Tag: gluten free

Dark Chocolate Oat Walnut Pudding

Dark Chocolate Oat Pudding … eggless, vegetarian, indulgent, healthy. Life has such a fine balance as far as desserts and the sweet tooth goes. The advent of the holiday season makes it guilt ridden. Often you crave for something seductive, sinful and indulgent, yet cannot afford to swallow the calories that come with it.

With the festive season well underway, it’s always the more the merrier when it comes to desserts. Leave it to me, and I would pretty much try and squeeze and recreate every dessert to fit into wine glasses, or any glasses for that matter. There is something quite ethereal and fun about doing desserts in glasses. Convenient and quick too!

This dessert was no different. It was simple, quick to make, served individual portions and looked quite good. Deeply soul satisfying, smooth with beautiful texture, it’s quite delightful for an eggless chocolate pudding.

It’s also got ingredients that scream “we are good for you”. I am very fond of using oats in everything. I discovered there goodness a few years ago and have never looked back. From thickening soups to crumbing chicken, I find a way to include oats in just about every recipe I create. Sweet stuff too. From oats in cakes, cookies, biscotti, granola, I try and include them as much as possible.

Other than being a concentrated source of fibre, oats are big on anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. They leave you feeling full, help boost metabolism and help maintain immunity. Of course they lower cholesterol too.

Now pair them with dark chocolate and you have more magic. Dessert for one. Dark chocolate has the goodness to reduce blood pressure, improve brain function and above all, makes you feel good. Yes, it’s a spirit booster, mood elevator and makes you feel happy. So go on, INDULGE!

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Dark Chocolate Oat & Walnut Pudding {eggless}

The Dark Chocolate Oat & Walnut Pudding turned out bowl scraping good. Using oats meant that it ended up being gluten free too! {Recipe can be easily halved}.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

Dark Chocolate Oat & Walnut Pudding

  • 400 g milk
  • 200 ml low fat / single cream
  • 30 g cocoa powder
  • 35 g oats ground to fine meal
  • 125 g 52% dark couverture chocolate chopped
  • 75 g brown sugar
  • 50 g honey
  • 50 g roasted walnuts chopped

Topping

  • Roasted walnut halves
  • Chocolate shavings

Instructions

  • Place all ingredients in a heavy bottom pan and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken. Once it becomes as thick as a custard, take off heat, allow to cool, then puree with an immersion blender or blitz in a food processor.
  • Fold the chopped walnuts through {optional}
  • Pour into serving bowls / glasses.
  • Cool and then chill for 4-6 hours, preferably overnight.
  • Top with roasted walnuts, chocolate shavings, or even seasonal berries like blueberries, strawberries etc.

Mousse-a-cotta with salted caramel … dessert ideas that keep getting reinvented

Mousse-a-cotta with salted caramel is another twist on a previously failed chocolate panna cotta recipe. That Cocoa Mousse-a-cotta turned out to be one of my most popular recipes and images, especially on Instagram. It was a while back that I set out to make a dark chocolate panna cotta. Turned out the panna cotta didn’t set well at all yet it tasted absolutely delicious.When I turned it out of the mold to plate it, it formed this beautiful half circle and I just had to take a picture of it. I gently dusted it with some chocolate shavings, went with a dark moody palate, and it’s been one of my best minimalistic simplest images ever. I often play around with that recipe, and as you might already know, I play around a LOT with chocolate.I got several requests for this mousse-a-cotta recipe when I shared the image on Instagram, so here you are. If you want to skip the salted caramel sauce, you can always add a spoon or two of Kahlua or Baileys to the mousse. Alternatively, a topping of cream, sweetened or otherwise, whipped or not, never hurts. To get a set panna cotta, you might need to experiment with increasing either the gelatin or the dark chocolate.However, for us, for now, this works perfectly well in single serving Weck jars. Don’t you love these pretty jars? My sweet friend Bina from A Bit Wholesomely sent them across to me as a gift a while ago, and I can’t stop using them! There’s so much you can do with them, but for now it’s the  Mousse-a-cotta with salted caramel!

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Mousse-a-cotta with salted caramel

Mousse-a-cotta with salted caramel. Some desserts are classic no matter how you serve them. This one is where a silky dark chocolate mousse meets the panna cotta, resulting in a sublime, deep, chocolaty dessert. A topping of salted caramel sauce is just the right thing for it.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 5 hours 25 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

  • 500 ml single cream
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 100 g couverture chocolate {72%}
  • 50 ml milk
  • 1 tsp gelatin powder

Instructions

  • Warm milk to tepid and sprinkle over the gelatin. Leave to stand until soft.
  • Place cream, sugar and cocoa powder in heavy bottom pan and whisk well to mix.
  • Simmer over low heat until bubbles begin to appear around the edges, stirring constantly else the cocoa will get lumpy.
  • Take off heat and stir in the gelatin mix and dark chocolate.
  • Whisk well to mix, cool for about 30 minutes, then pour into glasses or jars to set.
  • Chill 5-6 hours / overnight.
  • Top with salted butter caramel and chocolate shards before serving.

GF Peach Cherry Quinoa Crumbles … how my quinoa crumbled!

“The best we can do, to paraphrase Pollan, is to eat whole foods, mostly plants, and not too much.”
A. J. Jacobs

Peach Cherry Quinoa Crumbles​…. that’s how my quinoa crumbled and we loved it! With peaches and cherries falling off carts this year, and my quinoa obsession, the options are unlimited!​ Honestly, this was my best crumble to date! Gluten free, wholegrain and addictive good! Also a great way to use whole foods, something that fits in with my current obsession #makehalfyourgrainswholeSummer only means exciting times. This year even more exciting as stone fruit are falling off carts. This year the crop seems to have been particularly good. The season began quite early since summer came early. I also have this strange obsession and cannot stop myself from buying the fruit each time I go to the market, which basically means I am constantly thinking of new ways to use them. And then there’s my new wholegrain obsession with quinoa. It began a while ago when a friend got me some organic quinoa from the US. It wasn’t a lot but it was enough to get me going. Find a Whole Foods near you, grab some quinoa and try something new today. A friend, Dolphia,  just commented on my Instagram handle @passionateaboutbaking … ‘Quinoa – I never thought I could use that in dessert.’

I’ve done loads with quinoa of late. Interestingly, the more I do, the more I want to do.  This time I decided to experiment with a crumble. To have a crisp crumble, the topping has to be dryish or rather dehydrated to begin with, made crisp with cut in butter. I didn’t have quinoa flour, and making flour from scratch is a bit cumbersome. Besides, I had a small portion of cooked quinoa waiting for somewhere to go…And here’s where it went, to top these crumbles. I have to say I make crumbles every year, and these were my best to date. The good thing is that they are wholegrain, gluten free and ever so delicious. Healthy of course. What else would fruit and wholegrain be? What’s your favourite way with quinoa?

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Peach Cherry Quinoa Crumbles

GF Peach Cherry Quinoa Crumbles​…. that’s how my quinoa crumbled and we loved it! With peaches and cherries falling off carts this year, and my quinoa obsession, the options are unlimited!​ Honestly, this was my best crumble to date! Gluten free, wholegrain and addictive good! Also a great way to use whole foods, something that fits in with my current obsession #makehalfyourgrainswhole
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

Stone Fruit Mix

  • 6-8 peaches pitted, diced
  • 2 cups cherries pitted, halved
  • 2 tsp cornflour
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • Few drops almond extract

Quinoa Oat Crumble Topping

  • 1 cup cooked quinoa dehydrated {note below}
  • 1/2 cup walnuts finely chopped
  • 1/3 cup quick cooking oats
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup chilled butter grated

Instructions

Stone Fruit Mix

  • Preheat oven to 180C.
  • In a large bowl, toss all the ingredients for the fruit mix well to coat.

Assemble

  • Divide the fruit mix into 6-8 ovenproof ramekins, including the liquid if any.
  • Divide the crumble mix equally over each, pressing down gently to make sure the top is well covered and sealed.
  • Bake in a hot oven for 35-40 minutes until the top is crisp to touch, and maybe the juices are bubbling out.
  • Serve warm {or chilled as we like it} with a serving of unsweetened single cream!

Notes

Note : Dehydrated cooked quinoa. I spread the cooked quinoa on a oven proof platter and microwaved it for 6 minutes, a minute at a time, since I was experimenting. I think next time I will put it on an oven tray and leave in a low oven for about an hour.

Juiced … 3 ways with fresh juice #TefalIndia #GetTheBestOutOfEveryday

“Love yourself enough to live a healthy lifestyle.”

To juice or not to juice is often the question, and it’s a tough one to crack. Having given it a good thought, as old school as I may be, I think a juicer is a boon for people who live fast paced lives, have demanding schedules, fussy kids, love clear juice and fancy the idea of making the most of seasonal produce. For me, usually fussy kids who shy away from fruits are the ones will benefit most.Nothing can be better than knowing what goes into your glass of juice and serving it fresh, like a farm to table feel! It’s also real fun to have kids make their own juice. Once they get involved, see them enjoy the fruits of their labour, or virtual labour since their work is cut out. They can use a whole lot of combinations. Ideas after juicing – have as is, make mocktails, popsicles, granita, sorbet, slad dressings. The juice is also a great base for cocktails for adults!Then again, it’s quite fascinating watching fresh, clear colourful juice pour out into a jug, then bottle it up and enjoy it! The Tefal Juice Extractor allows you just that. Points to remember are that the quantity of juice pushed out depends on the water content of the produce.  For eg 2 large mangoes and about 1/2 a pineapple will yield 2 glasses of juice. Since pineapple has a high liquid content, the juice output is higher. In season, sweet lime or orange juice is a great add. Also all pips, stones etc must be removed before fruit is put in.Produce like beetroot and spinach yield a small quantity of juice due to the dense nature of beets and that spinach leaves have little water. It’s best to combine them with a fruit or vegetable with a high liquid content. I like adding seedless black grapes to beet juice as it enhances the natural sweetness of beets. You could always add beet greens to the juicer as well if you are lucky to get a nice organic supplier, or are lucky to grow some at home. If you’d like to cut back on sugar, add cucumber instead of grapes. Throw in some celery, add a squeeze of lime.The possibilities are endless. I did three juices and it took all of 30 minutes. I think prepping the veggies takes far longer. The juicer is intuitive, easy to use and has a very smooth dial in front with 2 settings. Love the bright blue light that shines in front while juicing is in progress. There is also a generous jug to collect the juice quite neatly, and yet another larger jug to collect the pulp.If you are like me, where I don’t like wastage, then the thought will definitely creep into your head “What to  do with all this pulp?“. Wastage feels bad and you can’t just throw out the pulp. The mango and pineapple pulp I just happily ate, but you can add it to your breakfast bowl, top with granola, some yogurt if you like.Stir it through a bowl of yogurt maybe, or add to that favourite smoothie.A quick search online adds to some thoughts I already had while juicing. There’s so much you can do with the pulp, that you should be happy to have the juice extractor on your shelf!! Here are a few ideas to set you off…

  • Add it to stock or soup
  • Up the fibre in a burger patties
  • Throw it into a smoothie
  • Deydrate it, grind to a flour. Bake with it
  • Blend it and use as a soup/gravy thickener
  • Make a dip using pulp as a base
  • Use it in pancakes
  • Make a iced tea. Steep with water, maybe tea leaves or tisae, strain, drink
  • Add it to nuggets
  • Use in pet feed as is, or make doggie treats
  • Freeze into ice cubes, and add to meaballs, or pasta sauce, or curries
  • Add it to your compost pile

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Fruit & Vegetable Juices

A juicer is a boon for people who live fast paced lives, have demanding schedules, fussy kids, love clear juice and fancy the idea of making the most of seasonal produce. Here are 3 quick and fun juices to make in your Tefal Juice Extractor.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings 2 people

Ingredients

Beetroot Grape Spinach Juice

  • 3 beets scrubbed well, quartered
  • 1 black grapes big bunch
  • 2 cups spinach leaves

Peach Cherry Juice

  • 6 peaches pitted, halved
  • 2 cups of cherries pitted

Mango Pineapple Juice

  • 1 large mango diced
  • 1/2 a pineapple cubed

Instructions

  • Feed the fruit/vegetables through the tube of the Tefal Juice Extractor. Turn on the machine to speed 1, then speed 2.
  • Serve immediately, or chill before serving.
  • I didn't need any added sugar.

Mango Coconut Pudding … a celebration of Alphonsos

“If you wait for the mango fruits to fall, you’d be wasting your time while others are learning how to climb the tree”
Michael Bassey Johnson

Mango Coconut Pudding …when you can’t get enough of the mango season, and you can’t stop yourself from bringing together favourite flavours! These were everything they look like and more … delicious, delicate, flavourful, smooth, satisfying, elegant, sublime. I think it’s just one of those puddings that were meant to be …The better halves office in Bombay sent him a box of the most delicious Alphonsos. This variety of mangoes is possibly the most famous one across the globe, and most coveted. It is also most pursued by lovers of the fruit for the very short season that it shows up for.How better to explain Alphonsos than in Sejal Sukhadwala’s poetic and charming words as he writes in The Guardian “As anyone who’s tasted an Alphonso mango knows, its short season, from now until the end of June, is a major cause for celebration. Often making an appearance on “1,000 things to eat before you die”-type lists, this Indian variety has become more and more popular in the UK. It’s easy to see why. Alphonso’s voluptuous shape and sunshine-yellow skin reveals succulent saffron-coloured flesh that’s smooth and buttery: imagine a cross between peach, nectarine, apricot and melon with notes of honey and citrus. But better.”And I’m one of those people who find it hard to leave good enough alone. That mango was phenomenal but I wanted to do a dessert with it. Being summer, more of my fruit based desserts are quick and simple, often light puddings or a panna cotta. I did a series of desserts with mango juice not so long ago. Take a look!IMHO, if there are mangoes, it calls for a celebration. The good thing about the king of fruits is that it is so versatile. You can practically enjoy it at every meal. Our mornings and sometimes evenings are spent lazily sipping a Mango Fresh Turmeric Buttermilk Lassi these days. What’s not to love about fruit in season? More importantly, what’s not to love about mangoes? My entire childhood was spent climbing mango trees and eating mangoes!Aam ki chutney or a quick mango pickle also rule the roost. Aam panna or a Mango Cooler is one of the best things ever to keep the heat at bay. There’s no end to how versatile this fruit can be. For today, let me share my current favourite Mango Coconut Pudding. Like all good things in life, there is a small story behind how they came to be.

The Mango Coconut Pudding inspired by a popular dessert in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mango Pudding. The pudding is said to have Indian origins, and it seemed apt since the better halves company is Hong Kong based. This is my take on it, topped also with phalsas {a native Indian summer berry, drewia asiatica} and fresh mint.And before I leave you with the recipe, just sharing the announcement for my 7th Food Styling & Photography Workshop with Darter at Dirty Apron, New Delhi. All details can be found here, or click the image below.

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Mango Coconut Pudding

Mango Coconut Pudding ...when you can't get enough of the mango season, and you can't stop yourself from bringing together favourite flavours! These were everything they look like and more ... delicious, delicate, flavourful, smooth, satisfying, elegant, sublime. I think it's just one of those puddings that were meant to be.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 4 hours 15 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

Mango Coconut Pudding

  • 400 g mango from 4-5 Alphonsos
  • 250 g single cream
  • 400 ml coconut milk
  • 4 tsp gelatin
  • 1/2 cup raw sugar

Topping

  • 1 mango diced
  • 1/4 cup phalsa berry
  • Few sprigs fresh mint

Instructions

  • Sprinkle the gelatin over 100ml coconut milk, and leave to soften. Stir.
  • Place mango and 200ml coconut milk in a blender. Blend to a smooth puree.
  • Place remaining coconut milk plus cream with sugar in a heavy bottom pan. Simmer until small bubbles appear at the edges. Stir in the gelatin, then mango puree.
  • Stand until it becomes slightly cool, then strain into glasses. Leave to set for a few hours or overnight.
  • Top with unsweetened cream, diced mango, phalsa berries and fresh mint. {Can be made 2-3 days in advance}

3 ways with Watermelon – Pizza Cooler Salad #summer #healthy #inspiration #raw

“Summertime is always the best of what might be.”
Charles Bowden

When summer hits you splat in the face before time, with temperatures over 40C already kissing you in early April and May, it’s only summer fruits you can turn to. These days I’m mesmerized by watermelons. They’re available in plenty {read falling off carts, piled high on roadsides, rolling off shelves} and are great to chomp on summer through. Use them simply as nibbling off the rind, or get a little creative with them. It’s a real fun fruit to play with, and you can do so much and more with them.

Here are a few very simple ways to enjoy natures bounty. My most recent and fun way was with this watermelon pizza inspired by @curlew_and_dragons post on Instagram. One look at it a few days ago, and that’s just all I wanted to do.Here’s what I did – Cut horizontal 1/2″ slices/circles, then cut them into pie slices. I had some left over whipped mascarpone that I added chia seeds to, and plumped it up. I piped it on to make things look fun. I used a melon baller on a few kiwis, threw on some diced mangoes, used some very precious foraged mulberries, and some fresh mint. That’s the only herb that seems to be surviving happily in this heat. I did this again with with mangoes, melons balls, phalsa berries, litchis and goat cheese. A drizzle of maple syrup too!

Served on the side was a watermelon kiwi lime cooler – watermelon {seeds included}, all the leftover kiwi, a dash of lime, some rock salt, a little brown sugar. Chilled and yum! Use a powerful blender like the Thermomix or Artisan Power Plus Blender with Thermal Control Jar from KitchenAid {my new favourite helper in the kitchen}, and life is a breeze!

Once you get the hang of the spiralizer, you are going to want to get all your vegetables in a twirl, quite literally. It’s really addictive and such a pretty way to serve salads. Once you figure it out, salads will never be the same again. I loved the way this one turned out, or rather twirled out. The flavor combination was great and it looked so pretty. Recipe follows.

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Greek Spiralizer Salad

Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 2

Ingredients

For Salad

  • 1 zucchini
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1/4 watermelon balled
  • 1/2 cupwalnuts (toasted roughly broken up): 1/2 cup
  • 1/2 cup feta : 1/2 cup crumbled
  • Fresh mint

For Dressing

  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt to taste
  • Freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Salad

  • Set up the KitchenAid Stand Mixer with the spiralizer attachment with the medium sized noodle blade fitting.
  • Put the zucchini through it, followed by the cucumber. You could even do 2 cucumbers instead.
  • Place in a large bowl with remaining ingredients except feta, pour over salad dressing and toss gently to mix. Adjust seasoning if required. Scatter over with crumbled feta and fresh mint.
  • hill for an hour before serving to allow the flavors to mature.

Dressing

  • Place everything in a bowl, and whisk to mix with a fork. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

The above picture says it all. Put everything one by one into the tube of the Kitchen Aid cold press juicer, and wait for the magic to happen!
Watermelon Kiwi Ginger Mint Cooler
1 small watermelon
2 kiwis
Juice of 2 limes
2″ piece mango ginger {or 1/2 ” piece plain ginger}
Handful of fresh mint leaves

Chop up the watermelon and kiwi to 1″ pieces. Scrub the ginger well, and roughly break up.
Gradually feed through chute of the KitchenAid Slow Juicer Attachment with mint, running the KitchenAid Stand Mixer at speed Once the juice is extracted, stir lime into it. Add a dash of honey and black rock salt if desired. Chill well before serving.

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