Garlic Quinoa Patties

They’re cheesy. Garlicky. Eggy. Taste pretty goddamn unhealthy. They probably are. But quinoa is good for you, right? Ah well 🙂
Ingredients:
1 cup of uncooked quinoa
3 cups of boiling water
A reasonably large chunk of cheese, cut into little pieces (two handfuls maybe)
1 cup of flour
A handful of chopped chives
3 eggs
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 a teaspoon salt
(You could probably throw in some green vegetables if you wanted)

First, cook the quinoa with the water in a pan for about 10-15 minutes, if it is still too watery by then keep cooking, if it is dry but not soft enough add some more water (Oh dear I’m actually terrible at this.)
Okay. While the quinoa is cooking, beat the eggs in a large bowl. If, that is, you’re not going to exactly follow what I did. I actually ran down the garden in my pyjamas and a pair of crocs, got really excited about the fact that there was wild garlic with little bulbs in my garden, and ate some (only a tiny bit, I didn’t swallow it) only to find out they were daffodils. After the horror of almost dying, I skipped down to the vegetable patch and picked some muddy and wilted chives. And then the quinoa burnt a little. Shh.
Okay. So once the cheese and garlic and chives are chopped and the quinoa is cooked, mix it all into the eggs with the flour. And the salt, yes. And whatever else I forgot to say.
Mix it all up into a slightly wet mixture. It’s warm and eggy and unpleasant.
Scoop it out into about 10 balls, and flatten them, dusting with flour.
Heat up some olive oil in a pan and cook for about 7 minutes each side. I managed to fit about five into the pan at a time.
Enjoy!

Courgette and Pesto Bean Burgers

These are delicious! I kind of adapted the recipe but now it’s changed so much that it’s a new recipe in itself.
They usually take me about half an hour to make from start to finish, and they are really easy to make.

Ingredients:
15 oz can of butter beans or other beans, drained
1 average sized courgette, grated
3-5 tablespoons of pesto, freshly made or store-bought
5-7 tablespoons of rice flour or other flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for frying
Burger buns
Cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce etc. or whatever you like inside a burger

Put the beans, courgette, pesto and flour in a blender or food processor and blend until a thick paste. Taste and season and add more pesto if needed. Take out a bit, roll it in your hands for a second and see if it sticks to them, if it does, add more flour and stir.
Shape them into equal sized patties, depending on how large your burger buns are.

Heat up a small amount of oil in a pan until sizzling hot, then slowly place however many burgers fit in at one time in, for 2-3 minutes each side, or until golden brown

Put one in a burger bun with some other fillings and enjoy!

Tempeh Potato Curry

I usually don’t try making savoury foods, as they usually turn out disastrously, but today I had come back from the longest way home from school I have ever gone on, and I made a curry for dinner.
I had previously thought no. Curry? Curry was one of the many things that are a mystery to me. It’s just so unreadable. Who knows what goes in? I never understood how from a few simple ingredients, half an hour of time (For me, the slowest cook in the world) a great lot of fumbling with mutterings of ‘aah! Oil? Butter? Potaoes? Do I put the oil on before chopping the onions? What’s going on!’
Most people avoid that, and know the sequences of what to do, or at least don’t go crazy about them. But I only know sweet food. I’m a really healthy person, but maybe once a week, once every two weeks I will break out the bowl, eggs, sugar, flour, butter and cocoa powder. Sheer heaven. There, I know what to do. I’m a natural with sweet things. But putting in spices, salt, different ingredients? It just never tastes right.
But today it did…
With THIS

(sorry for the blurriness, it was perfect before I put it in the post… whats going on???)

And it does taste as good as it looks.
I adapted this loosly from a recipe somewhere I have not been able to find again. If I do source it I will put the credits in.
Ingredients:
150g Tempeh (For those of you who don’t know, it’s a really tasty fermented tofu. It has a wonderful chewy, tough texture remeniscent of chicken)
3-4 Medium potatoes
1 cup of tinned tomatoes
1/4-1/2 cup water
Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons oil
One large onion
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder (only if you like spiciness, if you really do add this much to taste, and then taste some more into the curry)
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons yogurt
3 teaspoons soft goats cheese

(Seems like a long ingredients list, but it’s really very easy. I promise. Also, read this in an Irish accent. Please.)

First of all, chop up the potatoes into little bits and throw them in a steamer. Leave them there for a while. While they are cooking, Heat the butter and oil in a saucepan. Chop the onions with minimal (hopefully) weeping and throw them in for five minutes with the spices. Once they are soft, pour in the tomatoes and the water (If the tomatoes are very watery, only 1/4 cup, if they are drained well 1/2 cup.) Pop in the yoghurt and the goats cheese.
Transfer this strange, disgusting looking mixture into a blending thingy. For a hand blender. Get out the hand blander and give it a good ol’ blend, until creamy and wonderful. Pour all this back into the pan and keep heating on a low temperature.
Chop up the tempeh and throw it in. By now the spuds should be ready, pop them in and stir for a while.
Once this is heated, serve this wonderful concoction on a bed of fluffy white basmati rice.

I’m in a really good mood today…

Chocolate Orange Brownie Mousse Pie

Yes.
And it is fluffy, gooey, light, rich, and there is not a huge amount of sugar either.
The pastry crumbles and flakes like no other gluten free pastry (usually) does.
There is a thin crust on top, waiting to be broken into.
This is perfection.
(really easy, one hour in all, one bowl, one grater, one spoon, one fork perfection.)

Recipe:
For the crust:
1/2 cup dairy free butter substitute (preferably salted)
1 cup SELF RAISING (very important) gluten free flour blend
1/4 cup icing sugar
For the filling
4 eggs
2 oranges (or 2 lemons, if lemons use 1/4 cup more sugar)
125g dark chocolate
1 teaspoon of baking powder (also very important)
3 tablespoons of flour

Begin by preheating your oven to 180c, 350f, whichever term you like to stick with.
Mix all the crust ingredients together. I tried using a spoon, but as always happens when I bake pastry, it failed and my hands were in there within the minute.
Press the dough extremely thinly onto the sides and base of your pie dish (if you have some left over, DON’T add it in. you should be able to see the base of the dish through the crust.
Bake that in the oven for 20 minutes, until golden brown.
So then, when the crust is baking, beat all the eggs together in the base of the bowl (preferably the same, to save on washing)
Melt the chocolate in whatever way is most suited to you then add it to the eggs, whisking thoroughly. If you dont whisk the chocolate into the eggs it solidifies into a lump at the bottom of the bowl which is a bit of a nuisance.
Zest both of the oranges, and juice ONE of them. if you juice two it will me more gooey than it already is.
Add that, along with the baking powder and flour.
Pour this gloopy, eggy mixture into the freshly baked pie crust.
Bake for 35 minutes, then take out and let cool in the fridge for 10.
Then enjoy!
Mine was very sloppy at first but hardened nicely to a brownie/moose texture

Sorry!!!

I dearly apologize for my lack of posting over the last few days. I have been so busy with starting school and wanting to kill my homework all evening that I have not had much time to make stuff. But the weekend is nearing, and I will let out all my pent up creativeness then. I made some lime, ginger and chocolate muffins yesterday, but the camera is out of battery so I will photograph them tomorrow, when the light is better.
I have been getting on fine in school, and I am really enjoying it. It is such a different way of being to my usual that it feels a bit unreal.