On Vegan Panna Cotta and the Agricultural Colony of Herzliya
Sunday evening, Rosh Hashanah eve. We will drive to my parents' house in Herzliya and sit for the holiday dinner under the old olive tree.
Dad will turn on the string lights and complain, like every year, about the heat.
"There's no air," he claims, "you can't breathe in this humidity."
Ever since they built all those massive new villas around their house, it seems the air in my parents' garden has stopped moving.
Their house is a small house with a red roof, built on a sand dune hill in the 1930s.
A small house surrounded by a large garden that was once my grandparents' farm, back when Herzliya was an isolated agricultural colony and a breeze would blow on New Year’s Eve.
Today, the small house is surrounded by a big city that slightly blocks the early autumn air and wind.
But when I enter the yard, I still feel as if I'm in the agricultural colony of Herzliya, and Grandpa is about to step out the door with his old rifle to ward off jackals and intruders from the border and the farm.
Anyway, enough with the memories, what about dessert?
Because it's going to be hot this holiday evening, and because there’s no longer a breeze in the yard of the Neve Oved neighborhood in Herzliya, I'm making a light and delicious dessert.
This year, I’m bringing a vegan panna cotta based on soy milk and a little coconut cream, with pomegranates and chopped mint, which is perfect for the warm early autumn weather.
For those unfamiliar, panna cotta is one of the easiest recipes in the world to prepare and, in my opinion, very, very impressive.
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How to eat it?
One serving of this wonderful vegan panna cotta is perfect as a nutritious, low-calorie dessert, rich in antioxidants thanks to the pomegranate seeds.
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Nutritional values by trainer and nutritionist Noam Bachar:
One serving of panna cotta (out of 4)
160 kcal
20g carbohydrates
1g protein
8g fat (of which 3g saturated fat)
Vegan Panna Cotta
Ingredients
- 2 cups soy milk 480 ml
- 3 tbsp silan (date syrup) 60g
- 4 tbsp pomegranate molasses 40g
- 4 tbsp coconut cream, 20% fat 40g
- 4 tbsp pomegranate seeds 40g
- 1 tbsp agar agar or synthetic gelatin
- handful of chopped mint
Instructions
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In a small pot, combine the soy milk, silan, coconut cream, and agar agar and bring to a boil.
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Cook over low heat for about 8 minutes.
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Pour a tablespoon of pomegranate molasses into the bottom of a small panna cotta mold.
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Repeat the process for each of the panna cotta molds.
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Pour the hot milk mixture into the molds and transfer to the refrigerator for at least 3 hours until set.
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Once set, flip the mold onto a serving plate; the pomegranate molasses should now be at the top of the panna cotta. Garnish with a tablespoon of pomegranates and chopped mint on top.
Notes
If you don't have a specific panna cotta mold, you can also make the panna cotta in glasses and pour the pomegranate molasses over the top.
