Vegan German Food Cart

When Colin and I first met, one of the things we bonded over was our mutual obsession with food carts. Portland is one of the epicenters for food cart action and almost every one has a vegan option, meaning we have taken it upon ourselves to try them all. But what we really want to do is (someday, between my law school and Colin's masters and the myriad of other projects we take on) is to start our own.

Our idea? German food. The good stuff. And all vegan. Like this:

And I figure, Colin is 75% German and I'm 98% vegan (with the exception of chickie eggs) so I figure that makes our food cart mostly authentic and 100% unique.

So we've been experimenting with menu ideas. A lot. This picture above shows the following

• Green Beans with "Bacon"
• Kartoffelsalat (potato salad)
• Whole wheat Spätzle
• Schnitzel (Chick pea schnitzel!) With vegan sour cream on top.
• Sauerkraut 

Also we made this:

It's a German dumpling soup, sometimes made with semolina but we made it with cornmeal. Also it has a chickie egg in it so it's not 100% vegan - we'll have to figure that out later. But it's SO SO good. It's like the best comfort food in the entire universe and it's incredibly easy to make. Probably the easiest thing on our menu.

Definitely a success.




The potato salad was moderately successful. It's basically just potatoes, vinegar, parsley, red onion, olive oil, salt, Bragg's and vegan bacon bits. We learned that it is best with red potatoes - any yellow skinned potato is just too mushy (I like it that way but Colin doesn't think it's authentic enough).

The spätzle (pronounced "shpets-le") tasted fine but doesn't form up very well with whole wheat flour. I keep trying and trying but it really needs to be made with white flour - the whole wheat is too starchy and doesn't allow it to ball up properly. I'm going to keep experimenting. We have a spätzle maker which is really handy, so there is no excuse for not having our delicious German pasta properly formed.

The Schnitzel was also really good, but it needs a little more playing around with. It's an adapted recipe from Veganomicon's Chickpea Cutlets but pounded out a little more. Next time I am going to add more vital wheat gluten flour to make them a little meatier and I am going to try breading them on the outside to make them look more like the real thing (I'm trying to get away from breading and frying and butter but it's GERMAN FOOD. I need to lock it up if I'm ever going to make it anything like the original).

Lastly - the green beans. I wanted to make sauteed apples and turnips as our veggie, but the green beans were on sale and looked so bomb and they really did turn out great. Part of the problem that I struggle with is that I love vegetables so so much and there aren't enough of them in German food. If we ever do open a food cart, I will make sure that there are several veggie options. Because it will make me feel better.

Also I have a reciple for Apfelkuchen that I want to try (that's apple cake in case you were wondering) but I didn't get to it this time around. No German food card would be complete without Apfelkuchen.  Or potato pancakes. More to come! So many delicious options!

So that is our idea so far! Still experimenting but it's going well. If anyone wants to be a test subject, please let us know! We can use as much feedback as we can get :)

One final picture:

(See what I mean about spätzle? No whole wheat flour for you, spätzle!!)



Live long and prosper. German style.

Chickpea Noodle Soup with Shiitakes and Baby Bok Choy

This Chickpea noodle soup is quite possibly more delicious than its chickeny counterpart. It is another beautiful veganomicon comfort food with an asian twist. The shiitakes and baby bok choy are additions of my own that I think complement the earthiness of the miso paste and soba noodles sooo well. Plus they are both in season so you can get them at your local farmers market for cheap! The original recipe called for cremini mushrooms, but I personally think shiitakes are better. In everything. Yummm shiitakes.

First you want to start by sautéing your carrots in the garlic and onions. After a few minutes add the mushrooms and cook those up for a lil' bit. I added my herbs right after I added my mushrooms, streaming in oil to make sure everything got nice and evenly cooked. When the veggies are almost done throw the boy choy in and then deglaze the pot with some soy sauce. 

I used water and "better than chicken" bouillon cubes for my base (but you add the miso paste at the end so if you just use water that's cool). So, after you add your water/stock/bouillon base put your chickpeas/garbanzo (SAME THING) in. I just got canned ones but if you want to get raw ones and soak and prep them that is entirely up to you. Let your soup come to a boil and then break the noodles in half/thirds/sixteenths and throw them in the pot. After that you just kinda gotta wait until everything is all cooked together, add your miso paste and you are ready to eat. YES. Delicious AND easy. And healthy! And vegan! What else could you ask for? :)

Okay, here is my ever so slightly modified recipe:

Olive oil

1 big can of chickpeas

1 Onion, finely chopped

How ever many carrots you want

lots of garlic (I used three big cloves), minced

2 cups shiitake mushrooms

2 heads of baby bok choy

thyme/oregano/rosemary/pepper/whatever spices appeal to you

Approx 1/2 cup red (yellow would work here too) miso paste

6ish cups water/broth

6 oz (quarter sized roll) soba noodles

Live Long and Prosper! With delicious soup!