Front cover spread and interview on page 10 of the January Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader Newspaper.
Sweet Potato & Black Bean Pies with Mango Mint and Lime Salsa
YOU NEED
1 large sweet potato
1 tablespoon of rice bran oil
1 large brown onion, peeled and finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
¼ teaspoon of dried crushed hot chilli
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of pimento allspice
1 large green capsicum
1 can of crushed tomatoes
2 cans of black beans
¾ cup of vegetable stock
20 grams of dairy free (70% cocoa) dark chocolate
3/4 teaspoon of salt
Cracked black pepper to taste
4 handfuls of Kataifi pastry
2 large mangos, cut into cubes
1 cup of fresh mint leaves, washed
2 limes
YOU DO
Preheat your oven to 180c and get a steamer on to boil. Peel the sweet potato, cut it into rough cubes and steam them until the potato is tender. Once the potato is cooked, mash it and set it aside.
Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook on a low heat until the onion is caramelised. Add the chilli, coriander and pimento allspice and cook, stirring frequently for another minute or 2.
Add the capsicum, tomatoes, black beans and stock and gently simmer on a low to medium heat for 5 minutes. Once all the ingredients have cooked down, stir in the chocolate, salt and some ground black pepper, to taste. Continue cooking until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is a thick, wet consistency.
Spoon equal amounts of the bean mixture into 4 shallow, single serve pie dishes. Top each with some mashed potato. Then top each pie with a handful of Kataifi pastry. Place the pies into the oven and cook until the pastry has started to brown.
Make the salsa by juicing the 2 limes, roughly chopping the mint and combining them with the mango. Place into a small serving dish.
Serve the pies hot from the oven, accompanied with the salsa.
Yields: 4 serves.
Time: 25 – 30 minutes preparation. Plus 15 minutes cooking time.
Notes: You can purchase black beans at well stocked health food stores. If you don’t have black beans you can substitute them with kidney beans.
Kataifi pastry can be found in well stocked delis. Otherwise substitute with filo pastry. The pies are also lovely with no pastry.
Papaya, Pineapple and Basil Granita
YOU NEED
500ml of fresh pineapple juice
300ml of fresh papaya juice
4 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
1 cup of fresh basil leaves
YOU DO
Gently wash the basil leaves and remove any hard stalks.
Place all the ingredients into a blender and blend until the basil leaves have roughly broken up. Be sure not to over blend the mixture or the basil will break up too much and your mixture will become green.
Pour the mixture into two flat trays and place them into the freezer onto flat surfaces.
After an hour or so, check the trays and as the mixture begins to freeze, use a fork to carefully scrape any of the mixture that has started icing up. Continue doing this every 20-30 minutes until all the mixture is completely flaked. If you are not serving straight away, just place it into an air tight container in your freezer until you want to use it.
When you are ready to serve the granita, serve it in chilled glasses and eat it before it melts.
Yields: Serves 4
Time: 10 minutes for preparation. Then simply allow for the freezing process.
Notes: I used fresh pineapple and papaya and juiced them in my juicer until I had the desired amount of juice, for each fruit.
If your pineapple is super sweet you can get away with using no maple syrup.
A number of “Back to School Healthy Lunch Box & Snack recipes and images by The Kind Cook, featured in Nourish Magazine’s New Year publication.
“Ponche” Mexican Christmas Fruit Punch
YOU NEED
2 litres of water
1/3 cup of agave syrup
2 cloves
1 star anise
1 large cinnamon quill
1 mango, peeled and seed removed
1 green apple, core removed
1 pear, core removed
½ a small pineapple, core removed
1 orange
3 prickly pears, peeled
Handful of walnuts
Handful of raisins
4 hibiscus flowers
Soda water to taste
#optional – rum or tequila to taste
#optional – fresh sugar cane
Handful of fresh washed mint
YOU DO
Place the first 5 ingredients into a large pot and bring them to the boil. Then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes and turn off the heat.
Chop all the fruit into any shape you wish and add them all to the pot. Add the walnuts, raisins and hibiscus flowers. Allow the punch to cool and refrigerate until chilled.
Ladle chilled punch into serving glasses. Add a splash of soda water and some rum or tequila, to taste (if you are using alcohol).
Very carefully cut the fresh sugar cane into sticks. Garnish the serving glasses with fresh sugar cane sticks and fresh mint leaves.
Notes: Ponche is traditionally made by cooking the syrup along with all the fruit for a much longer period of time and then served warm. This recipe has been created to suit hot summers day with chilled punch and firmer fruits.
If you don’t have agave you can use pure maple syrup.
You can purchase prickly pear from specialty fruit and vegetable stores. Otherwise simply substitute for another tropical fruit.
You can purchase hibiscus flowers in syrup at liquor shops and specialty supermarkets. If you cannot find it, simply omit it from the recipe.
You can purchase fresh sugar cane from Asian fruit and vegetable grocers.
Cashew Cheese Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers with a Smoked Paprika Sauce
YOU NEED
For the cashew cheese
1 cup of raw cashews
3 teaspoons of nutritional yeast
½ teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder
3/4 teaspoon of salt
¼ teaspoon of turmeric
4 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
12 fresh jalapeños
For the crumbing
¼ cup of gluten free bread crumbs
3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
¼ cup of almond milk (or a plant based milk of your choice)
For the dipping sauce
1/3 cup of raw cashews
½ teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
5 tablespoons of water
YOU DO
Soak the 1 cup of cashews and the ¼ cup of cashews over night, in separate containers with enough water to cover them. Once soaked, drain the water from the 1 cup of cashews and discard the water.
Preheat your oven to 200c and make the cashew cheese by placing all the popper ingredients (except the jalapeños), into a blender and blending for 5 minutes. Make sure you scrape any lumps from the side of the blender and add them to your mixture so that they blend nicely too. Once the cashew cheese is smooth, set it aside.
Slice each jalapeño in half. Remove and discard the seeds. Put a generous teaspoon of the cashew cheese mixture into each jalapeño half and set aside.
To make the crumbing mixture, combine the bread crumbs and nutritional yeast and place them onto a plate. Pour the milk into a small shallow bowl. Carefully dip the stuffed poppers into the almond milk. Place them onto the breadcrumb plate and cover them generously with crumbs. Shake off any excess crumbs. Repeat until each popper is well covered. The bottom half will only have a thin layer of breadcrumbs, but the cheese stuffed top will have a nice thick layer. Place the poppers onto a dry baking tray and into the oven. Cook for 15 minutes until the jalapeños have softened and the bread crumbs have browned.
While the poppers are cooking, make the sauce. Drain the remaining 1/3 cup of cashews and discard the water. Blend the cashews with the rest of the sauce ingredients, for 5 minutes until smooth. Place the sauce into a serving dish.
Once the poppers are cooked, place them onto a platter, with the sauce and serve immediately.
Yields: Makes 24 poppers.
Time: 30 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook. Plus the soaking time for the cashews.
Apple Berry Pops
Like all my pop recipes, this is incredibly easy to make. Just juice the apples and add as much or as little raspberries as you wish.
It’s a healthy, raw, delicious dairy free snack, dessert or even breakfast for kids (or adults).
YOU NEED
organic apples
organic raspberries to taste
YOU DO
Juice the apples and blend as many or little raspberries as you would like through the apple juice.
Pour the mixture into small cupcake baking cups. Place the cups onto a tray and put them into the freezer. Once they are half frozen place icy pole sticks into them and leave them to finish setting.
Time: 5 minutes plus freezing time.
Notes: Juicing apples are a more economical way to purchase organic apples for recipes like this.
Add a few raspberries at a time and taste the mixture as you go. The more raspberries you add, the more tart the mixture will become. You want to end up with a nice balance of sweet and tart.
Choc Banana Soft Serve
Gorgeous snack, sweet treat or even breakfast for kids of all ages. I always have over ripe frozen bananas in my freezer these days and this is why.
YOU NEED
1 large ripe banana
2 teaspoons of raw cacao
YOU DO
Peel the banana, cut it into chunky slices, place it in a plastic container and put it in the freezer.
Once it’s frozen, blend with the cacao until it’s smooth.
Serve immediately.
Yields: 1 serve
Time: 5 minutes. Plus the freezing time.
Basic Pizza Dough
I make pizza dough all the time these days. That way I know the ingredients. Besides it only takes a couple of minutes to throw all the ingredients together and roll out and I just prepare the rest of the meal while it proofs.
YOU NEED
1 and 3/4 cups of plain or wholemeal flour
1 x 7 gram packet of dried yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
200ml or so of warm water (start with 200 and go from there. Flour differs in its “hardness” so I find I often need more, but always use 200 as a starting point)
# extra flour for dusting
YOU DO
Sift the flour into a large bowl.
Add the rest of the dry ingredients and stir to evenly combine.
Add the water and mix all ingredients. Mix them together, and then work the dough into a ball. If it is too dry, slowly add more water a little at a time until it comes together. If it is a little wet, add a little more flour till it comes together.
Dust your bench with a little flour and knead the dough for 5 minutes.
Then pop it back in the bowl and allow it to proof until it doubles in size. I am usually impatient though and often start rolling it out a lot sooner than this.
Once the dough has proofed, dust your bench again and roll it out into whatever shape and thickness you want. I tend to roll mine very thin as I prefer thin crust pizza.
Yields: Makes enough for 1 large or 2 small pizza bases.
Time: 10 minutes preparation. Plus proofing time.
Freeze: Absolutely! Just portion any dough you don’t need, wrap it well and freeze it for another day.
Chocolate Banana Smoothie
