I had some lotus root in the freezer that I had no idea how to prepare. As I thoroughly cleaned the fridge/freezer, I’ve decided to prepare it. I looked online on the best way to prepare the lotus root. With the frozen lotus root there are less options comparing to the fresh one, but I did love it roasted. The lotus root has a similar taste to potatoes, but is not starchy. It’s high in Vitamin C, B6, fibers and with not a lot of calories. It’s a healthy vegetable, as it also has a unique mix of minerals including high percentages of Manganese and Phosphorus. I will buy it again, as it’s so easy to prepare and it offers diversity in our diet.
For me, a pack of 300g of lotus root makes enough for 4 side dishes or 2 light mains in a 3-course meal. We had the second option and this is why I’ve added the salad with it.
Ingredients:
– 300g lotus root
– lime powder
– sea salt
– soy sauce
– black pepper
– 4 spoons of oil
Ingredients for the salad:
– mixed salad leaves
– 2 tsp sesame oil
– white sesame seeds
– black sesame seeds
This Mediterranean Soya Beans Salad is delicious. It’s very filling, so I would suggest the recipe is enough for 4 servings as a main or 2 servings if that is the only dish for lunch. With lots and lots of Mediterranean spices, it’s a healthy and delicious lunch. The Mediterranean Soya Beans Salad is vegan, I made it like this because I really like these type of salads.
I used fresh basil and parsley from my herb garden. I also used frozen soya beans. I like them a lot. If you don’t have soya beans, you can use standard beans instead. I got the soya beans from the frozen section at Tesco, I imagine is widely available.
My husband and I have a big breakfast each day. As it’s an important meal for us, I thought of new spreads we can enjoy and I came up with this Sweet Potato and Lentil Pate. I made lentil pate before, but it’s the first time I would use sweet potato too. It was a really great idea, as it’s delicious and it’s a nice way to add more veggies. The recipe is naturally vegan, healthy and filling. If you want it for breakfast, as I did, I would recommend preparing it the day before, as it’s yummy cold and you might not have the time to prepare it before going to work.
I saw a lovely pink bread on Angie’s blog and I thought it looks amazing. As I had some cooked beetroot in the fridge and I was planning to bake that day, Beetroot bread was an obvious choice.
I like the taste, the texture and the colour. The taste is mild and it’s noticeable only when eaten as it is. With any spread on it, the beetroot flavour will be diminished. Not an issue for me, as the colour was what I was looking for.
To make this bread I used a mix of white and wholemeal flour, 50/50. I would suggest using a strong wholemeal flour. I ran out of strong flour, so I used plain instead. I also added Vitamin C; it acts as an additive which strengthens the gluten and the bread will rise better and faster. From what I’ve read, it’s a good addition for the wholemeal bread. If you don’t want to use any Vitamin C or you don’t have any, just ignore that one.
Ingredients for 1 loaf:
– 250g plain wholemeal flour
– 250g strong white flour
– 2 cooked beetroot
– 1/2 tsp Vitamin C
– 8g Easy bake yeast
– 1 tsp sugar
– 1 spoon of oil
– 50ml-75ml water
– a pinch of salt
Rhubarb puff pastry tart sounds amazing, especially paired with quark cream. The cream has rhubarb and dry Sherry and it’s delicious on its own. The recipe is really easy to make, but it does take a bit of time for waiting for the rhubarb to cool down. I loved the Quark cream with the dry Sherry, it was delicious. I preferred Quark because it’s a cheese naturally low in fat and it was a good choice. I will use Quark again for cream, because I think it’s a good option.
I used less than 1 pack of puff pastry. With the remaining puff pastry I made 2 cheese pinwheels and a couple of vegan sausage rolls.
I wanted to make something special, smoothie-related because I celebrated 1 year of daily smoothies and soups. I will talk about this on ancaslifestyle, my lifestyle blog in a few days, if you fancy a read.
In the end I made 7 smoothies, being a play on eat-the-rainbow. I made a list with what I’ve used in every smoothie. All are vegan because I rarely have a smoothie that is not vegan. When it comes to adding liquid in my smoothies I prefer 150ml natural juice and a bit of water. Two smoothies are made with soy milk. I don’t drink often soy milk, but I had one opened in the fridge and I used it in smoothies to see how it is. I liked it.
I didn’t use any sweetener in my smoothies, neither I or my husband like sweet smoothies these days.
I looked for ideas regarding the smoothies, especially for the blue one. Sadly I couldn’t find any suitable blue smoothies. There were two options, not very helpful for me. The first one was blue food colouring. I can’t say I understand why anybody would like to add food colouring in a smoothie. I have nothing against food colouring in a cake and I use coloured fondant. But in a smoothie… those should be healthy and packed with superfoods. That brings me to the second option, Blue Majik spirulina, it’s blue instead of the usual green one. While that is a great option, is a spirulina, so healthy, it’s not available in shops around UK. Of course, there was the option of Blue Curaçao, but, again, not exactly perfect for a healthy smoothie.
The rest of the smoothies were easy to make. I liked all of them. The red beetroot smoothie has an earthy taste that I enjoyed. My husband wasn’t keen on it, but he doesn’t like beetroot. The orange carrot smoothie was delicious, I really like carrot smoothies. I think this is the only way I would eat raw carrots.
The yellow Turmeric smoothie was lovely. Turmeric has an intense flavour and it overpowers everything else. The Green smoothie was made with spirulina powder. It has a lovely colour and the flavour is very nice. We have spirulina smoothies quite often. The blue one was a classic smoothie with fruits, lovely as usual. The indigo smoothie was one of my favourites because of its colour. The last one, purple, was delicious too.
When it comes to tea, Lapsang Souchong is my favourite, I talked about it on my lifestyle blog, if you fancy a read. I tried it for the first time last year and I loved it from the first sip. I enjoy its smoky and intense flavour and I think it works great in savoury dishes. I made Lapsang Souchong Rice before, so this time I took pictures so I can share the recipe on my blog.
I made a pretty basic recipe as I don’t think it needs more than that. If you want to make it a bit more complicated and add vegetables, then I would suggest to add a bit more tea. The recipe I shared is vegan and naturally gluten free.
Ingredients for 2 servings:
– 100g rice
– 4 teabags of Lapsang Souchong
– 1 spoon oil
– salt
