When people used to tell me they made their own granola, in my head they were instantly elevated to the dizzy heights of domestic goddess – I mean who has the time to bake their own granola, and also how the hell do you make it?
Well things sure have changed since then and I’ll tell you something – you can knock up a huge batch of granola that will last you all week in less than half an hour. And it’s really easy. And you’ll look like a regular Bree Van der Camp to all your friends and fam. Winning. Continue reading
Tag Archives: vegetarian
Israeli salad
My favourite thing about visiting Israel has to be the food (unless my cousins are reading this in which case my favourite thing is seeing family, closely followed by the food). They might call it the land of milk and honey, but for me it’s the land of houmous, falafel, baba ghanoush, dates, figs, oranges – the list just goes on and on.
Magical matcha cacao swirl tarts
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
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
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
Quasi goreng (that’s quinoa nasi goreng, obvs)
There’s a lovely little Singaporean restaurant in North West London that my family have been going to for years. My grandpa used to love it (he spent his war years in that part of the world) and always amused the waitresses with his vast vocabulary of Indonesian and Malay swear words. Or at least they used to laugh politely. He would order the nasi goreng without fail each time – it was such a big portion he could never finish it, so (being the Jewish mother he always claimed to be) he always told us we hadn’t eaten enough and made us help him out. I don’t think I’ve ever left that restaurant feeling anything left than stuffed. Continue reading
I quinoa believe it! Four ingredient chocolate peanut butter truffles
Most people we know LOVE chocolate. And peanut butter. But quinoa? We’re not even sure half our friends know how to pronounce it, let alone how to use it in their cooking. So we whipped up these incredible little truffles and served them as petit fours at a dinner party this week, but we kept shtum about our secret ingredient until after the fact. The verdict? They received rave reviews – they aren’t at all heavy or sickly like other truffles can be, and the quinoa gives them a lovely little crunch. They are packed with protein (so a much healthier kind of truffle) plus they are so easy (and inexpensive) to make. Our friends are totally converted. We hope you will be too!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup quinoa, uncooked
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp cacao powder (plus a little extra for dusting)
- 4 tbsp peanut butter
Cook the quinoa by boiling it in water for around 12 minutes. Drain off the excess water and pop it in the fridge to cool for an hour. Once the quinoa has cooled, in a bowl combine it with the maple syrup, cacao and peanut butter. Shape the mixture into balls and dust with cacao. Store in the fridge.
Love, Mrs H xx
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