Lemon Infused Polenta Almond Cake (suitable for camping)

Posted on October 26, 2014 by Melea

So long now, the time runs by. I had a very nice trip to the UK and came back with many more ideas where to travel next. The local cuisine in Cornwall was actually very good. There where many café´s with gluten-free options and I also found some raw fudge (from rawchocpie) that was totally delicious. The Cornish people do eat beans for breakfast and I must say that it´s not too bad. I was very fond of it there. I made a vegan and gluten-free version of baked beans, this time with avocado and humus. But you will have to wait for that recipe some more time.

The cake recipe I am posting here is inspired by the almond polenta cake that is sold in so many café´s in north Cornwall. You find it in St. Ives, in Newquay and even in almost lonesome places at the coastline. I actually never ate it there, but I was constantly curious how it would taste like :) So I made one up. The occasion was an invitation from friends I got to know at a bonfire. They said I could bring something for dessert. So there was my motivation to do this cake I wanted to try so long, but did not until that time.

The fantastic fact about this cake is, that you don´t need an oven, nor a food processor. You just need one flame. I made the cake in my camping van so I am pretty sure you can do it on your stove at home, or in your boat, or in your van, or in front of your tent, or I have no Idea, but you can tell me :) Whereas I have to admit, that not everyone may be as crazy as I am traveling with such ingredients. But it´s always a good Idea to be ready to make things like this. Additionally I would claim that this cake is good for you (because of the lemon, the coconut, the chia seeds, the polenta…just so many good things).

Polenta Almond Cake

1 cup polenta
1 1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup grounded almonds
1/2 cup plant milk (I used coconut milk)
1/2 lemon & also some of the peel
2 tablespoon chia seeds
2 tablespoon coconut oil and some more for baking
3 tablespoon agave sirup
pinch of salt

To prepare the cake you first heat up the water with the salt in a pot and add the polenta when it is boiling. Stir well and add the milk and the lemon. Stir some more and add all the other ingredients. Stir and stir.
Then heat a pan with some coconut oil and fill in the “dough” from your pot. Bake on medium to low heat until it is brown and a little crusty on each side (it took about 10 minutes each side for me). For turning the cake to the other side you can simply slip it on a plate, the place your pan upside down on the plate and make a 180 degree turn. I don´t really know if that description helped anyhow, but I used the technique I once learned for making spanish tortilla.

Now the fantastic cake is ready. You can eat it right away, but I suggest to wait until it has cooled down because it will be much more solid then.

So I hope you enjoy this or another cake or whatever you like to eat together with some friends and have a good time!

Cheers!

Home Made Chocolate and Traveling News

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Melea

It´s been a long time, that I did not post anything. I am very sorry. Life just got me spinned up in the famous web of “to-do-lists”. I was very busy, so there was limited time for creativity. But now I am back. The reason I was so busy is good news. I am going to travel from now on (tomorrow) without return date. It´s very exciting for me and it is even harder to believe, that I really made it through all the to-do-lists without going crazy… Because there is a lot that needs to be done when traveling for unlimited time. But now, ready to go!

I will try to discover some delicious recipes on the go. Anyway, you can follow my traveling on melea-und-eddi.tumblr.com. Eddi is the name of a car…in case you were wondering :)

But now, before I leave, here is a very simple, at the same time very tasty recipe how to make your own chocolate. I can totally recommend trying this, because it is easy and you can store the chocolate in the fridge, for a very long time. I have no idea, how long really, but I guess delicious as it is, it wont last so long. And you can surprise your guests with this!

So here we go. You will need a hot water bath.

Home Made Chocolate

1 part coconut oil
2,5 parts cacao powder
0,5 parts agave sirup

To spice it up

hazelnuts
walnuts
any nuts you like
cacao nibs
chili
vanilla
salt

Prepare a form with a sheet of baking paper. Fill in your favorite nuts or seeds or just plain air.

Above, there is just the equation. You choose how much chocolate you want to make. I think I took 1/2 cup of coconut oil and then adjusted the other ingredients.
You melt the coconut oil and then you add the agave sirup and the cacao powder. Stir until everything is well combined and be careful, that the whole thing does not get too hot. Otherwise it changes consistency from liquid to cloddy and you might be very sad (it happened once to me…). If you want to add chili, vanilla or salt, now is the perfect time. Pour the liquid chocolate mass (I am sure you tried it already :)) into the prepared form. Put into fridge or alternative into your freezer if you are too impatient to wait (I put it into the freezer). Wait until it is set. Cut into funny pieces.

E voilà, here it is. Your first homemade chocolate. You did it. It was easy, wasn´t it? And you know exactly what the ingredients are!

Zucchini Tart And Red Beet Fennel Salad

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Melea

There is an overgrow of zucchini and fennel in our garden. It is very beautiful and it is a lot. I discovered also today that fennel is continuing to grow if you cut it a little above the root (I read it in a gardening book after harvesting the whole plant…). For the base of the tart, I used margarine. When buying margarine I always try to find some with unhydrogenated fat and high in unsaturated fat. There are margarines with flaxseed oil, coconut oil and other good stuff. Next time I will try to make the base of the tart with coconut oil instead of margarine. You can try first and tell me how it went :)

For the topping of the tart I used pumpkin seeds. I soaked them for about 8 hours and then I let them dry in the sun. This is a lot of effort for a little amount of seeds, but it is worth it if you can afford the time. If you are interested in how and why to soak nuts and seeds, look here.

We ate all of this with 5 people. I guess you can also make it with 4.

Zucchini Tart

Base:

1,5 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup puffed amaranth
100 g margarine
3 tablespoon water
salt

Filling:

400 g silken tofu
2 zucchini
1 carrot
2 small onions
1/3 cup sesame seeds
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

handful of pumpkin seeds (preferably soaked for 8 hours) for decoration

Prepare the base:

Mix all ingredients together. Use your hands to make the dough. Kneat everything until it is well combined. It´s best to put the dough into the fridge for approximately 20 min. But you can skip this step if you are short in time. Preheat the oven to 170° C. Press the dough into a spring form pan (I used a 26 cm one) and bake for 15 min.

Prepare the filling:

Grate the zucchini and the carrot finely. Chop the onions into small pieces. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a pan and add the onions. Fry them until they are a little brown. Combine all ingredients and mix with a fork until the consistency is smoothly.

Fill the filling on top of the baked base. Now bake everything for another 45 min or until the filling has a light brown crust. When you take the tart out of the oven, let it set for a while. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.

Red Beet Fennel Salad

2 fennel
1-2 red beet (depending on your liking and their size)

For the sauce:
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon thinly chopped ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
rosemary

Cut off the green top of the fennel and safe some for later. Chop the fennel and the beet into your favorite pieces. Combine all ingredients for the sauce and stir well. Pour over the fennel and the beet and mix everything. Decorate with some of the green you saved in the beginning

The zucchini tart is at its best when it is neither cold or hot. The salad gets even better, when it has some time to marinate. So don´t hurry :)

Buen apetit! I hope you´ll like it.

Baked Banana Cake

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Melea

This recipe I dedicate to Hannah. Yes :) Three years ago, she gave me a banana cranberry cake as a present for my birthday. Enclosed, there was a poem and the recipe for the cake. It was so good, that it inspired me to start my baking career. I was then baking this cake for about a year. Often. Very often. I was baking it with cranberries, with raisins, with almonds, with hazelnuts, with chocolate, with chestnuts and even with beechnuts.

So you can see I was very fond of this special cake. Then I started to eat no wheat and no sugar anymore and my baking career ended quite abruptly. But then, after one year without this cake I got back to it. Changed a lot of ingredients. Used a special technique (the soak your buckwheat and then blend it technique) and here it is :)

I hope you´ll like it! This cake is vegan.

For this recipe you need to soak the buckwheat for at least 2 hours. I just soak them over night.

Banana Cake

3 Bananas
1 cup buckwheat (soaked for at least 2 hours)
1 cup oats
1 cup grounded nuts (I used hazelnuts)
1/2 cup cranberries
1 teaspoon grounded vanilla (or pulp of one vanilla pod)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt

1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1/3 cup agave sirup
2 tablespoons chia seeds and 1/3 cup of water

1. Mix the chia seeds into the water and leave them aside. Stir them from time to time.

2. When ready soaked, rinse the buckwheat in a sieve with cold water. Put the buckwheat in a bowl and blend it with a hand-held blender. Blend until it has a dough like consistency. Now you can add the agave sirup, the melted coconut oil (you can melt the coconut oil in a warm water bath), the three mashed bananas and the baking powder. Blend a little more.

3. Add the oats and the nuts. Blend until the dough is smooth. It will still have little pieces of oats in it. Never mind ;) The blender is done now.

4. Preheat the oven to 180° in the meantime…

5. Now add all the other ingredients (cranberries, vanilla, salt and chia seeds) and stir the dough with a spoon.

Fill the dough into a silicon form, or place some baking paper in your usual baking pan, so that you can lift the cake out of the baking pan. So, now you bake the cake for about 30 min. Then you lift the cake out of the baking pan (if you use a silicon form, you can just put it upside down) and place it directly on the rack. Bake for another 30 minutes.

If you use muffin forms, you`ll only need to bake them for about 30 min. No lifting necessary.

And here you can see the muffins. Very nice :)

If you have any suggestions or questions get back to me :) I answer. I promise.

Banana Spinach Smoothie

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Melea

Hello everyone. There is spinach in the blender. You can see it :) It is very green and I like that. I wanted to post this recipe a long time now. So here it is. Drinking green smoothies is an easy way to get good amounts of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and some carbohydrates in one glass.

Banana Spinach Smoothie

3 cups fresh spinach
1 banana
3 dates
pinch of salt
1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients with your blender. Add more water, if it is not liquid enough. Add more dates, or a bit of agave sirup, if it is not sweet enough for you. The smoothies I drink could be too green for green smoothie beginners. So if you are a little skeptical, you can substitute one cup of spinach with one extra banana. Have fun with the color anyway :)

I remembered to take the photo after blending a little… Green, green, green!

Deliciously Green Life

a colorful journey through plant based recipes

Lemon Infused Polenta Almond Cake (suitable for camping)

Home Made Chocolate and Traveling News

Zucchini Tart And Red Beet Fennel Salad

Baked Banana Cake

Banana Spinach Smoothie