Pumpkin Boats

Ingredients:

- 1 whole pumpkin
- 1 large zucchini
- ½ a leek
- ½ a large eggplant
- a large piece of fresh ginger
- fresh sage leaves
- olive oil
- salt (herbal salt is preferable)
- chili powder (as per one’s taste)

Procedure:

Cut the pumpkin into slices and remove the seeds leaving the skin on. Place them in an oven dish and bake in the oven at 180oC until soft.
In the mean time, cut the zucchini and eggplant into very small cubes, as well as the leek and the sage leaves. Heat some olive oil in a pan, and then lightly stir-fry the sage leaves and leek – when golden, add the zucchini, and then the eggplant. Remember when stir-frying vegetables: if you cook the vegetables at a high heat, they will retain the water and remain crunchier. If you instead cook them at a lower heat, they will go mushy and lose a lot of their taste. Add the herbal salt, fresh ginger (which you will have cut up into small pieces), and chili powder.
Simply place the vegetables onto each pumpkin slice, pressing them slightly down into the pumpkin. Replace them in the oven for another 15 minutes, and then ENJOY!

ENJOY: from the French “en joie”, literally “in joy”: pumpkin is a very joyful vegetable with its vibrant orange color. It is truly a gift of nature, especially as the season gets colder; you want to boost your body up with orange foods! Pumpkins are rich in antioxidants and beta-carotene, which will strengthen your immune system. Beta-carotene converts to Vitamin A and helps reduce the risk of cancer and other dangerous diseases.
IN JOY! For body, mind, and soul.

Hearty Quinoa and Pumpkin Soup

Here's a very easy and warming soup recipe for you:

Ingredients:

- 500g pumpkin

- 1 courgette/zucchini

- 1/2 leek

- 70g quinoa

- 30-40g fresh ginger

- 50g sunflower seeds

- a bunch of fresh sage leaves

- salt and spices to taste

- olive oil

Procedure

Prepare the vegetables into small cubes...because it's nice to eat tidily. I really don't like it when you get those soups (which do taste nice) but that have HUGE pieces of cabbage that splash all the way across your face and down your chin. It's hard to be lady-like. This is my capricorn coming out. I'm very precise with cutting my vegetables.

Heat some olive oil in a pot and add the leek and sage leaves. Add the sunflower seeds so that they may toast in the oil as well. Wait until the sage leaves have literally cooked in the oil, and the leek is golden brown.

Add the rest of the vegetables and cover with water. Bring to the boil, add salt and whatever spices you like (I personally like turmeric and a little chilli powder, especially for heating up if it's a cold winter's night).

In the mean time prepare the fresh ginger by cutting it into small small pieces. Once the soup has cooked (check the pumpkin, and you will know when it's ready), add the ginger, cover the pot with a lid, and just let it brew for another ten minutes.

It is then ready!

Vegetable "Lasagna"

This very simple dish manifested on the evening of my mother's birthday: I made another more elaborate "lasagna" for the rest of us, but since my mother is intollerant to almost everything I had to think of something "mummy-friendly".

Ingredients:

- aubergine (eggplant)

- potatoes

- rocket

- salt (I used herb salt)

- paprika

- origano

- olive oil

Quantities obviously depend on how many people you are preparing it for. I have made this dish twice, the first time was very thin, the second I added an extra layer of potatoes, and I must say it's better in the thinner version (more delicate). If you do want to add extra layers, I would suggest using the aubergine....or cutting the potato very very finely!

Preparation:

Prepare the aubergine and potatoes into thin slices, and chop up the rocket leaves (if you don't have rocket, red lettuce will do the trick wonderfully! I can't think of the name now...in italian it's "radicchio"). Turn the oven on: 180C.

Before starting the layering, grease the oven dish with some olive oil. Place the layer of potatoes, then sprinkle some herbal salt, paprika, and origano leaves (dried or fresh), and another drizzle of olive oil. Place the rocket leaves (put loads on! Don't worry, even if they look a lot, they will lose all their water and shrivel down to almost nothing!), and then the layer of aubergine (you can overlap the aubergines as they cook quickly...I put a couple of layers as the last layer), and sprinkle some olive oil, paprika and salt.

Place in the oven until cooked....mmm....30 minutes? 40 minutes? You can tell.....check that the potatoes are cooked.

The photo I put is of the second time I prepared it, when it was a bit thicker. The first time round I actually turned the whole dish over, so that the potatoes were on top....looked good.

It's a really simple dish to prepare and the good thing is that you don't need to cook the vegetables before-hand. An extra note: I used the light colored aubergine in this dish, the round type. They're much better as they seem to remain more intact and more delicate than the darker longer type. You could also try adding zucchini (courgettes) to the dish....they would go really well! They'd be extra delicious if you grilled them first, which would make the whole preparation a bit longer....but if you have the time and heart to do it, then why not!

I will put the recipe for the other more elaborate version shortly....it's delicious!!!

Nutty-Choco "Ice-Cream"

I'll blame the summer mood for this excessive production of cold desserts - I don't know if anyone's been experimenting with the frozen banana-base, but I certainly have! And here's today's result. Scrumcious! Quite moossey as well.

Ingredients:

- 2 frozen bananas

- handful of almonds

- handful of walnuts

- handful of hazelnuts

- 3 pitted dates

- Agave syrup

- bitter cocoa powder

- for extra naughtiness: dark chocolate (without milk powder to maintain the dessert vegan)

- a liquid base: can be grape juice if you want to keep it gluten-free, or rice/almond/soya milk.

The procedure is always the same: peel the bananas and place them in plastic wrap in the freezer for about three hours or until frozen. In the mean time, soak the nuts in the juice or milk for the same amount of time.

Once the bananas are frozen, cut them up and place them in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients. I didn't really measure: I guess a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder, plus a little more for good luck. Agave syrup....mmm....I just put it in. You don't need much: the bananas and dates are already sweet, but a little syrup is good to contrast the bitter cocoa powder. Add the rest of the ingredients and start woozzing...oh! Also MUST add (before woozzing) about half a cup of juice/"milk" - this is always to save your blender, and to give the ice-cream a smooth consistency.

Don't forget the extra touch! Dark chocolate: cut it up a bit before hand and then give it a last woozz once the whole thing has already reached a smooth consistency.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the result! Might be nice to sprinkle some coconut flakes on top at the end...or not. May as well be 100% decadent while you're at it!

Strawberry Sorbet!

You must all prepare this, you will be shocked by the smooth consistency of this sorbet! And all without an ice-cream machine!

(Sorry about the photo...I was blinded by the sun - and yes, I take all my photos on the same table..haha!)


Ingredients:

- 2 ripe bananas
- a punnet of strawberries
- Agave: about half a small cup?
- either juice (apple or grape), or rice milk

Peel the bananas, wrap them up in glad wrap and place in the freezer. Wash the strawberries, take the green part off and freeze them as well (place them in a plastic tupplewear container).

After about 3 hours, the fruits will be frozen: cup up the banana into chunks and place in a food processor. Start off with a just a bit of banana and a bit of strawberries....they're frozen so you don't want to destroy your food processor or its blade. Add the juice/rice milk straight away, and start blending. As you see that it gains a smooth cremy consistency, slowly add the fruit that was left out, as well as the Agave.

Isn't it amazing? Mine has quite a fizzy flavor...I think it's the strawberries that did it. You can add or diminish Agave quantities depending on how sweet you like it....but don't ruin it with sugar!


Serving Suggestions: if you're preparing it for friends, try and prepare it almost on the spot - I've placed mine in the freezer, but I'm pretty sure it will turn into a frozen block of sorbet. So better to prepare and consume immediately! (or place it in the fridge if it's going to be consumed within a short time after preparation).

Frozen Avocado Cake

What a find! I was browsing through the net for some raw recipes, and this is what I tumbled on. It's really easy to make, and the taste is not bad either!

Ingredients:

- 1 ripe avocado
- 1/4 cup of coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon of lime juice
- 1 tablespoon of Agave

Crust: 1 part nuts, 1 part dates.

Firstly place the pitted dates and whatever nuts you like into the food-processor, to get them nicely chopped. Then place the lot into a plastic container (you're going to have to put it in the freezer, so avoid glass). Press it down evenly with a spoon.

Process the avocado with the rest of the ingredients until all the avocado has "creamyfied", and then put it on top of the "crust" part. Place a lid on the plastic tin (I used a plastic lunch-box, or tupplewear, as snobby people like to call it), and place in the freezer.

It will take a few hours to freeze: when it's ready you can pull it out and tip it over (like I've done in the photo above)....looks prettier with the crust on top - the eye plays it's part!

Banana and Coconut "Ice-cream"

Wonderful results in the lab today! I bet this "ice-cream" would taste great with a nice slice of vegan chocolate cake!

I got the idea for this creation from another recipe that uses frozen bananas as a base - and you can pretty much add anything you like to that!

Ingredients:

- two bananas

- a small cup of coconut flakes or powder

- 10 almonds

- 1/2 cup of rice milk (soya or almond milk would be fine too - make the recipe gluten-free)

Peel the two bananas and wrap them in plastic wrap, and place in the freezer for about 3 hours. Place the coconut directly into the small food processor, with the almonds and the rice milk - the rice milk should just cover the almonds, if not add a little more. You will notice that after about 10 minutes, the coconut will have absorbed all of the milk, so you can add a little more just to keep the almonds soaking. Woozz it all up after about 3 hours (leave it in the fridge).

Once the bananas have frozen, cut them up and place them in a normal food processor, together with the rest of the ingredients....and wooooozzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Ready! I had a taste of mine just a few minutes ago, and was very impressed. I've placed it in a plastic box back in the freezer to see what sort of consistency it will gain. And now I can't wait to try it with a whole load of other fruits and nuts! I'm sure a cashew version (without the coconut) would taste great, as well a chocolate one, strawberry....it reminds me of these super-drinks they make in South America, especially Brasil. It could also work with avocado, as well as quinoa, which would make it a really nutritious cold dessert -- particularly good for fussy children and conservative men.

Quinoa on a bed of Mung Bean Cream and Asparagus in Pesto Sauce

This is a lovely summer dish, light and very nutritious! Remember that the mung beans need to soak a night before cooking them.

Cook the quinoa with a pinch of salt. Once it's absorbed all the water and you've turned the gas off, stir a bit of olive oil in with it.

Mung Bean Cream

Ingredients:

- mung beans: you'll have to decide the quantity yourselves because I didn't even look how much I poured in: cook them until they are soft and all the water has been absorbed (don't cook them in too much water, because it's a pity to have to throw out all the "good stuff").

- 6cm piece of leek

- olive oil

- salt

- chilli powder

- 1 tsp of ginger powder

- 1 tsp of turmeric powder

- 2 tsp of fennel powder

- 1 big sage leaf

- a handful of fresh coriander leaves

- a bit of water

Stir fry the leek in the olive oil until it's soft, and add the big sage leaf in as well (you can leave it whole). Add the mung beans and a bit of water - here's the thing: you don't want to add too much water because we're not making mung bean soup. If the consistency is too dense, you're always in time to add more water. I started off with too much water, and it then meant me standing there for ages waiting for it to absorb....Add the spices, and then woozz it up with a food processor (the hand-held ones...no harm if you don't have one...well, just use what you've got). Once it's cooled down a bit and you're close to serving time, add the handful of fresh coriander leaves and woozz the whole thing up again. Voilà! Add some fresh olive oil and you are done!

Asparagus in Pesto Sauce:

Cut the asparagus stems into rounds, and then steam: don't overcook! It's nice to keep them a little crunchy.

Prepare the Pesto Sauce using fresh basil, olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a few pine nuts: woozz up the ingredients in a little food processor.

Mix the asparagus and pesto together.

Display the dish beautifully, as though you were serving a king, and bon appetit!