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There’s something special about coffee shops. That mix of quiet, background music, the murmur of people around you, a little caffeine, and cozy atmosphere. And sometimes-questionable artwork. It makes me feel more focused and productive and just makes me feel good in general. Sometimes at home I wish I could have that atmosphere, especially when the weather turns cold and I’m sitting in the same old kitchen every day. I want to feel excited in my house, and sometimes I just want to treat myself and put some intention in my day. There’s nothing better than sitting down with something hot to drink, laptop in front of you, music playing and candles lit. (Cheaper food & drink and unlimited wifi & outlets are pretty great, too.) Try adding these into your weekend sometime and see how you like it!
week - I keep them hidden away in a cookie jar so I don’t eat them all at once.
There’s nothing more distracting than a pile of dirty dishes sitting next to you when you’re trying to chill. Get some of the basics down (dishes, wiping down surfaces, etc.) and tidy up a little, it’ll keep your mind off of it later!
You probably have had the same things hanging on your walls for months, maybe even years. Head to a thrift shop, estate sale or flea market and find something wonderful for dirt cheap. Invite your friends over for an art night and color in black velvet coloring pages. Print out your own photos or draw your own work, or check out the many amazing works of indie artists. These touches make a big impact on coffee shops, and they really make a difference at home, too. Even if it’s a temporary exhibition, it creates atmosphere that can’t be denied.
On a Sunday afternoon, or whenever you have a little free time, bake yourself some cookies or muffins. Heck, just get a box of nice-looking snacks if you don’t want to deal with the oven, but freshly baked sweets feel so great. Have them on hand so that you can eat them throughout the
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So, to mimic a coffee shop one would need to have coffee, I assume. If you’re into that sort of thing, make some coffee. Or light a coffee-scented candle. (Or, light some incense to go for a real authentic indie café feel.) Personally, I’m a huge tea drinker and I like to have a big pot of tea ready to go each morning. In the winter I crave something hearty and filling, with a body similar to coffee, so I’ll make some chai concentrate and mix it in with my usual black tea. The chai will last a while, so you really only need to make it once or twice a season. You could also go for hot chocolate or hot apple cider!
I made a huge playlist of neutral music, stuff that you might hear on the radio but won’t be annoying. Or I listen to some podcasts that don’t require a lot of attention, like newscasts or This American Life. It’s kind of like sitting next to people chatting at a café, but I don’t have to feel guilty about eavesdropping. Play something innocuous in the background to set a the mood.
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Maybe it’s a selfish thing to do, but as we’re about to gut & renovate the Chickpea kitchen, we wanted to peek into our readers’ kitchens for inspiration. Whether it’s their style, their organization skills, or just their stories - we wanted to know more about how you’re cooking. Here are a few of our favorite submissions to #chkvegankitchen <3
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portland, or evaverbeeck.com IG @evaverbeeck WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THING TO COOK IN YOUR KITCHEN? I cook a lot of different styles of food, but Indian food definitely stole my heart in recent years. I especially love learning about different spices and ways to make various styles of curries. What’s
your
biggest
success
in
your
kitchen? We
recently started brewing our own kombucha. Kombucha is still very new in Europe and not a lot of people know about it or drink it. We started brewing it 6
everywhere in our home. Taking my own jars to the bulk aisle, always bringing a bag with me, and buying most of my vegetables from various local farmers are some of the things I do to keep my kitchen mostly plastic free. What’s your favorite part about your kitchen? That’s a hard question because the kitchen is my favorite part of the house. I spend most of my time in the kitchen either working or cooking. If I had to pick a favorite
months ago and it’s has been so much fun. We have
spot in the kitchen I would choose the pantry.
been experimenting with different flavors in line with
Do you have any interesting stories about your kitchen?
the seasons. We used lots of berries in the summer and currently are using apples and pears together with various herbs for the colder months. Introducing fermenting into our kitchen has definitely been a success. How do keep your kitchen clean/organized? Jars, jars, jars! I try to live a plastic free life and using and reusing jars is a big part of that. You can find jars
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For a year now we’ve hosted big potluck dinners in the kitchen every Wednesday. Bringing together a big group of friends while eating delicious homemade food is a true joy. It definitely is something I look forward to after working hard that day. What do you think makes your kitchen unique? We have 50 plants living with us in the house and more than half of those plants are in the kitchen.
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minneapolis, MN sevensundays.com IG @sevensundaysmn How do keep your kitchen clean/organized? Through continuous tidying. We live in our kitchen, so the dish soap is always out and ready, the dust pan is conveniently located under the sink and a dishcloth is put to use wiping down the table and counter tops no fewer than 3 times per day. What’s your favorite part about your kitchen? The breakfast nook. Breakfast is such an important part of our day, especially with 2 little boys whose demeanors are far more unpredictable at dinner than they are in the morning. I love how this part of our kitchen looks in the morning – the table scattered with the newspaper, coffee mugs, muesli bowls and some legos or a magic wand for good measure. how have you altered your kitchen to make it your own? The very first thing we did when we moved into our home was gut the kitchen. We added a breakfast nook, a farmhouse sink, wood floors, new appliances and cupboards, and creative storage for our small appliance and cast iron skillet collections.
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How
do
you
keep
your
kitchen
clean/organized? I don’t do this especially
well…but
I
did
just
buy a bunch of lovely glass jars that are (according to their metal lids)
made
in
Italy!
They’re
so pretty and are now lined up neatly on the main shelf, full of barley, pasta, noodles, polenta, rice and lentils. I love all the different
colours
and
textures
and having them out on display jogs my memory of what I’ve got in the kitchen and helps me come up with ideas for new dishes! What’s your favorite part about your kitchen? Our neighbours have a
few
trees
that
grow
outside
our kitchen window, and I love last year at Christmas. I’d
invited
friends
over for a long table Christmas dinner, and I
western australia casey-lister.squarespace.com What’s your favorite thing to cook in your kitchen? It’s so hard to pick just one dish! I suppose I’d whittle it down to anything that uses the vegetables I’ve grown in my garden. In summer that means a crazy amount of fresh tomato pasta sauce,
pan
grilled
sweet
corn,
and very basil-y pesto. I haven’t yet
perfected
flowers,
but
stuffed
the
zucchini
seedlings
are
in their pots and it’s my next challenge for this summer! What’s
your
biggest
failure
had high hopes of impressing them with fluffy, crispy, salty roast potatoes. But I was so stressed getting
everything
else
ready
that I totally forgot about my par-boiling potatoes and when I finally remembered them they were slowly disintegrating in the giant pot of boiling water! Fortunately my mum dropped in mid-way through my meltdown, and we fished them out
oh-so-delicatedly
with
a
slotted spoon and stuck them on the roasting pans. They actually ended up tasting really nice, and were as fluffy and crispy as I’d
in
your kitchen? I had a near-failure
the way the light shines through their leaves in the morning. I’m not really much of an early bird, but on the odd occasion I manage to get up at 6am the whole space is bathed in this dappled golden light - it’s the nicest spot to have a cup of tea. (I have to admit on the day I took this photo I woke up especially early to get the
shot,
then
snuck
groggily
back to bed for a few more hours!) My other favourite part about my kitchen is the people in it; my dog,
my
lovely
boyfriend,
and
my wonderful housemates. It’s a small space, and is often packed full of many of the creatures I like the most in the world, which makes it especially special!
hoped, but I’ve been much more careful about my par-boiling ever since.
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venice, ca kjliving.com IG @KristinaJackson1 What’s your favorite thing to cook in your kitchen? Seasonal, plant-based dishes utilizing fresh produce sourced from our many local farmer’s markets. What’s your biggest success in your kitchen? One of my biggest
passions
is
bringing
people
together. I
host
regular dinner parties inviting old and new friends alike. So many dinners and so many memories have been made here in this kitchen. There’s nothing like the feeling seeing people happy and leaving just a bit more inspired and connected than before. How do keep your kitchen clean/organized? Everything has its place and is clearly labeled. What’s your favorite part about your kitchen? The abundance of natural light. Do you have any interesting stories about your kitchen? My boyfriend, Brett Dennen, wrote a song about me when we first started dating. It’s called ‘Queen of the Westside’ and tells a little about me and my life here in Venice. He used the imagery of my kitchen to help tell the story. He was fascinated by the bright color of the tiles which inspired the lyric: “She’s got turquoise tiles in the counter of her kitchen, when she cooks she listens to Nina Simone.” how have you altered your kitchen to make it your own? I love being outdoors, so I decided to bring a little of the outdoors into my kitchen. I found this huge fiddle leaf fig tree and knew it was perfect for my space. From there, I just couldn’t stop and kept adding more and more plants. They add such a great vibe to the house and help purify the air.
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brooklyn, ny onewindowkitchen.com IG @onewindowsarah What’s your favorite thing to cook in your kitchen? A big pot of pasta with garlicky greens! What’s
your
biggest
success/biggest
failure in your kitchen? My biggest success in my kitchen is every good meal I make in it.
Of course there
are plenty of failed meals, too, but that’s life. It’s a room to play and grow in for sure. How
do
keep
your
kitchen
clean/
organized? I keep my kitchen clean by dealing with messes right away and not letting them sit; the threat of NYC critters is a strong incentive! Music via Bluetooth speakers make cleaning up (almost) fun, especially when it comes to tedious tasks like doing the dishes. I stay organized with baskets and jars, and doing regular inventory. What do you think makes your kitchen unique? My kitchen’s retro details make it unique - from the yellow flowered wallpaper
to
the
yellow
countertops
to the beautiful painted pressed tin ceiling to the ugly but charming brown and yellow linoleum floor. how have you altered your kitchen to make it your own? There’s only so much altering I can do in my kitchen since I
rent,
but
I’ve
made
it
work
for
me by adding a cart, bookshelf, and baskets for extra storage. I’ve also embraced all the yellow and added on to the vintage theme with a clock from my
husband’s
grandparents
that
used
to hang in their kitchen in northern England.
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wicklow, ireland niamhbrowne.com IG @niamhmbrowne
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What’s your favorite thing to cook in your kitchen? My favorite things to cook are healthy, rustic food, preferably using ingredients from my garden like berries, fresh herbs and tomatoes. I love sharing-based meals where lots of different dishes are cooked up and served communal style around the table on large ceramic platters and wooden boards. How do keep your kitchen clean/ organized? I keep my kitchen organized by decanting all my dry ingredients into jars and labelling them. It’s actually one of my favorite things to do - sad I know ;) You can see what you have in your cupboards much more easily than having packets of food piled on top of each other, all vying for your attention. I hate waking up to prepare breakfast in a messy kitchen; it instantly makes me feel stresed so I always try and clear away the dishes the night before. What’s your favorite part about your kitchen? There’s an old school window made up of glass block and I love the dappled light it allows in. I take all of the photos for my food blog on the countertop in
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front of it. It keeps the kitchen nice and bright without being open to the eyes of neighbours. Do you have any interesting stories about your kitchen? I use my kitchen to prepare for photo and video shoots as I work as a food stylist, so it is often covered in trays of cooling cakes or other goodies to be transported to the shoot the following day. What do you think makes your kitchen unique? I think the items you have in your kitchen make it unique. You can have perfect counters and cupboards but it’s ceramics, wooden boards, baskets, plants and textiles that make kitchens feel homey to me. It’s that which makes the difference between a perfect studio kitchen and a real life lived in kitchen. how have you altered your kitchen to make it your own? Previously there was a wall between the kitchen and the living area but we broke that through to make the kitchen much more open. I spend a lot of time there so it’s nice to still feel connected to the rest of the house and to not be cooped up behind a door.
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Let’s make the most of the cold nights coming up. Let’s make things ourselves. Let’s try new things. Instead of takeout, instead of restaurants, let’s make our own comfort food. Perfect for a crowd, or just for two - let’s stay in tonight.
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Serves 2
We love to make calzones on a weeknight because they’re simple to put together and are so satisfying. Feel free to play with filling ingredients - the best part is how versatile these are!
Cashew Cheese Ingredients 1 1/2 cups raw, unsalted cashews water zest & juice of 1/2 a lemon 1-2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tbsp nutritional yeast 1 tbsp minced rosemary and thyme freshly ground salt & pepper, to taste Filling Ingredients 1-2 cups chopped mushrooms 1 medium red onion 2-3 cloves garlic 10 brussels sprouts, quartered oil salt & pepper a handful spinach tomato sauce* a few dollops cashew cheese* Dough Ingredients 1 tbsp yeast 1/2 cup warm water 1 tsp salt 2 tbsp oil 1 1/4 cups flour 2 tsp chopped rosemary 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper Tomato Sauce Ingredients crushed or pureed tomato balsamic vinegar basil parsley oregano salt & pepper
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Instructions 1. Make the cashew cheese. If you don’t have a highspeed blender, soak your cashews for about an hour, then drain and rinse them. Pour all ingredients into a blender, then pour in water about halfway up your ingredients. Blend as much as you can, and only add more water if it’s too thick and won’t blend further. Once it’s the consistency of a smooth ricotta cheese, transfer to a sealable container and let chill. 2. Prep your filling. On a big baking sheet, toss the mushrooms, onion, garlic, and brussels in with a little oil and salt & pepper. Let roast at 400°F until everything is golden and a little crispy, about 15-20 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, make your dough. Whisk together the yeast, warm water, and a tiny bit of flour until combined. Let sit five minutes so it has a chance to activate. Stir all the dough ingredients together, including the yeast mixture, until a dough forms. Add in a little more flour if it’s still sticky. Set aside until the vegetables are ready. 4. Stir together the sauce ingredients. For the most flavor, you can cook this before assembling the calzone, but we haven’t seen a huge difference and it adds an extra pot to the dirty dish pile, so we don’t do that. It’ll cook in the oven when your calzone is baking. 5. When the vegetables are ready, cut your dough in half. Spread out the first half into a circle on a pizza stone or baking sheet, then spread on a little sauce, cashew cheese, filling, and spinach. Fold the circle in half so it covers all the filling, then press down the edges. Do the same with the other dough half, so you have two calzones. 6. Bake at 375°F for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with more tomato sauce and enjoy!
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Serves 6-8 Garbage plates are a Rochester icon, but they’re usually made of entirely meat & dairy. We like making these for parties - they’re so comforting and go perfectly with some strong beer.
For The Meat 2 cups seitan crumbles 1 medium red onion 1 green bell pepper 1-2 cups chopped mushrooms
Instructions
For The Chili 1 15oz. can each red kidney beans, black eyed peas, and black beans 1 tsp liquid smoke hot sauce to taste 1 1/2 tsp each smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and chili powder salt & pepper 1-2 lg cans pureed tomato, depending on how saucy you like your chili
2. Similarly, prep your chili early on to get the most flavor. Pour all the ingredients in a big pot on medium heat, stir together and cover. Cook for 30-45 minutes, or until it all heats together.
For The Potatoes a few handfuls mini potatoes or diced potatoes oil salt & pepper For The Coleslaw 1 cup shredded red cabbage 1 1/2 cups shredded white cabbage 2 large carrots, shredded 1/2 cup vegan mayo 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1-2 tbsp mustard 2 tsp celery seed generous helping of salt & pepper
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1. First make your coleslaw, so that the flavors have time to come together. Whisk together the liquid ingredients. Shred all the veggies. Stir to combine and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, toss your potatoes in some oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pop them in the oven at 400°F for 30 minutes, or until crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Shake the pan every 10 minutes to prevent sticking. 4. Saute your peppers, onions, and mushrooms until your onions are translucent & golden, about 20 minutes. Add in your seitan and cook until the flavors meld, about 15 minutes. 5. Make sure to taste your components as you go. Once ready, pile everything on your plate, drizzle with mustard, and dig in! Garbage plates make for great party food, or for any event where you have to feed a lot of people.
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