Tag: sugar free

Vegan Waffles (Gluten, dairy & refined-sugar free)

1 Comment

Waffles

I finally treated myself to a waffle maker and boy oh boy was it worth it! I had some ideas for gluten, dairy and sugar free waffle recipes so I started experimenting and today’s one came out perfectly… enjoy this, guilt free 🙂

Ingredients – (serves 2. For more, double ingredients)

1 and quarter cup buckwheat flour
1 cup almond milk
1 very ripe large banana
6 tbsp pure organic maple syrup
Pinch Himalayan salt

Method

Heat up your waffle iron and let it get really hot while you do the rest.

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until really well combined.

Gently pour some of the mixture into the waffle mould and shut lid slowly. I found they turned out best when left for 7-10 minutes.

Top with maple syrup or fruit of banana ice cream…

Love,
Lauren

Turmeric Hummus

2 Comments

Turmeric Hummus

The search for healthy snacks is never ending in my house. I don’t like big meals so I tend to eat little and often so there is nothing better for me than some homemade hummus with some carrot or celery sticks or some gluten-free crackers. Check out my roasted red pepper hummus – that one was to die for (and the picture is way better than this one!) I didn’t have too much time today, I just needed to blitz it in the blender and go. I wanted to use turmeric as it is such an amazing anti-inflammatory and I try to use it in as much food as I can.

Ingredients

2 tins organic chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
Quarter cup purified water
2 tbsp tahini paste
5 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
Half tsp Himalayan salt
Half tsp garlic salt
1 tbsp turmeric

Method

Simply blend all ingredients together in a high speed blender until completely smooth – it really is as easy as that! Enjoy with gluten free bread, crackers, rice or quinoa cakes or veggies.

Enjoy!

Love,
Lauren

 

 

Pasta with Sweet Potato and Sage Sauce

Leave a comment

Sweet Potato Sage Pasta

Raine and I seem to be so in sync with each other that even though we’re on other sides of the planet, we both made a variation of the same dinner tonight! So she has posted her Butternut & Sage Pasta and here is mine, made with sweet potatoes instead…

People always ask me what can you make for dinner when you’re vegetarian, so I like to experiment with easy, tasty and healthy recipes that people love. This is one of them. The sage is probably the best part of this recipe – I just love the taste. This recipe is seriously indulgent but gluten free and dairy free as well as full of nutrients.

Ingredients

Brown rice pasta – enough for two servings
1 sweet potato
About 10 sage leaves
Handful pine nuts
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
Half cup almond milk
Garlic salt
Himalayan salt
Black pepper

Method

Peel and chop the sweet potato then steam or boil until soft enough to mash.

While it’s boiling, heat 1 tbsp oil in a non-stick pan, then add the garlic, pine nuts and sage and cook until pine nuts are roasted and sage is cooked. Once this mix is ready, put in a bowl and set aside.

Start boiling your pasta with a pinch of Himalayan salt. Brown rice pasta usually takes around 8 minutes.

While this is boiling, drain your sweet potato and mash it. Add it to the pan (which you don’t need to wash after the sage and pine nuts) with the milk and mix on a low light until it resembles a thick sauce.

Do not over-cook the pasta. As soon as it’s ready, add it to the pan with the sweet potato and mix it all in, then add the garlic, pine nuts and sage, some garlic salt and pepper (and salt to taste if you want) and mix it all around for about a minute or two, until hot, then serve.

Have a good week everyone.

Love & health,
Lauren

Chai Ginger Snap Cookies

Leave a comment

Chai Ginger Snap Cookies 1

I love the flavour of my vanilla chai tea from Pukka, and I used it when I made my healthy pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and it worked a treat so I thought I’d use it for these cookies.

The gingery taste is so yummy to me, and as a true Brit, the first thing I did was dip it into my tea, and it was heaven!

They literally need no more than 8 minutes in the oven. I left mine for 10 and you can see that some of them are a little burnt (still nice dipped into tea though!) So really watch the clock on these…

Ingredients

1/3 cup honey
3 tbsp coconut palm sugar
2 tbsp organic vegan non hydrogenated margarine
1 tbsp coconut oil and extra for greasing
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp almond milk
1 chai or vanilla chai teabag
2 and quarter cups ground almonds
4 heaped tbsp buckwheat flour
1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
3 tsp ground ginger

Method

Preheat the oven to 180.

Start by putting the honey in a small saucepan over a low heat and leave for around 5 minutes until it bubbles and turns darker. At this point, add the margarine, coco sugar, coconut oil, almond milk and vanilla and mix until well incorporated.

Then add the teabag. Give it a few dunks then remove from the heat and let it steep while you take care of the dry ingredients.

 

In a bowl add the ground almonds, buckwheat flour, baking soda and the spices and mix well.

Remove the teabag from the honey mixture and pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients. Mix very well, making sure you get all the flour from the bottom.

Line a baking tray (you will probably need 2 baking trays) with baking paper, grease with some coconut oil and then here’s the bit that will make this easier for you: put some coconut oil on a tablespoon (so that you don’t dirty the tub of coconut oil) and grease your hands all over. Once your hands are well greased, take a small bit of the mixture in your hands to form a small ball then put it on the baking tray. Do this until the mixture is finished and then wash your hands if they have too much mixture on, dry and re-grease them with coconut oil then flatten them all with your fingers until they are smooth and fairly flat but with a bit of bounce to them.

Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and put on a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy with a turmeric latte for extra anti-inflammatory goodness!

Love and light,
Lauren

Creamy Cashew Yoghurt

2 Comments

Cashew Yoghurt

I love yoghurt and I think it’s one of the things I found I missed most when cutting out dairy. But don’t fret! We can make our own dairy-free version of course! And I used cashews here. Mainly because cashews go really nice and creamy and are also quite sweet so they make a great yoghurt. The magnesium content in cashews also helps keep our bones strong and are packed with flavanols which starve tumours and stop cancer cells from spreading, which is essential in this day and age with all the cancers around.

I added 2 probiotic capsules to this also, firstly to help keep my gut strong (read about that here) but also to help build yoghurt cultures in the yoghurt, so it’s not just a cashew cream.

In order for nuts to survive, nuts contain inherent toxic inhibitors that protect the plant from germination until the ideal conditions are present (nature is amazing!) It is not until they get wet and there is sufficient moisture that they germinate. It can wreak havoc on your digestive system if you don’t soak them because these protective enzyme inhibitors do not digest in our bodies, your body will fight them, so you must soak them to release these toxins. Not soaking nuts first will also inhibit the absorption of nutrients. I suggest soaking overnight but 4 hours will do it.

You can top this with anything you like, I used strawberries, sunflower seeds and hazelnuts.

Ingredients

1 cup cashews
1 and quarter cup purified water
2 dates
2 tsp organic natural maple
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 probiotic capsules

Method

First, you must soak your cashews in purified water for AT LEAST 4 hours. Soak overnight if you can. Do not omit this step. (See above for explanation). Once the nuts are ready, drain and rinse, then put them in the blender with the water and blend for around 7-10 minutes. You need it to go super smooth and creamy. If you have a high-speed blender like a Vitamix, the mixture will heat up like a soup, don’t worry.

After around 4 minutes of blending, add the rest of the ingredients and proceed to blend until completely smooth like a yoghurt. Add more water if it’s too thick.

Store in a sealed container in the fridge (once it has cooled) for up to four days and enjoy with your favourite toppings.

Happy weekend everyone!
Love,
Lauren