Weekend Carnivore

Shall we start by getting out of the way what I consider to be a pancake? You would think that would be a pretty simple debate but when you are an American that lives in the UK it becomes slightly more confusing.  What they British consider to be pancakes are much thinner than what Americans would think of when they hear the word ‘pancake’. British pancakes have much more in common with crepes than American pancakes. They are thin and often filled with something. Hence, more like a crepe regardless of how unpleased they may be to be compared with the French. They are very tasty but they are not what I consider to be a pancake.

American pancakes are much thicker, raise a bit and are proper comfort food for me. Like so many comfort foods, the cravings for them often come at times when you simply are not prepared.  Such as the case this weekend when I woke up simply needing to have pancakes.  I had flour and baking powder but no eggs. The only milk I had was soy milk. I didn’t even have the normal vegetable oil I would use to make pancakes.  To make matters even worse, it was cinnamon pancakes that were the focus of my pancake cravings and I apparently had also run out of cinnamon! Crisis!

The pancake craving wasn’t going away though and so I decided to see what I could do with what I did have on hand.  I have made vegan pancake recipes before and enjoyed them. So, I knew that I could make a good pancake without egg. Soy milk works fine too in vegan pancakes. I actually prefer making vegan pancakes with a vanilla soy milk for that extra layer of flavour. I only had the normal sweetened soy milk though so that was going to have to do the job.

The bigger questions was what oil to use to make these vegan pancakes. I didn’t have any vegetable oil and  I wasn’t going to use olive oil or avocado oil.  I still have a bit of that macadamia nut oil that I bought at last year’s Masterchef Live.  So, I thought why not try that? It might even give a nice nutty background taste to the vegan pancake recipe.

Finding something to replace the cinnamon was the final challenge. I’ve have chocolate with cardamom flavouring in the past and also in a few cakes. It isn’t a huge leap in flavour from cinnamon and so I figured now was the time to find out if cardamom and macadamia nut oil would go together well as part of a vegan pancake recipe.

It sure did! The macadamia nut oil provides a lovely nutty background taste without overpowering the batter. If I had prepared to do this recipe and had slightly deeper pockets, I might have chopped up some actual macadamia nuts and stirred them into the batter. I am sure that would have added an extra special taste to the vegan pancakes.  As predicted, the cardamom worked in a very similar way to cinnamon and brought sweet and spicy feel to the pancakes.

To finish off the vegan pancake recipe, I griddled some banana slices and popped them on top before drizzling a bit of agave syrup over the top. If I hadn’t been so stuck on this being a vegan pancake recipe, I would have gone for honey.

Vegan cardamom macadamia nut pancakes

Cardamom vegan pancakes

Ingredients:

100 grams plain flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 cup soy milk

1 tablespoon macadamia nut oil

Directions:

1. Mix the dry ingredients together into a large bowl and combine well.

2. Add the milk and the macadamia nut oil and stir until thoroughly mixed. If you are finding your batter is just a bit too thick at this stage then add a bit more soy milk.

3. Heat a griddle or frying pan until it is hot enough to make pancakes. I usually drop a tiny bit of water onto it and if it instantly sizzles I consider it ready to be used.

4. Either spray with non-fat cooking spray or use a tiny bit of the macadamia nut oil and then start to drop the batter on the hot surface.

5. Leave each vegan pancake until bubbles have started to form on the pancake. Then flip over and cook for a minute or so on the other side. Watch carefully because they can very easily go from perfectly golden brown to burned and ruined.

6. Divide the vegan pancakes onto two plates, top with your choice of toppings and enjoy!

Serves: 2

My latest food obsession is testing out different waffle recipes. Last month I added a waffle maker to my ever growing arsenal of kitchen gadgets. I have to admit that I was a bit worried that I would use it once or twice and then it would make its way to the dust collection shelf with the rest of my “must have” gadgets. Suprisingly though, it is a month on and I am still churning out a new waffle recipe every few days.

lemon waffle recipe with strawberries and cream

Some of those waffle recipes are mine but others are the culinary brain child of other great cooks. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been taking part in a cooking event that has be teamed up with other members of Recipezaar as we try out recipes from around the world. When my team captian, the wonderful Andi of Longmeadow Farm posted these lemon waffles as one of her offerings for our team’s Scandinavian cookbook I just knew I had to try them.

What I especially liked about this lemon waffle recipe is that the waffles didn’t have so much of a lemon flavour to them that I was sent into an involuntary pucker. Instead it was as if the lovely crisp but fluffy waffles were lemon scented. A perfect treat for a naughty breakfast recipe but I couldn’t help but think the lemon waffle recipe would also make a fantastic base for a vegetarian dessert recipe.

Being June in England, the idea of strawberries and cream is never far from a foodie’s brain. So, I threw the two together and boy was it good! As soon as the lemon waffles were off the waffle iron I got out the spray cream (hey, it was spur of the moment..no time to whip!) and piled those tasty waffles high with cream. A few sliced strawberries on top and it was perfect!

Even if you are a creative cook, breakfast can often be a bit samey. It can just be hard to find the motivation to deviate from the tried and tested when you are still waking up. Every once in a while though, I get in the mood to try something different.

Yesterday morning was one of those days and since my mother had given me a copy of the latest Hungry Girl cookbook I decided to use that to find inspiration.

Her pina colada parfait stood out for being healthy but yet something totally different than I would normally have for breakfast. I especially liked that it was full of fruit but yet looked more like a dessert than a breakfast and therefore feeling naughty but actually being healthy.

I stuck largely to the original Hungry Girl recipe but I did make one fairly big submission that I think made a whole lot of difference to the recipe. Her recipe uses Fibre 1 cereal to bring the crunch factor to the breakfast parfait. However, we don’t have that cereal in the UK and whilst I am currently visiting the States, I do want to be able to replicate recipes back home.

So, instead of going for the cereal, I toasted up some slivered almonds and used them. It worked perfectly well. The toasted nature of the almonds made the coconut yoghurt take on a toasted coconut taste which really enriched the tropical feel.

Pina colada breakfast parfait

pina colada breakfast recipe

Ingredients:
340 grams fat-free vanilla yoghurt
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
2/3 cup banana, chopped
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, from a can, well drained
4 tablespoons flaked almonds, freshly toasted

Directions:

1. Put the yoghurt into a bowl and stir the coconut extract into it. Set aside.
2. Divide 1/3 of the yoghurt between two parfait sized glasses.
3. Put half the the pineapple, then banana on top of the yoghurt and then sprinkle with half of the toasted almonds.
4. Top that layer with another third of the yoghurt, the rest of the fruit, the final third of the yoghurt and finally top with the remaining toasted almonds.
5. Serve.

Serves: 2

If you are anything like me, you can often find yourself with a fridge littered with jars and tubs with just a little bit left in them. There isn’t enough to actually use it in a meal but too much to think about throwing it away. Especially, when we all know we have to be careful about food wastage.

My default in these situations has become to figure out how I can combine some of these little bits and bobs and put them on toast. After all, just about anything can go okay on toast – just about.

This time I really lucked out and found a pairing that turned out to be a culinary marriage made in heaven – ricotta and pesto. I had just a couple tablespoons left of both and just spread them both on toast. It was *so* good that I was seriously tempted to run out and get more ricotta and pesto right there and then just to have an excuse to make it again.

Ricotta and pesto toast recipe

ricotta and pesto toast recipe

Ingredients:

2 slices bread
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
2 teaspoons pesto, fresh is best

Directions:

1. Toast the bread.
2. Spread each slice with one tablespoon of ricotta cheese.
3. Smear a teaspoon of pesto over the ricotta on each slice and enjoy!

Serves: 1 to 2

The morning before I go grocery shopping it is never certain I am going to have any of my normal breakfast foods still kicking around. On these days, my breakfast choices can get more than a bit experimental. Usually, I take a look at what odds and ends I have left over from the last week and attempt to put together a vegetarian breakfast recipe that can hopefully claim to be at least a bit healthy.

The day that I came up with this recipe, I really had just about nothing left in the fridge and what was there wasn’t jumping out as working well together. I had once slice of wholemeal bread, one egg and half an avocado. Ack! I decided not to give into defeat that easily though and crossed my fingers as I attempted to make this breakfast recipe work.

You know, it wasn’t bad at all!

I have had a mashed avocado mixture on toast before but usually I would have mashed it with a bit of lemon juice and garlic. I was totally out of any sort of lemon or lemon juice though. So, I reached for some garlic infused white wine vinegar I bought at a craft fair in Wales a few months ago and used that to mash up the avocado. I think I will do that again for another avocado recipe because the slight sharpness of the vinegar worked well with the creamy avocado.

I felt like I needed a bit of something else on top of that toast and avocado recipe. With just the one egg around and not wanting to add a ton of calories onto the recipe, I poached the egg and put it on top. When the poached egg yolk spilled out over the avocado it really was yummy.

Not only did it taste pretty good for a recipe put together with such haste, but all of the good fats going on in the recipe meant that just the one slice of the avocado toast filled me up and kept me full until well into the afternoon. Tons of time for Tescos to deliver my grocery shopping and make lunch so much easier!

Avocado toast with poached egg

Avocado toast topped with poached egg

Ingredients:

1 slice wholemeal bread
1/2 of an avocado
1/2 teaspoon garlic infused white wine vinegar or white wine vinegar and 1/2 clove crushed garlic
1 poached egg

Directions:

1. Put the bread into toast.
2. Meanwhile, scoop the avocado flesh into a bowl.
3. Add in the garlic vinegar and mash until it is roughly mashed and everything is combined.
4. Spread the avocado mixture on top of the toast.
5. Place the poached egg on top and enjoy.

Serves: 1

Part of what I enjoy so much about exploring vegetarian cooking is that it forces me to learn whole new cooking techniques.  Often, the new techniques aren’t even especially complicated.  It is just that I would never have thought of preparing a recipe in that way prior to taking up vegetarian cooking. Learning to make my own natural nut butters is an example of one of those new (to me) vegetarian cooking techniques.

I was taking part in the Recipezaar world tour cooking challenge (if you love to cook you need to visit Recipezaar!) and one of my teammates, WiGal
posted a recipe for homemade macadamia nut butter. I have always loved the creamy indulgent taste of macadamia nuts but I had never before thought of making them into a nut butter. I had considered trying to make other nut butters in the past but always thought it would just been too complicated for me to attempt.

So, when I saw her recipe for the homemade macacamia nut butter and just how simple it sounded I knew that I had to give it a shot. Just how easy is it? Well, you put a bunch of macadamia nuts into a food processor and keep it running until the nuts start to form a paste. Really, that is all it took!

How much more natural can something get then just using the one ingredient. My macadamia nuts were natural and hadn’t been toasted, roasted or anything making them taste just of themselves. Which really is a lovely pure taste. I made mine into a lovely vegetarian breakfast by spreading the homemade nut butter over a toasted cinnamon bagel and drizzling it with honey.

homemade macadamia nut butter

On its own, the homemade macadamia nut butter is fine for vegans too. Just skip the honey and find something vegan friendly to serve it on.  I  love all the possibilities this technique for making homemade nut butter opens up. I would think the possibilities only end when you run out of a different type of nut to try. However, I am thinking my next attempt at making my own nut butter will be with raw cashews.  I think that would work just as well.

Go on and try your hand at making your own vegetarian nut butter by checking out the macadamia nut butter recipe on Recipezaar and when you do be sure to rate the recipe and let WiGal know what you think!

There are so many times when I need to have a breakfast quickly but I don’t want to reach for anything unhealthy. Usually, these are also the same times when I am on my own which just makes it all the more difficult to come up with something other than yet another bowl of cereal. The good news is that once you get familiar with a wide variety of fruit you can come up with a healthy vegetarian breakfast that is ready nearly as fast as that dreaded bowl of bran flakes.

When I came up with this vegetarian breakfast recipe, I was at the start of my love affair with Greek yoghurt. I have been lactose intolerant since I was an infant and so I tend to try to avoid most dairy. So, when I discovered that, for some reason, Greek yoghurt doesn’t cause my guts to churn like most dairy I went through a period of obsession with it. Which is not a bad thing at all because even the fat free variety of Greek yoghurt I tend to use is really thick and creamy. When you add that it is also really healthy than there is no reason not to make it a regular feature of your diet.

I have found that it works especially well when I want to do a fruit based breakfast and that is exactly what happened with this tropical fruit breakfast that I came up with one morning. I had a part of a mango left but not enough to do a big recipe. So, I chopped it up, threw in some banana and topped it with the Greek yoghurt. It was still missing something. So, I reached for a passion fruit and scraped the pulp out and put it on top of the yoghurt. The passion fruit worked beautifully to sweeten the Greek yoghurt without the need for additional sweetener.

So, here you have it:

Tropical Fruit Breakfast For One

tropical fruit breakfast recipe

Ingredients:
2 ounces mangoes, cut onto small chunks
2 ounces bananas, cut in half lengthwise and then chopped
1 passion fruit, pulp of
3 teaspoons low-fat Greek yogurt or low-fat plain yoghurt

Directions:
1. Put the mango and banana into a bowl.
2. Scoop the pulp out of the passion fruit and gently mix in with the mango and banana.
3. Transfer to your serving dish and top with yoghurt.

Serves 1