Cooking Archives - Page 3 of 3

Category: Cooking

04
Jun
2016

Happy Doughnut Day!

I found this pin two weeks ago, and after my recent adventures in making doughnuts with red kidney beans, I was intrigued by these Chocolate Potato Doughnuts!

I know, I know, more vegetable doughnuts – I was going to leave this recipe for later in the year, but then I learnt that it was Doughnut Day on the 3rd of June and thought what better opportunity to give these a try.

It felt a little strange to be making mashed potatoes for doughnuts, and I did need to swap out the Gluten Free flour for normal plain flour since I didn’t have any in my pantry and cocoa for cacao, but they were amazingly delicious!! Given the success of the kidney bean doughnuts, I shouldn’t have been quite so surprised, but the texture was so close to “normal” doughnuts. I gave my housemate Lisa one to try and she had no idea they had potatoes in it, but gave it her tick of approval!

Chocolate potato doughnuts

Annemarie’s recipe that you can see on her site is both dairy and gluten-free, so I’m going to attempt another batch with Gluten Free flour and egg replacer next time I visit her! I can’t wait to see how it goes, I’ll post here in the comments to let you know, and I’d love you to let me know how you go if you try cooking it in the comments below! 🙂

Happy cooking,

Meagan x

21
May
2016

Spanish chickpea and spinach stew

categories: Cooking, Dinner

I’m always on the look out for new recipes that are lactose free and nice and quick to prepare!

I came across the Lazy Cat Kitchen blog last week and had to try at least one of her recipes. Ania lives in Greece and blogs about her plant-based diet and recipes, and they all look amazing!

On Monday, I knew I wasn’t going to be home from work too early, and this chickpea stew recipe looked like delicious, quick and is lactose free to top it all off, so I decided to give it a try.

This recipe for Spanish chickpea and spinach stew delivers! I always love a good tomato based meal, and combined with the chickpeas and brown rice this was both healthy and filling, with plenty for left overs. I may have cheated a little and used a microwave packet of brown rice, but it still came together quite quickly.

Spanish Chickpea and Spinach stew

With chickpeas, tomato paste, peeled tomatoes, garlic, onions, spinach, almond flakes and spices this recipe is delicious and full of flavour. I had to leave the chilli out, as it’s another thing that I’m allergic to, but I think it would add an extra zing!

Not only is the recipe easy to follow, but it’s also vegan and gluten-free! I look forward to making more recipes from Ania’s blog and I will be sure to keep you posted on my cooking adventures!

Happy cooking,

Meagan x

07
May
2016

Birthday Doughnuts

categories: Cakes, Cooking

Ever since I found out I’d become lactose intolerant, I’ve been on the hunt for a lactose free doughnut recipe. It’s one of the things I really miss, and haven’t been able to buy pre-made or in a packet mix! I’ve tried cake mixes piped into doughnut tins, and while it is tasty, it still wasn’t quite “right”.

Well, I stumbled upon this recipe a few weeks ago on Pinterest, and I thought it would be perfect for my dear friend Lisa’s birthday. You see chocolate is one of her favourite food groups (along with lollies), closely followed by veggies!

Now you might be wondering what this has to do with doughnuts? Well the chocolate and lollies is easy to understand, but the vegetables? The secret ingredient is…… Kidney Beans!

Lactose free doughnuts

I know it sounds strange but trust me it works! It’s a rich dense doughnut and you can’t taste the beans at all. Now the original recipe is vegan and it can be found here on Sina’s blog, but I’ve modified it a little to use lactose free ingredients in place of some of the ingredients that I couldn’t find here. I also substituted the hazelnut topping for hundreds and thousands (or sprinkles for those of you overseas).

Sina has very generously allowed me to repost her recipe here with my few alterations and Australian conversions:

Ingredients

1 420g can red kidney beans
1 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup self-raising flour
1 150g bag of Sweet Williams chocolate chips (or your choice of vegan or lactose free chocolate)
4 tablespoons hundreds and thousands

Method

Rinse and drain the kidney beans. Place them into a blender together with the brown sugar, almond milk, and cacao and blend until the mixture is smooth.
Then transfer it to a medium bowl and stir in the flour and vanilla extract. Spray the doughnut pan with cooking spray or grease it with lactose free or vegan spread.
Either use a spoon to fill each doughnut or fill the batter into a Ziploc bag and cut off one edge.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and bake the donuts for 9-11 minutes. Allow to cool down in the pan for a couple of minutes, then move them to a cooling rack.
In the meantime, make the chocolate glaze. Melt the lactose free (or vegan) chocolate either by using a microwave or place the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and place it over a pan of barely simmering water. Once melted, cover the doughnuts with the chocolate and sprinkle with hundreds and thousands.

The birthday girl and I have enjoyed snacking on these doughnuts, the recipe made 12 doughnuts plus a few extra mini-cupcakes. Make sure you visit Sina’s page for the full and vegan version of this recipe, it’s a great site!

Happy cooking,

Meagan x