Applying the A Formula

For the past six months or so, I have been cooking a lot using the so-called "A Formula" ("A" obviously stands for "Annika"). It's a fast way of cooking that I use, for instance, to prepare something for lunch at work. The dishes are either based on brown rice or quinoa and, for two reasons, the cooking time is basically the same as the cooking time of those grains: 1) the rest of the ingredients are washed, chopped etc. while the grains are already cooking and 2) the rest of the ingredients are either left uncooked or steamed in the same pot with the grains (towards the end of the cooking time of the grains). The A Formula can be used to prepare an amazing variety of vegan/vegetarian dishes, and most of those dishes are delicious either warm or cold.

Most of the time I just improvise and apply the A Formula to whatever I have in my fridge and my spice cupboard. The below dish is a delightful example of one of those improvised dishes cooked using the A Formula. It was delicious (although I had feared that it would turn out horrible because of the radishes) and I'm going to try to recreate it one of these days to double-check that the amounts of the ingredients in the below recipe are OK.

APPLYING THE A FORMULA

0.5 dl white quinoa
1 dl water
a clove of garlic
a large carrot
5-6 radishes
1-2 tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander
leek
about 1 teaspoon of curcuma powder
a pinch of chili powder
1.5 tablespoons of extra virgin coconut oil
the juice of a quarter of a lemon
sea salt

1. Rinse the quinoa well.
2. Add the water and the salt in the pot and bring to a boil under a lid.
3. Add the quinoa, the curcuma powder and the chili powder.
4. Peel the garlic and chop it finely.
5. Peel and wash the carrot and cut it into very thin, round slices.
6. Wash the radishes and cut them into very thin slices.
7. Wash the coriander and chop it finely.
8. Wash the leek and cut about 1 cm of it finely.
9. When 5-10 minutes of the cooking time of the quinoa remain, add the garlic into the pot (5 minutes if you want a stronger garlic taste).
10. When 2-3 minutes of the cooking time remain, add the chopped coriander and the carrot slices.
11. When the quinoa is ready, switch the heat off, add the radishes, the leek, the coconut oil and the lemon juice, and mix the ingredients well.
12. Serve straight away, or let the dish cool down (like I did), and enjoy!

Annika

Ssssh! - Chewy Chocolate Biscuits

If your sweet tooth is aching and you need to do something about it fast, you might want to try these Super Sweet, Super Sticky gluten-free biscuits that are going to quiet your cravings right down (Ssssh!). They are a sugar-free adaptation of this recipe: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/flourless-fudge-cookies-recipe, and the sweetness comes from a generous amount of honey... I won't make any claims about that being much better for you than white sugar, though.

SSSSH!

1 1/3 dl of unsweetened gluten-free cocoa powder (e.g. Van Houten)
250 g of honey
2 egg whites
3 tablespoons of pine nuts (other kinds of nuts should work just as well)
a pinch of salt

1. Heat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
2. Line the baking tray with baking paper.
3. Put all the ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. The resulting batter is pretty liquidy.
4. Form the biscuits by pouring heaped tablespoons of the batter on the baking tray. If you do that slowly and carefully enough, the batter will spread into nice, round biscuits (or pools of batter, rather). On my baking tray, there was enough space for 12 biscuits, and the remaining batter would probably have been enough for 3 more. I used it to quiet an upset family member down.
5. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.
6. Let the biscuits cool down for a bit on the baking tray, and use a sharp knife (e.g. a vegetable knife with a thin blade) to get the biscuits off the baking paper in one piece.
7. Enjoy the gooey sweetness!

Annika

Cung-Fe Rolls - Cumin and Fennel Rolls

I'm on a roll! After more and more successful experiments with bean-based biscuits (more recipes and updates on the current recipes will be online soon), I thought it's time to expand to bean-based savoury baking. This was my first experiment with bean-based rolls, and I was quite happy with the results the first time round. The rolls stay a bit moist inside but I don't think that you can really expect anything else with these ingredients. Sorry for the afwul picture; I still haven't replaced my broken camera.

If you're not a big fan of cumin and/or fennel, just try leaving it out or replacing it with some other spice.

CUNG-FE ROLLS

3 dl cooked white beans (about 1.5 dl unsoaked beans)
1 dl soaked millet grains (about 0.5 dl  unsoaked millet grains)
1.5 dl blended steamed courgette
5 tablespoons ground flax seeds
0.5 tablespoon cumin seeds
0.5 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder

0. Soak the beans and the millet grains overnight.

1. Drain the millet grains well. Do not cook them.

2. Cook the beans until soft and drain them well.

3. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and line a baking tray with baking paper.
4. Wash a largish courgette, cut it in small pieces, steam until soft and blend until smooth.
5. Mix 1.5 dl of blended courgette, the ground flax seeds, the cumin seeds, the fennel seeds, the salt and the lemon juice, and let the mixture stand for a while.

6. Blend the beans, the millet grains and the wet mixture until smooth.
7. Add the baking powder and fold.
8. Use a tablespoon and a teaspoon to form eight round rolls: both spoons to get the batter onto the lined baking tray, and the teaspoon dipped in water to shape the rolls.

9. Bake for about 50 minutes, until the rolls start browning. Turn the baking tray around halfway through. If you don't bake the rolls long enough, they will stay sticky inside. This also means that the rolls will and should get nice and crusty on the outside. You can use two different ways to test if the rolls are ready (it's best to use both, just to be sure): 1) stick a toothpick in the middle of a roll; if it comes out clean, the roll is ready 2) knock the bottom of a roll with your finger; if the sound is hollow, the roll is ready. If you keep the rolls under a tea towel after they have cooled down, the crusty outside will get softer.

10. Place the rolls on a cooling rack, and let them cool down.

11. Enjoy.

Nuts for Ginger - Gluten-Free Ginger Nuts

I never had a major sweet tooth in my glutenous past. The only two types of biscuits that I've ever really, really liked are ginger nuts and oat biscuits. This is my attempt at recreating ginger nuts without gluten. My ginger nuts are not brittle like glutenous ginger nuts but soft and more bread-like. I love their taste but I do miss the crispiness of glutenous ginger nuts. I am currently trying to develop a second ginger nut recipe that would result in a similar taste but a crispier texture. I reckon you could also make these biscuits a bit crispier by forming smaller/thinner biscuits, and by lowering the temperature to 170-180 degrees and keeping the biscuits in the oven a bit longer. I will try that next time I make this dough.

NUTS FOR GINGER

2 dl cooked white beans

3 tablespoons coconut oil
0.5. dl honey

0.5 dl boiled and blended sweet potatoes

5 tablespoons ground flax seeds

1.5 tablespoons ground ginger
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
0.5-1 teaspoon ground cloves (or 10-20 crushed clove buds)

a couple of pinches of sea salt

0. Soak the beans overnight, then cook and drain them.

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
2. Peel a sweet potato, cut it in small pieces, steam until soft and blend until smooth.
3. Mix the honey, 0.5 dl of blended sweet potato, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, the ground flax seeds, the ginger, the cinnamon, the cloves and the sea salt, and let the mixture stand.
4. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

5. Blend the beans and two tablespoons of coconut oil until smooth.
6. Add the spice mixture and blend. The dough will be quite solid.
7. Use two teaspoons to form seven biscuits: both spoons to get the batter onto the lined baking tray, and one teaspoon dipped in water to shape and flatten the biscuits.

8. Bake for about 15 minutes until the biscuits start browning.

9. Place the biscuits on a cooling rack, and let them cool down.

10. Enjoy.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory - Spicy Chocolate Biscuits

I've been carrying out so many chocolate biscuit experiments recently that I'm starting to feel like I'm working at a chocolate biscuit factory! Why this sudden obsession with chocolate biscuits and cakes? I should be filling out my tax forms, that's why.

Anyway, my starting point for these chocolate biscuits was this recipe:

http://mynewroots.blogspot.pt/2011/11/black-bean-chocolate-chili-cherry.html. The original recipe is nice but I wanted to make my biscuits a bit sweeter (when trying out the original recipe, I didn't add the dried cherries, which would have probably made the biscuits a lot sweeter). To add that little bit of extra sweetness, I've been experimenting with pureed vegetables. So far, I've tried beetroots and sweet potatoes - sweet potatoes definitely being the winner. Apart from sweet potatoes, I think that carrots and pumpkin might work well in these biscuits. Don't worry, by the way, because there isn't a hint of bean or sweet potato taste in the end product!

I'm really quite happy with the texture of these biscuits, by the way. I've been having some problems making my gluten-free biscuits stick together well enough but these are just perfect (they are definitely softer than glutenous biscuits, though). To compensate for the pureed vegetables being liquid, my recipe contains a lot more ground flax seeds than the original recipe (ground flax seeds can be used as an egg replacement).

As a side remark, you should be able to make these biscuits vegan by using agave instead of honey. If you're not big into spicy stuff, you could also try replacing the spices in this recipe with vanilla, cinnamon, or something else.

WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

2 dl cooked beans (the ones in the picture were made using white beans; black beans will result in a darker brown colour)

1 tablespoon coconut oil

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

0.5 dl honey

0.5 dl boiled and blended sweet potatoes

4 tablespoons ground flax seeds

1 1/3 tablespoons ground ginger

a couple of pinches of sea salt

a couple of pinches of chilli powder

OPTIONAL: 0.4 dl chopped walnuts (about 6 large walnuts; the ones in the picture were made without but the ones with walnuts are prettier)

0. Soak the beans overnight, then cook and drain them.

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Peel a sweet potato, cut it in small pieces, steam until soft and blend until smooth.
3. Mix the honey, 0.5 dl of blended sweet potato, the coconut oil, the ground flax seeds, the ground ginger, the sea salt, the chilli and the cocoa powder, and let the mixture stand.

(4. Crack the walnuts open and cut them into small pieces.)

5. To prevent yourself from wolfing all the biscuits down as soon as they are ready, think of something to do for a couple of hours after you have taken them out of the oven.

6. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

7. Blend the beans and the wet mixture until smooth.

(8. Add the chopped walnuts and fold to incorporate.)

9. Use a tablespoon and a teaspoon to form the biscuits: both spoons to get the batter onto the lined baking tray, and the teaspoon to shape and flatten the biscuits. The batter is enough to make nine thinner biscuits without the walnuts, and six thicker biscuits with the walnuts.

10. Bake for 20 minutes until the edges of the biscuits are browning (a bit longer in case you choose to make thicker biscuits with walnuts). I turned the baking tray around after the first 10 minutes.

11. Place the biscuits on a cooling rack.

12. Do what you planned to do in Step 5.

13. Enjoy.

Annika

P.S. Please notice that the taste improves when you keep the biscuits in the fridge and the tastes have more time to meld with each other.
P.P.S. Please stay tuned for recipes for gluten-free gingernuts and gluten-free muffins, which I am working on at the moment.

Strawfenny - Strawberry Fennel Salad

I love combining fennel with fruit. This time, I combined it with strawberries and apple for this fruity, refreshing salad. Do buy the strawberries and apple organic if you can; both strawberries and apples always make it to dirty dozen list of foods with the highest amounts of pesticide residue (http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/dirty-dozen-foods#fbIndex1).


STRAWFENNY


1 small fennel bulb OR half of a large bulb 
15 strawberries 
1 small, sweet apple
large handful of unshelled hazelnuts 
extra virgin olive oil 
freshly squeezed lemon juice 
sea salt 
chilli powder 


1. Mix some freshly squeezed lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and a pinch of chilli powder, and let the salad sauce stand while you are preparing the salad. 
2. Wash and trim the fennel bulb, cut it in half and slice it as thinly as you can. 
3. Wash the apple and cut it into small pieces. 
4. Wash and trim the strawberries, and cut them in half. 
5. Shell the hazelnuts and cut them in half (unless they are very small). 
6. Mix the fennel, the strawberries, the apple and the hazelnuts well, and serve with the salad sauce. 


Annika

Strawberry Swing - Asparagus Strawberry Salad

I felt like cooking something a bit different today, and got the idea of making a salad using asparagus and strawberries.  It looks like lots of other people beat me to it, though; the internet seems to be full of asparagus strawberry salad recipes. Anyway, this is my version of the salad. The idea of the spicy strawberry sauce, which gives the salad a great punch, is mine. 



STRAWBERRY SWING

Salad:

160 grams strawberries (~2/3 of a 250-gram package)
300 grams asparagus
12 large walnuts
leek
sea salt

Sauce:

90 grams strawberries (~1/3 of a 250-gram package)
half of a large, juicy lemon
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoons chilli powder
sea salt

Preparing the salad:

1. Wash the asparagus spears, cut off the woody bits, and cut the rest of the spears into 3-cm-long pieces. Divide the pieces into three groups: the ones that come from the bottom (the hardest), middle and top (the softest) of the spears.
2. Put a tiny bit of water and some sea salt on the bottom of a pot, and bring to the boil.
3. Add the asparagus pieces into the pot in three stages, starting from the harder bottom bits. Let them steam under a lid until tender. Mix the asparagus pieces a few times so that all of them will get salted.
4. Pour the water out of the pot, and let the asparagus cool down completely.
5. Shell the walnuts and break them into smaller pieces.
6. Heat a frying pan over medium heat, add the walnuts into the hot pan and stir frequently, until the walnuts start to brown and smell toasted (~5 min).
7. Let the walnuts cool down completely.
8. Wash and trim the strawberries, and cut them in half (or in more pieces in case they are quite big).
9. Wash the leek, cut very thin slices of the white part, and cut those in half. The leek I had was really thin, and I used about 4 cm of it for the recipe.
10. Mix all the ingredients in a salad bowl and put the bowl in the fridge.

Preparing the sauce:

1. Squeeze the juice of the lemon (about 3 tablespoons) into a small bowl.
2. Add the olive oil.
3. Add the chilli powder and a pinch of sea salt.
4. Add the strawberries and blend until smooth.
5. Let the sauce stand for about 10 minutes before serving it with the salad.

Annika

Cocoa Loco - Fudgey Chocolate-Ginger Cake

I've recently been looking for gluten-free cake/muffin/biscuit recipes. The impression that I have is that, to bake gluten-free, you need to buy lots of exotic flours and ingredients (or a gluten-free baking mix but that would be cheating, wouldn't it?). Considering how rarely I bake (this was my second ever gluten-free baking experiment), I don't really feel like buying all that stuff, and none of the recipes I came across really took my fancy... until I happened to find this exciting cake recipe that uses beans instead of flour: 
http://www.healthyindulgences.net/2009/05/healthy-chocolate-cake-with-secret.html 


I guess that the word "bean" is enough to turn a lot of people off but I can guarantee that there really isn't a hint of bean taste in the end product.


Anyway, instead of using the original recipe, I decided to try to replace the eggs with something else... but what?! I did some research on vegan egg replacements, and decided to try to replace some of the eggs with banana and some of them with agar agar, which I had never used before. I spread the batter between two cake pans, one of which I took out of the oven after 45 minutes, after I had come to the conclusion that the batter wouldn't really solidify (or rise). At that point, the texture was similar to that of Finnish chocolate kissel, and I happily ate it all(!) while it was still hot. I left the other cake pan in the oven for 25 minutes more but the batter still hadn't solidified properly after an hour and ten minutes, and the cake was still as flat as a pancake. I left the cake pan to cool down in room temperature for 20 minutes and, encouraged by the fact that the batter had started solidifying (thanks to the agar agar?!), put it in the fridge for another 20 minutes. After that, the texture was sort of fudgey, and the cake was easy to cut. My camera is broken at the moment so, if you want to get an idea of the texture, please check out the pictures of this cake, whose texture looks very, very similar to mine:
http://www.egglesscooking.com/2012/02/22/gluten-free-flourless-vegan-chocolate-cake-recipe/


The recipe in this post is the recipe for the fudgey cake, which I will definitely make again. I'm now thinking, though, that it might be easier to try to bake gluten- and egg-free biscuits than cakes to get a more "conventional" end result. So, please stay tuned for my upcoming biscuit experiments!


If anyone has any ideas for egg replacements that would result in a crumbly cake rather than a fudgey one, do leave me a comment with your advice :-)


COCOA LOCO


1.8 dl cooked white beans (I soaked 1 dl of white beans, and was left over with some after using 1.8 dl for the recipe)
5 tablespoons agar agar flakes
1 1/2 small ripe bananas
1 1/3 tablespoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil
0.6 dl honey
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda


0. Soak the beans overnight, then cook and drain them.
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease two 15-cm round cake pans (or one cake pan with the same total area) with coconut oil, and dust cocoa over the inside of the pans.
3. Mash the bananas using a spoon.
4. Place the beans, the mashed bananas, the ginger and the salt into a blender, and blend until smooth.
5. Whish together the cocoa powder, the baking soda and the baking powder.
6. Beat the coconut oil with the honey until light and fluffy.
7. Pour the bean batter into the coconut oil/honey mixture and mix well.
8. Mix the agar agar flakes with a little bit of water (I started with just 8 tablespoons) and boil for about five minutes, stirring constantly (keep adding water until there is enough for the agar agar flakes to melt).
9. Add the agar agar mix in the batter and mix well.
10. Stir in the cocoa powder/baking soda/baking powder mixture, and beat until smooth.
11. Pour the batter into the cake pans and smooth the tops.
12. Bake for 1 h 10 min.
13. Allow to cool down in room temperature for 20 minutes.
14. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
15. Enjoy!


Annika

Spicy Spinato - Spicy Spinach Stew (or Pasta Sauce)

SPICY SPINATO

6-7 desilitres of washed, chopped fresh spinach
1 tomato
1 clove of garlic
0.75-1 teaspoon of curcuma
pinch of chilli powder
sea salt

1. Wash and chop the fresh spinach.
2. Wash the tomato and cut it into small pieces.
3. Chop the garlic finely.
4. Put a tiny bit of water on the bottom of a pot. Mix the curcuma, a little bit of sea salt, and a pinch of chilli powder with the water. Add the garlic, the tomatoes and the spinach on top - in that order.
5. Heat the ingredients under a lid, until the spinach has wilted.
6. Occasionally stirring, let the dish simmer under the lid for about ten minutes.
7. Serve as a stew/soup with 20-25 almonds (enough for one person), or as a pasta sauce with gluten-free pasta (enough for two people).

Annika

Fluey Lewis and the News - Warming Ginger-Eucalyptus Drink

I have been down with a nasty cold for the past few days, and I wanted to come up with something nice to drink - something that would keep me warm and... well... help me get rid of the mucus. This is what I came up with.

FLUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS

0.5 liter of water
1-1.5 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh ginger
2-3 dried eucalyptus leaves
the juice of half a (small) lemon

1. Bring the water to the boil in a pan.
2. While the water is heating, peel the ginger and chop it finely.
3. When the water starts boiling, turn off the heat.
4. Add the ginger, the eucalyptus leaves and the lemon juice into the water.
5. Cover the pan and allow to steep for about 10 minutes.
6. Pour the drink through a sieve, removing all the solids.
6. Enjoy.

Annika

Work Your Mojo - Sweet Potatoes with Garlic Sauce

A year or so ago, I went to a Caribbean restaurant in Seville, Spain. I randomly selected a few tapas-sized dishes that had been marked both vegetarian and gluten-free on the menu. One of the dishes that I ended up being served was a gorgeous Yuca Con Mojo, boiled cassava with garlic sauce. This very quick and extremely simple dish was inspired by that Yuca Con Mojo.

WORK YOUR MOJO (for 1 person)

1 small sweet potato

extra virgin olive oil

2 medium-sized cloves of garlic

chili powder

sea salt

1. Wash the sweet potato well and cut it in thick (about 1 cm) slices.

2. Pour a little bit of water on the bottom of a pot, add a little bit of sea salt, cover the pot with a lid and bring to the boil. The idea is to steam the sweet potato slices rather than boil them, so it really has to be very little water.

3. Add the sweet potato slices into the boiling water an cover the pot with a lid.

4. Chop the garlic cloves finely. 

5. Peel the sweet potato slices when they are ready. Keep them under a lid so that they will stay hot.

6. Pour some olive oil into a small saucepan and mix in the finely chopped garlic and a touch of chili powder. Heat the oil until it starts bubbling. While waiting for the oil to start bubbling, move the sweet potato slices on a plate. When the oil starts bubbling, pour it over the sweet potato slices.

7. Enjoy.

Annika

P.S. The same sauce goes well, for instance, with steamed cauliflower, as well.