Spirulina and Almond energy balls

I love making these energy balls for my daughter’s packed lunch or to have as a snack during my printmaking tuesdays. I also send supplies of them on school trips! They give you lots of energy and nutrients in a very small package. I customise them endlessly according to what I have in my cupboard but here is a very tasty mix that works. They are also very good value when you compare with the price of similar energy bars or balls in health shops…

If you have not come across Spirulina, read below. It is a sort of algae/seaweed and is a very good supplement but tastes foul so it is great to have it in a guise you can actually enjoy! There is no real measures in this recipe so I just used a ratio of cups to 1/2 cups and 1/4 cups… Just to give you the idea.

Ingredients list:

• 1 cup almond powder
• 1 cup medium or fine oatmeal
• 1/4 cup wheatgerm or oatbran
• ¼ cup chopped dates
• ¼ cup brazil nuts or macadamia nuts
• ½ cup raisin
• 4 tbsp brown rice flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 bite size crushed ginger
• 1 tsp powdered Spirulina
• 2 Tbsp prune juice (or apple juice)

Mix all of the above ingredients in a food processor on the highest speed until it starts forming a slightly sticky dough. Bind with more juice if too dry and roll in very clean hands. These balls can keep for a fortnight in a metal box in your fridge.

Ready, steady, go

Nutrition note: Spirulina is often deemed the most nutritionally complete of all food supplements, containing a rich supply of many important nutrients, including protein, complex carbohydrates, iron, and vitamins A, K, and B complex. It also has a high supply of carotenoids such as beta carotene and yellow xanthophylls which have antioxidant properties. It is also rich in chlorophyll, fatty and nucleic acids, and lipids. Thus, spirulina has countless uses as a supplement for maintaining good health and for preventing diseases.

Best of…

Hi guys! I have been busy in lockdown and part of my output for this year is a BEST OF my blog recipes which I edited and published on a great “blog to print” platform called BLOOK UP. I Produced two volumes totaling about 400 pages of my favourite blog recipes and here it is now, available to anyone on Blook up! It’s been a labour of love and a present to my children. But if you are interested, I would be happy to send you the link. Let me know if you want to hear more about them! Take care and keep safe. DXXX

Cyanotype from @dianecfrost.art 2021

Curried parsnip soup with sweet peppers and paprika

Getting close and personal with the archives! Check this out 😉

travels around my kitchen

A nice soup to warm you up, body and soul!

Parsnip (or “panais” in French) may not be yet on your “favourites” shopping list but it has the advantage of being plentiful and cheap at this time of year. The British here use it cut as long chips and roasted with olive oil and thyme, but  only recently I have enjoyed it in a very typical soup paired with Curry.

A bit of Britain and a bit of India in an unlikely but winning combination…

Curried parsnips soup

•         300g parsnips
•          2 medium onions
•          2 to 3 cloves garlic
•          25g butter
•          1 tablespoon curry powder
•          1/2 chopped fresh red chilli
•          Sweet paprika to taste
•          1.2L chicken or vegetable stock
•  …

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Aubergine dip

Caviar d’aubergine

• 4 aubergines
• 4 tablespoons of Tahini
• 1 lemon
• pinch of salt
• 2 cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• Pepper
• Smoked paprika, 1 tsp

Wash and cut up the aubergines in two halves, then brush with a little olive oil and place the halves on a roasting tray. Bake in the oven for 1h  at 170°.

Once cooled, peel them and squash them with a potato masher. Add the lemon juice and other ingredients and finish with a little trail of olive oil.

Olive Oil Chocolate brownies – A Nigella recipe

Last may, on a walk by the cliffs with some friends, I sampled the best chocolate brownies ever at the charming Salmarsh café in Seven sisters country park, Sussex. This recipe, inspired by Nigella Lawson, is the closest I can get to the Saltmarsh brownies – that is until I go back to enjoy them!

 

This month, I have travelled to a land of cacao and volcanoes, of high rain forest and dry Pàramo heath, of hot springs and salty ocean waves, and I wanted to celebrate the beautiful, godly taste of chocolate with this very delicious recipe which unites the best cacao from South America with the best olive oil and almond from Europe. A nice one to take on holiday wherever you are heading!

Ingredients list:

• Virgin olive oil, 100 ml (plus more for greasing)
• Cocoa powder, 50 grams good-quality (sifted)
• Boiling water,125 ml
• 2 teaspoons best vanilla extract
• Ground almonds, 200 grams
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 pinch of salt
• Caster sugar, 150 grams
• 3 large eggs

Preheat your oven to 170°C. Grease a 22 or 23 cm/ 9inch tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.

 

Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, dark, fragrant paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.

 

In another bowl, combine the ground almonds (or flour) with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.

 

Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a mixer with the paddle attachment and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-yellow, aerated and thickened cream, a lot like a mayo.

 

Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and add the ground almond (or flour) mixture.

 

When it is all well mixed in, pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.

 

Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Eat with ice cream.

PS: Have tweaked the original to include less sugar and oil and more almond but see what you like!

Green crusted salmon side