Whenever I make this dip, I have people asking me for the recipe. It is fantastic. The funny thing about it is that I don’t like peppers, and I’m not crazy about sun dried tomatoes, but put them together, and they make this beautiful, tasty dip that works with vegetables, crackers, or even as a pasta ‘sauce’. It’s a keeper, for sure.
Two Pepper Dip
Recipe Type: Dip
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 500ml
Whenever I make this dip, people ask me for the recipe. It’s a fabulous, forgiving, and thoroughly yum recipe. The amounts are a guide – I pretty much free hand it.
Ingredients
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 cup cashews
1 garlic clove
5-7 sun dried tomatoes
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
100ml oil from sundried tomatoes or olive oil
Instructions
Add all the ingredients into a food processor. Add the olive oil steadily, till the dip is the consistency you want.
Blend together briefly for a chunky dip or pasta sauce, and longer for a smooth dip.
In the Thermomix, this takes about 8 seconds on speed 10.
Apart from my two pregnancies, I’ve always been a meat eater, but after almost ten years of supermarket meat in the UK my husband and I decided that we would rather reduce the number of times a week that we eat meat, and buy organic meat to eat less often. This has worked exceptionally well and the meat we’ve been eating in the last two months has been amazing. In the balance, however, has been more vegetarian meals.
Once upon a time I assumed a veggie meal meant salad with a side of cucumber. Not my favourite. But while it’s taken a few years, I’ve finally grown to understand how good vegetarian food can be.
I was recently invited to be part of the Parragon Books book club, and one of the first books I’ve received to review was the Love Food Vegetarian Step-By-Step cookbook*.
I am loving this book.
It really is ideal for beginner cooks, whether they’re five or 35, as each recipe uses basic, relatively simple ingredients, and a really good step by step guide to the directions.
The book is beautifully illustrated, with all the ingredients laid out in the first picture, what it all looks like in the preparation, and finally, the end result.
Another thing that is absolutely fabulous about this book is the fact that bits and pieces of recipes can be used together or apart. For example I used only the Cheese Pastry sticks bit of the Celeriac Soup With Cheese Pastry Sticks recipe. It’s nicely set out that you can, even as a beginner, choose the bits you want.
I own many cook books, most of which I know I’ll only ever make four or five recipes out of, but in this book, there are no recipes that I can say no, I’ll definitely never make that. It’s set to become a favourite, for sure.
A lovely vegetarian dish, ideal on it’s own or served as a side to something else. Easily adaptable too, if you don’t have the same vegetables feel free to use others. Don’t skip the pine nuts though – they totally make the dish. The instructions differ a little from the original, but work out perfectly.
Ingredients
2 peppers, deseeded and cut into chunky pieces
1 large courgette, cut into chunks
1 small fennel bulb, cut into slim wedges
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
100g/3.5 oz quinoa
350ml/12 fl oz vegetable stock
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tbsp flat leaf parsley
40g 1.5 oz pine nuts, toasted
salt and pepper
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
Lightly toast the pine nuts in a hot pan and set aside to cool.
Chop vegetables and put in a bowl.
Drizzle over olive oil and mix so that it covers all the vegetables.
Arrange the chopped vegetables in a single layer in a roasting tin.
Roast for 25 – 30 minutes.
Place the quinoa, stock and garlic in a saucepan (or in the Thermomix), bring to the boil and cover to simmer for 12 – 15 minutes, or until the quinoa is tender and most of the stock has been absorbed.
Mix the quinoa in with the vegetables and top with the toasted pine nuts and flat leaf parsley, and serve immediately.
3.2.2029
*affiliate link. It won’t cost you any extra to buy through this link, but Amazon will give me 5% of the sale price, which goes towards helping paying for this blog. Thanks for supporting us!
I was watching a show on TV where the chef made a bread very similar to my usual bread recipe, but instead of olive oil, she added seed oil, and then added a lot of nuts. and seeds. I have a very good seedbread recipe, so I wasn’t overly desperate to try a new one, but when she added honey I remembered the honey and rosemary bread that a Thermomix demonstrator in Australia had made for us, and I suddenly thought I had to try something similar combining the two ideas into one bread. Here is the very delicious result of that experiment.
Honey Rosemary Twist Bread
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
650g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tsp salt
7g sachet or two teaspoons of fast action dried yeast
4 teaspoons of honey
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 – 4 tbsp chopped rosemary
350g (1.5 cups) warm water
Instructions
Add everything to your bowl in the order mentioned.
In the Thermomix, mix for 20 seconds, then knead for 3 minutes.
If you’re using a different processor or kneading by hand, you need to knead it until it is firm and springy, about 10 minutes (i.e. if you dent it with your finger, it should spring back to cover the dent)
Divide the dough into three, and roll out each ball into a long strip.
Twist each strip into a twisty rope, then put all three together and twist again into one big twist.
Place on your baking tray – I use a gorgeous Pampered Chef stone bake tray which is perfect for breads – in a circle.
Cover for 30 minutes to let it rise.
Switch on the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6 now and place the bread inside, letting it cook for 20 minutes as the oven heats up and reaches temperature.
The loaf is cooked when it sounds hollow when tapped underneath. If not, then give it another five minutes or so in the oven.
Once ready remove from the oven and serve with salad. It also goes really well with red meat or roasted butternut soup, or anything that goes well with rosemary.
I’ve put loads of effort into my gardenthis year, and to be honest, thus far, it hasn’t really paid off! I’m hoping now that summer’s finally arrived, we may have better luck. It certainly can’t get much worse.
That said, the one thing in my garden that’s been glorious, and a steady producer, has been the Kale plant.
I do like Kale, but planted this specially for Kale chips, and maybe some smoothies. I find Kale generally rubbery and tough, and eat it because it’s good for me. Unfortunately I don’t know what variety of Kale I planted, but the leaves are smaller than the ones in the shop, and much more tender, making a delicious raw salad.
{Festival Of Food} Kale & Parmesan Summer Salad
Recipe Type: Side Dish, Salad
Cuisine: Healthy, Salad, Summer
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 3
A lovely, light, spring time salad, perfect with baby kale, soft, tender and juicy. There’s no science to the quantities here – just use what you have. Three cups of kale pretty much loosely fills the TM31 bowl.
Ingredients
(60g) 5 Tablespoons Olive Oil, Divided
(15g) 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
3 cups (750ml) Stemmed And Sliced Kale
(60g) ⅓ cup (80ml) Grated Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
Whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil until well blended.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
In a large bowl, toss together the kale, dressing, and Parmesan cheese.
Enjoy!
3.2.2885
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Please take a moment to visit the blogs of our other Festival of Food participants. The links in this list will be live by the end of the day, as participants are all in different time zones.
Amy at Anktangle details two different methods of preserving hearty summer greens (such as kale and chard) so you can enjoy the variety—and nutritional benefits!—year-round. You can also follow Amy on Facebook.
Stay connected! Be sure to “Like” the Festival of Food Carnival Facebook page.
This recipe features in A Very Thermie Christmas, where you can find it and 50 other recipes perfect for a Thermomix assisted Christmas. Read more about it here.
A few weeks ago I was at the Britmums conference, where I attended a food blogging session. One of the comments that came up in that session was that new or uncertain cooks like to have a step by step picture guide of how the recipe should look at every step. As an amateur-home-must-feed-the-children cook, I don’t really have time to take photos of every step of the food making process, but when this opportunity to share a food video came along I thought I’d post it especially for those of you who like a step by step guide.
In this Rayburns Cast Iron Oven video, the chef, Dick Strawbridge produces crispy golden croutons and delicious moist chicken, perfect for this Chicken Caesar Salad. (Do watch the video, but read through the instructions too, as he skips steps and throws some surprise ingredients at you if you haven’t read through it first!)
Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
100g (31/2 oz) parmesan cheese
3 garlic gloves
6 anchovy fillets, chopped
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 egg
4 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for frying
2 thick slices of bread
2 teaspoons fresh lemon thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
450g (14 ½ oz) chicken breasts, cut into chunky strips
2 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, cut into small pieces
I’ve been teasing people with this recipe for two days now, not because I’m mean, but because I simply haven’t had the time to write it up, but here it is. We’ll call it version one, because I have some changes I want to make to it, but my husband taster said that’ll make it a different desert, so maybe I can justify having two chocolatey puddings close to each other. No one minds, right?
First thing to remember with this desert is that despite it’s sugar free, dairy free, wheat free appearance, it’s still really high in calories, so pace yourself. On the up side, it’s so incredibly rich a few tablespoons each should do you just fine. My friend Emily wanted to top it with lemon shavings for decoration. I hadn’t thought of that, but good point, Emily! Next time.
Despite the high calorie count – see the nutritional information at the end of the post – they are at least good calories, and good for you, filled with healthy stuff.
Either way, it is utterly delicious. It absolutely ends any sugar cravings, and fulfills the sweet tooth, completely. I left this a little bit nutty, but you can make it entirely smooth by blending it longer.
Let me know what you think!
Raw Nutty Chocolate Mousse
Recipe Type: Raw, Desert
Cuisine: Raw
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 3
A gorgeous summery, delicious, healthy desert that blows your sweet tooth and chocolate cravings out the water.
Ingredients
2 cups cashews (500ml)
4 dates – more if you prefer a sweeter desert
1/4 cup coconut oil (80ml)
1/4 cup cacao powder(80ml)
1/4 cup (80ml) + 2 tablespoons syrup of choice
1/2 cup water (125ml)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Instructions
Add all the ingredients in the order listed, and blend until smooth.
In the Thermomix, that’s speed 10 for about 90 seconds. If you want a smoother texture, blend longer.
Scoop into serving dishes and refrigerate for at least fifteen minutes to cool it down and allow the coconut oil to set a little.
Mmmmmm Pecan Pie! I was in a cooking mood (Well, technically ‘Uncooking’ hehe) but my cupboards were looking rather bare. Pecans! I had loads of pecans. So naturally the first thought to pop into my head was PECAN PIE. Yum. But not any old fatty, creamy pie, this pie is raw, sugar free, vegan, gluten free, made with a couple of wholesome, healthy ingredients. You can make them as big or small as you want. You could double the recipe and make one big pie or lots of mini ones. I put mine into silicon cupcake cases and it’s a great size and made them easy to take out, Perfect!
Ingredients
For the base:
1 Cup Nuts – I used half cashew, half almond and that worked well
3 Medjool Dates – Or if not medjool, use a few more and soak in water for 30mins before using
Pinch of salt
For the Filling:
1/2 Cup Pecans
1/2 Cup Medjool Dates (about 6) same as above if not using medjool
1/2 Vanilla bean pod, scrape the seeds out – or a couple of drops of vanilla extract
1-2 Tbsp Water – enough to make the paste soft and smooth
Also don’t forget some extra Pecans for the top – amount varies on how big or small you make your pies
Instructions
For the base : In a Thermomix or food processor combine all of the ingredients and blend until the pieces are broken down and stick together when pressed. Spoon evenly into your desired pan or cupcake cases. I used silicon to help with removal.
Press down gently to create a thin, even crust on the bottom and sides.
Put them in the freezer while making the filling.
For the filling: Place the dates, vanilla & pecans in a Thermomix or food processor.
Add about 1-2 tbsp fresh water and blend until smooth and gooey, scraping down the sides often.
Spoon into the chilled crusts and top with extra pecans.
Place in refrigerator and allow pies to set for at least 1 hour.
For ages I kept hearing about the benefits of Maca powder and its superfood powers. I finally got around to getting some and was full of excitement and dumped a good heaped tablespoon of it into my smoothie…YUK! Lets just say Maca has a strong flavour. So when first starting out with it, less is more! I then cut down the amount I used and it still seemed to overpower most things. It does have a slight caramel taste to it so I paired it up with these ingredients and it makes for a really yummy, comforting, but super healthy smoothie. Enjoy!
Apple Strudel Smoothie with Maca Powder
Recipe Type: Breakfast
Author: Charlotte
Serves: 1-2
For ages I kept hearing about the benefits of Maca powder and its superfood powers. I finally got around to getting some and was full of excitement and dumped a good heaped tablespoon of it into my smoothie…YUK! Lets just say Maca has a strong flavour. So when first starting out with it, less is more! I then cut down the amount I used and it still seemed to overpower most things. It does have a slight caramel taste to it so paired it up with these ingredients and it makes for a really yummy, comforting, but super healthy smoothie. Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 Granny smith apple, cored and quartered
3 Dates
1/4 Cup Walnuts
1/2 tsp -1tsp Raw, Organic Maca powder
1/2 tsp Organic Mesquite powder
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1 Small banana
1-2 Cups of Milk, I usually use almond milk.
Instructions
Put everything into the Thermomix or blender and blend until smooth.
I start with one cup of milk and add more if it’s too thick for my liking.
Every now and then, this girl just needs chocolate. Colour me wrong, but sometimes, I just need chocolate. Today was one of those days. No sooner was my youngest riding off into dreamland, and I was in the kitchen throwing together a chocolate brownie. This one uses Rapadura and hazelnuts, so it’s not perfect, but it’s better than refined sugar.
The calorie count difference between rapadura and brown sugar is minimal, maybe one or two, but the big difference between them is in the vitamin c and iron percentages. 200g of sugar contains no vitamin c, and 5% iron, while 200g of rapadura contains 7% vitamin c and 42% iron. You’re still having the calories, but at least you’re getting something good with them.
Ice cream, lovely as it is, is not exactly good for you. It’s sugary, fatty, and well, yum.
But, it’s summer, and when my children want ice cream, I’d rather give them something full of vitamin C, iron and B Vitamins: enter Rapadura Ice Cream. Now, sometimes I’ll have a nice, healthy yoghurt ice cream on hand, which is by far my preference for the children, but everyone cheats some times.
The rapadura gives this ice cream a really rich, caramel flavour, which I find delicious.
I use my Thermomix to mix this up, but you can use any blender or food processor. It’s also preferable to use an ice cream maker, and if you don’t have one – I don’t – use a steel container. I don’t have one of those easier, so I just use any old bowl, and it works a charm.
{Slightly} Healthier Ice Cream With Rapadura
Recipe Type: Ice Cream
Cuisine: Sweets
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 10
I make ice cream in the Thermomix. If you have an ice cream maker, you can use the same ingredients but follow manufacturer instructions. If you have neither, use a regular blender for this recipe.
Whenever I make this dip, I have people asking me for the recipe. It is fantastic. The funny thing about it is that I don’t like peppers, and I’m not crazy about sun dried tomatoes, but put them together, and they make this beautiful, tasty dip that works with vegetables, crackers, or even as a pasta ‘sauce’. It’s a keeper, for sure.
