Pumpkin pastry parcels

August 5, 2019 ~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

I guess this one isn’t so much as recipe as an idea or a suggestion!

We do our very best to reduce waste from our kitchen.

So many ways to make some little changes that help –

We menu plan,
Cook in bulk,
Freeze leftover for work lunches,
Make soup to use up veggies that are past their best
All veggie peelings and scraps go to our worms and so back to the garden,
Do a swap – we give out overload of veggie scraps to friends with chooks (and sometimes get eggs in return!)

One of the other ways to reduce waste is to get a bit creative when you’re down to the last few bits of veg before shopping day!

I had about 1/4 of a butternut pumpkin, a couple of handfuls of spinach, a small handful of left over roast chicken and the dregs of my walnut container left. Together with a few basic pantry staples – that sounds like weekend lunch!

My husband reckons they are better than a bought pie (and his body feels better afterwards) and he says they’re much nicer than the ones he can buy at a cafe in the city – for an obscene price!

We used: Pumpkin, spinach, walnuts, cooked chicken, puff pastry, Italian herbs, salt pepper, olive oil (garlic infused) and coconut aminos.

But use whatever left overs you have and enjoy and get creative!

*If you don’t eat meat – we often us about half a tin of butter beans or cannellini beans instead – just pop them in the oven together with the pumpkin in the last 10 minutes of roasting time.

*If you don’t eat nuts – pumpkin seeds or hemp seeds work really well here too – use them in exactly the same way as the walnuts.

Dice the pumpkin into small pieces.

Then roast the pumpkin with some garlic olive oil, salt, pepper and Italian herbs (about 200C for 35-40 mins).

Place pumpkin in a bowl together with the chopped chicken, walnuts and spinach and then add about 2 tsp of coconut aminos. Mix well so that the pumpkin gets a bit mashed up.

20190802_132017

Place mixture into the centre of pastry squares (obviously – use whichever pastry suits your diet)

Fold the pastry over the mix to form a parcel and then use the fork to press the edges of the pastry together.

Bake in a 200C fan forced oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until golden, puffed and flaky.

20190804_121328

Enjoy 🙂

Roasted Garlic Mushroom Stacks

July 9, 2019 ~ desertcook ~ 1 Comment

Last night we celebrated 17 years together.

Kid free – but we had to do our tax …. ah well, at least we got to have a yummy dinner!!

Peter says that if I had presented him with this kind of meal 15 years ago, he might have run … but he has gradually learned that you can have delicious flavour and texture without meat. So if you’re looking to add a meat free dish to your repertoire – this might be a very simple place to start – and it has 2 enthusiastic thumbs up from the carnivore!

Butternut pumpkin, two discs, about an inch thick
olive oil to brush
2 tsp nutritional yeast
2 large portobello mushrooms
1 tsp fresh chopped thyme
2 tsp garlic olive oil
1 tsp vegan butter
1/2 large ripe avocado
salt and pepper to taste
squeeze lemon juice
Mixed salad greens
Handful pine nuts OR pumpkin seeds

Peel your pumpkin discs, brush them with olive oil and sprinkle the nutritional yeast over them. Place on a lined baking tray and into a 200C oven. After about 25 minutes, turn the pumpkin over and return to the oven for another 10 minutes.

While the pumpkin is cooking dry fry your pine nuts/seeds in a hot frying pan until they are golden – be careful… it doesn’t take long! Then set them aside.

Melt together the butter and garlic olive oil and brush it over both sides of the mushrooms. Place these on the baking tray with the pumpkin discs (that have now been in the oven for about 35 minutes). Sprinkle over the thyme and return to the oven for about 15 minutes.

Mash together the avocado with the lemon juice plus the salt and pepper.

Place the salad greens on the plate. Top with the roasted pumpkin, then spread a thick layer of the avocado on to the pumpkin. Top with the mushrooms and then add the pine nuts over the meal.

When you remove the mushrooms from the baking tray, you’ll see that they have produced a dark juice … don’t waste it – drizzle it over the salad leaves!

Sprinkle the top of the mushroom with a little extra thyme and salt.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy 😊

Maple Ginger Pear Tea Cake

June 24, 2019March 26, 2024 ~ desertcook ~ 2 Comments

My husband’s request for cake is always ginger cake with lemon icing … Lots of icing!

Super simple and easy to knock up when you’ve got visitors arriving… Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

1 3/4 cups plain flour (I do half wholemeal) OR 1 2/3 cups plain GF flour mix
1/4 cup almond/seed meal
2 tsp GF baking powder
2 heaped tsp ground ginger
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 medium sized pear (or apple)
4 tbsp aquafaba OR 1 whole egg OR 1 egg worth of egg replacement powder
1/2 cup milk of choice
2 tbsp mild tasting oil or melted butter of choice

Mix together all of the dry ingredients (speed 4, 10 seconds), then set aside.

Core and dice the pear (leave the skin on). Dice and then steam until soft (a few minutes in a microwave or ST Sp 1 for a few minutes)

Blend together the soft pear, syrup, oil and aquafaba/egg until smooth (speed 7, 8 seconds).

Pour the wet mix into the dry and mix until well combined (speed 4, 8 seconds, scrape down and repeat).

Pour into a lined baking tin and place into a preheated moderate oven for about 30 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool before icing.

I actually enjoy this cake without icing …. but icing is pretty well Peter’s whole reason for eating cake, so there was no way I was going to be able to leave it off!

For the Icing:

2 tsp butter or nuttelex, very soft
2 tbsp lemon juice
pure icing sugar – between 1/2 and 1 cup depending on the consistency you want.
Fine lemon zest to top

Whisk all ingredients together until well combined and smooth. If you want an icing to drizzle over, use less icing sugar. If you want a thick icing to spread on the cake, use the increased amount.

Top with zest before serving.

This one freezes and defrosts well.

It is particularly nice accompanied by a good cuppa or our yummy ginger cordial mixed with soda water

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 🙂

Thai pumpkin soup

May 24, 2019 ~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

Hello soup weather!

I’ve been making this delicious, comforting soup for the past couple of years.

It is an absolute winner with Peter and I and Will. I’ll be honest though … It isn’t a favourite with the other small ones. 2 of them tolerate it … One of them will have a taste but that’s as far as it goes. 🤦

Ah well, you can’t win ’em all … And I’m delighted to have a freezer stocked with lunches!

1.5kg butternut pumpkin
400g sweet potato
2 heaped tbsp sunflower seed butter
1 heaped tbsp red thai curry paste (I like the Ayam brand)
200ml coconut cream
2L hot veggie stock

Place the curry paste into a hot saucepan and stir until fragrant.

20190520_183609 — Home grown veg plus curry paste home made from homegrown lemongrass, chillies, onion and garlic – makes me SO happy!!

Add in the diced pumpkin and sweet potato and stir to coat the veggies in the paste.

Add in the stock and bring to a gentle simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the veggies are very soft.

Remove from the heat. Stir in the coconut cream and the seed butter.

Use an immersion blender to blend until silky smooth.

We like to serve with fresh damper 😋

Makes about 10 serves and it freezes and defrosts well.

Enjoy 😊

Lemongrass Ginger cordial

April 7, 2019June 8, 2020 ~ desertcook ~ 4 Comments

Cordial is not a regular feature in our house, but as a treat at a birthday party, or mixed with sparkling water as a non alcoholic drink, it’s pretty special to have your own home made, and home grown option!

We had abundant lemongrass this year, so we have made a huge batch of Thai curry paste, propagated more for next year and shared loads with our community but we still had more left – we decided to go with some deliciously fragrant cordial!

5 cups water
2.5 cups lemon juice*
2.5 cups raw sugar
6-7cm root of ginger
4 stalks of lemongrass

*Orange and grapefruit juice or any combination of the above work really well too.

Place the water juice and sugar in to a large saucepan, mix well and place on the stove over a medium heat. (In your Thermal cooker place on 90C Sp 1)

Slice the ginger and cut and bruise your lemongrass.

Add both to the liquid mix and turn heat up to bring to a rolling boil. (Increase to ST temp for a few minutes until boiling)

Stir regularly.

Turn heat down to a gentle boil for 10 minutes (decrease to 90C).

Remove from heat but allow to sit for a further 30 minutes – 1 hour to steep and cool, before sieving the solids from the liquid.

Pour the liquid into a sterilised glass container and use as you would any cordial. This one is particularly delightful with lots of ice and a few mint leaves on a hot summer day!

Will last a couple of months in the fridge.

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 😊

Cranberry & White Choc Muesli Cookies

April 3, 2019November 13, 2020 ~ desertcook ~ 2 Comments

My big boy has been having a tough time lately. So when we have an afternoon at home (which is rare!) he is pretty keen to spend one on one time with me.

Pre-teens often don’t want to sit and talk in a formal, eye contact kind of way … so cooking and working along side each other provides a really good opportunity to talk and try to sort somethings through.

Today he asked to make cookies. We’d tried a white choc cranberry cookie from the shops recently but they were SUPER sweet and his tummy didn’t feel so great after them (probably would have been ok if he had one and not three though!!)

So we adapted our regular choc chip cookies and came up with these beauties.

3/4 cup sugar (we like the caramel taste of coconut sugar)
1 1/3 cup plain flour (half wholemeal) OR 1 1/4 cup GF Flour plus 1 tsp psyllium
1/3 cup rolled oats OR shredded coconut
1 tsp GF baking powder
pinch pink salt flakes
1/2 tsp mixed spice or cinnamon
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup hemp or flax seeds
1/3 cup white choc chip (which ever suit your diet – Sweet William is a winner for us)
150g vegan butter, melted (but not too hot or it will melt your choc chips!)
Optional: zest of 1/2 an orange, finely grated

In your food processor or thermal cooker place the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, oats and cinnamon. Blitz to a coarse flour (speed 8, 8 secs)

Add in the cranberries and seeds and mix again until combined (Speed 4, 6 secs). Blitz for longer if you want less obvious ‘bits’

Add in the butter through the chute at the top whilst mixing (on Speed 4) and mix until well combined (about 10 seconds)

Add in the chocolate and mix until just combined (Speed 4, 6 seconds)

Form a teaspoon full into a ball and spoon onto a lined baking tray, allowing space to spread. Press down gently.

Cook in a preheated moderate oven for 14-15 minutes.

They will be soft when you remove them from the oven. Allow to cool on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. They will be crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Makes about 20.

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

Maple, banana and cinnamon Weetbix slice

November 12, 2018November 12, 2018 ~ desertcook ~ 2 Comments

We share supper in the evening after church each Sunday.

This week it was my turn on roster. I always try to make sure that I cater for as many food allergies and intolerances as I can so that, at least sometimes, those who might otherwise be left out can join in.

This recipe was a hit – free from gluten, eggs, dairy, nuts, soy, legumes and also vegan… but delicious enough that the non-food allergy folk enjoyed it and several requested the recipe. Winner!

Weetbix slice was a childhood favourite – a regular feature in our school lunchboxes. I’m sure the slice came about as a budget-stretching way of using up the inevitable crumbs at the end of the pack!

The gluten free version of Weetbix is made with sorghum and although I’m not the biggest fan of the original as such a nutritious cereal, it fits our allergy requirements, my kids are excited and I’m pleased to be able to use them in baking!

160g vegan butter, melted
6 weetbix, crushed (regular or GF)
1 cup plain flour of choice (I use spelt or the White Wings GF blend)
1 rounded tsp GF baking powder
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup flaked quinoa (or rolled oats if it suits you)
2 tbsp each flax seeds and hemp seeds
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 medium overripe banana

Mix together all dry ingredients (Sp 4, 8 seconds).

In a separate bowl mash the banana well, add in the maple syrup then pour in the melted butter and mix until well. (Butter in first, Sp 3, 100C for 60 seconds, then add in remaining wet ingredients and use Sp 4, 20 seconds, scrape down and repeat if required)

Pour the wet mix into the dry mix and fold together until well combined (Sp 3, 15 secs).

Press firmly into a lined baking tray (mine was 20x20cm).

Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 25 minutes.

All to cool and then ice with maple icing – made with 1 tbsp soft vegan butter beaten into 2 tsp of maple syrup, a pinch of cinnamon and several tbsp of pure icing sugar (add more as required to reach your desired consistency).

Slice and store in airtight container in the fridge. Makes 16-20 slices.

Enjoy 🙂

P.S. I’ve had a query about replacing the banana … simply switch it out for about 1/3 of a cup of apple sauce … add a teaspoon more at a time if the mixture seems too dry.