Broccoli and Pea Soup

Let me start by stating that this is NOT a vegetable dish! Why not, scroll down to the recipe and see why. This recipe was borne because of some over zealous shopping at the farmers market. This is the issue with CHEAP good quality food.....you just buy too much. To all the sheep out there, it is NOT a blinking convenience store or hipster infested flea-market. Another reason that this recipe was born was essentially because it was in my fridge for over 1 week. I can confirm that the vegetables were NOT off. Otherwise it would have been transferred to my worm farm of Project LOL (I have not forgotten about that and I promise with this first post of the year I shall try to post more info on that).

My joy of broccoli is a facade, it has been recently developed and I am at a stage in my life where this vegetable is tolerable. To make this dish more palatable to me I used the homemade bovine stock. (another blog post coming on).

What ever the reasons for this recipe, the result is a wonderful soup. In this winter period, made all the more tougher my the El Nino cycle, a heart warming soul fulfilling dish is so good.

El Nino (the kid) is mentioned in a broccoli recipe, how ironic is that.

On to the recipe:

Ingredients
1) 2 small onions
2) 4 cloves garlic
3) 2 Tbsp butter
4) 4 cubes bovine stock (hence this recipe is non-vegetarian)
5) 1 Head Broccoli
6) 3 small punnets of peas
7) 2 Tbsp Cream Cheese
8) 1/2 Cup Cream
9) Salt
10) Pepper
11) Olive Oil

Method:
1) Heat stove to 60% of heating rate
2) Chop onions and crush garlic
3) Add butter, onions and garlic into pot and cook until onions becomes translucent
4) Add cube stocks until melted
5) Add chopped broccoli until broccoli becomes a vibrant green
6) Add peas until Peas are soft with vibrant colour
7) Liquidize mixture
8) Add Cream Cheese, Salt and Pepper and stir until cheese has melted
9) Switch off stove, add cream and stir into soup. NB ensure that the stove is off, because too much heat will cause the cream to cuddle
10) Dish into soup and add some olive oil before serving.

I added some crushed macadamia nuts and chili powder. Different flavour, very hearty and warming this winter.

Enjoy!

Butternut and Spinach Savoury Muffin

This is my latest line of generics to the real McCoy. For a brief recap, why is this recipe a generic? The reason is quite simple, since I have embarked on a paleo, banting, naturalist, primal lifestyle (I do not even know what I am classified), I have stayed away from processed ingredients like flour, sugar etc.

An acknowledgement, the true hero of this recipe is the sweet version, which after a number of trials (from different sources) came out quite tops. The source of the sweet version is the website Empowered Sustenance . The first time I made the sweet version it was very good and easy.

I am not going to try and convince you that my hybrid savoury recipe is better. Just be comfortable in the knowledge that this recipe managed to convince my taste buds to take the matter up with my brain to place the recipe on this blog. That is reference enough!

Ingredients:

-          1 cup butternut

-          1 cup spinach

-          ½ cup coconut flour

-          6 eggs

-          6 Tbsp coconut oil

-          2 Tbsp Greek Yoghurt

-          ½ tsp baking soda

-          1 tsp vinegar

-          1 tsp salt

-          Feta

Method:

-          Pre-heat oven to 150 degree C

-          Cut butternut into cubes and boil until soft

-          Combine and liquidise soft butternut and spinach

-          In a bowl starting at coconut flour add each ingredient in order and mix until smooth liquid texture (excluding feta)

-          Mix liquidised butternut and spinach into mixture

-          In cupcake tray add, mixture and feta in whatever combination

-          Place in oven for 10-15mins or until slightly brown

-          Remove from oven, let cool and enjoy

 

 PS: the mixture does stick to the cupcake tray abit. My favourite way to enjoy this is with a piece of macon (fake bacon) in between ala fake sandwich.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Avocado Mash!

What a terrible name, mash, might as well be smash the crappy "instant" de-hydrated potato in a sachet. Sometimes I feel for an absorbent substance with which to eat my proteins and I do not feel mentally comfortable eating rice, potato (mash) or some kind of bread, except a croissant (I suppose the French can claim victory on that). I could have called it mush, which I use to deter dinner guests from coming over so there is more food for me. That last bit is me just being greedy.

This recipe kind off fulfils that void and introduces another complimentary taste to my meals, just short off  the insulin rushing effects of a post rice/mash meal.

The recipe itself is very quick to make and I usually only make the recipe once the main meal is ready. Be warned this recipe on its own is quite filling and should serve usually 2 people.

Ingredients
1 large avocado
1 handful of macadamia nuts
3 Tbsp of olive oil

Method
Add all ingredients into a blender
blend for 10 seconds, depending on how smooth you want the texture

Dish out and enjoy!

Eggs......Really!

The post shall be about a generally accepted breakfast dish.....eggs, but with some additional joys of the natural food realm. I believe eggs are easy enough to make and doesn't necessarily warrant a recipe post, but after seeing the amount of popularity that these pictures generate on Instagram, I have decided to post a methodology on an egg variation.

You might notice that I refrained from calling this post a recipe in the latter half of the first paragraph and that is because it does not take rocket science or culinary mystic to prepare an egg.......Rocky "cracked" raw eggs to any number of cooked variations i.e. poached, fried, boiled.....or just add heat and eat. "Heat and eat" the breakfast version of "shake and bake".....too much?

What I enjoy about preparing eggs is that I generally use fresh ingredients, which I am fortunate enough to source from the actual farmer and not the painted effigy at the local convenience store.

For this recipe, I use red onions which imparts a sweetie acidity to the meal and Pomodoro tomatoes, which should be the star of a bolognaise but compliment the onions soo well, and holistically the taste is very good. The small difference is that it usually takes me about 45mins to prepare an egg dish because I like the flavours to slow cook together so that the taste is an amalgam of glorious natural flavours.

At this point I should also mention that the eggs I source are of such great quality that you require a little bit of elbow grease to break the shell, the Yoke is a rich texture of colour and the natural flavour is glorious. I believe the chickens that lay (not slay) these golden nuggets still live in trees.

Ingredients
1Tbsp Coconut Oil
2 Green chillies
1 Chopped Medium Red Onion
1 handful of chopped cold meat
2 Medium Chopped Pomodoro tomatoes
3 Tbsp crumpled Feta
4 Organic Eggs
1 tsp pepper

Method
Place coconut oil, onions and chillies in pan on low heat (33% of full heat)
Wait until onions become soft, then add chopped cold meat
Wait until cold meat becomes crispy on edges then, add chopped Pomodoro tomatoes
Wait until tomatoes lose shape, become soft and give off liquid
mix soft tomatoes into onions and break eggs into mixture, add Feta and pepper
Wait until the eggs are cooked to your likeliness

Enjoy!

Chicken and Butternut Salad

 

 

I’m chilling in the coffee shop/restaurant Ginger and Fig, in Pretoria. I’ve just hooked up to the wi-fi and the password code is the funniest I’ve heard in a while. The story of Ginger and Fig is a very cool one. Although the owner (he is a ginger) does not fit the profile of the story. He looks very much like Lucas Parker of Crossfit fame, and someone not to F#$* with.

The food is very good, lovely ambiance and the coffee is at this date my favourite in Pretoria, eclipsing Haloa, Vintage coffee and Lucky bread by the fairest of margins. They use Doubleshot coffee beans which is locally roasted in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, #supportlocal. I would certainly recommend this place for an all-round experience.    

There is so much I’ve wanted to share but the time and my own personal laziness have prevented the outpouring of my knowledge. This recipe was born out of items that I had in my freezer but not particularly fond of. The chief culprit, chicken fillet. Why oh! why did we buy chicken fillet. All the best proponents of the chicken have been removed, bones, skin etc. It’s like a laboratory generated meat with a propensity to not cook properly. The weirdest thing is that we pay more for it. Rant aside I hope to have worked out a recipe using one of my disliked ingredients with another childhood phobic word, i.e. SALAD.

The recipe also uses an air fryer (marketing beguilement of note), to complete a trifecta of pet hates. Last rant-tjie (synonym in English/Afrikaans for small rant) I promise………for now. On to the recipe!

Ingredients

·         Chicken fillets (250g), cut into cubes

·         1 tsp chilli flakes

·         1 tsp freshly ground pepper

·         1 “medium” butternut, cut into blocks (apologies for the term medium, I do not even know how to describe the butternut size used)

·         1 green pepper

·         3 Tbsp Olive Oil

·         1 small red onion (cut into cubes)

·         3 Tbsp Feta (crumpled)

Method

·         Mix chicken fillets, chilli flakes and pepper and place in air fryer for 13mins @ 220 deg C (ensure that the fillets are cooked)

·         Remove chicken and place in bowl

·         Add butternut to air fryer and cook for 15mins @ 220 deg C

·         Place green pepper and olive oil with chicken in bowl and mix around

·         After 15mins add onions and coconut oil to butternut and mix around, then place in air fryer for 20mins.

·         After 20mins, remove butternut and onion and combine with chicken.

·         Add Feta and serve…….Either hot or cold!!

Bon appetite!!

 

Aubergine, Pepper salad

I'm sitting at the airport at the moment and wondering how things have changed, how life has moved on and even what I enjoy has changed. The term salad used to evoke a sense of something you had to do in order to get to the good stuff or something that only herbivores would eat. It also evoked feelings of annoyance because it was coupled with diet and suffering and those crappy glomail adverts.

As I embarked on my life-style change, I started looking at some vegetables/fruit differently and after I went to Morocco and tasted some of the most amazing salads without a leaf in site. The other thing is that I also went through a stage where I could not eat any more meat, so I just felt like eating vegetables only.

I usually post pictures of some of my dishes on Instagram. My follower's on that platform would request a recipe to the salad. I found this request weird because you just put stuff together and voila salad! but I changed my thinking to realise this is like making any other dish and the salad is the end result.

This post is the start of a departure from the "main-course" type meals that I have been blogging so far. I do not have a step by step picture account but with a salad one picture is enough to convey the idea.

I hope you enjoy the directional change.

Ingredients
1 large aubergine
1 yellow bell pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Avocado
2 Tbsp feta
10cm long piece of cucumber
Pepper

Method
Dice aubergine and yellow bell pepper, mix with olive oil and place in air-fryer for 30mins
Turn/mix the aubergine/pepper once after 20mins in air-fryer
Remove aubergine/pepper and let cool (15mins)
Dice up avocado and cucumber and place on aubergine/pepper
Sprinkle feta
Grind some black pepper and add additional olive oil for taste

Enjoy!

Please give feedback if you tried and enjoyed the recipe.

Mushroom Cupcakes

Well well well, how lazy have I become!, posts being few and far between. I now realise putting a post at a specific time very week consistently is a very challenging undertaking and I respect people who do it, very much.

I have made a mid-year resolution to try and blog consistently, maybe once or twice a week. Project LOL has developed nicely and I have not posted in 4 months in that direction.......soon.

This recipe was born from what is left in the fridge category. This type or recipe might have already been around but I did think this up on my own. The originality might be in doubt but the thought process shouldn't. This recipe made quite a wonderful breakfast.

Ingredients:

1. 5 Portobello Mushrooms (real big curly beasts, that create a "cuplike" centre)
2. 2 cloves garlic (crushed and diced)
3. 2 Tbsp Olive oil
4. 2 eggs
5. 1 handful coriander (dandhia/dania/dhania)
6. 1/2 tsp crushed pepper
7. 2 Tbsp Feta (Approximate)

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 220 degree C
2. Place mushrooms on baking tray, garlic and brush olive oil on mushrooms
3. place mushrooms in oven
4. Insert eggs, diced coriander, pepper in bowl and whisk/beat until you get a running mixture
5. Once mushrooms give a nice cooked smell (10mins), remove from oven and increase oven to grill
6. Insert mixture into mushroom "cup" and sprinkler feta on top
7. Place mushrooms back into oven
8. Watch until top of mushroom becomes slightly crisped
9. Remove from oven and enjoy!