Roasted persimmons…

I don’t have much imagery for this post, in fact, I can only offer you one photo; but I can elaborate verbally about this dish and hope that I capture your imagination…

Back in December, I came home from Costco with a box of persimmons, like you do, then realised that I was never going to be able to eat them all myself. I rarely eat fruit as it is, so 6 huge persimmons seemed like a mountain of fruit to me. Plus when I tried one, it wasn’t wholly ripe, or tasty. So I tried roasting some; why not, it works for vegetables, I thought it might perk up my persimmons.

And it did. The slices caramelised and sweetened. I tried some with some tahini sauce, a bit of yogurt and some toasted flaked almonds, and it made a perfect sweet treat…probably just a bit too sweet for me, so the yogurt and tahini were perfect ways to tone it down…

Following this experiment, over the festive period I decided to offer this as a dessert choice for my visiting family.

I cut the persimmons into segments, tossed them with a tiny amount of olive oil, then roasted them for 30-40 mins at 200C, moving them around the pan halfway through. Served with yoghurt, they provided a perfect alternative dessert.

The leftovers lasted a couple of days and were just as nice cold, again with yoghurt and another day with my porridge.

I highly recommend roasting your persimmons! I should imagine they are similar to roasted plums or peaches in consistency, and just provide something different 🙂

I shall be sharing this with everyone at this week’s Fiesta Friday, co hosted this week by Shinta and Diann….it’s been too long since I joined in!

What would you feed me…Chitra?

 This week’s guest post comes to you from the powerhouse that is Chitra’s Healthy Kitchen. I say powerhouse because Chitra posts healthy, wonderful recipes daily, her recipe log is massive, you are guaranteed to be inspired! Chitra’s aim is to share healthy recipes, often her healthy version of typical indian recipes, always complete with nutritional information, which, of course, highly appeals to me 🙂

So, this week, Chitra, what would you feed me?   

 When Elaine approached me for guest post, I was really thrilled and it was a great honour for me to be here. “What would you feed me” is a series of guest posts initiated by Elaine and I am glad to be part of it. It is a great opportunity given to me by her to meet new people thru her blog.

I get inspired by Elaine’s Vegetarian healthy recipes mainly Salads and Dips variations. Knowing Elaine’s inclination towards spices and sugar free dishes. I wanted to try something which fits to ‘What would you feed me’ series, as well her healthy blog concept, so tried this Spiced Kiwi Lassi instead of Sweet Lassi.

Thanks again Elaine for the opportunity.

  

Kiwi Lassi – Spiced:

About:

Smoothies/Drinks are quick and easy and are a real treat on warm days. This is a thick, rich, flavorful smoothie is cool and refreshing and can be taken as a light meal or can be served for breakfast. You can enjoy it any time of the day … Delicious and loaded with nutrients, I love that 🙂

Health Benefits:

Kiwi has more vitamin C than an orange and it’s seeds are rich in Omega 3 acids. Supports learning process, boost immunity system and helps your skin to glow.

Fennel seeds (Saunf) are very effective for digestive problems. These seeds can be chewed upon or had as a tea decoction for beneficial effects upon the stomach. In India, these are routinely chewed upon after meals to aid in digestion after a rich meal while acting as herbal mouth freshener.

Cardamom– Elaichi or cardamom not only does it add sweet taste and unique flavour to your dishes. Cardamom contains chemicals that appear to treat stomach and intestinal spasms and gas, and increase the movement of food through the intestine.

Yields -2 servings

Preparation time -10 minutes

Ingredients:

• Kiwi fruit- 4

• Plain greek yogurt-1cup

• Milk-1/2cup 

For Spices:

• Fresh mint leaves-8-10

• Cardamom-1pod

• Ground pepper-1/4tsp (or as per taste)

• Fennel seeds-1/2tsp

• Salt- a generous pinch ( I used black salt)

Procedure:

• Place all spices (ground pepper, cardamom pods, fennel seeds), salt , mint, in a blender and pulse until coarsely crushed.

• Now to this add kiwi fruit, yogurt, mint and continue to blend until smooth.

• You can add more milk to reach your desired consistency and ice if you like a frosty smoothie.

Enjoy.

Note:

• Spices can be personalised

• Consistency of Lassi can be altered too 

 

What a wonderful, fresh looking smoothie, and with the spices, a completely different take on fruit smoothies for me. Thank you so much, Chitra xx

What would you feed me…Melissa?

 

This week’s post is truly inspirational, and may well come at a perfect time for some of you if you’ve overindulged over Easter…

When I invited Melissa from The Glen House to take part in my guest post series I knew that it may well be a challenge for her to fulfil the guidelines of bringing a vegetarian, sugar free, gluten free, healthy dish, but she jumped at the chance of being involved, which made me very happy! Lovely, friendly, vivacious, Melissa makes amazing cakes, she loves baking, and eats very differently from me, but her post captures the essence of the series completely, I hope you enjoy it..

So, Melissa, what would you feed me? 

Elaine asked me write a post that was gluten free and sugar free. Me? Me that uses copious amounts of sugar, chocolate, butter and flour in her posts and in her every day life? Why not, I thought!

But I wasn’t thinking.

Elaine and I are from the opposite ends of the foodie spectrum; she’ll often post a piece and my response would be something along the line that “it would be great covered in chocolate”. Elaine posts healthy dishes and snacks, whilst I write about cakes and cookies. How on earth could I write her sort of post? 

I knew I’d have to stick to what I know, there was no point just serving up a fruit salad or a plate of veg. I needed to make Elaine something ‘sweet’ like a cake or muffin, but I had to use her sort of ‘sugar’. I had to put myself in her shoes…  
So, for the month of March I gave up sugar. I GAVE UP SUGAR. I-GAVE-UP-SUGAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more cakes, biscuits, muffins, Haribo, chocolate, alcohol…. Even bananas and mangos were off limit! I stopped snacking altogether and stuck to three meals a day. While I was at it, I did away with potatoes and bread too! After two days of mind blowing headaches, I was ok. My sugar fix came from berries, I rekindled my long lost love affair with avacodos and my palette began to change. I lost a stone and a half in four weeks by eating this way- not diet AT ALL, just eating properly.

New ways of cooking and baking called out to me; I discovered Ella Woodward of Deliciously Ella fame and Sarah Wilson, who has written several books on life without sugar. I began to understand how to use nuts and fruit to replace eggs, butter and sugar and how I can replace normal flour with healthier alternatives. So, I’m making Elaine a recipe I’ve come up with myself, based on my research.  
Banana, Date and Pecan Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup pecans
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup dates
2 large bananas
1/2 cup almond milk
2 tsp gluten free baking powder
vanilla (I used Dr Oekter vanilla grinder)
a pinch of maldon salt

 Method:

Preheat the oven 180 degrees and line a muffin tin. Blend the pecans to a fine powder in a food processer. Add them into a bowl with the other dry ingredients and stir. Mix the milk, dates, bananas and vanilla and blend until smooth. Stir the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients and spoon into the muffin cases. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

I enjoyed my banana goodies with a cup of liquorice tea (try it, it’s amazing!) 

  

32 days after giving up sugar and I can still count the amount of sugar based ‘treats’ I’ve had on one hand. I can’t honestly say that I will give up sugar completely, but I will never go back to eating the amount I did before. NEVER.

Melissa xx

Darling Melissa, I LOVE your muffins, but more than that, I love how you embraced the challenge and what you achieved for yourself. What you have done isn’t easy, sugar is a drug and not easy to give up, and you achieved that. Huge respect from me, honey! I hope you feel fabulous xx