Carrot and Cumin Soup

Well the summer has officially gone and the thick winter socks are on, and we all know what that means. Soup! I love me a bit of soup, perfect when you need warming up on a chilly autumn eve.

My mum used to always make the best carrot and lentil soup growing up, so for me it's the ultimate comfort food. I've put a little spicy twist to this family favourite though to give it a warming kick.

This like the majority of my recipes (bar my GBBO bakes) is super simple. The hardest graft is probably chopping up the veggies. It's also really flexible, the measurements are all pretty rough. I'll be honest I pretty much went with what was sitting in the fridge. If you're looking for a 5:2 version of this then just remove the honey and use less oil to cut down on the calories.

So let's get to it!

Ingredients

2 Tbsp of Olive Oil
1 Large Onion
2 Garlic Cloves (crushed)
2 Tsp Cumin Seeds
2 Tsp Ground Coriander
1 Tsp Chilli Powder
1 Tbsp Honey (optional)
500g Carrots
2 Celery Sticks
1 Litre of Veg or Chicken Stock

1) Start by roughly chopping up all the veg. Make sure the carrot is cut into fairly small chunks to make the cooking process a bit quicker.  

2) Cook the onions in the olive oil until soft. Add the cumin, coriander and chilli powder and cook for a couple more minutes.

3) Add the honey then the carrots and celery. Cook for around 5 minutes to soften the veggies.

4) Pour over your stock and leave to simmer for around 15 minutes or until the carrots and celery are fully cooked.

5 Blitz the mixture together until smooth. Serve with a big dollop of greek yoghurt and a few more cumin seeds sprinkled on top. Oh and not forgetting a big crusty wholemeal role (you gotta get that carb fix somehow!)

GBBO Cardamom Mango Eclairs

Well it's that time of the week again, goodbye fasting, hello cake and The Great British Bake Off. So as per usual, I've been in the kitchen baking away my own little showstopper.

Cardamom has to be one of my favourite flavours, it's found in a lot of Nordic Bakes so reminds me of summers in Finland and my Mummu's (grandmother's) homemade cinnamon buns wafting from the oven.

Of course, cardamom is also traditional in Indian cooking, and I've always wanted to try the combination of this pungent spice with mango.

So for my eclairs I've done that by adding cardamom to my choux pastry mixture and then made a mango creme patisserie filling.

I'm so happy with the final product and can't wait to share it with you!

So here goes!

Well the first attempt didn't go so well... then I used good old Delia's recipe for Choux pastry and it went a LOT better!

I think the difference was that I beat it for longer on the pan, and also used a bigger pan, meaning that the flour could cook off better. I also beat the mixture before adding the eggs to let out some of the steam.

I also followed this recipe from bbc food for the creme patisserie, adding a heaped teaspoon of cardamom to the milk when I was heating it up. Once the creme patisserie had cooled I put it in a piping bag and piped it on the inside of the eclair adding some mango slices on top.

Then for the icing I melted 50g of dark chocolate with two tablespoons of warm water and melted it in the microwave. I then added some icing sugar to thicken the mixture and piped onto the eclairs placing the sliced mango on top.  

Overall I was pleased with how they came out. Though if I were to do it again, I would pipe the creme patisserie into the eclair without cutting it open, as I think it would have looked and held together better.

So that's it for another week. SO looking forward to GBBO again tonight, can't believe it's almost over so going to savour these final precious weeks with P-Hoz and M-Bez. Sigh. 

5:2 Fresh Tomato Scrambled Eggs

Yup Yup it's a fast day again and to help you get off to a good week, here's another fast day recipe. This is one I had last week as fancied something super simple to make and also warm and comforting.

As usual this recipe is really flexible, for example you could remove or replace the pitta with a lower calorie bread or remove or add an egg depending on your calorie allowance for the rest of the day.

Ingredients

3 Medium Eggs - 213 Kcal
3 Cherry Tomatoes - 9 Kcal
1 Spring Onion - 6 Kcal
Sprig of Fresh Thyme - n/a
1 Tbsp Cyder Vinegar - 3 Kcal
1 Food Doctor Cereal Pitta - 130 Kcal

Total - 316 Calories

1. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and fry in a shallow pan with the thyme and vinegar.

2. Once tender add the eggs and scramble, season generously.

3. Finish by serving in the toasted pitta with a sprinkling of the sliced spring onions.

Dairy Free Banana Coconut Muffins

I thought I'd bake something nice and cosy now the days are getting that bit shorter and the tights are making their way out of the back of the wardrobe. These coconut banana muffins are perfect for breakfast on the go, or to have with a large cup of tea on a Sunday afternoon.

The great thing is that although these muffins contain refined sugar in the form of dark muscavado sugar, they are dairy free (one step at a time people, one step).

Makes 6 large muffins.

Ingredients

2 Bananas
4 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil (or Vegetable Oil)
120ml of Almond Milk (or any kind of milk you prefer)
1 Egg
80g Muscavado Sugar
200g Plain Flour
2 Tsp Baking Powder
50g Desiccated Coconut
Pinch of Salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (fan). Then mash the bananas then add the oil, milk and the egg. Mix together.

2. Then add the sugar, flour, baking powder, coconut and salt. Mix until combined.

3. Divide the mixture between 6 muffin cases and place a slice of banana on each muffin. Then sprinkle some coconut on top.

4. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

5. Allow to cool and enjoy!

Finnish Tosca Cake

Now this cake really is a taste of my childhood. My mum used to make this on a lazy Sunday, served with a big mug of hot chocolate after a long walk through the countryside.

I was inspired to make this after last week's European bakes on The Great British Bake Off, and indeed to commemorate GBBO Wednesdays. Woo!

Tosca cake is a light vanillery sponge topped with a crispy buttery almondy crust and it truly delicious and incredibly comforting.

You'll need an 8 inch cake tin that's been lightly greased for this recipe.

Ingredients

170g Caster Sugar
100g Butter
4 Eggs
200 ml Double Cream
3 Tsp Vanilla Essence
250g Plain Flour
2 Tsp Baking Powder

For the Topping;

150g Butter
150g Caster Sugar
100 ml Double Cream
50g Plain Flour
150g Almond Flakes

1. Start by beating the sugar and the sugar together until pale and fluffy.

2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating fully in between.

3. Add the double cream and vanilla essence and beat again.

4. Finally add the flour and baking powder and mix until smooth. Bake in the oven for around 35 minutes (depending on your oven). You want to make sure that it's still slightly undercooked when you take it out. This prevents it drying out when you add the topping.

5. Whilst the cake is in the oven, you'll want to make the topping. Start by melting the butter, cream and caster sugar together in a pan over a medium heat.

6. Once the butter is melted in add the flour, a it at a time, whisking in between. Once the mixture has thickened fold in the almond flakes. Set aside until needed.

7. Once you've removed it from the oven, immediately cut off the top dome to create a flat surface for the topping. Then pour on the mixture spreading it out evenly, then place back in the oven for around 15 minutes or until the top is nicely browned.

8. Leave to cool completely before cutting into the bad boy and enjoying with a huge vat of hawt choccy, or if you want to do it the traditional way, with a large cup of VERY strong coffee.

Hope you enjoy, and see you on twitter tonight for more GBBO dramas. Tweet tweet!

5:2 Avocado Cucumber Soup

Another day another fast, another avocado recipe for you.

I've been trying to cut down on my meat intake after watching BBC Horizon's 'Should We Eat Meat' series so Avocado has been a bit of a fast day saviour for me as it's filling and full of good fats.

I found this idea for a chilled cucumber and avocado soup (370 Calories) in the fantastic Flavour Thesaurus. Topped with a protein rich egg, this soup is both filling and refreshing. 

The idea of egg and a green soup came from a creamy spinach soup I used to eat as a kid in Finland (Pinaattikeitto) it also adds much needed protein.

Ingredients

1 Medium Avocado - 286 Kcal (approx dependant on weight)
Half a Peeled and Deseeded Cucumber - 13 Kcal
Juice of Half a Lime
Pinch of Salt
1 Medium Egg - 71 kcal

Total - 370 Calories

1. Poach the egg. Meanwhile blend together the flesh of the avocado, the cucumber and the lime.

2. Pour content into a bowl and season to taste. Place your poach egg on top.

N.b. Because I have some calories left I'm going to add some crunch to the dish by crumbling in some Finncrisp (20 Kcal per slice). 

 Enjoy!

Homemade Banana Chips

I'm starting a new series of posts will about what to do with your 'past it' bananas. I'm always having to chuck them away or if I'm feeing frugal I'd usually I'd just knock up a banana cake. However I like these recipes because they would all work as a nutritious breakfast of midday snack.

First up are homemade banana chips. These are lengthy to make, but very much worth it. Chewy and flavoursome, these little morsels are a great addition to your morning cereal or just to nibble on throughout the day.

I would suggest making a large batch (two trays worth) at one time as the yield isn't too big.   

Ingredients

2 (or more) Ripe Bananas
Juice of Quarter of a Lemon

1. Start by slicing the banana into fairly thin slices (means they'll crisp up better) and place in a bowl. Squeeze over a small amount of lemon to prevent blackening.

2. Then place on a parchment layered baking tray ensuring that the slices don't touch.

3. Bake in the oven at 80c for two hours. In this time you are free to do whatever you wish. Paint your nails, catch up on celebrity gossip, in fact two hours is more than enough time to watch at least two episodes of Suits on Netflix.

4. Once your two hours are up, carefully flip over the slices and bake on the other side for around 40 minutes. Just until you feel that they are crisp enough for you. 

5. Finally place them on a cooling rack to dry them out even further.

6. Store in an airtight container.