Chinese glutinous rice ball (元宵）

Ingredients:

Drinking water

Glutinous rice flour 600g

Organic adzuki bean 400g

Organic brown sugar 200g

Vegetable oil

Sweet osmanthus

Serves: 6

Preparation:

1. Wash the organic adzuki beans a few times. Soak the adzuki beans for 6 hours or over night.

2. Put the adzuki beans in a cooking pot, add water to submerge the beans, and then add a little more water. Boil the adzuki beans until the beans soak up all the water and melt when being pressed. Constantly stir the beans to avoid them sticking to the pot.

3. Use a blender to mesh the boiled beans to paste. Add in the organic brown sugar and some vegetable oil. Mix it well. This is the filling of the rice ball.

4. Shape the filling into balls of the size of a walnut.

5. Put the glutinous rice flour in a flat container. Take a few of the filling balls and put them in a small sieve. Quickly dip them in water. Then put them on top of the glutinous rice flour. Shake the flat container to let the filling balls roll in the rice flour. Then, put the balls back to the sieve, dip them in water and roll them in the rice flour again. Repeat this process 3-5 times.

6. Heat water in a pot until the water is boiling. Add the rice balls to the boiling water. Boil until the rice balls float on the water.

7. Take the rice balls together with some soup from the pot and put them into bowls. Sprinkle some sweet osmanthus and serve.

Vegan Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients:

3 cups quick oats

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup shredded coconut

½ cup vegan margarine

½ cup soy or almond milk

4–6 tablespoons of cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:

1. Put the vegan margarine, soy/almond milk, and brown sugar in a cooking pot. Heat and constantly stir until it starts to boil. Let it boil for 30 seconds. Let it sit for a while to cool.

2. Put the oats, shredded coconut, and cocoa in a container. Add the vanilla to the cooled mixture made in step 1 and mix well. Add the mixture to the container and mix everything together very well.

3. Make macaroons by shaping pieces of the mixture into shapes of cookies.

4. Put them in the refrigerator to cool until they become solid. 

Moldovan Chocolate Roll

Ingredients:

6 cups crumbled vegan sweet biscuits

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup corn syrup

1 cup vegan margarine

2–3 cups crushed walnuts

4–6 tablespoons cocoa

½ teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:

1. Mix the crumbled vegan sweet biscuits, brown sugar, crushed walnuts, and cocoa in a container.

2. Put the vegan margarine together with the corn syrup, brown sugar and vanilla in a cooking pan. Heat and constantly mix until it boils for 1-3 minutes. And then let sit for a while to cool down.

3. Add the caramel mixture in the cooking pan to the biscuit mixture made in step 1. Mix them well with your hand.

4. Wrap the mixture tightly in plastic wraps in the shape of rolls. Put the wraps in refrigerator until they become solid. 

5. Remove the plastic wraps and cut the rolls to slices.