viernes, 16 de junio de 2017

Healthy sugar free crumble

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a good week, mine has been a little tough since we have a heat wave right now in Barcelona and I hate hot weather >_< Anyway, I have been trying to make fresh and light recipes, but even cooking is an impossible mission, being near the oven or the stove is horrible. The worst part is that my go-to breakfast, which is oatmeal is a no no with this weather, and I don't like cold. One thing that I have been enjoying are crumbles, I don't mind eating them cold and I make them the night before, the downside is that I have to bake them but I try to be as far from the oven while I do that hehe. I have been experimenting with an old crumble recipe that I had, trying to make it healthier, so I used date paste instead of sugar and put way less fat. It turned out very good, it sweet, it has a good texture, a little crunchy and filling, I cant ask for anything else hehe. I hope you like it!


Ingredients (2 servings)

For the crumbles
  • 3/4 Cup oats
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 Tbsp vegan or nut butter
  • 1/4 Cup date paste
For the filling
  • 1 Tbsp flour
  • 1 Tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1/4 Tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 Tbsp of water or lemon juice if you prefer (keep in mind that you add lemon juice you will need to sweeten this to balance the sourness)
  • 1 1/2 Peaches
Process
  • Cut the peaches into wedges and place them in a bowl.
  • To the peaches add the rest of the filling ingredients and mix everything together, place the mixture in a oven safe dish, you can make this in one dish or in individual ones. Set this aside while we prepare the crumbles.
  • In a bowl add the oats, the whole wheat flour and the butter of your choice, mix with a fork and if necessary with your hands. Then add the date paste and mix very well it is easier if you use your hands.
  • Add the crumbles on top of the peaches.
  • Preheat your oven at 190 ºC for about 15 minutes and then bake the crumbles for about 30 minutes.
  • After that let it cool and add some topping if you like, ice cream would be a good idea with this hot weather :p

miércoles, 31 de mayo de 2017

Date paste

Hi everyone, so as you may know I have been trying to minimize my animal product consumtion, one of the easiest was milk, but eggs and honey... that's an issue. In most of my baking recipes I use honey, honey is twice as sweet as regular sugar (in volume), so you get more sweetness with less calories, and that's awesome, but honey is an animal product so I'm lowering its consumption. I came up with this idea the day I made ma'amoul cookies. I hope you find it useful and you like it!


Ingredients
  • 150 gr dry dates
  • 150 gr water
Process
  • Place the dry dates in a bowl and add hot water.
  • Let them cool completely
  • Place the dates together with the liquid in a food processor and process them until a paste is formed.
  • Transfer the paste to a pot and cook it stirring constantly until the volume reduces to a half a cup container.
  • That's it!

jueves, 25 de mayo de 2017

Red lentil Kibbeh (kofta)

Hi guys! today I have and easy and healthy recipe you will love during summer. Kibbeh is a dish from the middle eastern cuisine, they are traditionally made with minced meat onion and bulgur, but they can also be made with legumes, so I though I could use red lentils, but of course if you can't find them use another type of lentils.


Ingredients
  • 1 Cup of red lentils
  • 1 medium size onion 
  • A bunch of parsley
  • 3/4 Cup of fine bulgur 
  • 1/2 Tsp pepper paste 
  • 1/2 Tsp paprika
  • 1/2 Tbsp ground cumin
  • 2 +1/4 Cups of water 
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • Salt to taste
Process
  • First we are going to wash the red lentils, rub the lentils gently with your hands and then discard the water, repeat this process six to seven times until the water comes clear. 
  • Once the lentils are clean put them in a pot and add the water and cook them for 20 minutes. 
  • While the lentils cook, prepare the onion and the parsley, chop them and sauté them with olive oil in a saucepan until the onion is translucent.
  • By this time the lentils should be cooked, now lets add the spices, the paprika, the cumin powder and the pepper paste, mix everything together and add the bulgur, ad some salt to taste and mix.
  • Finally add the onion and parsley and mix very well and let the mixture rest for 40 minutes so the bulgur gets well soaked.
  • After that time shape the kibbehs to its traditional shape, if it's too difficult, just make balls, and that's it if you want you can also deep fry them, but they are really good just like that.
  • Serve together with a lettuce, tomato, chopped parsley, green pepper and cucumber salad, for the dressing use lemon juice, olive oil and salt.

miércoles, 17 de mayo de 2017

No-meatballs

Hi guys! Today I'll show you how to make some delicious no-meatballs with lentils and seitan with a earthy and tasty gravy! This recipes is packed with proteins so nutritionally speaking you will not miss your meat!


For the no-meatballs
  • ¼ Cup wheat flour
  • 1 Tbsp maggi sauce (or soy sauce)
  • 3 Tbsp water
  • ¼ Tsp garlic powder
  • ¼ Tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 Cup of cooked lentils
  • 2-3 Tbsp chopped parsley
  • 2 Slices of whole wheat bread
  • 1 Tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 Minced garlic clove
  • Olive oil
  • A little flour
For the gravy
  • 1/2 Cup green peas
  • 1 Minced garlic clove
  • 1 Small chopped onion
  • A little flour
  • 2 Tbsp tomato paste
  • A little flour
  • 6 Hazelnuts and 6 Almonds
  • Olive oil
Process
  • First we are going to prepare the seitan, of course if you have store bought seitan you can skip this sept. In a bowl put the gluten flour, then add the maggi sauce (or soy sauce) and 3 the water. Then add some garlic powder, smoked paprika and mix everything until you get aweird texture dough. Put that in a pot and cover it with water and cook for about 20 minutes on medium-high heat.
  • Put the gluten in a container to process it until it has a consistency similar to ground beef. In a bowl, put the lentils and smash them roughly, then add the chopped parsley, the bread in tiny, some tomato paste, the seitan and finally the minced garlic. Mix everything together until a homogeneous paste is formed, taste it to see if it needs salt.
  • Now check the paste's consistency, make a ball and if it’s too soft, then add some flour, I added maybe two tablespoons until I got a good consistency, but this will depend on how much water your lentils and your seitan had at the beginning, make another ball and check the consistency again to see if it's right.
  • Now that we have the balls, we need to fry them using olive oil, flip them and brown them evenly.
  • In a pot cook the green peas, and cook them.
  • Finally let’s make the gravy in a saucepan add a drizzle of olive oil, and stir fry the garlic, quickly and before it gets burnt add the onion, stir fry it until translucent and a little golden brown and then add the tomato paste, if it is too dry add a little water and continue stirring until the paste is well distributed.
  • Now to make the sauce thicker, add some flour stir and transfer this to a container to be processed together with the cooking juice from the green peas and also some nuts. Process everything until a gravy consistency.
  • Put the gravy in a pot, add a little cinnamon powder, a clove and the no-meatballs, also don’t forget the green peas, stir and serve!

jueves, 11 de mayo de 2017

Sun-dried tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms and brandy pasta sauce

Hi everybody, lately I've been eating more pasta, maybe once or twice a week (I used to eat 0 pasta a week haha) So i have some sauces for you guys, last week I made one that I didnt except to be that good. So I defenetly thought I should show you how to make it.


Ingredients

1/4 Cup of brandy
6 Shiitake Mushrooms
6 Sun-dried tomatoes
400 gr crushed tomatoes
1/4 Cup heavy cream or substitute
1 Medium size onion
1 Garlic clove

Process

The first thing we are going to do is to chop all the mushrooms, the sun-dried tomatoes and the onion into small pieces.
Then in a sauce pan sauteé the onion until translucent, and then add the garlic and sauteé until fragrant.
Add the tomatoes and the mushrooms and sauteé until soft. Then add the crushed tomatoes and cook until the sauce thickens, then add the heavy cream and the brandy. Cook until it has a sauce consistency (not light nor thick).
Add some salt and pepper to taste and if the sauce is sour add a little sugar!
Then you just have to cook the pasta and serve!

miércoles, 3 de mayo de 2017

Zucchini pie

Hi guy, today I have a delicious recipe for you! Its a simple zucchini pie with goat cheese and black olives, I hope you like it!


Ingredients
  • 1 round shortcrust pastry
  • 2 zucchini
  • 1 small onion
  • 75 gr of goat cheese
  • 30 or so black olives
Process
  • Follow the package instructions to bake the shortcrust.
  • Chop the onion into tiny pieces and the zucchini into slices.
  • Sauté the onion and then add one of the zucchini and cook until they are very soft kinda mushy, add some salt and pepper to taste and then puree them using a food processor.
  • Sauté the other zucchini until it's slightly soft and golden brown.
  • Put the onion and zucchini pure on the baked shortcrust. Decorate the surface using the zucchini slices and then on top of that the cheese in small pieces and the black olives.

miércoles, 26 de abril de 2017

Carrot hot dog

Hi everyone today I'll show you how to make a carrot hot dog, yeah it is a recipe a little bit weird hahaha, I saw this on social media it is a vegan version of the hot dogs and I liked the idea and I tried it and it turned out really good so I made it my way with my spices and sauces to give it an extra flavour. Lets go to the recipe!


Ingredients
  • 4 Carrots
  • 4 Hot dog buns
  • 1 Cup of water
  • 2 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsp maggi sauce
  • A pinch of chili powder
  • 1/4 Tsp cumin powder
  • 1/2 Tsp paprika
  • 1 Tsp miso paste
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
Process
  • We are going to chop the ends and then peel the carrots.
  • To give them a more sausage-like appearance we are going to round the ends of the carrots, this is easier with a peeler but you can do this with a knife.
  • Once you are happy with the shape of all your carrot sausages, then it’s time to cook them.
  • Obviously carrots don’t have sausage flavours, besides the meaty flavour sausages also have spices so we are going to add different spices and flavours to the water where we are going to cook and marinate the carrots.
  • First lets cover the sausages with water I used a little bit more than a cup. Then add the soy sauce, the maggi sauce, the cumin powder, the paprika, a pinch of chili powder, the miso paste, the sugar and some garlic.
  • Cook the carrots until they are firm but soft when you poke them with a knife. Let them rest until they are cool if you want you can even keep them in the refrigerator until you want to eat them.
  • To eat them add vegetable oil to a pan and fry them, be careful because since they are wet with the marinade the oil will go crazy as you can see here, I suggest you to first put them in the pan without any oil, wait until they get a little dry and then add the oil. Of course you can make them without frying them but I thought they would be closer to the real thing if they were.
  • Since we added sugar to the marinade you can also add more on top of the carrots to get a better caramelized surface.
  • Once the carrots are ready we are going to put them in the bun, and now we can add our favourite toppings.