Cauliflower fritters

January 7, 2020 ~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

I love having a few different breakfast options, especially ones that help me to get in my veggies! These gorgeous fritters are gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, a good source of fibre and protein and just 2 of them contains over 90% of the RDI calcium intake for woman 😲 and just quietly … They’re really yummy too 🤤 Mr 11 stole 2 before I even had them all on the plate!

430g cauliflower
2 packed cups spinach
2 medium sticks celery
3 medium eggs
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup almond meal OR any flour of choice
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1 tbsp fresh chopped herbs – thyme and rosemary
1/2 tsp dried garlic flakes
1 tsp pink salt flakes
a few grinds of pepper
olive oil to fry

Finely chop and steam the cauliflower until it is soft. Drain any water, transfer to a large bowl and mash – don’t go so far as to puree it!

Finely chop your spinach and celery, add to the cauliflower mix and fold together until combined.

Mix together all dry ingredients, including herbs and add to the veggie mix. Fold together until combined.

Whisk the eggs together and then add to the veggie mix. Fold though until well combined.

This bit gets a little messy …. use a good handful of the mixture to form a patty and then place in to a lightly oiled, medium heat frying pan.

Cook for about 3 minutes until golden brown and then turn to cook the other side for another 3 minutes.

Makes 8-10 depending on the size of your patty. Today I made 9.

They are delicious warm, or cold and they keep for a couple for days in the fridge so you can gently reheat them in the microwave for breakfast on the go or even a filling lunch at work.

Eat them on their own, dip them in some natural yoghurt …. or my personal preference is to stack them and top them with some creamy avocado and cherry tomatoes! Yum!

I haven’t tried making these ones egg free yet – but next time I’ll have a go at binding them with tofu and then I’ll update! In the mean time if you need an egg free veggie patty –these are delicious!

Enjoy 🙂

Simple egg slice

June 3, 2019September 9, 2024 ~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

This is such an easy way to get in some extra veggies. It’s fast to make, really flexible and works well to use up veggies that might otherwise be past their best.

It does contain egg so this is not a meal that we can eat as a family … but the biggest little one loves to take it in his lunchbox and I like it on standby in the freezer for days when I’m really rushed and need to grab something to take to work for breakfast.

8 eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup SR flour (we use spelt or GF)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
4 cups chopped/grated veggies*
1/3 cup hemp seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of mixed Italian Herbs
OPTIONAL: 1 cup grated cheese

*We use up what we have in the fridge. Mostly it is a mix of carrots, zucchini, corn but often we chuck in capsicum, pumpkin or event asparagus and sliced mushrooms.

Place flour, nutritional yeast, salt and dried herbs in a large bowl and use a whisk to combine evenly.

Add in grated/chopped veggies and seeds.

Fold through veggies and seeds so that they are evenly coated in the flour mix.

In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and the oil.

Pour the wet mix into the veggie mix and fold through until there is no dry flour visible.

Pour into a lined baking dish, smooth out and place into a preheated moderate oven for about 40 minutes or until cooked through.

Eat warm, or slice and freeze.

Serves 8

Enjoy 🙂

Chicken, black bean and carrot burgers

May 4, 2019October 3, 2019 ~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

Building your own burger is always a fun, messy, dinner.

Mostly we go with a veggie burger patty but we mix it up sometimes with this chicken burger.

The beans and carrots work to bind the patty without egg and they also mean you can spread the meat further and significantly boost your fibre intake too.

4 large chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
420g tin black beans, drained and rinsed
2 medium carrots
1 tsp fresh chopped thyme
1 tbsp coconut aminos
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup hemp seeds
olive oil to cook

Chop and steam the carrots until they are soft.

Place the chicken thighs in your food processor and process until chicken is evenly minced (speed 5, 10 secs)

Add in beans and carrots then aminos and thyme. Process further until well combined (speed 4, 10 secs)

Add in the nutritional yeast and hemp seeds and process until just combined. (Speed 4, 5 secs)

If you have the time pop the mixture in the fridge for half an hour before you make patties. It will help them hold together better when you cook them.

20190503_171948 — Ready for the frying pan

Form heaped tablespoons of the mixture in to patties and place into a hot, greased pan.

Cook until golden on one side, then flip and cook on other side until cooked all the way through.

You can also spray with a little olive oil and bake in a 200C oven for about 20 minutes, flip them over and cook for a further 10 mins or until cooked through (keeps the stove top much cleaner! 🤣)

Serve on your bread of choice with your favourite burger toppings.

20190503_184753 — He likes his with pineapple, tomato, capsicum, lettuce, cheese and egg. The lot!

I like a leftover patty on its own topped with avo for lunch.

Makes about 12

Enjoy 🙂

Grilled Mango Crumble

April 6, 2019April 6, 2019 ~ desertcook ~ 2 Comments

Fruit based desserts are my favourite!

I love chocolate and sweets as much as the next person but there is something about the amazing natural sweetness and huge variety in fruit which makes it such a delight… And when you can pick the fruit from your own backyard it is so much the sweeter!

We picked our first backyard mango for the season a couple of days ago and I wanted to do somethinga little special with it. I guess this is like a faster, deconstructed version (MasterChef come at me 🤣) of my favourite apple and berry crumble

2 tsp vegan butter melted/light tasting oil
1/3 cup rolled oats OR shredded coconut
1/3 cup puffed rice OR GF rice bubbles
1/3 cup almond meal OR plain flour of choice
1 tbsp coconut sugar
1/2 tsp extra coconut sugar
1/3 cup mixed pumpkin and hemp seeds
1 tsp ground cinnamon/mixed spice
2 large fresh mango cheeks
Yoghurt of choice (dairy and coconut both work well with the flavours)

Mix together all dry ingredients and stir through melted butter until well combined.

Tip into a medium hot frying pan, and toast, stirring regularly, until golden brown and crunchy. Then remove from the heat.

‘hedhehog’ your mango cheeks by scoring deeply in a grid pattern, down to the skin, but not through.

Hold the edges of the mango and push up in the middle to pop up the squares.

Sprinkle each with 1/4tsp of coconut sugar.

Place mango under a hot grill. Watch it carefully! Allow the sugar to melt and start to caramelize. This only takes a few minutes.

Remove from oven, top with crumble mix and serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy 😊

Frozen yoghurt ice creams

January 28, 2019 ~ desertcook ~ 1 Comment

I don’t remember any family from my childhood that didn’t have Tupperware icy pole moulds!

There are loads of different moulds you can buy now, but whichever you choose to use, they are fabulous for making simple, healthy, tasty, waste free desserts.

This recipe is very flexible. Make it more or less creamy depending on the amount of yoghurt you use. It’ll be less ice creamy and more of an icy pole if you leave out the banana and switch to other fruit.

In our freezer we had a heap of mango left over from a self picking expedition where we went slightly (*understatement!) overboard! And then we had 2 bunches of our homegrown bananas ripen very quickly so we’d peeled and frozen them too. So when we were after dessert these were a no-brainer!

4 mango cheeks, frozen or fresh (tinned peaches or apricots are a great alternative here)
2 medium frozen bananas
approx 400g of yoghurt of choice (dairy, soy, coconut and almond all work well)
Optional: 1 tbsp honey or maple syrup

Put everything in a high powdered blender/bullet/thermo machine and blitz until very smooth. If you’re using a thermo machine, make sure you drop frozen chunks of fruit through the top on to already spinning blades. Start at Speed 4 and then work up to 8 for a smooth finish.

Pour into your moulds. This quantity fills 12 of the Tupperware moulds pictured.

Stick in the freezer for 4 hours, or until frozen.

Enjoy!

P.S. Our Dairy and soy yoghurt recipe is linked above, but if you can have tree nuts, and you want yo buy your yoghurt, we have recently found a GF, DF almond milk yoghurt that is really yummy

Simple Cinnamon Granola

August 20, 2018 ~ desertcook ~ 7 Comments

Mmmmmm granola. Fabulous crunchy texture that adds interest to breakfast.

It is so versatile and you can really load it up with great stuff to boost your fats and protein – nutrients that are missing from most store bought cereals!

I do make a yummy crunchy granola (that you can find here) but I was after an even quicker and more simple granola that I could make in bulk and have on standby in the pantry for everyday breakfast (or dessert!).

I am conscious that it is really easy to eat sweet granola, so for another option, I am using cinnamon here instead of a sweetener (although there is an option to add more sweetness if you are so inclined!). Cinnamon is so light and fragrant that it works well to give the perception of sweetness without the sugar.

I make this one in a double batch, but the ingredients listed below are for just a smaller single batch.

See below the main recipe for ideas on making this granola Gluten free and Grain free

1 cup rolled oats**
1 cup mixed seeds (or nuts if you like) – I love a mixture of pumpkin, sunflower, flax and hemp seeds.
2 tsps good Olive oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
OPTIONAL: 2 tsps honey/maple syrup

Mix together dry ingredients.

Sprinkle with cinnamon then mix well to evenly coat.

Drizzle over oil and mix well to evenly coated. If you’re adding honey or maple syrup, drizzle it over here, together with the oil – it helps to spread further if it is warmed first.

Place under a hot grill and bake until golden. Shake the tray several times during

Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

**To make this one coeliac friendly, use a mixture of puffed rice and shredded coconut, in whichever ratio you like best. For grain free use a mixture of buckwheat groats and coconut flakes.

Throw it in your yoghurt, eat it with milk or with some stewed fruit – my favourite is with yoghurt and a few berries!

Enjoy 🙂

Boosted Breakfast Bars

July 2, 2018February 13, 2020 ~ desertcook ~ 1 Comment

My crew are on school holidays – hooray!!!

Holidays means slower mornings, adventures, time together …. and food. So much food!

I’m always astounded at how much more my kids neeeeed to eat in the holidays, when compared to what they eat from their lunchboxes during the school term. They tell me that it is because at school they stuff in what they can super fast so that the don’t miss out on their precious play time – apparently holiday are then for catch up!

These gorgeous bars are fibre filled, have a good serve of polyunsaturated fats and with a sweetness that comes from whole fruit, they’ll satisfy you and keep you going for ages. They work well as morning tea on the run too.

1 cup GF weetbix
1 1/2 cups rolled oats OR 1 1/2 cups fruit free GF muesli
1/4 cup wholemeal spelt flour OR plain GF flour mix plus 1/2 tsp psyllium
1/2 tsp GF baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 heaped tbsp each of hemp, flax and pumpkin seeds
8 medjool dates, pitted
1 large overripe banana
1 heaped tbsp seed butter (or nut butter that suits)*
1 medium egg*
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/4 cup milk of choice

*To make these vegan, remove the egg and add in a 2nd tbsp of the seed butter. Simple!

Place all of the dry ingredients together in your processor/thermal cooker/bullet and pulse a few times until the ingredients are roughly chopped and well combined. Then set aside.

Place the dates, seed butter, milk and vanilla into your thermal cooker. Cook on 90C, Speed 2 for 3 mins. Add in the banana and cook on speed 3, 90C for a further minute. Then boost up to speed 4 for 8 seconds.

To cook this one without a thermal cooker, place the dates, seed butter, milk and vanilla into a saucepan and cook over a low heat, whilst whisking regularly until the mixture is well melted – the dates will still be quite large. Add in the banana and continue to cook, whilst whisking for a further 2 minutes. Then transfer the whole mix to a blender or processor, then process until fairly smooth.

Now add the dry ingredients back to the wet and process until just combined (Speed 2, about 15 seconds). If you are using an egg, add it in here. The mixture will be quite thick and sticky.

Scrape into a line 20×20 baking tray and use a spatula to smooth out and press down into the tin.

Place into a preheated 180C oven and bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and golden brown.

Allow to cool for about 15 minutes in the tray before moving to a cooling rack to finish cooling before slicing in to 8 bars.

These will last several days in an airtight container in the fridge, or freeze them individually to pop into lunchboxes or grab on your way to work.

Enjoy

Strawberry ice dream

February 23, 2018February 25, 2018 ~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

This delicious dessert is like a cross between ice cream and sorbet.

It’s very refreshing and simple to make, no need for any churning, but you do need to make it several hours in advance.

We used up the last of the strawberries that we had frozen after a very over zealous ‘pick your own’ session at a local farm.

3 cups frozen strawberries
270ml coconut cream (Ayam)
2 tbsp rice malt syrup*
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 over ripe large bananas

*You can of course use honey or maple syrup if you’d prefer – I choose the rice malt here not because of any mythical ‘sugar free’ properties, but because of its more neutral taste.

In your processor or thermal cooker place the strawberries. Blitz them until they are very finely chopped (almost like crushed ice) speed 4, working up to speed 8 for 10 secs, scrape down and repeat.

Add in the coconut cream, followed by the syrup and vanilla whilst processing (on speed 4), then scrape down and process again.

Add in bananas, one at a time and process until very smooth. (Use speed 6).

Pour into a dish, cover and freeze for at least 6 hours, or over night.

Remove from freezer about 10 minutes before serving so that it is scoopable.

If you’re after an extra special treat you can add some chocolate! We make ours by melting 4 squares of chopped dark chocolate together with 1/2 tsp of tasteless coconut oil, then just drizzle away!

This makes enough for 8-10 serves.

Enjoy 🙂

Blueberry, Pear and Almond Overnight Oats

January 1, 2018 ~ desertcook ~ 2 Comments

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2018 🙂

We went to a brunch to celebrate with family this morning and we took along the oaty part of the meal – yay!

This is a super simple way to make a delicious, filling, summer breakfast when you are short on time in the mornings (ok – so every morning then?!).

2 cups rolled oats
2 cups unsweetened almond milk (or other milk of choice)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tbsp maple syrup
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 ripe green pears
50g dry roasted almonds, roughly chopped
3/4 cup blueberries

Place the oats, milk, cinnamon, maple syrup and vanilla in a bowl and mix together. Cover and place in the fridge over night, or for at least 2 hours.

In the morning, fluff up the oats with a fork, then grate the pear and stir it though.

Top with the blueberries and almonds and serve.

Add a spoon of your favourite yoghurt (dairy, soy or coconut) if you’d like too.

Enjoy

Carrot Cake Bliss Balls

October 28, 2017October 27, 2017 ~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

Chocolate and Salted Caramel Bliss balls are usually the go to in our house … but it never hurts to try new things …. especially new things that add veggies to your diet!

These were very well received in our house …. even though there was much giggling from my children who decided that they looked like wombat poop. Ha! Oh well … if that’s what they need, we’ll run with it 😀

1 cup pumpkin seeds
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 tbsp flax seeds
1/2 cup rolled quinoa or oats
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch pink flaked salt
2 medium carrots (roughly 150g)
8 medjool dates, pitted

Place the pumpkin and sunflower seeds together in a baking tray. Place them under a hot grill for a few minutes to dry roast them. This gives them a nuttier flavour. Watch them carefully and shake the tray part way through to ensure an even roasting.

Place the roasted seeds together with the flax, coconut, quinoa and spices in your processor. Blitz until they are fine (Speed 9, 8 seconds).

Chop the carrots into chunks and add them through the top chute of the processor whilst it is on, alternate adding carrot and date. Continue to process until the carrot and date are very finely chopped and evenly distributed through the mixture. (Use Speed 4 whilst you are adding the dates and carrot, then work up to speed 7 for 10 seconds, scrape down and repeat).