The Ultimate Spinach Salad

Now look, it's not my job, duty nor desire to convert anyone to a plant-based style of eating, I do however encourage you to play with all types of food, even that which you may not like, just for the fun of it, to see what you can create, from your heart/mind, for your precious body.
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Sure, veggies are "good for you," but they doesn't mean they can't be exciting- and allow me to tell you, this salad, with it's bite after bite of different tastes, will continue to surprise your taste buds.
Funny that hey? I seem to say that often. ;)

And as always, can we not give a shit about the nutritional content, the calories, the fat, protein or carbs? Can we just eat (everything) as it is: Food, glorious food?

Play with your food <3

Ingredients:

2-3 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
Handful of dates
1 clove garlic
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
Bunch of fresh basil - chopped roughly
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A pack of Spinach  (a few good handfuls)
1/2 Cup Grilled Carrots (Optional- they were leftovers and knew they'd fit in perfectly, sweet potato would also be great, or a (roasted) red pepper. Get creative ;)
1/2 Red Onion, chopped fine
A handful of alfalfa sprouts (Optional)
1/4 cup Toasted sesame seeds
Handful Pumpkin seeds

Toast sesame seeds, set aside.
In a large bowl, combine olive oil, vinegar, dates, garlic, salt, nutritional yeast, & basil.
Add rest of the ingredients and toss.

Easy ;)

Spicy Peach and Pear Chutney

I like fast food - really delicious homemade fast food that is - so I carry on sharing the things of my heART that are of little fuss and will garner very much pleasure.

With a few very ripe peaches and pears at hand, I decided to make a chutney last week, and I must say, it's so so so good. 

Ingredients (Rough amounts):

3 cups Peaches & Pears 

1.5 Red Onions 

1 cup sliced dates
A knob of Fresh Ginger (3cmx3cm)

1 Tbsp dry Mint 

1 Tbsp Rosemary 

1 Tbsp Thyme

2/3 Cup White Vinegar

1/3 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tsp Salt 

1/2 Tsp Chili Flakes

1 Tsp Coriander Seeds

1 Tsp Mustard Seeds

3 Cloves

Cinammon Stick  

&

A whole lotta love ;) 

Chop up your fruits, slice the onions, & grate/finely chop ginger. 

Throw everything into a pot, on medium heat and simply walk away. It'll look like chaos, but the smell will hook you in a short while ;).
 I cooked mine, lidless for about 45mins, tasted it, played with some of the ingredients (so easy to get it so right), and left it simmering, with lid on for another little while longer.
Essentially, you want to reduce the liquids, so carry on cooking til you've got a good stew going. :) 

Yes, that's all. Let me know how it goes, what you ate your chutney with, and questions, should you have some. :)

It goes perfectly with a good old French Cheese, meat, atop your favorite plant based burger (note to self, get that up soon ;)),  or the traditional way, accompanying a curry, or samosa's. There's just no limits on what we can create, right? Let's throw away what we "know," about food, and play with it like a child experimenting and exploring. 

Lotsa love :**

  

Sprouting Wheatberries - easy as pie!

The naked berry

If you're still new to the art of sprouting, allow me to make it really easy for you.

All you need is a bowl, wheatberries, water, strainer and a few days.

I happened stumble on the nutty grain - where our beloved (wheat) bread comes from, sometime last year.

In a sprouting phase, I did what I'm about to extrapolate on below, sprouting the berries first, before drying them on low heat in the oven and then grounding down to a flour. We had the best digestive biscuits as far as memory serves, though an actual loaf of bread? Can't remember.

After 3 days 

How to sprout?

Take a medium sized (salad) bowl
Add a cup of berries
Wash and then cover with water
Allow to soak for a day (or night)
Strain and rinse the berries in a sieve/colander with small holes
Allow berries to air out for the day (or night) then rinse again

Wheat berries generally sprout quickly, and have a beautifully nutty sweet flavor to them.

I tend to soak overnight, and then rinse in morning and evening. When I'm happy with the roots, I blanch the berries in hot water as I prefer them as such. Can you eat them raw? Try them and see. :)


How my berries were enjoyed:

Over French Onion Soup
 (w/o cheese & bread)

Close Up 

Main Dish: Sprouted Wheat Berries over Sprouted Curried Mung Beans,
with my Home Made Spicy Peach & Pear Chutney
All made with love by yours truly:
This Little Cookie :** <3

Please, I ask you to play, create, share, inspire and repeat. Love you! 

xxManj

PS: as you know, I'm concerned most with beautiful food, made with love, and a firm believer in food is the energy/meaning you give to it.  I'm sure there's a heap of benefits to all of the above, and should you be interested, I encourage you to search further. 
For me the calorie count is: love
Fat content is: love
Carb contest is: love
Protein content is: love

You get the drift ;) 
More coming up on the topic of food/energy/love over at thislittlecookie.com :)  

Vegan Indian Salad (Raita)

For the vegans, plant-based foodies, and well, all foodies out there (meat or no meat), I have  

Calling all foodies out there, I have the absolute best version of "Raita" (Indian Yogurt Salad), without the yogurt ;). 

Sure, this caters to vegans/plant based foodies, though I promise you, even if you eat meat you may well love this! 

We are making the above marvelousness, and it's so easy!

What you'll need (roughly what I used):

3 medium sized tomatoes 

1/2 medium English cucumber 

1-2 tbsp olive oil 

pinch of salt (to begin with, taste and add more in pinches should you need). 

1-2 tsp of pan toasted cumin seeds (up to your taste)

1-2 tbsp Nutritional Yeast (A vegan/vegetarians BEST friend. See pic below). 

1 small onion chopped finely

A bunch of fresh coriander 

A whole lotta love :D 

Putting it together:

Into a bowl add:

Chop tomatoes and cukes to your liking - I prefer small pieces.

Chop or coriander  (I used coriander shoots- which are just delectable!)

Oil + salt + cumin + nutritional yeast and mix together, so it's somewhat like a paste. 

Add veggies to the bowl and mix. 

Please taste to see if nutritional yeast and salt are balanced. 

Add coriander 

C'est toute :) You're done in about 10 mins. 

Serve with our favorite curry dish OR, just atop plain rice. 

This was how it ended for me, bite after bite of deliciousness! :) 

PS: here's the nutritional yeast I was talking about. It offers such a beautiful flavor to food. I was seriously amazed at how much it altered my food. 

Should you try it, please let me know:).

As always, lotsa love and play with your food! :**