Cauliflower Rice in Cabbage Cups with Curry Sauce

Last week at Murwillumbah Markets the bright, beautiful leaves of a local red cabbage caught my eye and before I knew it my market bag was graced with its striking purple presence. Oh what fun, delightful recipe ideas filled this salad lover's mind! 

That same morning at the markets, I picked up a fresh jar of Nudgel Nuts macadamia butter. I've been obsessed with maca butter since I first discovered the Nudgel Nuts stand a couple of years ago. Sometimes I have maca butter with every meal, and sometimes I just eat it by the spoonful straight out of the jar (call me an extremist, but I'd rather go by the title of maca butter enthusiast).

This morning, my weekly adventure to Currumbin Valley Harvest left me laden with veggies - this recipe is made up almost entirely of ingredients from both Murwillumbah Markets and Currumbin Valley Harvest. I strongly believe in the importance of low food miles, not only for freshness but also to support local farmers.

These cabbage cups are quick and easy, with a flavoursome, tangy macadamia butter sauce - any excuse to show a little maca butter love!

Ingredients (makes 5 cups)

Cabbage Cups
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
4 spring onions, finely chopped
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 mini eggplants, diced
handful of snow peas, chopped
fresh juice of half a lemon
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 cauliflower head
5 red cabbage leaves
coriander leaves and hemp seeds for garnish

Curry Sauce
3 tbsp macadamia butter
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/4 tsp Hawaiian red alaea salt
fresh juice of half a lemon
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander

1. Cook the spring onions and garlic in coconut oil for a few minutes, until fragrant.
2. Add tomatoes, eggplant, snow peas, lemon juice, thyme and salt and cook for 10 minutes, until eggplant is tender.
3. While the veggies are cooking, blend cauliflower into rice using a blender or food processor on low speed.
4. Add cauliflower rice to veggies and continue cooking for 5 minutes.
5. Blend all sauce ingredients until smooth and well combined.
6. Scoop cauliflower rice into cabbage leaves, drizzle with sauce, and top with coriander and hemp seeds.

*You can also grate the cauliflower to achieve a rice consistency.

Carrot and Chard Bread

I have a big bag of hemp flour in my pantry that a generous friend gave to me (knowing that I'm a big fan of hemp) so I'm always thinking of ways to incorporate hemp flour into my baking. I also threw some bright veggies into the mix for extra nutrition as I'm all about eating the rainbow!

The ruby chard is from Sylva Lining Organics - Sylva is a super friendly farmer who has a stall at Murwillumbah Markets every Wednesday morning. She's taught me so much about so many different greens. Ruby chard has all the benefits of kale, but tastes sweeter, and in my opinion, is way prettier!

I do love bread, so you may see a few bread recipes pop up from me, since I find it so difficult to buy Sisi-friendly bread. It's one of my favourite things to experiment with!

If you have any other suggestions as to how I can use my hemp flour I'd love to hear them! Please feel free to comment below.

Ingredients (makes 4-5 servings)

1 carrot, finely chopped
1 small bunch of ruby chard, leaves shredded and stems chopped
1 and a 1/2 cups of raw brazil nuts, ground (be careful not to grind it into butter)
1/4 cup hemp flour
1/2 cup of flax seeds, ground in a coffee grinder
1 and a 1/2 cups filtered water
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
1 tbsp tahini
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
few drops of Young Living "Taste of Italy" essential oil blend
hemp, pumpkin and sunflower seeds for topping

1. Mix ground flax and water together, then refrigerate for 10 minutes to thicken.
2. Prepare veggies while flax is thickening.
3. Combine flax gel, coconut oil, and tahini.
4. Add ground nuts and hemp flour and mix well.
5. Mix in veggies, essential oil, rosemary, and salt.
6. Pour into a baking tin and top with seeds.
7. Bake at 170C (fan-forced) for an hour.
8. Allow to cool before slicing and serving.

*Best served toasted with avocado or nut butter.

Raw Lemon Detox Balls

You've probably heard of the lemon detox diet (not one that I recommend), but have you heard of Sisi-friendly lemon detox balls? They provide the same detoxifying effects without robbing your body of the nutrition you need. In fact, these seedy, fruity balls are packed with superfoods to nourish your body!

Ingredients 

1/4 cup medjool dates
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup cranberries
1/4 cup prunes
1/4 cup goji berries
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/4 cup flaxseeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup sprouted raw buckwheat
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup poppy seeds
juice and rind of a bush lemon
desiccated coconut for rolling

1. Process seeds and buckwheat in a food processor until a meal/flour consistency is achieved. Set aside.
2. Process dried fruit until it all clumps together.
3. Add seed meal, lemon juice and lemon rind and process until well combined. 
4. Form your mix into balls and roll in desiccated coconut.
5. Refrigerate balls to firm up before serving.

*You can also store these in the freezer (if you don't devour them all in one go!).

Baked Falafel Stuffed Capsicums

The only time I will ever use the term "get stuffed" is when I'm talking to one of my favourite vegetables, the  commendable capsicum.

These stuffed capsicums are gluten-free and 100% plant-based.

This is literally one of my tastiest, yummiest, most mouth-watering and flavoursome recipes to date.

I've been wanting to write a blog post on these since I first made them on the weekend and seeing as my blog is now officially live (yay!) I decided I'd make them again this morning (double yay!) to remind myself of the ingredients and steps I used. 

I'm a big fan of Middle Eastern cuisine because of its freshness and flavour and also a big Mexican food lover (there's never a bad time for guac!) so stuffing capsicums with falafel just seemed to make sense in my mind, and then serving them with avocado sauce seemed like an even better idea!

I only had one capsicum and heaps of stuffing so I ended up making several small falafel patties too - these are perfect to fill a lunch box for school or work!

Makes 2 stuffed capsicums and 7 falafel patties
Prep time: half an hour
Cooking time: half an hour 

Falafel Stuffing

2 cups cooked chickpea splits (I actually cooked these on the weekend in a huge batch and froze them)
1 brown onion
small bunch of coriander, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed (for ease of peeling and also because garlic must be crushed or cut to release the anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral activity of allicin)
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Celtic sea salt to taste
3 tbsp coconut oil

Avocado Sauce

1/2 an avocado
juice of 1/2 a lemon, few tbsp of olive oil
2 spring onion shoots

1. Slice the capsicums in half and de-seed.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 190 C.
3. Toss all falafel ingredients into a food processor and pulse away until everything is holding together but a bit soggy.
4. Scoop mixture into capsicum halves and form remaining stuffing into slightly soggy falafel patties.

5. Place patties onto a baking-paper-lined tray for 25 minutes, until browned on the outside. 
6. Blend sauce ingredients and serve stuffed capsicums and falafels with avocado and Hawaiian red alaea salt, avocado sauce, lime wedges, and a smattering of hemp seeds and activated raw pumpkin kernels.

There you go! A Sisi-friendly, slightly Mexican spin on traditional falafel that's packed with nutrients and flavour!