dessert – plant crush

Like any new year celebration, Chinese New Year is about new beginnings. Sweet treats are popular cross-culturally, as they symbolize a sweet, joyful start to the upcoming year. I think we can all agree that we definitely need more joy this year. This year, I was honored to be invited by the lovely Christine (Vermilion Roots) to participate in a Chinese New Year sweets party with several other Asian bloggers. It’s kind of like a virtual potluck—I urge you to check out the participating blogs below, to get a taste of the lunar new year from various parts of Asia!

This is my first time participating in a big recipe link party like this, and I’m so excited to promote my fellow Asian bloggers’ creations. It’s always interesting and heartwarming to see how other cultures celebrate–there are similarities and differences. Not all the recipes below are vegan, but they’re all vegetarian and can certainly be veganized. I have another blog post about Chinese New Year (Tết, in Vietnamese) planned this week, in which I will share a recipe I made with my mom, and I will talk more about what the holiday means to us.

#SweetLunarNewYear Party: Sweet Recipes for a Joyful New Year

Snow Fungus Soup / Vermilion Roots

Three Color Dessert (Che Ba Mau) / The Viet Vegan

Pineapple Cookies (Nastar) / V for Veggy

Indonesian Honeycomb Cake (Bingka Ambon) / What To Cook Today

Chinese Peanut Cookies / Wok & Skillet

Vietnamese Steamed Rice Cakes / A Taste of Joy and Love

Gluten-Free Chinese Almond Cookies / Grits & Chopsticks

Black Sesame Shortbread Cookies / Little Sweet Baker

Ice Cream Mooncakes / Brunch-n-Bites

Coconut Red Bean Pudding / The Missing Lokness

Korean Caramelized Sweet Potatoes (Goguma Mattang) / What Great Grandma Ate

Cashew Nut Cookies / Anncoo Journal

One Bite Pine Nut Cookies / Yummy Workshop

Baked Coconut Walnut Sticky Rice Cake / Jeanette’s Healthy Living

Black Sesame Cream Puffs / Pink Wings

Cashew Nut Cookies / Roti n Rice

Mini Peanut Puffs (Kok Chai) / Malaysian Chinese Kitchen

Thousand Layer Cake (Lapis Legit) / Daily Cooking Quest

Almond Orange Spiral Cookies / Butter & Type

Year of the Rooster Mochi / Thirsty for Tea

Korean Tea Cookies (Dasik) / Kimchimari

Sweet Sticky Nian Gao (Kuih Bakul) / Lisa’s Lemony Kitchen

Sweet Rice Balls with Peanut Butter (Tang Yuan) / Omnivore’s Cookbook

Chick Egg Tarts / Dessert Girl

Red Bean Soup with Black Glutinous Rice / Nut Free Wok

Orange Scented Sweet Red Bean / Lime and Cilantro

Candied sweetmeats, such as candied ginger (mứt gừng), are part of the traditional array of treats for Vietnamese celebrations of Chinese New Year (Tết). Initially, for this recipe, I was envisioning a simple lemon infused candied ginger, sweetened with coconut sugar instead of regular sugar. My friend Margaret (the girlboss behind The Plant Philosophy) suggested the genius addition of lavender! The pairing sounded gorgeous, and the taste turned out to be a sweet romance—tangy and aromatic, perfect with the fiery fire of the ginger. Lemon and lavender are truly destined to be together. The lavender’s subtle fragrance creates a quiet delight of mystery (what is this elusive flavor, people may ask), while the ginger is cleansing and will warm your soul up from the inside. I hope you’ll enjoy this twist on a classic Vietnamese Tết treat!

Continue reading →

This recipe post is coming to you from a very sleepy but determined grad student…lately, my life has consisted of 12-hour long days working on final project stuff at school. I’ve still got a long way to go until it’s all over! Anyway, I’m sorry for my absence of content this month–I’ve missed blogging so much.

I want to let you guys know I just published my first Buzzfeed Community post–a curated list of visually stunning crowd-pleasers for your upcoming potlucks this weekend! I urge you to check it out and show the world that vegan food is wonderful and delicious. 🙂

Chai Spiced Pear Tarts With Crushed Pumpkin Seeds | plantcrush.co

To me, chai spices represent the quintessential flavors of autumn. These tarts feature fragrant pear slices baked with warm chai spices, in a flaky golden crust. A drizzle of maple sweetness and toasty crushed pumpkin seeds complete the experience. I’ve had this flavor combo in mind for a while and I’m so glad I finally have a moment to share it with you.

Chai Spiced Pear Tarts With Crushed Pumpkin Seeds | plantcrush.co

Last weekend, my friend and former co-worker Richard came over to catch up and we basically had a creative workshop! Richard actually taught me a lot of basics when I first started getting into DSLR photography. Hanging out with other creatives makes me so happy, especially when we can encourage and learn from each other.

Richard’s a multimedia specialist (check out his work here) and I love all kinds of visual media, so we plan to have more collabs in the future–stay tuned! We spent our day geeking out about photography, sharing our creative aspirations, and playing with food. We made a cozy winter soup (recipe coming soon) and these adorable pastries.

Continue reading →