My attempt at a slightly less sugary Christmas; Raw Chocolate Log made with almond meal, coconut flour, chia seeds, cacao, and of course fruit and nuts.
Category: Recipes
rhubarb & ginger pudding
Sometimes, when the rain is lashing the windows and the family hunkers down for another evening stuck inside, you need something warm and comforting. Last night was just such a night. I managed to dig out one of my Grandmother’s old recipes for steamed pudding, and tweaked it to make it more interesting. Having just commemorated 1 year since her death, it was a lovely link to the past. I did include 3 beautiful stems of rhubarb from my garden and some healthful spices, but let’s not kid ourselves; this pudding is neither particularly healthy or an everyday food. I believe that in a balanced lifestyle, nourishment takes all forms.
Baked Rhubarb and Ginger Pudding:
100 grams butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 large cup flour (could be replaced with gluten-free flour)
1 large teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 stems rhubarb
3 tablespoons vanilla sugar or castor sugar
1/4 cup golden syrup, more or less to your liking
Melt the butter, then add the brown sugar, egg, flour, baking powder, vanilla essence and spices.
Chop the rhubarb into 5mm pieces and toss through the vanilla sugar. Stir through the pudding batter.
Grease a casserole dish and spread the golden syrup in a thin layer across the bottom. Pour the batter over the top and smooth out.
Bake at 180 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown.
Make sure everyone gets a dollop of the golden syrup sauce from the bottom of the bowl, or you may have a mutiny on your hands.
For extra indulgence, serve with custard, ice cream or runny cream.
Healthy bounty bars
Plenty of people have tried to come up with a cleaner version of the classic Bounty Bar. Here’s my take for all the coconut lovers:
Ingredients
1 1/3 cups desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste
1 tablespoon coconut flour
3 tablespoons cacao butter
2-3 tablespoons rice syrup according to taste
1/4 cup cacao powder
Blend the coconut, oil, vanilla and coconut flour in a high speed blender until it forms a sticky mixture. Roll into balls or bars and refrigerate for at least half an hour until cold.
Gently heat the cacao butter, rice syrup and cacao powder in a small saucepan until melted and smooth. Dip the coconut balls into the chocolate to coat, then return to the refrigerator to set.
Makes about 7-8 little balls or bars.
Fast food can be good food!
This meal puts paid to the theory that healthy, tasty vegetarian/vegan food has to be complicated! I whipped up this falafel with hummus and salad in just a few minutes, and it tasted every bit as good as an iskender meal from the local Turkish takeaway. The falafel themselves are ridiculously easy to make, and the salad can just be made with what’s in the fridge. Here’s my recipe:
For the falafel:
2 tins of 4 bean mix
1 handful of fresh herbs; parsley or coriander are good
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons coconut flour
1 tablespoon coconut oil
For the hummus:
1 cup cooked chickpeas (or 1 can)
1 clove garlic
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
For the salad:
4 cups of salad greens; I used lettuce, tomato, grated carrot, grated fennel, grated radish, beansprouts and avocado. The trick is to shred everything quite small.
Optional sauce (not vegan)
1/4 cup natural, unsweetened yogurt
1 large handful fresh mint, roughly chopped
To make the falafel, blend all the ingredients except the oil together until they form a paste but it is still a bit chunky. Add a splash of water if it needs to be loosened a bit. Put aside in the fridge for 15 minutes before cooking.
In the meantime, make the salad and hummus.
Put all the hummus ingredients into a high-speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth, adding water until you get a good consistency.
Toss the salad ingredients in a large platter. If making the sauce, mix the yogurt and mint with a little water to thin it down and serve in a jug to the side.
Roll the falafel mixture into walnut sized balls, and fry in the coconut oil until brown on both sides.
Serve falafel on top of a bowl of salad with a big blob of hummus on the side, and sauce dribbled over the top (if using).
Grain-free vegan lunch in 5 minutes?
I’m trying to go wheat-free for a while, so the standard lunch of mushrooms on toast or salad wrap is off the cards for now. Searching around in the fridge and my rather sad winter vegetable garden today netted me half a block of tofu, 1 field mushroom and some winter greens. Yep, not looking great, until I remembered that scrambled tofu can be really tasty and a good vehicle for other flavours. Within 5 minutes I had a plateful of goodness which contained 5 servings of vegetables, plenty of protein and some powerful spices just to really get things going, although clearly not enough to excite the dog.
Here’s my recipe for a super-simple vegan and grain-free tofu scramble for one:
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
Half a block of tofu (about 150 grams), chopped into small dice or crumbled
A couple of handfuls of vegetables. I used a chopped field mushroom and a handful of frozen edamame beans, but courgette, bean sprouts, tomato or corn would be equally good.
Handful of spinach leaves, shredded
Handful of rocket leaves, shredded
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander leaves
Handful of my savoury seeds
1/2 a fresh lime or lemon
In a small frying pan, heat the coconut oil. Drop in the spices and cook until light brown and fragrant. Add the tofu and stir fry for 3-4 minutes until brown.
Stir in the vegetables and cook for another minute, then stir through the shredded spinach. Cook until spinach is wilted.
Serve the tofu scramble with a big handful of rocket leaves, chopped coriander, savoury seeds, a good squeeze of lime juice and salt and pepper.
Dumpling delight
Check out this great meal that my 15 year old made for our dinner! A little time consuming to make, but not difficult and so good!
The first step is to make a mixture of cabbage, tofu, mushrooms, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, egg and spring onions.
Then you stuff dumpling wrappers with the filling, crimp them together, and cook. It really works!
She followed this recipe from thekitchn.com, but I’m already thinking of experimenting with shrimps, coriander, minced chicken….
Raw peppermint slice
I have one child who just loves peppermint slice; you know, the recipe with the sugar and butter filled base and 2 layers of icing? I told him if he could find a raw alternative, I would make it, and he came up with this in the blink of an eye. I found the base to be a bit dry so added a tablespoon of melted coconut oil, and needed to up the peppermint essence significantly, but I think I’ll be returning to this lovely recipe from Wholefood Simply.
Raw choc-nut cups
I’ve just put a tray of these babies in the fridge, and it’s taking all my will power to wait until the chocolate topping is set before I dive in! In a bit of experimentation, I’ve made these with 3 different nut butter fillings; hazelnut, peanut and macadamia. I reckon it’s going to be tough to pick the best one, but will reluctantly submit myself for scientific experiments. Will get back with the results of scientific taste tests when the crew are home from school to provide unbiased opinions. In the meantime, here’s the recipe:
For the base:
1 cup almonds
1/2 cup cashews
1 cup dates
1/2 cup sultanas
1.5 tablespoons cacao powder
For the filling:
Your choice of nut butter, about 5 tablespoons in total
For the topping:
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons cacao powder
To make the base, blend the nuts into fine crumbs, then blend in the dates and cacao until the mixture sticks together. Roll teaspoon-sized balls of dough and drop into mini-muffin tins, then press into shape.
Drop about half a teaspoon of nut butter into each base (or enough to come not quite to the top of the crust). Refrigerate while you make the topping.
To make the topping, whisk all the ingredients together until smooth. Pour over the top of the cups to just cover the butter. I put a corresponding nut on top of each cup so I’ll know what I’m getting; just like choosing chocolates from a box!
While the cat’s away…
Or in this case, while the boys are away, the girls will pig out on vegetables! With only two of us home, a fancy dinner was never on the cards, but we still needed to get our vege fix. Bring on our favourite vegetarian go-to meal (and I say meal because it covers breakfast, lunch or dinner); good old mushrooms on toast. I gave this meal a bit of a twist by chucking in some spinach leaves at the very end of cooking to add some extra iron and vitamins, and sprinkling over some sharp tasting sheep feta to give it a bit of kick. It’s not a recipe, but I usually make this great by frying a chopped garlic clove and red onion in about a tablespoon of butter, cooking until soft, then adding the mushrooms. When they’re almost cooked, in goes a tablespoon of fresh thyme (or any herb really), a tablespoon of worchestershire sauce, and a good sprinkle of salt and pepper. This version got a bit fancy with a spoonful of sour cream mixed through at the end of cooking. Spoon onto a bit of toast (make mine gluten-free) and voila. Masterpiece.
Spaghetti squash; my new favourite thing!
I keep coming across recipes online which use this strange ingredient, so when I saw a spaghetti squash for the first time in my local supermarket I grabbed it! Then spent ages searching for tips on how the hell to cook the stuff.
It turns out that spaghetti squash is just like normal squash, but when cooked it shreds into these amazing spaghetti-like strings and the flavour mellows to a gentle nutty sort of pumpkin taste.
So, armed with this knowledge, I cut my newly purchased spaghetti squash into quarters, seasoned it with olive oil, salt and pepper, and baked it at 200 degrees for about 40 minutes. Once it had cooled down to a manageable temperature, I held my breath and dug into the flesh with a fork. And it really worked! Gorgeous pumpkin strings materialized and within minutes I had a bowl full of perfectly formed squash strands.
So what to cook with it? I guess any sauce that goes well with pasta would work with spaghetti squash-and I fully intend to test that theory! For tonight’s nervous debut though I played it safe with sauteed garlic and shallot, mushrooms, shredded spinach, fresh basil, cherry tomatoes, feta, kalamata olives and a good grating of parmesan to top it off. The verdict? Well, not everyone in the family was completely sold, but everyone’s bowl was licked clean at the end of the meal…so I’m going to give it a tick. Spaghetti squash is never going to pass for the real thing, but that’s not the point. It’s a tasty low calorie vegetable base for meals with such a low GI that it won’t give you cloudy brain half an hour after eating it. It’s full of great nutrients like folic acid, potassium, Vitamin A, and beta carotene, and is an easy way to get one of your 5+ servings of vegetables. It is perfect for vegans and people who eat gluten free. And it’s really filling! Are you sold yet?
I’d love to hear about other people’s experiences with spaghetti squash and welcome any recipe ideas. Sorry family, I think this ingredient is here to stay…
thefuelledfurnace 