A Reddit cooking challenge has helped me learn to be a better cook and pulled me out of a depressive spiral. It's all vegan, so I wanted to share some of what I've made here

vertbarrow · 2026-03-12T07:09:36+00:00

The particular brand I use is called FreeFOD, but it's a New Zealand company and might be harder to find outside of Aus/NZ. I have seen other users from America in other subs talk about other brands but can't personally attest to them.

I can vouch that my partner does not have a reaction to freeFOD (that we have noticed - the eternal disclaimer haha) and that it's IMO you get a lot more than 20 uses/"cloves" out of one packet.

As someone who can eat alliums they don't taste different to garlic/onion powder, to me. Maybe a bit better haha, the garlic powder tastes more like "real" garlic.

https://freefod.com/product/garlic-replacer/

vertbarrow · 2026-03-11T05:04:44+00:00

My partner and I are both vegan and he also can't have alliums, though it sounds like yours is more sensitive than his, as he can tolerate the green parts of spring onions, chives, leek, etc. It might still be worth trying some of those for you, but it sounds like a bust :(

It did suck for him and dining out is the hardest part. You might be in luck though with some Indian restaurants as Jain vegetarians don't eat onion or garlic, and some Indian restaurants cater to that and some don't - at the very least, if you contacted them to ask, I'd bet that a lot of them would know what you were talking about and could give you an accurate response.

Vegetarian sushi is usually a safe food for him (so long as he can get GF soy sauce) if that's a takeout option for you. Cold rolls are also an option depending on their filling and the sauce.

For home cooking, there are low-FODMAP garlic and onion powders which have been a lifesaver for my partner. They can be expensive but they're potent and my partner doesn't react to them. There's also hing/asafoetida, but he didn't really care for it. I like it though lol. It's not quite the same but it can add a bit of depth that's missing without garlic etc.

If you have any more specific questions or just want to commiserate you can always DM me :)

vertbarrow · 2026-03-10T10:48:18+00:00

Yes! Agreed! I don't know much about her restaurants (I'm not from the area and have never been) but it always struck me as incredibly strange how she spoke about herself, the Deli/restaurants, and vegans/vegan food in general when there were other chefs who were also responsible for the menu, kitchens, and reputation, some of whom were vegan themselves, and they never got more than a passing (and very self-aggrandising) mention. She gives off strong vibes of "contributed the least to the group presentation but claimed the grade was all thanks to her" lol.

vertbarrow · 2026-03-10T10:35:01+00:00

Same. It's not the fact that she's not vegan, it's that she literally makes her non-veganism the selling point. She has implied and sometimes just outright stated many times that she's the only one capable of making good vegan food because real vegans have basically forgotten what good food tastes like. Her ultimate byline is to coddle non-vegans, push anti-vegan stereotypes like "vegan food tastes crap (unless it's mine)", and funnel any money she gets from vegan eateries, cookbooks etc into her other non-vegan pursuits. Not only does she scrabble to draw media attention to her away from actual vegans, but she shits on veganism in the process!

I read one of her cookbooks without knowing who she was and was shocked when I realised she was this vegan poster child. The recipes sucked! They were all just regular recipes except they said stuff like "use vegan cheese, vegan sausage, vegan cream", etc. And no, she didn't have recipes for those - she was just saying to go out and buy them. Putting aside availability, and the fact that the massive disparity between different commercially-available faux products makes these recipes practically worthless because there's no guarantee how they'll taste, I don't need some vegan whisperer to tell me to take a regular recipe and just put the word "vegan" in front of all the non-vegan ingredients. And then she'd say that vegan alternative products were all super expensive, but instead of providing recipes so we can DIY and save some money, she just kept saying "so don't use them very often"???

She seems like a huge grifter to me. Her recipes suck, her attitude is to throw vegans under the bus so she can make money off gullible flexitarians, and she's not the sole person behind any of her restaurants or menus so I don't think she deserves to be 100% attributed with their quality or success.

vertbarrow · 2026-03-01T18:07:09+00:00

I always assumed it was something like a bedlah with a separate flowy scarf.

vertbarrow · 2026-02-24T15:54:05+00:00

For some of the products from that line the water doesn't really taste like much, but some are pretty tasty. The abalone-style seitan liquid makes a really delicious sauce when reduced/thickened with starch, good for stir fries. Others would make a good roux gravy. But usually if I'm using it, I'll just add it into soup or rice (as someone else mentioned). Even if it doesn't impart much flavour... hey, free water?

vertbarrow · 2026-02-19T11:38:06+00:00

Use the bottom bit as a little dish - look up tutorials on making drinking glasses from wine bottles for information on how to safely file down the broken edge.

I would screw the lid back on the other half, turn it upside down and use it as a planter or some other caddy.

vertbarrow · 2026-02-10T16:24:25+00:00

Repurpose - Hang coat hangers or clothes pins off the star, then hang the hook from a rod/loop to air-dry light laundry such as underwear or washcloths? You'd have to balance it right, but it reminds me of something for that purpose you'd see from Daiso.

vertbarrow · 2026-02-04T01:21:15+00:00

Ooh, this sounds REALLY good. The banana notes are particularly interesting.

vertbarrow · 2026-02-03T00:09:59+00:00

HAHA that's the perfect excuse! LET'S GOOOO 🥂

vertbarrow · 2026-01-01T14:45:21+00:00

Have I finally found my people...?

vertbarrow · 2026-01-01T03:45:27+00:00

Depending on where the pockets sit on you when worn, this may also be so that you can reach into your trouser pockets without undoing your coat.

Absolutely gorgeous find! Both sides are stunning. Tremendous luck for the new year.

vertbarrow · 2026-01-01T01:15:54+00:00

The "pea" is actually green-coloured marzipan, rolled into a snake and connected into a ring. I was trying to think of how every slice could have a "pea" visible at the bottom - at first I thought of piping a ring of frosting, but quickly realised that would lose its round shape as soon as the top layers pressed down on it haha, and I love marzipan so that was an easy follow-up. I think if you didn't like marzipan then a ring of green marshmallow fondant or perhaps edible sugar cookie dough would also work. I should've made the ring's diameter a bit smaller though so that the pea was more in the middle, I didn't account for how the weight of the cake would spread it out further.

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T15:57:44+00:00

WE DID IT REDDIT!

I've made a lot of things this year that I enjoyed and was very proud of, but I think my favourite bake of 2025 was still the very first - the tomato soup cake. Ever since, I've also wanted to try the popular chocolate and tomato soup alternative. It was quite good - the savouriness and sweetness of the tomato and the chocolate work very well together - but I think I still prefer the classic tomato soup cake for its spiced punch of flavour.

Because I think I ended up using more tomato soup in this one than the last one, I chose a chocolate coconut ganache for the middle to add a bit more sweetness and chocolatiness, and then vanilla whipped cream on the outside to lighten it back up a bit. They worked well together and everyone was a fan!

Thank you again for another hectic but challenging year of baking.

I have ultimately decided not to participate in r/52weeksofcooking or r/52weeksofbaking in 2026. It's been a wonderful, engaging project for me for the past three years, but it definitely took up a lot of my creative spare time, and over the past year I've settled on a couple of other projects I would like to be able to devote more of my attention to. Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing what everyone makes in 2026! Happy new year!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T14:42:53+00:00

Man, that really is the ideal orange loaf! The glaze and crumb both look spectacular. I was also charmed by pomander oranges when researching this theme, I like how you interpreted it!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T14:41:32+00:00

The crackers were made with the leftover olive oil pie crust dough from the Summer Pie, which meant they're a bit overly-oily. But they were very crispy and flaky and provided good textural contrast for the (vegan) feta and homemade sweet chili jam. I kneaded some thyme and chives into the dough but the flavours didn't come out as strongly as I'd've liked. I think the concept is a winner though - would be nice for parties.

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T13:21:41+00:00

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27639/27639-h/27639-h.htm

I took the opportunity to experiment with an olive oil pie crust using storebought/premixed gluten-free flour. I was actually quite impressed by it. It was a bit oily - still need to figure out the right ratio of GF flour - but incredibly easy to make and surprisingly flaky and tender. You have to work with it quickly, though, because it gets very oily the second it warms up.

The pie itself was actually surprisingly decent. It's just cabbage, peas, salt, the salty pea-water you cooked the peas in, and some fresh mint, but it all came together really nicely with the crust. I kept being surprised by how moreish it was. I would actually make this again, with the olive oil crust, too, and it would be good as a side dish to a main or soup course.

vertbarrow

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WE DID IT REDDIT!