Nectarine Pancakes

I had some leftover ripe nectarines, so I decided to make pancakes with them.

 

Ingredients:

3 nectarines

water

1½ cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 pinch salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1-2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp honey

2 eggs

1¼ cup milk (I used rice milk)

oil

 

Instructions:

1. Score the nectarines. Boil the water and set the nectarines in it for about 3 minutes.

2. Peel and dice the nectarines.

3. Mix all the other ingredients except the oil together. Add the nectarines.

4. Warm the oil in a frying pan and drop tablespoonfuls of batter into the pan.

5. Fry the pancakes until golden on both sides.

Pumpkin Pancakes

A nearby fancy grocery store started selling American pumpkin puree, so I snatched a couple of tins. With one of them, I made pumpkin pancakes for breakfast.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup pumpkin puree

1½ cups milk

1 egg

2-3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp sugar

2 cups flour

3 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp allspice

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

agave or maple syrup to serve with it

 

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together well.

2. Fry by spoonfuls on a frying pan.

3. Serve with agave or maple syrup.

Lower Fat Granola

I decided to try to get the fat content of granola way down by replacing much of the oil with apple juice. That also allows you to leave out some of the sweetener.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup nuts

2½ cups oats

½ cup seeds (I used pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, and sunflower seeds)

½ tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

½ cup apple juice

¼ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup maple syrup

1 cup dried fruit (raisins, apricots, prunes, cherries, etc)

 

Instructions:

1. Chop the nuts. Mix them with all the other ingredients except the fruit.

2. Make sure everything gets coated with the oil and maple syrup.

3. Put a piece of parchment paper or baking paper on a baking tray, then spread the oat mixture on it in a thick layer.

4. Bake for 20 minutes at 160 C, then rotate the tray, and bake for another 15-20 minutes.

5. Leave to cool, then break up the granola into whatever size pieces you prefer. Add the fruit. Store in Tupperware or similar.

Vegan Fruit Crumble

I made this with blueberries, apples, and pears, but any combination of fruit that you prefer should work.

 

Ingredients:

100 g flour

100 g oats

5 tbsp sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp lemon juice

5 tbsp oil (I used rapeseed for its slightly nutty flavour, but sunflower works too), plus a little to grease the dish

600 g fruit (for example, 2-3 apples and 2-3 pears)

oat or soya cream, to serve with it

 

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, oats, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, lemon juice, and oil together in a bowl.

2. Peel, wash, and slice the fruit as applicable.

3. Lightly grease an oven-safe dish.

4. Layer the fruit in the dish. Top with the crumble mixture.

5. Bake at 190 C for 15-25 minutes. Serve with cream, if desired.

Plum Clafoutis

You can use many other fruits instead of the plums.

 

Ingredients:

350 ml milk (I used rice milk; you could also use cream, for an even richer dessert)

1 vanilla pod

6-8 plums

3-4 tbsp sugar, depending on how tart the plums are

2 tbsp flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp lemon juice (or use lemon zest if you prefer)

3 eggs

 

Instructions:

1. Gently warm the milk. Halve the vanilla pod, scrape out the beans, and add the beans and the pod to the milk. Continue to cook for about 10 minutes.

2. Wash, halve, and stone the plums. Sprinkle 1-2 tbsp sugar on the bottom of an oven-safe dish, then place the plum halves on top.

3. Bake the plums for 5 minutes at 175 C.

4. Let the milk cool. Mix in the rest of the sugar, the flour, cinnamon, lemon juice, and eggs.

5. Pour the vanilla custard over the plums and bake for 30-45 minutes.

Berry Sorbet

This is very easy to make. You can replace the berries with just about any fruit you can think of (mango and peach would be great), and you can add spices or nuts as well. I made berry cinnamon sorbet and I think peach almond would taste delicious.

 

Ingredients:

360 ml water

150 g sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

500 g fruit (I used raspberries and strawberries)

spices or nuts as desired

 

Instructions:

1. Boil 160 ml of the water and mix in the sugar and lemon juice. Remove from the heat and stir. Once the sugar has dissolved, set aside to cool.

2. Wash, peel, de-stone, and hull the fruit as needed.

3. Mix the fruit with the remaining 200 ml of water in a food processor. Add the spices, if using.

4. Add the cool sugar water and blend again. Add the nuts, if using, and stir to mix.

5. Place in a Tupperware container and freeze. Stir after an hour, then freeze again. Stir again after another hour. Freeze until set (it takes several hours).

Sabayon

Okay, this is not a traditional sabayon/zabaglione recipe, which usually calls for sweet wine. But we don’t drink much in the Veggie Dyke household and I wanted the same flavour, so this is what I came up with.

You can either cook the mixture over a water bath, so that it stays liquid but also is safe to eat, or you can pour it over fruit into a lightly greased dish and bake it in the oven at 180 C for 6-8 minutes. If you do this, some of it becomes a lovely mushy solid, while the rest stays liquid. Either way, it’s lovely.

I recently served this over strawberries and I baked it in the oven for 8 minutes; it was delicious.

Ingredients:

3 eggs (I used the whole eggs, but some say you should just use yolks)

2-3 tbsp sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice, optional

Instructions:

1. Mix or whisk the eggs until light and frothy.

2. Add the other ingredients and continue to mix.

3. Cook briefly over a water bath or bake over fruit, or serve raw, if you know the provenance of your eggs.

Granola

I like having granola for breakfast, but most ready-made granolas include honey, which I am allergic to, or other items I don’t want to eat, plus they’re expensive. So I tried making it myself and it turned out quite well.

Ingredients:

1 cup dried fruit (raisins, apricots, prunes, cherries, etc)

water

1 cup nuts (I’ve tried hazelnuts and almonds)

2½ cups oats (or 2 cups oats, ½ cup quinoa flakes)

¼ - ½ cup seeds (I used pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds)

¼ cup sugar

½ tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup vegetable oil

¼ cup maple syrup (perhaps agave or honey would work as well)

Instructions:

1. Chop the fruit, then place it in hot water for 10 or so minutes, so it plumps up.

2. Chop the nuts. Mix them with all the other ingredients.

3. Make sure everything gets coated with the oil and maple syrup.

4. Put a piece of parchment paper or baking paper on a baking tray, then spread the oat mixture on it in a thick layer.

5. Bake for 20 minutes at 160 C, then rotate the tray, and bake for another 15-20 minutes.

6. Leave to cool, then break up the granola into whatever size pieces you prefer. Drain the fruit and add it. Store in Tupperware or similar.

7. Serve with milk, as desired.

The Joy of Salads

Salads are such an easy, healthy dinner, and they can be varied endlessly. A recent salad consisted of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, radish sprouts (for some zing), hard-boiled egg, and flaxseeds, and I made a simple dressing from olive oil, ume plum seasoning, and tamari. It was delicious and filling.

To vary, use different nuts or seeds or sprouts. Add peppers, olives, shredded beetroot or carrots, or other vegetables. Even some fruits, such as apples, work well. For dressings, use lemon juice, yogurt, herbs, vinegar, and various oils. And so on. Be imaginative!

Raw Fruit Cake

This is another recipe I learned at the raw food workshop, but as usual I changed it. I made it in a heart-shaped silicone mould (which we lined with plastic wrap, for ease of removing and cleaning) and it was very nice for a luncheon with M’s mum, although I think she might have thought it was a bit too hearty. We liked it, though.

You can of course also add liquor, such as whisky.

Ingredients:

700-900 g dried fruit (depending on how large you want your cake) – you can use dates, apricots, prunes, raisins, figs, sultanas, currants, or any other such item. I used apricots, raisins, dates, and prunes.

1 lemon

½ cup orange juice (you can also add or use instead any other fruit juice; I had pear juice left from the previous recipe – the pear cake – so I added that as well)

2-4 tsp cinnamon

1-2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp vanilla

100 g ground almonds

whole or flakes almonds

Instructions:

1. Chop the fruit and put it in a large bowl. Add the zest and juice from the lemon, the orange juice, any other juice, and the spices. Leave to marinate for a few hours.

2. Chop some of the fruit finely in a food processor, adding in some ground almonds. Add more almonds and fruit, a bit at a time, and keep chopping until smooth. If you want, reserve some whole fruit.

3. Put the fruit and almond mixture into a tin (add the whole fruit if you kept some). Decorate with the almonds or incorporate them into the mixture.

4. Leave to set in the fridge for some hours (or, if you must, bake it for a little while at low heat).

Plum Crumble

This is really easy and fast. You can substitute many other fruits for the plums.

Ingredients:
6-8 plums
50 g butter, plus extra for the dish
¾ cup flour
½ cup oats
2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 cup sugar
1 dash lemon juice
cream or ice cream, as desired

Instructions:
1. Wash, halve and stone the plums.
2. Grease an oven-safe dish. Place the plums cut-side down in the dish.
3. Mix the butter, flour, oats, cinnamon, sugar and lemon juice into a crumbly mixture. Put it on top of the plums.
4. Bake at 180 C for about 25 minutes, until golden brown. Serve with cream or ice cream as desired.

Dark Chocolate Mousse

Lush, creamy chocolate mousse, covering juicy strawberries – this is such a delicious treat. Okay, so it’s unhealthy. So what? Sometimes you need something special, and this is it.

I like it for dessert after a light lunch or dinner. Or, even better, I could lick it off my beautiful and wonderful partner. Yum indeed!

Ingredients:
180 g dark chocolate
2 tbsp hot coffee or water
1½ tsp vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
300 ml double cream
1-4 tbsp sugar (depends on how sweet you like it)

Instructions:
1. Break the chocolate into pieces and melt it over low hit with the coffee or water and vanilla, stirring often.
2. Let the chocolate cool, then mix the egg yolks in (note that there are raw egg yolks in this recipe, so use caution and common sense when eating or serving the mousse).
3. Whip the cream with the sugar.
4. Gently fold the chocolate into the cream. Chill for 30 or more minutes, then serve with fruit or biscuits, cream or ice cream, or a beautiful woman, or just on its own.

Sweet, Gluten-Free Crepes, or Swedish Pancakes

It had been a rough day at work and I was not in a good mood. The only thing that would cheer me up would be a tasty dinner that also didn’t require too much effort. Pancakes it was, but not savoury pancakes. No, only sweet pancakes would do.

So I made a batch of gluten-free crepes, basing my recipe on the standard sort of thin pancakes often referred to as Swedish. M went to the store and got fresh strawberries and cream. I whipped the cream with a touch of vanilla and sugar and we topped the pancakes with layers of that delicious Dalfour strawberry jam (which has no added sugar, so it’s much healthier than other jams), fresh strawberries, and whipped cream. It was delightful and soothing and made me think of summer. It certainly helped my day end on a high note.

Ingredients:
1 cup gluten-free flour
half a teaspoon salt
2 ¼ cups milk or cream, or some combination of the two
3 eggs
vanilla to taste
sugar to taste
2 tbsp butter
butter or oil to fry in
jam, cream, and/or fruit to serve with it

Instructions:
1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Add half the milk/cream and blend/whip until smooth. Add the rest of the milk/cream. Then whip in the eggs.
2. Add vanilla and sugar to taste.
3. Melt the butter and add it. Blend everything one last time.
4. Then, in the frying pan, melt a bit more butter or warm the oil to fry the pancakes in.
5. Pour in ¼ or so cup batter into the frying pan and spread it out.
6. Then make pancakes as usual, turning when they are firm and brown on the bottom side, etc.
7. Serve with jam, cream, and/or fruit.

Rice with Butternut Squash, Cashews, Raisins, and Pomegranate

This has a Middle Eastern flavour and is healthy and gluten-free. I loved the combination of spices and how they suited the vegetables.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
oil
rice (50 g per person; use brown basmati for a slightly more nutty flavour)
water
2 onions
1 tsp sugar
1 handful raisins
about 50 g cashews (or a handful)
2 cardamom pods
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mint
seeds from 1 pomegranate

Instructions:
1. Rub the squash in oil and roast it in the oven for about 50 minutes at 180 C. When it has cooled, peel it and dice it.
2. Boil the rice in the water. This will take 25-35 minutes.
3. Dice the onions and fry them lightly in some oil. Add the sugar so they caramelise.
4. Cover the raisins with boiling water and set aside for 20 minutes, until they plump up.
5. Crush the cashews and the cardamom pods in a mortar and pestle.
6. Add the squash to the onions and fry for a few more minutes, then add in the cashews, cardamom, cinnamon, and mint.
7. When the rice is ready, add it to the frying pan. Mix everything well.
8. Serve the rice topped with pomegranate seeds.

Suzette Sauce

This simple orange sauce can be used over crepes, as in crepes suzette, or regular pancakes, or spooned over a dark chocolate cake.

Ingredients:
2 oranges
4 tbsp sugar
a dash of vanilla

Instructions:
1. Grate the peel of the oranges. Juice the fruit and put the juice and the peel in a saucepan.
2. Add the sugar and vanilla and warm over low heat into a syrup. It takes about 5 minutes.

Cherry Yogurt Bread

I saw a recipe not long ago for a cinnamon streusel coffee cake. That sounded appealing, but I didn’t just want a doughy loaf, so I decided to add fruit. Blueberries would have worked well, but I just had frozen cherries and since they taste good in bread too, I went for those. And I skipped the streusel, in part because it’s just more work, but also because it called for walnuts, and M is allergic to them. Besides, I liked the idea of a soft bread/cake only with cherries, yogurt, and spices, and without a grainy or sandy layer on top. That’s often what happens for me – I get inspiration from a recipe but then change it dramatically.

This recipe makes two loaves, so you can give one away or freeze it for a lazy Sunday morning. It’s great with tea or coffee.

Ingredients:
100 g butter
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp salt
1½ cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1¾ cups yogurt
1½ cups frozen cherries (other fruit can be substituted)

Instructions:
1. Melt the butter.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and sugar.
3. Beat the eggs, then mix with the vanilla and yogurt and add to the dry ingredients. Add the butter. Mix well.
4. Add the cherries and mix them in.
5. Bake at 180 C for 40 minutes.

Oatmeal or Porridge

A wonderfully healthy and comforting dish is oatmeal (or porridge, as M calls it). It’s so simple to make and it’s great at any time of the day. I like how you feel good about yourself when you eat a bowl of oatmeal while at the same time you get the sneaky feeling that health food shouldn’t taste so good.

It’s also easy to vary it depending on your tastes. You can add raisins, currants, prunes, apricots, or other dried fruit or even slices of fresh apples or bananas or a bit of jam or some apple sauce. You can add nuts or a few tablespoons of peanut butter. You can spice it with cinnamon or cloves or ginger or any other spice (some people like a savoury version with salt and pepper). You can cook it with milk, soy milk, cream, water, or any combination thereof, and you can add extra liquid when you serve it. You can sweeten it with honey, white sugar, brown sugar, or agave. And so on. Once you have the basic recipe down, it’s up to you how you play with it. I think one cup of oatmeal to three cups of liquid is just right for a creamy porridge and do stir it often as it simmers on the stove.

Ingredients:
1 cup oatmeal
3 cups milk (or a combination of milk and water)
1 cup raisins
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
milk or cream, to serve with as needed
honey or agave, to serve with as needed

Instructions:
1. Simmer the oatmeal, milk, raisins, sugar, and cinnamon over low heat, stirring frequently, for about 5-7 minutes.
2. Serve with milk or cream and honey or agave, to taste.

Potato, Apple, and Cauliflower Cheese

Last month, I posted my cauliflower cheese recipe. A few days ago, I wanted to revisit it and to do something different with it. So I updated it by adding potato and apple, which varied the cauliflower taste. I also used only soy milk and no cream, and I added a hefty amount of mustard to the sauce. The result was quite tasty; it was still comfort food, but with a flavoursome zip to it.

I made so much that I filled two casserole dishes, so M and I will be eating it for lunch and dinner a couple of days in a row!

Ingredients:
1 medium cauliflower
2 baking potatoes
water for boiling
3 apples
75 g butter
1/3 cup flour
2 ½ cups milk (or soy milk)
175 g cheddar cheese, or other mature cheese, grated or chopped
2 tbsp whole-grain mustard
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Wash the cauliflower and the potatoes. Break the former into florets and cut slice the latter. Boil them in the water for about 10 minutes.
2. Slice the apples and set aside. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour. Stir until mixed.
3. Add the milk. Stir.
4. Add most of the cheese and stir until it is a thick sauce.
5. Season with mustard and pepper.
6. Place the cauliflower, potatoes, and apples in one layer at the bottom of an oven-safe dish. Pour the sauce over it.
7. Top with the rest of the cheese.
8. Bake for 30 minutes at 200.

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake

I remember regularly going to the Cheesecake Factory with my grandmother, who passed away some months ago, whenever I visited the city where she lived. She liked it there, in part because she felt she got good value for the money. This was because the portions were huge, and the same was true for the slices of their famous cheesecake. My grandma and I usually spent some time poring over the cheesecake menu, which must have had at least twenty different types, and then we spent even more time discussing which flavour to get. Grandma always claimed I was the one who would eat the cheesecake and thus I should pick the flavour, but I knew that what would happen would be that she would eat at least half of the slice, and usually more too. So I would insist she tell me which flavour she was in the mood for, and so we would argue in a friendly way back and forth, while the waiter kept returning to our table to find out if we had decided yet. As Grandma was merrily eating the cake, she would say how she never ate dessert and didn’t care for it and really she didn’t want any, and she would act as though I was forcing her to eat it. But she would smile and pile even more whipped cream onto her fork. It was all part of the routine. A routine I no longer can partake in, because my grandmother is gone.

A completely separate cheesecake memory is from a few years ago, when a friend from Taiwan was going to celebrate her first birthday in this country. She felt alone and far from home, so I helped plan a party for her, and I decided to make mini-cheesecakes for all the guests. I spent one long afternoon crushing biscuits and filling tiny cupcake moulds. My friend and the others, who were primarily from Taiwan and China, had never seen or even heard of cheesecake before, and the very idea seemed to repel them. But I encouraged them to try the cakes, and soon the whole room was moaning in pleasure.

A few days ago, M happened to mention liking cheesecake, and all these memories came flooding back. In my mind, I saw my friend, who cried from happiness at her party. And I saw my grandmother, and I remembered the way she used to gossip with me about our relatives, and I could picture her smiling at me and telling me that I was very important to her. So I made a cheesecake. I made it for M, of course, because I want to make her happy and food is one of my major ways of showing love, but I also made it for my friend, who got sick and had to give up her studies and return to Taiwan, and I made it for my grandma, too, who got a lot of pleasure out of food even while pretending not to. And I made it for me, just because.

Ingredients:
300 g digestive biscuits (you can also use a mixture of biscuit types, such as Oreos or gingerbread cookies; I used half digestive biscuits and half gingerbread)
130 g butter
5 tbsp cocoa
½ cup sugar
500 g cream cheese
seeds from 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract
200 g dark chocolate
¾ cup double cream
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
raspberries or strawberries or nuts

Instructions:
1. Crush the biscuits. I do this by putting them in a sealable plastic bag and rolling a rolling pin over it.
2. Melt the butter and mix it with the crushed biscuits and 2 tbsp of the cocoa.
3. Put the biscuit mixture in the base and up the sides of a springform cake tin. Pre-bake the base for 8 minutes in the oven at 180 C.
4. Mix the sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla until fluffy. I use a hand mixer, but a large stand mixer works just as well.
5. Melt the chocolate with 2 tbsp of the cream over low heat, stirring frequently.
6. Mix the eggs into the cream cheese mixture, beating well.
7. Add the salt, the rest of the cocoa, and the melted chocolate, continuing to beat.
8. Pour the chocolate over the base.
9. Bake for 50 minutes at 140 C, checking after 40 minutes. The cake should be fairly firm.
10. When it has cooled a bit, top the cake with fruit and/or nuts. Serve.

Parsnip and Pear Salad

Like a lot of food-lovers, I’m a recipe slut, and I’ll look for inspiration for new dishes anywhere, any time. This includes reading through the magazines and brochures that you can pick up at grocery stores and which generally seemed to be meant to sell the store’s products, plus are aimed at carnivores.

A few weeks ago, I picked one up and amidst all the advertisements for the store’s ready-prepared vegetable mixes and ready-made meals, I found a couple of potential recipes I could play with. One was for a salad of parsnips, chestnuts, pears, and walnuts.

Yes, pears and walnuts are a really good combination, but my girlfriend is allergic to walnuts, and a bit wary of other nuts as well. And I personally am ambivalent about chestnuts, and wasn’t eager to spend time roasting and peeling them. So as one often does with published recipes, I took the basic idea and adapted it to better suit our tastes.

The visual side of things isn’t usually my strong suit, but I placed alternating parsnip and pear slices in a sort of spiral on the plate, topped with crumbled blue cheese, and it didn’t look too bad. Also, I thought it tasted pretty good, although I served it after the parsnips and pears had cooled down, and next time I think it would better warm, possibly with a handful of pine nuts sprinkled on top as well.

Ingredients:
2 parsnips
olive oil
2 pears
butter
2 tsp sugar
baby spinach leaves or endive
stilton or other blue cheese
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp mustard
1 splash lemon juice
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Peel the parsnips and slice them into quarters or eighths lengthwise, depending on how thick they are.
2. Toss with oil and roast them for about 25 minutes at 200 C.
3. Quarter and de-seed the pears and then fry them in butter and sugar until softened and lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes.
4. Place the spinach on the plates and top with the parsnip and pear pieces.
5. Crumble the blue cheese over the parsnips and pears.
6. Mix the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, and black pepper into a dressing and dress the salad.