Raw Apple Tart

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Raw apple tart

An apple a day keeps the doctor away! As well as being crunchy and tasty, apples are packed with vitamin C great for your immune system and prevent you from heart disease, cancers, bad cholesterol and tooth decay. The quercetin content in the apple skin helps to reduce inflammation. Cinnamon also reduces inflammation and balances blood sugar. Apple and cinnamon is a match made in heaven! It sounds like a yummy dessert, right? But it is more like breakfast or morning snack. I will explain why…

Have you had a hotel buffet breakfast before? Yes.
Did you go for bacon, eggs, bread, etc before fruits? Did you feel tired after eating? Maybe yes.  Oh no. I bet your stomach was not that happy 🙁
If you’ve had no problems before, then lucky you! you have super strong stomach.

You need to have fruit only in the morning, not after midday. The reason being is your liver that works hard to eliminate all waste from your body is most active between midnight and midday. Fresh fruits don’t require the liver function that much and get digested pretty quickly within 30 minutes. So ideally you have fruits until midday to let your liver work. I don’t follow this rule to be honest, but I do eat fruits alone before having other foods because if you have starches and protein with or before fruits, the fruits get caught in the stomach and start fermenting, which makes acid and indigestion. I hope it makes sense. So big No No to fruit dessert! If you want fruits for dessert, have desserts before main! better for your stomach. Digestion requires quite a bit of energy. So if you stuff up, there is no wonder why you feel more tired after eating.

Raw apple tart

My first attempt to make raw apple tart. Simple ingredients, no oven required, real quick, fool-proof and delicious!

For the base
I used 150g of blanched raw almonds, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder, 1 teaspoon of tahini and a pinch of Himalayan sea salt. Put all ingredients in a food processor and whiz up until it gets paste consistency (it might take a while, be patient!). Spread well with back of the spoon or your fingers at the bottom of baking tin. Keep in the fridge while you are making fillings.

For the filling
Thinly slice 6 small granny smith apples. Mix with maple syrup, coconut vinegar, cinnamon powder, ground nutmeg in a big bowl and sit aside for 30minutes. Then put the mixture in a food processor. I like to have still big chunks in mine, but you can blend really fine if you like. Spread mixture on top of the base. Put it in the freezer for 30 mins to 1 hour until the tart feels firm to touch. Slice them up squares or triangles (sharp knife in hot runny water should help if you struggle to cut). Serve cold with thick Greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey on the side.

Variations: you can add pitted dates in the base to make it sweeter and easily bind together. You can also add apple puree in the tart filling between the layers of apples. Top with granola, coconut chips, raisins, etc to decorate.

Posted in: Dessert, Gluten Free, My recipes, Snack, Vegetarian

Raw Kale Salad

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Kale Salad

Having raw salad can be a little challenging for your digestion. I don’t go 100% raw diet, but when I cook my veggies I always cook them al dente with very little water to preserve all good nutrition. I made sautéed kale salad with garlic and mushrooms before. Today it is massaged kale salad with cottage cheese, walnuts and pomegranates. It is super easy to make. And wilted kale has soft texture although it is raw.

5 heads of kale
1 table spoon of coconut oil
a table spoon of coconut vinegar (white wine vinegar if you don’t have it)
a teaspoon of celery salt (sea salt or any kind you have at home)
100g cottage cheese
handful of walnuts (any nuts of your choice)
1 pomegranate
pomegranate molasses
salt and pepper

Wash and drain 5 heads of kale. Get rid of tough stems and tear leaves into small pieces. I then added kale leaves, coconut oil, coconut vinegar and celery salt in a big mixing bowl. Make sure your hands are clean. Start massaging and wilting down kale (it should take only a few minutes). Mix cottage cheese, walnuts and pomegranates to the kale salad. Serve with pomegranate dressing – pomegranate molasses (you can use pomegranate juice + honey instead), coconut vinegar, e.v.o.o, salt and pepper. It can easily serve 4-6 people. Just add your preferred protein on the side.

Food blog26

Posted in: Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, salads, Vegetarian

Tofu Steak with Carrot Salad

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Tofu steak

Seasoned and grilled, tofu breaks out of its typical image of being bland and tasteless. Tofu is so versatile you can put any spice or sauce of your choice. Growing up in Korea, one of my favorite dishes was pan-fried tofu with soy sesame sauce. It is damn simple but so tasty.

For tofu steak, you need to pat dry a block of firm tofu, slice about 1cm thick, lightly coat with rice flour and spice, pan-fry with coconut oil for about 3-4 minutes each side until outside is brown and crispy. I like mine to be still firm texture, but for more crispy skin you can use egg and breadcrumbs. You can serve grilled tofu with salads like me or serve with rice and soy sauce for more Asian flavour. Some people marinate tofu for hours or even a day before cooking if you want tofu to soak up all the flavour. To make soy dressing, combine soy sauce or tamari, minced garlic and ginger, chopped spring onion, sake or cooking wine, sesame seeds and sesame oil. Drizzle over the steak and enjoy!

For the salads I mixed cooked French lentils, grated orange and purple carrots, red onion and green salads. It is raw, refreshing, crunch and colourful.

Tofu steak

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, Vegetarian

Mixed Bean Casserole

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Bean Casserole

I like bean casserole for Sunday brunch or light lunch. I made this for our lunch today. I forgot to soak beans this morning, so had to go down to the shops to get a canned bean 🙁 I try not to use canned foods but sometimes like today I have to. Boiling un-soaked beans can be a pain – taking way too long and not getting desired soft tender beans. Just make sure when you use canned beans, you need to drain and rinse thoroughly. Oh well.. I will be more prepared next time. My trick is to add cayenne pepper and preserved lemon in the casserole dishes, which gives nice kick and subtle lemony taste. It really makes a difference and gives much more flavour compared to when using just tomato based sauce. Runny egg right in the middle and melted brie cheese also adds creaminess to the dish as if I used butter to it. Delicious! Please don’t use a canned baked beans on toast for your breakfast, which is full of salt and preservatives. Make your own with your favorite ingredients!

1 can of mixed beans – Don’t be lazy like me. Soak your beans for a few hours or preferably over night. Any kinds of beans are good. Chick peas, broad beans, red kidney beans, black beans, etc
2 medium sized carrot
1/2 zucchini
1/3 green spring onion
1/2 preserved lemon, optional
basil
1 heap table spoon of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, optional
50g brie cheese
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Cook your veggies and sauce in a wok or pan until they are cooked. Transfer to casserole dish. Make a little well and crack egg into it. Put brie cheese and spring onions on top. Microwave or bake in the preheated oven (180) until eggs are done to your liking. Drizzle e.v.o.o before serve. There is not really a rule making this bean casserole dish. Use whatever you like or you have in the fridge.

Posted in: Baking, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes

Chicken Green Curry

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Chicken Green Curry

I’m not a curry person. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve had a few bad dining experience in Indian restaurant or I don’t like too strong curry flavour. When I went to this Indian restaurant in Northbridge years ago, Goat curry was my very first curry I had ever tried – fail! way too strong. I could even chew raw garlic and ginger and goat meat was tough like jerky >.< Then I tried another curry house where I had tandoori chicken with naan bread – fail again! dry chicken and greasy naan. So that kind of put me off a little from Indian curry. I prefer more mild version of Korean or Japanese or Thai curry. Our Sunday lunch was Thai chicken green curry. I have to admit I took a short-cut using a packet of green curry paste from the shop, which was why I felt like something missing in the flavour. Maybe more lemongrass and green chilli would have been nice although chicken breast was cooked perfectly – juicy. I served with mixed red rice and daikon kimchi.

I always mix different types of rice when I cook one because plain white rice is quite bland and has poor nutrition in it (high GI and carbohydrates). Red rice has more of a nutty flavour, crunchy texture, dietary fibre, vitamins and iron – yes, sounds better than white rice! Whole grains stabilise blood sugar level and make you full longer. So when you go down to the markets next time, try to grab some wild rice, red rice or brown rice. All the pretty colourful ones! If it is too tough in your palate or hard to digest, mix it through white rice how much you want. You just need to soak in water before cooking or take a bit longer to cook them. To make green curry more green, I used green spring onions, zucchini and coriander. Very satisfying yummy lunch in no time 🙂

I made my very first vanilla sago pudding for dessert using the left over coconut milk. So much coconut in my tummy today. It is fact that coconut milk contains high saturated fat, but also contains high levels of minerals like iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium and zinc. Saturated fat in coconut products has different structure (short and medium chain fatty acids), which means they provide good energy and nutrition to your body, but not stored as body fat. However, consuming too much of it obviously will lead to weight gain. Or if you already have high cholesterol level or a risk of cardiovascular disease, you need to limit your intake.

I like using coconut oil in stir-fries, baking and moisturiser for my skin, drinking coconut water for rehydration after exercise and coconut milk for delicious curry and dessert. So enjoy coconut in moderation for your health x

Chicken Green Curry

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes