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No Bake Festive Coconut Brownies – Gluten & Nut Free

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Since I’ve been doing some major indulging lately I’m planning to do a massive cleanse to reset my body. We’re still in the middle of the holiday season I’m giving myself a pass, meaning I’ll start my cleanse in January! Since I’ve still got two weeks of indulging ahead I thought why not try some more “healthy” versions of super indulging recipes to prepare myself for detoxification. So here it is a gluten and nut free recipe for brownie bites.

Coco Brownie4

Fun fact: this recipe was actually a fail that I tried saving, and thus turned into a win!

This recipe asks for only three ingredients and no baking. Yes you read that good, no nuts, wheat flour and dates were used, just plain Ol’ dark chocolate. You might ask yourself “How is this not indulgent?”, well they are indulging treats, but a lot healthier than regular brownies that have tons of oil and extra sugar. Now is this as moist and rich as a regular brownie? No it’s not, but considering the facts, it’s a damn good brownie!

Since you can top it with whatever your heart desires these are perfect if you want to make something festive for the holidays!

Coco Brownie

I added ground cardamom to the batch, but keep in mind that cardamom has a very distinctive taste, that’s not very subtle. So you might want to leave it out, it’s totally optional. Also go wild with whatever toppings you like. I went with:

  • Desiccated coconut 
  • Crushed Pistachio 
  • Dried strawberries 
  • Dried Mango
  • Goji Berries
  • Dried Figs
  • Golden Chrysanthemum Flower

Coco Brownie5You can also choose to add other dried fruits, dried flower petals, nuts and seeds of choice. Also if you do not like cardamom but do want to spice it up you can add cayenne pepper, chai spices, cinnamon or maybe some pumpkin spice. Go wild and do your thing!

I really hope you like this recipe, now let’s get to it! Feel free to leave a comment below or to tag me in your recreations on Instagram and don’t forget to like my Facebook page.

One Love,

A.J.

No Bake Festive Coconut Brownies - Gluten & Nut Free

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Prep Time 15 mins
Total Time 1 hr 15 mins
Course Dessert/Snack, Pies and cakes
Cuisine Vegan
Servings 10 pieces

Ingredients
  

  • 200 grams dark chocolate
  • 7 tbsp non dairy milk
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1/4 tsp cardamom (optional)
  • toppings of choice

Instructions
 

  • If you're adding toppings, prepare those first. And line a small baking dish with parchment paper. Now over a double boiler melt the chocolate with the non dairy milk and ground cardamom (optional). Once it has melted add the coconut powder and whisk to well.
  • Add the chocolate mixture to the parchment paper and add another piece of parchment paper on top to spread it out. Now add the toppings and use the other piece of parchment paper to press it all in. Now put it in the freezer for 45 minutes and you're ready to have yourself a slice! Enjoy!

Christmas Chia Parfait w/ Coconut Whipped Cream

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Let me start by saying that the moment my family laid eyes on this parfait and had their first bite my mother took the initiative to immediately add this dish to our official Christmas family dinner menu. You can imagine how pleased I am that my vegan dishes are making its way to my very non vegan family’s dinner table. This one’s a winner! And you know what, after all those cupcakes and other indulging treats, this has to be the healthiest. Let’s call it a guilt free dessert/treat  super food!

Also this coconut whipped cream couldn’t be more…

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Earl Grey Muffins

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We’re in the middle of the holiday season, but to be honest, I’m not really feeling it. There’s so much happening in the world right now, that I’m not really feeling the holiday spirit this year, which is fine by me. I might not be blasting “all I want for Christmas” by Mariah Carey from my speakers, but we will be making it festive in the kitchen. One thing food has the power to do is to bring people together and to put a smile on someone’s face. So don’t worry, these weeks will be festive, I might even catch the jingle bugs along the way!

Aside from the holiday season we are in the middle of winter, if you live in the northern hemisphere that is, and one thing I associate with colder weather is tea, and lots of it! Now if you’d ask me for my favourite tea I’d say “a deliciously warming chai” but I’ve got a chai recipe in the works so for this recipe we are using another popular tea, earl grey.

Growing up I was obsessed with London Fog’s, which is basically earl grey tea with warm milk and vanilla. In this case we can speak of one plus one is two, why not turn a basically healthy tea into a indulging treat, because remember, were in the middle of the holiday season, so indulging foods are ok! And if you want to make it even more indulging (which has become another word for disgustingly unhealthy, but yum) you can make a pink cinnamon/vanilla frosting to go along. Just take a few tbsp’s of vegan butter and whip this up with some vanilla, cinnamon and powdered sugar until you get a nice thick and sweet frosting. 

Earl Grey Muffin1

To be quite honest, I was going to make an earl grey cookie recipe, but didn’t feel like putting in the extra work, so I decided to go with muffins. This is a testament to how easy this recipe is, I didn’t mix wet and dry separate and didn’t even bother making a flax egg, no I threw everything in a bowl and it worked out perfect! You can see it as a life lesson if you might, since sometimes we over complicate things, while sometimes we should just throw everything into a bowl and hope for the best. 

Now let’s get to it, pre heat that oven and make yourself some delicious muffins, and don’t forget to pour yourself a cup of tea to go along with it, or not if you’re not into tea. 

I hope you enjoyed this post, and feel free to leave a comment below, or to tag me in your recreations on Instagram and don’t forget to like my Facebook page.

One Love,

A.J.

Earl Grey Muffins

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Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 23 mins
Total Time 33 mins
Course Baked Goods, Dessert/Snack, Pies and cakes
Cuisine Vegan
Servings 8 Muffins

Ingredients
  

  • 3 tea bags organic earl grey
  • 1/3 cup raw cane sugar
  • 3/4 cup non dairy milk
  • 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
  • 1/4 cup vegan butter melted (or vegetable/coconut oil)
  • 1/2 cup agave
  • 1 tsp vinegar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 3/4 cup flour

Instructions
 

  • Start by preheating your oven to 175 degrees Celcius or 350 Farenheit. Open three tea bags of organic earl grey and adding this together with the sugar to a (bullet) blender. Pulse this until you get a fine powder.
  • You can make a separate flax egg first, by adding about 4 tbsp of water to 2 tbsp flax meal and letting it sit for about 5 minutes. But you can also just throw everything in a bowl, like I did. Now grab a bowl and add the flax seeds, non dairy milk, butter/vegetable oil, agave, vinegar and vanilla extract. Whisk well and let it sit for about 5 minutes. After this you can add the baking powder, soda and flour and whisk until you get a nice thick batter.
  • Grease 8 muffin tins and evenly distribute the batter. Place these on a baking tray and put them in the oven for about 23 minutes or until you poke them and the skewer comes out clean. Now remove them from the oven and let them cool before eating. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Steamed Buns w/ Spicy Bean Filling

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This will be my third steamed bun recipe and I’m not even close to being finished. Now since where in the middle of the holiday season I’d like to give a twist to the regular bao buns with some sweet potato bun with a spicy bean filling, this one’s a winner! These buns are different from the other two recipes, which you can find here and here, instead of being open, these buns are closed and filled with a delicious spicy bean mixture.

Sweet Potato Buns7One of the reason I love steamed buns is because of the texture of the bread, it’s so soft and fluffy and because of the steam gets a nice and smooth “skin”. Adding sweet potato to the dough makes the dough a little sweet and adds a nice colour to the buns, to enhance the colour I also added a bit of turmeric, not only does this give the buns a lovely golden colour, it also adds to the nutrition of these buns, they’re basically super foods now, just kidding, or am I? All jokes aside my family loved these buns, and anytime a non vegan can’t deny the deliciousness of a vegan meal you know you did something right!

With these buns I’m paying homage to my Creole and Chinese roots by fusing the idea of Chinese steamed buns with a filling inspired by Surinamese cooking. The filling has celery leaves and adjuma peppers which are two ingredients often used in Surinamese cuisine and two ingredients I love working with. One to thing keep in mind if you can get your hands on the peppers and decide to use them is that they are very spicy so you might want to use chilli pepper instead or skip it all together. 

Sweet Potato Buns4To simplify the recipe I just made simple round balls, but you can play around with the design while closing the bun to create a more authentic look. You can also play around with the filling and even the colour of the dough by adding different natural food colourings. But no matter what you’ll do these bao buns will definitely have you asking for more!

I’m currently storing a batch in the freezer and fridge to see how long they’ll stay good and if they’re freezer friendly, so once I’m done testing I’ll edit my findings in this post.

For now go ahead and make some yourself, let’s get to it!

I hope you enjoyed this post, and feel free to leave a comment below, or to tag me in your recreations on Instagram and don’t forget to like my Facebook page.

One Love,

A.J.

Sweet Potato Steamed Buns

A festive bao with a spicy bean filling.
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Prep Time 30 mins
Cook Time 15 mins
Total Time 1 hr 45 mins
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Vegan
Servings 10 buns

Ingredients
  

dough

  • 1 cup non dairy milk
  • 2 tbsp raw cane sugar
  • 1 pack instant yeast
  • 1 medium sweet potato
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp backing powder
  • 3 1/4 cup flour
  • turmeric optional

Filling

  • 250 grams kidney beans
  • 1 large red onion
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 handful celery leaves
  • 1 tsp 5 spice
  • 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 1/2 adjuma pepper (optional)
  • to taste salt + pepper

Instructions
 

Filling

  • Start by chopping the onion, garlic and carrot. Sauté these in some oil on a medium/low heat for about 5 minutes (If you don't eat oil try using water). Now add the remaining ingredients and cook for about 10 minutes while mashing some of the beans in the process, this will make filling the buns a bit easier, while adding a nice texture to the filling. Add salt and pepper to taste and let the filling completely chill.

Buns

  • To make the dough we start by activating the yeast. Take a bowl and add the warm water and sugar and add the pack of yeast. Now let this bloom for about 5 to 10 minutes in a warm place.
  • Once the yeast has bloomed add the oil, mashed sweet potato, backing powder and flour to the bowl and mix until you get a soft and dough. I let the food processor mix the dough for about 15 minutes or so. You can also kneed it by hand. During this process you can add turmeric to enhance the colour. Now add the ball of dough to a bowl, cover it and set it somewhere warm to let it rise for about 60 minutes.
  • Once the dough has doubled in size take kneed the dough a little and separate the dough into little balls. Using a rolling pin flatten them out until about 1/4 of an inch and add a small table spoon of the filling in the middle. Now pinch to close the tops and roll it into a little ball.
  • Add a piece of parchment paper in your steamer and place the buns on top. I used a large steamer so i steamed about 5 buns at the time, keep in mind that they grow inside the steamer. Steam the buns for about 15 minutes and they are ready to be served. Enjoy.

Let’s try #3: Magioni Beet Pizza

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By now you might now that I love trying out new vegan products, especially when it comes to food, let’s face it I’m a foodie. Another thing you might know from me is that I love eating vibrant and colourful foods. Now with this knowledge on hand, you can understand I couldn’t resist myself when I saw this pink pizza crust lying in my supermarket fridge. It’s made using beets and another bunch of ingredients (all vegan I checked, not even a pinch of palm oil, win!), so excuse me while I call this a warm and crisp salad. Another thing I’d like to point out is that these posts are not sponsored unless it’s stated as “sponsored content”.

Magioni1

For as far I know this specific product is only available in the Netherlands at the Albert Heijn supermarkets, but I’m sure there are more beet pizza crusts around the world so keep reading for a yummy recipes, you’ll love it! You can apply these toppings to any store-bought or home-made pizza crust, its simple yet delicious.

The company itself hasn’t been around long, they are not exclusively vegan, but remember we vote with our money, so I’m always stoked to see non vegan companies making vegan products. Keep letting them know we are out there! Now I’m not gonna lie, I was skeptical when I first heard of this pizza, I was scared it would be to dry and crumbly. 

I was pleasantly surprised when I took my first bite, the pizza wasn’t dry at all and the bottom and crust had a nice crunch, another thing that I noticed is that the pizza didn’t weigh me down and was easily digested. Would I buy it again? I’m sure I will! You know those days where you’re feeling tired and don’t want to spend more than five minutes preparing food but don’t want to eat out or order food, well this is one of those dishes that’s perfect for those days!

Now of course I can’t let you go without a delicious recipe right!? Ok to be honest this is to simply to even call a recipe.

Magioni2Ingredients:

  • Pizza Crust. I obviously used this beet pizza crust but any store-bought or home-made crust will work.
  • Tomato sauce
  • Cherry tomatoes, cut in slices
  • Olives, cut in slices
  • Hot peppers (optional), I used adjuma peppers, but keep in mind that my stomach is lined with sheets of metal and I’m basically a dragon.
  • Hummus, store-bought or home-made,
  • Arugula
  • Sun dried tomatoes
  • Hot sauce (optional)

Directions:

  1. Start by adding the tomato sauce on top of the pizza crust, I used about 4 tbsp, but I’d say add as much as your heart desires. 
  2. Now place the remaining ingredients, except the arugula, on top of the pizza and add dollops of hummus, let’s pretend its mozzarella.
  3. Now cook the pizza in a preheated oven, this pizza had to cook for about 8 to 12 minutes in a temperature of 200°C or about 400°F
  4. Add the arugula (and optionally hot sauce) on top en enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this post, and feel free to leave a comment below sharing your favourite vegan product with me, or to tag me in your recreations on Instagram and don’t forget to like my Facebook page.

One Love,

A.J.

Sweet Potato/Eggplant Casserole

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If you’d ask me what my most comforting types of dishes are I’d go with soups, curries and casseroles, I’m definitely a savoury type of guy. Since we’re in the middle of the holiday seasons it’s about time we start sharing some delicious comforting dishes to share with the entire family. See this is what’s so amazing about casseroles, they are the perfect dish to share with friend, families or random strangers on the street! I’ll be serving this for my family and friends during christmas, its easy, affordable and of course delicious!

Every time I visit my sister-in-law she always makes the most delicious vegan dishes specially for me, one of my favourite dishes she makes for me is an eggplant dish similar to this from the oven, containing a tomato sauce and fried eggplants. No matter how many different dishes there are I always go for that one first! I love making dishes that spark my memory and this is definitely one, every time I eat it I’ll be reminded of the times I visit my brother and sister-in-law and their loving home.

Eggplant CasseroleEggplant Casserole1

This casserole is a dish with a layer of sweet potato, chickpeas and baked eggplants topped with a delicious savoury tomato/coconut sauce. Instead of frying the eggplant I decided to bake it first to cut down the oil needed, especially since eggplant acts like a sponge. You can obviously sub certain ingredients if they don’t fit your taste. For example try using regular potatoes instead of sweet or maybe add zucchini and use a different kind of bean instead of chickpeas, there are so many options! If you are HCLF you can even try baking it without oil, I’m not an expert so I don’t know how this will work out, but feel free to let me know!

Now let’s get baking! And feel free to leave a comment below sharing your favourite casserole dish with me, or to tag me in your recreations on Instagram and don’t forget to like my Facebook page.

One Love,

A.J.

Sweet Potato/Eggplant Casserole

A warming and easy to make casserole perfect for the holidays, show your family and friends how delicious plant based foods are.
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Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 1 hr
Total Time 1 hr 15 mins
Course Main Dish, Side Dish
Cuisine Vegan
Servings 6 people

Ingredients
  

Baked Eggplants

  • 2 eggplants
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsbp garam masala
  • 1 tsp chilli powder (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • to taste salt

Casserole

  • 2 sweet potatoes about 500 grams
  • 1 can chickpeas
  • 2 cups tomato sauce
  • 1 cup full fat coconut milk
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 tsp ras el hanout
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • to taste salt

Instructions
 

Baked Eggplant

  • First we start by making the baked eggplants (you can also fry them, but I like to bake them as this uses less oil). Preheat your oven to 175 degrees celcius and make the oil mixture by adding the spices to the oil in your casserole dish (add salt to taste), this way your dish gets greased for the second part of this recipe. Slice the eggplants into about half an inch thick disks (or 1 centimeter) cover them all with the oil mixture and spread them out on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake them for about 20 to 30 minutes (depending on your oven) while flipping them halfway through. Remove them from the oven to finish the casserole.

Casserole

  • Increase the heat of your oven to 200 degrees celcius. Start by mixing the tomato sauce, garlic, coconut milk, ras el hanout, cumin and salt to taste. Now peel and cut your sweet potatoes the same way you did the eggplant, in disks. Place them on the bottom of the casserole dish, cover these with the drained and washed chickpeas. Now place your baked eggplant on top and cover it with the sauce. Bake it for about 40 to 45 minutes (depending on your oven). Remove the dish from the oven and it's ready to serve. Enjoy!

Raspberry Oats & Blueberry Chia Pudding

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Two for the price of one, who doesn’t like a good bargain! In this post I’ll share a recipe for both, a blueberry açai chia pudding and a raspberry oatmeal. Both recipes are super easy to make and quite delicious.

This breakfast is so fast that within minutes you’ll have a delicious and filling breakfast. I love adding warming spices to my oatmeal, but lately I’ve been having a huge frozen berry craving, especially in my oatmeal, it’s almost like adding a natural sweetener. You can add…

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Chickpea Stuffed Butternut Squash

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Since the squash season is almost coming to an end, and the holiday season is right around the corner it’s about time we’d be making some stuffed butternut squash. Stuffed butternut squash is one of the first dishes I ate when deciding to go vegan and since that day it holds had a special place in my heart  stomach. The recipe I made that day is hidden somewhere in my note books, I remember it had the most delicious quinoa filling, but today we’ll be making a chickpea stuffed butternut squash.

…

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Rainbow foods and why I love them

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Before finding myself living a vegan lifestyle I dove into the realm of the chakra diet. This diet was brought to my attention through my yoga and meditation practice and I found videos and post online telling me how this diet would balance out my chakras, which was exactly the thing I was looking for. At this time in my life I was at my lowest and looked for any means of relief and help, I was on a mission to heal my body, mind and soul.

Rainbow Salad

Now did eating colourful food free me from my depression and did it release me from all the issues I was dealing with? No, it did not do these things, but it was a co factor in creating a more stable and healthy lifestyle, which directly contributes to my physical and mental well-being. I still do believe that “balancing out the chakra’s” so to say is something very helpful as I believe that we are all being of energy so keeping this energy in balance is quite important! Does eating colourful food do this? Yes I believe so. 

Rainbow Sushi

Each colour found in food has its unique properties, for example orange coloured foods contain alpha and beta carotene which your converts to vitamin A and promotes healthy bones, eyes and immune system. I’m not a nutritionist but each and every colour found in food has its own nutritious properties, that’s one thing for sure! 

Beet Noodles2

Not only are colourful foods healthy for your body and soul but it also does something to the mind. I mean come on who doesn’t like to see a colourful plate of food. We first eat with our eyes, so why not present our foods in the most beautiful way possible. Of course I don’t always go all out and have some simple and less colourful foods, but whenever given the chance I will fill my plate with as many colours as possible. Even if foods are plain colours I love to use plants and whole food powders to add some colour to the mix to create a colourful and vibrant dish. I’ll leave some links to some colourful recipes like this recipe for a colourful beet salad (you’ll love this if you hate beets) or this recipe for rainbow sushi. Sometimes it might be as simple as colouring the rice, and yes sometimes I get a bit carried away and create things like this rice ball to go with the most delicious curry (recipe on its way). 

Shiny Espeon

I will make an in-depth post on natural food colouring so keep your eyes peeled for that, and I hoped that this post gave you a little inspo to make your own colourful dishes, lets balance those chakra’s and feed our bodies with food that will make us shine from the inside out.

Chia Pudding

One Love,

A.J.

Bao Of The Month: Green Bao

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From now on we’ll have a new bao bun recipe every month! Let’s call it the Bao Of The Month and let’s make it colourful! I could easily make a sandwich of the month but I definitely prefer steamed buns over sandwiches, they’re like little clouds filled with deliciousness, who doesn’t want to eat clouds? This months bao is a green one, filled with some greens and a chickpea mash spiced with garam masala. 

These buns are actually super easy to make, especially since I’ve started using my food processor to make the dough. We only need to rise the dough once, and let the steam do the rest, voila!…

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