budaveg – vegetarian Hungary your vegetarian home in Hungary

I love muffins, they are so lovely and no hassle of cutting, just grab one and yum! I found the original recipe at this brilliant Hungarian site, great for cakes and vegetarian food. In fact the recipe was passed around on a babywearing forum as an ideal birthday cake for a 1 year old baby. I just loved the ease and simplicity of the recipe, no exotic ingredients, just simple stuff you normally have at home. I tried the original than tweeked it to suit our taste and needs: so I use wholemeal flour instead of white, and birch sugar instead of white sugar, and I  add frozen cherries too- chocolate and cherries- what a brilliant combination! We love it so do our guests at the budaveg B&B!


ingredients:

• 200 grams flour
• 100 grams brown sugar (I use birch sugar)
• 5 tbs of sunflower seed oil
• 3 tbs cocoa powder
• 1 cup water/ rice milk/ soy milk (I use vanilla soy milk)
• 1tbs apple cider vinegar
• a few drops of vanilla extract or satchel of vanilla sugar (I omit this, there is already vanilla in the soy milk)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 200 grams frozen, pitted sour cherries

I simply mix everything together for a short time (but it is better to sieve the flour and the other dry ingredients together if you have time!) , then add the cherries and mix them in with a spoon- and then spoon the batter into silicone muffin trays- this batch makes 12 muffins. I bake them at 160 C with the fan on for about 30 minutes.

There seem to be a massive boom in cooking classes nowadays, or perhaps just facebook make me more aware of them?

Vegan & Gluten Free Cookery Workshop The Salt’n'Pepper cooking school organizes workshops where the chef of Napfényes Étterem is teaching culinary skills. Unfortunately info is only in Hungarian on their website, but email them for info if you are interested.
saltnpepper@t-online.hu
06 30 950 6422 1055
Budapest, Balassi Bálint utca 19
http://www.saltnpepper.hu/home

Vegan rawfood classes organised by Mannanatural restaurant: 3 hour classes taught at their restaurant in a specially built teaching and dining are upstairs, after “cooking” the students are enjoying a healthy dinner.  For details and times check their website.
 1054 Budapest, Hold u. 13. 
+36-20-7769843 
info@mannatural.hu
http://www.mannatural.net/index.php?oldal=fooldal

Lacto vegetarian classes: are organised by 108.hu which seems to be part of the Hare Krishna church. They offer a big range of classes from Indian to Hungarian vegetarian, special Christmas menus, ginger bread making with children and so on.  Courses are taught by Hémangi dévi dászi populag vegetarian gastro blogger of http://www.vegavarazs.hu. The 108 school is only a short walk from budaveg vegetarian B&B!
info@108.hu
06-30-464 77601137.
Budapest, Szent István krt 6. III/12. 27-es csengő (Jászai Mari tér)
http://108.hu/fozotanfolyam  

Isteni Ízek Főzőtanfolyam/ Divine tastes cooking course also organised by the Hare Krishna Church at the Indian cultural centre. The TV chef Mahadzsan dász is teaching the course, which is planning to start 15th February 2012
Bp.1039 Lehel u. 15.-17
06 30 872 1995
mahadzsan@freemail.hu

Raw vegan gourmand dinners Finally if you don’t want to cook but still want to fill your belly with vegan raw delights than Életkonyha/ Lifekitchen is your place. They offer themed vegan raw gourmand dinners in their home for small groups. These girls also make amazing raw “sweets” and cakes, have a look at Sületlenségek website.
003670-70-28187, or 003630-399-4912
info@eletkonyha.hu

https://www.facebook.com/EletKonyha.LifeKitchen

Are there more? If so let me know happy to add to our blog!

At the moment two lovely Italian girls are staying at the budaveg apartment, one of them, Chiara translated our website to Italian and we are very happy to give her and her friend a week’s stay in return! The are very busy during the day exploring Budapest, the museums and the christmas market, but last night we all went out to Napfényes Étterem, probably the nicest vegan restaurant in town.
The restaurant belong to a Rudolf Steiner inspired movement, and they promote healthy vegan food and lifestyle. They also have a vegan patisserie, organize cooking and lifestyle courses issue beautifully illustrated cook books and have a small health food store at the restaurant.


You’ll find there a fantastic selection of vegan dishes: soup, pizzas, pasta dishes, traditional Hungarian dishes, puddings and cream cakes from their patisserie, salads, and an impressive range of organic juices and teas.

We would have had a lovely time if our children hadn’t run amok in the restaurant; they were running up and down in and out of the kitchen screaming with delight. So much for lethargic veggie kids! Luckily the staff not only put up with it but even gave them some coloured pencils and paper and played with them to give us a breather and a chance to eat our delicious meals. Taking pictures is not my forte especially when I have to run after my kids. This is the only moment they actually sat on their bums.

James chose vegan breaded cheese with rice and peas, and tartar sauce, Lita chose “Fried Pancakes Filled with Vegetable Cream served with Mashed Potatoes and Onions”, Chiara and I went for the vegan Brassói with Lecsó, which is called “Ratatouille Seitan Cutlets” on the menu, and the kids got half portions each of yesterday’s special: Mixed Vegetable Pakora with Mashed Potatoes. The vegan Brassói with Lecsó is my favourite dish: lots of chips and seitan in a great spicy sauce! Here is a close up of the table:

The prices are great, mains are between 1500-2000 Hufs. We had a lovely time, but probably won’t go there (or any other restaurant) till they are at least ten, or go without them. So please it is your turn to dine out in style at a lovely vegan restaurant!
I’d like to thank the staff again for being so super nice!

Address: Rózsa u 39, District VII Tram: 4/6 at Király utca and walk, or 76 trolley bus.
Open: every day 9am-10pm
Vegan, non smoking, no alcohol, sells health food too
English menu, English spoken.
http://www.napfenyesetterem.hu/

A few weeks ago on a sunny Saturday morning we were again driving up north to the “Biokert” organic farm where we get our vegetables from in a CSA scheme. We had enjoyed the harvest festival so much we were really looking forward to be back on the farm where our kids and dog can roam free and we can meet and greet the other members.

We were invited to help with the spice paprika harvest- which we did for 10 minutes before we realized that our kids and bouncy dog were more trouble than they were worth and retreated from the paprika field. We walked around to see how the vegetables were doing in the poly tunnels, and collected sunflower seeds from the drying flower heads for the bird feeder. Oliver was delighted when Dora, farmer Áron’s golden retriever mix, joined him and they happily romped around and made a mess.

Everybody bought cakes and snacks and it was hard to leave the picnic table with all those delights. A friendly couple made a delicious vegan curry on the open fire.

But the real treat -at least for the kids- came when we all piled on the trailer of the tractor and Áron drove us over to a neighbouring pony farm! The trip was the bumpiest ever which meant that all those little kids were screaming with delight. They all could go horse riding on the ponies  including our 1,5 year old girl who hasn’t been near a horse before. Since than she keeps saying “horsie horsie” non stop. There was a flock of sheep and a very friendly pussycat as well to entertain the kids while they were waiting for their ride. There was also a real double decker tram from a bygone era.

Then we jumped on the tractor and bumped back to the farm for lunch- but unfortunately our kids were absolutely knackered by then (they get up at 6 am), so we had to say goodbye and pile them into the car. We were heartbroken to miss the vegan curry but Renáta filled our Tupperware box to take away. Yum!

The CSA season is almost over and we are looking forward to next year. It was brilliant to get all those lovely organic veg, fruit, flour, paprika spice and sun-dried tomatoes from the farm. It definitely reformed our eating habits, as we had to use the veg we were given- and started eating beetroot, mangold, turnips -and learnt a handful of new recipes. Meeting like minded people from our quarters was an added bonus, and it seems many other families will join next year.
Do you live around Szentendre? You might want to join too!

This has been one of my favourite places since it opened, a real gem in the city. Napos Oldal is very conveniently located between Octogon and Nyugati tér easy to pop in when I am running errands or on the way to the cinema in the evening. The name means “sunny side” and it’s surprisingly sunny due to the corner location.

Half of the premises is a veggie cafe, the other half is a health food shop, selling everything from seitan to organic cosmetics. They have a wide selection of fresh salads, baked and fried vegetables, sandwiches and cakes. There is a different soup and main dish every day, you can see the daily offers on their website. There is also a wide selection of teas and other drinks. The menu  is almost always vegan, and the majority of the salads and sandwiches are too. My favourite is the seitan sandwich, and these are pre-packed so you can easily and quickly take them away.

They do a wide range of cakes from sugar free candida cakes to real patisserie beauties and none of the cakes (or dishes) contain eggs, yeast or white sugar. Obviously a real heaven for the health conscious or candida sufferers. Also the ingredients are  roughly 30% organic.

I chose two types of salads, bulghur and potato, a vegetable pie, a vegetable pancake, a carrot and walnut cake and a cup of green tea  for my lunch. Firstly the cups are BIG, which I just love, I love tea and I find small cups annoying, why go stingy on water?! The food was delicious and filling, the cake was a “healthy” cake, so not too sweet, but I like it that way.

You order at the counter, all the signs are in English, and you pay at the health food counter on the way out, I think it is great that you don’t need to queue twice if you want to buy anything. There is a nice and very light seating are with 5 tables, it was busy at lunchtime, but I always had a seat, as many buy takeaway.

Napos oldal is an amazingly peaceful place right in the middle of the city, highly recommended!
 
Address: Jókai u. 7. Metro: Nyugati tér on blue line or tram: 4/6 at Nyugati tér or Oktogon
Open: Monday- Friday 10 am till 8 pm, Saturday 10 am till 2 pm.
Tel: 1-3540048
http://www.naposoldal.com/