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Lunchbox

Breakfast, Lunchbox, Sides, Treats & Snacks, Vegan &/or Raw, Videos

New Video – aging, and how to put the breaks on

This is the start of a fun #WTF series on healthy foods. Cleaning up your diet doesn’t need to assault your taste buds or involve thigh-licking lycra. No one should be threatened with that.

Tell me what you think, and which foods you’d like me to cover next! 

Leave your comments below and don’t forget to tag a friend, share on twitter or subscribe to my You Tube channel if you’re digging the vibe …  

 

Introducing skin-repairing zinc from pumpkin seeds, almond’s vitamin E stash, and orgasms …

 

 

 

Next week? #WTF Kale

 

Lunchbox, Treats & Snacks, Vegan &/or Raw, x For Freezer x

The Ultimate Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes

These are the greatest plant-based cupcakes to have ever seduced my nostrils and my tastebuds. I beg you to try them. 

Brown rice flour is the easiest gluten-free flour to bake with, and the most obedient to use. Its practically inflammable with B vitamins, acting like spark plugs in the body (most important for new parents, trainee doctors and idle cabinet ministers).

Team it up with sweet chestnut flour, and you’ve got yourself a little love bomb in the oven. 

Italians have been using chestnut flour for centuries y’all. These folk seem to know a lot about tickling taste buds. Chestnuts are naturally sweet, high in fibre and approximately 80% carbohydrate. What’s more, its monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids are like cheerleaders for the heart.

I’ve noticed that Denmark’s culinary doyenne Anette Harbech Olsen praises psyllium husks as the secret weapon in her gluten-free baking. So I gave it a go. I think you’ll find it a cinch to use, dead cheap, and will feel like a prize-winning chemist in the kitchen. Transformational stuff (erm, it’s also great for the bowels).

 

chestnut flour

 

For the plant-based ‘buttermilk’:

2 tablespoons psyllium husks (10g)
1 1/2 cups almond or soya milk (375ml)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (125ml)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Dry ingredients (I use British cups, 1 cup=250ml):

1/2 cup cocoa powder (50g)
3 tablespoons potato flour
1/2 cup chickpea flour (60g)
1/2 cup chestnut flour (65g)
1/2 cup brown rice flour (65g)
1 cup coconut sugar (150g)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes

35g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

 

With a fork, simply whisk the psyllium in with the plant milk, olive oil and vanilla, then leave to rest while you get jiggy with the other ingredients. Leave overnight if you’re prepping for a culinary sing song in the morning.

In a food processor, or a whisk and tenacity, blend the dry ingredients together so that the baking powder and cocoa is distributed evenly. Add the plant-based ‘buttermilk’ and beat or puree until smooth. Avoid tasting the batter – wet chickpea flour tastes and smells like cat’s pee. The cooked result is awesome though, so do persist! These are the greatest vegan cupcakes I’ve ever tasted.

Add the chocolate chips. Scoop the dough into exactly 12 cupcake liners and bake for 28 minutes at 160 fan / 180 regular Celsius oven. When they’re done, leave to cool in their cupcake tray. If the plant-based milk you used was of the unsweetened variety, you might want to sweeten the end result by drizzling melted chocolate on top, and leaving to set. Just saying.

For more inspiration on gluten free and plant-based baking, have a peek at Allyson Kramer’s blog. This one is a spin off from her peppermint chocolate cupcakes.

 

 

Chocolate Chestnut Muffins

 

This week, The Irish Times’ restaurant critic Catherine Cleary asks whether food can help you feel better. What do you think? Check out her podcast here on medicinal food for Lyric FM’s series “History on a Plate” (I join her for a quick chat, but thankfully wasn’t offered powdered mouse and 8oz of cinnamon).

Good night from me!

 

Susan Jane white Paris Workshop

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast, Lunchbox, Treats & Snacks, Vegan &/or Raw

Home-made Hazelnut Milk

I call these grandpa nuts because they’re wonderfully nourishing for our seniors and senioras. Here’s why. Hazelnuts contain beta-sitosterol, a groovy compound shown to help benign prostatic hyperplasia. This is doctorspeak for the numerous trips men over sixty take to the loo during the night. While benign prostatic hyperplasia is not harmful, it can be a darned nuisance.

In a study published by The Lancet medical journal, patients given 20mg of beta-sitosterol three times a day demonstrated a reduction in urinary frequency. Okay so this is significantly more beta-sitosterol than a single hazelnut can provide, but nevertheless, it’s one of many sources which can be easily included in grandpa’s diet. Others include soybeans, brown rice, pecans, avocados and sesame seeds.

Beta-sitosterol is also hailed by the Mayo Clinic for improving lipoprotein profiles and overall blood serum levels (that’s HDL and LDL to you and me). But in order to avail of this nut’s snazzy cholesterol-blocking compounds, you’ll need to recruit the unsalted variety. We reckon hazelnut milk is the tastiest thing to hit this cosmology in a long time (excluding you Michael Fassbender).

 

hazelnut milk soakinghazelnut milk omniblend

 

 

3/4 cup raw hazelnuts
1/4 cup raw almonds
3 cups filtered water
2 Medjool dates
Nut milk bag, as found on Amazon

Cover your hazelnuts and almonds in water overnight.

In the morning, rinse and drain the soaked nuts. Tumble into a blender along with fresh water and pitted dates. Pelt on the highest setting for 20 seconds.

Wash your hands thoroughly before the next step, to avoid spoiling the milk. Place your nut milk bag over a large bowl and slowly pour the nut milk and pulp into the bag. Gently squeeze the top of the bag to release the milk, which should take about 20 seconds. My children love doing this. I find it helps to secure the top by twisting, so the pulp doesn’t jump out.

Store in the fridge for up to 3 days, but rarely longer. Give the jar a jolly good shake before enjoying.

If you are compiling your Santa wishlist, this is what I use every day in the kitchen to make nut milk. It’s just as good as a Vitamix in my opinion, but half the cost. Fist. Bump.

 

hazelnut milk nutbaghazelnuts raw

 

 

A special announcement

Join me on Substack

Howdy! I’ll be deleting this website shortly. Gah! But please stay in touch – I so appreciate your loyalty and lovebombs.

You can continue to access my recipe drops over on Substack.  Hope to see you there, and to continue frolicking on this veggie-fueled dance floor.