Baked Rainbow Chips with Coconut Ginger Lemon Dip

If you grew up in the 90s like me, the word "cabbage" used to conjure thoughts of useless, overpriced dolls called "Cabbage Patch Kids", rather than vegetables. These days, my evangelism of vegetables has thoroughly increased my appreciation for these densely leafy plants and I can't sing their praises enough. So why are cabbages so cool?

1. They go well with everything - you can toss them in salads, soak them in soups, saute them in stir-fries...the possibilities are endless!
2. They help boost the immune system - their abundance of vitamins protects the body against disease. Cabbage is especially high in Vitamins C and E, both important immune-boosting vitamins.
3. Red cabbages are loaded with antioxidants - that beautiful bright colour isn't just for aesthetics' sake! The polyphenols in red cabbages work wonders, namely in eliminating toxins and fighting free radicals that could otherwise cause cancer.
4. They reduce inflammation - cabbages are packed with nutrients that can help prevent swelling in the body and therefore reduce chronic inflammation.
5. They boost heart health - cabbage binds with bile acids in your stomach, which means they're not absorbed into your body. This also means the cholesterol they contain leave the body through the intestines instead of being absorbed!

Not that I'm intending to neglect the other ingredients in this tasty recipe...I just really love cabbage! But let's get back on track. You may find it hard to believe how easy these chips were to make. I promise you I'm giving you the exact easy peasy recipe I used. All it takes is less than 10 ingredients altogether!

Cabbage Chips
10 red cabbage leaves
Celtic sea salt
oregano leaves

1. Tear the cabbage leaves into two or three pieces.
2. Blanch cabbage leaves in boiling water then rinse under cold water.
3. Drain leaves and dry with paper towels.
4. Season with salt and oregano.
5. Bake at 100 C (fan-forced) for at least two hours - even more if you want them extra crispy.

Sweet Potato Chips
4 gold sweet potatoes, very finely sliced into rounds
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
Celtic sea salt
lemon myrtle

1. Combine oil, salt, and lemon myrtle in a bowl.
2. Toss sweet potato rounds in dressing until evenly coated.
3. Bake at 180 C (fan-forced) for at least half an hour, flipping regularly.

Kale Chips
10 kale leaves, washed, torn and dried thoroughly
2 tbsp coconut oil
Celtic sea salt

1. Combine oil and salt.
2. Toss kale thoroughly in oil until evenly coated.
3. Bake at 150 C (fan-forced) for 10 minutes until crisp.

Coconut Ginger Lemon Dip
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/2 tsp ground ginger
fresh juice from 1 lemon
2 tbsp brazil nut butter
handful of activated raw pistachios

1. Blend all ingredients in a blender.
2. Top with chopped pistachios and hemp seeds.

*These are best eaten fresh and the recipe is easy enough that you can make them fresh all the time!

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!).

Fennel and Sweet Potato Soup

It's hard to believe with the glorious sunny weather we've been having on the Gold Coast, but it's still officially winter here! The chilly mornings make me crave warm comfort food like this hearty soup. The secret ingredient to its tantalising aroma is a special essential oil blend that is fast becoming a favourite in savoury cooking for me. Fennel is also a favourite of mine - it's an excellent source of vitamin C, which is vital for the immune system and has strong antioxidant-promoting effects.

This recipe is vegan, gluten-free and soy-free!

Ingredients (makes 2-3 servings):

1 fennel bulb plus stems and fronds
1 eschallot, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 small chunk of fresh turmeric, finely chopped
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
6 cups filtered water
6 drops Young Living "Taste of Italy" essential oil blend
fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Celtic sea salt to taste

1. Saute eschallot, garlic and turmeric in coconut oil until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
2. Add all fennel bits and saute for another 7 minutes.
3. Add sweet potato, rosemary, water and essential oil blend and simmer until sweet potato is cooked, about 15 minutes. 
4. Cool slightly and blend in high-speed blender until smooth.
5. Garnish with parsley and coconut cream.

Note: you can replace the eschallot with red or brown onion.

Raw Blueberry and Lime Macadamia Cheesecake

I was blessed to be in Hawaii for 16 days in April, helping out at a free community health expo and presenting health seminars. While I was there, I really wanted to make a raw cheesecake for our team as there were many team members who had never tried raw desserts before! Needless to say, they all enjoyed the experience!

Photo credit: Taj Pacleb Photography

Some of them went a bit crazy at cake o'clock!

Photo credit: Beejay Crisostomo

I wanted to create something using iconic Hawaiian ingredients, which is why I chose macadamias instead of cashews. I'd always thought macadamias were an Aussie nut, but it turns out Hawaii has a $40 million macadamia nut industry!

Photo credit: Earl Kapule

Trust and believe me when I tell you this recipe is yummy, creamy, zesty, and fruity - please try it yourself!

Crust:

💟 1 cup raw macadamias, activated (soaked in water for several hours)
💟 4 cups raw cashews, activated
💟 10 medjool dates, pitted
💟 1/4 cup desiccated coconut 

1⃣ Process 2 cups of nuts (set remaining 3 cups aside for filling) with dates and coconut (save some for garnish) in a food processor until well blended and sticky.
2⃣ Press mixture into the lined base of a 9" springform cake tin.
3⃣ Set aside in freezer.

Filling:

💟 fresh juice of 2 limes
💟 1/2 cup coconut nectar
💟 1 cup coconut oil
💟 1/4 tsp pure Hawaiian sea salt

1⃣ Blend the remaining nuts, lime juice, coconut nectar, coconut oil, and salt until very smooth (I alternated between food processor and Vitamix to get the consistency right).
2⃣ Pour mixture onto base and distribute evenly with spatula.
3⃣ Freeze overnight.

Topping:

💟 3 cups frozen blueberries
💟 8 dates
💟 1/4 cup coconut oil
💟 1/4 cup almond milk

1⃣ Blend all ingredients until smooth.
2⃣ Pour onto filling and freeze for a few hours.
3⃣ Remove from freezer 20 minutes before serving and garnish with coconut.

✴️ Please don't substitute the coconut oil with any other oil - it's the secret ingredient to getting the cake to set. All other ingredients can be adjusted according to your taste. All ingredients purchased from Down to Earth Organic and Natural retailers, my favourite stores in Hawaii!

✅ Coconut oil actually raises HDL (good cholesterol), despite the bad rap it's had over the years - previous studies that condemned it were performed on partially hydrogenated coconut oil rather than raw, cold-pressed virgin coconut oil.

Give it a go and treat yourself, or surprise a friend with a deliciously healthy birthday cake!

Sisi xo

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! 

Banana Berry Bread and Berry Coconut Sorbet

These were recovery gifts for an injured friend and her fam! 

Bread:

💟 5 ripe bananas, mashed
💟 1/3 cup mixed berries
💟 1/4 cup goji berries
💟 handful of dried pear pieces, chopped
💟 1/2-3/4 cup Loving Earth coconut nectar (depending on desired sweetness)
💟 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
💟 1 vanilla bean, ground
💟 fresh juice of half a lemon
💟 1/2 tsp ground ginger
💟 1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt
💟 1 and a 1/2 cups quinoa flakes (more for topping)
💟 1/3 cup almond meal
💟 1/3 cup amaranth flour
💟 1/3 cup sorghum flour
💟 handful of walnuts, chopped (more for topping)

1⃣ Mix bananas, coconut oil, coconut nectar, vanilla, lemon, ginger, salt, berries, and pear.
2⃣ Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
3⃣ Pour batter into a loaf pan and smooth out the top.
4⃣ Sprinkle with walnuts and quinoa flakes and bake at 175C (fan-forced) for 40 minutes.

Sorbet:

💟 2 cups of frozen mixed berries
💟 1/3 cup coconut cream
💟 1/3 cup Loving Earth coconut nectar

1⃣ Blend until well combined and serve with bread. 

✴️ You can leave out the goji berries and pear pieces if you'd prefer.

✅ Quinoa flakes are much more nutritious than oats and lighter on digestion!

Veggie Salad Rice Paper Rolls

This is one of my favourite packed lunch ideas! Fresh-made in the morning and full of baby spinach, celery, red onion, Syndian Natural Foods Veg Boost patty (vegan, soy-free, yeast-free, gluten-free, preservative-free and corn-free), Ozganics mild salsa (no added sugar), mung bean sprouts, and avocado! Delish! 😍