eating out in hamburg

I recently spent a weekend in Hamburg and I have to say I really loved it. For eating out I checked a guide of vegetarian restaurants beforehand. Unfortunately, we only had time to check out a few of them, here are my impressions:

Piccolo Paradiso:
For lunch we had a lentil patty with pumpkin and potatoe vegetables. They also had a huge variety of salads. The friendly waitress gave us a free milk rise pudding with cinnamon shortly before it closed.

WakuWaku:
In the evening I had a ginger carrot soup in this organic fast-food restaurant. They are not exclusively vegetarian, but have a large variety of vegan and vegetarian dishes.The interior was very stylish and the soup was exactly what I needed after a cold day.

Hin & Veg!
It is truely a fast-food restaurant: you can get everything as vegetarian or even vegan. We had a cheese burger there for lunch.

Herr Max
We found this place by chance: it's the cutest tiny café. They serve homemade ice-sandwiches which we definitely had to try. We had one with brownie and the other with raspberry.

I'm sure Hamburg has a lot more great veggie spots we missed. I would be thrilled to hear your recommendations!

basic recipe: chickpeas

The high protein and low-fat legume is a basic ingredient for various delicious dishes like salads, soups or falafel. The preperation of fresh chickpeas takes some time but doesn't need a lot of work. I prefer selfmade chickpeas insteads, because of their fresh taste and consistency.

Step I: Put chickpeas in a large bowl of water and let soak over night.

Step II: Drain the water - the chickpeas will now be much larger than before. 

Optionally you can leave the chickpeas in the filter and wash with water every few hours in order to let them sprout and produce more vitamins. After 2-3 days you will see a sprout. You will need to cook or steam them for just a few minutes. I prefer sprouted chickpeas especially for salads.

Step III: Put the chickpeas in a jar with fresh water. The secret ingredient is backing powder: it speeds up cooking time tremendously, because it helps to dissolve the chickpeas' skins. Before further processing drain them with fresh water one last time.

hot ginger milk

As it's getting colder these days I really enjoy a hot drink in the evening. I first read about this ginger milk recipe in an ayurveda book. It is slightly spicy, creamy from the milk and still refreshing, because it is mixed up with water. It is also one of these healthy sugar-free drinks you are likely to get in a café if you ask for ginger tea with extra milk.

The preparation is really simple: Fill up half a cup with milk (I prefer semi skimmed) and add water.
Cut some slices of fresh ginger and add them to the milk. Heat it up and froth it if you like. If you prefer it sweetend add some honey.

the philosophy of veggie origami

For me cooking is a creative process like the art of origami: like processing paper turns simple sheets into little pieces of art, you can create amazing sensations of taste by processing basic ingredients in a certain combination of colors, shapes and textures. 

Veggie origami is a place to get inspired. For me it doesn't make sense to give explicit measures. I'm rather interested in the idea behind the recipies. I love to cook with seasonal fresh organic ingredients and they differ anyway all the time. That's why I strongly recommend to experiment on your own and adapt the recipies to fit your taste and available ingredients.

Over all it's not only about the taste: the way we eat has great influence on how we feel. This blog will help you to turn your kitchen into a creative place and make your life better every day!