Tag: vegetarian

  • Bliss balls with walnuts and honey

    Bliss balls with walnuts and honey

    An easy way to serve something special: bliss balls! These are nutrient rich, filling little snacks and they look wonderful.

    You can vary them endlessly. I happened to have pineapple juice and decided to boil that down to a syrup, but you could just as easily use honey, agave, rice syrup, apple juice etc. As long as it’s sweet and sticky it’ll do the job ?.

    Here’s the recipe for the ones I made today:

    Boil one cup of pineapple juice down to a syrup. Turn off the heat when the syrup is light golden; it is starting to caramelize.

    Add nut granola (crunchy muesli with nuts, leave big chunks out) and dried shredded coconut and mix well. Everything should be thickly coated with sticky stuff.

    Now part the whole bunch in halves and to one half add sesame seeds and to the other, add cacao. Bring to taste with salt if needed (I didn’t). Play with the ingredients (add dry or wet) so that you can form balls that stick together easily.

    Now roll the chocolate balls in coconut and the sesame balls in sesame.

    Serve with walnuts and if you have a sweet tooth, drip with honey or agave syrup.

  • Golden oat milk

    Golden oat milk

    A winner combo: homemade oat milk with turmeric (kurkuma).

    The health benefits of turmeric are abundant, just search the web and you’ll find lots of info. One of the favorite ways of taking it, is the famous drink ‘golden milk’: a mix of milk (any kind) and turmeric with added oils and black pepper for better absorption by the body.

    The recipe is simple: to my 15 minute oat milk (recipe here), simply add a tablespoon of turmeric, a tablespoon of santen (coconut cream, or use half a can of coconut milk, or fresh of course if you are somewhere tropical) and a few twists of fresh black pepper.

    After blending and passing the milk through a sieve, add honey/agave syrup/any other sweetener (I use honey and vanilla sugar) to bring the sweetness to your liking.

    I even like to add this to my coffee sub! Or simply drink as is, a small glass a day, especially when your throat aches as turmeric is a master infection killer when used topically.

    One last advice: this stuff is used for cloth dyeing and with good reason. It stains like mad. Wear something old ;).

  • Baked apple with cinnamon

    Baked apple with cinnamon

    Delicious, old fashioned, simple: my love came up with these when he remembered one of the favorite dishes his mother used to serve when he was little. I took the liberty to add walnuts, hope that’s ok Hanni ;).

    So here we go, sweet memories:

    Cut the heart from your apple(s), cut in thick slices of at least 1 cm and bake for about 5-7 minutes each side in a frying pan or oven (200 degrees Celsius) with butter or coconut oil.

    During the last few minutes, add crumbled walnuts.

    On the serving plate, add cinnamon and, if you have a sweet tooth, honey or agave syrup.

    Incredibly soothing, this simple yet comforting and delicious dish. Like laying your head in your mom’s lap.

    I remember my mom made stuffed apples with almonds and raisins (I think), I’ll have to ask her and will share here if she still remembers!

    What’s your favorite mama dish? Enjoy your trip down memory lane and please share below :).

  • Oat milk

    Oat milk

    Cheap and simple. Once you get the hang of it, it will only take 15 minutes to make a liter (or more) of delicious oat milk, way cheaper than any store bought brand will bring it to you.

    What you’ll need: a fine sieve (I use the one from my tea pot, it’s about 8cm in diameter and perfect for the job), a blender, a bowl and a glass bottle for storage.

    Ingredients: oats, water, sweetener (dates, figs, banana, honey or sugar, for example), salt and optionally vanilla or vanilla flavoring.

    I use 1 cup of oats and 5 cups of water, which amounts to exactly one liter in my blender.

    Then I add 3 figs or 5 dates, a bit of salt and two teaspoons of vanilla flavoring.

    Start only with the oats, water and sweetener. Blend for about 30 seconds. Not too long or it will be slimy. It doesn’t have to blend ‘all the way’.

    Pour a tiny bit of the mixture through the sieve into a big bowl. Taste, then add salt and vanilla to taste, blend for another few seconds and then pour all of the mixture into the bowl through the sieve, scraping the bottom of the sieve with a spoon.

    Transfer from the bowl into a clean glass bottle and store in the fridge for up to three days.

    I use the oat residu to add to my overnight oats (see recipe below). The fruit content even helps with the predigestion of phytic acid, as explained in that blog post :).

  • Oven roasted prebiotic vegetables

    Oven roasted prebiotic vegetables

    Prebiotic vegetables create a favorable climate in your gut for probiotics (good bacteria) to grow. Among prebiotic vegetables are: leek, onion, garlic, chicory and fennel.

    This dish has leek, fennel and chicory. The white and light greens color beautifully with the drizzled olive oil.

    Keep it really simple: slice the veggies in halves lengthwise, brush with olive oil and put in the oven on 180 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes or until some ends start to color brown.

    For serving, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.

    Great with bread.

  • Buckwheat risotto with green vegetables and herbs

    Buckwheat risotto with green vegetables and herbs

    A new favorite: buckwheat risotto! Healthy, heartfelt, full of flavors, absolutely lovely and so easy, too!

    Serves 2-3

    Boil about 1 liter of vegetable stock. You could make your own, I use organic instant stock powder. Add a tablespoon of kurkuma to the stock if you have that available.

    In a frying pan, heat some oil and sauté a small onion (in pieces) and small garlic clove (chopped finely), then add two cups of buckwheat and a handful of dried shiitake mushrooms (in slices).

    Stir well, then add one or two cups of stock to the buckwheat. Bring to a simmer, the turn the heat down to low. Allow the stock to be soaked up before adding a new portion. Stir regularly.

    After about 20 minutes (halfway cooking time), add green beans. After another 10, add broccoli, zucchini, grated rind of 0,5-1 lemon and kale (I used frozen ‘cubes’ of kale, just put the whole cubes in there and don’t stir from then on). Cover with a lid so the vegetables can steam until ready for another 10 minutes or so.

    Meanwhile, chop lots of mint and parsley so you have two nice handfuls of herbs. Just before serving, top with the herbs, drizzle with generous amounts of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and possibly lemon juice.

  • Coconut cookies: 2 ingredients, 20 minutes no-fail recipe

    Coconut cookies: 2 ingredients, 20 minutes no-fail recipe

    Who would have thought I could make my own favorite cookies at home within a few minutes, in a vegan variety with no additives and it easily wins from the supermarket variety?

    Add 100ml condensed coconut milk to 100gr of dried coconut. Mix well, then use a measurement tablespoon (or whatever) to make small cookies.

    Put in the oven on a baking sheet on 160 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them.

    When they have the perfect golden color, take them out and let cool down for a couple of minutes.

    That’s it, I kid you not!

    * I found that the measurement tablespoon makes the perfect size for me, with perfectly crunchy outside and soft creamy inside.

    * Condensed coconut milk can be found close to the condensed cow milk in the supermarket.

  • Indonesian style green beans and broccoli

    Indonesian style green beans and broccoli

    The Dutch kitchen has been blessed with many foreign influences, making our palette a lot more interesting than it would have been if we’d stayed with ‘our own’ boring variations on mashed potatoes, kale and meat.

    Green beans can be a bit boring as well, but if you spice them up Indonesian style like in this recipe, I promise they will become a favorite.

    Chop one onion, a thumb sized piece of ginger and a big garlic clove. Sauté these together in a frying pan in some coconut or other vegetable oil. Cut about 400gr green beans and 200gr broccoli in bite-sized pieces. When fragrant, add the green beans. Cover the frying pan with a lid.

    Meanwhile, combine two tablespoons of peanut butter (100% peanut, with peanut chunks) with two (or more…) tablespoons of sambal: hot Indonesian pepper paste, a good drizzle of light premium soy sauce. Taste; it should be strong and spicy. Adjust by adding more of any of the ingredients. Then water it down so it will be easy to mix in with the beans.

    When the beans are almost ready, add the broccoli and close the lid again.

    Add the peanut soy mixture to the beans and broccoli, then heat so all flavors can mix well and the sauce will thicken.

    Let sit for as long as you can. 5 minutes will work perfectly well, overnight will make it taste super authentic.

    Taste before serving and finish with ketjap medja (thick, sweet soy sauce) or manis (medium thick, sweet soy sauce), sesame oil and/or toasted sesame seeds.

  • Frozen fruit, blender… ice cream deluxe

    Frozen fruit, blender… ice cream deluxe

    This is just incredible. So easy, delicious and dare I say… healthy! Definitely a winner.

    It started when I wanted to recreate vanilla ice from frozen banana slices. I simply put the banana slices in the blender, added cream and vanilla flavor and.. wow! It worked!

    For this variety, I used frozen mango, blueberries and raspberries but really you could use anything your freezer (or the one at the supermarket) has to offer.

    I put them in the blender together with some thick coconut cream. For the cream, use santen (creamed coconut) and add some hot water so it becomes thick but fluid, like cream.

    The trick is to use the ice cube function or simply pulse your blender and to work quickly. Use a wooden or plastic spoon (metal will damage the blender blade) to quickly stir the fruit in the blender after every few pulses, creating a rather homogenous blend. So pulse-stir, pulse-stir, work quickly before the ice cream melts.

    Any leftover coconut cream can be used as topping alongside some beautiful berries and mint leaves.

    I really, really love this ice cream and am amazed that it takes nothing more than real fruits, a spoonful of coconut cream and 5 minutes of my time.

  • Easy one bowl veggie & egg dish

    Easy one bowl veggie & egg dish

    Hey ho, today I thought I’d share a shakshuka-inspired dish with you.

    I got to know shakshuka as an Israeli dish where you break and boil eggs in a delicious tomato sauce and serve with bread. All Israelis I’ve met love it and it is a staple food in most foreigner/traveler/backpacker oriented restaurants I’ve seen during my travels.

    Here, I am adding a bottom layer of spiced kale and mushrooms (almost the last bit of last year’s forage harvest!).

    Actually, this was just a quick way to do something nice for lunch and so I haven’t made my own tomato sauce but used a store bought jar of pasta sauce, perfect for the occasion. Sorry Israeli friends if I dissed your beloved shakshuka by doing so ;).

    Recipe for one bowl veggies & eggs

    In a pan that will contain all portions and nothing more, heat: olive oil, a chopped piece of onion, some mustard seeds, kale, (dried or fresh) mushrooms.

    Let the kale reduce in size, then add a thick layer of tomato (pasta) sauce. Lastly, break eggs on top (one for each person) and sprinkle with salt and Italian or Provence herbs. Cover with a lid (otherwise the eggs won’t solidify).

    After 10 minutes or so, test to see if the egg white is solid. There may be fluid on top of your dish, don’t be fooled by this as it is probably just water from the tomato sauce and not raw eggs.

    For serving, add olive oil, freshly ground pepper and fresh herbs (here: oregano).

    With love,

    Judith