Recipe Difficulty: easy - medium depending if you are comfortable working with dough.

Recipe & Post Tags:

• Bolani, Bolon
• Afghan Food
  
• Travel Writing
  
• Travel Food Story
• Vegan Travel

I took my first trip to Spain in December 2022 to visit my long distance partner, Jose. I spent several months prior day dreaming about all of the Spanish food I would discover.  No trip to Spain would be complete without experiencing authentic paella, patatas bravas, or pan con tomate. I am happy to report that I did indeed enjoy those dishes (and more) in Spain, and absolutely fell in love with Spanish culture and cuisine. (I'm certain I found the best vegan paella in Valencia and will try to re create it at some point.) What I couldn't have imagined, was that I would go to Spain and fall in love with flavours from Afghanistan.  That however, is precisely what happened. 

I ate in restaurants almost daily during my two week stay in Valencia. Much of my time was spent in Old Town, which is a beautiful and vibrant part of the city. It's mainly a pedestrian area, so be sure to put on a pair of comfortable shoes, as you'll undoubtedly be wandering through the narrow, winding cobble stone streets for hours. It's full of great restaurants, shopping, Central Market & so much more. I also wouldn't be surprised if you find yourself lingering in an alleyway taking in the graffiti that stretches across every spare inch of empty wall space. The spray painted murals and art are a striking juxtaposition to the medieval fortification I passed through to enter into the area every day. The Serranos Towers were originally a defensive structure at one of the cities busiest gates, and is now a historical point of interest for tourists and a popular location for special events in the city.  If you do visit Valencia, my suggestion would be to spend at least a few days in Old Town, but then be sure to venture elsewhere because there is lots to explore outside that area. I honestly think you could spend every day of your life wandering around Valencia trying new restaurants, and you wouldn't be able to try them all.

One night without a plan, Jose and I were wandering around the city in an area I hadn't seen before, called Benimaclet. It is a vibrant, multicultural area in Valencia that is a bit off the beaten path, so there aren't as many tourists wandering around. It was about 7pm, we were hungry, and hoping to find something with vegan options. After walking around for what I'm sure was an hour, Jose finally pulled out his GPS and found an Afghan restaurant called Ca'Miri not far from where we standing. I was definitely keen, and not only because I was tired and ready for food! In my experience with globally inspired food and menus, it's common to see offerings centered around humble whole food ingredients. Pulses, legumes, rice, vegetables and delicious spices are common in the Middle East, and I love all of it. 

We walked into the restaurant on a quieter night, which allowed for plenty of exchange with the owner about vegan options. Jose ordered our food and a couple of draft beers. Draft beer is a lot less common in Valencia compared to East Coast Canada from what I could tell, so I was happy for the option! We sat inside and sipped, Bob Marley playing in the background. First, we shared several small dishes including rice, beans, lentils & salad. All of it was delicious and the kind of food I could eat every day of my life. What really inspired me however, was what we ordered next. It was called "Bolon" on their menu, "Bolani" seems to be more common if you search online. Either way, it's incredibly delicious, I was instantly obsessed and knew I would be making some version of it as soon as I arrived back in Canada. ​

What is Bolon or Bolani?
If you haven't heard of Bolani, it is a simple dough stuffed with potato and leek (the fillings vary but this is what I had) and then fried in oil until golden and crisp. Bolani is indeed humble fare, but it is addictively good. At the restaurant they served it with a tomato sauce that had a hint of warm spice (cinnamon I think), which I did try at home first.   I liked that enough, but the chef in me knew there was something that I would enjoy more and I felt that to take my bolani to the next level I should keep looking. I searched online for inspiration, and found something called "Afghan Green Chutney." on a blog called Pick Up Limes. I made it once, then made it again tweaking some things to balance it to my taste. The result, a delicious condiment of fresh cilantro, parsley & jalapeno peppers blitzed together with toasted walnuts, white pickling vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, & because I couldn't resist adding it (inspired by the tomato sauce I had had at Ca'Miri),  a hint of cinnamon and cumin. 

I only had the Bolon at Ca'Miri once, though when I'm back in Valencia I hope the restaurant will still be there and thriving so I can have it again. My Boloni is not an exact copy cat recipe of theirs, I would be interested to spend a day in their kitchen to watch how they do it. With that being said, I'm thrilled with the results of my recipe. I can't wait to make it for Jose, and for family the next time I'm cooking.
 
The Bolani Dough
I tried a version bolani dough without yeast, and another version with a small amount of yeast. I think I prefer the yeasted version, but it is worth noting both variations seem to exist. Either way, the idea is to roll the dough quite thin into a circular shape. No thicker than a tortilla. Then, you spread some of the potato mixture on half of the circle and fold it into a half moon shape pressing down the sides. It then gets fried in a pan with oil until crisp and golden on each side. The dough is beautifully soft has a bit of chew, yet the outside is crisp (it softens as it sits, but you can always crisp it up in the pan again if you want to, though it remains delicious no matter what.) I couldn't resist adding a little bit of turmeric powder to my dough, I don't think that is a thing anyone else is doing, but I am obsessed with the gorgeous yellow colour it lends. 

The Leek and Potato Filling
The filling is simply mashed potatoes mixed with a bit of olive oil, s&p, and leek that is first softened in a pan. I also experimented with different amounts of potato filling, and I find less is more. A thin layer of potato is all you need. If you end up adding more, that's ok, it will still be delicious and maybe it comes down to personal preference. The filling in the Bolon at Ca'Miri wasn't thick in my memory, so perhaps that is how it is meant to be served. 

On The Side
Even if you didn't serve this with anything to dip it in, it's still really good. I'm a big fan of condiments though, and I love spooning the green chutney on all of my bites. I found I also like having a bit of vegan sour cream on the side. This doesn't surprise me, pairing oniony potato fry bread and sour cream together just makes sense. If the green chutney doesn't seem like something you'd be into, I noticed lots of variations being served with minted yogurt. I like minted yogurt in theory, but it didn't pique my interest in this context, though it is undoubtedly a thing for a reason. Bolani is good enough to make again, and again, so go ahead and experiment and discover what you like!

Storing and cooking leftovers
I didn't cook my bolani all at once. I refrigerated all of the components separately in glass containers and made it for dinner a few days in a row. It worked really well. Just bring your dough to room temperature to relax before trying to roll out and proceed with recipe as written.

Keywords: Relationships, Long Distance Relationship, Soul Mates, Follow your Dreams, Travel

If you stumbled on this page, it's possible you follow me on social media and know about  my long distance relationship situation, or perhaps you are in a similar situation looking for answers about navigating a long distance relationship in your own life. If the later is the case, you undoubtedly know as well as I do, that of course this isn't an easy situation, and as I write this I am still in a long distance relationship (me in Canada, him in Spain). Our hope is to bridge that gap as soon as we can. I will share my story. Maybe it will help you navigate your situation, sometimes it just helps knowing we aren't alone in our human experiences. Writing is cathartic for me, I feel called to write about my life & learning experiences as authentically as possible, and enjoy
sharing. 

How Jose and I met
Jose and I met online on a dating app. I had been on dating sites plenty before, but had been on a bit of a hiatus. It can be an exhausting activity talking to multiple men who aren't a good fit for your life. Dating burnout if you will...

Anyhow, I had a moment in my living room where I was done meeting the wrong people, and a fleeting thought entered into my head "I'm going to meet someone far away." The thought came and went and I didn't really *think* much about it. Whether this was intuition, some deep innate knowing, or just me creating my own reality, I am not sure....but I joined a dating app I hadn't used before, Badoo. The settings on this app do make it so you can see people in practically any city in the world. I guess if you choose to put your dating app settings to meet people all over, that is creating your reality in a sense, but it's quite uncanny that Jose was the 2nd man to message me on the app within one day. The first was like hi, ohhhh you're in Canada, smiley face. As in, that could never work. Jose's first message to me was an emoji of a smiley face. He later told me he didn't know what to say haha, and my reply to his first smiley face is something he remembers well and still quotes when we are hanging out together. "Hello from across the ocean" I replied.

The first few weeks chatting
Our first several conversations were just nice. Sharing little bits of our respective lives...nothing too personal at first (so many dating conversations go sexual so fast and that gets so gross and so old), me sharing food things, him sharing his love for geography and travel. I said "I'm going to make Paella!" and sent him some videos of me basically ruining Spanish Paella because I never follow the  "rules". I think our initial connection was definitely centered around a mutual love and curiosity for everything far away and unique. We are both Leo's, both big dreamers, and both completely bored with the daily grind that typical life entails. He has always loved and wanted to go to Canada, and I fell in love and felt at home in Europe during my first trip there at 20 years old, and many subsequent trips there after.  

It wasn't until a few weeks into chatting when he told me about his children. He said he had something to tell me and hoped that it wouldn't mean we would stop talking. It was obviously a big deal for him and not something he wanted to lead with when we met in case we only spoke for a couple of days and then it ended. He is a fairly private person until he gets to know someone. He sent me a few photos and said "soy el papa de tres niños". His youngest was not even 1 years old at this time. I just kind of processed the info and was like "OK". Not sure how most people would react, but I don't have kids, and him having them just seemed like a bonus to me. We had plenty of conversation about his situation with his ex, and his kids, and we just navigated it together....and honestly we continue to navigate plenty of difficult things together even though we are far apart geographically, which I know will only strengthen our bond. 

Anyhow, our relationship definitely progressed online before we even met. I think that unless you have had an experience getting to know someone online, it might not make sense that you could know and feel close to someone only in this context, but we definitely got to that point. I've talked to enough people online that were the wrong people, my intuition and red flag radar were pretty fine tuned at this point. I think this could be an important factor in distance relationships. Ask yourself and answer honestly where you are at mentally and emotionally. Do you attach to men/women/people easily, the wrong people perhaps? I had spent years working on attachment issues and healing my shit by the time I met Jose. I'm far from perfect and healing is a life long journey, but the connection with Jose wasn't about loneliness or either of us trying to escape our lives.  

Meeting face to face for the first time.
We met in October 2021, and by February 5th 2022, Jose arrived to Canada for our first meeting, and to stay with me for an entire month. I know some people probably thought I was nuts to let a man I had never met stay with me for one month, but we already felt so close, and we both had a knowing about our relationship. I think we also had a healthy amount of understanding that it could go either way, but not enough worry to not give it a shot and try. When you have an opportunity to take a chance in life....and everything inside you feels like a resounding "yes...absolutely yes"...I think it would be crazy NOT to take that chance. You live once. Be brave, take some chances....that's where the magic is. 

I picked Jose up at the Charlottetown Airport in PEI on a blowing, cold, wintery night. It was super dark, and I was waiting in the car because it was Covid times, and I wasn't able to go into the airport. I recognized his clothes from photos he had sent earlier in the day easily enough despite the darkness. He was wearing a face mask. I got out of the car and hugged him. He took his mask off, we held hands, and we kissed. I think we kind of just smiled and laughed for a moment too. What an unbelievable situation. This handsome Spanish man standing in the cold snowy parking lot, surrounded by more winter than he had ever seen....looking at me, the blonde Canadian woman from the internet who ruined paella and laughed about it. To think, only a day before we had been 5300 kilometers apart, and now we were actually standing face to face. 

We got back into my car, a 45 min drive back to my apartment with the bad weather that was happening. He had never seen so much snow. I can't exactly remember what we spoke about, but it wasn't awkward, it was just normal, easy, and I felt completely calm. 

The reality/difficulty of the situation
I think everyones situation is going to look different, of course. Ours has a lot of complications that in this moment make it essentially impossible to be together. Long distance in the same country would be one thing. Long distance across the ocean, another culture, another language plus our personal complications. We knew when we started this journey being together wasn't going to happen over night. I don't even know if I can put into words all of the things that we have to navigate. He has kids, an ex, a house to sell, we need to buy an apartment or rent but we don't have the funds yet, I have a dog turning 11 in a couple weeks as I write this, if I can't work right away in Spain, can we afford to live? Can I monetize my blog to make some income? How long will it take me to learn Spanish? Can I afford to keep taking lessons if I move there? ( I've been taking lessons for a few months now with an online coach). Anyway...that's just a snapshot of the issues. It's a lot. 

The reality for anyone in a long distance relationship is you are still technically, on some level, alone. The person you want to celebrate birthdays, holidays, hell even a chill Sunday with, is far away from you, and it can be really really hard. The thing for me is, I've worked really hard on myself to not build my home in another person. I have worked really hard to find some semblance of peace in my daily life. Even when I have bad days, they are no where near the bad days I used to have. I've realized that peace, or some kind of neutrality is my base. I am an introvert and I spend most of my time alone creating, writing, cooking. I don't ever feel a huge sense of joy or even happiness. More just a sense of being OK. When I'm with Jose, that base level of peace I feel amplifies to just pure happiness and joy. I think he mirrors back to me the energy and love I have always wanted to give, but had never found the right person. Still, it is important to make peace with being alone. It offers an opportunity for so much personal growth and healing, plus, in the end, our relationship with ourselves is the most important. With that being said, we are social creatures and we absolutely are meant to love and be loved. If you are lucky enough to find that in life, even if it is a difficult situation and even seems impossible sometimes...it's 100% worth fighting for.  ​

Reunion
After 10 months apart, I used my two weeks off at Christmas when the pub I work at was closed to take my first trip to Spain. The smile on our faces in the above photo says it all. Two wonderful weeks together with my best friend in Valencia. I fell in love with Spain, but I fell even more in love with this wonderful man. I've been back in Canada for 6 weeks as I write this, not knowing what the next step is, or when I will see Jose again. Today was one of those "hard days" actually, where I could barely stand this mundane reality, but when that happens I remind myself that nothing stays the same forever, everything changes, and anything is possible. I know that we both are doing everything we can in the meantime. Saving money, working towards our goals, even if it is only a microscopic step each day. 

I hope I will be updating this post sooner than later with what comes next.....and if you are on a similar journey, or a completely different journey but feeling the weight of it all, stay strong, do what is best for you, don't give up.

I have a few posts if you want to read more about the food aspect of my trip to Spain.
1. All the restaurants I ate at in Valencia
2. Central Market, Old Town Valencia
& Our memorable first weekend in Morella, with a recipe!

Hey friends! This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Your support means a lot,  and I thank you!

Recipe Difficulty: Easy

Recipe Tags:

• Cookies
• Banana Cookies
• Banana Chocolate Chip
• Vegan Bakes
• Easy Baking Recipes
• Dairy Free, Egg Free

Banana Chocolate Chip & Peanut Cookies Recipe Notes!
This is a recipe that my brothers girlfriend made me when I first became vegan and was visiting them in Switzerland. They were really accommodating, and she had baked me a batch of these cookies amongst other things. I asked for the recipe which was written in German. If you like banana bread and banana muffins, that is what these cookies taste like essentially, but in cookie form. The best way I can describe the texture, is that they seem like a cross between a cookie in a muffin. Although I would think if I baked them longer that might change a bit, perhaps I will test that just to see what happens, but I really like them as they are. 

The original recipe calls for dark chopped chocolate, which given that I find these quite sweet, makes sense. With that being said, I had Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips on hand when I made and photographed these, at first I wished I had had dark chocolate, but actually after a day of sampling I'm digging the semi sweet too. There are a bit of chopped peanuts in this recipe, I don't find them super peanut-y, just a hint of peanut. I might even reduce the chocolate chips and sub in a few more peanuts next time. Room to experiment! Even if I never change a thing with this recipe, I enjoy these banana chocolate chip cookies served along side a strong cup of espresso with oat milk. Delicious. 

The charger plates in my photograph are from Fodory, and I love them. Clink the photo below to check out their products. Use Code 10OFFTrisha at checkout for a discount! 

A note about shopping for Vegan Chocolate
If you are new to sourcing vegan chocolate you might not know where to start. The good news is, there's a variety of options. A lot of dark chocolate that you can buy is just naturally vegan, but more and more brands are coming out with vegan semi sweet, vegan "milk" chocolate, vegan white chocolate etc. I don't find all brands are created equal. I do find you get what you pay for. My favourite brands that I have tried for baking projects are camino and enjoy life. I tried presidents choice, which is a grocery store brand where I live, and they were fine, but I really can taste the difference in quality. There's certain things worth spending a bit more on and in my opinion chocolate is one of them. (Coffee is another!) I'm certain there are many other great brands available out there, these are just examples of the ones that I am able to easily source. 

A note about vegan egg replacement
For a lot of the simple baking projects I do, I make a "flax egg", which is simply ground flax mixed with water. It gels when it sits for a few minutes. The egg replacement I used in this recipe is a powdered egg replacement that you mix with water. I actually bought it in Switzerland, but I have seen similar products in Canada as well. I think the benefit of using ground flax is that there is a nutritional benefit to adding some flax to your baked goods. With that being said I'm certain some people have allergies and aren't able to consume it, and that's when a powdered egg replacement might be more suitable. 

Is Sugar Vegan?
When I first became vegan, it was news to me that some sugar you buy in stores is in fact, not vegan. It kind of blew my mind and definitely was a defining moment in my understanding of just how wide spread our use (I should say misuse) of animals has become on this planet. Some companies use bone char (animal bones heated to extremely high temperatures until reduced to carbon) to filter sugar which basically removes impurities from the sugar and gives it the pristine white colour. The bone char isn't IN the sugar, it only comes in contact with it. (This is my basic understanding anyhow.) The good news is there are definitely easily identifiable vegan sugars out there, and if in doubt, you can usually find information about a particular brand simply by doing an internet search. My go to vegan sugar is Wholesome Organic, because it's readily available and it works the same in recipes. 

​Hey friends! This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Your support means a lot,  and I thank you!