Category Archives: Whole Food

Join us as we share our favorite whole food recipes

Nutty breakfast “muesli”

Breakfast, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nutty breakfast Muesli

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but not the easiest when you are trying to avoid processed food. We have become so conditioned to toast with spreads, or muesli with yoghurt that we hardly think of other options for breakfast.

While our Sago Porridge has become our standard breakfast, the one we make without thinking, it is really nice to have some variation, especially variation that can be made ahead of time and whipped up quickly before work. Because let’s face it, it isn’t as though we suddenly found a whole heap of extra time when we changed our lifestyle, but we did prioritize food and cooking our own meals over television time 🙂

This breakfast muesli was actually created by our son (6). He wanted to make breakfast for us, and started looking through the pantry for things to put in it. Together with Barry he pulled out all of these ingredients, and then with the help of Papa he put them together for our breakfast. It was really good, and worthy of including here. Enjoy!

Ingredients

  • 20g cashew nuts, chopped
  • 20g pinenuts, chopped
  • 20g blanched almonds, chopped
  • 20g shelled pistachios, chopped
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • 20g goji berries
  • 2 apples, chopped
  • 4 pitted dates, chopped
  • 1 dried fig, chopped
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • good squeeze of lemon juice
  • pinch of sea salt

Directions

  1. Toast the nuts in a frying pan together with 1 tsp of coconut oil until they are golden brown and crispy. Remove from the pan. Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt. (Note: This can be made in larger quantities and stored in an airtight container to use later if you like.)
  2. Chop the apples into bite sized pieces. Place in a bowl. Sprinkle with cinnamon and toss to coat all of the apple pieces.
  3. Sprinkle over a squeeze of lemon juice. This will stop the apples from browning.
  4. Chop the dates and fig and add to the nuts.
  5. Stir the nuts mix through the fresh fruit and serve.
  6. it would also be nice to add some fresh blackberries, blueberries, or cranberries to the mix as a variation.

Music to go with it…
Listen on Spotify: Moke – Let it burn

Desiccated Coconut Milk

Condiments and Dips, , , , , , ,

Desiccated Coconut Milk

Recently for some strange reason we could not find any of the brand of coconut milk that we normally buy. It seemed to be sold out of all of the shops near our home. We looked at the labels of a lot of other brands of coconut milk, but were not happy with what we saw. In addition to a stabilizer, many had preservatives in them, and some other ingredients we didn’t understand.

Around the same time we ended up buying a whole pile of desiccated coconut on a shopping trip to the Indian wholesaler only to find when we got home that we already had quite a lot sitting at the back of the cupboard. OK, so let’s try combining the two and making our own coconut milk! Actually it is pretty simple, and using a blender it is also very fast. No more preservatives or stabilizers in this lot!

This recipe makes both thick and thin coconut milk, in the two presses of the coconut. I recommend that you press them into separate bowls and retain them separately for use in different recipes. The thick coconut milk can be used to replace cream, while the thin coconut milk can be used as a milk replacement in many dishes.

Ingredients

  • 180g desiccated (shredded) coconut
  • 1.25L hot water (5 cups)

Directions

  1. Put the desiccated coconut and half of the water (625ml / 2 1/2 cups) of hot water into a blender.
  2. Blend on high speed for 30 seconds.
  3. Pour the water and coconut mixture out over a fine sieve or a piece of muslin cloth (you could also use a fine tea cloth) with a bowl underneath.
  4. Squeeze all of the excess moisture out by squeezing the coconut in the cloth, or by pressing the coconut with the back of a spoon in the sieve.
  5. This first press of the coconut mixture will be thicker and creamier than the second press of the coconut mixture.
  6. Return the coconut to the blender and put the rest of the hot water in with it (625ml / 2 1/2 cups).
  7. Blend again on high for for 30 seconds
  8. Pour the second lot of water out over a fine sieve or piece of cloth, and a fresh bowl.
  9. This second press of the coconut mixture will be a thin coconut milk, but will normally be more than the first press of the coconut.
  10. Store the thick and thin coconut mixtures separately in airtight containers in the fridge, and use in soups, curries, or beverages.

Music to go with it…
Listen on Spotify: The Mountain Goats – Beat the Champ

Kimchi Chicken

Dinner, , , , , , , ,

Kimchi chicken

Ingredients

  • 200g chicken breast, finely sliced
  • 200g leek, finely sliced
  • 200g Chinese cabbage Kimchi, chopped up roughly
  • 100g carrot Kimchi (optional)
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
  • 1/2 Tbsp maple syrup
  • a little coconut or other oil to fry

Directions

  1. Fry the chicken in a little coconut or other oil for 2 minutes until the chicken has sealed all over
  2. Add leek and kimchi and fry for 5 more minutes
  3. Add the sesame oil and maple syrup and fry for 1 more minute
  4. Take off the heat, sprinkle with the sesame seeds, and serve hot with boiled rice or cauliflower rice.

Music to go with it…
Listen on Spotify: Eric Wire Hustle – Love Can Prevail

Gluten Free Kimchi Pancakes

Lunch and Light Meals, , , , , , , , , ,

Kimchi pancakes

I made a big mix of Kimchi and am spending the week on recipes that can use it in cooking, instead of as an accompaniment. Kimchi pancakes (Kimchijeon in Korean) is a recipe that Korean friends of ours made us when we went to visit them, and this is a variation of that recipe in order to make it gluten free.

These are a savoury pancake, that should get a little bit crispy. In order to make them crispy the water that you add to the mixture needs to be cold, or you can add some ice to cool it down. Do make sure that you use oil in the pan, as this will also help the process of turning them crispy. 

We ate them on their own and with Carrot Kimchi, and they make quite a hearty meal. This recipe makes 8-10 pancakes, which is a little too much for 2 people for lunch. 

We have also made them with some chicken added, and you could also add some finely chopped leeks or spring onions as a variation.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (500ml) rice flour
  • 2 Tbsp coconut flour
  • 1 egg
  • 550ml cold water
  • 2 cups (500ml) kimchi
  • 5 ice cubes
  • coconut oil or other high heat oil

Directions

  1. Chop the kimchi up finely
  2. Place the rice flour, coconut flour, egg, cold water and kimchi into a bowl. Stir to combine. It should be a fairly watery batter
  3. Heat the oil in a frying pan on a moderate heat
  4. Place the ice cubes into the batter. This will help to cool down the mixture and make sure that your pancakes get crispy. The alternative is to use chilled water out of the fridge when making the mixture.
  5. Using a soup ladle, scoop up a good scoop of the mixture and pour it into the pan. Use the back of the soup ladle to spread the mixture around, making sure that the kimchi is evenly spread across the pan and not in a heap in the middle
  6. Wait until the mixture has cooked through before flipping the pancake over onto the other side. Resist the urge to turn it too soon as it will not go crispy around the edges if you do. Takes 1-2 minutes
  7. Flip the pancake and ensure that it is cooked through – only about 30 seconds to 1 minute on this side.
  8. Serve while stil hot
  9. Makes 8-10 kimchi pancakes

Music to go with it…
Listen on Spotify: The Vaccines – English Graffiti

Homemade Carrot Kimchi

Condiments and Dips, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Homemade Korean Carrot Kimchi

No Korean meal is complete without a side dish of Kimchi. It is a national obsession, and rightly so. There are many health studies which show the benefits of this fermented wonderfood!

We have a favourite little Korean BBQ restaurant here in Singapore, and they serve a trio of Kimchi’s. This got us investigating what other Kimchi variations we could make, including this carrot Kimchi.

Chopping the carrot finely takes some work, and you could also grate it to save you some time if you like (although then it will look a little less pretty).

Ingredients

  • 1 kg carrots
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp coarse sea salt

Kimchi paste

  • 1 Tbsp gochugaru, Korean chilli powder
  • 50g leek, shredded
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp finely grated ginger
  • 100g fresh daikon / mooli radish, coarsely grated or finely sliced (can be substituted for regular radish, but decrease the amount as it is stronger in flavour)
  • 1/2 tsp fish sauce
  • 1 Tbsp salt

Directions

  1. Peel the carrots and slice them very finely (Julienne). Place them in a bowl and add the salt. Cover the carrots with water and leave them to stand overnight at room temperature
  2. Taste the carrots to check the seasoning and wash in water until it is just too salty for your taste
  3. A good kimchi contains enough salt, but to get it right it is important to taste it. If it is very salty then you need to rinse it more. Rinse it multiple times, tasting  each time until it is just too salty for your taste. If it tastes salty enough for your taste, then it is probably not salty enough, and you should add more salt to the mixture (2 Tbsp rather than 1 Tbsp) when you are making the Kimchi paste.
  4. Mix together all of the ingredients for the Kimchi paste in a bowl
  5. Add the carrots and mix thoroughly using your hands
  6. Place the carrot Kimchi into a jar or bowl with a tight fitting lid. Press them into the jar to be tight fitting, but do not use any real force in doing so.
  7. Put the kimchi into the fridge and let it stand for 10 days
  8. It will keep for approximately 1 month in the fridge

Music to go with it…
Listen on Spotify: City and Colour – Bring Me Your Love

Homemade Korean Kimchi

Condiments and Dips, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Homemade Korean Kimchi

One of our son’s best friends at school is Korean, and his mother was nice enough to give us some Korean gochugaru chilli powder. We had been talking to her about how much we loved Korean food, and that we were keen to try making our own Kimchi. After convincing her to swap a BBQ for a Korean dinner at her place, she decided it was our time to cook next and gifted us the chilli powder to make the much talked about Kimchi.

Kimchi is a fermented vegetable dish, much like sauerkraut, except spicy.  The national dish of Korea (and a national obsession), no Korean meal is complete without it. The fermentation process of making it also makes it great for your gut health and there are many studies on its health benefits.

There is no definitive recipe for Kimchi, rather you can make a lot of variations of the basic recipe. Adding carrot or cucumber are some suggestions to get you started. Enjoy!

Ingredients

  • 2 kg Chinese leaf cabbage
  • 200g sea salt

Kimchi paste

  • 150g gochugaru, Korean Chilli Powder (do not substitute for regular chilli powder as this is more like a paprika powder, with a little chilli added. Regular chilli powder would be far too hot)
  • 300g leek, finely chopped
  • 2 Tbsp garlic, minced
  • 2 Tbsp ginger, finely grated
  • 200g fresh daikon / mooli radish, grate on wide grater, or finely shred (you could substitute for regular radish, but cut it is a little more intense in flavour, so decrease the amount and cut it up finely)
  • 1 Tbsp fish sauce
  • 1-2 Tbsp salt

Directions

  • Cut the Chinese cabbage in half lengthwise to expose all of the leaves. Place the halves cut side up in a bowl. Salt the cabbage layer by layer. You don’t have to be too perfect at this.

Korean Kimchi

  • Place into a large bowl and cover with enough water to completely submerge it. Place a heave object on top to keep the cabbage submerged under water. I used a pestle, but you could use a bowl, plate, or jar as well.
  • Repeat for each of the cabbage halves until you have used up all of the salt and roughly salted all of the cabbage leaves
  • Cover with a tea-towel and let it stand for 24 hours at room temperature in the brine mixture.
  • Drain the water and taste a bit of the cabbage from the middle to check for how salty it has become.
  • A good kimchi contains enough salt, but to get it right it is important to taste it. If it is very salty then you need to rinse it more. Rinse it multiple times, tasting from a middle leaf each time until it is just too salty for your taste. If it tastes salty enough for your taste, then it is probably not salty enough, and you should add more salt to the mixture (2 Tbsp rather than 1 Tbsp) when you are making the kimchi paste.
  • Carefully squeeze the liquid out of the Chinese cabbage
  • Mix together all of the kimchi paste ingredients in a bowl.

Korean Kimchi

  • Either you can leave the cabbage halves still whole, or you can cut the ends off them in order to separate the leaves. I cut the ends off to make it easier to put them into the jar that I had available.
  • Mix the Chinese cabbage and kimchi paste thoroughly with your hands. It will wash off easily, and there isn’t really a good substitute to just getting in there and getting dirty!

Homemade Korean Kimchi

  • If you are leaving the cabbage halves whole, then make sure that you lift the leaves up and press the paste in between them.
  • Place the kimchi into a jar or bowl with a tight fitting lid. Press into the container so that it is tightly packed, but don’t use too much force in doing so. You just want to press it into the container to completely fill it.
  • Leave the kimchi to stand on the bench for 24 hours.
  • Transfer to the fridge and leave it for 7-10 days before you start to eat it.
  • It will last for around 2 months in the fridge.

Music to go with it…
Listen on Spotify: The Very Best – Makes a King

Turkish Snack Bars

Snacks, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Turkish snack bars

We didn’t enter a wholefood lifestyle to lose weight. We started looking after ourselves better to improve our health and start feeling better. But the consequence has also been that as we have taken out the junk, the processed food, and the fried food from our diets, our weight has also dropped. But we also don’t want it to drop too much or too fast.

That is where a little bit of healthy snacking comes in. But most shop bought snacks have ingredients I don’t recognize, or sugar that I don’t want to eat. The alternative are pretty expensive raw snack bars. As a result, we have taken to making our own snack bars and keeping them in the fridge. I make one or two batches in the weekend (which takes me less than 10 minutes) and they keep all week. Given that they are all dried ingredients, they should actually keep quite a long time, but they have never last longer than a week in our house to find out.

These snack bars are inspired by the flavours of Turkey. Rich pistachios and almonds are bound together with the sweetness and stickiness of dates. They are a great snack to keep in the fridge and snack on with an espresso or on its own.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup pistachios
  • 1 cup dried apricots
  • 1 cup dried dates
  • 10g extra pistachios, chopped, for garnishing

Directions

  1. Place the pistachios in a food processor with the metal knife blade inserted. Pulse until they are finely chopped.
  2. Add the apricots and dates to the food processor and turn the speed up to a medium speed. Process for about 1 minute until the fruits and nuts are all finely chopped and start to stick together.
  3. Grease a metal tray with a little coconut oil. Pour the mixture onto the tray and press down firmly with your hands to form a large square / rectangular shape. You need to press quite firmly to press all of the mixture together.
  4. Chop the extra 10g (a small handful) of pistachios and sprinkle over the top of the bar. Press down into the mixture with your hands firmly so that it sticks into the bars as a garnish
  5. Place in the fridge for an hour
  6. Cut into bar shapes and store in an airtight plastic container between layers of greaseproof baking paper.

Music to go with it…
Listen on Spotify:

Dairy Free Ice-Cream

Treats, , , , , , , , ,

Dairy Free Ice-Cream

The summer has well and truly heated up in Singapore! We are sitting in 35 degrees and high humidity. While I am not usually big on deserts, this evening we went out to dinner for sushi and my son was looking longingly at the ice-creams at the back of the menu. Matcha Green Tea and Chocolate ice-creams. One he won’t end up eating (but liked the idea of) and the other one I wasn’t so keen on him eating. 

So I decided to make our own ice-cream instead. I had put some bananas in the freezer to try out making my own dairy free ice-cream a couple of days ago, so whipping this up was pretty quick. I have to say, that with these ingredients, I won’t be so worried about skipping desert to be healthy anymore 🙂

Ingredients

  • 2 bananas
  • 50g frozen raspberries or other fruit of your choice
  • 10 pistachios, finely chopped

Directions

  1. Place 2 ripe bananas in the freezer over night (or longer if you like)
  2. Carefully peel the bananas using a sharp knife
  3. Slice the bananas into 0.5cm wide slices with a sharp knife
  4. Place the bananas and frozen fruit into a food processor with the metal knife blade (you could also use a blender, but it is a bit trickier to get it evenly blended without melting)
  5. Pulse the fruit several times until it has broken up into small grains of fruit.
  6. Turn the foodprocessor dial onto a medium setting to churn the frozen fruit into a creamy texture. You will need to stop it quite a few times and wipe the mixture down the side of the bowl in order to get an even texture.
  7. Watch it closely and stop it as soon as it has turned into an evenly blended ice-cream.
  8. Serve immediately topped with finely chopped pistachios to garnish

Music to go with it…
Listen on Spotify: Hozier – Hozier (Deluxe)

Dukkah (Duqqa)

Condiments and Dips, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dukkah crusted tuna

Dukkah is a classic Middle Eastern blend of spices, seeds and herbs. Originating in Egypt, there is no definitive recipe, with each home and store offering their unique blend. At its most simple it is a blend of mint, salt and pepper. It can be used as a topping for meat such as salmon, tuna or chicken, but can also be used as a dipping for bread (turkish flat bread is a good choice) or vegetables for a crunchy starter.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 tsp Cloves
  • 1 tsp Fennel seeds
  • 1 tsp Coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp Cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp Paprika
  • 1/4 tsp Turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp chili flakes
  • Handful of chopped pine nuts, toasted
  • Handful of chopped almonds, toasted
  • Handful of chopped cashew nuts, toasted
  • 1/2 tbsp White sesame seeds
  • 1/2 tbsp Black sesame seeds
  • 2 tbsp Honey
  • Juice of 1 orange
  • Sea salt
  • Black pepper

Directions

  1. Toast the seeds in a a pan for around 30 seconds or until fragrant.
  2. Transfer the seeds to a spice grinder (or mortar and pestle) and grind until you have a coarse powder.
  3. Transfer to a little bowl, add all other ingredients and mix.
  4. Use as a topping for meat, or with olive oil as a dipping for bread or vegetables

Music to go with it…
Listen on Spotify: Intergalactic Lovers – Little Heavy Burdens

Dukkah Crusted Tuna

Dinner, , , , , , , ,

Dukkah crusted tuna

Dukkah (duqqa) is an Egyptian mix of nuts and spices. There is no definitive recipe, with the exact mix of nuts, herbs and spices varying from home to home and shop to shop. Dukkah can be used as a topping for meat (we have used this version with tuna, salmon and chicken), or as dip with bread or vegetables. It is very simple to make, and can keep for a couple of weeks in an air tight container.

Ingredients

  • 2 tuna or salmon fillets
  • Coconut oil for pan frying

For the dukkah:

  • 1/2 tsp Cloves
  • 1 tsp Fennel seeds
  • 1 tsp Coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp Cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp Paprika
  • 1/4 tsp Turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp chili flakes
  • Handful of chopped pine nuts, toasted
  • Handful of chopped almonds, toasted
  • Handful of chopped cashew nuts, toasted
  • 1/2 tbsp White sesame seeds
  • 1/2 tbsp Black sesame seeds
  • 2 tbsp Honey
  • Juice of 1 orange
  • Sea salt
  • Black pepper

Directions

  1. Toast the seeds in a a pan for around 30 seconds or until fragrant.
  2. Transfer the seeds to a spice grinder (or mortar and pestle) and grind until you have a coarse powder.
  3. Transfer to a little bowl, add all other ingredients and mix.
  4. Place a generous amount of dukkah on the tuna or salmon fillets (top side only)
  5. Fry the fish fillets – skin side first – for a couple of minutes until done.
  6. Serve with Korean carrot salad and (cauliflower) rice.

Music to go with it…
Listen on Spotify: Bony King – Wild Flowers