It’s a polenta cake, omg…

 So I’ve had this packet of polenta in my cupboard for a while now and finally made something with it. I present to you my vegan and gluten free orange upside down polenta cake with pistachio, rose and cardamom. I know that title is a bit of a mouthful, but hopefully it makes you want a mouthful… 

I’m forever buying different types of flour to bake cakes and breads with (in search of the best gluten free replacements for the coeliacs in my family). There is a lack of progress pictures in this recipe because I wasn’t quite sure how it would turn out. But it was beautiful and I had to tell you about it. The polenta held together very well with flaxseed as an egg substitute; great result as sometimes gluten free cakes can crumble into dust. I put orange juice in the mixture too so it wasn’t dry. It is very delicately spiced with cardamom and the rose water is only in the icing on top, so don’t be put off thinking it might be overpowering. You could choose to leave them out, but trust me, they add a gentle, warming flavour and aren’t too “perfumy”. There’s not much more to say really, other than look at my gooey, fruity, nutty, cake! Bit of alright, isn’t it? If you like the look of that, then find the recipe below, bake it and tell me about it 🙂 

  You will need:

• one 20cm cake tin
• baking parchment
• a few bowls
• and obviously an oven

(In the pictures mine is double layered with icing in between as well as on top, because I thought I had too much cake mixture so separated into two tins. But in fact it would have worked best as one, so I’ll write this recipe as one. I make mistakes too, on occasion.)

INGREDIENTS

• 100g polenta (cornmeal)
• 50g ground almonds
• 50g plain white flour (Doves, Glutafin, or regular if not making gluten free)
• 150g caster sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 3 flax eggs (3 tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 9 tbsp water)
• 3 oranges (the juice of 2 and slice the other thinly, carefully remove seeds and peel around the outside once sliced)
• 200ml non-dairy milk, I used almond

To decorate:

• 1 tbsp chopped pistachios (quick blitz in food processor)
• 1 tsp rosewater
• Icing – make a small amount of the runny, glace icing according to packet instructions. I coloured mine pink with a splash of cranberry juice – be careful buying food colourings as many are not vegan!

METHOD

• Preheat your oven to 190C. All cake recipes start like this don’t they? These are the cake rules. Oven on now, please and thanks.
• In a small bowl, mix the flax and water well and leave to one side for 10mins or so until it reaches a gooey consistency, much like an actual egg.
• In a large bowl, combine the polenta, flour, sugar, baking powder and cardamom.
• Add the milk, orange juice, flax eggs to the dry ingredients and stir together until everything is combined well.
• Prepare the cake tin by lining the bottom with a cut-to-size circle of baking parchment. Grease the sides with a small amount of vegan margarine or oil. Arrange the slices of de-seeded and peeled oranges on the parchment, cover as much of the base as you can (cos it will look really nice on the top once baked!)
• Pour the cake mixture evenly into the tin and bake in the oven for 30-35 mins until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Allow to cool for a few mins before flipping out of the tin. Peel back the parchment to reveal your oranges and let it cool completely before decorating.
• Prepare the glace icing (mix in the rosewater and cranberry juice for colour if you want to include this). Drizzle over the top of the cake and scatter over the chopped pistachios. Now you can slice and eat it.

 The texture of polenta is coarser than wheat flour, so you will get a firmer cake, not a light and fluffy sponge. Which is really pleasant in this recipe as it’s sweet, well flavoured with almonds and cardamom and moist from the orange juice. Not exactly a healthy recipe, but remember there’s no dairy in this and it contains nuts and fruit which count for something, right? Hope you like it!

S.x

It’s a vegetable spiral tart, omg…

 OMG. I haven’t written anything for ages. But I’m getting back on it now during the run up to Christmas and will be sharing some fancy and nice looking recipes, which I hope you can use and impress with. I’m pretty pleased that I’ve managed to talk my family into letting me do a fully vegan Christmas meal for five! So I need to come up with a few tricks. I had a go at this gluten free vegetable tart, which I think will look even better the more times I make it.

For this you will need:

• A mandolin slicer (or a wide vegetable peeler, or excellent knife skills to slice thinly and neatly)
• A loose bottomed baking tin
• A food processor

You can use any vegetables you like, really. I had a butternut squash which needed using, but I will definitely be making it again with aubergines, courgettes, carrots. The more variety, the better it will taste and more colourful it will look.

 

INGREDIENTS

For the crust: 

 

• 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water – mix and leave to one side for a few mins)
• 225g rolled oats (you can use gluten free if ya wanna)
• 25g pine OR walnuts
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp salt

For the filling:

• 1 small red onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 handfuls of fresh, baby spinach
• 2 finely sliced mushrooms
• ½ finely sliced bell pepper
• ½ butternut squash (sliced very thinly, lengthways with mandolin)
• A pinch of smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Ground black pepper

 

METHOD

• Put the nuts and oats in the food processor and pulse until it forms a coarse flour type of texture. Add the flax egg, salt and olive oil, process again for about 30 secs. The mixture should stick together when you pinch it between your fingers.  
• Spread this out into your tin, pressing down with your hands to compact the crust mixture against the bottom and along the sides. Thoroughly washed and clean hands, yeah? Don’t be gross…
• Pop this in your oven at 200C for ten minutes whilst you prepare the filling. Take it out and reduce oven temperature to 180C.
• So for the filling. Food process the onion, garlic, spinach and 1 tbsp of oil then spread it along the base of the crust with the back of a spoon.
• Now you can start assembling your thinly sliced veg. I started in the middle with the smallest pieces of butternut squash. Roll tightly and place in the middle. Then start working your way around it with bigger strips, overlapping in a spiral pattern.
• Layer the larger slices along the outer edge and continue to overlap until all the strips meet in the middle.  
• Place the pepper and mushroom between the squash, distribute evenly and again, use the smaller strips towards the middle and the bigger ones along the outside.
• Sprinkle over with paprika and freshly ground black pepper. Lightly drizzle with a bit more olive oil.
• Stick it in your 180C oven for 40 mins and it should come out looking beautiful. Let it cool for a few minutes before you pop it out of your tin.

  

Enjoy 🙂 You could experiment with different ingredients to spread on the base. A tablespoon of pesto or any savoury preserves or chutneys you might have will add to the flavour.

S.x

It’s stuffed courgettes, omg…

(serves two – one courgette each)  

 

You might ask, hmmmm, how does one stuff a courgette? Well, read this and I’ll tell you. This is a quick blog post for a quick dish I made tonight with just a few store cupboard ingredients, so there’s a lack of process pictures; I only realised after eating that it was worth writing about! It is cheap and easy (pardon the innuendo), but looks quite impressive! Plus I threw in a load of healthy things and it tasted really fresh and flavoursome for my dinner tonight…

INGREDIENTS

• 2 courgettes, cut in half lengthways, scoop out the flesh with a spoon, chop and keep aside
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 carrot, grated
• Small handful of walnuts, chopped
• 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
• 50g pearl barley
• A few sprigs of fresh thyme (dried is also fine)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

METHOD

• Fry the onion and garlic in the oil on a medium heat for 7 to 10 minutes until golden brown.
• Add the chopped carrot, courgette flesh, thyme, salt and pepper, mix well to coat everything. Continue cooking for a further 10 minutes.

  

• Meanwhile cook the pearl barley according to packet instructions.
• Add the seeds, nuts and fresh parsley to the onion/carrot mix, stir well and turn off the heat. Then add the cooked pearl barley, again stir in to mix everything together.
• Brush a little olive oil onto the outside of the halved courgettes and place on a baking tray. Grill on a medium setting for 10 minutes.
• Remove from the grill/oven and spoon the mixture into each hollowed out courgette. Return to the grill/oven on a lower setting for a further 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn! Serve immediately.

I put this together with things I had lying around, so you don’t need to follow the recipe exactly if you don’t have a certain ingredient in your cupboard. I put the seeds and nuts in for a bit of crunch and protein to make this more balanced and substantial. Awesome fact alert: Sunflower seeds have almost the equal amount of protein as the same sized portion of chicken would provide. Once again proving you can cut out the meat and still get the nutrients you need 😉 

I will definitely make this again with tomatoes and fresh basil, and rice instead of pearl barley. I do hope you have a go at this one, it was improvisation which turned out really well. Plus I made extra filling which I can have mixed with salad for lunch tomorrow. Nice one. 

 S.x