I’ve got a serious case of ‘matcha mania’ at the moment. My obsession started back in April when Mr H and I visited Japan – you can literally get matcha flavoured EVERYTHING out there – and by the time I left I was totally hooked. For anyone unfamiliar with the stuff, matcha is essentially powdered green tea leaves, but because you actually consume the leaves (which is where many of the antioxidants are) rather than throwing them away as you would with a teabag, it’s heaps more powerful as well as being much more concentrated. Continue reading
Tag Archives: recipe
The best hummus, and I would know…
I pride myself on knowing good hummus. I’ve eaten enough of it in my time, and I’m talking the proper stuff, not your average supermarket rubbish. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well get yourself to Jaffa in Tel Aviv, head to Abu Hasan, grab some of their insanely delicious hummus and some pitta to mop it up and only then will you understand. Or make this instead.
Now hummus is often seen as complicated or scary – there’s about five different spellings (houmous? hummous? hummus?…) and about five million different recipes, but I promise you it needn’t be. All you need is a food processor, a couple of ingredients and a spare five minutes and you’re good to go. Continue reading
Chocolate cookie dough ice cream with chocolate fudge sauce
When I created my chocolate chip cookie dough bites (which if you’ve not made yet then you need to, sharpish) it reminded me how much we used to love Haagen Dazs cookie dough ice cream back in the day (before I ditched the dairy and sacked off the sugar).
I actually had a little bit of a lightbulb moment – I already had the cookie dough, so all I needed to make was the ice cream! Now vegan and sugar free ice cream doesn’t sound in itself too enticing, but you’d be surprised, once you try this you won’t be able to tell it apart from the regular stuff! In fact I actually think it tastes better (biased though we might be) as it’s super creamy and perfectly sweetened, but made with only natural ingredients. Continue reading
Tasty tacos with all the trimmings
When I used to think of Mexican food (actually I suppose we should call it Tex Mex food – I’m sure any Mexican would tell us that what we think of as their cuisine is about as Mexican as French fries are French) I would envision fried tortillas, greasy cheese, stodgy meat and an abundance of salt. I used to love a burrito, but I always felt so lethargic afterwards, and I always needed to drink about a litre of water just to quench the thirst that all that salty food had induced. Continue reading
Creamy Asian slaw
There must be some unwritten rule somewhere giving coleslaw the right to turn up at every salad bar, crash every barbecue and sneak into every family party buffet. To us, cabbage and carrots drowned in mayonnaise shouldn’t even be classed as a salad, maybe a condiment or a side dish, but a salad!? Never.
You might have realised we aren’t the biggest fans of traditional coleslaw. For starters it’s incredibly unhealthy (we’ve seen so many people load up their plates with coleslaw under the pretence that they are ‘being good’) and to be quite honest our taste buds are of the opinion that it’s a little bit bland. And don’t even get us started on all the nasties that lurk in shop bought versions! Continue reading
The world’s best chocolate orange cheesecake
I’ve always had a little thing for chocolate cheesecake. Maybe it’s down to my Jewish roots (the Jewish festival of Shavuot is celebrated by eating cheesecake – #winning) or maybe it’s just because it’s insanely delicious.
When I was little my favourite thing in the world was a triple chocolate cheesecake from Marks and Spencer – I used to savour every mouthful and finish every morsel. On holidays to America we’d always end up making a subconscious beeline for the Cheesecake Factory and stuffing ourselves silly with their unbelievably tasty (and unbelievably unhealthy) offerings. Continue reading
Bloody delicious no-bake bakewell tarts
If you grew up in the UK, chances are you’ve heard of that old chap Mr Kipling. I used to really like him (he sounded so friendly on the adverts) but these days I’m not so sure.
It’s not that I think he’s done anything bad (although I do think his mate Captain Birds Eye definitely looks a bit dodgy) he’s just bloody arrogant. ‘Exceedingly good cakes’? For someone who sounds so posh that kind of blatant immodesty seems rather un-British. Continue reading
Chai spiced coconut quinoa pudding
When I was little, my Grandma used to make the most delicious rice pudding in the world, ever. It was so creamy, sweet and comforting, and to this day just the smell of warm rice pudding evokes the most treasured childhood memories. And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one – just about everyone I speak to has a story to tell about the time travelling powers of rice pudding. Continue reading
Easy peasy Japanese-y slow cooker veggie curry
As part of our honeymoon Mr H and I spent a week in Tokyo marvelling at everything the amazing city had to offer, getting extremely lost, sitting under cherry blossom trees, people watching for hours on end, but above all, eating. Tokyo has over 10,000 restaurants, ranging from tiny little ones with five seats in a dark alleyway to Michelin starred palaces with impeccable service. You name it, we tried it. The D&H mantra of ‘active avoidance’ certainly came into effect here, as we made sure to try everything once and not feel guilty about it so that we could go home with no foodie regrets.
Terry’s who? Grandpa’s four ingredient chocolate orange balls
When I was a little girl, my Grandpa used to have a magical orange tree. All year long it would stand in his lounge producing little tiny oranges which were never bigger than a golf ball. But amazingly once they fell off the tree (so the story goes) they would turn into Terry’s chocolate oranges, packaging and all. Of course we never ACTUALLY saw this happen and my brother, cousins and I always took Grandpa’s word for it.
Even after the truth came out, the tree still continued to produce its ‘fruit’ on birthdays and other special occasions. At the end of last year Mr H and I bought a house together and shortly after moving in a little orange tree turned up on our doorstep, a housewarming present from who else but my darling Grandpa.
But my chocolate orange tree is a little different you see. Mine is like chocolate orange tree 2.0; it produces four ingredient chocolate orange energy balls. Ok so it doesn’t, but I do use the zest of its little fruit to make them. Here’s how;
Makes around 10 small balls
Ingredients
- 1 cup dates
- 1 cup cashews
- 4 tbsp cacao powder
- zest of 1/2 an orange
In a food processor, first blend the cashews until they are all chopped up super small. Then add the dates, cacao and orange zest and blend until all the ingredients are mixed together nicely. Then shape the mixture into small balls and store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer. Magic!
Love, Mrs H xx
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