Showing posts with label healthy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthy. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts

Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts
Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts


Ever since I first googled what to do with taro and saw a bunch of tarts made from it, I knew at some point I was going to give that a go. So when I saw some taro for sale at the Nanna Shop, I bought a couple. One I made into the sauce for the vege meatballs, the other I reserved for making pies. Or  tarts. I’m not sure of the difference in terms of semantics, but I know calling them Taro Tarts tickles my fancy more than Taro Pies.

At it’s heart, this is a pumpkin pie, but made with taro puree instead of pumpkin. I kept the flavours simple, to see how the taro takes on being a dessert and I think that was a good move. It’s a subtle flavour, but quite unique. Whilst experimenting, I also used agave sugar. This sugar is very sweet, but in an almost floral way. The texture is like icing sugar, which would be a suitable substitute in the recipe.This is also a dairy-free pie (no cream), which means the taro puffs up and develops a fluffy, almost bread-like texture. The spring roll wrappers for pastry mean these tarts are best eaten the day they’re made, while the pastry is crisp. It goes chewy if you leave them.

Taro is a traditional Hawaiian tuber, I’m using Mexican sugar and Brazil nuts. So whilst this multinational tart sounds a bit geographically confused, they all get along!

Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts
Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts
Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts
Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts
Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts

Taro Tarts

1 ½ cups taro puree
3 large eggs
¾ cup agave sugar
½ tsp freshly grated ginger
12 Brazil nuts
12 spring roll wrappers
¼ cup coconut oil.

Preheat your oven to 170C

Melt the coconut oil until it’s a liquid. Take a spring roll wrapper and brush generously with coconut oil. Fold in half to make a rectangle. Brush again with coconut oil and fold in half again to make a square. Push into a muffin tin, folding the sides to make a pastry base. Repeat for all the muffin holes.

Blend the taro puree, eggs, agave sugar and ginger until smooth. Carefully pour the taro mixture into each of the bases. Gently tap the tin to remove air bubbles. Top each one with a Brazil nut.


Slide into the oven and bake for 25 minutes, checking for doneness at around 20mins. When the pastry is crisp and gold, and the filling has puffed up and set, they are ready. Allow 15 minutes to cool before eating. Or eat at room temperature. Best eaten the same day as the pastry goes chewy.

Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts
Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts
Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts
Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts
Experimenting with Produce - Taro Tarts

Monday, May 4, 2015

Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie


Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie


Sometimes I feel like presenting my cooking or recipes to people is like a Maths test. Not in the sense where x butter + y flour + z eggs and sugar = cake kinda way and people question my x, y and z’s. But in the sense that a question I get asked most frequently is – how did you come up with that? I’ve said that people refer to my cooking as quirky, rather than conventional and I feel like my little recipe pre-amble is my chance to “show my working”. So I try to present where my thinking starts, winds and ends up at the finished dish. I think a little background shows that it’s not quirky for quirky’s sake, there’s a lot of thought going into the flavour combinations, the textural elements, the overall nutritional content and purpose of the dish. So, on that note, this is my maths for what is a pretty novel, healthy and absolutely delicious breakfast. Something delicious enough to be a dessert, but healthy enough to start your day with, guilt free.


In order to beat the traffic, I get to work early and eat my breakfast at my desk while I check through my emails. It’s usually some form of oats with cultured dairy (yoghurt or buttermilk), fruit and nuts & seeds. Carrot Cake Bircher muesli is a firm favourite, but requires a bit more prep than I can usually be bothered with, so that’s more a once every few months deal. My most regular staple is cold-brewed coffee overnight oats. Caffeine + whole grain awesomeness in one bowl. Soak it overnight, then add some fruit (usually bananas, prunes or berries) crunchy nuts and/or seeds before eating. It is so good and portable….but you’re left with dishes. That’s absolutely fine at work, where there’s a kitchen to do the dishes. But I needed a no-dishes portable breakfast. Something still full of healthy whole grains, the fruit and nuts and….the coffee. All in one. Enter the breakfast espresso jelly cookie.

I decided to stick with the elements of my coffee oats and layered based on wanting different textures. So we have two different ‘cookies’, the bottom is a chewy oat and banana cookie – making up the oat and fruit content of my breakfast. The middle is coffee jelly. This idea came from using excess sangria jelly in my granola to delicious effect. And the top is a nuts and seed granola ‘cookie’ to emulate the nutty crunch of my topping on my oats. I threw in some chocolate because…well, why not? My palate is decided not ‘sweet’, especially in the morning, so feel free to customize by adding ¼ cup of sugar to the espresso jelly (I have my long blacks without sugar normally). The honey in the cookies is more than sufficient for me.

And, if you don’t need the portability, serve with honey whipped ricotta or yoghurt. (Or ice cream!!)

Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie
Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie


Healthy Espresso Jelly Breakfast Sandwich Cookies

(Makes 12 formed cookies)

Espresso Jelly

6tbsp ground coffee beans
500mL freshly boiled water
5 tsp powdered gelatin


Lightly spray a lamington tin with cooking spray. Put the coffee beans into a plunger and pour over the boiled water. Leave for 5 minutes, then plunge and pour into a bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over the top of the coffee and whisk in until dissolved. Pour into the lamington tin and put in the fridge to set for at least 4 hours.

When set, cut into rounds with an egg ring. Chop the excess bits up and serve them with normal oats.

Banana Oat Cookies

3 small very ripe bananas
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp chia seeds
½ cup water
2/3 cup shredded coconut
1 2/3 cup rolled oats


Preheat oven to 165C

In a small bowl, mix the chia seeds and water and set aside to form a gel.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas until smooth, then mix in the spices and honey. Add the chia seed mix, stirring to combine evenly. Then add the oats and stir to coat.

Line a baking tray and lightly grease an egg ring.Place a few tablespoonsful of mixture into the ring and press in tightly with the back of a spoon. Gently lift off the ring, and form the rest of the cookies.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until starting to turn golden on top. Remove, gently flip over the biscuits and bake for a further 10 minutes, until that side is also golden. Cool for 10 minutes on the trays, then on racks.

Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie
Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie
Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie
 

Chocolate Nut Brittle Biscuits

1 ½ tbsp. cacao powder
3 tbsp cacao nibs
1/3 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
1/3 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1 cup pumpkin seeds
2/3 cup almonds, roughly chopped
1 tbsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp pepper
3 tbsp honey
3 tbsp olive oil

Heat the oven to 165C

Mix the nuts, seeds and cacao nibs together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, cacao powder, pepper, salt, vanilla, honey and oil. Make sure it is well combined. Pour the nut mix into the wet mix and stir to thoroughly coat everything.

Line a tray with baking paper, and lightly grease an egg ring. Place a few tablespoons of mixture into the ring and press it in tightly, pressing down with the back of a spoon. Gently remove the ring, and repeat for the rest of the mixture.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until caramelised and 'solid'. The mixture will spread a little, but still retain the basic round shape. Cool on the trays. Trim the edges to neaten your sandwiches.

Layer one oat cookie, espresso jelly then a nut brittle cookie on top. If you assemble, wrap and store in the fridge. They will last a few days. The cookies will last up to a week separate at room temperature in air tight containers. Store the jelly in the fridge.

Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie
Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie

Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing

Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing

The first time I made this was the end of February. This time of year is when my desire for outrightly healthy meals kicks in. From my birthday in November, through all of the parties of Christmas and New Year (and NYEEEE) and our dating anniversary and Lance’s birthday and every other excuse under the sun we can think of to indulge in decadent meals and lots of booze means we get to mid February and both Lance and I think – hey, remember when we used to keep it simple and just have grilled meat and salad for dinner. Without wine. Or a beer. Or snacks. Back when our portion sizes were reasonable? Maybe we should do that again for a while. The fact that this thought might have occurred after a long weekend which involved a 9 course wine-matched degustation that we added a 10th dish and 10th wine to because there was an extra dish we just had to have is surely a coincidence. Not to mention the daily ice creams (or two). And cheese platters. And wine.

 And we're eating again now after the 4-day chocolate feast that is Easter!

Tuesday night’s dinner was a grilled steak and this salad, with a wonderful dressing drizzled over everything. An abundance of bright herby chimichurri flavours all blended up with toasted pumpkin seeds and Greek Yoghurt, drizzled over tart mango, crunchy shoots and peas and juicy Lebanese cucumbers. It feels decadent whilst being totally healthy. Blackening the garlic in the pan first softens the garlicky punch and adds a lovely roasted flavour to the whole situation.

 
The dressing makes much more than you require, but it’ll do meals for around 3 days if refrigerated. As well as being a dressing, it’s also a delicious sauce on baked potatoes, or stirred through quinoa or your favourite grain.

 
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt DressingGoing Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing

Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing

Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing

½ cup pumpkin seeds
4 cloves garlic
2 bunches coriander (about 2 cups roughly chopped)
Bunch parsley (about 2 cups roughly chopped)
Salt and pepper
7 big gloops of Greek Yoghurt (around 200g)
¼ cup water (for thinning)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Green Mango Salad

1 underripe mango (you want it to be sliceably firm, and a tart)
Handful bean shoots
Handful snow peas, topped and tailed, then thinly sliced
1 cucumber, peeled into ribbons – seed middle discarded

Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing


Thursday, October 9, 2014

Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli

Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli

I’m a big fan of carrot cake. It’s not my favourite cake (not actually sure what that would be), but it’s generally a good safe cake. If you’re spoiled for choice and aren’t leaning towards anything in particular, it’s always going to be there. In all it’s cream-cheese-icinged glory. There’s a reason it’s a classic. Now that I’ve been getting up and it’s not entirely dark and you can feel the hint of Spring just over there, I’ve gone off of my coffee porridge just a little. And instead of going back to just soaking the oats in coffee, I decided I wanted something a bit fresher. A bit fruity. A bit carrot cakey. This is just my riff on the traditional Bircher muesli, where you soak your oats in grated apple and apple juice to soften them, and then served with yoghurt and nuts.

The traditional carrot cake flavours are there, cinnamon and ginger and orange. I’ve used earl grey tea to help the soaking process rather than apple juice so I’m not overwhelming the muesli with the apple flavour. Or sugar. The bergamot is subtle here, but really adds a little something. I cover one teabag with cold water and leave for 2 hours.

Instead of the tangy cream cheese icing, I’ve still just used greek yoghurt, then drizzled a nice bit of honey over the top and topped it with more traditional toppings – walnuts, coconut and pumpkin seeds. The muesli itself is vegan, to keep it that way, just substitute Co-Yo for the normal yoghurt. It can also be gluten free if you use GF certified oats.
Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli
Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli
Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli
Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli
Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli

Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli

(serves 2)
1 cup grated carrot
1 large Pink Lady Apple (or similar tart apple)
2 tbsp sultanas
4 dates, chopped into small pieces
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cold-brewed earl grey tea
Juice and zest from one orange
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cardamom
¼ tsp salt

To serve
½ cup Greek yoghurt
Drizzle honey
Chopped walnuts
Pumpkin seeds
Toasted coconut flakes

Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli
Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli
Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli
Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli
Breakfast of Champions - Carrot Cake Bircher Muesli

Monday, June 2, 2014

Happy WA Day - Pumpkin Spice Porridge


Happy WA Day holiday! My husband works on public holidays, so I play the single lady after he leaves for work. I sleep in until a leisurely hour, get up and make things that I like for breakfast that he doesn't necessarily agree with. So in honour of that luxury, I will do a post in real-time! Being a public holiday, I don't want to put too much effort in. And being the second day of winter means it needs to still be satisfying comfort style food. Something I can eat from a bowl, snuggled up on the couch, flicking through cook books.

I love sweet pumpkin dishes. Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin and Maple Bacon Muffins, Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows and all that. Love it. Lance isn't the hugest fan. Nor does he particularly like porridge. So this dish is all me. I have some pumpkin puree from making a pumpkin mac and cheese a few days ago so this dish all came together in the time it takes to make the porridge and boil the kettle for my coffee.

I'm sure you've all made porridge before, so I'll leave it to you to cook it the way you do. Personally, I like to cook my oats in water (or coffee) with a pinch of salt and add milk or butter (or both!) once it's cooked. You can sub the butter for coconut oil, or coconut cream for a delicious vegan version of this dish.



Pumpkin Spice Porridge
(serves one)
1 cup cooked porridge (made from 1/3 cup rolled oats)
3 heaped tablespoons pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
1 tsp maple syrup (plus an extra to drizzle  if desired)
1 tsp unsalted butter
6-8 crushed walnuts

Cook the oats to by your preferred method.

In a small dish, mix the pumpkin, spices and maple syrup. Microwave for 1 minute to heat the mixture.

Stir pumpkin mixture and butter into porridge. Top with crushed walnuts.