It’s so creamy. Still without using dairy products!
After a good workout, you often end up really hungry and just want to make something quick, yet tasty, am I right? So I’ve had in mind to share what you could make for lunch or dinner.. It’s this creamy vegan pasta, which is easy to make so that you can fill up your belly fast. The dish is healthy, packed with protein and fiber. That’s good for your digestion and regenerating energy. Enjoy!
Ingredients
• Tahini or sesame butter
• Chickpeas
• Soya sauce
• Corn starch
• Coconut milk
• Salt & pepper
• Sun dried tomatoes
• Lentil gluten-free pasta or any other kind
Instructions
1. Boil the pasta while heating up a pan on medium heat.
2. Add to your pan a can of chickpeas and 125 ml of coconut milk (half a cartoon of 250ml) with the sun dried tomatoes.
3. Then add one tsp of tahini, half a tsp of corn starch, let it simmer so that the sauce thickens and gets creamy. That’s thanks to our corn starch. Around 5 minutes. Stir the sauce with one tbs of soya sauce. Add salt and pepper to your liking.
4. Lastly fold in the cooked pasta and put down the heat to low. Mix the pasta well with the sauce, cook for 2 minutes.
5. Voila one portion of lunch or dinner is served!
Step 4: when you have fold in the pasta and mixed the creamy sauce with it!
Luksussjokolade kake from the recipe book “Rågodt” by Tiril Refsum
I absolutely adore the idea that there is a healthier version of cake since I have a sweet tooth. A person I admire is Tiril Refsum who makes raw cake with healthy ingredients and without refined sugar. They are gluten-free and vegan, and they taste amazing! So therefore, I had to try making a raw cake for the first time. I found the perfect recipe translated to English: luxurious chocolate cake. The name already said everything, I had to make it. The perfect occasion for it, was the celebration of 17th of May, Norwegian’s constitutional day. I was so happy by the response I got from friends and family, they loved it! So here is the recipe with some ingredient adjustments and I hope you’ll bake it with success like I luckily did hehe.
Ingredients
Cake base
• 3 dl oats
• 1 dl almonds
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter
• 4 tablespoons cacao powder & 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 13 medjool dates without stones
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
Espresso cream
• 4 dl coconut cream
• 4 dl soaked cashews
• 3 cups espresso
• 4 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
• 1/2 dl melted coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
Chocolate cream
• 4 dl coconut cream
• 15 medjool dates without stones
• 2 cups espresso
• 2 dl cacao powder
• 1 dl melted coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
• 1/2 salt
Caramelized nuts
• 2 dl pecan nuts
• 1 dl almonds
• 1 dl walnuts
• 4-6 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
Instructions
1. First you need to soak your cashews. Simply put them in a bowl with water for 4 hours or you can leave them in the fridge overnight.
2. Make your first layer, the cake base by adding all the ingredients in a food processor. After you have mixed them throughly, add some more syrup or coconut oil if you need so that the texture is sticky to form the cake base. Press the batter with either your fingers or a spatula on a round cake mold with baking paper.
3. Next layer up is the espresso cream. With the coconut oil, you just need to melt it either by microwave or heated pot. Let it to rest a bit. For the espresso, leave it for cool down so it’s not too hot mixing together with the other ingredients in the blender. Here you need to use a smoothie blender to achieve a silky consistency due to the cashew nuts, since it can be grainy if not well blended. Spread half of the cream over the cake base and put it in the freezer till the cream has set.
4. Do the same process with the chocolate cream! But here it’s good enough using a food processor to achieve the silky creaminess! Spread half of the chocolate cream over the espresso cream layer and put the cake back into the freezer.
5. Have all the ingredients to the caramelized nuts in a bowl and stir until it sticks well together. Spread 2/3 of the nutmix over the last layer. Then spread the rest of espresso layer on top and put the cake back in the freezer to everything has stiffened.
6. Lastly spread half of the chocolate layer left and finish with the remaining caramelized nuts. Put the cake back in the freezer for at least 2 hours. And when the cake layers have settled you can have it in the fridge so that it becomes more like a mousse texture rather than ice!
Tip: you can have chocolate chunks or cacao nibs on top too! And a cup of coffee with it for the coffee lovers will make the dessert complete:)
Enjoy x
Step 2: the cake base, mixing all ingredients in a food processor Step 3: making the espresso cream layer in a smoothie blenderStep 5: spread out 2/3 of the caramelized nuts on top of the chocolate cream layerLast step: spread the rest of the caramelized nuts on top and it’s done!
Even though it’s a long process to make the cake and will take you up to 3-4 hours letting the cake settle in the freezer in between, it’s all worth it in the end. The cake taste like heaven.
I love national day and my beautiful country Norway. Because of my professional tennis career I’ve been many times absent on this day playing a tournament somewhere else in the world. However, this year I got home due to corona and was lucky to celebrate it with my lovely friends and family, making the day a memorable one. I still recall 17th of May from childhood celebrations, full of excitement for what the day would bring. National day is like Christmas Eve, you cannot wait for the day to come. It’s a when you will eat lots of delicious food, (there’s no limit on cakes and ice cream that day) and have social gatherings, play games and walk or look at the children’s parade. It holds a strong tradition and pride. Norwegians are conserved people by culture, but on this day we wave our flags enthusiastically and raise our voices saying hurray with happiness. I believe I love this day because of the expressed joy we have for one another, for our country, for socializing and celebrating over food. You see “champagne breakfast” are one of the traditions of celebration. Here people bring and make foods like smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, berries and not to mention cakes!
A table full of delicious food at “champagne breakfast”The famous Norwegian cake called “kransekake”Wearing our national dresses
• 3/4 cup or 12 tablespoons of oat milk plus more (I’d say half a glass)
• 1 cup or 16 tablespoons of flour (I mixed half with whole-wheat flour and the other with buckwheat flour)
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
Instructions
1. First mash the ripe banana in a bowl. Then add the oat milk and one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, that’s the magic behind the thickness!
2. Mix together the flour and baking powder. Now when I made them, I had to work with the consistency adding more oat milk as it was too much flour. Make sure it’s not too liquidity when adding more milk as we want them thick.
3. Let the batter rest allowing the apple cider vinegar to work and heat up a pan on medium high heat meanwhile.
4. Before pouring some pancake batter on the pan, add some coconut oil so it won’t stick.
5. When the pancakes are cooking, you can add some frozen blueberries on top on one side. Cook them until you see bubbles and when they are golden brown. That’s when they’re ready to be flipped!
6. The pancake batter makes up to 9 pancakes. I definitely recommend them with some maple syrup or honey, enjoy!
Step 2, we want this thick consistency. Play with the amount of oat milk to you have achieved the right pancake batter thickness!Step 5, when you see bubbles and on the pancake surface, they’re ready to be flipped! Add some blueberries if you like, it really makes them more tasty.We want them golden brown, I had my pan on heat 7 of maximum heat 9.Here you have a closer look at the thickness and fluffiness, real American pancakes!
These are vegan, refined sugar free and a much healthier version, I hope you love enjoy them as much as I do!
This salad is super easy to make and is so yummy, win win. Just toss some rinsed rucola in a bowl and mix it with oven baked sweet potatoes, lentils for protein, sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts for crunch. It’s a perfect meal for lunch or a light dinner. Enjoy x
Ingredients
• 2 packets of rucola
• 1 box of lentils
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 red onion
• 35g or one handful of pine nuts
• 1 handful of sun dried tomatoes
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Lemon juice of half a lemon
Instructions
1. Cut the sweet potatoes into small cubes. Put it on a tray with baking paper so you save yourself a clean up. Have the oven on 220 degrees and have them baked for around 30-45 minutes until soft. If you like, add some salt, pepper and chili flakes and don’t forget to drizzle some olive oil on top.
2. In a bowl, toss the rinsed rucola and lentils. Mix in the sun dried tomados and chop thinly slices of the red onion.
3. Once the sweet potatoes are finished baking, let them rest for some minutes before adding it to the bowl. Have some toasted pine nuts, simply heat a pan and toast them till they get golden brown.
4. And for dressing, juice of half a lemon, some olive oil and balsamic vinegar to your liking.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do,
With love and care, Melanie x
If you like you can also roast some carrots in the oven with the sweet potatoes as garnish. Bon appetit!
1. Peel and cut finely the shallot. Add 1 tbs of coconut oil on a medium heated pan together with the chopped shallot.
2. When it starts simmering and shallot is becoming soft, add the cumin, paprika, salt and pepper to taste.
3. Add in the rinsed chickpeas. Now stir together the honey first, then tahini and at the end the soya sauce. When you have let the flavors worked by cooking for about 10 minutes, add the rinsed spinach and make it sautéed.
4. In a pot cook the brown rice, 1 cup of rice with 2 cups of water on high heat, when the rice has soaked up the water, put the heat down, takes around 20 minutes.
The recipe is from “Adams matkasse”. He delivers in Norway a box at people’s door, which contains the food ingredients you’ll need for the recipe he has made for you to make. And one of his recipes are these pancakes that I want to share with you. It is delicious and easy to make. And it’s a one of a kind pancake which is way healthier and more nutritious than the dessert pancake! It’s vegetarian and I swooped the milk and flour to be plant based and gluten-free. Let’s get to it.
Ingredients
• 100 g spinach
• 5 dl oat milk
• 4 dl buckwheat flour
• 4 eggs (organic or free ranged eggs if possible)
• 1 red onion
• 1 lemon
• 1 pack of chickpeas
• 400g aroma mushrooms
• 1 garlic
• 1 pack of chèvre cheese
• 2 pieces of heart salad
• 1 pear
• 1 apple
• Some oil, salt and sugar
Instructions
1. To make the pancake batter: rinse the spinach before adding it and the plant based milk in a blender og mix the batter evenly. Stir together the eggs and the spinach mixture in a bowl. Sift into 4 dl buckwheat flour little by little, and stir to you got a smooth batter.
2. Cut the mushrooms into slices. Peel and finely chop the garlic, peel and cut the red onion in thin slices.
3. Lightly pickled red onion: have the red onion in a small bowl, and add 1 tsp of sugar, a pinch of salt and juice of the lemon. Mix everything together and let it rest until you serve it.
4. Pancakes: heat the pan to medium heat and add some oil. They are ready when you see bubbles on the surface.
5. Fry the chickpeas, mushrooms and garlic in another pan. Cook the chickpeas until they are golden, about five minutes. Then set them aside in a bowl and fry the mushrooms after with the garlic until they are sautéed and soft. Fold in the chickpeas together with the mushrooms in the end.
6. Cut the chèvre in pieces, rinse and cut the salad in pieces, as well as the apple and pear.
7. Fill the spinach pancakes with the chickpeas, mushroom, chèvre, salad, apple, pear and the pickled red onion. Voila et bon appetit!
More about Adams Matkasse, you can find on his website here:
These treats are perfect as snack or when you’re having a sweet tooth! Healthy and tasty, they’re so good. You just need some dates, nut butter, coconut oil, buckwheat flakes and for flavor cacao and coffee powder! Put that in a food processor, roll them in chopped almonds and shredded coconut and keep them refrigerated.
I think that we all question whether healthy food can be as tasty and delicious, as well being vegan and gluten-free… And my answer to that is yes, by making this dish for you. In my opinion it’s all about combining more flavors that goes well together and being creative with the foods. Also, it’s about cooking those foods the way they are supposed to shine!
If you have a leaky gut or upset stomach, I would recommend you to stay away from gluten for a period and substitute on gluten-free in moderation.
So to this gluten-free pasta dish, I had mushrooms, celery (you can have red onion or spinach instead if you want) and sun dried tomatoes. As toppings I had rucola and roasted pumpkin seeds for crunch!
In a heated saucepan, cook your chopped mushrooms first. Let them caramelize itself without having any oil on the pan, only add some water when they start sticking to the pan. Then add chopped celery and in the end cook dried tomatoes with it. If you want creaminess, simply add 2 tablespoons of tahini and pour in a little bit of the boiled water from the pasta to achieve a creamy pasta sauce!
I hope you found the guidelines to the gluten-free pasta; tasty and delicious.
Starting your day best way possible is key. Prioritize a healthy and nutritious breakfast like this one! It has probiotic coconut yoghurt which is dairy free and has good bacterias for your gut. Top it with fiber rich granola, which will make you full over a longer time and not crave for sugary foods. Add some blueberries for antioxidants that will help you with your immune system. Also you can have some raspberry jam/sauce which is easy to make. In a saucepan, pour in frozen raspberries on under medium heat and cook it till it becomes like on the picture. Raspberries contains dietary fiber and is beneficial for your digestion. It’s a wholesome breakfast with healthy fats like nut butter and almonds in the granola. Enjoy x
Bloom with food 