Munching Monday – warm, comforting and healthy tomato and bean soup

This is a heart warming, healthy and easy recipe which you can whip up in a flash.  Seriously this recipe is so fast to make and once you have chucked everything in the pot you can sit back and relax for 45mins.   My meat loving husband commented last night “this is seriously very tasty!”, quite something for someone who likes meat at every meal!  With the cold weather on its way, I thought it would be a good idea to post a few of my soup recipes.  Until a year ago I had never really tried cooking soup, but I’m glad I tried because once you have done a few, they are pretty easy to do.  Below is the recipe for the tomato and bean soup.  If you have a meat loving husband or family, you can grill some bacon and add it right at the end.  Here it is:

Munching Monday – gluten free bean & floret fritters with turmeric

Today’s recipe I actually found in the New Zealand Healthy Food magazine which I buy from time to time.  The reason why I decided to try the recipe out was because it had so many health supporting and immune boosting ingredients, namely broccoli, cauliflower, ginger, garlic and turmeric just to name a few!  These are pretty easy to whip up with a side salad on the side and I’m pretty sure the kids will love them too since the veggies are masked because they are mashed.  So here you go:-

700g cauliflower, chopped

400g broccoli, chopped

2 x 400g cans butter beans, drained and rinsed.  (or soak and cook your own from scratch).

8 spring onions, thinly sliced

4 tsp grated ginger

2 cloves garlic crushed

2/3 cup flour (use rice flour to make these gluten free.  I used spelt flour)

2 tsp ground turmeric

4 eggs lightly beaten

Steps:

Steam cauliflower and broccoli for 4-5 minutes until tender.  Transfer to large bowl.

Add butter beans.  Roughly mash vegetables and beans.  Add onions, ginger, garlic, flour, turmeric and eggs and stir until well combined.

Spray a large frying pan with oil and place over a medium-high heat.  Spoon 1/4 cup mixture fritter into pan, 3 fritters at a time.  Cook for 3 mins each side until golden and cooked through.  Continue with remaining batter.  Spray pan with a little oil if needed (or use coconut oil which is what I do).  Serve with side salad.

Enjoy! xx

Munching Monday – Chickpea, garlic and mint salad

I LOVE this recipe.  A friend of mine gave it to me a few years ago after she made it at a BBQ that we went to.  It is so easy to make, quick to whip up and best of all very healthy for you.  Chickpeas are one of my favourite sources of protein.  They are so versatile too, you can use them in salads, make humus with them and use them in curries.  This recipe has a lot of disease preventing foods in it like red onion, garlic, cider vinegar and mint.  Below is the recipe:-

Chickpea, garlic and mint salad

1 x 400g tin of chickpeas (or cook up your own chickpeas)

1 tsp dried mint or fresh mint from the garden

1 tbsp of cider vinegar

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 red onion chopped

1 clove garlic minced (I usually use 2 cloves, the more garlic the better!)

1 tomato diced

squeeze of lemon juice

Method:

Combine all ingredients and chill in the fridge for 30mins before serving.  This dish tastes better if it is chilled.

Enjoy xx

Munching Mondays – Black Bean Brownies (gluten free)

After many ‘yums’ and ‘yummos’ and ‘nom noms’ last week when I posted the below pic of my black bean brownies, below is the recipe as promised.  These are not only tasty but healthy and supportive of your health too.  My husband did the taste test and said ‘mmmm, I’d like them even more if you didn’t tell me there were black beans in them!’…so there you have it, don’t let on to your friends and family what’s in them!  Jessica Ainscough did an awesome review on the health benefits of black beans (a true treasure chest of nutrients in the humble black bean), you can read about it here.

15 ounces black beans, drained and rinsed (you can buy tins of black beans in your local supermarket or buy the dry ones and cook them up yourself).

2 bananas

1/3 cup of honey or maple syrup

1/4 unsweetened cocoa

1 tbsp cinnamon (my favourite!)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 raw sugar (optional)

1/4 instant oats (gluten free if preferred)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 8 x 8 inch pan and set aside.  Combine all ingredients except oats in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.  Stir in the oats.  If the mixture is too soft, add more oats (I did).

Pour batter into the pan.  Bake for 30mins or until a toothpick or skewer comes out squeaky clean.  Allow to cool before slicing.

Remember to get creative, if you can’t find a certain item in your pantry on the ingredient list, think about what you could use as a substitute.

PS: because there isn’t any flour in this recipe, the brownies come out pretty dense.  I also used my ‘chocolate ganache’ recipe to ice the brownies which you will find under my recipes tab ‘coconut and raspberry cake with chocolate ganache’.

Munching Monday: healthy brown rice salad

Sorry I don’t have a photo today of this dish, the last time I made it I forgot to take a photo!  I just love this brown rice salad recipe that a friend gave to me.  It is easy to make, VERY tasty and best of all its super good for you.  It has onions, garlic, ginger, lemon, nuts and seeds in it just to name a few of the ingredients.  All of those ingredients mentioned are health promoting foods and will support your body in its quest to be healthy.  Here is the recipe: