugar is yet not dissolved, the alcohol seeps better into the fruits, steeping the aromas out of them. Once the sugar is dissolved, the flavored alcohol is then pulled out of the fruits into the liqueur. Or something like that? I don’t really know but I’m definitely not questioning the science!

So, rock sugar it is. The recommended amount is 50-80% of the weight of the plums. Because I’m not so fond of sweets, I’ve stuck to 50% with my batches. Once the rock sugar, greengages and alcohol has been acquired, it’s time to make homemade umeshu! You should wash and soak the plums for a few hours, then pluck out their stems. Remove all plums that have bruises. Layer the plums with the rock sugar and cover up with the alcohol, then all you need to do is wait.

Greengage liqueur in the style of umeshu

The homemade umeshu from last year is now been steeping for a year and it tastes wonderful! I’m drinking it sparingly, a little goblet at a time, served with some ice. The flavor is clearly reminiscent of umeshu, but there’s a dose of blackcurrant leaves and rhubarb in there too. All things I love! Now I just have to wait a whole year for the next batch to get ready … needless to say, I made way more this time than last time!

The sources for my recipe are the wonderful Just One Cookbook and Chopstick Cronicles -blogi.

Greengage liqueur aka homemade "umeshu"

A liqueur made of tiny tart greengage plums tastes just like umeshu! You need just three ingredients - greengages, rock sugar and alcohol - plus some patience. It takes at least half a year for the homemade umeshu to be ready!
Course Drinks, preserve
Prep Time 20 minutes
Steeping time: 180 days
Total Time 180 days 20 minutes
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Equipment

  • 1,5 litre glass jar

Ingredients
 

  • 400 g unripe greengage plums
  • 200 g white rock sugar
  • 6 dl vodka (at least 35% abv)
Notes:
According to my sources, you should remove the plums from the liqueur within a year, because they can apparently get bitter otherwise. I don't have experience over that, since my first batch is now a year old!
If you're making this recipe with ume plums, you can also eat the plums after discarding them. I'm not sure if the same applies to greengages, but in any case to use them I'd cook with them, or make a jam out of them. By themselves they are quite boozy after all.

Instructions

  • Sterilize the glass jar and it's lid with boiling water and swirl around a splash of vodka in the jar and the lid.
  • Wash the plums and soak a few hours. Then remove their stems and take out all the bruised fruits. Layer the fruits in the jar with the rock sugar, then pour over the vodka, submerging the plums.
  • Put the jar in a dark room temperature cabinet and shake it once per day for the first 2-3 days. Then leave the jar to steep for at least half a year, or even longer to develop the flavors.
  • Serve the homemade umeshu on the rocks, or with some soda water. I often squeeze in some lemon, lime or yuzu too!

Fruity tomato salad – summer on a plate

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hedelmäinen tomaattisalaatti

This fruity tomato salad is a lovely combination of fresh, sweet, sour and spicy: tomatoes, Cantaloupe melon, golden berries, kumquats, endives, chili and golden fried garlic chips. And a tangy yuzu-tsuyu vinaigrette that makes it even better!

Summer on my mind

It was snowing last week. And it’s April. Enough with this already, winter be gone! Craving for sunshine and the sound of melting snow, I started fantasizing about summer. If it’s not yet around me, at least I could have summer on a plate! I gave myself the permission to buy what ever my heart desires, and wandered off to Hakaniemi market hall. I came across some organic kumquats, red endives, and sticky fresh garlic, with an aroma that filled the air. I stuffed my bag with tomatoes, golden berries and Cantaloupe melon, and started dreaming about a fruity tomato salad…

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tomaattisalaatti

ruokakuvaus

All the steamy details

As I got home, I was extremely pleased with all my impulse buys. This will be the salad of all salads! Juicy tomatoes (not in season but I found some good ones), aromatic kumquats, sweet sweet melon and that lovely fresh pop of the golden berries. And a vinaigrette so good, I’d drink it! Yuzu juice, kombu tsuyu, garlic oil, fish sauce…

Ahhhhhh h h h  h   h  !    !    !

The salty, tangy, sour, sweet and hot plateful I had in mind instantly reminded me of the summer of 2016, when Finland was suffering of an extreme heatwave. The yellow press dubbed it as #SEKSIHELLE – “sex heat”. LOL, aptly named, since people were definitely both hot and heavy about all that heat, as well as hot and bothered (I’m the latter, I can’t stand heat!). By the way, behind that link above, you can find an old blog post of mine, with a culinary interpretation of “seksihelle”. Funny enough I discovered only years later that my “recipe” was posted by the yellow press, under the title of “Suosikkibloggarin ohje – tältä maistuu seksihelle” (“Favorite blogger’s recipe – this is how seksihelle tastes like”). Favorite blogger, who me?

It was a good summer, and a good salad.

ruokakuvaus

ruokakuvaus

Food photography love

I spent some time admiring and photographing all my lovely ingredients the next day. Or to be completely honest… I spent the whole day photographing. This kind of thing happens to me often… I mean, if I give myself the permission to buy all the lovely fresh produce I desire, it’s only clear the permission includes a day of photographing what I buy. There’s no way I can make the coveted salad until I’ve captured each ingredient from multiple angles. And I can’t eat the coveted salad either, until I’ve photographed it from multiple angles.

Needless to say, by the time I finally got to eating, I was famished.

ananaskirsikka resepti

Confessions of a reckless veggie lover

I actually wrote a short text out of that shoot day, illustrated with some of these photographs you can see in this blog post. The title of that text is “Mind:full” and you can read it from my friend Eva’s Creative by Nature journal. This PDF publication is going live on April 17th and you get to read it for free by subscribing to Eva’s Fleur Rustique newsletter. You’ll also get access to Eva’s seasonal Lightroom presets!

I contributed to the last Creative with nature issue, with a text I’ve now published also here on my blog: Confessions of a reckless veggie lover. I’m not perhaps the best of writers, but it has been extremely fun getting out of my comfort zone! It took me ages to get that first text written, and by now I’m already slightly embarrassed by it. But with this newest text I’m still feeling proud of my work! The issue is filled with work from a super talented bunch of creatives around the world, so I highly recommend checking it out ♥

tomaattisalaatti

Dream salad

But let’s get back to the topic of dream salad. This fruity tomato salad I came up with really does remind me of summer. We’ve eaten it so many time since I first made it, and I honestly feel it’s one of my favorite salads ever! It’s got the perfect combination of hot, sour and sweet, as well as salty like the sweat trickling down my neck… I hope you’ll love it as much as I do, if you give it a go!

Fruity tomato salad

This fruity tomato salad is a lovely combination of fresh, sweet, sour and spicy: tomatos, Cantaloupe melon, goldenberries, kumquats, endives, chili and golden fried garlic chips. And a tangy yuzu-tsuyu vinaigrette, which makes it even better!
Course Salad
Cuisine Fusion
Keyword salad
Servings 2 people
Author Juulia
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
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Ingredients
 

  • 3 large ripe tomatoes
  • 300 g Cantaloupe-melon (or honeydew)
  • 100 g goldenberries
  • 10 kumquats (or limequats)
  • 2 red endives
  • 5-6 large cloves of garlic
  • 1 dl extra virgin olive oil
  • ½-1 mieto punainen chili

Yuzu-tsuyu vinaigrette:

  • 2 tbsp yuzu juice (or lime juice)
  • 2 tbsp kombu tsuyu (or 1 tbsp light soy sauce + 1 tbsp mirin)
  • 3 tbsp garlic oil
  • 2 tsp (vegan) fish sauce
  • 1 tsp agave syrup
Notes:
  • Kombu tsuyu is a japanese stock concentrate, which is also used as a dip. Kombu tsuyu can be served to vegetarians and vegans, as long as it's not conatining any katsuobushi aka fish.
  • If you can't access tsuyu, mix 1 part light soy sauce with 1 part mirin. Or make your own! You can find a recipe for homemade tsuyu here.
  • Fish sauce can be swapped to vegan fish sauce. A bit similar salty funky flavor can also be achieved with the liquid of salt preserved lemons!
  • If you can't access kumquats, you can also use limequats. Of course other citrus fruits work too, but I'd recommend adding in some zest to get that aromatic flavor the kumquat and limequat have, since they're eaten whole. Also salt preserved lemon works, you'll just need to add it in very small amount and adjust the salinity of the vinaigrette accordingly.

Instructions

Crispy fried garlic

  • Peel and thinly slice the garlic. Aim for even slices! Heat the olive oil in a small pot over medium heat. Add in the garlic and fry until golden, mixing often. Do not burn the garlic! I'd rather take it off the heat too soon than too late.
  • Save the garlic flavored oil and leave it to cool, and spread out the golden garlic chips on kitchen paper.

Preparations:

  • Peel, wash and halve the goldenberries. Wash the kumquats and slice them thinly, removing the seeds. De-seed and peel the melon, chopping it to bite sized pieces. Chop up also the tomatoes and thinly slice the endives.
  • Mince the desired amount of chili finely (remove the seeds if you want!). Mix the chili with the yuzu juice, kombu tsuyu, (vegan) fish sauce, agave syrup and the garlicky oil. You won't need all the oil, save the rest for other savory applications, storing it in the fridge.
  • Add all the salad ingredients on two plates of bowls. Drizzle over the yuzu tsuyu vinaigrette as well as the golden crispy garlic chips. Serve immediately!

tomaattisalaatti

Confessions of a reckless veggie-lover (◕‿◕✿)

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Creative food photography

This short written and visual essay was first published in the Creative by Nature journal, which is a biannual journal exploring human nature through the prism of creativity.

Confessions of a reckless veggie-lover (◕‿◕✿)

As a twenty-something I worked several summers for the city of Helsinki doing so-called “garden work”. The job included planting flowers, watering lawns, cutting grass, pulling weeds… plus emptying trash cans, sweeping parkways and aimlessly driving around.

(Waiting for the lunch break. Yawning.)

The early mornings were not my cup of caffeine and I’ve already made this job sound more exciting than it actually was. Yet, I warmly think back to that one massive dandelion root I once pulled from the flowerbed without breaking it. Why, weeding is so rewarding! How I enjoyed spending days outdoors! If I only had my own garden…

home gardening experience

veggie lover

The nature person

I like to see myself as a nature person. Just one look at my gallery of Xennial self-expressions aka Instagram and you’ll likely agree! My home page is filled with things I love to create with: flowers, herbs, veggies; wild, foraged, locally grown… (Though likely not by me.) I’m a food photography enthusiast, and plants are my raw material! But the reality is, I really enjoy nature mainly from the comforts of my couch.

Those whose eyes wander over my carefully crafted images will be blind to what’s beyond their borders: mess and waste. See, the second raw material of my food photography is fantasy. I’m an art teacher by profession but far too busy (tired, stressed) to paint or draw, like I used to. Instead, my daily creative outlet is food. Food’s a necessity of human existence, but also an essential source of joy for this middle-income, middle-aged gourmand. Life’s too short for bland food! I want excitement, experiences, entertainment! But not so much that I’d put my hectic life on pause and get out into the wild myself. I’d rather explore for treasures at the supermarket, and play with my bounty at the comfort of my own home. I’ll plate up my culinary excursions nicely, and share what I ate with others like me.

Such is the life of a social media era foodie.

home grown cherry tomatoes

The Magician

The two dear hobbies of mine – cooking and food photography – are often as far apart from each other as is the fantasy and reality of me as a nature person. In a photograph all the different sensory experiences of a good meal are reduced to the visual. You’ll look at my pictures and if I’ve succeeded, you’ll want to eat it all up, buy what I’m selling: a lovely veggie soup perhaps?

(Recipe on my website!)

Never mind if I forgot to add salt to it, or if I even made enough to fill that pretty retro pot. I’ve got my bag of smoke and mirrors, I’m well versed with the tricks of the trade. I’ll select your range of focus and crop out the telltale edges of my vinyl printed rustic wooden background. And just like that, you’re transported to my fantasy, where the soup tastes magical and never runs out. As long as it looks good, it is good.

veggie lover

frozen flowers

The Romantic

As I create my delicious frames filled with all the photogenic ingredients nature has to offer, I sometimes feel like a contemporary Romantic. Getting off on the wild and untamed beauty of nature (surely greenhouse grown edible flowers fit this description?), picking and mixing the most picturesque parts for the most elevating experience. And whilst I’m desperately trying to grasp and hold onto that sublime beauty of nature, it always evades me. Because the moment I spin my magic wand over those flowers, they become a commodity for the consumer culture. A pretty picture online, a product of our time.

My green thumb might prefer idleness, but at least my hands are crafty in other ways: they know how to paint a picture of a veggie-lover. But by the time you see my plant-filled images on your screen, the passing moment (1/200) has long gone. You can admire the memory, the echo of, say, a photogenic head of lettuce, until it’s sunken too deep on my home page to reach you anymore. All the while the lettuce? It finds itself forgotten, frozen stuck on the back wall of my refrigerator.

wanderer above the sea

The veggie-lover

I’m the wanderer above the sea of aesthetically pleasing produce,  gazing into the distance, dreaming of trending posts, perhaps. Passive, yet owning it all. Soaring on top of what nature has to offer me! It’s all so distant, yet mine to consume, forget, throw out. I’m a fresh produce hoarder and an impulse buying idealist who too often fails to follow plans through.

(Purslane! Fresh tamarind! Fennel flowers!)

But you’ll never see that side of me. I keep my gallery consistent, I weed out ugly realities.

I’m a veggie-lover.

Ps. I really don’t know what happened to these broccolinis… but aren’t they just perfect for these pictures?

broccolini

Postcard in the images: Caspar David Friedrich: Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog, 1818. Read more about the artist and this artwork here!

This short essay was created for Creative by Nature, which is a biannual journal exploring human nature through the prism of creativity. It was first published in the Creative With Nature Issue in 2022. You can access the journal for free by subscribing to Fleur Rustique mailing list here! The next issue is out on April 17th and I’ll be contributing to that one as well ♥

Vegan browned butter

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Vegan browned butter

Browned butter

There are very few things better than browned butter! The nutty toasty aroma is perfect in so many savory dishes, but also in chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, or simply smeared on a piece of plain toast. And just try dipping fresh radished to it – you’ll soon realize you’re hooked on radishes. Browned butter is magic.

Animal based butter “browns” due to the milk proteins and natural sugars of the butter caramelizing. But what about plant based butters? There are no milk proteins in them, obviously. Well, the solution is likely very nearby. Just open the door to your cupboard!

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Vegan browned butter

Vegan browned butter

As a big fan of browned butter, I’ve been contemplating on how to make vegan brown butter for a while. We’ve moved on to using mainly plant based butter and sandwich spreads in our household, I use animal based butter only very rarely! My favorite spreads and butters are made by Naturli’ and Violife. Both have the flavor on point, and that’s saying a lot from someone who used to only put a real butter spread on her toast! I’ve never gotten used to the taste of margarine, and after discovering these products I won’t even try anymore.

Recently a friend asked me how to make vegan browned butter, and that gave me the push to finally stop contemplating, and start experimenting! A short scroll through internet gave the answer I would likely have discovered on my own: plantbased butters often need a boost in both proteins and sugars in order to brown. Depending on where you live and what kinds of products you have availabe, the butter might or might not already have those, in the form of some kind of nut. So look through the list of ingredients, and supplement as needed with some extra nuts!

vegan brown butter

variations on Vegan brown butter

So I’m off to the store, and soon enough I got pots of both melted Naturli’ and Vioblock on the stove. Naturli’ actually includes a bit of almond, so it will lightly brown on its own. Vioblock on the other hand simply melts. So both need some nuts! But which nuts? I end up making batches with powdered hazelnuts, pecans and almonds. And just for the fun of it, I also add some dark sugar and a tiny pinch of vanilla in one batch.

Practical tips:

  • When you add the nut powder to the hot fat, you better start mixing non stop. You do NOT want any of the nuts to burn!
  • A light colored pot helps to keep track of how toasty the nuts get
  • Your nose will also help keep track with how toasty the nuts get 🙂
  • Pour the vegan browned butter out of the pot rather sooner than later – it will continue to get more toasted as it cools off.

And then all that’s left to do is to wait! Browned vegan butter is delicious hot, but as it cools off it solidifies and gets a lovely creamy, butterscotch sauce-y texture. The Vioblock batch got to the stage you see in the photos in room temperature in about an hour. The Naturli’ batches on the other hand took a lot longer, and eventually I had to put them in the fridge. They were solidified in the morning!

Vegan brown butter

Hazelnut butter for the win!

When it comes to flavor, each version was extremely delicious! It’s hard to belief any of these yummy butters is vegan. The batch with a pinch of sugar and vanilla was so good, I almost “sampled” it all in one go. If I were more of a baker, I’d definitely turn that batch into a frosting!

My favorite variation turned out to be both the hazelnut and the pecan Naturli’. The toasty flavor of hazelnut mimics the flavor or browned butter the best – no surprise there, after all it’s also referred to as “beurre noisette” aka hazelnut butter 🙂 Pecan on the other hand has a sweetness akin to maple syrup! The almond version was also delicious – tastewise it was just the one that was the least like browned butter, that’s all. So, my vegan brown butter will be made with a mixure of hazelnuts and pecans, with an added pinch of sugar and vanilla, when the intended use calls for it!

Vegan browned butter

Browned butter is heavenly - also when it's vegan! Vegan butter just needs some help to start browning. This can be achieved with some nuts! My favorite choice is a mixture of hazelnuts and pecans.
Course Condiment, dip
Diet Vegan, Vegetarian
Keyword vegan, vegetarian
Author Juulia
Cook Time 10 minutes
Cool off time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
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Ingredients
 

  • 100 g vegan butter (Vioblock or Naturli')
  • 1 tbsp powdered hazelnut and/or pecan nuts (or almond, cashew...)

Optional:

  • ½-1 tsp demerera, coconut or muscavado sugar (in other words: dark sugar with some toasty notes!)
  • ⅛ tsp real vanilla
  • 1-2 tsp lemon juice
Notes:
Store the vegan browned butter air-tightly in the fridge. It store well, so you can easily do a double batch if you want to!

Instructions

  • Melt the vegan butter in small pot. Let it bubble and foam for about 5 minutes. Then add in the powdered nuts (and sugar, if using). Keep mixing well, scraping the bottom of the mixture with a spatula to prevent burning. The mixture foams and then starts to settle. Keep an eye (and nose) on the level of toastiness and as soon as you think the nuts have browned enough, pour the mixture to a heat proof dish.
  • Add in the vanilla and/or lemon juice, if using. Leave the butter to cool off to the desired temperature and texture. Vioblock solidifies to a soft custardy texture in about an hour, but Naturli' is best left in the fridge for longer. Both need a thorough mixing before serving, as the nuts settle to the bottom of the bowl.

If you make vegan browned butter, I’d love to hear which nuts are your favorite!

brown vegan butter

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