Broccoli Pesto Kelp Noodle Salad

Going on a grain-less diet can be off-putting when you can't have noodles, pasta and rice. Luckily there's kelp noodles. Made from seaweed, but have no fear if you are assuming that they have a strong taste of sea. The flavour and colours are stripped so it is pretty much tasteless and will absorb the flavours of your added ingredients.

And the best thing about kelp noodles is that it does not require cooking which will reduce preparation for you to make a easy whip-up. If you want to make a warm dish it just needs to be warmed by adding them to a hot broth or a sauce that you have just sautéed.

You can get these noodles from organic and wholefood stores.















Broccoli Pesto Kelp Noodle Salad Recipe:
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

Salad:
1 broccoli head
2 tomatoes
1/4 red onion
340g kelp noodles
1 cup baby spinach leaves
1 avocado
1/4 cup cashew nuts
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Pesto:
1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1 garlic glove
1/4 cashew nuts
1/3 cup olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Brewers yeast (2 tablespoons) - optional; gives it a cheesy taste
Salt and pepper to taste

1) Process pesto ingredients in a food processor and put aside
2) Cook the broccoli (boil or steam until bright green) - let it cool
3) Rinse the Kelp noodles in boiling water - let it cool
4) Cut the tomatoes, onion and avocado and mix in the other salad ingredients
5) Mix in the broccoli and kelp noodles
6) Add pesto

Enjoy the crunch! (Yes the Kelp Noodles are crunchy :))

 

Chicken Fried Caulifower Rice (Fried rice without the rice!)

If you want to lay off the grains in the evenings and love your fried rice then give this one a go. Using grated cauliflower to replace your rice is also a great way to increase your vegetable and fibre intake.
Enjoy the total goodness! It tastes just as good as fried rice! That is the beauty of it J

Ingredients:
20g coconut oil
1 garlic clove (crushed)
1 onion (sliced)
100g chicken (cut in cubes)
1 medium carrot (diced)
2 eggs
½ red capsicum (sliced)
3 stalks spring onion (diced)
grated head of 1 cauliflower
2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon soy sauce
juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoon plum vinegar (or other vinegar)
2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional – if you don’t like spiciness then don’t add it)


1) Prepare sauce by mixing salt, soy sauce, lemon juice, plum vinegar and cayenne pepper
2) Heat coconut oil over a large pan
3) Add garlic and onion and sauté
4) Add chicken and 2 tablespoons of sauce and cook until chicken is half cooked
5) Add carrots and cook until soft
6) Add eggs and cook until eggs are solid
7) Add capsicum and spring onions and half the sauce and cook until soft
8) Add cauliflower and the rest of the sauce and cook for a couple of minutes

Satay Chicken Kelp Noodle Salad

(from Dr Libby’s Real Food Chef)

Going on a grainless diet can be off-putting when you can't have noodles and pasta. Luckily there's kelp noodles. Made from seaweed, but have no fear if you are assuming that they have a strong taste of sea. The flavour and colours are stripped so it is pretty much tastless and will absorb the flavours of your added ingredients. In this case the asian flavors of the satay sauce and the fresh herbs.
 

And the best thing about kelp noodles is that it does not requiring cooking which will reduce preparation and cooking time. If you want to make a warm dish it just needs to be warmed by adding them to a hot broth or a sauce that you have just sauteed.

The nutty and sweet sauce is so easy to whip up and you can add it to other salads, noodles and rice dishes

Ingredients:

For Chicken:
600 gram boneless, skinless chicken
¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
¼ cup coriander
1 table spoon of seeded finely chopped red chilli
1 tablespoon cooking oil
Salt and ground pepper to taste

For Salad:
1 packet kelp noodle
1 bunch fresh kale, stems removed, leaves chopped
1 cup mung bean sprouts
150g snow peas, julienned
1 large carrot, peeled and julienned
½ medium green capsicum , thinly sliced
1 cup fresh mint
1 cup fresh basil
1 cup fresh coriander

For Satay Sauce:

1 cup raw cashew nuts
¼ cup almond butter
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon red chilli, seeded and finely diced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger peeled and grated
2 tablespoons tamari
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Method:

For sauce:
1) Combine the cashews with almond butter and water and process with a food processor
2) Add chili, sesame oil, ginger, maple syrup and tamari and pulse until well mixed
3) Pour in water to make the dressing smooth and creamy and blend.

For chicken:
1) Season the chicken with salt, pepper, coriander, chili and parsley.
2) Preheat the oven to 180C
3) Heat the cooking oil in a frying pan and cook the chicken

For salad:
1) Combine kelp noodles with chopped kale, sprouts, peas carrot and capsicum
2) Toss the salad with the satay sauce, then add mint, basil and coriander.
3) Place chicken on top and serve

Butter over Margarine

There was a time when fat was the enemy and during that time butter got a bad rap. Butter was and still is by too many people believed to be a major cause of high cholesterol. We know that butter has significant amounts of saturated fats and that saturated fats raise our cholesterol (however that is only half the picture...)

And so margarine was made. Margarine has no saturated fats and it is made of vegetable oil so of course that's got to be better for our cholesterol regulation right. Well at least for a while we thought so. Margarine, although made from vegetable oils, is highly processed; so much that trans fats are formed through the hardening of these vegetable oils. Trans fats are what make our margarines not so innocent.

Saturated fats which are found in butter increase LDL (the bad cholesterol that clog our arteries) while also increasing HDL (the good cholesterol that wipe away the bad). On the other side, we have trans fats in margarine which increase the bad LDL and decrease the good HDL. So although the overall choesterol is increased more from butter consumption compared to margarine, the increased good cholesterol balances out the over all cholesterol and margarine's cholesterol imbalancing effect is left pleading guilty.

So while being mindful of how much fat you are consuming in your diet, choose butter over margarine, now that you have heard the other side of the story.

Chocolate Red Bean Snow Skin Moon Cake

Its been a while since I have posted anything... But that is okay because these delicious moon cakes make up for it!

Moon cakes are those yummy celebratory sweets that are gifted to friends and family during the mid-autumn festival, otherwise known as moon festival or what I call "moon cake festival". There is a legend behind the birth of this festival which I tried to read about last year, however it bored me a little and so I remember a little about the legend :s

However I still look forward to the month of the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar. This day is celebrated by the sharing of moon cakes and watching of the moon while uniting with friends and family. Although I don't remember ever watching the moon, there was always a lot of moon cake making and sharing happening around this time at home and LOVE IT <3

Last year, I made the "modern", snow skin moon cakes for the first time. Traditional moon cakes have sweet red bean paste or lotus bean paste or mixed nut filling with a baked wheat pastry. Snow skin moon cakes are a made with a no-bake cooked glutinous rice flour pastry. You can get an array of different flavored pastry and fillings. From sesame, green tea, strawberry, mango, chocolate, red bean, etc etc...

This year I replaced the usual sugars and oils for healthier sugars and oils - (and they were a success - yay!):
vegetable oil and shortening --> coconut oil
caster sugar --> coconut sugar
icing sugar --> powdered stevia

Since I made my own filling the moon cake making process was a long process and I don't like spending a lot of time in the kitchen at once so I split up the process! The1st day I made the filling and the second the I did the rest.

So here is the recipe for these gorgeously sweet snow skin moon cakes:


Chocolate Red Bean Snow Skin Moon Cakes:
(makes 27 medium sized moon cakes)


Chocolate Red Bean Filling:
You can buy pre-made red bean or lotus paste at asian grocery stores OR you can make your own (esp if you want a healthier paste).

Ingredients:
750g Red bean
2 C coconut sugar
1 C coconut oil (melted)
Chocolate - 150g coconut oil
                 - 1 C cocoa powder                OR      220g dark chocolate
                 - 1/2 C honey

Directions:

1) Soak the red beans in water for 2 hours











2) cook the read bean in a rice cooker or slow cooker with water for an hour or until soft and drain water out

3) Process the beans until a smooth paste forms



   










4) Cook the bean paste with the coconut sugar and 1C coconut oil in a frying pan on low heat
     - stir continuously until the water has evaporated and paste is thick (not runny)
     - set aside













5) Melt 150g coconut oil and let cool before mixing in honey and cocoa powder OR melt the dark chocolate
6) Mix chocolate in with paste














7) Weigh out 80g of paste and roll into a ball
   - set the balls aside

















Snow Skin Pastry:
Ingredients:
300g cooked glutinous rice flour
270g stevia powder
90g coconut oil (melted and cooled)
150g filtered water

Pandan flavoring
Cocoa

Directions:

1) Mix flour, stevia and coconut oil
2) Slowly add in water while gently kneading mixture into a dough



 3) Divide the dough evenly into the number of different flavored pastries you are making (unless you are having one flavor) - I made a plain, chocolate and pandan flavour so I divided the dough into 3
4) Add the flavouring/colouring into the dough and knead in well- with the chocolate dough I had to add a bit more water as the cocoa powder dried out the dough


Assembling and Molding the Moon Cake:
1) Weigh out 30g of dough and roll into a ball
2) Flatten into a circle and roll it out with a rolling pin till it is of a size that fits the ball of filling with about 3 cm of pastry left around the filling

3) With one hand cupping the pastry and ball and the other with the fingers putting pressure on the filling, push and move the pastry so that it covers the filling and enclose it

4) Roll it into a smooth ball

5) Cover ball with cooked glutinous rice flour
6) Place the ball in the moon cake mold (with the smooth side facing the mold print) and press into the mold

 

 8) Release from mold (if you are using the old-school wooden molds this will involve banging the mold onto a surface or if you are using a plastic mold with a spring this will involve pushing the moon cake out with a spring device).

YAY! Moon cake success. Enjoy the moon cakes and the sweetness of sharing and uniting with your friends and family.

Happy "Moon Cake" Festival <3