veg food

Mini Chocolate Berry Quinoa Cakes

Hello there! It’s been a while.

This is a recipe I have been making for years. I came up with it in Ecuador after experimenting with gluten free baking. There weren’t really any gluten free flour options back then, so I started making my own mixes.

This one is really nice because it uses freshly cooked quinoa! So yummy and healthy!

Dry:

1/2C brown rice flour (brown rice blended into a flour 😉
1C cooked quinoa
1/4C cacao powder
2t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
pinch of salt

Wet:

1C mashed banana
2 lineseed eggs (blend 2TBS lineseeds with 8TBS of water)
2TBS cacao butter melted
2TBS coconut suger (optional if you like it extra sweet)

Extra’s:

berries
chopped cacao paste

Blend all the wet ingredients into a smooth paste. Add a bit of water for the blending to start.
Mix wet & Dry
Add some berries to the dough mix
Chop cacao paste and add into the mix
Pour dough mix into a bread/cake/cupcake mould, and distribute berries on top.

Bake for 40 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius.

I hope you love this and share it with your friends & family. Please tag me @clairemalandre if you are posting on IG.

Atjar Tjampoer : Sauerkraut Style

If you have ever had Indonesian food then you know that Atjar Tjampoer is one of the most important sides to complete the whole taste experience.
A while back, while I was still living in Ecuador, I had the chance to do a workshop with the king of fermentation Sandor Katz. It was so inspiring and fun! And it got me thinking….

Almost all traditional cultures have a fermented side dish to complete their meals. Japanese have miso, soya sauce, umeboshi etc. Germans have sauerkraut and. Indians have idlis, pickles and chutneys. Indonesians has Atjar Tjampoer!

They were smart, and unconscioulsy (or very consciously) knew that this not only completes the 6 tastes, but helps digestion and contains quite some vitamins & minerals.

Normal Atjar Tjampoer is really more like a pickle, veggies and spices marinated in vinegar. Not bad, but commercial jars are usually not filled with a high quality, full of friendly bacteria raw fermented vinegar….
So I figured I have two options…

Either pickle the veggies myself in a proper organic raw apple cider vinegar, or…

Make Atjar Tjampoer ferment!

This one obviously sounds more exciting. I have already done it many times, and if you like fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut, you will go crazy with this one.

Ingredients:

500g of any organic veggies you have at home (carrots, cole, green beans, beetroot, fennel….) Here I used cole and beetroot.
2 teaspoons ginger powder
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon mustard powder/mustard
1 tablespoon jaggery/coconut nectar/coconut sugar…
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2cm of fresh ginger, grated
salt to taste

Process:

Grate or cut very fine all the veggies. I used a food processor with grate function.

In a clean, deep bowl, mix the veggies with all the spices.

Now massage you veggies! Yes, get your hands in there and squeeze and press the veggies untill the juice comes out. You want enough juice to actually cover your veggies.

Now you can transfer your mix to a clean & sterilized jar. Press everything down so that the juice covers the veggies. I always put a leaf of some vegetable on top to keep the mix from coming up. Cover with a cheese cloth and leave to ferment for approximately 3 days. Press the veggies down once or twice a day to keep the juice covering everything.

After 3 days you can start tasting your ferment. When you are satisfied with the taste, the jar can be kept in the fridge.

Now, invite some friends, make a huge Gado Gado, and share your tangy, spicy and delicious home made Atjar Tjampoer!

Tip: Make your own peanut sauce with coconutcream, peanutbutter, soyasauce, a bit of coconutsugar, fresh ginger and chilli. 🙂

A Solstice Celebration Recipe

I love it when unplanned, coincidentally and wonderfully the universe takes over your decision making and planning for the day.

So today, instead of my usual working day I unexpectedly had a wonderful Solstice celebration day.

Instead racing home after yoga practice, I stayed after Mysore class and hung out with my new practice buddies over a latte and good laughs.

I don’t want to bore you with my whole day, but it involved teaching two dutch classes, discovering a new warm-weather-swim-spot, talking to my best friend in Ecuador, and of course, cooking myself a Solstice celebration dinner… which is the reason for my post. So here we go!

I did in in 3 parts.

Atjar Tjampoer
Peanut Sauce
Spring Rolls

ATJAR TJAMPOER

U can buy this in a jar, but why would you do that if you can make it yourself???

U can use any hard veggie for this. Carrots/cauliflower/cole/radish/green beans work well. I used cole and radish which was what I got in my organic basket last week.

Chop everything and wash.

Blend: fresh ginger, garlic, ginger powder, mustard seeds, turmeric, salt, apple cider vinegar and sesame oil.

Massage: Add the dressing to the chopped veggies and massage. This softens the fibres and makes it more digestable, not to mention that it absorbs the flavour! Put a plate and something heavy on top, and leave the veggies ‘pressed’ for about an hour.

PEANUT SAUCE

The Atjar Tjampoer already has quite some warming spices in it, so I wanted to make the sauce more cooling. That’s why I chose for coconut and lime.

Blend: peanut butter, coconut cream, lemon juice, tamari sauce, coconut nectar with a small amount of water into a yummy, smooth, creamy, cooling sauce.

SPRING ROLLS

Cut any fresh veggies you love. I used a green leaf mix (cooling & green), cellery (crunchy), apple (sweet & cooling) and bell pepper (for colour and taste).

Well, now it’s a matter of dipping the rice paper in hot water, and folding!

Fold: first fold one side over the filling, then bring the sides in, and finish folding the other half over everything. (like a burrito 😉

I’m not mentioning amounts in this recipe, because I have no idea what I used. So I recommend tapping into your intuition, trusting and experimenting with the flavours and ingredients.

Happy Solstice. Happy Summer.
OMOMOM

Porridge and Nostalgia

If you grew up the same way I did, you have a thing for porridges and cereals. When I was a child I could not be happier sitting at the breakfast table with my collection of cereal boxes to choose from.

It was always an extra special morning when my mum would make a warm porridge. The winner was mieliepap, with a bit of butter, milk and brown sugar. O my god! A warm oatmeal porridge took the silver medal and the easier and faster ProNutro was never denied either.

Later when we moved to the Netherlands, I was pleasantly surprised by the ProNutro look alike, Brinta.

Really, just give me a bowl to eat from, and a spoon to eat with and I’m happy.

Wel…kind of….Nowadays of course I am more consciouss of my food. I avoid processed and pre-packed foods as they tend to be full of (too much) sugars and preservatives and they cause Vata vitiation. Not to mention, many many packaged foods are just so unnecessary if you know how to make healthy (fast and easy) breakfasts yourself!

I still love a good bowl of mieliepap or oatmeal. They are the classics and they are very healthy!

But today I will share an easy recipe that I made this week, and it reminded me of the ProNutro porridge I used to eat as a kid. Sweet, warm, smooth, nutritious and delicious.

For this recipe you will need a blender/nutribullet or similar.

Throw into you blender/bullet jar:

5 medjool dates
4tbsp oats
1tbsp carob powder
1/2tbsp maca powder
pinch of salt
1tbsp chia seeds
1tbsp hemp seeds
1tsp coconut oil
pinch of cardamom
pinch of cinamon
pinch of kurkuma

Cover the ingredients with boiling water, stir and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Add a little bit water and blend all the ingredients untill you get a ‘porridgy’ consistency.

Transfer into your favourite bowl. Throw some banana and cashew nuts on top!

Enjoy!

Abundance Pancakes

Today I had a whole day off for the first time in many weeks. The big question was what would I do a whole day by myself? I love being with friends and family, but I also very much cherish alone time.

So my main events of the day was my weekly oilbath, or ayurvedic oil saturation massage. This is the best way to take time for yourself and bring your energies back in balance.

And… I made these 🙂

I cannot think of another name, because they are simply the manifestation itself of abundance. Delicious, healthy and full of our earths most precious ingredients.

I would like to share the recipe with you. If you know me, you’ll know that i’m not very good at measuring and giving exact quantities for recipies. But this means I am giving you space to experiment, be creative and connect with your intuition.

Ingredients (for 1 portion):

buckwheat flour (aprox 1/2 cup)
baking powder 1tsp
cacao powder 2tbsp
maca powder 1 tbsp
cardamom pinch
salt pinch
banana 1
coconut oil 1 tspn

wallnuts
sunflowerseeds
pumpkinseeds
raisins
cacao nibs

honey
chia seeds
hemp seeds
banana
strawberries

In a blender, mix the first group of ingredients. It shouldn’t be too liquid nor too thick.
Add the second group of ingredients and mix with a spoon.

Heat a pan and add a spoonfull of ghee. Bake your pancakes untill ready on both sides.

I stacked two pancakes with honey in between and fruit and seeds on top. It was absolutely delicious!

Now look at your plate, thank nature for giving us such wonderful ingredients and ask for the 5 elements to be taken up into your body and nourish you.

Be gratefull and enjoy!

Fast & Delicious Pumpkin Soup

Today I made this soup and I think it’s worth sharing.

It’s a very basic and fast, but delicious soup, covered with marinated kale. Also very fast and easy to do. But Oh My! also sooooo healthy!

Pumpkin is the perfect soothing veggie for a cold winter day. Whereas the kale serves as your fresh vitamin and mineral dose for the day. Fresh ginger is antibiotic and rejuvenative for nervous system. And the chilli adds that little bit of fire to keep you warm (if you are in the northern hemisphere such as me).
If you are in the souther hemisphere enjoying a warm day, first of all maybe a soup is not such a good idea, but if you really feel like it, add some fresh coconut milk in there and leave out the chilli.

The only preparation you need to do before hand is make your dried herbs soup mix.

THE SOUP MIX

Collect as many different fresh herbs as you can, of course organic. If you cannot find fresh ones, you can get dried ones too. It will save you some time too.

Examples are leek leaves, cellery, fennel leaves, carrot leaves, chives, dill, parsley, basil, marjoram, thyme, oregano...

Dry the fresh herbs & leaves. You can hang them in your kitchen (it looks nice!) or put them in the dehydrator for a few hours.

Grind all the herbs into a powder using a coffee grinder.

Store in a jar.

THE SOUP

Ingredients (for 1 person):
1 mini cute organic pumpkin
1 clove of organic garlic
1,5cm of organic red chilli
1tsp of soup mix

handfull of organic dinosoar kale
1tbsp of coldpressed organic hempseed oil
1tbsp of organic lemon juice

Cut pumpkin (with skin and seeds) into smaller pieces. Steam pumpkin in steaming basket, steamer pot or cook in a little bit of water untill soft.
Put the rest of the ingredients in your blender.
Separate kale from its stem and rip it into smaller pieces. Place in a bowl with oil and lemon juice and massage untill the fibre has softened.
Once the pumpkin is soft, place it in the blender and cover with boiling water (or the water that was left from steaming).

Blend & salt to taste. Serve with marinated kale on top & Voila!

Enjoy your soup with a piece of sourdough bread with ghee or a vegan nut spread. (Such as the wallnut cranberry one I made and had on mine 😉

I like to make soups this way, as it is much more time saving for those of us who have to work and cook and clean ourselves…. and! Your food is much more alive and full of vital energy! The pumpkin abviously needs to be cooked, but the other ingredients are absolutely fabulous just as they are!