Vegetables and fruits are among the oldest and most widely consumed foods by humans. It’s long been known that they play a crucial role in our nutrition. Some, like peas or beans, can compete with meat and fish in terms of calorie content. Vegetables and fruits are well-known suppliers of vitamins, minerals, and trace elements essential for our bodies. It’s been observed for ages that when a diet is rich in plant-based foods, people tend to get sick less often and look healthier. In the plant kingdom, there are at least 1,200 varieties of vegetables and fruits… What an endless selection of nutritious and dietary products! What a colorful array of flavors! We present to you several unconventional desserts that are worthy of gracing your festive table.
ROLL “MOSAIKA”
Sauté the vegetables in a skillet until they become soft, then pass them through a meat grinder.
Add an egg, flour, and salt.
Prepare the cottage cheese as you would for a casserole: mix in salt, sugar, an egg, and semolina.
On a napkin sprinkled with breadcrumbs, place a layer of cottage cheese, followed by a layer of vegetables, and then a layer of soaked apricots and prunes.
Roll it up and place it on a baking sheet (without the napkin).
Brush with a mixture of egg yolk and sour cream (1 tablespoon of sour cream and one yolk) and bake in the oven at a low temperature.
Once ready, slice the roll into portions and serve with sour cream, jam, or canned fruits.
Dough: 200g of cottage cheese, 2 carrots, 2 beets, 1 tablespoon of semolina, 2 teaspoons of flour, 1 egg, vanilla, and salt.
CARROT CAKE
Dough: 2 eggs, 1.5 cups of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1 cup of grated carrots, 250g of margarine, 1.5 cups of flour.
Melt the margarine, mix all the ingredients, and knead the dough as you would for pancakes.
Bake the cake, slice it, and spread with cream. Cream: whip 200g of sour cream with 1/2 cup of sugar.
Option 2
Dough: 2 cups of grated carrots, 4 eggs, 2 cups of sugar, 1 package of melted margarine, 3 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Bake at a moderate temperature.
Slice and spread the layers with cream and decorate.
Option 3
Grate 1 cup of carrots finely, mix with 1 cup of sugar, 200g of soft margarine, 1/3 teaspoon of baking soda, and 3 cups of flour to form a pliable dough.
Divide it into 3 parts and roll out the layers, which you will bake in the oven.
Prepare the cream: in a saucepan, crack the first egg, add 2 tablespoons of flour, and mix well.
Gradually pour in the first cup of milk while stirring constantly and place on the heat.
When the mixture begins to thicken (which will happen quite quickly), place the saucepan in another pot with boiling water and cook in a water bath to prevent burning, until it reaches a thick porridge-like consistency.
Once cooled, mix in 150g of butter, 1 cup of sugar, and carrot juice.
Layer the cakes with cream, smooth the edges, and sprinkle the sides and top of the cake with crumbs.
Let it sit for 5-6 hours.
CAKE “SURPRISE”
Soak 2 cups of white beans in water for about two hours (or overnight), then boil in a covered pot at a gentle simmer for about an hour and a half, until they are tender but not mushy.
Drain the water, cool the beans, and pass them through a meat grinder.
Take 10 eggs and separate the whites from the yolks (to do this, crack the egg in half, keeping the yolk in one half of the shell, and pour the white into a cup. Then transfer the yolk back and forth between the shell halves until it is completely free of the white).
Chill the egg whites, and beat the yolks with the second cup of sugar until pale.
Add the beans, season with salt, and mix in 1 cup of ground white crackers.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, adding a few drops of lemon juice and a pinch of powdered sugar, then fold them into the main mixture.
Before whipping the egg whites, prepare the baking pan by greasing it with oil and lining the bottom with greased paper.
Preheat the oven.
Pour the prepared mixture into the pan and bake for approximately 40-60 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius (about 400 degrees Fahrenheit).
Remove the paper from the hot cake, and once cooled, slice it horizontally into 3 layers using a sharp knife heated in hot water.
Soak each layer with syrup and spread with cream (1 can of condensed milk boiled for 2 hours, cooled, and whipped with butter. You can add lemon or orange juice or zest).
Decorate the top with cream.
CAKE “POTATO”
Grate 5 boiled potatoes on a fine grater or pass them through a meat grinder; beat 2 yolks with 1.5 cups of powdered sugar, mix with the potatoes, add lemon or orange zest, cinnamon, 1/3 teaspoon of baking soda, 200g of butter or margarine, whipped 2 egg whites, and 3 cups of flour.
Knead the dough and place it in a greased deep baking dish (pot) to create a tall cake.
Bake in the oven for 1.5 hours.
Once ready, turn the cake out and sprinkle with vanilla sugar.
CAKE “CHERRY BIRD CHERRY”
Take 1 cup each of flour, sugar, sour cream, ground bird cherry, 5 eggs, a pinch of salt, and a dash of baking soda.
Mix everything well, divide into two parts, and bake each on a greased baking sheet for 30 minutes.
Once cooled, layer with whipped sour cream mixed with sugar (1 cup of thick sour cream, 1/2 cup of sugar).
PUMPKIN CAKE
Bake 800g of pumpkin in the oven until soft, then mash it. Mix with 50g of sugar, 2 yolks, 4 tablespoons of milk, 100g of soaked raisins, lemon zest, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and whipped egg whites.
In a greased baking dish, place the dough (350g of flour, 150g of margarine, 1 teaspoon of sugar, a pinch of salt), raise the edges, add the filling, and bake in a preheated oven for 40 minutes.