Vegan Chickpea ‘Omlette’ – Baby Led Weaning

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chickpea-omlette

Thank you to my friend Deepa at GirlBoyFoodBaby for this one. She’s always coming up with awesome vegetarian baby-led weaning ideas and this is one I really loved. Full of all the nutrients Braxton needs and so easy to make. I changed it just a little bit but the idea is all Deepa’s!

Ingredients

¼ cup chickpea flour
¼ cup quinoa flour
Cup purified water
Splash of almond milk
Bit of grated ginger
Handful spinach
Half a red pepper, cut in small pieces
A few mushrooms, cut in small pieces
Handful cherry tomatoes, cut in small pieces
Handful coriander, shopped
Mixed herbs
Coconut oil for frying

Method

Add the flour to a bowl and add the water slowly until a thick batter forms. You may not need to add it all, you may need more. Just assess it depending on the thickness.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix.

Heat the oil in a pan and when hot, add a patty sized amount and fry on one side for about 3 minutes then flip and do the other side. Continue until you use up all the batter.

Serve with homemade turmeric hummus and avocado.

Love & health,
Lauren & Braxton

Quinoa with Lentils, Butterbeans and Vegetables – Vegan dinner

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quinoa-and-lentils

I can’t take credit for this one; my husband made it. He has really got into this way of life over the past year or so, especially since having Braxton. It used to be something he was happy for me to do and would eat what I cooked because, well, it was yummy so he couldn’t really complain! But now he’s actually into it himself and loves being in the kitchen coming up with new and interesting recipes. He doesn’t bake, but he loves to cook savoury food and cooks for us a lot these days.

My kitchen is closed on the weekends – I just don’t have the energy to cook much during the weekends except to make food for Brax, so Daniel often makes us a Sunday night dinner and this was this week’s creation. You can literally add anything you want but we just used what we had at home.

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa
Half cup lentils
2 sweet potatoes
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
1 tin organic butter beans
1 tin organic sweetcorn
1 cup frozen peas
1 red pepper
1 tsp bouillon
Coconut oil
Olive oil
Himalayan salt & black pepper

Method

Peel and dice the sweet potato, put it on an oven tray, drizzle some coconut oil, salt and paprika and put it in the oven for 20 mins.

Take another oven tray, cut the red pepper into smallish pieces, drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil and put that in the oven alongside the sweet potato for 20 minutes.

While they’re in the oven, put the quinoa and lentils into a saucepan, cover with plenty of water and bring to the boil. Once boiling, add the bouillon, turn down the heat and put the lid on. It will take around 20 minutes to make but keep checking and mixing, adding more water if needed.

Steam the broccoli for around 6-7 minutes

Boil the peas in some hot water – this should only take around 5 minutes then put them in a bowl with the sweetcorn, broccoli and butterbeans.

Once the sweet potatoes and peppers are ready add them to the bowl, then once the lentils and quinoa are ready, you can add this too.

Give it a good mix and add salt and pepper, and any other herbs you may like.

Love & health,
Lauren & Daniel

 

 

Maple, Fig & Ginger Granola

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maple-ginger-fig-granola

I know it’s not to everyone’s taste but I’m a big lover of ginger. It’s such a great anti-inflammatory so great to put in food or drink.

When I make granola I usually just do my simple maple and pecan but I fancied a change this time and had so many figs at home also so thought this combination would work really well and it did. I used 2 pieces of stem ginger but if you don’t like it so strong, just use one.

Ingredients

Organic rolled jumbo oats – enough to cover one oven tray (or 2 oven trays if you want a big batch, then just double the ingredients)
Quarter cup pure maple syrup
Pinch Himalayan salt
1 piece stem ginger, cut into very small pieces
4 dried figs, cut in small pieces

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees then line a baking tray with baking paper.

Measure out the oats by covering the tray with them to see how much you need, then transfer them to a large bowl.

Add the maple and salt and mix really well.

Spoon it all onto the baking tray and even it out then put in the oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes mix it around as the outside pieces will be browner than the rest and bake for another 10 minutes but don’t let it burn – it should be golden not dark brown.

Remove from the oven and turn the oven off. Now add the ginger and figs, mix really well and put the tray back into the oven (turned off) and leave for 5 minutes

Remove from the oven once again, leave to cool on the tray then transfer to a glass jar or airtight container.

Love & health,
Lauren

Raw Vegan Bounty Bites

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raw-vegan-bounty-bites

My favourite EVER chocolate was Bounty – I’m obsessed with anything coconut so this really is an indulgence for me. I made these a few years ago before starting the blog but never photographed them or wrote down the recipe so thought I’d try to perfect them now so you can all share in their splendor! They are simply mouth-watering; so delicious but also kind of light and fluffy so they don’t make you feel sick. Everyone here loved them, hope you do too.

Ingredients

2 cups desiccated coconut
¼ cup ground almonds
½ cup coconut oil
The cream from the top of a can of full-fat coconut milk
¼ cup maple
1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate coating:
3 tbsp cacao powder
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tbsp cashew butter
¼ cup coconut oil (add more if it is too thick)

Method

Melt the coconut oil then mix all the ingredients except the chocolate in a bowl.

Line a plate or baking tray with baking paper then roll the mixture into small balls and put them on the prepared plate and put it in the freezer for an hour. (the baking paper will stop them sticking to the plate)

Make the chocolate sauce while it’s in the freezer. Take it off the heat once ready, take the balls out the freezer and immerse them, one by one, into the saucepan and coat them with the chocolate then put back on the plate. They will be best if you coat them twice, so once you’ve done them all once, re-immerse them.

Put them in the fridge to chill and store them in an airtight container in the fridge.

Love & health,
Lauren

 

Summer Berry Smoothie

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summer-berry-smoothie

This is basically the same as the summer berry smoothie bowl but this is more of a smoothie than an ice cream. It is our go-to breakfast most mornings, for me and Braxton, I just spoon-feed it to him. When there are no berries we just use banana and the other ingredients and it’s a great way of getting daily superfoods into us.

The Autumn is about to start so trying to get as many berries in while I can!

Ingredients

250ml almond milk (or oat, rice or coconut milk)
1 banana
Handful strawberries
Handful blueberries
1 banana
Handful redcurrants or any other summer berries you have
2 dates
1 tbsp almond butter
1 tsp acai berry powder
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp chia seeds
1 tsp flax seeds
1 tsp hemp powder
2 ice cubes

Method

Blend all ingredients in the blender and pour into a cup – literally easier than making toast!

Love & health,
Lauren

Chocolate Covered Figs

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chocolate-figs

Check out the post I made about the awesome plant-based restaurant in Marbella, Gioia. They gave me the idea for this super easy dessert. It really is an excellent addition to any dinner party table, and couldn’t be easier to make. Also nice for kids as it’s fruit – but it’s chocolatey! 🙂

Ingredients

Chocolate sauce recipe
4 fresh figs
Handful almonds, crushed

Method

Make the sauce in a small saucepan then pour it over the figs.

Top with the crushed almonds and leave in the fridge to set.

Love & health,

Lauren

 

Moroccan Brown Rice

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moroccan-brown-rice

The best thing about being half Moroccan is, by far, the food. Who doesn’t like Moroccan food? Moroccan grandmothers are renowned for their cooking skills and my grandmother was one of the best.

My mum grew up in the East End of London – you literally couldn’t find a bigger disparity between my dad’s upbringing in Casablanca and my mum’s in the East End! Pie and mash versus apricot chicken tagine, fish and chips versus almond couscous, bacon butties versus cinnamon and turmeric spiced rice, and so on.

But luckily for me, my mum is an amazing cook and learnt all the dishes from my grandmother when she met my dad and so I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up eating the most beautifully tasting food, not just thanks to my mum but also all my dad’s sisters.

I have learnt a lot of the dishes myself and although some of them are very intricate, there are also ways of incorporating the flavours and spices into everyday dishes like rice. Rice is a really hard thing to get right so I hope this post helps you perfect it.

I made this for our dinner alongside some other bits and Daniel and Braxton both love it. I hope you do too.

Ingredients

1 cup brown basmati rice
Enough purified water to cover the rice
1 tsp bouillon
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cinnamon
Handful almond flakes
Handful sultanas
Himalayan salt and black pepper, to taste

Method

Put the rice in a saucepan and cover with water, but make sure the water comes up about an inch over the rice. I have a Brita kettle and usually boil the kettle first to pre-boil and purify the water, then pour it over once it’s boiled. Give it a mix and add the bouillon and wait until it starts bubbling. Once the bubbling starts, give it another mix, turn the heat down to low and put the lid on.

It will take about 20 minutes from here but you need to give it a stir every 5 minutes or so. If you see the water has gone down too much and the rice isn’t nearly ready, add some more water. The heat is down on low and the lid is on so the steam will cook it more than the water.

Once there is only a very tiny bit of water left at the bottom, after about 15 minutes, add the turmeric, cinnamon, salt and pepper and mix, then add the almond flakes and sultanas and give it another mix and leave the lid off until the water has disappeared but only just.

Serve straight away.

Love & health,
Lauren

Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes

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10

(Post has been updated since Braxton’s birthday to show new pictures)

I’m starting to plan Braxton’s 1st birthday (can you believe it?!?!) and of course the menu is of utmost importance. I’m not going to feed him the way I do then all of a sudden spend a day filling him with sugar and rubbish, so I have to come up with enough gluten, dairy & refined sugar-free cake options for everyone. We’re only doing a tea party at home for family, but I want it to be special, so Daniel and I are making a lot of the decorations ourselves and of course we’re making all the food. I’m going to make him the chocolate cake that I made from grandma’s birthday, but I’ll make it a 3 tiered one with heaps of chocolate frosting and that can be the cake we put the candles on, and I’m going to make a small sponge cake with a chocolate frosting for his cake smash picture (gotta be done!) but I also wanted to make some cupcakes as everyone loves a cupcake and it just looks nice.

I first made this a few weeks ago but made it as a cake originally, and cut it into squares, but the recipe wasn’t perfect. So I tried again last night, changing the things I think went wrong last time and they really are honestly delicious, and so nice as cupcakes, especially for a birthday. I made them with eggs the first time but then thought, hey, I can easily make these vegan by using banana instead of egg and the banana goes so nice with carrot and also makes it more moist, which is essential for carrot cake.

The banana keeps it quite sweet so I used a few spoonfuls of maple in the cakes themselves and that was it, but the frosting was so easy to make thanks to Natvia! Their icing sugar came in really handy this time as I was able to make a vegan, sugar-free, dairy-free frosting with Natvia icing sugar, dairy-free spread and a bit of vanilla.

These are the ones I made with egg and I tried a soya cream cheese frosting but the sweet frosting I made with Natvia was much nicer:

carrot-cake

I’ll post them again when the party is over and I can take a picture of all the food together!

Original ones:

carrot-cake-cupcakes-vegan

 

Ingredients

150g buckwheat flour
1tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger
¼ tsp nutmeg
1.5 tsp baking powder
80ml coconut oil
3 ripe bananas
7 tbsp maple
3 large carrots
¼ cup chopped walnuts

Topping:
250g organic, dairy free spread / margarine
1 tsp vanilla extract
400g Natvia icing sugar
1/4 cup crushed walnuts

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a cupcake baking tray with cupcake liners.

Peel and grate the carrots and leave to the side.

In a large bowl mix the flour, baking powder and spices.

In another bowl mash the bananas then mix in the coconut oil (melted but not hot) and maple.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, adding slowly and mixing as you go along. Once it is mixed, add the grated carrot and walnuts and mix again.

Pour into the prepared tin and put in the oven for 18 minutes.

Once it’s in the oven prepare the topping by mixing the ingredients really well then leaving in the fridge.

Remove the cake from the oven and wait until it is completely cool before adding the topping. The topping will need to come out the fridge 5 minutes before you’re going to start adding it to the cakes. I did mine with piping bags but you can just spoon it on if you don’t have time.

Add some more chopped walnuts to the top.

Love & health,
Lauren

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

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stuffed-peppers

Look at my wrinkly peppers! 🙂  I recently came back from Spain and they seem to ‘stuff’ a lot of food there so it inspired me to do stuffed peppers. My mum always made them for us growing up so not sure why I don’t do them more often – probably because she made them with meat so I associate it with that but I’ve made these delicious veggie ones and they turned out so yummy.

You can of course leave out the goat’s cheese if you want them vegan. We don’t eat cow’s milk dairy here and rarely even goat’s milk but I don’t mind the odd bit of goat’s cheese and Braxton really loved it too. The lentils and beans mean this meal is filled with plant-based protein.

Ingredients (for 2 people)

2 large red peppers
1 cup brown basmati rice
Half a cup of lentils
1 tin organic black beans
1 zucchini
1 tbsp bouillon
¼ tsp cumin
Himalayan salt and black pepper
A bit of soft goat’s cheese, cut up in very small cubes

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Cook the rice first according to the instructions, along with the lentils in the same saucepan. They both take quite a while so allow ample time.

When it has been cooking about 10 minutes, add the bouillon.

Once the water from the rice and lentils is very nearly all evaporated but there is still a tiny bit at the bottom, drain the black beans or kidney beans and add them. Mix them through the rice and lentils and leave on a low heat for a minute.

Now grate the zucchini directly into the saucepan and mix that around. Add the cumin, salt & pepper and mix. Now add the goat’s cheese and mix. Save a few pieces of goat’s cheese for after. Turn off the heat.

Cut the tops off the peppers and take out the insides and wash thoroughly.

Place them on a baking tray upright and fill with the rice mixture.

Put them in the oven for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes add a few pieces of the goat’s cheese to the top and leave in for another 5-10 minutes.

Serve hot.

Love & health,
Lauren

Lemon & Coconut Energy Balls

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Lemon Coconut Energy Balls

So I was attempting to make some almond butter but my Vitamix stopped working so before the almonds got smooth enough I was left with a thicker butter. I didn’t want it to go to waste so I just mixed them with dates and other bits to make some energy balls.

I love the combination of lemon and coconut – it’s so summery and refreshing.

Ingredients

1 cup almonds (soaked for 6 hours)
1 cup dates
2 tbsp maple syrup or 1 tbsp Natvia (for lower GI or diabetics use Natvia)
Zest and juice from 1 lemon
2 tbsp desiccated coconut and more to coat

Method

After the almonds have soaked, rinse and pat them dry, then put them in the blender and blend until a thick buttery consistency forms.

Now add the dates and blend until incorporated.

Add the maple, zest, lemon juice and coconut and blend until combined.

Spoon the mixture into a bowl as it’s easier to work with than when it’s in the blender. Get a clean plate and start rolling the mixture into small balls in your hands and put them on the plate.

Once they are all made, sprinkle the desiccated coconut over them and roll them around to coat them completely.

Chill in the fridge for 4 hours before eating and keep in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Love & health,
Lauren