NOTE: Lentils and quinoa has to soak in water for 12 hours

Vegan if you use oil instead of ghee, but I find that the slightly nutty flavour of ghee goes particularly well here. Make your own, nothing is easier, there are hundreds of tutorials on youtube, and it tastes better and is much cheaper than the store-bought ghee.

The pancakes:

125 g quinoa

125 g red split lentils

125 g chickpea (aka gram or besan) flour

1 tsp baking powder

Salt and a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper

Half tsp turmeric

2 tsp kalonji (aka onion seeds)

2 tsp brown mustard seeds

I also threw in a heaped tsp fermented black garlic, but that’s just me.

4 Tblsp oil or ghee

Soak lentils and quinoa in water overnight. Drain in a sieve, rinse with cold running water, and let drain.

Blend with 150 ml water (obviously, the thinner you want your pancakes – the thinner the dough) and all other ingredients except oil/ghee.

Use one to two tblsp dough to bake small, thick pancakes with the oil.

The Chutney:

1 tblsp oil or ghree

20 g fresh ginger, finely chopped

1 red onion, thinly wedged

1 small red chili, finely chopped, or powder to taste (I used a half tsp chili flakes here)

6 medjoul dates, chopped

3 apples, not too sweet, cored and cut in wedges

100 ml pure apple juice (I actually just used water since I never have any kind of fruit juice in the house)

2-3 tblsp lemon juice

3 tblsp sugar (is what the recipe says but I obviously try to avoid added sugar, and the apples I had were quite sweet, so I threw in a couple of extra dates instead),

2 bayleaves

1 cinnamon (NOT cassia) stick, or a tsp ground

4 cloves or a pinch ground

Sautee ginger and onion in the oil/ghee. Add all other ingredients and simmer, stirring regularly, for five minutes or until the apples are mushy.

IN PROGRESS (this looks like a very bland and basic recipe and I will definitely add some herbs and/or spices)

Recipe
Take 1 butternut squash, wash and dry, remove the stem and base and cut in half. Season with olive oil and sea salt and roast, face down, for 50 minutes at 180 degrees celcius.
Meanwhile prepare your filling. Prepare 2 portions of cous cous as per packet instructions and add to a bowl. Cut the head off half a broccoli and steam fry until cooked but not mushy, and add to the cous cous. Chop 1 apple and add to the bowl, alongside 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds and 1 tbsp sunflower seeds.
When the squash is cooked and soft enough that a teaspoon can scrape away the flesh, scoop out 1/3 of the insides and add the the couscous mix.
Add 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp mixed herbs and 1 tsp olive oil to the cous cous and mix well. Stuff the butternut squash with the couscous mix and top with a tahini whip (blend tahini, lemon juice and water)

IN PROGRESS

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped 
• 1 garlic, peeled
• thumb-sized piece ginger, peeled and chopped 
• 1 red chilli, diced
• 1tsp groundnut oil
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 1tsp ground coriander
• 1tsp ground cumin
• 1tsp garam masala
• 400g butternut squash, peeled and diced 
• 400 chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 400ml half-fat coconut milk or alpro coconut milk alternative
• 200ml vegetable stock
• 150 g baby spinach
• 1 lime, plus wedges to serve

Method

• STEP 1Put the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli into a small food processor and blend to a paste.
• STEP 2Heat 1 tsp oil in a large pan and fry the paste for a few minutes with a pinch of salt, then add the spices, and fry for another minute before adding the squash and chickpeas.
• STEP 3Mix with the spices, then add the coconut milk and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes until the squash softens and the sauce thickens.
• STEP 4Stir in the spinach until wilted, and squeeze in the lime juice to serve.

• 200 g cooked split lentils
• 200 g grated or finely chopped beetroot
• Small knob ginger
• 3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika powder (I have found something in Alnatura called Rauchige Drecksau – that will have to do the job)
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• 200 g cooked quinoa
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped coriander
• 50 g ground pumpkin seeds
• 140 g gram flour (a.ka. besan, chickpea flour)

 

• In a food processor, blitz lentils, beets, spices and seasoning for a minute or two.
• In a mixing bowl, combine this with the cooked quinoa, chopped red onion, chopped coriander, garlic, ground pumpkin seeds, and gram flour. Mix well till it begins to hold together. Adjust seasonings.
• Refrigerate for one to two hours or so. This will make it easier to form the patties.
• Either fry in avocado oil on a pan for three to four minutes until golden on each side, or
• Brush each side lightly with avocado oil and bake in a single layer in the oven at 180 C for a total of 20 minutes, turning them over once while baking.

PS: In the photo is some cashew yoghurt stirred with the ground pumpkin seeds which I forgot to mix into the pattie mixture :-). That worked, and it ended up as an even more complete meal.

Also, the patties can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days as a convenient quick meal with a salad, or frozen.

(Can be vegan with vegan yoghurt)

I am happy to report that this tastes a lot better than it looks. I think the optics depend a bit on the type of yoghurt used (I used home-made cashew nut yoghurt), but of course also on the the cook’s food presentation skills, of which I have none.

• 2 medium aubergine (begun) around 500g
• 1 half tsp salt
• 1 half tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• oil
• 1 tblsp mustard oil
• 1 tsp kalonji
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 half tsp chili powder
• 1 tblsp freshly grated ginger
• 2,50 dl yoghurt (I used my own homemade cashew nut yoghurt)
• 1 half tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 half tsp red chili powder
• salt to taste
• Optional: garnish with chopped coriander leaves
• ½ tsp garam masala

• Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
• Cut the aubergines lengthwise, in quarters
• Mix the oil, salt, chili powder and turmeric together
• Place the aubergines in a parchment lined baking tray and spread the oil/spice mixture on the cut surfaces
• Bake in the oven for 15-17 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven
• Meanwhile, in a pan, heat the mustard oil to smoking point. Reduce the flame and add the kalonji, bay leaf, chili powder, and ginger, and roast, stirring.
• Lower the flame, add the yoghurt, turmeric, coriander powder, and salt. Stir through immediately and continuously
• When the oil separates, add 1 dl hot water and the roasted aubergines, making sure that the yoghurt/spice mixture is distributed on the cut surfaces of the aubergines. Cover and simmer for 5-7 minutes to let the aubergines start to absorb some of the flavours from the sauce
• Turn off the heat and spinkle the garam masala and, if using, the chopped coriander over the dish before serving.

I eat salad at least once a day now, and this type of dressing has been my favourite for a while:

Blend about a dl of tahini, four garlic cloves, a bit of fresh ginger, chili in some form or other, one tblsp roasted sesame oil, two tblsp olive oil*), 1 tsp black treacle**), grated peel and juice of two lemons, and one tesp roated cumin seeds finely ground. Add cold water a little at a time till the desired consistency, usually about the same amount as the amount of tahini.

As long as you don’t eat it by the spoonful by itself before that, it will last four to five days in the fridge. I believe it can also be frozen, although I would probably prefer to blitz in the garlic upon defrosting. Any which way, having a batch on hand cuts down on preparation time. I must admit – preparing, and eating, a big salad for breakfast does take a lot longer than slapping some cheese on a slice of bread and eating it.

*) Yes, I know, the WFPB police will come after me, but I refuse to live without olive oil & co. at least for now. In recent months, I have been learning so much about nutrition and made quite a few changes to my regular diet (and liking it and feeling great – don’t get me wrong) that I am thinking (sobbing) – PLEASE don’t take my beloved olive oil away from me. I have yet to be convinced that it is the great evil that whole-foods people say it is, but who knows ….. that day might still come where this last frontier of my complete surrender to Dr Greger’s Daily Dozen Doctrine will fall.

**) Most similar recipes call for maple syrup or honey, but black treacle from Alnatura is my always-available, staple sweetener (of which I don’t use a lot anyway) and has been since I was a little bit iron deficient not so long ago and found out that one tblsp of it will have your iron levels replenished in no time.

Updated 16 January with this tip: For hummus, the best result is obtained when the “skin” is removed from the chickpeas. This is quite bothersome and time consuming and have hardly ever done that now. However, I have discovered that you can now buy dried chickpeas with the skins removed in bio supermarkets, at least in Berlin, of the brand Vivaterra. Also, to make sure that the chickpeas get nice and mushy fo the purpose, add a heaped teaspoon baking soda (natron) to the water in which you soak the chickpeas for 8-10 hours. Rinse before boiling in new water.

400 g cooked chickpeas (if you must use tinned, then rinse thoroughly)

Salt

3-4 cloves garlic

3-5 tblsp (up to 150 g) tahini

2 tblsp olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

1,5 tsp roasted cumin seeds

If you are not using skinless chickpeas as mentioned in italics above, try to rinse and remove as many skins as possible. Then process all ingredients, tasting along the way, and add more of everything as needed.

Obvously, the creamier you want your hummus, the longer you have to process – up to ten minutes, which means the processor can run warm, and thus warm up the hummus. To counter that, instead of adding the cold water all at once, add an ice cube at intervals.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours to settle.