Tag: recipe


This is my ultimate delicious nutritious comfort food. It tastes so good, has so many interesting textures and fills and warms the tummy so well. The citrus element is what sets the flavours alight and I just love it. It’s great to cook for vegan friends or dairy/gluten free folk, so I like to whip it out if special dietary needs crop up.

Coconut Braised Citrus Stew

6 servings

Ingredients

Vegan version:

  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 brown onion, diced
  • 1 large golden sweet potato/kumara, diced
  • 1 can coconut cream
  • water
  • 1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed
  • 2 tsp crushed garlic
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 1 large lemon, zested and juiced
  • 4 kaffir lime leaves, chopped fine (or zest of 1 lime)
  • 2 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 chopped hot red pepper or 1 tsp chilli flakes or ground chili (more to taste)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Large bunch silverbeet/chard (or spinach), approx 500g/1 pound, chopped

For the “non vegan” version as above plus:

  • 5 skinless boneless chicken thighs, cubed
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce

Method

  1. Heat oil in a large saucepan, add onion and cook until onion starts to brown
  2. Add coconut cream, fill the cream can with water and add to the pot, add chickpeas, sweet potato and heat until bubbling.
  3. Add garlic, ginger, lemon zest and juice, kaffir lime/lime zest, lime juice, chili (or pepper) and stir through
  4. For non vegan version, add chicken
  5. Add salt (and fish sauce for non vegan)
  6. Cover pot and allow to simmer for 10 minutes, 
  7. Add the chopped silverbeet to the top. Cover and cook for a further five minutes before stirring the silverbeet through. The greenery will lose volume as it cooks, so may be added several batches if it won’t fit in the pot.

Season with additional salt, fish sauce and chili to taste. Ready to serve – it’s very liquid based so bowls required. 

It could go further served over rice, but there are plenty of starchy carbs in this dish already with the chickpeas and sweet potato.

Garnish suggestions – toasted coconut, fresh chopped cilantro/coriander.

Carrot Cake

Delicious nom carrot cake for Lou-face.

The icing makes more than enough for the cake, expect to have extra.

Cake:

  • 1 cup canola oil
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1-¾ tsp. baking soda
  • ¾ tsp. ground nutmeg
  • ¾ tsp. table salt
  • 5 eggs
  • 2-½ cups lightly packed, finely grated carrots
  • 2 cups packed light brown sugar
  • ¾ cup chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)
  • ½ cup raisins (optional)
  • 2 tsp. vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, with the rack in the center. Line the bottoms of 2 9" round cake pans and grease the sides.

In a large bowl (which will contain all the final mixture), beat together the oil, eggs, carrots, brown sugar, vanilla, walnuts and raisins (if using).

Whisk the remaining dry ingredients together in a medium bowl (flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt).

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just mix – don’t overmix or the cake will be tough.

Divide the batter between the two cake pans, and place in the oven for approx. 25-30min until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

When done, let cool in the pans for 10-15 min then turn out onto a wire cooling rack.

For the frosting:

  • 450g cream cheese, softened
  • 340g butter, softened
  • 4 cups icing sugar
  • 2 tsp. vanilla essence

Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the vanilla and icing sugar and beat until fluffy. Set aside at room temperature until the cake has cooled completely to ice it.

Refrigerate the cake for a few hours or days, best served at room temperature or slightly cool. This cake freezes and defrosts well (un-iced).

Isa Chandra’s Vegan Chocolate cake

I’m hosting a cake party next month. I have several friends getting married and this way, they can try my cakes and if they like them – I can do them again for weddings. Otherwise, there are many other brilliant cake makers I’m sure could fill the void 🙂

The important part: Cake Party!

Isa Chandra’s recipe for Chocolate Cake is simple and delicious, I’ve made it several times and it’s definitely of Cake Party standard. I’m planning to pair it with white chocolate buttercream and perhaps a thin layer of white fondant which I might attempt to “quilt”. Ambition, anyone?

Anyway, here’s the link to the wonderful vegan chocolate cake recipe.

I’m really only posting it so I never have to hunt for it again. x

Dairy-free peanut butter milkshake

It’s my blog birthday! 5 years, let’s celebrate with a milkshake. This is for Priya, who had a below-average one from Moustache cookie shop on Monday.

  • 2 cups soy milk (or alternative)
  • 2-3 tbsp peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 6 ice cubes

Blend the milk, peanut butter, sugar and essence together first. Then add the ice cubes and blend again – if the peanut butter gets too cold right away it clumps up.

Add another ice cube and serve,

–

I only added sugar because the peanut butter I keep is really salty (no added sugar). You might like to add more milk to your taste.

Also good: adding a scoop of dairy free ice cream (vanilla). 

Must be consumed through a straw, otherwise won’t bring all the boys to to yard.

Vegan, gluten free, dark chocolate coconut fudge cake


with vegan chocolate coconut ganache.

This recipe was for Adam’s birthday cake! An invention based on a chocolate version of the white coconut cake recipe I posted recently. It’s a double recipe, so would fill two 8 inch cake pans for a nice tall double layer cake (make extra ganache if that’s your plan!). I used a tall 5 inch pan for a little but high cake coated in ganache that more than served our table of 12. 

Ingredients

  • 2 cups almond milk (or soy)
  • 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup canola oil
  • 2 tsps vanilla extract/essence
  • 1 tsp coconut extract/essence
  • 100g 70% vegan dark chocolate

Dry Ingredients:

  • 1 cup rice flour
  • ¾ cup gluten free flour
  • 2 tsp guar gum
  • 2/3 cup cocoa
  • 1 ½ tsps baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup desiccated coconut

Method

Preheat oven to 170°C, line and grease two 8" round cake tins (or one tall 5" one!).

Combine the milk and apple cider vinegar, set aside and allow to curdle.

Sift together the flours, cocoa, guar gum, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the desiccated coconut to this dry mixture. 

Melt the chocolate in a med-large mixing bowl which will eventually contain all ingredients.

Add the oil to the melted chocolate, stir through, then add the extracts of vanilla and coconut. Ideally, the milk and apple cider vinegar combination should have been left to stand for around ten minutes and should be close to room temperature (or at least not cold). Add half of the milk mixture to the chocolate and mix together, then add the other half.

Next add the sugars to the wet mix and stir thoroughly.

Add a third of the dry ingredients, fold into the wet. Add half of the remaining dry ingredients, fold in, and then add the remaining dry mix to complete the batter. It will be slightly lumpy.

Pour into the prepared cake tin(s) and bake for about 45-50 min or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Or clean ish – it is a gooey fudge cake after all. Rest the cake(s) in their tin(s) for 10 min on a cooling rack before turning out to cool completely.

At this point you can put the cake in a plastic bag and freeze it, or put it in the fridge for a day or two before icing it. 

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Ganache

I used a bar of Green & Blacks Organic Dark 70%, and roughly 50% of the solids from a 400mL tin of “Family Choice” brand coconut cream. Tip – when buying coconut cream – shake the tin, if the contents move about a lot in there, don’t buy it. You want the practically solid stuff. The thicker, heavier and creamier, the better for this job. 

Before opening the tin for making this recipe don’t shake it! You want the insides to stay separated so you can scoop the “heavy” cream off the top of the tin.

I didn’t add sweetener to the ganache as the cake itself is quite sweet and the velvety texture is a nice complement to the cake without it’s own sweetness. The coconut flavour doesn’t actually come out as the chocolate masks it, you could add coconut essence or another flavouring though.

Ingredients

  • 100g vegan dark chocolate
  • 400ml tin coconut cream (full, not “lite”)
  • 1 tsp high quality vanilla essence

Method

Break up the chocolate and melt it down in a double boiler, taking extra care not to get any water or steam in the chocolate. Add the coconut cream, vanilla, and stir until combined and smooth, then remove from heat.

I put mine in the freezer to cool, and stirred it intermittently until it was a nice thick consistency to spread over the cake with my usual offset spatula that I use for buttercream.