Rose Cake Cookies or Turkish Delight Biscuits?!

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Aissa in Biscuits, Cookies, Vegan

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At times I want a biscuit that is crunchy, gives a lovely snap as you take a bite. This time I wanted a cake textured one. Something a bit different too. I went through my batter splattered recipe book and discovered rose biscuits I had made up last year. They had ground almonds and rose, which is such a great combination and a lovely Turkish Delight flavour. I thought with the addition of some apple puree they could gain a soft texture- perfect for what I fancied!

Rose flavoured in blue light of the evening- that gave a soft fuzzy effect evidently!

I am not too sure what to call these. Hence the clumsily named post 🙂 Might come back when my head is in a space where I can make a decision and commit on a title.

Rose Cake Cookies vs Turkish Delight Biscuits

Two dessertspoons of apple puree at room temperature
One generous dessertspoon of organic coconut oil
One dessertspoon of blanched almond butter.*
Four drops of a food grade rose oil or one dessertspoon of rose water
Half a teaspoon of vanilla powder or one teaspoon of vanilla extract
Third of a teaspoon of almond extract- just enough to give a hint of flavour
Three dessertspoons of dark agave
One dessertspoon of coconut blossom sugar ( if unavailable you can use rapadura sugar )
Half a cup of ground almonds
Half a cup of wholemeal spelt flour
One teaspoon of aluminium free baking powder
A small pinch of Himalayan pink salt or good sea salt (eighth to quarter of a tsp )

*You could use cashew nut butter if you do not have this. Do not substitute normal roasted almond butter it has a very different flavour. Blanched almond butter is a pale sweet wonder of a nut butter with a light creamy flavour. Closer to cashew nut butter than a whole skin almond butter.

Preheat the oven to 150C/ 300F. Prepare a baking tray. This recipe makes roughly 12- 14 biscuits / cookies.

These are super easy to make. One caution though- make sure the apple puree is room temperature or your coconut oil will go all solid and not mix properly. I was impatient. I had to stick the perspex bowl in the preheating oven for a few mins so everything would melt together!

Get two bowls. In one add your coconut oil and blanched almond butter and mash them together. Add your almond extract and mash again.

If using rose oil add this now. If using rose water add this after the apple puree.

Add your agave and coconut sugar and really go to work on the ingredients. With energy combine the sweeteners with the fats until it is almost fluffy. Add the apple puree and mix again.

Wet ingredients- that I impatiently melted together this time!

In your other bowl get ready to add the dry stuff. Add your ground almonds and press out any lumps. Add the spelt flour and vanilla powder (if using vanilla extract then go back and mix it into the wet ingredients!)

Now get a sieve and sieve in the baking powder and salt. Lumpy baking powder bits are a horrid thing to come across in a biccie. 😦

Dry ingredients- on my windowsill.

You will notice the dough texture is rather wet. More like a cake batter in fact! This is gooood, all is going according to plan! Maniacal laughter of making nice things to share Narhaahahha ha! Ahem.. yes the recipe.

By the teaspoon plop the dough/ batter on to your baking tray and give them a press down so they are a few mm thick ( approx. .10 of an inch). They will only spread a tiny bit, but just incase do leave a cm (under half an inch) gap between them.

I had a peek at nine minutes and took the opportunity to turn my tray around. They were done at twelve minutes. Leave them completely cool before eating. This is because they will continue to cook on the tray for a few minutes. Also if you eat them straight away the rose flavour is predominant. When they have cooled the rose calms down and the other flavours come out.

Turkish Delight will always remind me of my Nana. When I visited her she often had a round tin in the dresser. As an extra treat my sister and I would be offered some. She was an excellent baker and as you will know from other posts has inspired me. She taught my Mum how to bake and I grew up having the most excellent chocolate cake every birthday. Now I want cake! Vegan chocolate cake recipe coming soon!!

Hope you try them out. Xs Aissa

Colourful Juice

10 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by Aissa in juice, Natural Health, Superfoods, Vegan

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Juice, Natural Health, Superfoods, Vegan, water kefir

Colours….

Green juices have been all the rage for a while now. There are other lovely colours in our fruit and veg. I believe we should be eating and drinking as many different ones as possible! Therefor any colourful juice is great! Those colours indicate different antioxidants and nutrients all having their benefits. Not dissing the green! Green is fantabulous, chlorophyll rich, helps deliver oxygen, boosting energy. I always have a green goody in there like wheatgrass. Beetroot has vascular dilation effects and helps lower blood pressure. Great if you are about to do some exercise. The herbs I’ve added are good for your digestion and oregano leaf is a fantastic anti-microbial. With the a dash of water kefir it will do extra good things for your gut 🙂

Here is the uber juicy palette for my Colourful Juice

An bunch of wheatgrass an inch in diameter
Half a head of green oak leaf lettuce
A red beetroot
Two small carrots
A stalk of celery
A half cup of celery leaves
One green pear
Half a small cucumber- 3inch/9cm piece
A slice of ginger
A quarter inch / 5mm piece of turmeric
Three mint leaves
Three oregano leaves
Three sprigs of curly parsley
Optional: A double shot glass of water kefir.

Colourful Juice

Xs Aissa

Functional Sweet Treats with reishi!

08 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Aissa in Chocolate, Gluten Free, Natural Health, No bake/ Raw, Superfoods, Sweets, Vegan

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Gluten free, medicinal mushrooms, Natural Health, No bake, Superfoods, Sweets, Vegan

Functional Sweet Treats

These are packed with good stuff! They taste pretty amazing too, if I don’t say so myself. Tomorrow I am helping to give a demonstration to nutrition students, it is on how to use medicinal mushrooms ( I did this morning, it went well 🙂 ). I am bringing along sweet goodies made with reishi mushroom powder. Reishi has been used for thousands of years. It is one of if not the first medicinal food to be written about, in China roughly 2,000 years ago!Paul Stamets is a good name to look up if you want know more about these natural powerhouses, his Ted talks are a good intro.

Savoury is generally they way we go when it comes to mushrooms but why not with cacao? Or blueberries? Think of the antioxidant levels! Picture the immune boosting! Discover their adaptogenic properties!! Imagine the tastiness!

Here we go Functional Sweet Treats

Two dessertspoons of goji berries. Soaked over night in just enough water to cover them. I used water kefir.*
Half a ripe avocado- should a bit of give to it when pressed and be going a dark sap green colour.
Two big dessertspoons of blueberries
A flat dessertspoon of organic coconut oil
Two generous dessertspoons of raw dark agave/ date syrup / maple syrup. Whichever you prefer.
A generous cup plus two dessertspoons of ground almonds
Two generous teaspoons of raw cacao powder
A sachet of reishi powder which includes mint, licorice, star anise and stevia. Great for those adrenals. *
Optional: Half a teaspoon of pre-gelatised maca powder
A half teaspoon of vanilla powder or the scraped inside of one vanilla bean.
A quarter of a teaspoon of good quality sea salt or himalayian pink salt.
A third of a cup of organic desiccated/shredded coconut. For sprinkling on top or rolling in.

*This is about double the goji needed. I do more incase some stay a bit hard and eat the left overs. Yum.

*If you are using reishi capsules make sure there are not tons bulking agents, these could change the flavour. One capsules may do, go by taste.

Grab your soaked goji berries. It really is up to you what you would prefer. I don’t want goji lumps on my cacao reishi fantasticalness so I cut or shred my softened gogis. If you like big hits of the gogi then just chop them in two. Put them to one side for use as a topping later.

Mash your avocado and coconut oil together. Add your one dessertspoon of the blueberries and mash again. Should be a creamy paste.

Add the liquid sweetener and Mash MASH mash… again. Add the other spoon of blueberries and mix through. I press this less, as I like having more whole pieces of blueberries too.

Colourful even in the orange light of my kitchen-diner.

In another bowl combine all the dry ingredients (except for the coconut, that is for on top). Make sure there are no lumps of ground almonds or cacao. Sprinkle the salt in so it is evenly dispersed.

Dry goodies

Add the dry things to the omega rich, mct containing, antioxidant abundant….stuff. Mix, stir, combine and merge the ingredients. Pressing the mixture to make sure the fats are taken up well.

Here is the one I used

My preferred Option A: You can roll them into teaspoon size balls. Prepare a plate with your gojis and one with coconut. Roll the balls in goji and then roll them in the coconut. Pop them on a dish and stick them in the fridge to set. They need to live in the fridge (and die in your tummy) as they will go squidgy when left unchilled.

Option B: Get a 7.5 inch cake tin/ tart dish and spread the mix a one centimetre deep. Ah the mixed measurements! That is 20cm cake tin and a quarter inch thick! 😉 You can the sprinkle and press the goji and coconut on top. Pop in the fridge for fifteen minutes. Take out and cut into one inch (2.5cm) squares. Put in the freezer to set. It is happier in there all the time really. It gets shy and melty at room temperature.

Hope you like these!Xs Aissa

P.S. There is a wealth of info on line but here are a few of links about reishi!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-stamets/reishi-mushrooms_b_2200808.html

http://www.alive.com/articles/view/17705/reishi_mushroom

And for a bit more of the nitty gritty science bit http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92757/

How’s the Ferment?

05 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by Aissa in Fermentation, Gluten Free, Natural Health, Superfoods, Traditional, Vegan

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Fermentation, Gluten free, Natural Health, Sauerkraut recipe, Superfoods, Traditional, Vegan, water kefir

About a month ago I posted my Sauerkraut recipe. Any one join me at the time? Here is what mine looks like now. The water is nice and clear. No floating scumminess. Nothing on the glass above the water line. This is a sign all is well. It has a good strong vinegary smell too. Fermented foods are sadly missing from many of our diets, and they are so good for us!

The backlighting is flattering!

I also keep Water Kefir and Kombucha. The water kefir is very active in the current warm weather. I changed mine last night. I thought it would be nice to add extra flavour. The orange colour comes from the rapadura sugar I feed it, i always put in a little ginger too. After straining it I added organic parsley and mint. It is a lovely drink for these warm long evenings. Filled with billions of good live bacteria and yeasts, fantastic for keeping your gut happy and healthy. I hope the summer will continue in this form and in another month I will be sitting in the sun having my sauerkraut with a big organic salad! 🙂

Xs Aissa

Veg-extravaganza Juice!

03 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by Aissa in juice, Superfoods, Vegan

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Juice, Superfoods, Vegan

A typical Irish day, warm and sunny with a light breeze to start. It got a bit dull, still and humid, has completely clouded over and is now lashing rain. It’s irregularity is dependable. Not as dependable as my daily juice routine! Was that a segway? Did a clumsily commit segway-ness?

Veg-tastic Juice pre juicing

We have beautiful fresh organic herbs in the health shop I work in. So delighted to be able to add these nutrient packed refreshing goodies to my juice. All the ingredients I use are organic. I know that not everyone has easy access to organic foods, but I would esp. try to get organic ginger as it can have been irradiated otherwise.

Veg-extravaganza Juice!

A an inch in diameter bunch of wheatgrass
A GIANT pak choi leaf/ two average ones
Five catalogna leaves
A three inch piece of cucumber
Half a purple kohl rabi
Four small red cabbage leaves
A stalk of celery
One medium unwaxed green apple
A couple of dessertspoons of peas! ( I had some defrosted organic marrowfat so threw them in!)
Half an unwaxed lemon
Five sprigs and stems of parsley
A sprig of mint (had about 6 leaves on it)
A slice of turmeric root (1/4 inch)
A slice of ginger ( about the same )

Packed full of nutrients, antioxidants and flavour. The lemon parsley and mint prevent the bitter green leaves from being over powering. The mint particularly lifts the flavour. You could use rocket instead of the catalogna leaves. You could have oak leaf lettuce instead of pak choi. Lime would be lovely instead lemon! Play around make your know Veg-tastic version!

Veg-extravaganza Juice! I shared mine 🙂

Xs Aissa

Fluffy Red Velvet Aduki Truffles

02 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Aissa in Chocolate, Gluten Free, No bake/ Raw, Superfoods, Sweets, Vegan

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Gluten free, No bake, Superfoods, Sweets, Vegan

These are fluffy with a gentle sweetness; as a result they are easy to eat. Don’t be deceived by their soft melty-ness they are super filling. The aduki beans and almonds mean one are two are more than enough at a time. I store them in the fridge or freezer to keep them firm.

You will need a cup for measuring, a plate, a bowl and some sort of blender. I use a hand held one which works fine.

Fluffly Aduki Cocoa truffles or Red velvet Aduki Truffles?

Fluffy Red Velvet Aduki Truffles

Nine unsulphered dried apricots
Optional: A spoon of dried mulberries

Soak these in a some water for at least an hour and then chop them.

A generous mug of cooked aduki beans roughly 240g. If you used canned ones make sure they are well drained.
Two dessertspoons of date syrup. If you are more used to normal sweets you may want to add a spoon of agave/maple syrup too!

Adukis and syrup

Mash these together with a fork, you will be blending it so don’t worry about squashing every bean.

Dry Stuff

Half a cup of ground almonds
A quarter cup of cocoa or raw cacao
A dessertspoon of raw carob
A teaspoon of vanilla powder/ scraped insides of two vanilla pods*
A pinch of salt about a quarter of a teaspoon
Optional: Half a teaspoon of maca powder
Optional lovely extra: Orange zest

*If you want to use vanilla essence don’t! Vanilla bean paste in sugar would be fine but alcohol based extracts aren’t so good in raw sweets.
Mix the dry ingredients together, pressing out any lumps.

Two thirds of a cup of desiccated (shredded) coconut
Twenty four organic almonds, finely chopped

Put these on a dinner plate. You will be rolling the mixture in them.

Put your chopped fruit into the adukis. Give things a mix. Stir in your dry ingredients.

Grab your hand blender and start blending! Use a low setting at first, it is better for your blender. The ingredients will get quite fluffy and a pinky chocolate colour. Should have called them Red Velvet Aduki Truffles 🙂 You know I will, they were called fluffy aduki cocoa truffles.

Rinse your hands in cold water. If your hands are too warm handling the concoction you may find it all melting to goo. By the dessertspoonful gently roll the aduki truffles into the nuts and or the coconut. It was a warm day here and I found everything going a bit squashy. So work quick if you are having good weather!

Put them in the fridge or freezer to set for half an hour. I store mine in the fridge as they are lovely cold and it keeps them firm. I am a messy chef so while they are setting I try and get the mix off my hands, the cupboards and every surface. Works up the appetite anyway!

Xs Aissa

Tomato sauce again?!

02 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Aissa in Gluten Free, Savoury, Vegan

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Gluten, Savoury, Vegan

Tomato sauces are my fall back dinner. If I can’t think what to have … it is what I have. It changes based on what organic vegetables I happen to be available (and in my kitchen). There are so many computations that work it seems like an ever versatile dish! It is simple,fast, healthy and tasty. Beans taste so much better if bought dried, soaked overnight and cooked for forty five minutes before adding them to the tomato sauce. I was not organised so went for my organic cans in the press!!From start to finish it should take under an hour.

Tomato Sauce Again!

A dessertspoon of coconut oil
Half a teaspoon of nigella seeds
Half a teaspoon of chilli flakes
Black pepper to taste
A pinch of sea salt
Five cloves of finally (ha! meant finely) chopped garlic
One carrot finely sliced
One 400g (240g drained) can of organic chopped tomatoes
A teaspoon of paprika
A dessertspoon of dried oregano
One 400g (240g drained) can of organic pinto beans
Third of a cup of organic frozen peas
!00g of organic baby spinach leaves
A third of a cup of ground almonds
Ten fresh basil leaves- torn

Get your saucepan and put it on a medium heat. Add your coconut oil and let it melt. Add your nigella seeds, chilli flakes and black pepper. Let them sizzle for a half a minute. Add your garlic and after another minute add your carrot. Give things a stir. Add your tomatoes and paprika. Let this cook for a five minutes. Add your pinto beans and peas. Let these cook through so the peas are warmed through. Add the spinach, stir it into the tomatoes. Let it all cook for ten/ fifteen minutes at a simmer. The spinach releases a lot of water so it needs to reduce. Add the ground almonds, this thickens the sauce and adds a richness to it. Throw in the basil leaves. It will prob need to cook for another few minutes.

Colourful food

I had mine with kelp noodles but clearly it would go with any kind of pasta you like!

Xs Aissa

Image

Intense Juice

01 Sunday Jun 2014

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Fermentation, Juice, Natural Health, Superfoods, Vegan

Still having my juice a day, for that extra nutrient blast! Wanted to go for bitters and fabulous organic stuff that is good for the digestion.

I have been juicing for a while and I have built up the intensity of greens I can take. If you have just pulled your new juicer out of the box do not start with this one! Have a look at my other lighter recipes and certainly do not juice garlic. I would even recommend diluting this with some water kefir or natural mineral water if it is your first green veg juice. Also sip the juice, take your time enjoy.

Intensity of colour, intensity of flavour, intensity of nutrients!

Intense Juice packed with flavour!

Two large pak choi leaves
Four or five kale leaves and stalks
Four catalogna leaves
Three red cabbage leaves
Half a pointed red pepper
Two stalks of celery
One green apple
A nub of turmeric (as thick as tip of your baby finger)
Half a lemon
A slice of ginger ( half cm thick)
Optional: one small clove of garlic
Optional: A dash of water kefir

As I said this is Intense! If you think your palette or your system is not ready for it yet you can A: reduce the green leaves by half B: Dilute the juice. C: Come back to it another time 🙂

The catalogna are bitter green leaves, “bitters” stimulate the digestion. All the greens are filled with energising chlorophyll. The cabbage’s red colouring is an antioxidant. Along with the greens it is a massive source of vitamin K. This juice gives an intense hit of B vitamins, vitamin C, glutamine,potassium, the enzyme superoxide dismutase with a massive etc. The addition of the lemon, turmeric, ginger and garlic gives it anti-inflammatory,antibacterial and extra anti-oxidant properties. It also does taste lovely!

Xs Aissa

P.S. Even the pulp is amazing looking!

Rainbow pulp!

Posted by Aissa | Filed under Fermentation, juice, Natural Health, Superfoods, Vegan

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Apricot Bread

25 Sunday May 2014

Posted by Aissa in Bread, Cake, Traditional, Vegan

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Bread, Cake, Traditional, Vegan

This Apricot Bread was inspired by a couple of my Nana’s recipes. Her “Granny cake” which is an Irish style bread cake a bit like a big sweet scone that has sultana’s in it. The other recipe was her light Soda bread that was made with a sweet milk as opposed to a normal buttermilk/ sour milk one. I am not a huge sultana fan but don’t mind the less sweet dried apricot.

Apricot Bread

Two thirds of a cup of chopped organic unsulphered apricots approx. seventeen apricots
One and a half cups of wholemeal spelt flour
Half a cup of oat bran. I actually made it with half a cup of buckwheat flour this time but it wasn’t as nice.
Three rounded teaspoons of baking powder
Two dessertspoons of rapadura sugar
Two dessertspoons of caster sugar
One generous teaspoon of vanilla powder/ vanilla extract in with the wet ingredients
Zest of an unwaxed orange
A pinch of sea salt

The dry stuff!

A quarter cup of dark agave
A quarter cup of sunflower oil (one suitable for frying)
Two thirds of a cup of soya/ almond milk (you could put a little orange juice in and reduce the milk a bit)
Seven drops of an orange oil suitable for food use/ A teaspoon of a good orange extract
A few dessertspoons of fine maize meal for sprinkling on top

The wet stuff!

Preheat your oven to 200C / 390F. Prepare a loaf tin. I use a normal pound loaf tin though the measurements may seem small for that. It will not expand like a ballon to the top of the tin, but don’t worry it isn’t meant to.

Chop your apricots and put them to soak in a cereal bowl of water.

Soaked apricots

Grab a mixing bowl and start putting in your dry ingredients, pausing to sieve the baking powder.

In another bowl (or jar in my case) put in your wet ingredients.

Pour the wet into the dry. Gently mix everything together, be carefully not to overwork. Once your ingredients are combined fold in the soaked apricots.

Dark Battter! Haha bad pun 😉

Pour the batter into the cake tin, making sure it is even.Sprinkle the coarse maize meal onto. The maize meal will prevent it from burning. Put a few diagonal slashes on top to help with the rise.

Place in the centre of your oven. After five minutes turn the oven down to 180C / 350F.

It is done when it is coming away from the sides and a golden brown colour. It will take a minimum of thirty minutes, do not be tempted to take it out before then. I have a fan oven and it takes thirty five minutes , it could take forty five in a non fan. While writing this I forgot about the aforementioned Apricot bread and nearly burnt it. When you take it out leave it sit for five minutes. Wrap it in a clean towel and leave it to cool for another fifteen minutes. I leave mine cool on the windowsill. If you cut it while it is warm the texture can turn gummy. This is what will probably happen mine, since I cut it so I could take a photo!

Apricot Bread

Try it toasted with coconut oil. It is reaaaally good. Xs Aissa

Drink your Greens

25 Sunday May 2014

Posted by Aissa in juice, Natural Health, Superfoods, Vegan

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Juice, Natural Health, Superfoods, Vegan

Hey, just a quick juicy recipe! This an Uber green concoction, if you are not used to intense greenness you could increase the apple or add a little lemon juice! First gather your organic goodies and prepare for juicing!

a bowl of green

Four kale leaves
Half a teaspoon of magnesium powder (to balance the oxalic acid in the kale)
Two pak choi leaves
Five lettuce leaves
A stick of celery
Half a green apple
A third of a cucumber
An inch thick bunch of wheatgrass
Half a purple kohl rabi
A baby finger tip size of ginger
If you have it add a double shot size of water kefir to the juice

It is fabulously green. It gave me a great energy boost!

Super green with a delectable frothy head!

Here’s one I had while writing this one up!

Half a green apple
Half a purple kohl rabi
Three lettuce leaves
Three pak choi leaves
A half inch bundle of wheatgrass
A couple of inches of cucumber
Half an organic unwaxed lemon
A slice of organic ginger

It was very refreshing a lighter green but great greeny nutrition all the same!

Drink your greens two- too

VeganEtcetera

~ Eating healthily easily

Category Archives: Vegan

Rose Cake Cookies or Turkish Delight Biscuits?!

Colourful Juice

Functional Sweet Treats with reishi!

How’s the Ferment?

Veg-extravaganza Juice!

Fluffy Red Velvet Aduki Truffles

Tomato sauce again?!

Intense Juice

Apricot Bread

Drink your Greens