Have you ever cooked anything because it looks good? I have succumbed to one of those times right here. Now I don't deny that it tastes awesome, but to just enjoy the sight and the smell of this dish is one surefire way of lifting me up of the doldrums.

Spring is technically here, although it still hits 5C at nights and its April, for crying out loud! So this is my way of cheating myself into believing that primavera is here ... by making pasta primavera. LOL!



While I'm a firm believer that pasta is a hearty dish that has roots dating back a few hundred years, I read somewhere that there is no such thing as a cut and dried recipe for any pasta dish. Every home, every grandmother, every uncle will have their own style of making marinara, carbonara and puttanesca. So essentially a pasta dish serves more than to satisfy your hunger, a pasta dish serves to clean your fridge, dearies. Much like a fried rice. Anything goes.

And so to echo that sentiment, I've taken a page of many celebrated chefs and put together my version of primavera. In doing so, I have maintained and highlighted vibrant colours, as suggested by spring, I've kept it sauce-less by relying on a dang good olive oil to bring the ingredients together, and I've made it a bit easier by roasting all the hardy vegetables in the oven. Not only is this hands free to some extent, the roasting coaxes the sweetness from the vegetables and make for a fabulous dish.


So what vegetables are customary for a pasta primavera? For greens, I've seen a lot of asparagus, green peas and snap peas, but guess what? I had kale in the fridge. Some primaveras are all green, but let that not stop us from eating the rainbow. For colours, you can't go wrong with carrots and peppers, they lend a sweet note to the pasta, especially when roasted.



And sure, you can make this with any pasta you please, I just had a bag of black bean rotini which I picked up from Bulk Barn. On that note, there seems to be a lot of gluten free pastas around. Just today I saw green pea rotini, so I should give it a try. Aaaaannyyyway, any pasta works.

Now get off the device, open the larder and the fridge, check what you have, and you may just yet pull a pasta primavera together. :)

Ingredients:
1/2 large onion, sliced
3 carrots, cut into matchsticks
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow bell pepper sliced
4 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Herbes de Provence* (or a pinch each of savoury, thyme, oregano, marjoram and rosemary)
3 tbsp olive oil
Kale leaves, trimmed from 8 stems
2 cloves garlic, minced
450 g (1 lb) gluten free black bean rotini
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp olive oil
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 185C or 365F.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl, toss the onions, carrots, bell peppers, 4 tbsp olive oil, 4 cloves of garlic, salt and herbs.
4. Place these in the prepared lined baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes

5. Halfway through the roasting of the vegetables, start the boil for the pasta. Cook as per directions indicated. Salt and oil the water before introducing the pasta.

6. While waiting for the pasta water to boil, get a fry pan and heat the 3 tbsp of olive oil, then sauté the kale leaves with the 2 cloves of garlic, just until softened, not wilted, about 3-4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat when done.

7. When pasta is done, reserve up to 2 cups of the boiling water before draining.
8. Drain, then return pasta to the pan, toss with roasted vegetables (and the rest of the olive oil in the baking sheet), the kale, as much of the drained pasta water as you prefer.
9. Taste and season accordingly with salt and pepper, then toss with a final dose of olive oil, this time extra virgin.
10. Plate and serve.

This makes a light and sauce-less pasta, much like an aglio e olio, but without the red pepper flakes. If you so desire, you could also finish it with parsley and vegan parmesan.


* Yes, I realize I just used a french herb blend for an Italian dish :D It was awesome ;) And in it's absence, any combination of the components will do just fine.

Oh, and in case you noticed the sesame seed looking thingies stuck to the rotini, it's the prepared minced garlic I was using because I take short cuts now and then :)

Seriously, can this breakfast treat get any more healthier? Vegan and gluten-free? Okay, there is some sugar in here, but who's to say you can't use maple syrup instead? I could have, but then I'd have a halo on my head the whole day for making it, and I couldn't do it to my plant-based daughter. LOL!



Incidentally, that is her styling for her Instagram account where all edibles are vegan. Isn't it pretty? floatberry ... that's her account.



And to contrast that, this is my humble and minimalist photo, with nary the slightest decor, just barely serving archival purposes. To be very honest, I had to rush out the door in 10 minutes and these waffles actually ended up in Sally's food container that I've kept for a whole year! Surely I couldn't douse them with liquid sweeteners and load them up with fruits. She would be having these very waffles for breakfast the next day. Yes, Sally, I touched them. All of them.

I'll admit, it's probably an appliance fever. LOL! Ever since I got the deep pocket Belgian waffle maker, Ive been churning out all sorts of waffles. It makes thin and crispy tall walls with deep pockets to soak up all sorts of fruits and fillings. It's huge and chunky and oh-so-rich, it's those kind of waffles you pay extra money for in fancy restaurants. Not your IHOP waffle, baby!


375 ml (1-1/2 cup) milk
115 g (1/2 cup) butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs, at room temperature
4 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, cooled butter, eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla.
3. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients, then pour the wet ingredients into it.
4. Mix until just combined, the batter will be quite lumpy.
5. Let it rest for 10 minutes for the oat flour to soak up all the liquid. If needed, add up to a 1/4 cup of water or more milk to bring it to a thick consistency (soft but doesn't pour)

6. Preheat your waffle maker and brush a teensy bit of butter or vegetable oil on the plates.
7. Start cranking out these awesome babies.

Enjoy with seasonal fresh fruit.

A fabulous looking dessert, the pavlova is named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, and was supposedly created in a hotel in Wellington, New Zealand during Anna's visit in 1926. The exact origins are still much debated as both Australia and New Zealand lay claim to this meringue cake and declare it as their celebratory and holiday dessert.

The pavlova is a meringue cake that serves as a base, crispy on the outside with a soft and moist interior that is typically made in the summer months when a bounty of berries are in season to grace the top of the cake.

Most pavs, as they are affectionately known, will have a sweetened whipped cream layer upon which the fruits will lay. We are upping the ante with crème pâtissière ;) in addition to the traditional whipped cream layer. Oh yes! Going all out on this one.


Fortunately, our fruit platters runneth over with luscious and succulent fruits this week: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, kiwis, and mangoes, and they all played a part in making our summer pavlova as exquisite as it looks.


How about that mango rose ;)? My mom in law was staying with us and roses are her favourite. We came across a picture of it online and she promptly convinced me to try my hand at it. We were both elated to see it come out so beautifully.


This recipe makes an impressively tall-ish 9 inch deep dish meringue base to serve as your canvas.

Ingredients:
Pavlova
150 ml or 5 large egg whites, at room temperature
180 g (1-1/2 cups) icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla  extract
1 tsp vinegar
2 tbsp cornstarch

Crème pâtissière

Sweet cream
300 ml (1-1/4 cup) heavy cream, cold
2 tbsp icing sugar


Directions:
Pavlova
1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper to fit, then trace a 9 inch circle (using a cake pan) with a pencil.
2. Turn the paper around so you won't be piping onto the penciled side.

3. Preheat the oven to 130C or 260F.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites on high speed until it forms soft peaks.
5. Add the icing sugar to the egg whites, a tablespoon at a time until the meringue has turned smooth, glossy and holds its peaks firmly. This could take 4-5 minutes.

6. Remove the bowl from the stand and fold  in the vanilla, vinegar and cornstarch quickly.
7. Spoon large chunks of the meringue in the middle of that circle and even it out to make a smooth disk with raised sides to hold in all that goodness.
8. Use teeny bits of meringue to 'glue' the parchment down to the baking sheet in the corners. They have a tendency to curl up and touch your pretty sculpted meringue.

9. Bake for 75-80 minutes until firm to the touch. Turn the oven off but leave the pav inside with the door closed for another hour and half until completely cool. It should be crisp on the outside but still fluffy and soft inside.

Crème pâtissière
While the meringue is in the oven, start your crème pâtissière ...
1. With plastic wrap, line a heatproof dinner plate and set aside.

Then we made a batch with cocoa (6 ingredients now) and got my favourite version ... the Chocolate Oatmeal Almond Maple Cookie:


We made another kind that included sunflower seeds and hemp hearts in it. We'll call it the Amped Up Almond Oatmeal Maple Cookies. I'm at 7 ingredients at this stage. This can easily be a breakfast cookie, something you can gobble on the go and still have a nutritionally sound ... er, cookie ... for breakfast. I loved it with my morning coffee.



And this was made especially for my hubbie. Anything that's with chocolate and walnuts is a treat for him. Okay, maybe I over-compensated on the chocolate, but hey, it was an 85% dark chocolate bar that I chopped up for this cookie. So I guess we're good! By the way, still 7 ingredients on this one ;)





See how versatile this easy recipe is? Of course you can make one batch of the same and yield about 16 cookies. And you can do what I did, split the batch in 4 and just add on an ingredient or two to make four different kinds of cookies. How awesome is that?

Ingredients:
125 g (1 cup) almond meal / almond flour
125 g (1 cup) oat flour (ground quick oats)
1/2 tsp baking powder
80 g (1/4 cup) maple syrup
Add 1/4 cup each sunflower seeds and hemp hearts, or 1 tbsp each for the 1/4 batch to the dry ingredients

For the Hubbie Special:
Add 1/4 cup each chopped dark chocolate and chopped walnuts, or about 1 tbsp each for the 1/4 batch to the dry ingredients

Directions:
1. Prepare a parchment lined baking sheet.
2. Preheat the oven to 175C or 350F.

3. Whisk all the dry ingredients (almond meal, oat flour, and baking powder) in a medium bowl.
4. Add the maple syrup and vanilla extract to this and stir well to combine.
5. Shape dough into balls and slightly flatten to make disks, these will crisp nicely.
6. Place on the baking sheet, an inch apart, and bake for 12-15 minutes.

If you are just making one kind of cookie, stir in your mix-ins with the dry ingredients. If you're splitting the dough, there is seriously no harm in working in your mix-ins after the basic dough is done. You may need to oil your hands before shaping them into disks because they do get sticky.

Happy baking!

Guess what this crust is made out of? Okay, the title of the post gives it away ... Cauliflower !!! This delicious pizza is made with a cauliflower crust ... and yep! that means it's glutenfree !!! Can't believe it actually tastes so good!



It's amazing to see how this humble vegetable now takes center stage in replacing our beloved carbs to something more nutritious and waistline-friendly. I did a cauliflower fried rice too, and it was like ... nobody noticed that it wasn't rice. Next up ... cauliflower muffins!


It's super easy, super healthy, and super delicious, you won't miss the bready crust (for sometime, at least!). So do yourself a favour and make this your next pizza. You can thank me later ;)

Ingredients:

Oh how fragrant the whole house smells when we cook this rice. And not necessarily of the pungent jarring seed spices, but rather the soft aromas of leaves ... lemongrass, pandan and salam leaves.


We are all guilty of wolfing down this rice on its own because of how delicious it already is. But to enjoy it like a local, have it with tempe, omelette, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. But of course, no Indonesian rice dish can be truly spectacular without the addition of fried shallots, because the crispy umami flavour it imparts truly takes it to another level.


Nasi kuning's supporting cast usually include sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, sambal goreng tempe, perkedel jagung (corn fritters), omelette, and maybe roast chicken on ocassion. We find that the aromatic flavours are enough to hold its own and often make it as a vegetarian meal. On its own, nasi kuning is most definitely vegan, and gluten-free ;)


It's interesting to note that Nasi Kuning in its 'Tumpeng' or cone shaped form (along with its supporting cast) is a celebratory meal that is featured in weddings, birthdays and major occasions. And for this Thanksgiving, we adopted this 'slametan' style of feast, which literally translates to 'gratitude celebration' as our Thanksgiving meal.



Traditionally, one would use a woven bamboo 'tampa', or platter, where the rice would be formed into a cone in the middle, symbolizing the mountains where ancestral spirits lived. Various accompaniments would be arranged around this mountain of rice. Custom dictates that there would be a meat from the sea, a meat from the land, and eggs to symbolize a winged beast. Vegetables, usually spinach, would also take stage as an offering of the plant kingdom. There is a lot of history and folklore surrounding this tumpeng. So much so that it was recently elevated into an Indonesian culinary icon status.

Ingredients:
4 cups jasmine long grain rice
2 cups coconut milk
2 stalks lemongrass
4 salam leaves
6 kaffir lime leaves
2 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tsp ground coriander seed (optional)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, minced

Directions:
1. Wash rice, rinse and drain.
2. Add all the ingredients into the rice cooker, along with the rice.
3. Add enough water to reach the required 4 cup line, as marked on the rice cooker. Stir and try to 'sink' the leaves into the rice (as opposed to letting it float on the surface).
4. Cook as 'white rice' and wait for the beep.