Weekend Foodie: Guilt-free Dark Chocolate Beetroot Muffins

I've been wanting to post a guilt-free chocolate cake recipe here for a while and, though I was a little sceptical of trying the beetroot/chocolate combi at first, I was surprised how delicious (and naughty) these tasted. Especially straight from the oven. Now I won't claim that this is a recipe you can throw together in a 2 minutes and whack in the oven. I did end up using a few bowls and making a bit of a mess, but I think it was worth it.

As with my previous baking recipes (see my banana loaf and apple & pear cake), I use agave syrup/nectar instead of sugar, olive oil instead of butter and wholegrain spelt flour instead of wheat flour to make these "guilt-free". So it's a good one for sneakily getting some fibre and iron into unsuspecting children (or chocoholic adults) without the accompanying refined sugar, wheat and butter.

Note on beetroots: I used pre-cooked beetroots (my husband bought them by mistake when I wanted raw ones to juice), but if you have fresh beetroots, you'll need to roast or boil them until they are soft (about an hour), then remove the skins before you puree them. I recommend wearing some protective gloves when handling the beetroot so you don't stain your hands red.

Ingredients (makes 12 muffins):
200g cooked beetroot
150g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped
1 tsp of freshly grated ginger
125g wholegrain spelt flour
3 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of sea salt, crushed
3/4 of a measuring cup of agave syrup/nectar
3/4 of a measuring cup of olive oil (or sunflower oil)

1. Heat the oven to 180C. Grease a muffin tin.

2. Puree the beetroot in a blender or food mixer (or mash very well), put into a heatproof bowl along with the chopped chocolate and heat in the oven for a couple of minutes until the chocolate has melted. Stir, then add the grated ginger and leave to one side to cool.

3. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

4. Separate the eggs (saving both yolks and whites). Whisk the egg whites until stiff.

5. When the chocolate beetroot mixture has cooled, add the egg yolks, oil and agave nectar to the mixture and and stir well. Then gently stir this mixture into the bowl of flour. Lastly fold in the egg whites and then divide between the muffin holes (around two large heaped tablespoons of batter per hole).

6. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for around 30 minutes (turning the tray half way through), until a skewer comes out clean but making sure the tops do not burn.

Variations: You could also make this into one cake (just adjust the cooking time to around 45-50 minutes), and/or to up the chocolate factor and add some texture, you could add in some dark chocolate chips at stage 5 along with the chocolate mixture.

Weekend Foodie: Winter Salad of Lamb's Lettuce, Goat's Cheese, Pear and Walnuts

OK, I know it's snowing outside (at least here in Bavaria anyway) so perhaps a salad might not be the first thing you're thinking of tucking into this weekend. But bear with me. This salad combines some great flavours that are around this time of year. Lamb's lettuce is hands down my favourite salad leaf: soft silky, manageable sized leaves (none of that throat-tickling frisee horror), so I'm loving that it's in season right now. Paired with juicy pear (geddit..., urgh terrible pun, I know), the salty tang of goat's cheese and the crunch of walnuts, mmmm, flavour pairings don't get much better than this.

Ingredients (to serve 4)

handful walnuts
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp raspberry vinegar (or balsamic, or red wine vinegar)
a squeeze of agave nectar (or honey will do too)
4 handfuls of lamb's lettuce (or spinach or watercress work well too)
100g soft goat's cheese (organic, if possible)
2 pears, washed, cored and chopped into small chunks

1. Lightly toast the walnuts for no more than a minute under a hot grill (watch them, they burn quickly).
2. To make the dressing, in a large salad bowl, combine the olive oil, vinegar and agave nectar/honey.
3. Wash and spin your salad leaves, tip into the salad bowl with the dressing, crumble over the goat's cheese, add the chopped pears and toasted walnuts, toss it all together with some salad servers until everything's coated with the dressing.

Serve with some crusty wholemeal bread.

Weekend foodie: Absolutely Scrumptious Pineapple, Blueberry and Cinammon Juice

Yes, the rumours are true. Since getting a juicer about a month ago, I have become the juicing equivalent of the born-again-fish-on-the-back-of-the-car Christian. I am hooked on my daily juice and can't but help telling everyone about it. Until now I have resisted bringing my juice-preaching to the blog world, but after having the freakingly insanely delicious juice below, I could contain myself no longer. And it must be good, because I never use the word "freakingly"!

Juices and smoothies not only taste fantastic - enough reason alone to get hooked, but they are seriously good for you. And you don't need to just read it to believe it - As soon as you have one, it's like you can feel all the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients going to every cell in your body and waking them up. My skin is much clearer, my eyes brighter, my tummer flatter, I have more energy and I just feel really clean inside. So if you have one New Year's Resolution for 2012, make it to get a juicer and use it every day.

Although I have a book full of juice recipes, it's not taken long before the experimental cook in me comes out and my mind starts whirling with all sorts of ideas for new juices. That's how this juice came about and I'm sure there will be others.

How to make it

Ingredients (makes one large glass or two small glasses):

1/3 pineapple

1/2 apple

1/2 pear

1/2 cup of frozen blueberries

1 banana

1 tsp cinammon

Juice the pineapple, apple and pear. Then add the frozen blueberries, banana and cinammon to the jug of juice and blend with a hand blender. That's it. You won't need a meal with this - it's a meal (or mid morning snack) in itself!

As for what to do with the other half of the apple and pear, keep an eye out on the blog this weekend...

Why is this juice so good for you?

Where do I start? Pineapple is not only a great source of potassium, iron, calcium, vitamins B, C, E and folic acid, it also contains the enzyme bromeline which helps dissolve excess muscus (good for anyone suffering from a chest infection, asthma or hay fever).

The banana is another source of potassium and the fibre it contains helps ensure that the sugars in the fruit juice are absorbed more slowly to avoid a spike in blood sugar.

Apples and pears are rich in lots of vitamins (including C - vital for the immune system) as well as cancer-fighting anti-oxidants.

Cinammon, as well as giving this juice a real zing and a bit of a Christmassy flavour, has been shown to have insulin-like effects, reducing blood sugar spikes after a meal.  It's also a powerful anti-oxidant.

As for blueberries, they aren't known as a superfood for nothing - they contain vitamins B1, B2 and B6 (the B vitamins are essential for releasing energy from carbohydrates and for healthy skin, eyes, liver and nervous system), vitamin C (immune system boosting), beta-carotene (anti-oxident and anti-inflammatory), folic acid (vital in the early stages of pregnancy for brain development), calcium (bone development), iron (energy and healthy blood), magnesium (helps against muscle cramps), maganese, phosphorous and potassium (all important for bone health) and zinc (helps regulate the hormones - therefore essential for male reproductive health and for pregnant and lactating women). Blueberries are also known for fighting free radicals (those nasty things responsible for the ageing process and cancerous growths). Not bad for a little berry, hey? So, do you need any more encouragement to spend those few dollars/pounds/euros on a bag of frozen blueberries?

p.s. don't forget to always use organic fruit and veg in your juicer - you don't want all those fertilisers and chemicals joining your beautiful juice. If you're in the UK, Abel & Cole can provide you with a weekly box of seasonal organic fruit and veg at a reasonable price.

Weekend Foodie: Live Long Soup

OK, so I can't promise that by eating this soup you will live to 100, but sweet potatoes really are a superfood, packed with antioxidants, anti-inflammatory nutrients and blood sugar regulating nutrients. It is therefore no surprise that the people of the Japanese island of Okinawa, who are the longest lived (and healthiest) people in the world, live off a diet which includes a significant amount of sweet potatoes.  Both the lentils and the sweet potato are complex carbohydrates, releasing energy slowly into your system (low GI).  Sweet potato is also a great source of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene which is not destroyed by cooking). Vitamin A is vital not only for healthy skin and eyes, but also for the immune system and prevention of cancer cell growth.  The spinach added at the end (to keep it's iron content) will help support your kidney and liver function as well as helping you avoid fatigue (Tip: if you feel tired a lot, upping the iron in your diet can really help - include vitamin C to help your body absorb it). Oh, and I did I mention this soup is souper-douper easy to make ('scuse the pun!)?

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

1 cup red split lentils
3 cups vegetable stock
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
a bunch of fresh spinach and herbs of your choice, e.g. basil, parsley

Put all the ingredients, except for the spinach and herbs, into a pan, bring to the boil and then simmer for around 10 minutes until the sweet potato is soft. Take off the heat, add the chopped spinach and herbs and give it a whizz with a hand blender (if you don't have one, a potato masher will do the job). That's it!

Weekend foodie: Tasty Kedgeree

Kedgeree is something my mum used to make a lot when we were younger. She's Irish, so I'm not sure it was the authentic version, but it was definitely tasty as well as nutritious. Somehow a bunch of ingredients that individually don't sound that enticing come together to make a really delicious and easy to make supper. It's also a great one for a "store cupboard" supper when you haven't got much in the fridge. Here's my version:

Ingredients (to serve 2-3)

1 cup brown rice
1 onion, finely chopped
1 large filet of smoked mackerel (in Germany I buy this tinned)
2 eggs
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp curry powder
small handful of parsley
(optional - handful frozen peas)

Cook the rice according to the packet instructions. Boil the eggs, then put in cold water, peel and slice. Gently fry the onions in a little sunflower oil with the turmeric and curry powder.
Chop the parsley.  Once the rice is cooked, add to the pan of onions, flake in the fish and add the chopped eggs, parsley and peas. That's it!

Weekend foodie: Spiced Roasted Autumn Vegetables & Chickpeas

Here's a great recipe for packing in your 5-a-day veggies. In fact there are 7 different vegetables here! As both the sweet potato and chickpeas are a great source of fibre and are low GI carbohydrates, you won't get that glucose high and subsequent crash like you do with ordinary roasted potatoes. Also, if you've not tried fennel before, I highly recommend you do. When roasted like this, it becomes beautifully sweet and really adds a different dimension to the roasted vegetables. It's also a fantastic source of vitamins A and C, iron and calcium.


Ingredients (serves 4):
*1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into approx 2cm pieces
*1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
*1 small red onion, roughly sliced
*2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
*1 yellow pepper, sliced
*olive oil
*1-2 teaspoons of mixed herbs and spices (I used a blend including turmeric, cardamon, nutmeg and rosemary, but experiment with whatever takes your fancy)
*punnet of tomatoes
*1 can chickpeas, drained
*(optional) some cooked spinach (I use the frozen spinach portions, just heat them in a pan for a couple of minutes)

1. Heat the oven to 200C/350F.
2. Put the sweet potato pieces, fennel slices, red onion, crushed garlic cloves and sliced yellow pepper into a large roasting tin. Drizzle with a good glug of olive oil, sprinkle over the herbs and spices and rub in with your hands, mixing up all the vegetables. Cook in the pre-heated oven for around 30 minutes, stirring every so often.
3. Add the tomatoes (pierce them first to make sure they don't explode!) and the drained chickpeas and cook for a further 20 minutes, or until the veggies are soft and have started to brown.

I felt like a bit of green was needed, so I mixed in some cooked spinach at the end. But parsley would be another option and another good source of iron.


P.S. I always recommend using organic ingredients where possible. I'm just not a fan of chemicals in my food.

Weekend foodie: Warming appley and nut porridge

Porridge may not have the most glamourous reputation. It may not compete in the supermarket aisles among the colourful boxes of breakfast cereals with all their claims to having lots of fibre and enriched vitamins and minerals. But those glitzy breakfast cereals are shockingly bad for you. Why? They are full of a ton of refined sugar. All of them. Even the "healthy" sounding ones. So you end up having a sugar high, followed by a low shortly after, leaving you feeling starving before you've even got to work. This is why I'm a big advocate of porridge. It's one of the best things you can possibly eat, not to mention completely yummy and is ready in 5 minutes. Porridge oats are low on the glycemic index (low GI) which means they release energy into your system slowly, keeping you fuller for longer.  My version has apple puree for some sweetness and fibre, plus chopped up walnuts and almonds which are great sources of zinc and calcium, among other essential nutrients.

To serve 2-3, you will need:

1 cup porridge oats
1 cup water
1 cup soya or oat milk
2 tablespoons apple puree (or instead slice and poach some apples or pears for a few minutes)
a small handful of nuts, such as walnuts and almonds
a squeeze of agave nectar or honey

Heat porridge oats with the water and milk for about 4-5 minutes until the oats have softened. Take off the  heat, stir in the apple puree and serve with the nuts and agave or honey.

Tip: one easy way to remember the proportions for porridge is that it's always twice the amount of liquid to oats. Also by a "cup" I mean a standard measuring cup, not a coffee mug.

Weekend foodie: roasted figs, agave nectar, manchego cheese and Irish soda bread

I have been begging my mother for years to show me the traditional method for baking Irish soda bread, so when she visited me in Munich recently, we got baking. I was amazed to discover it’s really just like making a massive scone! The recipe is below.

The roasted figs part of this recipe is more of a suggestion for ingredient pairing than an actual recipe. Simply half your figs, dust with a little cinnamon if you feel so inclined and slow roast them in the oven either at its lowest setting overnight or at 100C for 2-3 hours until they start to ooze. Serve with the soda bread (see below), some salty cheese such as manchego or pecorino and a drizzle of agave nectar (or honey).

 

To make the soda bread, you will need:

500g plain or half plain half wholemeal flour (I used spelt, but wheat is what is traditionally used)

1tsp salt

1tbs baking powder

40g butter, chopped

400ml buttermilk or ordinary milk soured with a little lemon juice

1.  Heat the oven to 200C and dust a baking tray with a little flour.

2.  Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.

3.  Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

4.  Make a well in the centre and slowly pour in the buttermilk, stirring in with a wooden spoon. Don’t mix too much, just the lightest touch will do the job. You should gradually form a dough (use your hands at this stage), which should be soft, but not too sticky (add more flour if it is or more milk if it’s too dry).

5.  Put the rounded ball of dough onto the floured baking tray and flatten just a little. It should be roughly 8-10cm deep. Slash a cross in the dough with a sharp knife and dab a little of the buttermilk over the surface.

6. Bake for around 40 minutes. The bottom should sound hollow when tapped. Let cool (a little at least) and serve with some cheese and the deliciously sticky roasted figs.

Weekend foodie: Guilt-free apple, pear and cinnamon tea cake

Here’s a variation on my guilt-free banana loaf, this time with apple puree, cinnamon and topped with slices of ripe pears.  As with the banana loaf, there’s no sugar or butter and I use spelt flour as an easily digestible alternative to the ubiquitous wheat flour. You could also make this completely pear-themed by substituting the apple puree with pear puree, or add some texture with chopped up walnuts.

Ingredients:

1 x 360ml jar of apple puree

75ml olive oil

¾ cup agave nectar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups spelt flour

2 very ripe pears, peeled, quartered and cored (if your pears are very hard, poach the quarters in a little water for a few minutes first, until soft but not falling apart)

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F (or if your oven is fan forced160C/325F) and grease a round cake tin

2. Mix the apple puree, olive oil, agave nectar, egg and vanilla extract in a big mixing bowl.

3. Add the baking powder and mix in the flour last.

4. Pour into the prepared cake tin and arrange the pears on the top.

5. Bake in the oven for around 50 minutes until golden on top and a knife comes out clean.
6. Serve however you fancy - I paired it with a spoonful of yoghurt and some red grapes.

Weekend foodie: Berrylicious Bircher muesli

Having relocated to within an hour of the Alps, it seems somewhat apt to share this particularly Alpine breakfast with you. Bircher muesli was invented by Dr Maxmillian Bircher-Benner with the aim of getting people to eat an apple a day. My version is by no means faithful to the original recipe, but employs the same technique of mixing a bunch of oats, nuts, seeds, fruit and yoghurt together and leaving it overnight to turn into a plump, yummy and altogether healthy start to the day.

Ingredients:

1 cup oats

1 cup mixed nuts and seed (e.g. I used pumpkin seeds, chopped walnut and chopped almonds)

1 apple or pear, peeled, cored and grated

½ cup frozen or fresh mixed berries

1 cup natural yoghurt (pro-biotic is great for you)

2 tbs agave nectar or honey

1/3 cup milk (I use oat milk)

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave overnight. Lasts for 2 days kept in the fridge (or less in my house, where I have been known to have it for lunch or a late-night snack).

Weekend foodie: Warming sweet potato risotto with a salsa verde dressing

I love risottos. Once you have mastered the basic method, the possibilities for variation and using whatever you have in the kitchen are endless. These days I tend to use brown rice or mixed grain rice which have slow release carbohydrates for long-lasting energy, but you can of course use the classic risotto rices such as arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano.

This version, with sweet potato, is autumn comfort food at its best and the addition of the salsa verde style dressing ensures it’s anything but bland. You could substitute the sweet potato for pumpkin and/or (as shown in the picture), add half a cup of frozen peas towards the end of stage 5.

Ingredients:

Risotto:

1 tbs olive oil

½ large onion, finely diced

tsp dried oregano or rosemary

1 cup mixed grain rice

2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

2 litres of hot vegetable stock

Salsa verde dressing:

small handful of mixed fresh herbs (such as parsley, sage or basil), chopped finely

2 tbs good quality extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

½ tsp agave nectar or honey

1.  On a medium heat, heat the oil in a high-sided wide saucepan, add the onions and oregano and slowly cook for around 7 minutes or until the onions are soft. Be careful not to brown the onions, you just want them to soften (this is what the Italians call “soffrito”).

2.  Add the rice, stir well and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring all the while and then add the sweet potato, continuing to stir for another minute or two.

3.  Add in enough stock to cover the sweet potato, turn up the heat a little and, stirring regularly, cook until the liquid starts to be absorbed.

4.  Keep adding ladeful by ladeful of the stock, so that the sweet potato is covered by the liquid, until you feel that the sweet potato is soft. Then continue adding ladefuls of stock (the sweet potato no longer needs to be covered by the liquid) and stirring every now and then until the rice is cooked (this will take around 20 minutes, depending on your rice – pure brown rice may take 35 minutes)

5.  Meanwhile, combine the salsa verde ingredients in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

6.  Once the rice and sweet potato are cooked and the water absorbed (you may need more or less than the 2 litres, depending on how quickly your rice cooks), take off the heat, drizzle a little olive oil over the risotto, put the lid on the saucepan and leave for 1-2 minutes.

7.  Serve with the salsa verde dressing drizzled over the risotto.

Serves 2 hungry people or 4 as a starter.

Weekend foodie: Italian style tuna, bread and tomato salad

As you know, I’m all about food that, as well as being completely yummy and nutritious, provides long-lasting energy for the day. That usually means protein and some wholegrain foods as well as some veggies. This recipe provides all of those, is really quick and easy to throw together and is a great way of using up old bread. It’s really an adaption of the Italian bread salad, but with tuna for extra protein. Just one thing to note: you'll need proper crusty bread for this, like ciabatta, or I used a multi-grain one in the picture – your white ‘plastic’ sliced bread won’t cut it.

Ingredients:

* 3-4 thick slices of day-old bread

* 250g punnet of mixed tomatoes (eg cherry, roma etc.), chopped

* 120g can of tuna in olive oil

* a few sprigs of basil, chopped

* 1 tbsp red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar

* (optional) 1 tsp agave nectar/honey

* (optional) 1 tsp capers in salt, washed, drained and chopped

* 2 handfuls salad leaves

* extra olive oil for drizzling

1.  Cut the bread into bite-sized squares. If the bread isn’t very dry, pop the squares on a tray in an oven or under the grill for a few minutes until they start to toast (but you don’t want them too brown).

2.  Put the bread and chopped tomatoes into a serving bowl, add a little olive oil and scrunch up with your hands – really get in there as you want the bread to absorb as much of the tomato juices as possible.

3.  Mix in the tuna (with about half the oil from the can), the basil and vinegar. I also like a teaspoon of agave nectar or honey and some chopped capers at this stage.

4.  Leave everything to soak up the juices for 10-20 minutes and serve at room temperature, adding your salad leaves and a drizzle more olive oil (if you think it needs it) just before serving.

For a vegetarian version, you could replace the tuna with a jar of antipasto, like olives or grilled aubergines/eggplant.

Serves 2-3.

Weekend foodie: Guilt-free banana loaf

OK, let’s get one thing straight here. Who came up with the name “banana bread”? It’s clearly not bread. Since when did bread have a whole heap of sugar and butter and eggs? It’s clearly a cake. And usually not one that’s as good for you as the name might suggest. That is, unless you follow this recipe.  Inspired by the Babycakes NYC and Sophie Dahl versions (I can’t help but mess around with recipes), below is my butter-free, sugar-free but utterly delicious version.  I use agave nectar instead of sugar. It’s a much lower GI, so slowly releases into your body avoiding the spike in blood sugar you get from ordinary refined sugar (and therefore giving you lots of energy to pursue your creative pursuits without needing a nap). And I use olive oil instead of butter (something the Italians have always known). I also find wholemeal spelt flour easier to digest than wheat flour, but use whatever you have in the pantry.

Ingredients:

4 x ripe bananas, mashed up

50ml olive oil plus extra for greasing

¾ cup of agave nectar

1 egg, beaten

1tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

1½ cups of wholemeal spelt flour (or whatever flour you normally use)

1.  Preheat oven to 180C/350F (or if your oven is fan forced, 160C/325F) and grease a loaf tin.

2.  Put the mashed bananas into a large mixing bowl and mix in the olive oil, agave nectar, egg and vanilla extract.

3.  Add the baking powder and then mix in the flour last.

4.  Pour into the loaf tin and bake on the middle shelf for 1 hour, or longer if necessary to ensure that a knife comes out clean.

5.  Leave to cool (if you can resist) and serve with some fruit and yoghurt (or as the Australians do, toasted with a little butter)

If you want to vary it, you can add in some chopped walnuts at stage 3, or (as I did for the one in the picture), grate in a square or two of dark chocolate and add a tablespoon of cocoa powder.

Creative Juice

To get your creative juices flowing (and keep them flowing), I reckon it’s important to have a healthy diet with foods that will act as a slow release of energy into your body. As much as I love a good cup of English breakast tea and the occasional piece of cake, I do have to watch that I don’t end up on a sugar rollercoaster. So here’s my mid morning energy boost smoothie, which is easy-peasy to make:

I just whizz up the following in my hand blender:

* one banana

* half a cup of frozen berries (I always keep some in the freezer)

* about a cup of your favourite milk (I use oat milk or rice milk, but you could use normal milk or soya too)

If you’re a chocoholic, you won't regret adding a teaspoon of cocoa.

It takes about 30 seconds, tastes delicious and will keep those cookie cravings away for a couple of hours while you get on with your creative pursuits or other business of the day.