Harira is a delicious, rich Moroccan soup that’s really delicious. With a green salad and maybe some gluten-free wholemeal bread, or some leftover cooked millet or brown rice stirred in it makes a main meal. This looks like a complicated soup but it is easy to make, provided you keep a storecupboard of some basic spices and some beans and pulses. Freeze it in single or multiple portions for TV dinners. I so love this on a dark winter’s night or after coming in freezing from working in the garden. Yum!!
If you are not used to eating beans and pulses then you might want to start with a small serving at a time, accompanied by some of your more “normal” (i.e. starchy) foods.
For 4
50g chickpeas
50g butterbeans
50g flageolet beans or white haricot beans
50g black-eyed beans (or black beans)
50g red kidney beans
50g large green (continental) lentils
50g yellow split peas
400g tin peeled, chopped tomatoes
225g onions, coarsely chopped
¼ level tsp black pepper
1 heaped tsp (teaspoon) ground turmeric
1 level tsp ground ginger
1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
1 heaped tsp ground paprika
A good pinch of cayenne (optional)
Juice of ½ lemon
1½ tbs gram flour (chickpea flour) or brown rice flour. If you eat gluten, its OK to use brown spelt or wholewheat flour but do avoid if you are coeliac or intolerant)
1 very large handful fresh coriander (or parsley, if you don’t have coriander) chopped
2 heaped tsp dried mint
Pick over the pulses and discard any sticks or bits of grit.
Put chickpeas, butterbeans, flageolets/haricots, black eyed beans and kidney beans in a large saucepan and cover in twice their depth of clean water. Leave to soak overnight. If you forget to soak them then cover in lots of boiling water and soak for 1 hour. Drain off the soakwater and add 1.1L boiling water and simmer for 1½ hours.
Add the pulses (lentils and split peas), onions, tomatoes chopped with their juice, pepper, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon and lemon. Boil fast for 10 minutes and then simmer for another hour. Add about 1.1L more water.
Add about 2 dessertspoons of cold water to the chickpea flour (or whatever flour you are using) and mix it to a smooth paste. Beat in a few ladlefuls of broth and pour this back in the soup, stirring vigorously. Continue to stir until the soup is bubbling again and has thickened without leaving any lumps. The flour gives the soup a texture which the Moroccans call “velvety” and which they usually achieve by stirring in leavened dough left over from breadmaking. Simmer the soup until the beans are soft.
Chop the herbs and add them with the paprika and cayenne, stir well and serve.
Note:
All beans and pulses come equipped with protease inhibitors – these are substances designed to stop them being digested by our protein-digesting enzymes (proteases). You can de-activate most of the protease inhibiters by soaking in cold water overnight – this helps inactivate the protease inhibitors. Then you need to cook till tender, boiling hard for at least 10 minutes of the cooking time. To make your beans/pulses ultra easy to digest, soak them at room temperature in clean cold water for a day or two until they start to sprout. Then cook and use as normal. If you never eat beans, then start with small portions and build up. Beans contain soluble fibre which feeds good gut bacteria. This can cause flatulence initially, which passes as you keep eating beans regularly.
Cook’s Handy Tip:
To reduce the cooking time of your beans/pulses soak a 7-10cm piece of Kombu seaweed in hot water for a few minutes. This removes the salt which could make the beans leathery as they cook. Chop it up and add to your beans before/during cooking. This also helps reduce the protease inhibitors and make the beans more digestible. It reduces the amount of cooking time needed and won’t be tasted in the final soup.
Why this is good for you: Beans and pulses are a great source of magnesium and potassium. They are also rich in protein so a cupful, cooked, is enough protein to keep you satisfied for hours. Thousands of scientific studies have been done on the health-boosting effects of spices. Eating a variety of spices in your daily diet is a great way of helping your health, soothing your digestive system and getting clear, younger-looking skin. spices also have an anti-inflammatory effect.
Seaweed, which you can use to speed up the cooking time of your beans (see tip), is a rich source of iodine. Iodine is needed for proper thyroid function and to keep your breasts or prostate healthy. Most Irish people are deficient in iodine. Iodine utilisation is blocked by fluoride and chlorine in our water, and by bromide which is used to “improve” white flour. Irish people also eat less iodine-rich foods than ever because iodine is deficient in our soils. Iodine is needed by your body to clear used-up sex hormones (oestrogens in particular including the toxic xeno-oestrogens from our environment). This helps keep you free from breast and prostate tumours. You can get rid of chlorine from your water by filtering it, or by boiling the water and leaving it to cool. Fluoride can only be removed by a special fluoride filter like those available from www.simplywater.ie You can reduce bromides by switching from wheaten flour to other, more nutritious wholegrains like rye (contains gluten), millet, brown rice, wholemeal spelt and buckwheat flours.
This is a basic weekday dinner curry which we love. Its just the thing for a cold, wintery night. It might seem like there are a lot of ingredients but if you do a weekly shop and have a few things in your store cupboard you should find it easy. The heat depends on what brand of curry paste you use. Supermarket brands such as Amoy tend to be very mild, whereas the great value tub of curry paste from Asian or Chinese stores are hotter. If you don’t like much heat, use half the amount, you can always add more later. The full fat coconut milk reduces the heat in the curry.
For 2
2 small chicken fillets (about 225g in total), cut across the grain into ½ cm strips
1 large red pepper
1 medium onion
1 carrot (optional)
2 tbs nam pla (Thai fish sauce)
2 medium courgettes
Juice of 1 lime
1 rounded tbs Thai green curry paste (red or yello will do if you don’t have green)
165 ml can full fat (NOT low fat) coconut milk
Optional: handful of fresh coriander leaves (or you could use basil or Thai basil leaves)
For the rice:
100g/half mug brown basmati rice
275ml/1 mug boiling water
¼ level tsp ground turmeric
Put a large, heavy bottomed pan on a medium heat and to this add your curry paste and the thick part of the tin of coconut milk. Mix to combine and let it cook gently while you put on the rice and prepare the vegetables. If you are not familiar with cooking brown rice, see my blog post on “how to cook brown rice”. When the mixture has sizzled for a few minutes, add the rest of the tin of coconut milk plus 1 tin of water (ideally filtered) from the tap.
Scrape or peel the carrot and slice on the diagonal into pieces about ½ cm thick. Add to the pan. Peel the onion and chop roughly into 2cm cubes, add to the pan. Add the 2 tbs of fish sauce and mix well. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes while you prep the red pepper by removing anything that isn’t red, and cutting into 2cm diamond shapes. Add this to the pan, stir, cover and simmer while you slice the courgettes into 1.5cm disks. Add these to the pan, cover and simmer for another few minutes until the courgette has softened slightly but still holding their shape.
Now add your raw chicken pieces, stirring them gently in to coat with the sauce. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring from time to time to make sure there are no large lumps of uncooked meat slices. When the meat is opaque, it is cooked.
Add the lime juice and stir gently.
Serve sprinkled with coriander or basil leaves, with the rice to accompany.
Variations:
Use cubes of salmon or any firm white fish (about 300g for 2 people) instead of the chicken. When adding the fish, make sure to coat it in the sauce but try not to stir during the cooking process so it won’t break up. When the flesh is opaque, its cooked (takes about 5 minutes)
For a vegetarian version, use 250 plain non-gmo tofu, cut into 1cm cubes, instead of the meat or fish – these can be added along with the peppers or courgettes.
Use 250g pak choi, sliced in 5cm lengths, instead of the courgettes, and add along with the fish – both only take about 5 minutes to cook in the covered pan.
You could also substitute red or yellow curry paste for the green
Why this is good for you: Herbs and spices such as galangal, chilli, lemongrass and turmeric offer a fantastic health boost. They help your skin by enhancing liver function, their antioxidant qualities delay the ageing process (wrinkles, senior moments!), and they soothe the digestive system. Yes, counter-intuitively, even chillies have anti-inflammatory effects. Orange/red vegetables provide beta carotene to protect eyesight, give you a healthy golden skin colour and can even help clear up acne. Onions are a rich source of soluble fibre that feeds good bacteria in your gut to help mood, digestion and more. Coconut oil contains medium chain triglycerides, a type of fat that your body burns efficiently for energy instead of storing it as fat. Good news if you want to stay lean and trim. The proportions of meat to rice to vegetables in this recipe is optimal, meaning your body can function more efficiently, giving you more energy, better digestion and increased vitality. For optimum health, lunches and dinners contain no more than 25% starchy carbs (brown rice, potatoes, brown pasta etc). Any more and you will be short changing yourself on o veggies, protein or healthy fats. Happy 2014!
This dish is loved by all who have tried it, including resolute carnivores and children. The alcohol is boiled off 95% during the cooking so the amount that’s left is negligible. Make loads and frieze in batches for delicious, quick pasta dinners. To make this a balanced meal add some broccoli florets into the sauce when its cooked and bubble, covered for a further 5 minutes until done. Alternatively, serve with a green salad.
For 2 (with a little left over)
1 dsp extra virgin olive oil or virgin coconut oil
1 dsp water
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 large garlic clove, crushed.
1 heaped teaspoon dried basil
250 ml sieved tomatoes (passata) or ½-1 400g can of chopped tomatoes
125g continental “brown” or “green” lentils
1 tbs tomato puree
275ml dry cider, red wine or unsweetened apple juice.
225ml boiling water
1 gluten-free vegetable stock cube or a level tsp of Kallo/Vecon vegetable bouillon powder and 50ml of boiling water in which to dissolve it
Freshly ground black pepper
150g brown rice/millet spaghetti or pasta shapes, buckwheat pasta, or (if you want to eat gluten, wholewheat spaghetti).
Optional extra (for dairy-eaters): grated parmesan cheese to serve
1. Put the onions, oil and dessertspoonful water in a large heavy bottomed saucepan, cover and sweat on a medium heat until the onions are softened but not brown.
2. Add the garlic, basil, tomatoes, lentils, tomato puree, wine/cider and 200ml of boiling water.
3. Bring to the boil, cover with a lid, and bubble for around 25-33 minutes until the lentils are tender.
4. Now make up the veg stock cubs or veg bouillon powder with 50ml of boiling water and add to the pot, stirring well to combine. It’s important NOT to add the stock cube/bouillon until the lentils are tender as the salt content would delay cooking of the lentils and make them leathery.
5. Season with pepper and serve with the pasta.
Why this is good for you: Lentils are high in soluble fibre which feeds beneficial bacteria in the gut which help prevent digestive problems such as constipation, diarrhoea. Lentils contain protein which helps balance your blood sugar and stabilise energy too. It’s important to boil lentils for at least 15 minutes, to make them digestible. Lentils are rich in magnesium. People who are short of magnesium are more likely to feel stress, insomnia or suffer from poor skin or digestive issues. Sugar, excessive salt, alcohol, stress, white flour and coffee deplete magnesium. Increasing the lentil sauce, having some green veg on the side, and decreasing the pasta quantities means you are getting a higher amount of protein and nutrients than people normally do in a pasta meal.
Wheat binds (inactivates) N-acetyl glucosamine, a substances important for day-to-day repair and maintenance of your intestines. That’s why its not always the best choice of pasta type (buckwheat, rice and millet make better quality pastas). Wheat also binds (inactivates) iron in your food, making it difficult to absorb. (2019 note: recent research and filming of the inside of healthy intestine during gluten exposure shows that gluten damages the barrier which prevents undigested food and bacterial by-products from entering your bloodstream. Yes thats correct, gluten causes transient gut damage for ALL people, not just those sensitive to gluten). Focusing instead on other grains like oats, brown rice and millet gives your digestive system a break. A cheaper alternative to non-wheat pasta is quinoa grains or whole millet grains, which I show you how to cook in my post on millet. Even reducing wheat to once in your day could still make a fantastic difference to your vitality.
I love this and so does everyone that tries it. It’s a really useful recipe: make a batch, cut or roughly break it up and keep it in the freezer. It can be served from frozen, which makes it wonderfully chewy and a little like a chocolate ice cream bar, and is a brilliant standby for when you have unexpected guests. It may taste decadent, but the ingredients are all very nutritious, the dark chocolate included. This recipe comes from Patrick Holford’s The 10 Secrets of 100% Health Cookbook.
Serves 10
200g dark chocolate, minimum 70% and ideally 85% cocoa solids, broken in to chunks
125g rough unsweetened gluten-free oatcakes (or normal unsweetened Nairn’s rough oatcakes if you are not gluten-sensitive)
50g goji berries
50g Brazil nuts, roughly chopped
50g pumpkin seeds
4 tsp ground mixed seeds (grind your own blend of flax, sesame, sunflower and pumpkin or use Linwoods milled mixed seeds)
2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
50g hazelnut butter or unsalted no-added-sugar peanut butter – or make your own by grinding the raw nuts finely and mixing in a little extra virgin nut seed or avocado oil (or at a pinch, light olive oil) to make into a spreadable paste.
1. Melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally, in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
2. Put the oatcakes into a mixing bowl and crumble into small pieces. Stir in the goji berries, nuts, seeds and spices.
3. Stir the nut butter into the melted chocolate and mix until fairly smooth. Stir the chocolate mixture into the remaining ingredients, making sure the ingredients are evenly coated.
4. Spread the mixture over a baking sheet and put in the fridge or freezer to chill and harden. Break into shards or cut into rough pieces when set, ready to serve.
Why this is good for you: These crunchies are packed with raw nuts and seeds, a precious source of raw omega 6 oils. These oils are important for healthy skin, digestion, energy, mood and immunity. Most people have lots of cooked or refined omega 6 oils in their diets and these interfere with your body’s ability to use the good (raw) ones. Raw nuts and seeds and good quality (over 70%) dark chocolate are a good source of magnesium. Magnesium helps you feel chilled out and happy. It also helps your liver function more effectively. Good news after the Christmas excess…
I love this with Christmas pud or mince pies. This is a brilliant substitute for dairy cream and is naturally sweet. You want a mini food processor or a spice/coffee grinder to make this easily. I think these 2 gadgets are the best pieces of kit you can get for your kitchen if you want to eat lots of easy-to-prepare interesting and healthy food. Alternatively a mortar and pestle and a lot of effort would work. This “cream” keeps for at least 3 days in the fridge, covered. If it dries out a bit, just add a little water and mix well to smooth it out.
3 servings
½ cup unsalted unroasted cashew nuts
1 cup filtered water
A few drops of vanilla extract
Grinder or pestle-and-mortar method (for an even smoother consistency):
Do not soak the cashews but grind finely, then beat in the water and vanilla essence with a whisk.
If you want it thinner add more water, thicker add more ground nuts.
Mini food processor method:
Soak cashew nuts overnight in the cup of filtered water
Blitz all ingredients in a miniature food processor until it reaches a creamy consistency. Add more water to thin if you like.
Tip: You can make a similar “cream” using soaked and peeled almonds.
Why this is good for you: Cashew nuts contain some protein and beneficial fats which help balance blood sugar, reducing the tendency to binge eat.. This is particularly great if you are serving with mince pies, plum pud or other high carb foods. Cashews are also rich in magnesium, which helps keep mood chilled, spirits high, blood pressure normal and much much more. People need lots of magnesium-rich foods at Christmas, when alcohol, white flour and sugar deplete this nutrient.
I love this because you just put everything in the pot, turn on the heat and cook for 3 hours while you potter about. This Moroccan stew was traditionally made by working men in Marrakech who did not have anybody at home to cook for them while out all day. Everything went into a tall earthenware jar which was then topped with paper and tied with string and given a good shake to mix. The whole jar would be brought to the Hamam (public steam baths) before work, to be collected, ready to eat, in the evening. This recipe was shown to us by Sidi Mahommad in Marrakech – the only changes I have made are in adding onions and potatoes. If you are doing a ketogenic eating plan or wanting to lose weight simply omit anything that contains lots of carbohydrate (millet, potatoes, chickpeas) and serve with more green veggies.
For 4
4 lamb shanks, 500g of large chunky lean beef or lamb pieces or 4 large lamb gigot chops
2 heaped teaspoons ras el hanout*
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly cut up in quarters
1 small or half a large preserved lemon*, rinsed and divided into 8 pieces (these are available from Halal shops and Asian store). Alternatively use the quartered skin of half an unwaxed, organic lemon – it won’t have the distinctive Morrocan flavour though
450g bag small onions or shallots, peeled
Fresh coriander leaves to garnish, if you have them.
Optional: 450g/2 large floury potatoes, peeled and halved
*You can make your own spice blend and preserved lemons by checking out the recipes for them on this blog.
1. Take a large heavy-bottomed saucepan or top-of-the-stove casserole dish with a lid and in it place lamb, spices, garlic, onions, potatoes and enough cold water so it covers the meat and veg by about 4cm.
2. Put the lid on and swill around gently to coat everything in the spices.
3. Simmer gently for 3 hours on the top of the stove
4. Garnish with lots of fresh coriander leaves if you have some. It’s still great without!
Serve with:
500g runner or green beans – either steamed or else cooked on top of the simmering tagine for 15 mins or so until tender.
Variations:
Leave out the potato and instead serve with freshly cooked millet grain. (Cook 1 mug millet with 2 mugs of boiling water – it takes about 10 mins. If you fluff it up with a fork after cooking it should look quite like couscous). Garnished with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of ground paprika, it works brilliantly with most tagines.
Instead of potatoes, add two mugfuls of chickpeas (soak 1 mugful overnight and boil rapidly for 15 mins first) to the meat at the beginning of cooking. That way they will take up a great flavour. Otherwise just add 2 tins of rinsed drained chickpeas to the tagine for the last 15 minutes of cooking.
Shortcut:
If you cant get preserved lemons then use unwaxed ORGANIC lemons – the peel of fruit has a lot of pesticides unless organic. It wont be exactly the same but still gives a good flavour.
Why this is good for you: Stewing rather than browning your meat means it keeps its nutritional value. Browning any food leads to oxidation which damages the meat, and your body when you eat it. Avoiding browned foods helps you keepy our digestive system in tip top shape and delays skin (and other!) ageing. Spices are powerful antioxidants and it is more useful to have a wide variety of them than to focus narrowly on just one or two. Ras el hanout gives you a good range of vitality-boosting antioxidants. If you use cuts of meat that include bones these will fortify the broth with collagenous substances. This supports the essential daily repairs and maintenance of your gut (digestive system). Great news if you are trying to heal gastritis, ulcers, food intolerances or indeed almost any digestive disorder where the lining of your gut is inflamed or damaged.
This is a delicious, short, sweetish pastry. I used it to make mince pies this week and they were fantastic. Your have to be careful though that they don’t burn. Placing a baking sheet above the pies on the next shelf of the oven (about an inch above the top of the pies) is the best way to prevent burning. The crust will be quite thick as its tricky to roll out without breaking. If you have a food processor, use it to make the pastry. It’s a doddle!
Makes 9 mince pies, with covers
100g finely ground almonds (or raw hazelnuts instead, ground finely in your spice grinder or mini food processor)
65g gluten-free oat flour from health stores (or make your own in a food processor/grinder using GF oatflakes). If you’re not coeliac or gluten-sensitive, normal oat flour is fine.
A little extra oat flour or brown rice flour for rolling out the pastry
1 level teaspoon xanthan gum
25g virgin coconut oil
1 dsp virgin macadamia oil or light olive oil
1 level dsp honey (use a hot spoon and a knife to measure)
1½ – 2 tbs iced water
Patty tin
A metal baking sheet
Pastry cutters, ideally a 7.5cm circular one and a star shape (or 5.5cm circular one)
A jar of my home-made mincemeat (recipe posted separately)
Combine ground almonds, xanthan gum and oat flour and mix well. Rub in the coconut oil (you can do this in a food processor if you want) until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Add the macadamia/light olive oil, the honey, and the iced water and blend again.
Roll out the pastry on a board floured with rice or GF oat flour.
Grease your patty tins with a little coconut oil. Cut out pastry circles to fit and line the tins with these.
Add about a heaped tsp mincemeat (or a little more) per pie. Press together and roll out the pastry remnants. Cut out smaller circles or star shapes and top the pies with these. There’s no need to seal the edges, just press the tops down lightly to flatten a little.
Bake at 200C/185C fan with a metal baking sheet placed just above the pies, on the next rack of the oven, for about 15 minutes. The baking sheet above the pies reduces burning. If they are getting too brown, remove from the oven, otherwise leave in for another 5 minutes.
If you choose to use my crumble topping for mince pies instead of using pastry covers, bake at 180c/165 fan oven so the almond flakes dont burn.
Why this is better for you: So what’s the difference between oats and gluten-free oats? Oats are usually contaminated with gluten grains like wheat and barley because they are harvested in the same hoppers and crops may be rotated. Gluten-free oats are grown and harvested completely seperately from gluten grains. They are batch tested for purity and that’s why they can be certified gluten-free.
The pastry in these pies uses mostly healthy oils that are good for health and vitality. Coconut oil in particular, is safe, even when heated to 200C. That means it won’t contribute to excessive ageing, skin breakouts, or weight gain. The special fats (medium chain triglycerides) contained in coconut oil are burned directly by your body instead of being stored as fat. Good news for Christmas waistlines! Oats are of course a wholegrain and are rich in chromium and fibre. This, and the protein content of the almonds, helps regulate blood sugar levels, keeping your mood and energy more stable. Almonds contain magnesium which is important for a happy, stress-free mood. That said, cooking any nuts or ground nuts damages their healthy oils so this is not an everyday recipe, but a occasional treat recipe.
This is a really easy reliable way to cook brown rice so it’s perfect every time. Here I use turmeric to give the rice a golden colour, meaning that you’re less likely to get objections if you are feeding fussy children (or partners) brown rice for the first time.
For 2 people (with protein and at least 2 servings of veg to accompany)
100g/half a mug of brown long grain rice or brown basmati (organic if possible)
275ml/1 mug boiling water
1/4 level teaspoon turmeric powder
Measure out your rice into a small saucepan with a lid. Add the turmeric and boiling water, cover with the lid and bring to the boil on a medium heat. You want the whole thing to boil gently until cooked. DO NOT STIR.
When the rice is done it will have soaked up all the water. This takes about 25 minutes for long grain and about 20 for basmati. Cooking times do vary depending on the hardness of your water. Adding salt or (salt-containing) stock cubes increases the cooking time. This is because salt lowers the boiling temperature of water, making it boil at less than 100C.
When the rice is done, you can keep it warm for up to 20 minutes by simply taking off the heat and wrapping the whole saucepan in a towel. This will also help everything become more fluffy.Why this is better for you: Brown rice contains more vitamins, minerals and fibre than white. This is because the outer layer of the grain contains most of the nutrients whereas the inside of the grain is composed mostly of (natural) sugars. When you eat a wholegrain, like brown rice, it comes with the vitamins and minerals needed for your body to benefit from it. By contrast, white rice is stripped of the nutrients your body needs to process it. The body takes vitamins and minerals from elsewhere, to help it deal with the nutrient-poor white rice. Let’s look at magnesium. This mineral is needed for good digestion, skin, mood and more. Deficiency can make you very stressed. 100 grams of cooked brown rice (about a cup) contains 110mg of magnesium whereas 100g of cooked white rice contains 11mg.
I usually only post once a week but as Christmas is coming and I don’t want all you healthy eaters or those with food intolerances to feel deprived I’m stepping up the pace for a week or two. This pudding, adapted from the recipe in Rose Cousins “Cooking Without”, is fabulous. It’s lighter in texture than standard pudding and is naturally gluten-free and dairy-free. If you have a problem with eggs, it can also be made egg-free. These quantities make 3 puddings each serving 4 people. I make these in advance and stick them in the freezer until Christmas Eve. On occasion I have eaten the last Christmas pudding at Easter and its still lovely…
Don’t forget to check “larder & shopping” section for unusual ingredients
1 portion Xmas Cake recipe (posted separately last week)
20ml/2 level dsp gluten-free baking powder (GF baking powder is usually free from nasty anti-caking agents made from aluminium so is much healthier)
2 large carrots, finely grated
225g cooking apples, peeled & grated (eating apples don’t give a good texture)
A little oil (eg light olive oil, coconut oil) to grease your pudding basins
Greaseproof or silicon paper to cover the pudding basins with, and string to secure
Ceramic pudding basins
1. Mix the Christmas cake as per recipe.
2. Mix in carrots, apples, baking powder.
3. Divide into greased pudding basins, depending on the size of pudding you require.
4. Steam or pressure cook. The 4-person pudding takes 3 minutes in a pressure cooker, 2 hours over boiling water or (if you must) 12 minutes in a microwave.
To reheat your (thawed overnight) puds when you need them:
Steam for 1 hour or microwave (if you must) for 5 minutes on high. I have to admit to heating my puds in our seldom-used microwave just to save hassle on Christmas day. Microwaving causes changes to food that damages your DNA* but when it’s only once a year I think, what the hell…
Why this recipe is better for you: Although the large quantity of (naturally sugary) dried fruit means this pudding can never be a vitality enhancing food it IS better for you than the normal one. It is free from refined sugar. It is also aluminium-free (as it uses GF baking powder), good news for your long-term brain and digestive wellness. Cooking apples are a rich source of pectin, which helps mop up and neutralise toxins in your gut. Pectin is a soluble fibre that feeds beneficial bacteria. Carrots are a rich source of beta carotene, which helps give your skin a beautiful, natural golden glow. Beta carotene from orange/red foods in your diet also helps prevent against acne and digestive disorders. Using macadamia, or even light olive oil for cooking means your pudding is not laden with toxic trans fats. Trans fats are generated when polyunsaturated oils (eg. “vegetable” oil, sunflower, rapeseed and other nut/seed oils) are processed by the manufacturer or heated by you.
*Damage to DNA initiates premature ageing, cancer, ME/chronic fatigue syndrome and more. That is one of the reasons why microwaved food is never a health-enhancing choice.
This almond paste has a lovely “crunch” to it and tastes no different from the “normal” version. If you want a really smooth, non-crunchy paste, blitz the xylitol for a minute or two in a food processor or coffee grinder before using.
Makes enough to cover a 7″ square cake (or a 6″ cake with leftovers to make marzipan sweets from)
Don’t forget to check my “larder & shopping” section for unusual ingredients
450g ground almonds
450g xylitol or erythritol
2 eggs, organic if possible, otherwise free-range
2 tbsp Irish whiskey or brandy
1 drop pure almond essence (optional)
Gluten-free icing sugar* or finely ground xylitol (do this in a spice grinder) for kneading and rolling.
*most icing sugar is GF but do check the packet
Mix the ground almonds with the xylitol.
Beat the eggs, add in the whiskey and 1 drop of the almond essence, then add to the other ingredients and mix to a stiff paste (you may not need all of the egg).
Sprinkle the work surface with gluten-free icing sugar or xylitol you have ground finely in a mini food processor or spice grinder, turn out the almond paste and work lightly until smooth and all the cracks have disappeared. You can store this in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week until ready to use. The whiskey preserves the raw eggs in the paste.
Why this is better for you:
Swapping out the sugar for xylitol means this marzipan doesn’t put a massive strain on your immune system and cause inflammation in your body. While xylitol isn’t a vitality-boosting product it appears not to deplete nutrients. It prevents bacteria sticking to your teeth and has NO IMPACT ON BLOOD SUGAR. Erythritol is similar (without the bacteria blocking tooth effects). Unlike sugar, xylitol and erythritol are OK for diabetic people to use. Remember that sweet things like cakes and marzipan do displace really vitality boosting foods like fresh fruit and vegetables from your everyday eating. Like in the past, these treats are meant to be occasional treats and not staples in everyday life.
