Vegan travel to the north

Sweden is definitely a vegan paradise! It started already great, with two kinds of oat milk plus rice milk for breakfast in a hotel.

Breakfast corner for lactose and gluten intolerant people.

Here is a short review what we ate in Stockholm! First, I had to survive two days at a conference. Therefore, the first thing I did was to get some supplies at the nearly-vegan shop Goodstore.

After the conference, Manuel arrived. For a start, we went for the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet at Legumes in Södermalm. Nearly everything is vegan and the staff knew exactly what wasn't. It was all very good and we enjoyed it on a hot day outside on the terrace.

Legumes lunch buffet

We continued to the old part of the city, Gamla Stan. Apart from the amazing Science Fiction Bookstore that has also board games and roleplaying games, we plundered the sales counter of Sattva's bakery for some Kanelsnurror and T-bergis. Most things there are vegan, and they are all clearly labeled.

On the next day, which was a sunday, we wanted to visit the café that belongs to Sattva, on Kungsholmen. According to their business card, they were open. In reality, they were closed. We went there on another day, and were not fully convinced. A poor girl was working there alone and had just started her job. She did not know how to make any of the coffees. She tried to make espresso, but it was very... concentrated. But we got a tea for free! I hope they have taught her all that soon after our visit, because it was a bit depressing, and also not a very nice situation for her.

We had an early evening dinner at the all-you-can-eat buffet at Hermitage in Gamla Stan. It was a bit more expensive than the one at Legumes, but also very good.

Food from buffet at Hermitage

On the next evening, we went to Hermans. It was the most expensive buffet we had, but totally worth it. The huge outdoor seating area and the view over the water are just great. In the beginning, we were a bit confused, because we asked someone what was vegan. He had to get a list and then pointed out several things, but not very many. I could not believe this and asked a woman a little bit later, and she knew without the list that most things were vegan, only maybe three things contained cheese or yoghurt, and that was clearly visible. We were very hungry and did not take a picture of the food...

On our last evening in Stockholm, we went to Lao Wai. I had read that you have to book a table or to arrive very early. It was a tuesday, and we arrived when it opened, at 17:30 h. We did get a table, but had to promise to finish until 19:00 h when they would be fully booked. The food was gorgeous!

Gong Bao Su Rou

Ma Yi Shang Shu (I think...)

Nutty delight - chocolate panna cotta

The next day we travelled to Uppsala to visit some friends for a few days. Therefore, we did not go out for eating, but cooked at their place. Chili, BBQ, pancakes... Here is a little sample what you can find in a big enough swedish supermarket (ICA):

Oat milk, strawberry soy yoghurt, oat ice cream, soy cream cheese

Oh lovely Sweden! I totally recommend visiting it, regardless if you are vegan or not!

Stockholm

Kanelsnurror

Or Zimtschnecken.
Or spiral yeast dough thingies with cinnamon.

Sweden's best invention - who cares about H&M or IKEA when you can have these! ;-)

The recipe is based on one found in a swedish camping guide. Seriously. That is why it uses deciliters (dL). IKEA has the corresponding measuring cups, or use a milliliter scaling (1 dL = 100 mL).
Preparation time: about 2 hours.
Suggested music: Garmarna - Guds spelemän

For the dough:

• 25 g fresh yeast (or 1 sachet dry)
• 75 g margarine (german favorite: Alsan)
• 2 1/2 dL soy milk (or soy rice milk)
• 1/2 dL sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 7 dL wheat flour

For the filling:

• 50 g margarine
• 1/2 dL sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Decoration (optional):

• some more soy or soy rice milk
• decorating sugar (Hagelzucker)

What to do:

1. Prepare a yeast dough. Mix all the ingredients together. It is easier and faster if the margarine and soymilk are at room temperature. Use a food processor with a dough hook if you are lucky to have one. Put the dough in a bowl at least twice as big as the dough, cover with a kitchen towel and let it rise for 30-60 minutes. (In german, you would say let the dough "go", but that only really happens when your bowl was too small... )
2. Preheat the oven to 225 °C. Use a rolling pin in order to roll the dough to about 1/2-1 cm thickness in a rectangular shape. Add some flour under the dough in the beginning and while rolling, otherwise the dough will stick to whatever surface is under it.
3. Mix the ingredients for the filling and spread it on the dough. Then roll the rectangle up starting at its longer side. Cut the roll into 2 cm slices and place them on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Leave a few centimeters between the slices, they will become bigger.
4. Spread a little bit of soy milk on the top of the slices with a baking brush and add some decorating sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes, the slices should become slightly brown, but not too dark. If you apply some more soy milk during baking, the surface will be shinier.

Variations:

You can add whatever you like to the filling - jam, ground nuts,... here's an example with ground hazelnuts:

(Some are made by Manuel, some are made by me. That's why they look so different ;-) )