Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

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Hello everyone,

Hummus is one of the essential foods in a plant based kitchen for its versatility. We can prepare many different variations of it by using different legumes and various vegetables and spices.

I published a more traditional Hummus recipe which was also compatible with whole food plant based diet. Today, I will be sharing our delicious Roasted Red Pepper Hummus recipe.

You can either grill or roast your peppers, I roasted mine. They lose liquid during cooking obviously so make sure that you use minimum 600 - 700 g of fresh peppers.

Ingredients:
750 g cooked chickpeas
250 g roasted and then peeled sweet red capia or bell pepper
75 g chickpea cooking water
60 g whole sesame tahini
40 g freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cloves of pressed garlic
2 TBSP nutritional yeast

1 tsp smoked paprika

Optional, little salt

Preparation:

Hazelnut Butter

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Hello,

Today we will prepare one of our favourite nut butters, maybe the most favourite one: 100% Hazelnut Butter. It tastes so good that it is hard to resist not to eat it all!

You can use your Hazelnut Butter in your breakfast bowls, smoothies, nice creams, over a slice of bread, chocolate spreads... It enhances immensely the taste of anything you add it into.

Just like any of our nut butters we don't use anything else but the only the hazelnut itself.

When I prepare nut and seed butters using almonds, cashew, sunflower etc, sometimes I use raw nuts/seeds, other times i use a mixture or raw and toasted ones. I can't say the same thing for hazelnut butter though. There is a lot difference between the taste of raw and toasted hazelnut butter. That's something that I don't want to compromise. Surely the decision is yours.

Ingredients:
500 g lightly roasted peeled hazelnuts

Preparation:

Mushroom Spinach and Cashew Cream Linguine

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Hello,

Today we will be making a great pasta sauce using the ingredients we have at home.

I've used organic whole grain linguine as pasta. Linguine is a type of pasta made from long, flat strands of pasta. It kind of looks like flattened spaghetti. You can replace it with another whole grain pasta that you'd like.

As cream I've used Cashew Mayonnaise, which I shared the recipe recently. While boiling pasta I've also added some frozen spinach. You can replace it with frozen or fresh other leafy green vegetables like chard or turnip greens.

At last I've added some roasted mushrooms which I shared the recipe yesterday. They all made a great combination together and we had a yummy pasta dish.


Ingredients (for 2):
160 g organic whole grain linguine pasta
1 cup frozen spinach
3 TBSP Cashew Cream (Mayonnaise)
4 TBSP plant based milk
1 TBSP nutritional yeast
1 cup Roasted Mushrooms

*Measuring cup/spoon info

Preparation:

Roasted Mushrooms

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Hello,

We will roast mushrooms today to use them in many different ways.

For this time I picked brown large portobello mushrooms and oyster mushrooms. I also use brown cremini mushrooms when I can find them. Champignons work fine too but our favourites are the first three that I mentioned.

We try to avoid oil and salt as much as we can so I've tossed them with half a tablespoon of oil and tamari only.

Ingredients:
300 g brown portobello mushrooms
1/2 TBSP extravirgin olive oil
1/2 TBSP tamari or soy sauce

300 g oyster mushrooms
1/2 TBSP extravirgin olive oil
1/2 TBSP tamari or soy sauce

Preparation:

Tempeh Lettuce and Tomato Tortilla Wraps

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Hello everyone,

Here I am with a new recipe. I've been very active in the blog recently, wouldn't you say? ;)

When I don't have a lot of time or will to prepare lunch or supper, or when I crave for something tasty, this is one of my go to recipes.

I've started to make my own tortilla wraps  only recently (in Italy we call such flatbread "piadina", in Turkey "lavash"). Before that I always bought them. Most of the tortilla wraps sold in supermarkets are made with white flour and contain many additives. Instead, the ones we prepare at home are made with 4 essential ingredients only: Whole wheat flour, water, very little extra virgin olive oil and salt.

I've filled our wraps with Tempeh. I know that not everyone around the world is very familiar with Tempeh, which came to my knowledge just a few years ago. In short, Tempeh is a protein rich, nutrient dense soy product which is made from fermented soybeans. Although it originates from Indonesian kitchen, nowadays it is widely used also by vegetarians and vegans. Given the fact that number of people who choose plant based diets are in rise, it seems like we will be hearing about it even more in future.

If you'd like to replace tempeh you can use smoked tofu or veggie burgers as I often do.

Ingredients (2 tortilla wraps):
150 g organic whole wheat flour
100 - 110 g water
1 TBSP extravirgin olive oil
1/4 tsp salt

Filling:
125 g organic natural Tempeh (or smoked tofu slices, veggie burgers etc)
Finely chopped lettuce
Finely sliced tomatoes
Finely chopped pickled sweet green pepper
Finely chopped onion
Cashew Mayonnaise or some other light mayo

Notes:

1. Whole wheat flours absorb more water in comparison with white flours. While adapting your old recipes to whole food plant based diet, you need to increase the amount of water when you replace white flour with whole wheat one. The absorption capacity changes also among the whole wheat flours depending on the type of the wheat and the brand. If needed add more water in tortilla dough. It shouldn't be hard nor too soft.
2. You can replace tempeh with smoked tofu slices, vegetable burgers etc.
3. I've used oil in this recipe even though it is very little I don't list this recipe under the whole food plant based category. 

Preparation:

Cashew Mayonnaise

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Hello everyone,

Today I'd like to share with you a great recipe that you can use in your Whole Food Plant Based kitchen: Cashew Mayonnaise.

As you can guess already from the title its main ingredients are cashew nuts. When you blend raw cashews with some water in a high powered blender, they melt and turn into a very beautiful smooth cream. Raw cashews have a very mild flavour, that's why they are often used to prepare plant based creams, cheeses and milk.

You can use this recipe not only as a mayo alternative but also as a cream to dress your pasta with or a cheesy spread on your slice of bread. You can thin it with a bit of plant milk when you use as pasta sauce. You can add nutritional yeast to give it a cheesy flavour.

I wanted this mayo to have a mild taste so I've limited my use of spices for this time not to create a strong flavoured mayonnaise. You can make any additions as you'd like. You can create distinctive flavours by adding fresh or dried herbs like dill, basil, thyme or spices like turmeric, curry, smoked pepper etc.

For those who don't like mustard, Dijon is a mild tasting mustard and adding 1 teaspoon into your mixture won't make your mayonnaise taste like mustard. So I'd say, don't be discouraged by the use of mustard in the recipe, it is up to you of course.

Yes, Cashew Mayonnaise is a healthier alternative to the classic one buy let's also remember that it is high in calories as well as nutrients. Even though our mayo has no refined oil but healthy fat, it is always wise to consume such nut containing calorie dense creams in small amounts.

About measuring cups and spoons I use in my recipes... I have a set that I bought from Amazon. As a person who likes trying new recipes I am a bit of perfectionist so I need to measure my ingredients with precision. They make my work so much easier. I have different sets of cutlery at home but none of them is the same in size. Besides, if you are copying recipes from cookbooks they almost always have such sets.  Owning one would give you consistency and piece of mind. They could be easily bought in many stores or online.

Ingredients:
300 g raw unsalted cashews
180 g water
2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp salt*
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder

Notes:

1. If you don't want to compromise from Whole Food Plant Based diet leave the salt out.
2. If you'd like your mayo to have stronger flavors, you can increase the amount of lemon juice, mustard and spices up to your taste. You can even prepare different flavored mayos by adding different herbs like dill, oregano, different spices like turmeric, smoked pepper, nutritional yeast or squeezed fresh garlic etc.
3. If you are using Thermomix or the container bowl of your Blender is as large as Thermomix's one (2 liters), you'd better to use minimum 300 g of cashews. Such large container blenders don't work well enough with small amount of ingredients and it is hard to obtain a smooth cream. Instead, if your Blender has a small container bowl you can reduce the amount that you plan to prepare.
4. I prepared a thick mayonnaise. If you'd like to have a thinner one add a little water up to your preference.
5. If you let it rest in the fridge for a couple of hours it will taste even more flavorsome.

Preparation:

Yogurt Ice Cream with Fresh Strawberries and Blueberries

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Hello friends,

Today we are preparing a flavorful ice cream with soy yogurt, fresh fruits, pistachios and coconut flakes.

Before going plant based, I used to make my own yogurt at home. I wanted to make also a plant based yogurt myself and tried different recipes with nuts, rice, soybeans or plant based milks. However I wasn't happy with neither taste nor the consistency. 

Among the plant based yogurt brands we've tried so far our absolute favourite is Sojade natural soy yogurt. It is delicious, tastes really yogurt-like and is also organic. Another brand we use is Sojasun natural soy yogurt. I read both Sojade and Sojasun make part of the same group, while the first one is organic the other one is not.

I live in Italy and I can find them quite easily. I don't know from which part of the world you are reading this blog, you may have different brands.

If you live in a place where soy yogurt is out of reach for you or if you can't find one that you like, it is not a big deal for this recipe, you can replace yogurt with the same amount of frozen banana.

We won't add any sweetener at all to our healthy ice cream. The most important tip I can share with you is to have some frozen RIPE bananas in your freezer. As long as you have ripe bananas you won't need use any other sweetener or thickener. No need to count calories as well ;)

I follow discounts and when bananas are discounted I buy in bulk, let them ripen and then slice and freeze them. Sometimes, mostly in summer, supermarkets want to get rid of their overripe bananas fast so they sell them at a pretty discounted price at their discount corners, so keep in mind.

Ingredients (for 2):
300 g frozen RIPE banana slices
100 g frozen soy yogurt cubes
1/4 tsp vanilla extract or pure vanilla powder
Fresh strawberry slices
Blueberries
Raw pistachios
Coconut flakes

Preparation:

Salad with Grilled Vegetables

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Hello everyone,

You may remember that we are salad lovers and we have salad at least once a day, often twice. Today I am sharing one of our favourite summer salads: Salad with grilled vegetables.

Eggplants and zucchini are in season. I'd say don't miss it out before summer is over.

When the temperature gets high we often don't feel like eating much. A light meal feels just about right. If it is one of those days for you, you can enrich this salad by adding some tofu or legumes like beans or chickpeas. This way you'll have one light but also satisfying and delicious meal that contains greens, veggies and protein.

Lettuces of today's salad come directly from the producer: our tiny garden :) We enjoy the luxury of having a tiny piece of land next to our building. There is nothing like the taste of your own freshly harvested lettuce.

We planted different varieties of lettuce after each harvest. So far we've tried over 15 varieties which had different tones of green, red, curly leaves, flat leaves, soft leaves and crispy ones... Using different lettuces improve your salad visually and nutritionally.

Among the ingredients below I haven't written the exact amount of eggplant and zucchini. Add as much as you wish.

Ingredients (for 1):
100 - 125 g mixed lettuce
1/2 apple
2 - 3 artichoke hearts (jarred)
2 - 3 sun dried tomatoes (jarred)
Grilled eggplant slices
Grilled zucchini slices
Spring onion (chopped)
2 pitted green olives
2 pitted black olives
1 tsp sunflower and pumpkin seeds
3-4 pecans
Balsamic vinegar

Notes:

1. My artichoke hearts were preserved in oil. You can use a no-oil brand to make even a better WFPB version of this. If also yours are jarred in oil, strain them thoroughly.
2. My sun dried tomatoes were also preserved in oil. I strained the oil well before using them. If you have dried tomatoes at home you can soften them by soaking in warm water. 
3. As I mentioned before, if you'd like to have only salad for your meal, you can enrich protein content of your salad by adding some tofu or legumes like beans or chickpeas.

Preparation:

Strawberry Pomegranate Smoothie Bowl

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When it gets hot in summer we enjoy having our refreshing and delicious Smoothie Bowls. I've used frozen fruits for today's breakfast.

I always have a good amount of frozen bananas stocked in my freezer so that I can make smoothies, smoothie bowls or healthy ice creams.

Amongst the ingredients of today's recipe there is also pomegranate juice which is a great source of antioxidants. We buy a lot of pomegranates in season, juice them and keep in the freezer to use in our breakfasts and smoothies.

Here is the recipe for today's smoothie bowl.

Ingredients (for 2):
50 g whole grain oats (gluten free if you prefer)
20 g flax seeds
10 g chia seeds
80 g pomegranate juice (frozen or fresh)
80 g strawberries (frozen or fresh)
120 g frozen bananas
20 g sunflower seeds
15 g raisins
1/2 tsp cinnamon
300 g organic no sugar added soy milk or almond milk

Topping
Halved or quartered fresh strawberries
Dried goji berries
Coconut flakes


Preparation:

Almond Milk

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It is not a coincidence that Almond Milk is our favourite homemade plant based milk. We love its taste, it costs much less than store-bought ones and we can also benefit from leftover pulp. And what's more, it has no added sugar, thickeners, or any kind of additives.

We use Almond Milk mostly in our breakfast. I use 165 g of almonds to prepare 1 liter of milk. So, with 1 kg of almonds I make 6 liters of milk. I buy almonds in 1 kg packages. This way I reduce the cost even further.

Although almond milk recipes in the cookbooks and on internet are very alike, the amount of the ingredients changes. Please see the notes for the details.

Ingredients:
165 g raw almonds
1 liter water


Notes:

1. If you'd like to make a thicker milk reduce the amount of the water and use about 500 - 750 ml depending on your preference.
2. Some people blanch their almonds but I don't find it necessary. It takes too much of time and I don't find it is worth the effort.
3. If you'd like to sweeten your milk you can add 1 - 2 Medjoul dates. We prefer ours unsweetened.
4. Not every city has drinkable tap water so remember to use drinkable water also while soaking the almonds.

Preparation:

Tofu Arrabbiata Sauce

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Hello everyone,

Today I'd like to share with you the recipe of one of our essential tomato based sauces which goes with almost anything.

I've got the inspiration from an Italian classic: arrabbiata sauce. There is not tofu in the original recipe obviously.

If you are looking for a recipe to use your leftover almond pulp after making your almond milk, add Tofu Arrabbiata Sauce into the list.

I prefer to prepare a good amount of this sauce and store it in the freezer. I'd recommend you all to do so for its practicality.

You can use this sauce with many vegetable dishes besides pasta. It goes great with legumes such as beans, chickpeas and lentils. If you have some precooked legumes in your fridge or a can in your pantry, you can have a very delicious and healthy meal in a short amount of time by simply mixing them with the sauce and warm it for several minutes. Do you also have some precooked grains? Add them into the mixture too! This could save you a lot of time and energy and present you the chance to eat well after a exhausting working day.

Today I used my sauce with gnocchi, another italian classic. Gnocchi is a type of fresh pasta made of mainly with potatoes. I am planning to share the recipe for a whole food plant based version of it in future.

Ingredients:
100 g onion
50 g garlic
Red pepper flakes to taste (optional)
80 g parsley leaves
400 g organic natural tofu
4 cans diced tomatoes ( 1 can = 400 g)
Little or no salt, black pepper to taste (optional)
600 g water

Notes:

1. In the blog I mainly prepare whole food plant based recipes so I don't use oil in the recipe. If you prefer to use oil, you can add some extra virgin olive oil while sauteing onions.
2. I couldn't get used to "zero salt" policy in WFPB recipes. I still add a little.
3. If you'd like to make this sauce without tofu, reduce the amount of water by half. Add more in case it's needed.
4. If you have some leftover almond pulp, you can add it into the mixture together with diced tomatoes.

Preparation:

Broccoli Greens and Red Lentil Sedanini Stuffed Winter Squash

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Today's recipe has a long title. It is very easy to prepare if you have your Roasted Winter Squash Sauce ready in the fridge.

Each meal I prepare with this sauce tastes a little different because I enrich the sauce by using whatever I have in the pantry and the fridge at the moment.

The day I prepared this dish a friend of ours brought us some broccoli greens freshly picked from her garden, so I used them. As pasta I opted for red lentil sedanini.

Ingredients (for 2):
120 g red lentil sedanini
Broccoli greens, chopped
2 winter squash halves, previously roasted and scooped out leaving a cm of flesh around the edges
Roasted Winter Squash Sauce
Plant milk (only if necessary)

Preparation:

Sorghum and Spinach Stuffed Butternut Squash

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As promised, I start posting a series of dishes created by using Roasted Winter Squash Sauce. My intention here is to give you some ideas to inspire so that you can come up with your own creations using whatever you have in your pantry with a touch of imagination.

In today's recipe I used two butternut squash halves. They are two of the 6 halves I roasted in the oven to make Roasted Winter Squash sauce and scooped out the flesh, leaving a cm of flesh around the edges.

I stuffed my squashes with sorghum and spinach. I previously cooked 100 g of sorghum. Since the spinach had very fresh and delicate leaves I didn't precook them..

Ingredients (for 2):
2 halves of butternut squash, previously roasted and scooped out the flesh, leaving a cm of flesh around the edges
Sorghum, previously cooked (100 - 120 g dry)
Fresh spinach leaves, cut into small pieces
Roasted Winter Squash Sauce
Plant milk (only if necessary)


Yapılışı:

Roasted Winter Squash Sauce

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Hello again everyone.. It's been a while...

Today I'll write about a delicious sauce which we love and prepare very often this period of the year.

I've got the inspiration from Gaz Oakley's yummy Cheesy Stuffed Squash recipe. After many trials and several changes I've managed to come up with a very delicious and versatile sauce. Don't get me wrong, the origial recipe also is just good as it is. My intention was to create a sauce which would be as tasty and good for a whole food plant based diet.

You'll have a good amount of sauce with this recipe which is very helpful to have something ready in the fridge. You can always freeze the excess amount if there is any left.

You can use our Roasted Winter Squash Sauce in many different ways and serve very beautifully stuffed in the halved / emptied squashes.

Within the next days I'll share some of the dishes I prepared with this sauce so that I can give you some ideas and inspiration.

These days in the supermarkets and farmer markets you can see a wide range of winter squashes that come in many different types, colours and sizes. The ones I come across more often are Butternut Squash and red or green squashes (They are all just called winter squash so I don't know the exact type of the squash but judging from the look I believe they are kabochas, mantovana, delica.. etc)

When I buy squashes to make our Roasted Squash Sauce I try to pick smaller ones. Because, as I use the flesh of the squashes for the sauce, I use the halved and emptied squashes as a bowl to serve meal and they look just gorgeous.

I don't mind much about the exact weight of the ingredients in this recipe. There are different varieties of squashes and even the ones from the very same variety come in different sizes. In today's recipe I used 2 butternut squashes and 1 green winter squash. I try to find squashes that weigh between 1 kg  - 1 kg 250 g. Of course you can use bigger sized ones as well, however, if you'd like to use them as serving bowl per portion, I'd recommend you not to go over 1.5 kg.

I use 3 winter squashes for this recipe and 2 of them are always butternut squashes.

Here come the ingredients...


Ingredients:
2 butternut squashes (1 kg each)
1 green winter squash (1 kg 300 g)

700 g leek
10 - 15 fresh sage leaves (20 - 25)
4 Tbsp nutritional yeast
10 g freshly squeezed lemon juice

Spices, Optional;*(1)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Bechamel sauce:
1 L organic soy milk
100 g organic brown rice flour*(2)
50 g organic whole sesame tahini
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
10 g freshly squeezed lemon juice*(3)

*(1) I don't always use the spices, sometimes I leave the garlic powder out. It is up to your preference.

*(2) I use a variety of flours depending on what I have in the kitchen. To give you an example, in my previous bechamel I used 40 g of tapioca flour, 40 g of whole buckwheat flour and 20 g of chickpea flour.

*(3) In a whole food plant based diet the consumption of salt is discouraged. Even though I've reduced our use of salt a lot I couldn't manage to go entirely salt-free. You can leave the salt out or try to use the least amount possible.

Preparation:

Hummus

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Hummus is one of the essentials in our plant based kitchen as it offers such wide range of use.

You can spread it on your wholegrain bread slices, or in your sandwiches.

You can dip your vegetables or your wholewheat crackers. You can use it as salsa with your falafels or other plant based patties.

One of our absolute favourites is to spread a generous amount of hummus in our wholegrain piadina or tortillas, add some artichoke hearts, dried tomatoes and arugula and wrap it. So delicious!

It is possible to prepare hummus with different types of legumes and spices.

Today I'd like to share with you our basic recipe. They include also extra virgin olive oil in traditional recipes but, as a member of whole food plant based / nutritarian kitchen, we don't. Besides, tahini contains enough fat.

We use "whole sesame tahini" or "unhulled tahini" our kitchen. Whole sesame tahini, as you could understand from its name, is made with unhulled sesame seeds. Most of the products in the market are made with hulled sesame seeds. Tahini with hulled sesame seeds deliver a smoother product whereas unhulled tahini results less smooth and a bit bitter. However, hulling process removes many of the benefits of tahini since it discards the bran of the sesame seeds, where many of the nutrients are stored. (See: Source) That is why I always read the ingredients on the packaging and make sure it is written unhulled sesame seeds. Another thing I pay attention in tahini is to be made of 100% of sesame seeds. Some products may contain oil as ingredient.

Here comes our basic hummus recipe..

Ingredients:
500 g cooked chickpeas
120 g chickpea boiling water
60 g fresh lemon juice
30 g unhulled tahini or whole sesame tahini
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
Little salt


Preparation:

2-Ingredient Chocolate Pudding

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Today we will make a yummy and healthy dessert only with 2 ingredients. But before anything, I need to mention my dear friend Andrea here, who introduced me to this lovely recipe. "Grazie Andrea!"

I live in Monte San Vito, a small town in Italy and it looks like a persimmon paradise these days. You can see many persimmon trees in the gardens, by the roads. In this time of the year the trees don't have any leaves but they are full of orange colored persimmon fruits.

Our friends brought us a lot of persimmons from their garden so I decided to use them to make this pudding and I wanted to share the recipe with you guys while the persimmons are still in season.

All we need for this pudding is some very RIPE persimmons and unsweetened cacao powder. As you can understand from the capital letters it is extremely important to use ripe persimmons in order to obtain the sweetness and the consistency we want in our pudding. Because there is a huge difference between ripe and unripe persimmon fruits in regard to taste and the texture!

As ripe persimmons have darker color, gel-like consistency and are very sweet, unripe fruits are, instead, harder and astringent because of their high tannin content. As they mature the tannin gradually disappears and the fruit gets sweeter and more aromatic.

You can see the color difference in my ripe persimmons on the left and my unripe persimmons on the right. 

If your persimmons are not ripe enough you can let them ripen at home. When they are ready the flesh will become completely soft, almost gel-like.

You can use following method to speed up the ripening process: Put your persimmons on a plate with their stem side down. Place 2 - 3 apples among persimmons. Put the plate in a bag and place it in a dark place at room temperature, for example inside a cupboard, until the fruits are ripe enough.

You can distinctly see the difference between ripe and unripe fruits in the following photo.

My friend Andrea told me to use 1 tsp of cacao powder per persimmon.
I prepared this pudding with 7 persimmons and let me write exact amount of the ingredients below.

Ingredients:
7 very RIPE persimmons ==> 1.150 g
7 tsp organic no sugar added cacao powder ==> 50 g

Preparation:

Oat Blueberry Breakfast Smoothie

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The first recipe I shared in Bitkisel Cafe was Mixed Berry Overnight Oats. What makes it very practical is the chance to prepare it the night before so that we could have it all ready waiting for us in the fridge in the morning.

If, for some reason, we skipped preparing our breakfast the night before, one of the easy peasy solution we have to this is to prepare some quick oat smoothie in our blender. We always keep some frozen bananas and fruits in our freezer to be able to prepare smoothies or nice creams whenever needed.

Oat Blueberry Breakfast Smoothie is ideal for those who want to make a fresh and sweet start to the day, especially in summer days.

Ingredients (for 2):
50 g oats
20 g flax seeds
10 g chia seeds
120 g frozen bananas
50 g pomegranate juice (100% fruit, sugar-free)
50 g frozen or fresh blueberries
10 g raisins
10 g goji
20 g walnuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon
300 g organic sugar-free soy milk or almond milk

Topping:
60 g frozen or fresh blueberries

(*) Pomegranate is one of the major fruits in our super food list. It has a great antioxidant capacity. It contains a unique, very powerful antioxidant called punicalagin. With its anti-inflammatory effects and anti-angiogenic properties pomegranate may protect against cancer and other chronic diseases, with its phytochemicals it may protect against heart disease. In addition, it is said to guard memory and brain function. (See:Source) We try to consume a bit of pomegranate daily. Besides all the benefits they taste so good!

Thanks to our dear friends, who have pomegranate tree in their gardens, we are given many when they are in season.

We pick up pomegranates in season, we freeze some seeds for future use. We juice the most of them though. You can see Stefano below working at high pressure ;)

We freeze pomegranate juice as ice cubes and store in the freezer. We use pomegranate cubes while preparing our smoothies or our daily breakfast. Let me open a parenthesis here: We are often using pomegranate cubes also in our Mixed Berry Overnight Oats Breakfast even though I didn't include it among the ingredients when I posted the recipe. Well, if we have them we use them.

Important ! : You need a high powered blender for this recipe which is capable of chopping frozen fruits. You may break your device otherwise. If you haven't tried using frozen fruits in your blender before, you may want to refer to the manual of your device to see if it can handle it.


Preparation:

Mushroom Tofu Loaf

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Today we will be preparing a non-meat loaf with tofu which is rich in plant protein.

Tofu, which is made of soybeans, is a well-known food in east Asian kitchens. It is gaining popularity also in western world as more people adopt flexitarian / vegetarian / vegan diets.
Tofu is a good source of calcium, iron and selenium and contains 8 essential amino acids.

Even though it is often listed in cheese category, in my opinion, this might be misleading especially for those who are not very familiar with it. Because it taste nothing like conventional cheeses. Therefore, when it is not used how it should be, it can fail the expectations of those who are looking for a substitute for traditional cheeses.

Good news is it is possible to prepare delicious meals with tofu, but it doesn't taste much in its natural form. That's why it is often marinated before use. It is spiced with various herbs and spices. It can be cooked, grilled, baked as it can be eaten uncooked.
I often buy natural tofu and marinate or spice it myself. We also like very much smoked tofu.

One of my favourite meals with tofu is this non-meat loaf, which I read about in "Eat to Live Cookbook" by Dr Joel Fuhrman. I've made a few changes on the original recipe due to our palate and needs. I serve it with oven roasted potatoes and some tomato salad.


Ingredients (for 6):

Non-meat Mushroom Tofu Loaf:
250 g onions
60 g celery stick
400 g mushrooms
1 - 1 1/2 Tbsp salt-free meat loaf spice (*1)
1 Tbsp oregano
50 g water
40 g arrowroot powder (*2)
2 tsps Bragg's Liquid Aminos (*3) or low sodium Soy Sauce or Tamari
400 g organic natural firm tofu (with no added salt, sugar or spice)
100 g chopped walnuts
100 g brown rice
80 g whole wheat bread crumbs

Roasted Potatoes:
1 kg potatoes
A few sprigs of rosemary
Freshly ground black pepper
Very little salt

Tomato salad:
500 g cherry tomatoes
150 g green or red pepper
75 g scallions
Parsley
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh lemon juice


(*1) You can buy any no-salt added meat loaf mixture of your preferred brand, or you can simply prepare your own special mixture. When I don't have any ready to use meatball spice at home, I prepare one using ground cumin, sweet paprika, black pepper and allspice.

(*2) Arrowroot powder (aka arrowroot starch) is a thickening agent often used to thicken baby formulas, puddings, soups ... etc. It aids digestion, boosts immune function. You can substitute with potato stach or cornstarch.

(*3) Bragg's Liquid Aminos, is an alternative to soy sauce and tamari. It is rich in amino acids, containing 16 of the 20 found in nature. It is not fermented, made of non-GMO soybeans and purified water. It can be substituted with low sodium soy sauce or tamari.


Preparation:

Chocolate Chia Pudding

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

Today I would like to share with you guys one of our favourite recipes: Chocolate Chia Pudding.

With this recipe you can prepare a very delicious, nutritious and healthy dessert. I prepared it for 4 person which gives a generous size. It is a good source of dietary fiber and manganese. It also contains 8 g of protein per serving.

Chocolate Chia Pudding could be also a great choice to prepare mini desserts for your house parties if served in smaller sized cups like shot glasses.

Ingredients:

Pudding:
400 g unsweetened organic soy milk
70 g chia seeds
120 g pitted dates
30 g unsweetened cacao powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1 vanilla pod (scraped pulp and seeds only) or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Top:
2 bananas
1 - 2 Tbsp dark chocolate (minimum 70% cacao), chopped into small pieces


Preparation:

Lemon, Ginger and Mint Water

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

You've probably heard about detox waters and read about claims on their inflammation reducing, toxin removing, energy boosting, weight loss promoting benefits. Our main motivation to drink detox water instead was simply the fact that it helped us to increase our water intake during the day.

Okay, we quitted coke, soda, sugary drinks.. We try to keep our distance from alcohol.. well.. let's say most of the time we do ;) So, what can we drink instead? Yes, water is the best drink of all, yet sometimes you just wish for some alternatives. At this point this detox water gave us what we needed.

Lemon ginger water is a perfect solution for all those, such as myself, who are not very fond of drinking water. How is even possible not to like to drink water, isn't it? But that's how it is. For some reason I hardly feel thirsty. I could go on for days without drinking water and I wouldn't even notice. True story.

Mostly in hot summer days we have this water always available in our fridge. We drink it during meals or whenever we feel like drinking something refreshing. I refill the jug several times during the day before it begins to lose flavour.

I don't have a precise measure. Sometimes I add more mint, other times more ginger. We love our ginger, we like it hot! If you are not used to it, start with half a spoon of grated ginger. You can always increase next time if you like it.

Ingredients (for a 2 litre jar):
1 organic lemon / or a lemon with edible peel (*)
1/2 - 1 tbsp grated ginger
1 cucumber
2 stems of mint
1 cup of ice
Water

(*) Did you know that most of the lemons are treated with chemicals and their peel is not edible? I didn't know until quite recently.

Some of the chemicals used to treat lemon peel are E-904, E-914 and Imazalil. I don't just mean the basic difference between organic and conventional agriculture here. It is (or should be) already stated on their packaging as "treated, peel is not edible" or "not treated, edible peel". This is how it works in Italy at least.

Nevertheless, I saw many mistakes in supermarkets. Unfortunately I see that they are not attentive enough. For instance, on some brand's lemon's own packaging it is clearly stated that the peel is not edible, but supermarket label says it is edible. Or there is no information provided either on the lemon package or market label, it is a mystery.

My advice would be to stay away from the lemons if not stated "edible peel" on their own package. Or simply opt for organic ones. Or the ones from your garden ;)

We can say the same principal also for orange peel. If you plan to use the peel, search for oranges with edible peels or buy organic.

Preparation: