Seed Butter cookies

~ desertcook ~ 4 Comments

There’s an old recipe that claims to make ‘magic’ cookies – I think I even saw them on Masterchef last year – all you need is peanut butter, sugar and eggs.

Well, hm. Guess they’re not for us then!

But I’ve been thinking about how I could make a seed butter based cookie, also without eggs, and this is the winner!

  • 180g smooth Sunflower Seed butter (or other nut butter that suits you)
  • 2 tbsp coconut sugar
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 3 tbsp aquafaba OR 1 whole egg
  • 1 cup rolled oats or quinoa
  • 3/4 tsp GF baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

In your processor/bullet/thermal cooker, place the oats, salt, cinnamon and baking powder and blitz until you have a consistency like flour (Speed 6, 12 seconds). Set aside

Place the seed butter, sugar, maple syrup, aquafaba and vanilla in a saucepan or thermal cooker. Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly until smooth and well combined (Speed 3, 100C for 1 min, then up to speed 5 for 10 seconds).

Add the dry mix to the wet and mix until combined. (Speed 4, 10 seconds, scrape down and repeat). The mixture will be quite thick and will clump together.

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Tip mixture into a bowl, cover and place in the fridge for 30 mins – 1 hour.

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Form a teaspoon of mix into a ball and place on a lined baking tray. Flatten with a fork.

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Place into a preheated moderate oven and bake for 15-17 minutes or until golden.

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Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling completely.

The cookies will be soft when you remove them from the oven but will harden on cooling.

Makes 18-20, store in an airtight container for a week.

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We like ours dunked in milk (my favourite is vanilla almond!)

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Enjoy 🙂

 

 

 

Veggie Burgers

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I have mentioned before that I am really not a fan of minced meat. I have managed to teach myself to eat it in some family meals but, eating a beef patty in a burger is just not even a tolerable idea for me!!

So, especially as we seek to eat less meat and increase our plant based options wherever we can, these delicious patties have become our go-to option!

  • 1 medium, peeled and diced Sweet potato
  • 1/2 a medium butternut pumpkin, peeled and diced
  • 400g tin Chick peas, drained
  • 1 tbsp Garlic olive oil
  • 1/3 tsp pink flaked salt
  • 2 tsp finely diced fresh herbs (think Italian Style herbs – I mostly use rosemary)
  • 1/4 cup Nutritional yeast (optional)
  • 1/2 – 1 cup GF breadcrumbs
  • 2 tbsp flax meal

Place the sweet potato and pumpkin in a lined baking dish and drizzle with garlic olive oil.

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Bake in a preheated 200C oven for about 60 minutes.

Place the chick peas in a bowl and cover them with boiling water to soften.

Remove veggies from oven and transfer to a bowl appropriate for mashing.

Drain the chick peas and add to the veggies before mashing all together.

Once mashed, sprinkle over the flax meal, stir in well and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Add the Yeast to the veggie mix and fold through to combine well.

Begin to fold through the bread crumbs, start with half a cup then add more if the mix is still too sloppy – a lot of the consistency depends on the water content of your veggies.

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Form into balls, then squash into patties and place into the fridge for at an hour (but overnight is fine too).

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Heat some olive oil in a heavy based pan, or on the BBQ and place patties in the oil.

Cook over a medium heat (so that the outside doesn’t burn before the inside is cooked!) about 4 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

We like to have them in burgers together with salad and my Creamy Avocado Dressing. Or even just with lots of avocado.

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The kids like their to have a slice of cheese melted onto the top of them under the grill before going into their burgers …. and Peter prefers his with a little bacon!

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Makes 6-10 patties, depending on their size.

These patties work well cold the next day too – in another another bun or with a plate of salad or steamed green veg.

Enjoy 🙂

Quick Cheesey Garlic Bread Sticks

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Soup for dinner here tonight. Yum.

I love soup (for taste, health, ease and budgetary reasons!!), Peter loves soup and the kids mostly like soup, so it features pretty regularly in the cooler weather …. however I’m pretty sure the main reason they like it, is for the bread that we let them ‘dunk’ in it.

Check freezer tonight. Oops. No bread.

Harry, my little carbivore, looks up at me like he’s actually going to cry.

Never mind my boy …. yoghurt dough to the rescue! We loaded it up with my delicious Cheesey Sprinkles (Vegan Parmesan) for a fabulous flavour and nutrition boost.

  • 470g Spelt flour (or 420g GF flour together with 1tbsp psyllium husk)
  • 2.5 tsp GF baking powder
  • 360g natural yoghurt or soy/coconut yoghurt
  • 3 tbsp Cheesey Sprinkles* (vegan Parmesan)
  • 1 tbsp Garlic olive oil
  • 1 tsp pink flaked salt

*If you haven’t made these, you can roughly replace this quantity with 2 tbsp Nutritional yeast, 1 tbsp milled nuts/seeds plus a pinch of salt, pepper and Italian type herbs.

Place all ingredients, except oil and salt, into processor and mix until it forms a dough and gently bring it together. (Speed 5, 15 seconds).

If the dough is too sticky, add in 1 tsp of extra flour at a time and process to combine …. I have found that I often need to add more flour when I work with homemade soy yoghurt.

Split the dough into 4 pieces and, using wet hands, form into 4 bread stick shapes, laying them on a lined baking tray.

Brush the tops of the bread with garlic olive oil and sprinkle with flaked salt.

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Place into a preheated 200C oven for about 20 minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Finish with a short time under the grill to give an extra crunchy top crust.

Allow to cool for a few minutes before slicing and eating.

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This bread freezes and defrosts well, just make sure it is wrapped in an airtight seal before you place in the freezer.

Enjoy 🙂

 

Pomegranate Poached Pears

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My gorgeous sister in law recently gave me some beautiful fat, juicy pomegranates (thanks Mish!) and I was dreaming up ways to use them, when I noticed the pears that I had bought the previous week sitting, a bit past their best, in the bottom of the fridge. And there next to it was the pomegranate juice I’d used in another recipe …. I like to be creative with what I’ve got on hand and avoid waste …. so we had a very delicious, and very easy, dessert!

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  • 500ml Pomegranate juice
  • 1 tbsp coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • peel of 1 lemon, sliced
  • 6 medium pears
  • 1 cup pomegranate seeds
  • Optional: toasted slivered almonds

Place juice and sugar in bottom of slow cooker, whisk together and cook on high for 10 minutes.

Whisk in spices and add lemon peel.

Core and slice pears into quarters. Peeling is optional (I tend to leave it on for more fibre)

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Place pears into the slow cooker juice mixture, place lid on slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours. Add in the seeds and cook for a further 30 minutes with the lid off.

Remove lemon slices, and serve warm, sprinkled with the almonds (if using), with a cream, ice cream, yoghurt or custard that suits your diet. Alternatively, serve cold on top of breakfast porridge, or granola, use as the fruit base in dessert crumbles or blitz in your processor until smooth and use as a fruit puree.

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I love it with my crunchy granola and natural yoghurt for dessert!

Enjoy 🙂

Pear ‘power’ Muffins

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These delicious little muffins are packed with great stuff to fuel busy little brains and bodies…. And to keep little digestive systems regular 😉

They are so easy to make and speedy to get in the oven that we have been known to have them fresh for breakfast before school! The kids love them … and I might be quite partial to one with my morning cuppa too!

  • 225g stewed/tinned pears (drained from their juices)
  • flesh of 1/2 a ripe avocado
  • 1 tbsp sunflower seed butter OR nut butter
  • 160g milk of choice
  • 1 medium overripe banana
  • 4 medjool dates
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 1/2 cup of my Chocolate Protein Powder*
  • 1 1/2 cups spelt flour (half wholemeal, half white) OR 1 1/4 cups GF flour mix
  • 2 tsp GF baking powder
  • pinch Himilayan salt

*If you haven’t made this powder you can replace it here with 1/4 cup almond or seed meal plus 1/8 cup cocoa and 1/8 cup coconut sugar

Into your blender/processor/nutribullet/thermo cooker place the pears, banana, avocado, seed butter, dates, vanilla and milk. Blitz until smooth (Speed 7, 10 seconds, scrape down and repeat)

In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking powder, flour and protein powder (Speed 4, 8 secs)

Add the dry mix to the wet and mix to combine (Speed 4, 10 seconds, scrape down and repeat). Don’t over beat. I often just tip the wet mix into the bowl with the flour mix and combine by hand.

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Pour into a lined muffin tin and place into preheated moderate oven. Bake for about 18 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

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Enjoy 🙂

Sweet Spiced Pumpkin Loaf

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This delightful, fragrant loaf is like a cross between my Sticky Date Cake, Banana bread and Pumpkin Scones!!

It is just perfect with an afternoon cuppa or in a lunchbox to fuel busy little bodies and brains at recess time.

Plus, no oil, no eggs, no dairy and very low sugar make it a healthier ‘cake’ option.

See below the recipe for a Coeliac friendly option too.

  • 200g butternut pumpkin
  • 6 medjool dates, pitted and halved
  • 1 cup very hot water
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
  • 50g sunflower seed butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
  • 2 tsp GF baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
  • 1 medium, very ripe bananas
  • 1/4 cup pepitas

Place roughly chopped pumpkin into Thermal cooker or food processor and process until well chopped, Speed 6, 8 seconds.

Now add dates, water, sugar and bicarb in the Thermal cooker and cook at 110C on speed 2 until the mix comes to the boil (a few minutes), then a further 2 minutes.

Add in the banana and seed butter and start processing on speed 3 and working your way up to speed 5 for about 12 seconds, or until the mixture is fairly smooth and consistent.

(Do this in a saucepan over a medium heat with regular stirring and then transfer to a food processor or blender to do this without the thermal cooker)

In a large separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and spices (speed 5, 8 seconds).

Pour the pumpkin and date mix into the flour mix and fold together until all combined. Don’t over mix.

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Pour into lined loaf tin and sprinkle with the pepitas

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Place into a preheat 160C oven for 35mins or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Cool in tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Allow to mostly cool before slicing. Serve on it’s own or even serve with some cream or ice cream for dessert.

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To make this cake Coeliac friendly replace the spelt with 1.5 cups of plain GF flour mix and 1/3 cup of almond/seed meal.

For a lower sugar version remove the coconut sugar and add another 2 dates.

This is a moist cake and freezes and defrosts beautifully – Enjoy 🙂

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Broccoli and Broad Bean Soup with Crispy Croutons

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Soup is such a winner in winter. So fast to make, cheap and healthy and you can make a serious bulk batch for easy warming lunches!

Broccoli and Cauliflower are in delicious form and in such abundance here at the moment – so let’s celebrate them!!

For the soup:

  • 2 tbsp garlic oilve oil
  • 1 brown onion, diced
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme
  • large sweet potato (roughly 700g after peeling)
  • 1 large head broccoli
  • 1 large head cauliflower
  • 2 cups broad beans
  • 8 cups hot chicken stock (Massel for a store bought option)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • OPTIONAL: For a creamier soup – 2 tbsp cream/coconut cream (the thick part from the top of the can)

Heat the oil in a large, heavy based saucepan.

Add in the onion and fry, stirring regularly until it is quite coloured.

Add in the diced potato and thyme and mix well to coat. Fry for a further 4-5 minutes, then add in the stock. Bring to a gentle simmer for 8-10 minutes.

Add in the remaining vegetables and bring back to a simmer for a further 10 minutes.

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Add in cream/coconut cream now if using and then use a stick blender to puree (If you are using a blender, be very careful to follow instructions about blending hot food …. you’ll need to let it cool and do a little at a time to avoid a nasty burn risk!)

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Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This makes a very large quantity – probably 12-14 serves. Freezes and defrosts well.

For the croutons:

  • 4 slices of your bread of choice
  • 2 tbsp garlic olive oil
  • 1 tbsp cheesey sprinkles (or parmesan if it suits you)

Brush the olive oil evenly over the bread, on both sides.

Chop the bread into the sized croutons you’d like and then lay on a lined baking dish, scatter over the sprinkles and mix to make sure they are evenly covered.

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Place into a pre-heated, low oven (120C) and bake for about 40 minutes, tossing them over after 25 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

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Use to top your soup.

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Enjoy 🙂

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P.S. If you are like my husband, and are a massive carnivore, you can always add some diced bacon into the cooking time for the croutons and crumble it on the top of your soup.