Healthy Instant Noodles via The Londoner

A lovely blog and such a good idea, I wish I would have learned about this sooner.  I love pot noodles, but not with all the sodium and MSG.  I just simply don’t buy them.  Can’t eat ramen when in Japan because it’s not vegetarian.  This is easily modify-able and portable!

Saturdays…

Just two more days left here in Turkey and I can tell there will be things I will miss after I’ve had some time away.  I am very much looking forward to variation and options for vegetarians in the supermarkets as we head back to Holland on Monday, but I am not looking forward to dipping 15c and going to the non stop rain! Still, I’m on holiday and I can’t complain.  The weather is a helluva lot better than Canada!

This beautiful bread recipe was just posted on the My New Roots website and I cannot wait to try it.  Any kind of bread that purports to be healthy and doesn’t contain white flour has got to be good in my books and my time in Europe has me leaning towards this dense brick like breads.

Here are the most popular search terms in the past 30 days that brought people to my blog! Despite the fact that I have not been updating it very regularly, I am still getting visitors, thankfully.  My Spelt Roti and Dahl Recipe continues to be one of the more popular! Thank you 🙂   fig and anise bread
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Bear Buns!

I had no idea there was such a thing as edible food markers.  This opens up a whole world of possibilities! 

Bear Buns!

Smoked Tofu, Kimchi and Gomae Rice Bowl!

Sorry for the weird lighting in this photo.  The sun was shining brightly through the window and I just couldn’t get it right.  This dish comes together very simply once you have a few things made in advance.  I started making homemade kimchi a while ago to avoid a lot of the salt and fish sauce.  My favourite recipe for kimchi is from Dr. Ben Kim.  I love the addition of grated fruit and the step by step photos are great. 

The smoked tofu recipe comes from Grouprecipes.com and it turned out great.  I will definitely be using this recipe again for sandwiches.  I would just say to ease up on the liquid smoke a bit as that stuff packs quite the punch and can be a bit overwhelming if you add too much.  1/2 tsp. is more than enough!

The spinach gomae is just in my head after years of making it.  This is more like the gomae you would get in Japan and not at all like North American sushi restaurant gomae which usually uses peanut butter and includes a big dollop of sweet, sticky sauce on top.  Regular gomae is usually just sake, mirin, soy sauce, sugar and ground sesame seeds.  I just kind of wing it.  Steam the spinach and squeeze out as  much moisture as you can.  Grind the sesame seeds in a spice grinder or invest in a Japanese grinder which is kind of like a mortar and pestle with grooves in the mortar part.  Chill the spinach at which point you can squeeze together and slice into pieces or not as I didn’t bother to do in the photo above.  Add sauce and enjoy!

All of this is put atop Japanese short grain sticky rice with some slices of avocado.  Mmmmmmmm…

Fig and Anise Irish Soda Bread…

Hey guys! Just wanted to share a recipe with y’all.  I was inspired to make a Fig and Anise bread by my longing and missing Terra Breads in Vancouver.  They make the most amazing Fig and Anise loaf and I wish I could get it here.  This recipe, by Kristine Kidd is from her Williams-Sonoma Cookbook and is, as she mentions, an Irish Soda bread recipe and therefore really nothing like the Terra Breads loaf.  I modified it further by adding pumpkin seeds (I wanted to add walnuts like the Terra Breads version but I didn’t have any!) and I used soy milk + apple cider vinegar instead of buttermilk.  This bread is so good with a slab of cheddar or just toasted with some butter. Enjoy!

Fig and Anise Quick Bread from Kristinekidd.com

 

For a memorable finish to a company dinner, offer a plate of assorted farmstead cheeses, such as a fresh goat’s milk cheese, a bloomy rind cheese, an aged hard cheese, and a pungent blue, with thin wedges of this aromatic round loaf. A glass of Port is a perfect accompaniment.

 

Makes 1 round loaf

 

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole- wheat flour

3 tablespoons firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

1½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon aniseed, lightly crushed in a mortar, plus more for sprinkling

½ teaspoon baking soda 

½ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature 

1 cup (about 6 ounces) coarsely chopped dried figs

¾ cup buttermilk, plus more for brushing 

1 egg

 

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan. In a large bowl, stir together the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, 1 teaspoon aniseed, baking soda, and salt. Scatter the butter over the top. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in the figs. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the ¾ cup buttermilk and the egg until blended. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the buttermilk mixture into the well. Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients just until blended and a soft dough forms. 

 

Transfer the dough to a well-floured work surface and knead until smooth, about 20 turns. Form the dough into a ball. Place in the prepared pan and flatten to 1½ inches thick. Cut a large cross 1/3 inch deep into the dough. Brush with buttermilk and sprinkle with aniseed. 

  

Bake until the bread is light brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, about 40 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and then turn right side up to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into thin wedges.

 

Vegan Chili with Barley…

 

 

Barley is an awesome meat substitute for chili.  It gives you that texture and “filling-ness” that is normally taken up with ground beef but is so much better for you.  I used to make this with Yves Ground Round but I’m moving away from processed vegetarian meat substitutes as much as possible.  Throw in whatever veggies you want in this recipe, and make it your own!

• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 med. onion, diced
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1-28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
• 2-19 oz. rinsed cans of beans of your choice (here I use black and kidney beans)
• 10 oz. can of sliced mushrooms*
• 1 small zucchini, diced
• 1/4 c. dry pot or pearl barley
• 1 c. H20
• 2 tbsp. chili powder
• 1/4 tbsp. poblano chili pepper
• 1 tsp. Franks Red Hot Sauce
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Heat oil in large pot on medium-high.  Add onions and celery and saute until onions are tender and nearly clear.  Add garlic last and stir (garlic burns easily).  Add zucchini and rinsed can of mushrooms and stir occasionally for a few minutes.  Add can of diced tomatoes and cans of beans and mix well.  Add 1c. of H20 and barley.  Reduce heat to low-medium and let simmer until barley is cooked through.  If chili begins to look too dry, add more water, a quarter cup at a time.  When barley is cooked, add chili peppers, hot sauce, brown sugar and salt.  Mix well and cook for a few more minutes so spices can release their flavours.  Taste and adjust salt and spices to taste.  Let sit a few minutes before serving! Tastes better the next day!

*Why do I use canned mushrooms? Yes, I know, living fresh mushrooms are probably better nutritive-wise and I always used them in chili up until recently.  But something about the texture of canned mushrooms is more appealing to me and works better for chill.  Of course, the recipe works just fine with fresh, sliced mushrooms.  Add them to the celery at the beginning and sauté until cooked.  

 

Easy Peasy Quinoa Breakfast…

Lately I’ve been cooking up a big ol’ batch of some kind of grain that I can store in the fridge and it will last me about four breakfasts.  Right now I’m workin’ on a crap load of Kasha (buckwheat groats) which is a bit hard going to be honest.  It just has a very distinct taste that I’m still getting used to.  I  don’t dislike it, but I’m liking the quinoa breakfast a whole lot more.  Here’s what I do: scoop out a bunch of quinoa from my big batch in the fridge, heat it up and add any or all of the following:

• pumpkin seeds
• hemp hearts
• chia seeds
• honey
• agave
• banana or other fruit
• cinnamon
• coconut

There are literally a million possible combinations and a tonne of other things I haven’t mentioned that you could add.  Experiment with different spices! Cardamon and coconut perhaps? Or nutmeg and apples? Top with almond milk or milk of your choice and voila! Super filling and sooo yummy.

Crazy, Seedy Vegan Bars…

These bars be seedy.  Crazy, Seedy.  Seedy like that bar your mom told you not to hang out in.  More specifically, so seedy you probably don’t want to eat them in public without a mirror.  After eating the first of these bars, I turned to my man and asked him if I had anything stuck in my teeth.  He kind of cringed in disgust since I literally had a seed stuck in every single one of my teeth.  Attractive! But they’re good.  Ohhh so good.  

Ingredients:

• 1c. popped amaranth*
• 3/4c. unsalted pumpkin seeds
• 1/4c. hemp hearts
• 1/4c. chia seeds
• 1/4c. sunflower seeds
• 1/4c. sesame seeds
• 1/4c. flax seeds
• 1c. dried cherries or fruit of your choice
• 14 dates, pitted and soaked
• 1/4 c. unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 c. spelt flour
• 1/2 c. agave syrup

Preheat oven to 350F.

Add flour, amaranth and all seeds to the food processor and pulse until you combined. 

Add coconut, dates, cherries and agave and process on low until mixture begins to come together and fruit is mixed throughout and broken down.

Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and pour mixture into pan.  Mixture will be seedy and crumbly but should stick together when you press it down into pan.  Press into pan very firmly and bake for 25 minutes.  

 Let cool nearly completely and turn out on a cutting board.  Don’t worry if you lose a lot of seeds when you take it out of the pan or slice the bars.  You can always stick em back onto the bars.  Individually wrap bars in saran wrap.  Bars will firm up more as they cool and will keep up to a week.

*This was my first time using amaranth and I didn’t bother popping it all.  I did pop *some* of it, and then I kind of lost patience with it.  I like the crunchy, nutty un-popped texture of it this way, but if you have a lot of time and don’t mind shaking a pan over the stove for a millennia, feel free to fully pop yours.  If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check this out.

**Another way I really enjoy eating this bar is crumbled up on top of my plain yoghurt with some honey drizzled all over.  Give it a try and let me know how you like them!

Apple Walnut Scones…

I keep saying this will be my last recipe and then I get a chance to post something else.  We are leaving the Prairies in 10 days for the coast.  After that, this will turn into a bit of a travel diary for a while.  I can’t believe it.  Time is going really fast right now.  I’ve started to make my list of things to pack, adding to it as I remember something.  It is very much fall here now.  The leaves are mostly off of the trees and it is getting down to 3c or 4c overnight.  Fall means apples and moving into more “comfort” foods and one morning I got the urge to make scones.  This is a fully adaptable recipe and you can use the fillings of your choosing.  A favourite scone I like to make has raspberries with a lemon glaze.  These are great re-warmed with a bit of butter and jam.  Don’t worry if they look really tiny when you cut the dough.  They will puff up in the oven.

Recipe:

• 2c. flour
• 1/3 c. sugar + more to sprinkle on top
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt (omit if you are using salted butter)
• 1/4c. cold butter, cubed
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1/4c. walnuts, crushed with the back of a spoon or chopped
• 1/2c. raw apple, diced small (don’t bother peeling if it’s organic)

Preheat oven to 400F.  Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add butter and work with hands until you get small crumbs.  Add diced apple and walnuts and toss thoroughly.  In a separate small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and egg.  Add to dry ingredients bowl and mix together with hands until you get a soft dough that is slightly sticky.  Turn out onto floured surface and knead several times until dough comes together nicely into a round ball.  Pat down round ball until you have an 8″ round.  Sprinkle with sugar.  Cut into 8 pieces like a pie.  Place slices on an ungreased cookie sheet (preferably with parchment paper) and bake for 17 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.  Let cool for 5 minutes before eating.  Voila!