Cooking that gives a damn
Frozen grapes are the perfect treats for a hot day . They are such a fun and gorgeous snack or healthy dessert option for kids and adults alike. It doesn’t get much easier than this.
YOU NEED
Grapes
YOU DO
Wash the grapes to remove any gritty bits and pop them in the freezer until they are solid.
Serve and ENJOY.
Simple, delicious and healthy.
YOU NEED
3 small to medium potatoes (approximately 450 grams), any type that is good for mashing
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ cup of fresh coriander, washed, drained and finely chopped
½ teaspoon of salt
2-3 tablespoons of quinoa flour
3- 4 tablespoons of Bonsoy soy milk
½ -¾ cup of crushed almonds
1 – 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
YOU DO
Wash the potatoes, spike them with a fork and microwave them till they are tender. Once they are cooked, cut them in half and carefully scoop the flesh out. Place the flesh into a bowl and discard the skins.
Add the cumin, cardamom, coriander and salt to the potato and roughly mash everything together with a fork. Check the seasoning and form the mash into koftas.
Put the flour on a small plate and the milk into a small dish. Mix the crushed almonds with the sesame seeds. Very gently roll one of the balls through the flour. Then sit it on a fork and dip it in the milk. Carefully roll it in the nuts, until it is well covered and place onto a small oven tray. # I tend to use one hand for the flour and milk and one for rolling them in the nuts, so that the nuts don’t get too wet. Repeat until all the koftas are coated.
Place them in a preheated oven (180c). Bake for 20-30 minutes or until they are browned.
Serve them hot, accompanied with relish, coconut yoghurt and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Yields: 12 koftas. Will vary slightly depending on the size of the potatoes you used.
Time: 15-20 minutes of preparation. 30 – 35 minutes cooking time. This will vary depending on the strength/type of your microwave and oven.
Notes: Don’t worry if they weigh a little more or less than 450 grams. This will not make a huge difference.
If you don’t wish to microwave the potatoes, you can bake them. This will take about 40 minutes though.
The smaller the crushed nuts are, the easier they will stick to the koftas. You want them to have some crunch once cooked though, so leave them with a bit of texture still. I crush the almonds in a mortar and pestle, a few at a time.
Ingredients
½ cup of fresh coriander
8 round rice paper rounds
½ cup of finely sliced red cabbage
½ cup of finely sliced savoy cabbage
½ cup of very finely sliced red capsicum
½ cup of peeled carrot, cut into fine match sticks
Method
Trim the roots from the coriander, wash it well, pat dry with a clean tea towel and set aside.
Lay all your prepared ingredients out on a plate.
Place 1 rice paper round in a shallow bowl of lukewarm water for about 10 seconds. When you pull it out of the water, it will still feel firm. It will soften as you work with it though and it is much easier to work with this way. Place it down flat onto your bench top.
Put equal amounts of each of the ingredients down the centre of the rice paper round. Make sure there is space at the ends and don’t be tempted to over fill it, or you will have trouble rolling it. Fold the ends of the rice paper in and roll up firmly, to enclose the fillings. Repeat with the remaining rice paper rounds and fillings.
Serve with fresh lime and/or organic tamari or sweet chilli sauce.
Yields: 8 rolls
Time: 20 minutes
Notes: You can purchase rice paper rolls at Asian supermarkets and in the Asian section of most supermarkets.
If you want the fillings to show, you can place the ingredients all to one side of the rice paper round and only fold one side of the round, before you roll it. This is great for parties and gatherings, but for lunches its best to enclose all the ingredients.
For a more filling snack or lunch, add a small amount of vermicelli rice noodles to each roll.
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.
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.
I keep seeing these at my grocers & the supermarket, so I decided to give them a go and they are SO easy.
They would be perfect in school lunch boxes or for a quick easy mid morning snack at work or home. They would even be a lovely sweet finish at a dinner party, served along with coffee.
I used medjool dates so they blended beautifully and they blended in seconds. I never pass up a chance to add a bit of citrus zing to a dish though too so added some orange zest. This is completely optional.
YOU NEED
1 large organic orange
1 cup of pitted medjool dates
¼ cup of desiccated coconut
YOU DO
Grate the peel of the orange with a citrus zester. Put the rest of the orange aside for another use.
Blend the dates & zest together until you get your desired texture. I blended mine until it was smooth.
Get a tablespoon of mixture and roll it into a ball and then into a log shape. Repeat until all the mixture has been shaped.
Once all the date mixture is shaped into logs, roll the logs in the coconut.
Serve straight away or refrigerate in an air tight container in the fridge.
Yields: 16 small date rolls
Time: 10 minutes.
Notes: My medjool dates were organic and so soft and caramel like. If you use dates that are not quite as pliable and soft you may need to add a small amount of water to get them to blend.
Lemon zest instead of orange zest would be a gorgeous addition too. You could also roll them in sesame seeds, pistachios or any other nut instead of coconut. Just make sure any rolled in nuts don’t go into lunch boxes as schools tend to be nut free zones these days:)
This is the perfect snack…… or perfect for dessert!
You absolutely cannot tell that there is avocado in this. It’s rich, chocolate velvet and is absolutely delicious.
It’s a dessert I made for my 3 year old every sometimes. As long as he doesn’t see the avocado go in, all is fine.
YOU NEED
1/2 a large avocado
1/4 cup of pure maple natural syrup
1 tablespoon of peanut butter (I use an organic peanut butter that contains only peanuts. No oil, salt and sugar)
1-2 teaspoons of dairy free cocoa (Just add this slowly until you get a lovely rich colour ..enough to forget that you are eating avocado)
YOU DO
Blend all the ingredients together until smooth.
Sieve some good quality cocoa over the top
Servings: 2 children or 1 adult
Time: 5 minutes
Freezing: Not suitable for freezing
Notes: Instead of sugar you can use pure maple syrup or agave
YOU NEED
200mls of fresh strawberry juice
200mls of fresh orange juice
YOU DO
All you need to do is combine the strawberry and orange juice and and pour the miture into small paper baking cups and place in the freezer.
Wait until the pops have almost frozen through and/or a firm enough for you to be able to place a paddle pop stick into each then pop the sticks in the middle of each pop and allow them to freeze completely and serve.
Serves: Made 4 pops.
Time: Prep time of 5 minutes plus freezing time.
Freeze: YUP
I struggled to stop myself drinking this it was so delicious!!! I did however have some left to freeze into pops.
Basil is not everyone’s thing but its mine and combined with pineapple it’s a match made in heaven.
These would be perfect served at a finger food event or at the end of a dinner party for a fun finish on a warm day.
YOU NEED
400mls of fresh pineapple juice
fresh basil leaves to taste. I easily used a very loose ¾ – 1 cup because I LOVE basil. I suggest you do this to taste.
YOU DO
All you need to do is place the pineapple juice and basil into a blender and blend until they are well combined and the basil has broken down. Then place some baking cups onto a small tray and pour the pineapple and basil juice into the cups and place the tray in the freezer.
Wait until the pops have almost frozen through and/or a firm enough for you to be able to place a paddle pop stick into each then pop the sticks in the middle of each pop and allow them to freeze completely and serve.
Serves: Made 4 pops.
Time: 5 minutes of preparation. Plus freezing time.
Notes: If you have a juicer that presses, you can just pop the basil leaves into the juicer, as you juice the pineapple and it will press the basil beautifully. Otherwise simply blend the basil into the pineapple juice as the recipe explains and then even strain the mix if you don’t want any “bits”.
#Note that I had a VERY sweet pineapple so if your pineapple is not SUPER sweet your results will be different and you may need to add a little agave or pure maple syrup.