Pear, Apple, and Raspberry Crumble

Ingredients:

4 pears

1 apple

50 g rapeseed oil, plus extra

1 tsp lemon juice

55 g sugar, plus extra

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 tbsp oats

60 g flour

30 g almonds (ground or chopped)

30 g dark chocolate, optional

50-60 g raspberries (frozen is fine)

 

Instructions:

1. Wash, peel, and chop the pears and apple.

2. Lightly oil them and toss them with lemon juice and a little sugar. Bake at 190 C for 10-15 minutes, until softened.

3. Meanwhile, mix all the other ingredients together except the dark chocolate. Grate or chop the chocolate.

4. Top the fruit with the raspberries.

5. Dot the crumble topping over the fruit and sprinkle with chocolate (or mix the chocolate into the crumble topping first).

6. Bake at 190 C for 30-40 minutes.

Blondies

I made these for my students and they appealed to their desire for a sugar hit. I like to sprinkle them with sea salt so there’s a salty and caramel mixture, but you can leave the salt off.

 

Ingredients:

½ cup vegetable oil (or melted butter if you prefer)

2 cups dark brown sugar

1½ cups flour

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp salt, plus extra to sprinkle on top, if desired

2 eggs

 

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together until a soft ball/mush has formed.

2. Spread in a lightly oiled pan or tin.

3. Sprinkle with fine sea salt, if desired.

4. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 180 C.

Chocolate Meringue Cookies

Ingredients:

3 egg whites

¼ tsp cream of tartar

½ - ¾ cup caster sugar (add more if you like it sweeter)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 tbsp cocoa powder

 

Instructions:

1. Whisk the egg whites until foam, then add the cream of tartar.

2. Continue whisking on a higher speed, and add about 1 tbsp of sugar at a time.

3. Slowly add in the vanilla and cocoa powder.

4. Whisk until firm and shiny.

5. Pipe onto parchment paper on baking trays and bake for 40 minutes to 2 hours at 140 C until crisp on the outside and chewy inside. The time varies depending on how big the cookies are.

Carrot Ginger Soup

Ingredients:

2 shallots or 1 onion

oil

2-3 tsp minced ginger (I use frozen, but fresh is great too)

1 vegetable stock cube

5-6 carrots

1 potato

water (about 4 cups)

black pepper, to taste

powdered ginger, to taste

yogurt or cream (we use Oatly)

 

Instructions:

1. Peel and dice the shallots or onion, then fry lightly in oil.

2. Add the ginger and stock cube and fry another minute or two.

3. Peel and chop the carrot and potato and add them to the pan.

4. Boil the water and add it to the pan.

5. Cook the vegetables for 15-20 minutes.

6. Puree the soup.

7. Season as desired, then top with a dollop of yogurt or cream.

Light Wheat Buns

This is another recipe inspired by The Nordic Diet by Trina Hahnemann, but I shifted the proportions quite a bit to allow for a lighter wheat taste for my M.

 

Ingredients:

275 g white flour

50 g spelt flour

5 g fast action dry yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tsp honey

300 ml warm water

 

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together and leave to rise. Hahnemann suggests overnight in the fridge, whereas I left it for much of the day on the counter.

2. Shape into buns (the dough is soft so you might need to use a couple of spoons) and bake for 15-20 min at 220 C.

Beetroot Patties

I randomly took The Nordic Diet by Trina Hahnemann out of the library awhile back. The book annoyed me with the way she constantly bangs on about smaller portions, healthy eating, no dessert (well, few desserts), exercise, etc, as though we didn’t already know all that. But nonetheless, a couple of the recipes struck me as new and interesting.

 

So I made my own version of her beetroot patties (which she serves with barley, which probably tells you all you need to know!). They’re great with mayonnaise, served with watercress and over couscous.

 

It helps to wear gloves when working with beetroot – we keep a stock of disposable plastic gloves, which we use when cooking with beetroot and other vegetables that stain easily.

 

Ingredients:

500 g beetroot

1 shallot

4 tbsp parsley

½ cup oatmeal

3 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 dash sesame oil (or other oil)

 

Instructions:

1. Peel and grate the beetroot.

2. Peel and dice the shallot. Wash and chop the parsley.

3. Mix all the ingredients together. Shape into patties (this recipe makes about 8).

4. Bake for 15 minutes at 180 C. Turn over and bake for another 5-10 minutes.