Chocolate pancake skewers with strawberries (GF)

Gluten free vegan chocolate pancakes

I made these little cherubs for my niece’s birthday party. The task was an allergy friendly addition to the food table! So these are gluten free, dairy free, egg free, nut free, soy free pancakes! Wow! Exhausted already? Hopefully nobody has a strawberry allergy 🙂

I have posted a number of varied pancake recipes on this site on a hunt for a “go-to” recipe. Dave and I particularly like the hazelnut pancakes I have to say, but the kids are not as in favour of those as we are (Mr 5 thinks he doesn’t like nuts!). And if you have GF flours in stock, these are super easy to whip up (no pulverising nuts required 😉 ). They are also really delicious!

I thought I wasn’t a fan of buckwheat. I have no idea why I thought that. Because this really works. I’m really glad I gave it a go! It doesn’t have a strong flavour like millet or amaranth or even coconut flour can give.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1/4 cup Arrowroot flour (tapioca)

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup rice milk

2 T rice syrup

1/4 cup coconut palm sugar (or just use more rice syrup)

1 heaped T cacao powder

Mix mix mix and lightly fry 🙂 Easy done.

Add a little more milk if the mixture is too thick…and enjoy! What better than chocolate pancakes for breakfast 🙂

Chocolate peppermint slice

Chocolate peppermint slice

I just adore these adaptable recipes! This is vegan, gluten free and pretty healthy in the scheme of things!

You could make this a raw slice by creating a base out of nuts/dates/cacao. Or use flour etc and bake it like I have. You could also make the middle out of a silken tofu base rather than coconut (although it will form a soft pie-like centre instead). I had a lot of trouble deciding on each layer but was happy with the result!

Had a 3 year old yapping at me for a taste so the photo was a bit rushed but it tastes good, I swear :). Hope you enjoy!

Base:

1.5 T chia seeds (chia meal if preferred)

1 T apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup  rice syrup

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

Mix together.

Add:

1 cup  nut meal (I used a combo of almonds and walnuts, processed in food processor)

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 T cacao

Mix ingredients together and press into lined baking tin. I used a 9 ” round.

Bake at 180 deg C for 15 minutes. Allow to cool.

Centre:

1 cup shredded coconut

2 tsp coconut oil, melted

1 T agave nectar

1/4 cup coconut cream, chilled

1 tsp peppermint extract (but start small and add this to taste!)

Add the coconut, oil and nectar to the food processor and process away until it begins to smooth. This takes a long time so walk away and do something else rather than watch it! It will get there! Then add the coconut cream and peppermint and mix.

Press on top of the base and refrigerate whilst making the top layer.

Top:

2 T cacao

1/4 coconut oil

2 T agave (or rice syrup)

4 squares dark chocolate, melted

Melt the coconut oil and dark chocolate and stir in the cacao and agave. Pour over the peppermint layer and set in fridge.

* You can use all dark chocolate for this or leave it out completely and add more cacao and agave. I like the combination of both but either or all options will work well.

This recipe is a combination of so many things! Each has been adapted but the base is based on the Spunky Coconut, the centre is based on Fork and Beans

Crunchy peanut butter ice cream

400ml full fat organic coconut cream (100% coconut if possible)

3/4 cup peanut butter (natural, 100% peanuts)

3 T Agave nectar/rice syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

sprinkle of salt

1/2 cup crushed roasted peanuts

Mix together and freeze. If you have an ice cream maker, this is ideal as it keeps incorporating air into the ice cream. Otherwise, stir every hour or so whilst freezing.

This ice cream will need to sit out for a short while to soften before serving. It is absolutely moorish! Beware!

Easy peasy chocolate cake

Easy peasy chocolate cake

This is a pretty stunning super quick cake – with ingredients you probably have on hand!

It IS gluten (it was for my dad- happy birthday dad!). My recommendation if you are gluten free would be to replace with your own GF mix or use 2 cups brown rice flour, 1/4 cup millet flour and 3/4 cup tapioca starch if you want to make your own. I have confidence in this cake!

This recipe is adapted from Grist and makes one 8-inch cake. I made double for the picture included.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups wholemeal Atta flour
1 cup Agave nectar     (if you like things SWEET, perhaps do 3/4 cup agave and 3/4 cup coconut palm sugar)
2/3 cup unsweetened cacao powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 tsp bicarb soda

2 tsp baking powder
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup virgin coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly

3/4 cup coconut cream

1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix together the vinegar, vanilla, agave, coconut oil, and coconut cream/ water. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until well blended and smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick or thin knife blade inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Cool the cake completely on a rack.

Ice with a ganache of cacao/coconut cream/agave mixed together and enjoy!

Whole food samosas (Gluten free)

This is such a special recipe. Samosas are one of those spectacular Indian foods that is often deep fried – and not necessarily great for the body. Gluten Free Vegan girl has come up with an oil free, gluten free and more importantly, whole food samosa recipe. And it’s good. Really good!

What surprised me was that I made a batch and had heaps of left over filling so I put the rest in puff pastry (knowing my kids love anything in pastry!) and both of them preferred the buckwheat version! I was stoked. So grab yourself some brown rice flour, buckwheat flour and flaxseed or chia. They don’t look spectacular but the taste it!

Dough:

• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseeds (I used chia)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup water

Sweet potato & green pea filling:

• 4 heaped cups cubed sweet potatoes, with or without peel                 (I added in some carrot etc too)
• 2 cups green peas or lentils (frozen or fresh)
• 2 yellow onions, chopped
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• a few tbsp water

Spices, to taste:

• garam masala
• red curry powder
• ground ginger
• garlic powder
• cayenne pepper
• cumin

Head over to gluten free vegan girl‘s site for the instructions on how to make. Brilliant recipe.

Strawberry ice cream

Strawberry ice cream

1 pkt organic silken tofu

1 cup non dairy milk

2 cups strawberries

1 ripe banana

1/3 cup agave or rice syrup

2 T coconut oil (liquid)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp xanthum gum

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

I used Veganbaking.net as a base for my recipe idea although didn’t follow it entirely. Mainly because I don’t want to use vegetable oil or white granulated sugar. But despite the fact that I didn’t follow the process entirely, the site gives a great deal of info about the science of ice cream making if you are interested (including the role that xanthum gum plays). It’s worth a read if you want to venture into ice cream making!

Blend all ingredients and freeze – stir every hour or so to help incorporate air.

Otherwise if you have an ice cream maker, cool the mixture in the fridge and then pop in the ice cream maker to chill and churn.

Aloo tikki (Indian potato patties)

Aloo tikki

 

Ok so for some reason they look a little squishy in this photo! But truly, these golden little nuggets are so tasty. We don’t eat potato really much these days but I so wanted to try these and they really lived up to – and exceeded – my craving expectations. It is so so simple. Really an Indian hash brown if you like.

 

3 large potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed

1/2 cup green peas

handful of coriander, chopped

1 spring onion, chopped finely

1 tsp ginger powder

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp lemon juice

salt and pepper for seasoning

 

Mix all ingredients together and squish together to form little (or big) balls. They do cook better if squashed flat a little I find. Lightly fry for a couple of minutes on each side.

The outside is oh so crunchy and the inside is soft and rich in flavour.

Some recipes seem to add breadcrumbs. I could be wrong but I don’t think this is true of traditional Aloo tikki? I wanted to keep them gluten free – but you could add besan flour (chickpea) if you wish.

There are also many variations on the spices added i.e. coriander (ground), onion, chilli etc. (I personally would have added chilli but I know my 3 yo would complain so I’d rather him be able to eat them!)

Whatever you do, you can adapt this to suit your style as always, and enjoy, they are delicious!

 

Make it possible

Whilst it’s true that eating a plant based diet is not the norm by any means in Australia, it is definitely on the rise as people become more conscious and more concerned about practices surrounding animal industries.

I have been so amazed to see the Make it Possible campaign launch in Australia with so many of our celebs backing the move to end factory farming. I actually even donated to their cause today (not something I often do). They rely solely on donations to keep the campaign running.

I know that talk about this leads to many feeling uncomfortable and judged. For me it’s not about that. I wonder if we can leave the judgement of each other aside and look at practices with animals and judge that as to whether it is something we are ok with or not. For me, it’s a no. I have always always always been a person that can’t bear the pain of animals. Just ask my mum! 🙂 But as an adult, it is more than that for me now. For me it taps into who we understand ourselves to be in the universe and how we can make compassionate and conscious choices. This might be for some, as simple as demanding more from industries to clean up their act ethically.

Visit Make it Possible. Donate, sign, FB…whatever. Spreading the cause to end factory farming is a great thing.

 

Homemade soy yoghurt (strawberry)

Strawberry soy yoghurt

Despite my seeming obsession with coconut yoghurt, I realised I have been remiss in updating Plant Based Munchies on the fact that we actually are now making homemade soy yoghurt as our staple. The kids, much to my devastation, don’t like the strong coconut flavour of coconut yoghurt! Unbelievable, I know!

I am pretty firmly in an anti-commercial soy yoghurt camp at the moment. They are SO expensive for what they are, and even the plain soy yoghurt is incredibly sweet. So I like this. And so do the kids. Their favourite has actually been mango but this week will be a strawberry adventure for them 😉

I’m also enjoying using the plain yoghurt in cooking. It’s new-ish to me – I have never really done it in the past. But now that we have yoghurt easily and economically available, it’s all good!

Below are two different recipes. You can decide 😉

First let me say, you don’t have to use soy milk. The important thing is that the milk you use has a decent fat content (i.e. 4% or more). My favourite for yoghurt is Bonsoy because it is such a quality soy milk and such a mild flavour but it IS the most expensive soy milk possible so it’s up to you. Sometimes we do combinations, sometimes we add in rice milk too. You could do a combination of rice milk and coconut cream if you like (lessens the coconut flavour but increases the fat content of the rice milk).

The other thing really is that you can choose however you want to thicken it or IF you do. Runny yoghurt is fine too, it’s just runny.

Anyway here’s:

Recipe 1

500ml organic (non GM) soy milk

1/3 tapioca starch

1 T rice syrup

1/4 cup soy yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk starch into soy milk and add other ingredients.

Place in a yoghurt maker for 8 hours and then refrigerate.

(It may help to warm the milk (not boil) before this process to help incorporate the starch and kick off the yoghurt fermentation process).

Recipe 2

 600ml soy milk

1 T xanthan gum

1 T rice syrup

1/4 soy yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat soy milk until warm and whisk in xanthan gum until smooth (use a stick blender if required).

Add in rice syrup and vanilla, and cool to luke warm before adding in yoghurt.

Place in yoghurt maker for 8 hours.

If you need other ideas to keep yoghurt warm other than a yoghurt maker, see this post here.

Yoghurt is not a difficult process. It seems it, but there are sooo many options, it’s hard to go wrong. I’ve found the yoghurt will thicken in the yoghurt maker but it really sets once it is refrigerated.

For the pictured strawberry yoghurt, I just processed 1 cup of yoghurt with 1 cup strawberries (approximately). Yum! If you like a sweeter yoghurt, feel free to add more sweetener.

Luck!

Green Iron booster smoothie

Green Iron Booster smoothie

This is a variation of an Iron smoothie a friend posted on Facebook recently. The pineapple adds a sweetness to this. You could also throw in a fresh date if you need more too. But I love pineapple and mint as a combination and this smoothie, with the zingy lemon and mellow spinach leaves is awesome. I was feeling very flat this afternoon and decided to make this and see if it would help. Guess what? It did!

Throw out the chocolate and pick up the green smoothie. Yes. Will have to listen to myself more often 😉 (Not that I really eat chocolate anymore but you get the gist…).

1 cup spinach

1/2 lemon

1 green apple

1/2 cup pineapple

handful fresh mint leaves

1 T sesame seeds

1 cup water

handful ice

Blend away.

It is rare that I enjoy smoothies. Especially green ones. I only post ones that I REALLY like and this is one of them 🙂

Moroccan sweet potato and zucchini pizza

Moroccan sweet potato and zucchini pizza

OOo yummy. This is such a keeper of a pizza!

First, let’s begin with the Moroccan sauce.

Ingredients:

2 tomatoes
4-5 cloves garlic
1/4 cup mint leaves
1 spanish onion
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of ground cumin
1/2 tsp of ground coriander
1/4 tsp of ground allspice
1/4 tsp of ground ginger
sprinkle of ground cayenne
sprinkle  of ground cinnamon
sprinkle of ground black pepper

Process sauce ingredients in food processor.
In the meantime, slice

1/2 sweet potato

1/2 zucchini

in a mandolin or food processor blade.

Add 1/2 the sauce to your preferred pizza base, and layer the sweet potato and zuchinni slices on top of the base.

Top with cherry tomatoes, a drizzle of more sauce and some extra fresh mint leaves. Bake until beginning to turn crispy.
Delicious!

Thanks to Lady and pups for the recipe idea.

Frijoles Refritos (Refried beans)

Mexican is my new obsession (food, that is). There’s a little place near here called Lucky Lupitas which has a pretty divine tostada option and hey, Mexican is easily plant based food. Any staff in a Mexican restaurant tend to say “Vegan? Oh yeah. We can do that”. It’s no stress because their cusine is not built around dairy and meat like others. Having said that, I have read that many Mexican places (esp in America) use lard instead of oil in their cooking. That would be good to watch out for.

My main issue is I’d like to buy tostadas but can’t seem to in Adelaide *sigh*. I’m ok with tacos and burritos etc although they are not really a diet staple for us and Dave would prefer not to eat them at all. He did manage to find corn based tortillas which is good but they aren’t organic and are presumably GM. Anyway if you can find ingredients you like, it’s not hard to make your own tostadas.

But I digress. I am in love with Mexican food. And it works for the kids (if it’s not too spicy) because they like building their own food empire and they like the control they get in choosing a bunch of foods to add to their Mexican feast. When I served this bean dish up with a bunch of chopped salad ingredients and corn tortillas for dinner, Mr 3 said this was the “best tea EVER” and Mr 5 said it was a “great idea mum, 11 out of 10”. Their little eating habits have been slower to change than ours but are amazingly different to what they were before WE changed our habits. It’s inspiring.

Here’s a really simple recipe for Refried beans – which aren’t refried at all, but it’s the name for a bean base to use in Mexican cooking. I  read the proper translation is “Well-fried” rather than “re”. You could, however, just serve it up for breakfast with avocado and asparagus or mash it through a green salad. It doesn’t have to be  in a taco/tortilla/tostada.

• 1 cup pinto beans/kidney beans/black beans
• 1 spanish (purple) onion,chopped
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2-400gm tinned or fresh tomatoes (I put this variation because usually it is less but I like it MORE tomatoey)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 finely chopped chilli (or to taste)
• Salt to taste
• Few cilantro sprigs for garnish

As one of our friends found out the hard way, beans need to be soaked prior to cooking if using dried beans or they will give you food poisoning!

Otherwise you are safe with tinned :). Saute the garlic and onion and add in the remaining ingredients. Simmer for 15 minutes and then mash with a fork (or blend with a blender if you prefer a smoother sauce).

Easy as – and so nutritious and tasty!