recipes

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• Summer Salads with papaya & strawberries
• Carrot/butternut & cardamom soup
• Split Pea and Bacon or Feta Soup
• Meal-in-a-bowl Lentil Soup
• Witchy Winter Pumpkin Soup
• Lamb & pork recipes with herbs
• Easy recipes with healthy herbs for busy parents
• Cheese & Onion Drop Scones
• Easy Xmas biscuits I made with my kids
• German Xmas biscuit recipes-my family favourites
• Chocolate Hazelnut Cake Recipe (gluten Free)
• Healthy smoothie recipes
• Sweetcorn and potato soup recipe
• Veggie soup, simple but yummy
• Tasty Chinese winter soup recipes
• Roast butternut, feta and coriander quesadillas recipe
• Mother’s Day recipe: spinach, mushroom, tomato and béchamel crepes
• Chocolate chip pancakes for Easter
• Fast food made healthy

provided by Matthew Ballenden, dad to Isabella & owner of the Fresh Earth Food Store, an organic health store and vegetarian restaurant with a  great online store.  Visit their website to find out more.

Cakes are for celebrating or simply to spoil your family. When we bake cakes we choose the best ingredients we can find. The finer the ingredients the finer the cake (try using an Organic stone ground flour next time you bake a cake).

Here is one of my favourite chocolate cake recipes which is suitable for kids (and big people) who are wheat or gluten intolerant.

Ingredients

35g Cacao powder
80ml Hot Water
150g Dark Eating Chocolate, melted
150g Butter, melted
295g Brown Sugar, firmly packed
100g Hazelnuts, finely ground
4 Organic Eggs, separated
20g Cacao powder (extra)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Grease a deep, 20cm, round cake tin and line with baking paper.
Blend the cacao powder with the water in a large bowl until smooth.
Stir in the melted chocolate, butter, sugar, finely ground hazelnuts and egg yolks.
Beat the egg whites in a small bowl until soft peak stage.
Fold into chocolate mixture in two batches.
Pour mixture into prepared cake tin and bake for one hour.
Stand cake for 15 minutes. Turn onto wire rack, top side up, to cool.
Dust with extra cacao powder.
Serve with cream or ice cream and fresh gooseberries.

Browse through other healthy recipes on from Fresh Earth Food Store: http://www.freshearth.co.za/store/c-2-healthy-recipes.aspx

provided by Matthew Ballenden, dad to Isabella & owner of the Fresh Earth Food Store, an organic health store and vegetarian restaurant with a  great online store.  Visit their website to find out more.

Smoothies for breakfast are a very gentle way of ‘breaking your fast’ . They are easy to make and you can add all your bodies nutritional requirements like omega oils, spirulina, probiotics and much more in one glass.

Starting the day with a proper meal sets the tone for the rest of the day. Slow down and make the time to feed your body the fuel it needs to get you through the day.

Superfoods Smoothie Recipe

Ingredients:

200ml Freshly Made Organic Apple Juice
1 Handful Of Mixed and Frozen Organic Berries
½ Organic, Frozen Banana
½ tsp Ground Raw Organic Cashews
1 ½ tbsp Soya Milk Powder
1 tbsp Hemp Protein Powder
1 tsp Sprouted Flax Seed
1 tbsp Macca Powder
1 tsp Raw Honey (optional)

Mix all ingredients together in the blender until you have a smooth texture.

Add the honey last. Pour and enjoy!

(If you do not have frozen berries and banana, add half a cup of ice cubes)

Raw Chocolate Smoothie

1 tbsp Raw cacao nibs
2 tbsp     Raw cacao powder1 tbsp     Raw maca powder
1              Frozen chopped up banana
200ml    Almond milk or rice milk or oat milk
¼ tsp      Agave syrup
½ tsp      Organic Cinnamon powder
¼ tsp Organic Vanilla

Add everything to the blender and blend until smooth

Smooth-No-D (Smoothie No Dairy) Recipe

What you’ll need:

2 big ripe bananas*

3T-spoons cashew nut

½ cup fruit juice

1 pine apple

1 ripe mango

2T-spoon grated ginger (optional)

1T-spoon lime juice/lemon juice

*Best to use frozen bananas. Take a ripe bunch –peel and wrap individually in cling wrap and freeze

Method:

Add cashew to blender

Add fruit juice and first process nuts

Peel and cube mango and add to processor

Cube pine apple and add to processor

Peel and grate ginger and add to processor

Add lime or lemon juice

Process all ingredients, before adding

2 frozen bananas break and add to blender.

Process and ENJOY!

Browse through other healthy smoothie recipes on  Fresh Earth Food Store website.

provided by Diane Vaubell, a work-from-home-mom to 2 small picky, vegetarians. She is an amateur blogger with obsessive addictions to food, photography and online social networking. Visit her blog or catch her on @dirott

This is the first of many dishes made for me by a good friend. When you taste a soup as good as this, you know the friendship is bound to last…it has to!

This soup is incredibly nutritious, filling and comforting – absolutely perfect for chilly Winter nights. The soup can be liquidised and it presents a great opportunity to sneak in vegetables and legumes for little picky eaters.

Liquid for this soup comes from stock, milk and the can juices from the sweetcorn and butter beans, so don’t be tempted to add additional stock – it will dilute the flavours – rather double-up the recipe to serve more.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 onion, diced

1 potato, diced

1 green pepper, seeded and diced

3 tall sticks of celery, sliced (keep leaves for garnish)

1 clove of garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons Sunflower oil

2 teaspoons margarine or butter
(note: too much butter and oil will make the top of your soup oily – use sparingly)

600ml vegetable stock

300ml milk

1 can of butter beans (keep can liquid)

1 can of sweetcorn kernels (keep can liquid)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

1. In a pot, saute the onion, potatom green pepper, celery and garlic in margarine and sun flower oil for about 10 minutes.
2. Add stock and bring to the boil. Then cover and simmer for 15 –20minutes.
3. Add milk, butter beans (with liquid) and sweetcorn, (with liquid). Simmer for 5 or so minutes.
4. Remove half the soup from pot and liquidise till smooth. Alter this amount depending on how thick and chunky you like your soup.
5 Return liquidised soup the pot and re-heat.
6. Serve soup with chopped celery leaves on top

by Joy Robyn Dembo, married, with an 18 year old son and a 25 year old daughter.  Addicted to the www, particularly Twitter. Recruitment Response Handling Consultant and Freelance Copywriter, vegetarian and animal lover.  Here’s her blog.

Ingredients:

1 x pkt of  Woolies butternut OR lentil & barley ready cut soup veggies
6 – 8 Telma vegetable soup cubes
1 pkt thick veggie soup (Royco, Maggie, Knor etc)
Salt, pepper, garlic salt, vegetable spice, garlic and herb spice, Aramat

Method:

1. Boil veggies
2. Add stock cubes, at intervals (2 @ a time) and stir well
3. Mix half a pkt of the veggie soup into half a cup of  cold water and add to soup mix
4. Simmer until thick and yummy!
5. If you need to, add the remaining half a packet of soup, mixed into half a cup of cold water

NB! Once you add the powdered soup mix, keep on a medium to low heat to prevent the soup from scalding.

by Melanie Minnaar who works in corporate marketing communications and is currently enjoying her maternity leave.  Mother to ‘archangels’, Michael and Gabriel,  wife to an IT consultant she is an information-junkie,  hooked on news, technology and online social networking. You can tweet her @MelanieMinnaar

These are my favourite winter soups.  Both are Chinese recipes – very tasty and equally nutritious. I buy my Chinese ingredients at Yat Kee Chinese Supermarket in Derrick Avenue, Cyrildene. They don’t take credit cards.  There is also a good Chinese supermarket across the road from Rivonia Primary School down Rivonia Boulevard in Sandton.  The Hot-and-sour Soup may be too pungent for the Littles, but the Chicken And Sweetcorn Soup will be a treat for adults and children alike. Leave a comment, I’d love to hear if you enjoyed these recipes or not. Enjoy!

HOT-AND-SOUR SOUP

This is a winter staple in my house, guaranteed to clear the sinuses and pep you up on a cold day.  It is very easy – and quick – to make once you have got all the ingredients together. If you prefer a vegetarian option, just remove the meat and use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. It is the pepper that makes this soup ‘hot’ but you may be more comfortable playing around with chilli to get the heat right. It’s more fun sharing a pot of this soup with others – this recipe will serve 4 adults.

Ingredients
* 4-6 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 20 min
* 115g pork or chicken
* 1 packet tofu
* 50g sliced bamboo shoots, drained
* 1 medium carrot
* 2½ cups stock
* 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
* 1 tbsp light soy sauce
* 1 tbsp rice vinegar
* Salt and ground white pepper
* 1 tbsp cornflour paste

Method
1. Squeeze the soaked mushrooms dry, then discard the hard stalk. Thinly shred the mushrooms, meat, tofu, carrot and bamboo shoots.
2. Bring the stock to a boil and add the shredded ingredients4. Bring back to the boil and simmer for about 1 minute.
3. Add the rice wine, soy sauce and vinegar and season – be generous with the pepper. Bring back to the boil, then add the cornflour paste, stir until thickened.5
4. Pour the soup into individual bowls. Sprinkle the top with sesame oil and garnish with fresh coriander or parsley leaves – and sliced chillies if you prefer.

Notes
1. Sliced canned mushrooms can be used instead of Chinese mushrooms which are quite pricey and not usually sold in small quantities.
2. You can use any leftover meat as long as its shredded.
3. Old Brown Sherry is a very good substitute for Chinese rice wine for cooking purposes.
4. Dried shrimp can also be added here. You will need 1 tbsp dried shrimp soaked for 10 minutes in boiling water, drained and chopped.
5. Before serving you can add 2 beaten eggs to the pot. Pour the eggs in a thin stream over the prongs of a fork. Stir well.

CHICKEN AND SWEETCORN SOUP

This is a foolproof familiar, as classic as ‘Sweet-and-sour Pork’ or ‘Cashew nut Chicken’ – it can even be easily made in the microwave oven. You can ‘Posh’ it up by replacing the chicken with shrimp, or keep it vegetarian by eliminating the meat. Serves 4-6.

Ingredients
* 6 cups stock, chicken or beef
* 1 chicken breast, filleted, skinned & cubed OR 2 cups raw shrimp, peeled, deveined & cut in small pieces
* 1 tbsp cornflour
* 1 tsp ground ginger
* 1 tbsp soy sauce
* 1 can cream-style sweetcorn
* 5 water chestnuts, chopped
* 2 tbsp rice wine2
* 1 cup milk
* Salt and ground black pepper
* 2 eggs, well beaten
* 2 spring onions, finely chopped

Method
1. Mix the chicken with the cornflour, ginger, oil and soy sauce and season well.
2. Bring stock to the boil. Add chicken/shrimp and cook, covered over low heat for about 8 minutes.
3. Add sweetcorn, water chestnuts, sherry and milk. Mix well and season to taste. Heat until boiling.
4. Stir in eggs when the soup is just below boiling point – add eggs in a thin stream pouring them over the prongs of a fork, lower heat and simmer 1 minute longer.
5. Pour the soup into individual bowls and scatter chopped spring onions over the top.

Notes
1. You can use any leftover meat.
2. Old Brown Sherry is a very good substitute for Chinese rice wine for cooking purposes. The rice wine/dry sherry can be omitted completely from this recipe.

provided by Diane Vaubell,  a work-from-home-mom to 2 small picky, vegetarians. She is an amateur blogger with obsessive addictions to food, photography and online social networking. Visit her  blog or catch her on @dirott

Kids love quesadillas and they love cheese so this recipe is always a big winner. Plus I’ll let you in on a little secret…you can hide veggies in an amongst all that cheesy tastiness. Our family loves experimenting with a variety of quesadilla flavour combinations and I especially appreciate how quick and easy they are to make (provided you’re buying pre-made tortillas).

Note: If you don’t have a sandwich pan then a non-stick pan will work equally well!

Roast Butternut, Feta and Coriander Quesadillas

Makes 4 Medium Sized Quesadillas
Time:  I’d say it takes about 30 minutes (including the butternut roasting, which you could do well before hand or you could use left-over butternut, in which case you’d have food on the table in 10 –15 minutes.

Ingredients:
500g cubed butternut squash
250ml boiling water
2tbs olive oil
1 vegetable stock cube
Salt & pepper
1tsp cumin
2tbs Dukkah (optional)
2 round wheels of feta cheese
Fresh Coriander (optional – you can also use fresh parsly)
8 medium-sized wraps (flour tortilla)

Method:

In a bowl toss the butternut, olive oil, salt and pepper. Transfer to a roasting pan.

Place pan under the grill for 10 minutes.  In the meantime mix together the water, cumin, Dukkah and stock cube.

Remove butternut from the oven and add stock to the roasting pan. Return to under the grill for a further 15 minutes or until the butternut is soft.
Once the butternut has cooled down a bit, cut into smaller cubes. Place in a bowl.

Cut and cube the feta to the same size of the feta. Add to the butternut.

Roughly chop the coriander and add to the butternut.

Now to make the quesadilla…

Place a wrap on your press or in a pan. Spoon some of the butternut, feta and coriander mixture onto the wrap. Don’t make it too thick – you can press down the mixture to make it spread further. Place the second wrap on top.

Now transfer quesadilla to your press or to a pre-heated pan.

If you are using a press, close press for a minute or so or until the quesadilla has browned slightly and the cheese has melted.

If you’re using a non-stick pan assemble as per above but flip the quesadilla midway until both sides are crisp and cheese has melted.

Slice each quesadilla into fours and serve with a variety of dips: guacamole,  sour cream or chili.

provided by Diane Vaubell,  a work-from-home-mom to 2 small picky, vegetarians. She is an amateur blogger with obsessive addictions to food, photography and online social networking. Visit her  blog or catch her on @dirott

This is a dish that I watched my mother make when I was a child. It wasn’t made from a recipe because my mom liked to make things up as she went along. In honour of Mother’s Day I’d like to share with you her true adventurous kitchen spirit, in what is a FIRM family favourite.

This dish does take a while to make but I can promise you that it is totally divine and well worth every minute spent on it. You can keep things simple by buying pancakes and even the Béchamel sauce. Simply sauté up the filling, assemble and bake.

The pancake element had my picky son intrigued and he became an instant spinach fan. So I can guarantee that it is 100%  kid-tested and kid-approved.

Makes ± 12 crepes. (about 4-6 servings)

INGREDIENTS:

Filling:

1 large onion (chopped)
Olive (or sunflower) oil for sautéing
250g mushrooms (roughly chopped)
2 tomatoes (diced)
200g fresh spinach (roughly chopped)
Salt and pepper

Béchamel (white sauce):

6 tablespoons plain floor
6 tablespoons margarine
3 cups of milk
Salt and pepper

Crepes (plain pancakes):

You can use store-bought pancakes (Woolworths sells them in the freezer section) or you can make your own. I usually cheat and buy the Woolworths pancakes…it saves a lot of time.

240g plain flour (not self-raising  flour, which will make the pancakes too thick)
Pinch of salt
4 eggs
410  ml milk
180ml water
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1-2 tsp margarine

To Finish:

240g Cheddar cheese (grated)

METHOD:

Filling:

Pre-heat your oven to 200C

Sauté the onion in oil until they turn translucent

Add chopped mushrooms and keep stirring. You don’t want the mushrooms and onions to brown too much.

When the mushrooms have cooked down a bit, add the tomatoes.

When the tomatoes are soft, add the spinach. It may look like a lot but it wilts down significantly. Sauté until the spinach is wilted.

Season to taste and set aside.

Now onto the Béchamel sauce:

Béchamel Sauce:

You’re more the welcome to make it on the stove but I’m going to tell you how to make it in the microwave – it’s a lot quicker!

Melt the margarine in a microwave-safe bowl (usually 30-40 seconds)

Add the flour to the margarine and stir till you have doughy ball.

Slowly dribble some milk over the doughy ball, all the while whisking vigorously. Take your time with this step. As the mixture becomes more runny you can add the milk faster.

Return bowl to the microwave for 2 minutes – on full power.

Whisk vigorously. Don’t worry about lumps, they’ll whisk out as you go.

Return bowl to microwave for further 2 minutes. Whisk and repeat until you have a thickened sauce. Don’t let it get too thick as it tends to thicken further on standing.

Season to taste and set aside.

Pancakes:

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and crack in your  eggs.

With a whisk, start to whisk the eggs, gradually drawing  in all the flour.

In a jug, mix your water and milk together.

Gradually pour the water and milk mixture to the flour,  salt and egg mixture. Whisk as you go along. You are aiming for a pouring  cream-like consistency.

Add the sunflower oil to the mixture.

Melt your margarine in a pre-heated non-stick crepe or  frying pan.

Using a ladle, ladle your mixture into the pan, swirling  the pan as you go to coat the base evenly.

Flip the pancake to cook both sides

Set Aside

FINAL ASSEMBLY:

Now the fun really starts.

Gather all three elements: filling, sauce and pancakes.

With your pancakes in a pile, sprinkle a tablespoon or two of filling in straight line down the middle of the top pancake.

Roll the pancake and place it in a baking dish. You use a large dish or smaller individual serving dishes – as I have done)

Continue until all pancakes are rolled and in the dish.

Pour over the bechemal sauce.

Sprinkle cheese over the sauce and place in the oven.

Bake at 200C for 20 –25 minutes (until sauce is bubbling and the cheese is golden)

(insert pic 5 here)

Allow to stand for 10-15 minutes before serving. This “sets” the dish.

You can serve with a salad or a meat dish – if you want to stretch it further.

Enjoy!

provided by Diane Vaubell,  a work-from-home-mom to 2 small picky, vegetarians. She is an amateur blogger with obsessive addictions to food, photography and online social networking. Visit her  blog or catch her on twitter.

A 4-day weekend begs for an indulgent, chocolate-filled breakfast and these pancakes certainly satisfy any chocolate cravings. They’re also a great treat for kids during the school holidays. You’re going to have to roll these pancakes so you want a nice, thin crepe-type pancake.

This recipe makes ± 12 pancakes

Ingredients:

240g plain flour (not self-raising flour, which will make the pancakes too thick)
Pinch of salt
4 eggs
410 ml milk
180ml water
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1-2 tsp margarine
1 box chocolate chips
Whipped cream (optional)

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and crack in your eggs.

With a whisk, start to whisk the eggs, gradually drawing in all the flour.

In a jug, mix your water and milk together.

Gradually pour the water and milk mixture to the flour, salt and egg mixture. Whisk as you go along. You are aiming for a pouring cream-like consistency.

Add the sunflower oil to the mixture.

Melt your margarine in a pre-heated non-stick crepe or frying pan.

Using a ladle, ladle your mixture into the pan, swirling the pan as you go to coat the base evenly.

Flip the pancake to cook both sides.

To serve, sprinkle the chocolate chips over the flat HOT pancake and roll up. You can top with whipped cream.

Serving alternatives:

Sprinkle flat pancake with lemon juice and cinnamon sugar.

Spread Marscarpone cheese on the flat pancake and sprinkle with thinly sliced strawberries.

Add slices of bananas to your chocolate chips.

Spoon a berry coulis on the flat pancake and add a dollop of whipped cream.

Recipes supplied by  Richard Rust , a  5 star trained, gourmet chef. He has cooked for, amongst others, British royalty, Woolworths and written for Taste magazine.  See more details below.

These recipes are quick, nutritious, kids will love them and enjoy making them – especially the messy moulding or crumbing part!

Vegetable Nuggets
Process uncooked but defrosted ready cut vegetable mix. Add a pinch of salt and enough flour to make a workable paste.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 200c until crisp.

Fish fingers
Slice hake fillets into bite sized pieces, dip in flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs. Bake at 200c for 10 minutes until crisp.

 ‘Fried’ Chicken
Mix freshly grated breadcrumbs with salt, paprika, and BBQ spice. Dip chicken braai cut pieces into flour, egg then crumb mixture. Bake at 180c for 40 minutes or cooked through

 Beef Burgers
Fry until soft finely diced onion, mix into beef mince, egg, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Mix well. Form balls and squish to make patties. Grill until golden brown on each side. Let the kids make their own burgers with a selection of greens, relishes and condiments.

 Oven baked potato, sweet potatoe or butternut wedges
Cut washed unpeeled potatoes,  sweet potato and/or  butternut. Boil for 5-10minutes until just going soft. Place on a baking sheet sprayed with cook and bake and roast on a high heat 220c for 20-30 minutes until crisp.

 Lower Fat Fruity Coleslaw
Mix equal quantities grated cabbage (red or white or a combination), and carrot, mix in some raisins and diced pineapple. Mix equal amounts of reduced fat mayonnaise and smooth cottage cheese and simply mix all together.

 Funky Rice Salad
Chop a handful of dried apricots, peaches, mangoes and apples together. Mix into cold rice with a tin of creamed corn.

 Low Fat Butternut and Feta Pasta salad
Mix cooked and cooled penne pasta with cooked butternut, feta, fat free yoghurt and a squeeze of lemon juice season to taste and serve.

Recipes supplied by Richard Rust, Chef and co owner of Deli SuCasa, Restaurant and Deli, Fourways – “feel at home” – Cell 0741722312 or richard@delisucasa.co.za