Paleo Pancakes

Sundays are for eating and relaxing in my world. I live in rural Devon so eating and relaxing on a Sunday is pretty easy to achieve. For some, I know this is more difficult but it is important to try and get some down time in the week. Our bodies and minds can only work to their full potential when we treat it well. Eating well and getting exercise is very important but so is reading a book or meeting up with friends for a catch up. Do something that helps you to unwind and release the stresses of the week, even if it's just the time it takes to make these amazing pancakes, smother them in maple syrup and chow down. Sounds like a perfect unwind to me. These were originally from a recipe I found on Instagram by Lala Maria (who makes a devilishly delicious version with bacon and blueberries) but I have changed it slightly to use what I had in the house. These are gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar free - practically guilt free! Serves 1 very well. 

You will need:

1 punnet of raspberries

small handful of flaked almonds

maple syrup to taste

1 large organic free range egg

70ml full fat coconut milk

1/2 tsp good quality vanilla extract

50g pure buckwheat flour 

1/2 tsp baking powder

a little coconut oil or grass fed organic butter

Separate the eggs. Put the white into a glass bowl. In another bowl add the yolk, flour, baking powder, vanilla and coconut milk. 

Beat the egg white until stiff. Beat the other ingredients until a creamy batter is formed. With  metal spoon fold in the egg white until it is just combined. Do not over mix as you will bash the air out of the egg whites.

In a frying pan warm a little coconut oil or grass fed organic butter. Spoon 4 -5 pacakes into the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Add a couple of raspberries to each pancake and cook for a little more before flipping. Cook for another minute or until the pancakes are done. 

Layer the pancakes on a plate. In the pan you cooked the pancakes warm up the remaining raspberries then tip these onto your stack. Finally drizzle over your maple syrup and add the flaked almonds. I like to let the maple syrup soak in a little before digging in. And there you have it, a beautifully fluffy stack of delectable pancakes. Happy weekend!

Blueberry Coconut Nicecream

I'm not sure if I've been living under a rock or something but only in the last few months have I come across the 'nanaicecream' revolution. Why did no one tell me about this before??? It is so delicious and so creamy it really is almost better than the real thing. There are many different flavour combinations but the base is, yes you've guessed it, banana! If you don't like banana don't worry. Once it is blended and other flavours thrown in, you really can't notice it. This recipe has blueberries and coconut so you could add a little cacao to make it chocolatey - try this, it's heavenly - or add in mango instead on the blueberries for a creamy tropical flavour. I topped mine with some pieces of 'Nut Pie' from The Chocolate Pie Company. I get mine from my local health food shop but you can also visit their site here and order online. The company is based in Cornwall and all the products are handmade. They make wonderful raw chocolate bars in all sorts of flavours using only nuts, fruit and cacao or carob. It went really well with this blueberry nicecream but you could try adding a few fresh blueberries or some nuts or having it just as it is! My blender isn't very robust so after I had made the concoction, I popped it back into the freezer to firm up  but for 30 minutes. You don't have to do this if you have a blender that is man enough for the job, mine just took rather a long time! This serves one as a pudding or a yummy breakfast.

You will need:

Blender

2 bananas, cut into coins and frozen for at least 6 hours

large handful of frozen blueberries

1 heaped teaspoon almond butter

1 shot of full fat coconut milk

Toppings of your choice

Get your banana out of the freezer about 5 or 10 minutes before you want to start. When they have softened a little, pop these into your blender and pulse for 1 minute until beginning to break up. Add your coconut milk and blend for another 2 minutes. Stop the bender and add your blueberries and almond butter. Blend again until you get the desired consistency of creamy deliciousness. You may need to stop your blender every so often so it doesn't over heat. Feel free to add more coconut milk if you would like to.  

This is the moment you my want to pop the mixture into a container and put into the freezer to firm up. If not, scoop into your favourite bowl or jar, add your toppings and dive right in! This is just wonderful. 

Warming Carrot and Coconut Soup

I love soup! I could eat soup every night of the week and be perfectly satisfied. There are so many flavour combinations, so many ingredients that the possibilities are almost endless. As it is nearly March and there are signs of Spring in Devon (my absolute favourite time of the year) I was inspired to make a bright and cheerful soup to warm me up on a blustery evening. School is pretty hectic as usual and with only 5 weeks of this half of term I am beginning to feel rising panic! Our year group is being moderated this year and with parents' evening next week I needed a bit of cooking-therapy. This soup was thrown together as a little trial but it came out so wonderfully well that I thought I should share. It is a Paleo friendly recipe and completely vegan, gluten free, dairy free and grain free. I hope you enjoy it!

Serves 4-6

You will need:

Blender

a little coconut oil or olive oil to fry off the vegetables

700ml -1l of home-made or good quality vegetable stock (check it has no hidden sugar, gluten etc)

1 red onion, roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves, diced

2 large leeks, trimmed and cut into semi-circle coins

600g carrots, cut into coins

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger (take off skin first)

1 heaped tsp turmeric

3 cardamom pods

1 cup full fat coconut milk plus a little extra to serve

handful of coriander - about 2 tbsp - roughly chopped plus extra to serve

salt and pepper 

Chop all the vegetables and prepare the stock and keep it warm. Warm the coconut oil or olive oil in a deep pan. Gently fry off the onion, garlic and leeks until soft and beginning to brown. Add the carrots and grated ginger and cook for a further 2 minutes. 

Whilst this is happening prepare the cardamom. Break open the pods, pick out the seeds and discard the cases. Grind the seeds and then add this, as well as the turmeric, to the vegetables. Add a little salt and pepper - add more after blending if needs be.

Stir the mixture until all the vegetables are coated in the spices and the aromas develop. Add the stock and bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the carrots are fork tender. At this point add the coconut milk and the chopped coriander.

Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer back to a clean pot and warm through. Taste and then add salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle into big bowls and garnish with finely chopped coriander and a little extra coconut milk. Enjoy with a piece of my Caveman Paleo Bread. Springtime in a bowl!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

For me, cooking is a release, it is my own sanctuary and a little bit of daily therapy. There are days when I cannot wait to get home and start cooking, even if it is just a poached egg. I have had a pretty busy week at work and had a soup (this soup) lined up to cook on Wednesday. I got home too late and so had a quick supper of avocado on my caveman bread, rocket salad with tahini and lime dressing and some smoked salmon. Pretty tasty but not quite what I had been looking forward to. The same happened on Thursday, so I finally made this delicious and wholesome soup on Friday. I so enjoyed the process and soon the stress and troubles of the week flowed out of me. It was like having a massage. My muscles released, my brow smoothed again. Does anyone else get this kind of feeling from cooking, or am I just a tiny bit crazy? 

Anyway, angst removed and feathers smoothed I dived into this glorious bowl of nourishing and tasty soup. I added a little honey to the roasting of the squash but you don't have to if you don't want to. It does had a richness to the final taste and the amount is not a lot. This serves 2 as a main course or 4 smaller portions. Serve with a slice or two of thinly sliced and toasted Caveman bread.

You will need:

1 large butternut squash or 2 small, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped into discs

600-700 ml good vegetable or chicken stock

1 heaped tsp smoked paprika

1 large red onion, peeled and diced

3 garlic cloves, peeled and diced

300g leeks, top and tailed and chopped into semi-circles

1-2 tsp organic runny honey

300ml coconut milk

juice of half a lime

salt

pepper

olive oil/coconut oil

pumpkin seeds to garnish

Re-heat your oven to 190 degrees C and put your prepared squash onto a tray with a generous glug of olive oil, then drizzle over the honey and salt and pepper. Roast for 30-40 minutes, shaking them up halfway through.

Whilst the squash is roasting, prepare all the other vegetables. Fry off the onions and garlic until soft and browning, add the carrots and leeks and fry off until the leeks soften. Add the paprika and stir so all the vegetables are covered. Add the hot stock and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for another 15-20 minutes. Add in your squash, lime juice and another twist of pepper. Pour into a blender and blend until smooth. Put back into a clean pot over a medium heat and stir in the coconut milk. Warm through for a minute or so and serve immediately. Garnish with some pumpkin seeds or a little swirl of coconut milk. You can keep this in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze on the day of making for up to 3 months. 

Paleo Pizza with Goat Cheese, Wild Rocket and Prosciutto

Just so you understand, I LOVE PIZZA. Always have. And now thanks to this little beauty of a recipe I always will. I tried a cauliflower version but I'm afraid we didn't agree with one another! This is so delicious, crisp and tasty that I can safely say it satisfies my pizza craving and doesn't leave me bloated or feeling guilty. It is also super easy and quick to make. The base is completely gluten, dairy and grain free. The top is too except for the organic goat cheese, so you can skip that it you like. If you are going to use cheese - of any kind - and follow a Paleo diet use organic and grass fed as a minimum. If possible you need unpasteurised but that is sometimes quite difficult to get a hold of. Even if you don't follow a Paleo lifestyle, it is important to source the best ingredients you are able to as this really does improve the flavours and the quality of food you are eating. Goat cheese obviously has no lactose and is therefore perfectly fine for those with a lactose intolerance. I now follow a Paleo diet most of the time but occasionally I dip into the so-called Lacto-Paleo world and have organic, grass fed butter or a little goat cheese or mozzarella. Sometimes I use capers and anchovies instead of the cheese and prosciutto as a topping and they also go really well with wild rocket. 

You will need:

Baking parchment

Baking sheet

Oven to 180 degrees centigrade

Food processor

For the base:

3 eggs

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 cup full fat coconut milk

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp basil or oregano

2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped

For the tomato sauce:

1 cup passata - check the ingredients to make sure no added sugar or nasties!

6 baby plum tomatoes, cut in half

1 tsp oregano

pepper

For the toppings:

50 g full fat, organic and grass fed goats' cheese

3 slices of prosciutto 

few olives - check no added sugar, if there is rinse in boiling water before using

5 or 6 sun dried tomatoes - again check no added sugar, rinse in boiling water if needed

1 tbsp toasted pine nuts - be careful not to over do them!

large handful of wild rocket

olive oil to drizzle

To make the base, heat your oven to 180 and place the baking sheet in to warm up. Scrunch up the baking parchment and then smooth out again and drizzle a little olive oil over. Leave this to one side.

Place all your ingredients except the coconut milk into a food processor and add half of the coconut milk. Start mixing the ingredients and add more milk as needed. You want the mixture to form a smooth paste. You need to be a bit careful about the liquid content as it won't cook properly if it is too wet.

Take out the baking sheet and pop the greased parchment on top. Use a spatula to smooth the 'dough' into whatever shape you desire! You want it fairly thin so you get a nice crisp base. Place into the oven for 12-15 minutes but check after 10 to make sure it isn't burning. 

Whilst the base is cooking you can make the sauce. Into a pan, pour the passata and drop in the halved plum tomatoes, a little pepper and the oregano. Bring to a simmer for 5-10 minutes until you have reduced by a third and you have a thicker consistency. Carefully toast your pine nuts in a small frying pan (no extra oil needed), but be really careful not to burn them. 

When the base is slightly golden, take it out of the oven but don't turn it off and spread the tomato sauce on top, crumble over the cheese and then add the olives, sun dried tomatoes and prosciutto. Put back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes. 

To serve scatter the wild rocket on top, followed by the toasted pine nuts and a little drizzle of olive oil. Happy eating!