Join me on Substack! I’ll be deleting this website shortly but you can continue to access my recipe drops over on Substack. Hope to see you there!

Browsing Category

Vegan &/or Raw

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

 

 

Lunchbox, Salads & Suppers, Sides, Vegan &/or Raw

Buckwheat Noodles Wrapped in ‘shrooms & Badass Ginger

‘Shrooms

Mushrooms have been revered throughout many cultures as far back as Ancient Egypt. These furred-up fungi were believed to bring immortality and bottomless libidos. That must have been before the empire disappeared. In Chinese medicine, mushrooms were celebrated for giving super-human strength. Take that, Popeye! 

Today, mushrooms don’t enjoy nearly the same level of prestige unless they are of the hallucinogenic kind. But many of these outrageous health claims can now be traced to a range of polysaccharides specific to mushrooms. (Scientists, look away now while I brutalise your language).

Lentinans and beta glucan polysaccharides for example are believed to stimulate the immune system by activating certain proteins, macrophages and T-cells. These white blood cells declare war on terrorism (pesky bugs and the like), and begin bombing the blood with their infantry.  

In laboratory studies, the polysaccharides present in shiitake extract have slowed the growth of tumours in some cell cultures. But not in all cell cultures, highlighting the complexity surrounding their use. For now, I’m sufficiently excited to indulge in the fantasy of everlasting life while scoffing a bucket of wild mushrooms.

 

wild mushrooms before cooking

 

 
Love Noodles

It’s argued that some of us have the genetic ability to become aroused by a mere whiff of certain types of mushrooms. 

Phwoar. No wonder the forests of County Wicklow are feverishly descended upon this time of year. 

Fall is shroom season, as they say in the trade. It’s best to go with an expert like Bill O’Dea to avoid picking poisonous ones. You don’t have to dress like an idiot to go shroom hunting, but Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall seems to think it helps.

 

wild mushrooms

 

For two people:
3 handfuls of various field mushrooms
2 long spring onions
a bunch of 100% buckwheat soba noodles
1 tablespoon extra virgin coconut oil
Up to 1 tablespoon tamari soya sauce

 

For the dressing:
3cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
pinch of chilli, dried or fresh (optional)
 
 

Slice the spring onions and larger mushrooms. Spring onions will look better wrapped among the noodles when they’re cut lengthways, rather than into tiny discs. Set both aside. You might find a few stray pieces of grass or dirt if the mushrooms are bone fide wild. Do discard these, unless you want to spend the evening with a toothpick.

Cook the soba noodles as directed on the packet. Normally this takes 5–8 minutes in boiling water. A quick dash of toasted sesame oil in the pot adds great flavour, but not essential.

While the noodles are cooking, heat a frying pan on a medium flame to stir-fry the mushrooms in a spot of coconut oil. Just as they deepen in colour – say, 4 minutes – chuck in a splash of tamari and enjoy the sizzle and splash. 

Remove from the heat immediately, add the sliced spring onions, mix everything together and let it sit in the pan while you get going on your dressing.

Crush the ginger and garlic to a smooth paste in a pestle and mortar. The smell of freshly smashed herbs and spices will serenade your nostrils and do all sorts of joyous things to your sensory neurons. Once you have recovered sufficiently from the pestle and mortar excitement, whisk in the sesame oil and remaining tamari with a fork. If you have it, a touch of chilli or truffle salt should get your blood beating like a voodoo drum. Just make sure you’re not serving this to somebody inappropriate, like an unsuspecting in-law.

The noodles should be nicely cooked by now. Remove from the heat, rinse under cold water to stop the noodles from sticking, drain, and wrap with the ginger dressing. Tumble into the mushrooms and spring onions. Serve with a renewed sense of devilment and a mischievous smile.

 

Paige, the seaweed hunter

 

 

Breakfast, Treats & Snacks, Vegan &/or Raw

Cacao Nib & Birch Sugar Granola

Xylitol sounds like a nuclear bunion buster. It is, in fact, a sweetener derived from the birch tree and often referred to as birch sugar.

The world’s best restaurant, Noma, serves fresh birch sap every spring in place of table water. Yep. It’s quite trippy – cold, honeyed and unfamiliar. Noma has managed to make birch trees hip, not hippie.

Birch sugar is now widely available in health food stores and savvy delicatessens. It’s neon white and powdery. I’m not convinced the processing is ‘natural’, but this hasn’t stopped its roaring rise. The sugar is mainly made by boiling birch sap until viscous and adding several chemicals to help the process along. Judging by the brands available in our stores, my eyebrows note that some are industrially synthesised in labs using corn instead of birch, and shaky about their origin. Watch out for piracy too. Newfangled fads attract trouble like a pedigree Chihuahua in heat.  

 

xylitol recipe image

 

      

Children’s confectionery brands are also turning towards xylitol. There is some noise about the reduction of bacterial growth in the mouth after consumption of xylitol, relative to cane sugar. The idea, then, is that xylitol may help reduce cavities (but so too would reducing our fizzy cola supply or remembering to scrub our nashers more often). I’m keeping an open mind, given its popularity among diabetics and health bloggers. But it aint sharing a shelf with my maple syrup.

In theory, white sugar and xylitol can be interchanged without mathematical gymnastics. Good news for diabetics. In practice, it’s a total diva. Xylitol can make a cake surprisingly crumbly like the bottom of a box of Rice Krispies. If you fancy yourself as a culinary MacGyver, you’ll love the challenge of whipping it into submission. If not, here’s a stonking good recipe to get you started.

 

 

xylitol cacao nib granola 

 

 

 

 

Trouser trumpets (that’s D4 for flatulence) are often associated with excessive consumption of xylitol, so watch out. Many love xylitol, and sales figures demonstrate this. It’s important to make up your own mind about it.

 

Cacao Nib & Birch Sugar Granola

This is a stunning recipe. but especially for the candida warriors and diabetics among us. Will make 25 portions.

 (I use British cups, 1 cup=250ml)

100g / under ½ cup birch xylitol
1 tablespoon cinnamon
250ml / 1 cup melted coconut oil
180g / 2 cups (gluten free) oat flakes
110g / 1 cup quinoa flakes (or more oat flakes)
½ teaspoon sea salt flakes
70g / ½ cup sunflower & pumpkin seeds
220g / 2 cups nuts
3 egg whites, whipped (optional, to make clusters)
6 tablespoons raw cacao nibs
6 tablespoons goji berries
6 tablespoons desiccated coconut

 

Fire up your oven to 170 degrees Celsius, 150 fan-assisted. Line 2 roasting trays with good parchment paper such as If You Care Parchment, available online or from savvy delicatessens. Relative to other parchments, this one is The Snazz.

If your xylitol is rather grainy, you’ll need to whizz it in a coffee grinder or high-speed blender until it looks more like fairy dust. Then scoop into a large saucepan with the cinnamon and coconut oil. Let them relax together on a low heat for 3-5 minutes.

Once melted, add the oats and quinoa flakes. Parachute some sea salt flakes from a height, a scattering of seeds, and 2 cups of your favourite nuts freshly chopped. We love hazelnuts and pecans for this recipe.  

Whisk the egg whites, if using, until soft and droopy. They don’t need to stand in stiff peaks. Fold into granola mix. I don’t always do this – depends on my mood. Egg whites help to make soft clusters in the granola, but if you prefer it dead crunchy, leave this step out.

Spread the granola over your pre-lined trays. Roast for 18-22 minutes, paying attention not to let the oats turn brown and bitter.

Leave to cool entirely before add the goji berries, cacao nibs and coconut. They tend to burn in the oven, and best left until last.

Store in a massive Ikea glass jar, and your sleepy taste buds will back flip every morning when you catch sight of the jar.

 

 

xylitol post 

 

Featured in The Sunday Independent, September 21 2014

 

 

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.