(Almost) No flour bread!!!!

I’ve just made bread using almost no flour at all – that’s too good not to share!

I had some leftover pinto beans and I had heard from a friend some time ago that you can make a bean cake without flour. So I thought – why not bean bread? I try not to eat flour at the moment, and I almost always bake my bread myself as I dont eat yeast either.

It turned out pretty good! And I dont even think you need the tiny bit of flour that I put in – I’ll make a 2nd attempt soon – meanwhile here’s the recipe part 1:

PINTO BEAN CRACKERS
100 grams of pinto beans – soaked over night and boiled for 1,5 hours (you can use other kinds of beans too)
100 grams whole spelt
150 grams oats
50 grams quinoa
50 grams flax seed
50 grams of whole grain spelt flour
2 teaspoons himalaya Salt
50 ml Sunflower oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
Water

Cover the flax seed with water and leave for 10-15 mins – this will help everything stick together as flax seed can substitute eggs in most recipes. You can also ground it in a coffee grinder and mix with water for a more smooth mixture. This is good for making pancakes.
Cover spelt and quinoa with boiling water and leave for 10-15 mins
Blend the pinto breans with 200 ml water.

Combine all the ingredients – the consistency should be like very thick pancake batter – if to watery add a bit more oats – if too firm add some water. Spead thinly onto a baking sheet and use a pizza cutter to mark the size of the individual (flat)breads. They should not seperate at this point. Bake at 220 degrees for 20-25 minutes. They should be soft in the middle but hard on the outside. Leave to cool.

Tip: You can use all kinds of seeds – you may even put in shredded carrot or zucchini to make them even more healthy.

You now have some bread that is very good for you – use it with some of my spreads and cucumber. They are also very good with pesto and avocado.

But remember all with moderation. Too much bread – even without white flour, sugar and yeast – will clog you up and make you bloated.

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Another juicy sandwich spread

I’m back with a new recipe for vegan alkaline food. Last time I blogged about lentil sandwich spread. This time I’m doing another spread – inspirered by a store bought one that I like. But as I found out it contained egg and sugar I wanted to try to make a homemade version.

Bean spread
100 grams of organic soy beans – soaked for 12 hours – and cook in boiling water for 45 mins with 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. The baking soda is put in to soften the beans.

4 shallots – finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic
2 sticks of celery – finely chopped
Small handful of lovage (or other herb)
1-2 tomatoes – finely diced
Sunflower oil
Himalaya salt
Pepper
Lime juice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons Tamarind (if you have) if bought in blocks with seeds – dissolve 2 tablespoons in 1 dl water for 30 – press off the tamarind from the seeds and drain.

Fry onion, garlic and celery for 5 min in sunflower oil – add the tomato and lovage and fry for another 5 mins.
Add the tamarind for the last minute.
Add the beans to the pan and season with salt, pepper, lime and nutmeg. Cook for 10 min on low heat – stir a couple of times.

Leave to cool and blend. Add some ekstra oil or water.

Have on homemade bread with out yeast – use baking soda instead. I’ll be blogging about bread at a later point.

You can also spread it on lettuces or other veggies or have it as a dip.

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A blog post from Mallorca – and a juicy recipe for sandwich spread

I’m writing this blog post from sunny Mallorca. My boyfriend got the opportunity to take a course in the US so our holiday plans changed a bit. I decided that instead of staying in rainy Denmark I also wanted some sun. My childhood friend Tina was luckily enough able to get off work for a week and here we are – in Alcudia Mallorca.

This blog post will contain a recipe for lentil spread and green smoothies and tips on how to make a detoxing and energizing bath – and tips for staying healthy on holiday.

It doesn’t have to be hard to stay healthy on the go. If you set your mind to it and plan ahead it can actually be fun – and very rewarding when you stay energized and don’t put on holiday weight!

We are staying in an appartment so that makes it easier to self cater – but a hotel room doesn’t have to mean an unhealthy holiday either. The key is planning, planning, planning 🙂

The first thing to do:
MAKE THE COMMITMENT TO YOURSELF THAT YOU WILL MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS WHEN ON HOLIDAY

The second thing:
Bring your running or walking shoes! Make sure to take time to go for runs or brisk walks – this will also help your energy levels.

The third thing:
About the food: Earlier I always found myself eating way to much bread when on holiday. It made me bloated, tired and heavier! So stay off the bread – it is much easier to say NO! to the first piece than the second – and we all now its downhill from there 🙂

When you go to a restaurant – start off with a salad or a soup – and go for a main dish with only protein and veg or carbs and veg. If you combine all 3 your body will take more than double the time to digest the food – and this will make you tired and bloated.

On this holiday I was detemined to stay healthy, so I packed some food and kitchen stuff, and that really helped me, too. I have managed to fit a small blender into my suitcase so that I didn’t have an excuse for not getting my green smoothies. A green smoothie or vegetable juice every day makes a huge difference for me. The 15 mins it takes to make I get back many-fold in extra energy!

I can highly recommend the Kenwood smoothie2go. It weighs about 1,5 kilos with the cup and blades and is only about 20 GBP on Amazon.

If you can’t take a small blender – hope for a local juice bar 🙂 I also packed good salt, plastic bags, foil, different vegan sandwich spreads etc.

The best way to start your mornings is with a lot of green vegetables – it will give you an energy boost that bread, jam and cheese can’t compete with. Bread and cheese will make you tired – and especially when eaten together. I have been making green smoothies every morning.

GREEN SMOOTHIE
Half an avocado
10 cm cucumber
A big handful of spinach
Juice of one lemon
A teaspoon of spirulina
2 teaspoons of green drink powder – if you have it. I use dr. Youngs Doc Brocs and sometimes wheatgrass powder.
Ice cubes
Water

Another thing that I always bring or buy when on holiday or when staying in hotels is baking soda – yes you heard me correctly – ordinary baking soda. It has a very high PH and adding it to a bath will energize, alkalize and detox your body. I dont have a tub at home, so I always ask for a hotel room with one. If you don’t have a tub – take it as a foot bath. Perfekt after a long day shopping and sightseeing.

Tonight we were reading a newspaper and came across a recipe for lentil spread, so I decided to go for an evening run and go by the local supermarket. The kitchen in the appartment isn’t really fit to make great dinners but I managed to get the spread made with what we have, and it only took about 30 mins – start to finish. I would normally always buy organic products when possibly – but it’s not possible to get anything organic to I had to settle for conventionel stuff.

Lentil spread – very good for sandwiches on the go! (It only takes 30 mins to make)

100g lentils – green or black
2 shallots
3 cloves of garlic (or to taste)
1 stick of celery
Sunflower oil
Lemon juice
50g walnuts/almonds – finely chopped
Salt
Pepper
Herbs

Rinse the lentils and boil in plenty of water for about 20 mins. While cooking the lentils fry the onions, garlic and celery for 5 min in sunflower oil.

When the lentils are ready blend everything (You might have to add a little oil or water) – season with salt, lemon juice herbs and pepper. Then mix in the nuts and you’re done! We had it on rye bread with cucumber.

You can use all kinds of lentils or beans. Always use fresh beans. I know it is easier to use the canned ones because they don’t need soaking, but it is dead food and shouldn’t be used very often.

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DELISH! Vegetable tempura – easy and fun

I’m now at the summer cottage, and enjoying every bit of my summer holiday. The weather isn’t that great – it feels more like autumn than summer. But the peace and quiet makes up for it – and of course this view makes it all worthwhile.

I have been juicing every day and has made my first vegan dinner here. I was inspired by Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall from River Cottage to do my take on this great dish.

Meatlovers won’t miss their meat – and you will have your kids eat more veg as well.

Vegetable tempura with pickled cucumber and salad

I have had tempura at many japanese restaurants and always wonder how to make it. A few weeks ago I watched Hugh’s show on TV – and I found out that tembura is very easy to make! And when made with vegetables it is vegan and alkaline too. I altered Hugh’s recipe a bit and made it with other vegetables – the result was superb!

You might think that tempura is an unhealthy dish because of the batter and oil, but if you make it like I do and use the right ingredients for the batter and use sunflower oil for frying – preferably organic – it is actually not that bad as it fried for a very short time and the batter is very thin. I think that is a very good way to have kids and non-vegetarian people eat more veg.

I served it with pickled cucumber and a salad of cabbage, spring onion (the green bits left over from the tembura), red onion and tomato dressed in a dressing of olive oil, lime and salt.

Tembura

You can use almost all vegetables – they just need to be cut to a size where you would normally be able to cook it by boiling/steaming for about a minute.

I used:
Mushrooms – in quarters
Zucchini – 1/2 cm slices
Spring onions – the top green bits and the ends cut off – and a cut made in the middle (see picture)
Red onions – thin slices less than 1/2 cm thick
Asparagus

The best things is to cut it hours before cooking so they will dry a bit – if you don’t have time for that just make sure to pat dry with paper towel.

…. And now for the BATTER (this is enough for a looot of veggies – way to many for 2 people for sure)

The batter should be made when you are ready to do the frying. Before making the batter get your salad, pickled cucumber, rice, table setting etc. ready. Tembura is best if it is served immediately. You should also have some paper towel or a rack ready for the cooked tempura.

1 cup of spelt flour

½ cup of corn flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon fine salt (himalaya or seasalt)

½-1 cup af ICE COLD sparkiling water

Mix the dry ingredients well and whisk in the sparkling water – a few lumps are OK – the key is to not mix to long and to keep the mixture cold. The consistency should be like cream – or pancake batter.

Heat the oil in a good saucepan – there should be around 4 cm of oil in the pan – heat the oil so that you can brown a peace of bread in 1 minute.

Coat the vegetables in the batter and put them into the oil – be very careful. It takes 60 to 90 sec in total to get ready (turn the veggies once) – the batter should be light golden but not brown. You can coat more veggies at a time – but only put a couple af veggies at a time in the hot oil.

When ready place on rack or on paper towel. If the temburas have gone cold during cooking you can put them back in the oil for a few secs before serving – but the best way is just to cook it once and serve immediately. You can also put it in the oven for 5 minutes on 200 degrees (celsius). The oven trick also work well for the leftovers the next day.

My recipe for pickled cucumber

1 cucumber

½ fresh chili (or 1 teaspoon of dried chill flakes)

Different fresh herbes – I used what I could find the garden – dill, basil and mint

1 teaspoon of salt

4-5 pepper corns

Juice of 1 lime

½ cup apple cider vinegar

1-2 tablespoons of honey

Cut the cucumber in quarters – take out the seeds and watery bit of the cucumber – cut in to small pieces. Put the rest of the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil and boil for about 3 minutes – let it cool for 10-15 minutes. Pour over the cucumber a leave in the fridge for at least half an
hour before serving – stir a couple of times.

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