Tag: healthy

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.

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.

Wholewheat Walnut Garlic Coriander Bread … new flour in town & I’m loving it! #EkNayiAadat with #Aashirvaad

“There is not a thing that is more positive than bread.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky

Walnut Garlic Coriander Wholewheat Bread, another favourite artisan bread. It’s 100% wholegrain, the dough is beautiful, the bread tastes as good as ever… and it uses a beautiful new wholewheat flour mix from Aashirvaad that we’ve have used at home forever! For those who know me and follow me, I am still pretty obsessed with my #makehalfyourgrainswhole passion. I win some, I lose some, yet I LOVE experimenting.As you can see above, I bake a whole lot with wholewheat flour. So when this new variant of wholewheat flour, Aashirvaad Sugar Release Control Atta showed up at home I was pretty excited. We’ve used Aashirvaad Atta at home forever and ever. A lot of folk I talk to get their own grains and have them milled with a mix of lentils, fenugreek seeds etc. I tried that once but I found it difficult to sustain. We do use a lot of wholegrain flour at home.This new variant from makes me happy. The day it came, I baked bread! It was a 60% wholegrain loaf that turned out yum! Pretty too! It tasted just like what we use normally, so a little surprising that a stepped up variant is so within reach now. The GI value of the grain mix is 53, and the blend contains a portion of lentils, fenugreek and oats too!Nothing better than fresh home baked bread, and the success of the 60% bread made me bold enough to try a 100% wholewheat version. It didn’t disappoint. At all. Of course I like added flavour to my breads so in went some omega-3 rich walnuts, loads of fresh coriander, and a drizzle of fine quality extra virgin olive oil. That’s all a good bread needs in our home! Fresh herbs, nuts and olive oil and a wholegrain base!This Walnut Garlic Coriander Wholewheat Bread is bursting with goodness of the new wholewheat flour. Use herbs and nuts of your choice, play around with ingredients, but do make this. It’s healthy, it’s addictive, and bread baking is therapeutic. Above all, it’s so good for a 100% whole grain bread!! This is my new favourite wholegrain flour, and I’m loving it! There is so much and more you can do with it.  Maybe wholewheat pita bread. All you need is falafals and hummus, a crisp salad, and you have a healthy balanced delicious meal! Or maybe bake wholegrain crackers! So YUM!! Serve them with some fun home made dips and you’re good to go!What would you make with a flour like this?  I mean other than including it as an everyday pantry staple of course! I’ve used it quite a bit the last week or so. As basic dough for chapatis/flatbread, also for stuffed tandoori parathas. It behaves and tastes just like the regular flour. That it’s even healthier is a bonus. The low GI makes it diabetic friendly and an ideal pantry staple! I’m next thinking wholegrain chocolate chip cookies or cheese crackers.Oh, and did I tell you I baked a batch of Wholewheat Dark Chocolate After Eight Mint Cupcakes with the same flour mix two days ago? It’s a one bowl no brainer recipe filled with wholegrain goodness that I carried to the “Facebook: A Place to Connect” event at New Delhi. I was speaking there on Facebook Live, and you can catch me and my Aashirvaad Sugar Release Control Atta cupcakes on the link here!I’ll share that recipe soon as a WHOLE lot of folk have been asking me for it. Until then, here’s another peep into how good and moist the cupcakes were.

Now time for the Walnut Garlic Coriander Wholewheat Bread. This is just a new way of thinking food, or rather #EkNayiAadat with #Aashirvaad!

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Walnut Garlic Coriander Wholewheat Bread

Nothing better than fresh home baked bread, and this Walnut Garlic Coriander Wholewheat Bread is bursting with goodness of this new wholewheat flour . It has great flavour. Use herbs and nuts of your choice, play around with ingredients, but do make this. It's healthy, it's addictive, bread baking is therapeutic and above all it's so good for a 100% whole grain bread!!
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings 1 loaf

Ingredients

Walnut Garlic Coriander Dough

  • 2 cups Aashirvaad Sugar Release Control Atta
  • 1 tsp yeast
  • 1/2 salt
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup water {approximately}
  • 1 tsp garlic powder {or 4 cloves minced}
  • 1 cup fresh coriander, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Topping

  • 4-5 walnut halves
  • Few sprigs fresh coriander
  • Himalayan pink rock salt
  • Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle over

Instructions

Walnut Garlic Coriander Dough

  • Add the wholewheat flour/Aashirvaad Sugar Release Control Atta, yeast, salt,garlic powder, honey and extra virgin olive oil to bowl of your stand mixer fitted with dough hook.
  • Stir to mix on speed 2, then knead for 5-7 minutes on speed 4 until the dough is smooth and elastic.
  • Add a few spoons of wholewheat flour if the dough is too wet, or a tbsp or two of water if too dense. We're looking for a soft dough.
  • Make a smooth ball, drizzle over some olive oil, and cover the bowl with cling-wrap or a damp kitchen towel. Place in a warm, draft free place for an hour or two until the dough doubles in size.
  • Form into a ball, drizzle over with a little olive oil, cover the stand mixer bowl with cling-wrap or a wet kitchen towel. Leave to rise in a warm, draft free place for an hour or two until doubled.
  • Preheat oven to 200C.
  • Take off the cling wrap or kitchen towel, add the finely chopped fresh coriander and walnuts to the same bowl and knead again briefly to mix.
  • Form into a loaf and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Topping

  • Paint top gently with damp fingers and sprinkle over some Himalayan rock salt and finely sliced garlic, push in walnut halves, and maybe add a sprig of fresh coriander.
  • Leave covered with a kitchen towel until the oven preheats to 200C. {20 minutes}
  • Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes until golden brown and done. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Eggless Wholegrain Buckwheat Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies #healthy #glutenfree

“Remember, there are cookies waiting here for you.”
Dean Koontz

Eggless Wholegrain Buckwheat Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies. These are cookies that come together in a matter of minutes, are fuss free and absolutely delicious. That they are 100% wholegrain makes them a winner. Swap the chocolate chips for raisins, maybe add some walnuts, or make them coffee chocolate chip cookies. Either way, these will disappear before you know it! This is pure comfort food.
You might remember the Wholegrain Buckwheat Orange Chocolate Chippers I made some time go. I shared them on a story on my Instagram handle at Passionate About Baking and they were a huge hit. That story also drew a large number of requests for an eggless version, and that’s how these came about.
While I shared the making of the eggless version in an instastory there the next day, I never really got down to sharing the recipe as I got busy with this & that. To cut a long story short, here you are – Eggless Wholegrain Buckwheat Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies! #healthy #indulgent #glutenfree
I love using buckwheat flour or “kuttu ka aata” while baking at home when fresh flour is available in the market. Often when the fasting season is on, the local market is flooded with freshly ground flour. Since buckwheat flour gets rancid easily, especially in warm temperatures, I buy a few bags and keep them in the freezer. A little goes a long way, and it’s always fun to experiment! 
That this experiment also worked out quite well put me in a happy space. In any case, an eggless cookie experiment always behaves better than an eggless cake experiment! Often, using yogurt/dahi or flaxseeds work quite well.
And you also might like these Eggless Wholegrain Chocolate Buckwheat Sablés too. They are some of my favourite cookies as well.

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Eggless Wholegrain Buckwheat Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Eggless Wholegrain Buckwheat Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies. These are cookies that come together in a matter of minutes, are fuss free and absolutely delicious. That they are 100% wholegrain makes them a winner. Swap the chocolate chips for raisins, maybe add some walnuts, or make them coffee chocolate chip cookies. Either way, these will disappear before you know it! This is pure comfort food.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 20 cookies

Ingredients

Dry Mix

  • 75 g quick cooking oats
  • 75 g buckwheat flour {kuttu ka aata}
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • 100 g dark chocolate chips

Wet Mix

  • 115 g unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 115 g jaggery granules
  • 15 ml honey
  • 1 tbsp yogurt
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste {or vanilla extract}

Instructions

Dry Mix

  • Place all the dry mix ingredients in a large bowl and stir to mix.

Wet Mix

  • Place all the wet mix ingredients in bowl of stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, and process for 2 minutes on speed 3.
  • Add the dry mix and stir with paddle attachment on slowest speed for 30 seconds.
  • Let the mixture stand/rest while you preheat the oven to 180C {15-20 minutes}
  • Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Use good quality heavy duty cookie trays, else use 2 trays at a time for even baking.
  • Place scoops of cookie dough on the parchment, 2 inches apart, 12 on each sheet. Flatten gently with the tines of a fork. {Sprinkle over a few more chocolate chips if you are feeling particularly indulgent}
  • Bake for approximately 15 minutes, until the edges are done, light golden brown, and the centre is still a little soft. {Bake further 5 minutes if you like crisp cookies}. Watch closely towards the end so they don't get burnt.
  • Remove tray from oven, allow to stand for 5 minutes, then cool the cookies completely on the rack. Best eaten in a day or two.

Mulberry Lime Cooler … when spring meets summer!

“If it could only be like this always — always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe.”
Evelyn Waugh

Mulberry Lime Cooler for times like these when the season changes, when spring meets summer. With a very short and ‘finger staining good’ mulberry season in progress, life is good. This is the best time of the year, yet this time it’s unseasonably warm for April. With temperatures already threatening to touch 40C in North India, mulberries are literally raining off trees. How better to use these foraged beauties than in a refreshing summer cooler!I have loads of mulberries in the fridge. This fruit is very perishable. There’s going to be just about 2-3 weeks of mulberry joy, and then alas, wait for next year. I’m constantly thinking of things to do with this precious fruit, other than cramming them into my mouth of course!That’s how we spent our childhood. Climbing up trees in the heat of summer, foraging fruit, coming home with our hands and clothes mulberry coloured and happy. Now I want to use the fruit in more fun ways. The simplest I thought was a variation on the lemonade or our native Nimbu Paani. There was that bottle of 100% pure maple syrup from Canada that was calling my name.With summer here, it’s best to hydrate the body with loads of seasonal refreshing things. It’s fun to make coolers with fruit in season, so that’s where I begun. This Mulberry Lime Cooler is as simple as that. Basic ingredients – freshly foraged mulberries, lime juice, maple syrup and fresh mint.Mulberries are filled with nutrients that are important for our body, including iron, riboflavin, vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, phosphorous, and calcium, as well as a significant amount of dietary fiber and a variety of beneficial organic compounds. Paired with pure maple syrup, this Mulberry Lime Cooler is certain to refresh you. Takes a few tablespoons of maple syrup to add a soothing natural sweetness. Maple syrup is a healthier alternative to regular sweeteners and sugar, and is known to be an antioxidant, has anti inflammatory properties, and is a rich source of nutrients.I don’t like to cook down berries unless required because they lose their Vitamic C. So I thought it would be best to muddle them with a little maple syrup. Love the deep colour berries released. No more to the simple summer cooler. Muddle well, strain by pushing through as much juice as you can collect. Then add a generous glug of maple syrup to sweeten. Also lime juice, a few whole mulberries and mint leaves to the pitcher. Chill well before serving, else pour over ice. It’s refreshing!There is so much more you can do with maple syrup. I made this Breakfast Berry Smoothie Bowl using a batch of gluten free granola I made last week with the maple syrup. Mulberries here too! This is just the simple kind of goodness that you can treat yourself to. Use fruit in season to get maximum benefit!So many possibilities, so  much fun. Am thinking of no bake energy bites next. Best to keep things quick and easy through summer!

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Mulberry Lime Cooler

Mulberry Lime Cooler for times like these when the season changes, when spring meets summer. With a very short and 'finger staining good' mulberry season in progress, life is good. How better to use these foraged beauties than in a refreshing summer cooler sweetened with 100% pure maple syrup from Canada!
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings 4 glasses

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup fresh mulberries {or similar seasonal berries}
  • 4-6 limes, juice of
  • 1/2 cup 100% pure maple syrup from canada
  • 1/4 tsp pink rock salt
  • 3-4 cups of water as required
  • Few sprigs fresh mint

Instructions

  • Reserve 1/4 cup fresh mulberries for later.
  • Place 1 cup mulberries in a large glass bowl or glass with the pink rock salt and 2 tbsps of maple syrup. Muddle well, mashing the berries on the sides of the bowl to release as much juice as possible.
  • Strain into a pitcher by pushing through as much juice as you can collect. Add some water and strain again. {You can use the pulp in a smoothie later, or like me, just eat as it. It's quite delicious.}
  • Add water, lime juice and a generous glug of maple syrup to sweeten. Taste and adjust sweetness adjusting the lime juice and or maple syrup as required. Add a few whole mulberries and mint leaves. Chill well before serving, else pour over ice.
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