Spicy Kale Chips

Super easy one today.  I had a bunch of kale sitting in my fridge - some of which I had juiced, but there was still lots leftover.  So I decided to make a batch of kale chips.  The spices made them super tasty and these babies didn't last long after I had baked them!  As a side note, anyone with hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) needs to be careful when consuming cruciferous veggies such as kale as these types of veggies have been linked to suppressing thyroid function.  I personally don't have an underactive thyroid, however kale also contains oxalates - which when consumed, bind strongly to iron (and some other minerals) in your body and the iron is then excreted.  Not ideal for those of us (like me) who have iron deficiency.  So this is definitely one of a number of foods that I only like to enjoy every now and then.  

Ingredients:
- 1 bunch of kale
- 1 tbsp macadamia oil
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 170 degrees and line 2 large baking trays with baking paper

2.  Separate the kale leaves from the stems and discard the stems.  Wash the kale leaves and then dry well.  Break up the kale leaves into chunks.

3.  In a large bowl, toss the remaining ingredients through the kale leaves.  Spread out onto the baking trays.  Bake for around 10 minutes or until the kale starts browning around the edges.

Apple & Cinnamon Brown Rice Waffles

Some lazy weekend mornings I love to put a bit of extra effort into breakfast... and by extra effort I usually mean preparing some of the ingredients the night before.  This is the case with this recipe.  I grind my brown rice down into flour (or you can buy brown rice flour) the night before and I soak it overnight in some liquid with a bit of apple cider vinegar.  Soaking grains in an acidic medium allows the phytic acid in the grain to be neutralised, and this allows our digestive tract to more easily absorb the nutrients from the grain.  It really doesn't take very long to prepare these babies, just a few minutes of prep time the night before!

Ingredients (makes 8 waffles):
- 2 cups brown rice flour (or brown rice, ground in Thermomix for 1min/sp9)
- 400ml can coconut cream
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup rapadura sugar
- 2 free range eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 large apple, grated (please peel if not organic)

Method:
1.  Combine the brown rice flour, coconut cream and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl.  Cover and leave overnight to soak (I leave mine on the bench but if you're not comfortable doing this, you can pop it in the fridge).

2.  In the morning, add the remaining ingredients and whisk together.  Preheat a waffle iron and cook the waffles in batches.  I find that cooking them a little longer allows them to hold together a lot better.  Serve with fruit, yoghurt, maple syrup, honey etc.  

Spelt Pizza Base

I really should be studying right now for my last exam for the semester.... but I'm looking for every excuse under the sun not to!  I made this pizza for dinner tonight and as it turned out, my sister and super fussy 3yo nephew dropped by.  My nephew had 3 slices of pizza - you know a food is good when he eats it!  This recipe makes 2 large pizzas.  If you don't want to make 2 pizzas at once - you can freeze half the dough once the proving has finished, roll it into a ball and wrap in cling wrap, then pop into the freezer.  When you're ready to use the dough, you just take it out of the freezer and allow to thaw out on a baking paper lined pizza tray until it's soft enough to flatten and roll out.

Ingredients:
Base:
- 1 cup of water
- 1 sachet (7g) dried yeast
- 4 cups unbleached spelt flour
- 1 tbsp macadamia oil + 1 tbsp extra
- Pinch of sea salt

Toppings:
Whatever you want - but this is what I used tonight:
- 4 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
- 100g nitrate-free ham, chopped
- 2 cups cheese (please grate it yourself to avoid anti caking agents often added to pre-shredded cheeses) - I used mozzarella and parmesan (grated in my Thermie for 10 seconds on speed 9)

Method:
1.  Heat water until lukewarm and stir the yeast in.  Cover and allow to sit for 10 minutes or until yeast is frothy and activated.

(Thermomix - add water and yeast to TM bowl and warm for 2min/37deg/sp1.  Allow to activate for 10 minutes or so)

2.  Tip the yeast mixture into a large bowl.  Add the flour, 1 tbsp of oil and a pinch of salt and combine with your hands.  Tip the dough mixture out onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Using the remaining 1tbsp of macadamia oil, grease a large bowl and put your dough in.  Cover and allow to prove on the bench for around 1 hour or until doubled in size.

(Thermomix - add flour, 1tbsp oil and pinch of salt.  Mix 5sec/sp6.  Knead for 30 seconds using the knead function.  Transfer the dough into a bowl greased with remaining macadamia oil, cover and allow to prove on the bench for around 1 hour or until doubled in size)

3.  After the dough has doubled in size, I then put the bowl of dough in the fridge for another 2 hours.  It continues to grow but much more slowly.

4.  Preheat oven to 220 degrees and line 2 pizza trays with baking paper.  Divide the dough in half and roll out onto each tray.  Top with whichever toppings you like and bake for around 15 minutes, until the dough is cooked through.   

Chocolate & Vanilla Swirl Berry Delight Cake

If you've been following my Facebook page, you may have seen me post about Matilda, the travelling swirly pan from the Aussie Peoplehood of the Travelling Swirly Pan.  Matilda makes its way to a new Australian home every fortnight.  Currently it's my turn to bake in Matilda and I made this gorgeous cake in it.  If you would like to be part of the baking action, head over to this page for more info or to sign up!   In the meantime, check out my latest blog post.

Ingredients:
Cake:
- 3.5 cups unbleached spelt flour
- 3/4 cup rapadura sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 free range eggs
- 400ml coconut cream
- 50g butter, melted
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1/3 cup cacao powder

Icing - whipped coconut cream:
- 2 x 400ml tins coconut cream, refrigerated for a few hours
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

Strawberry sauce:
- 1 punnet of strawberries, washed and hulled
- 1 tbsp maple syrup

Garnish:
- Fresh mixed berries
- Toasted organic coconut flakes

Method:

1.  Make the cake.  Preheat oven to 160 degrees.  Grease the cake tin with butter and dust with spelt flour.  Set aside the prepared cake tin.  In a large bowl, whisk together until well combined the spelt flour, rapadura, baking powder, eggs, coconut cream, butter and vanilla.  Pour half the cake batter into another bowl.  Add cacao powder to one of the bowls and whisk to combine.  Pour small amounts of the cake batter, alternating between the 2 batters, into the prepared cake tin.  Swirl the batter with a skewer or knife.  Pop into the oven for around 20-25 minutes or until the top of the cake springs back when pressed lightly on top.  Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before turning out and allowing to cool completely.

2.  Make strawberry sauce by processing strawberries and maple syrup until a smooth consistency.  I did this in the Thermomix for about 40sec/sp4-5.  Rinse Thermo bowl. 

3.  Make whipped coconut cream.  With an electric beater (or Thermomix, with the butterfly attachment), add all the coconut cream icing ingredients and whip until the mixture thickens (approx 1min/sp4 in Thermomix).

4.  Ice the cake with the coconut cream and strawberry sauce, then garnish with berries and toasted coconut. 

Lemon Cheesecake Bites

Well I'm still looking for a house in Brisbane while we stay with family so most of my pantry essentials are still in storage - in case anyone is wondering why I've been missing in action!  Anyway, this afternoon just seemed like a good afternoon for blogging so here goes.

Ingredients (makes 10):
* I used 10 cupcake sized silicone moulds
Base:
- 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
- 1/2 cup cashews
- 1/4 cup rapadura sugar
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

Filling:
- 450g quark cheese
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tbsp pure cream
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Juice of half a lemon
- 2 tbsp coconut oil 
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1.  In a food processor or Thermomix, add all the base ingredients.  Process for a few seconds or until finely chopped (6sec/sp5 in Thermomix).
  
2.  Divide evenly amongst the 10 silicone moulds and press down.  Put into the fridge while you make the filling. 

3.  To make the filling, add all the filling ingredients to the food processor or Thermomix and process until smooth and combined (1.5min/sp4 in Thermomix), stopping and scraping down the sides a couple of times during this process.

4.  Spoon the filling into the silicone moulds.  Put into the freezer for at least an hour.  To serve the cheesecake bites, take them out of the freezer and remove the silicone moulds.  Thaw for about 10 minutes and serve.

Spicy Quinoa Salad

 

I love quinoa for its nutritional benefits as well as being a grain-free alternative to grains such rice.  This salad is easy and quick to prepare and it's delish.  I have it as a side dish or on its own.  Perfect meal in the current summer heat!  

Ingredients:
- 200g quinoa
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1/2 red capsicum, diced
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- 1 avocado, cubed
- 1 cucumber, diced
- 1/2 cup toasted cashews

Dressing:
- 2 cloves garlic
- Thumb of fresh ginger
- 1 large red chilli, deseeded (or leave the seeds in if you dare!)
- 2tsp rapadura sugar
- 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1tbsp tamari
- Juice from 1 lime
- Small handful fresh parsley
- Few leaves of fresh mint
- Sprinkle of sea salt

Method:
1.  Rinse the quinoa well and then cook it as per the packet directions.  Alternatively, if you have a Thermomix, put the quinoa into the rice basket and rinse.  Pour 1L of water into the TM bowl and steam the quinoa for 12min/Varoma/sp4.  Tip the cooked quinoa into a large bowl and allow to cool.

2.  Stir through diced vegetables and nuts

3.  Make dressing - blend together all the ingredients until smooth (about 1min/sp9 in Thermomix).  Stir the dressing through the salad.  Serve.

Creamy Smoked Salmon Dip

Well it's really only a matter of days that I have left in Perth and apart from that it's been a pretty busy time with the kids' school year coming to a close.  There have been quite a few shared lunches and farewell parties and for one of these, my 4 year old daughter (with very refined taste for a 4 year old I think!) asked me to make some smoked salmon dip with veggie sticks.  I thought that was a fab idea!  So here is my recipe.  Please note that I do my best to avoid using Australian salmon.  The reason being is that salmon is not native to Australia and therefore any Australian salmon tends to be farmed.  In addition, the nutritional value of farmed salmon is lower than that of wild salmon.  So I buy salmon which specifically states on the packet that it has been wild caught and therefore in this rare instance I believe local is not the way to go.

Ingredients (makes about 1.5 cups):

- 1 shallot, trimmed and cut into chunks

- Small handful fresh dill

- 250g block full fat Philly cream cheese

- 150g smoked salmon fillet (wild caught preferably)

- 2 heaped tbsp natural full fat yoghurt

- 2 tsp tomato paste

- 1 tsp onion powder

- Squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice

- Sea salt and pepper 

Method:

Add shallots and dill into Thermomix or food processor and process for a few seconds until chopped finely (2sec/sp7 in Thermomix).  Add remaining ingredients and process until well combined and smooth in consistency (40sec/sp4 in Thermomix), stopping and scraping down the sides halfway through the process.