Cooking vegan food up north.

There will be no explanation. This is just a blog about food. So now that we (didn't) talked about that, lets move on. Two week ago, we had a friends family over for dinner. It was her, and her two parents. Although my insight in their diet it pretty limited, I have a feeling that they eat almost only potatoes and meat/fish. I mean, pretty much everyone here does since it's the only things they could produce here. They have always been fishing, kept sheep and hunted the birds that nests here. And the only thing that can grow here is potatoes and rhubarb. Think about that for a while and you realize that even though the supermarkets are now filled with more international groceries, it's pretty natural that potatoes and meat/fish still dominates the Faroese cuisine. So, they were invited to our home, and offered a completely vegan meal. I was nervous and made my best to come up with something that would be tasty, filling and not intimidating. We served them lemony roasted potatoes (The Veganomicon), beetroot and lentil-patties, green peas and a sunflower seed purée as "sauce". The dessert was a chocolate-strawberry cake with chocolate frosting. Actually, they liked it.

Anyhow, where I was really trying to go by telling this long story was that they gave us a huge bag of frozen rhubarb. Yesterday I wanted to make something sweet for dessert, and I wanted it to include some of this lovely home grown rhubarb. I found a promising recipe at Veganmage, a Swedish blog, and decided to go for it. They turned out great. A soft muffin filled with rhubarb, topped with crumbles.

Rhubarb- and cinnamon muffins with a crumble
12 muffins

Muffin batter:
100 g vegetable margarine
2.5 dl non dairy milk 
1 dl granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 dl all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Melt the margarine and add the milk, sugar and vanilla. Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix to combine.

Rhubarb filling:
2 dl rhubarb
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

If you have fresh rhubarb, cut it in small pieces and mix it with the sugar and cinnamon. If frozen, reheat it with the sugar and cinnamon and let it cook for a few minutes.

Crumble topping:
75 g vegetable margarine
2 dl oats
1 dl all-purpose flour
1 dl granulated sugar

Mix all the ingredients, with a fork or your fingers, until crumbly.


To assamble:
Put a tablespoon of rhubarb filling in the bottom of the muffin tin/paper. Fill up 2/3 with the muffin batter. Top with the crumbles and bake for 12-15 minutes in 175° C.