Category: Recipes

  • Winter Cough Remedy

    Winter Cough Remedy

    As the colder season descends upon us, I always make a large batch of this home made winter cough remedy to both prevent and keep the kids (and also us!) from suffering from that ailment.

    It’s a very easy recipe as all it requires its a large mason jar, some organic lemons and ginger and a pot of a good quality honey. I sometimes use manuka to make this, but as its quite pricey I mix it with a good organic honey to make it a more cost efficient remedy.

    Coughing might not be an illness as such, but it really can make us restless and with lack of sleep comes body imbalance and then illness can take residency in our bodies. Getting rid of cough quickly, or even better, prevent it, it a great measure to be healthy all winter long.

    Back to making it- truly the easiest! peel the ginger and slice thinly, wash the lemon well and slice it thinly as well, place the lemon and ginger in layers into the jar and pour the honey over them until covered. Place the cough remedy jar in the fridge and it should get a jelly like texture in a few days and the honey will be then throughly infused with the lemon and ginger.

    I use this remedy in two ways. I make a infusion with it putting a tablespoon of the mixture in a cup with hot water and I administer in tablespoons to the children when they have a cought or a sore throat. Although there are not known contraindications, i tend to not give them more than 3 tablespoons in a day.

  • Savoury GF muffins

    Savoury GF muffins

    These savoury GF muffins are one of my favourite ‘on the go’ brunch or lunch. You might wonder why? They are easy to make, versatile and you can honestly make them with any veggies that you have lying around which makes them a good ‘clean the fridge, recipe for before going on holiday. They work well for a snack or meal on the plane šŸ˜‰

    The key ingredient in the recipe is gram flour also called chickpea flour. It is quite sticky once mixed with liquids and its what binds all the other ingredients together. Chickpeas are an excellent vegan and gluten free source of protein and fiber and they also contain high levels of iron, vitamin B-6, and magnesium so this muffins are certainly packing a punch in terms on nutrition.

    Because chickpea flour is in itself quite bland, it is important to flavour the mixture properly. In this occasion I used nutritional yeast, but a combination of herbs to match the vegetables that you add works well too. I have also made them adding garlic and onion powder instead of nutritional yeast and we all liked the result.

    I have also made these savoury GF muffins using vegan cheese and we thought they were delicious! It makes them more gooey and it really works well. I’ll write the cheese recipe up soon and then you can make it yourself if you prefer not to use store-bought.


    200gr chickpea flour
    20gr nutritional yeast (or 1 tsp garlic powder & 1tsp onion powder)
    around 3 cups of mixed cooked veggies (and veggie combination of your liking works)
    1 tsp baking powder (make sure this is GF if that’s important to you!)
    1 tsp Himalayan salt
    1/2 tsp white pepper
    2 cups of water
    1 tbsp olive oil

    Heat your oven to 180 degrees and oil a cupcake tray. Cook the vegetables you are going to be using or simply chop them if you prefer to make a non cooked veggie version. In a bowl mix the flour with the nutritional yeast or garlic and onion, salt, pepper & baking powder. Add the cooked veggies to the mix and mix to cover the veggies with the flour mix. Add the water and oil and mix until well incorporated. Pour the mixture to fill the previously oiled cupcake sized holes almost to the top as the mixture won’t raise too much. Last time I used cupcake liners and they got stuck to the muffins, so I wouldn’t recommend that…

    Place the tray in the oven and cook for 20 minutes, then let the muffins cool down while still in the tray. Once they are only warm, store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. They are better room temp or warm rather than straight from the fridge though!

  • Making probiotic water kefir

    Making probiotic water kefir

    One thing that always surprises me when I visit health stores its the cost of fermented foods and drinks. It’s incredible the difference in cost between the homemade and store bought, particularly because the ingredients use to make fermented foods are veeeeeery cheap and, let’s be honest, the labor is almost nonexistent.

    Fermented drinks are a good way to keep the gut flora balanced, incorporating beneficial bacteria while also being very pleasant to drink. The taste of kefir reminds me of that of a slightly sparkly lemonade and kombucha, another popular fermented drink, has a mild tea taste (I usually make it with white tea as its the milder caffeinated tea taste wise).

    Making water kefir is so easy that it made me laugh when I first made it and realised I could always have it in the fridge ready to drink. It ferments rather quickly, usually 24-36 hours for the first part and 24 hours for the second part, so I always have a bottle at hand.

    One very important tip when making water kefir is to remember that its best to use glass or plastic utensils. I always use glass jars for both fermenting or keeping in the fridge, and plastic for things such as the strainer. It is thought that kefir grains react strongly to some metals, and although steel is considered safe, it is best not to risk using metal utensils if possible to prevent damaging the grains. Lots of our kitchen utensils are not 100% steel even if the manufacturers say so- better safe than sorry šŸ˜‰

    This is what you’ll need to make it:

    1.5 litres of good quality water
    10/15gr water kefir grains
    50gr organic unrefined cane sugar
    a couple of dates
    1/2 lemon (unwaxed)
    pinch of Himalayan salt
    125ml fruit juice or 10gr organic unrefined cane sugar

    You will also need a large glass containers for the first fermentation and a couple of kilner top bottles for the second fermentation.

    If you have any friends who make water kefir, ask them for some grains. As you can see in the photo, they look like translucence little blobs. Make sure you have the right kind of grains, as the kefir grains for milk do not look translucent but white. You can also buy good quality grains from Happy Kombucha on this link. Once you have been making kefir for a few weeks, you will have your own established culture and will be happy to pass on to friends and family as they multiply quite quickly. I keep some grains frozen just in case the current culture I am using get contaminated or goes off. For holidays (or when I don’t fancy making water kefir) I simply make a mix of water and sugar, then put the grains into it I place it in the fridge.

    Basically, all you need to do is bring the water to boil, add Himalayan salt and sugar, let it cool down and the sugar should also dissolve in the meantime. Once is only slightly warm to the touch, add the kefir grains, a couple dates /figs and lemon pieces and let it cool down. Place a muslim cloth or a kitchen towel on top of the container opening to prevent flies to fall in and place in a warm place in the kitchen counter for 24/48 hours. I usually taste it after 24 hours to check on how sour it is by then. If it tastes already fermented or slightly sour you’ll need to keep a close eye on it (and taste regularly) until it does no longer taste sweet. Once that happens it is ready for the second fermentation.

    Strain the water kefir into the bottles discarding the lemon and dates. At this time you can use the kefir grains to start yet another batch of the first part of the fermentation or simply put them into water and sugar mixture into the fridge for safe keeping.

    To each 1lt bottle you can either add 25ml of a fruit juice of your choice or 5gr of organic unrefined cane sugar to start the second fermentation process or the carbonation process. This is when the drink becomes ‘sparkly’. For this to happen its very important to make sure the bottles close very well so kilner top bottles are usually the best to use for that. I love to make sparkly lemonade (I use a combination of organic lemon juice and a bit of sugar to make the carbonation happen) but pineapple juice makes an awesome drink as well so make sure to give that a go! After around 24 hours of the bottles staying very tightly closed on the kitchen counter, they should be carbonated enough. If not, please close them and leave them for a further few hours until they are. When sparkly enough simply put in the fridge, but don’t forget to occasionally open them to let the excess of carbonation to leave.

    Commercially purchased kefir and kombucha are usually highly filtered to prevent the bottles from exploding due to the build up of carbonation even when kept refrigerated, which always makes me wonder how much of the cultures remain…Ā  homemade is best anyways!

  • Vegan buttercream

    Vegan buttercream

    I am really starting to enjoy decorating cupcakes and cakes using my piping tips and vegan buttercream- it is so easy to make that is really no excuse not to… I have also started making colours using natural pigments the same way I make colorful aquafaba royal icing to decorate cookies and the like.

    I certainly won’t say that vegan buttercream is super healthy, but there are some measures you can take to make sure it’s at least healthier than the ones used widely in commercial establishments. Sometimes its all about the best available option, rather than not having something at all…

    We sometimes use our homemade vegan butter to make this, but most of the time we simply buy a vegan butter alternative, free of palm oil whenever possible or at least those made with sustainable palm oil. It is more cost effective this way and also, the butter we make at home it’s so delicious that always feels like a shame when we use it for anything else than spreading it on toast šŸ˜‰

    So, back to how to make vegan buttercream… I have tried many times to follow recipes on how to make it from other people and the ratios never really did work for me. I think it is because every vegan butter has very different ratios of fat and liquids and recipes are usually adapted tp the bran that person makes. This is why I think it’s best to use the very well known method of ‘eyeballing it’. It always works! Basically, wait until your vegan butter is soft and start adding the icing sugar as you go, always waiting to incorporate it all before adding more. Once the mixture is still soft but with ‘body, meaning that if you pull the mixture up it creates peaks and they stay high, then you are ready to use it.

    If I find that the mixture is very stiff i simple add a couple drops of plant milk to soften, or you can use plant yoghurt if you prefer.

    The ingredients for this simple vegan buttercream are (this is usually enough for 12 cupcakes)

    150gr vegan butter
    as much unrefined cane icing sugar as needed (usually about 4 times the amount of butter, but it varies)
    a little plant milk or vegan yoghurt

    Good luck making your own super yummy vegan buttercream and beautifully decorated cakes and cupcakes!

  • Vegan Celebration Cake

    Vegan Celebration Cake

    One thing I really love making is cakes. I make them for no reason at all, just to enjoy a nice and healthier treat than I could get out there in the shops, but I also love making them for friends and family to celebrate birthdays and other occasions.

    Last weekend was my sister’s birthday and Laura came to London for a few days and I could not resist to make her a beautiful vegan vanilla birthday cake. I’d like to share the recipe for the vegan vanilla cake I made her because it was delicious and very easy while still being quite a good looking cake.

    Lately I started using shop bought vegan royal icing to cover the cakes. The reasons for using the commercial version is that we do never actually eat the icing, we simply use it for decoration purposes so I found it be quite a waste of good ingredients to make my own. I do make my own royal icing for cookie decoration as we use small amounts and we do eat that šŸ˜‰ we need to choose our battles to fit our pockets I say!

    So, back to the recipe. The cake itself its s simple yet very delicious vanilla cake and then I filled it up with vegan buttercream made with unrefined cane icing sugar. I made three layers of cake with two layers of buttercream in between and the recipe I am proving makes enough for 3 layers of 7 inch cake molds. Possible to make thinner layers in 8inch cake pans too, depends on what height you want to achieve for your cake!

    400grĀ organicĀ flour
    250gĀ unrefinedĀ caster sugar
    1 1/2Ā tablespoonsĀ baking powder

    1.5 tspĀ bicarbonate of soda

    1/2 tablespoon vanilla powder
    450Ā mlĀ oat milk
    1.5 tbsp apple cider vinegar
    300 g vegan butter or vegan spread
    1/2 cup agave (or any syrup syrup)

    Turn on your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. In a large mixing bowl, put the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and vanilla powder and mix well.

    Melt the butter and add the agave and oat milk and then slowly pour this mixture into the bowl with the flour mix until the batter is smooth. Distribute evenly between the three molds and bake for 25/30 minutes until an knife comes clean when cutting in hte centre of the cakes. Let them cool down before taking off the molds to prevent from breaking and prepare the vegan buttercream to set the cake.

    To prepare the cake for decoration, take one of the layers and place it in a cake base (or large plate). Spread a thick layer of buttercream and top with the next layer of cake, more buttercream and last layer of cake. Once the cake is built, if you want to decorate it more, go to our post on how to Ice a Cake.

  • Horchata (tiger nut drink)

    Horchata (tiger nut drink)

    When the days start getting warmer, regardless of where in the world I am, I crave horchata. Horchata is a traditional summer Spanish drink made with tigernuts or ‘chufas’ as we call them there. In essence is a tigernut milk, really, so its very easy to make your own at home. It has a few basic ingredients and take minutes to make (more…)

  • Torrijas- Spanish Easter classic

    Torrijas- Spanish Easter classic

    Every year around this time, regardless of where in the world we were living at the time, my mother will be looking forward to making this traditional recipe from our home country, Spain.

    It was not an easy feat. In Spain you can find the particular type of bread needed to make torrijas in almost every corner when Easter recipes start appearing on TV, but this is not the case in other places. (more…)

  • 5 ingredient- oat & date bars

    5 ingredient- oat & date bars

    My kids are BIG TIME nibblers- fruits, veggie sticks, hummus, rice crackers, energy bars… you name it and I’m pretty sure we have it around the house, because they constantly ask for these things. Thant said, they eat very well, so at least I can be re assured that they are getting all the good stuff in during mealtimes and we can be less picky with their choice of snacks. (more…)

  • Date paste- the best sweetener

    Date paste- the best sweetener

    Date paste is one of my favorite sweeteners to use at home. It’s cheap, easy to make and has the best nutritional profile out of the liquid sweeteners that you can find out there. They are a great source of energy and fiber and contain essential minerals such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc. They also contain vitamin A, and vitamin K among others.
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  • Nutty Banana granola

    Nutty Banana granola

    Who loves breakfast??? ME, ME, MEĀ  I would scream if someone asks. I must say that there is something amazing in the versatility of what is considered ‘acceptable’ in the morning- sweet, savoury, hot, cold, it doesn’t really matter as each culture has a very different interpretation of whats expected as food as first order of the day.

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  • Mini vegan donuts for little fingers

    Mini vegan donuts for little fingers

    As a child I used to love donuts. It was by far my favorite after school indulgence and even today I remember the pleasure it brought me to bite into a fluffy warm donut in a cold sunny day, seating out side in a bench on my way back home until a full day at school. That faint smell of cinnamon and powdered sugar on top… what a dreamy treat.

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  • Egg replacements in recipes

    Egg replacements in recipes

    As you probably know by now, I like to make non vegan recipes into vegan ones. For that, it is important to find vegan friendly replacements for ingredients that are consistently used in baking and cooking. Eggs are one of those ingredients that you find almost in every baking recipe so I set out to find the best natural and healthier replacement. (more…)