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Green, Glam & Gourmande

I don’t talk about my “day job” that much on here, but if you’ve been around these parts a little while, you might have picked up that I have a background in modern languages and am currently finishing a master’s in translation and editing.

It’s not that often that my two loves- cooking and languages- cross paths, but recently they did just that!

Green, Glam & Gourmande is a beautiful new French cookbook by Rebecca Leffler. Rebecca is actually American-born but came to study in Paris, fell in love with the place and ended up staying for 9 years!

The book is certainly appropriately named- all the recipes are ultra healthy (free from all animal products and gluten), and though they’re elegant and often rather elaborate-looking, they’re all very accessible. I feel like this book was made for me! There honestly isn’t one recipe I don’t want to try!

Here’s what I’ve made so far:

“Le granola green, glam & gourmand”. Utterly delicious. I don’t know why I don’t make granola more often. That’s going to have to change now I’ve got this recipe in my hands. It’s so quick to put together. This one has the perfect balance of sweet/salt/vanilla/spice/crunch & chew (in my eyes at least)! I liked it served with coconut yoghurt (as pictured), drowned in homemade almond milk or as a smoothie topper. [See below for the recipe]

“Millet Magnifique”. A lovely light spring/summer lunch. You know I’m a little bit infatuated with millet right now so this recipe jumped out at me. The seasonings are simple but those fresh and crunchy vegetables and toothsome grains don’t need much adornment.

“Pizzas sur pâte de socca” (Socca Crust Pizzas). There are a couple of pizza options listed in the book but I went for the classic Pizza Margherita. I talked about socca in my All About Chickpea Flour post and it works wonderfully as a gluten-free pizza crust. I didn’t think it were possible to get excited about tomato sauce but this recipe is beyond incredible! It doesn’t require any cooking either just a whiz in the blender. Finished with the “veggie cheese au miso” (which I made with pine nuts), and fresh basil, this dinner couldn’t have gotten any better.

The latest recipe I’ve made was these cute “Muffins aux fraises et noisettes”(Strawberry-Hazelnut Muffins). I don’t have a whole lot of experience with gluten-free baking but was mighty impressed with how these turned out. Given their most, tender crumb, I’m pretty sure nobody would guess that there’s no wheat in them. The chopped strawberries created little jammy pockets which I loved.

The book is organized by season, useful in helping me narrow down what to make! Beyond recipes, the book is dotted with tips on living a healthy, “green” lifestyle”, including instructions for making your own natural beauty products and illustrated yoga poses. The writing is brilliant too. Rebecca never fails to make me chuckle, both with her witty comments and puns in the book and her amusing hashtagging on instagram!

By now you might be thinking, “I want this book but I don’t speak French!”. Do not fear! A US version is underway right this minute, and, what’s more, it features some additional recipes!

In the meantime, Rebecca has kindly allowed me to share the granola recipe (translated) from the book:

"Green, Glam & Gourmand" Granola

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

200 g Rolled oats (OR buckwheat, quinoa or rice flakes for 100% GF)
50g Almonds
50g Raisins
60 g Coconut flakes
1/4 tsp Salt
4 Tbsp Maple syrup
4 Tbsp Melted coconut oil
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Vanilla powder
Optional, for an Omega 3 boost
30g Ground flaxseed

Instructions

Chop the almonds into slivers. Mix all the ingredients except the almonds and raisins in a large bowl.
Turn the contents of the bowl onto a baking sheet: cook at 100 C for 15 minutes, mix. Add the raisins and almonds. Continue too cook, stirring every 15 minutes, until as crispy as you like.*
* Mine took approx 1 1/2 hours to cook.
Serve with non-dairy milk of your choice or sprinkled on smoothies, yogurt or fruit salad.

http://www.coconutandberries.com/2014/06/04/green-glam-gourmande/

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[Disclosure: This book was given to me free for review purposes, but, as always, all opinions are my own]

Review: Coconut Collaborative Coconut Yoghurt

New product alert! My UK friends might be familiar with the company Bessant & Drury and their delicious coconut-based frozen desserts. They’ve been around for a few years now and their ice cream/sorbet is widely available in supermarkets and independents nationwide. The company has now become the “Coconut Collaborative” and have recently launched a range of coconut yoghurts.

It’s a little ridiculous how excited I am about these but they really are amazing.

This is a yoghurt EVERYONE can eat as it’s free from dairy, soya, and gluten.

Until recently, the only dairy-free yoghurt available in the UK has been soya which I know not everyone’s so keen on. It also tends to be quite light and not really an ideal stand-in for richer dairy Greek yoghurt.

Well, this coconut yogurt is certainly that. It’s thick and luscious with that distinctive tang from the live cultures which are oh so good for us too.

They’re available in a few varieties- natural, raspberry (natural with a layer of raspberry compote), mango & passion fruit (natural with a layer of tropical fruit compote) and natural with berries & seeds (which comes with a little bag of seeds & berries for sprinkling).

Natural coconut yoghurt with homemade granola and fresh strawberries.

I always flip over packaging and check out the ingredients list of anything I buy and I was seriously impressed with these- just live coconut milk, dairy-free cultures and some starch for thickening, and the compote is only sweetened with fruit- a little grape extract.

They’re very low even in natural sugars and though they are quite high in fat, hopefully you know by now that coconut fat is friendly fat! And actually has some amazing health benefits.

Natural Coconut Yoghurt with Mango & Passion fruit Compote

The Coconut Collaborative Coconut Yoghurts are currently available in Waitrose, all Itsu stores, Daylesford Organics, Harvey Nichols, Planet Organic and other smaller independent stores. Soon to be stocked by Ocado and Sainsbury’s too!

Keep an eye out for the store locator going up on their website soon.

Follow the Coconut Collaborative on Facebook and Twitter for updates and competitions.

[Disclaimer: The Coconut Collaborative provided me with some free samples for review purposes but I received no other compensation and, as always, all opinions are my own]

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Coconut Pancakes with Berries & Coconut Cream

Apologies if you were trying to get onto the blog earlier today and couldn’t,.I’ve been having some server issues. It looks as though they’re resolved for now though. Fingers crossed!

This recipe has been a long time coming. I’ve always thought it a little odd that people ask me why my blog is called “Coconut and Berries”- I mean, obviously they’re my favourite foods! But taking a closer look at my archives I was horrified to see a serious lack of both coconut and berry recipes!

This needed rectifying pronto!

I decided my “signature” recipe ought to be pancakes since, besides coconut and berries, pancakes are up high on my list of favourite foods- you only have to follow me on instagram to know that.

It’s been a long, hard winter without fresh berries, but they’re finally coming back into season so I felt I could splurge a little and get myself a nice selection. I just can’t pick a favourite. These pancakes are lovely and moist so I decided to just top them with the fruit rather than mixing it into the batter which might make the pancakes a little wet.

Don’t they look pretty? But there was still something missing. To take these over the top, I added a dollop of slightly-sweetened coconut cream. More coconut is always better in my opinion.

Coconut Pancakes (Vegan & Gluten-free)

2014-05-12 14:47:02

Serves 2

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Ingredients

1 Tbsp Ground flax
1/2 Banana, mashed well (1/4 C mashed)
3/4 C Coconut milk (The carton kind OR the remainder of a can once cream has been removed)
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1 Tbsp Coconut nectar OR your preferred liquid sweetener (optional)
1/2 C Almond flour/ Ground almonds
1/2 C Oat flour (I grind my own)
2 Tbsp Brown rice flour
1/4 C Shredded coconut
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp Arrowroot
Pinch of salt

To serve

Coconut Whipped Cream
Fresh Berries
Maple Syrup

Instructions

Prepare the coconut cream in advance and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the ground flax, mashed banana, coconut milk, vanilla and sweetener (if using).
In a large bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients- almond flour through to salt.
Add wet ingredients to dry and stir gently, just until combined. The mixture will be thick.
Heat a pan over medium heat, allowing it a few minutes to get evenly hot. Lightly oil with coconut oil then scoop batter in 1/4 C increments (I like to use an ice cream scoop for evenly shaped pancakes) and smooth with a spatula to flatten slightly.
Cook for approx 3 minutes on one side, flip carefully and cook for a further 2 minutes on the other side.
Repeat until batter is used up. You may need to add a little more milk to the batter if it thickens up a lot while you're cooking.
Serve warm with fresh berries and coconut cream!

Notes

It might look like a long list of ingredients but they're all there for a reason so please try to avoid substitutions!

Coconut and Berries http://www.coconutandberries.com/

I hope you give this recipe a try- these coconut pancakes are certainly my idea of a perfect breakfast.

What are your signature ingredients? A few more of mine are lentils, tahini, broccoli and chickpeas! All pretty basic but they find their way into so many of my meals.

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Review & Giveaway: Cocofina Organic Coconut & Date Bars

It definitely seems that there’s more and more awareness in the UK of the importance of eating whole foods and companies are stepping up to meet the demand. Cocofina is one which is fairly new to me but has actually been around since 2005 with their coconut water which is the leading brand in Europe and distributed by all of the top health food distributors.

You can imagine this coconut-loving girl’s delight on discovering that they’ve branched out from coconut water to other coconutty products! These coconut and date bars are exactly my sort of thing: A handy little snack to pop in your bag and have on hand, a healthy whole foods source of energy, and tasty too!

The only ingredients are dates, raisins, coconut and oats- no nasties in here.

Another thing which makes me happy to support Cocofina is that they’re donating 10p for every case of their products sold across the globe to Action Against Hunger and have pledged to raise a minimum of £5,000 every year.

- Action Against Hunger assists over 7 million people every year, in over 40 countries. ACF was chosen because of its ethical policies, global reach & incredibly low administration costs.

- Recognized as a leader in the fight against malnutrition, Action Against Hunger ACF International saves the lives of malnourished children while providing communities with access to safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger.

- With 30 years of expertise in emergency situations of conflict, natural disaster, and chronic food insecurity, ACF runs life-saving programs in some 40 countries benefiting seven million people each year.

To announce the partnership Cocofina have kindly offered to give away a whole case of their new Coconut & Date bars to one lucky reader!

Please enter via Rafflecopter below (Sorry this one’s UK only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cocofina are currently sold in 2500 specialty and premium stores such as Wholefoods, Holland and Barrett, Waitrose, and exported to 18 countries.

Website: www.cocofina.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cocofina/140783995935811

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CocofinaCoconut

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Lemon-Coconut Fudge Bites

Hello again everyone! I’ve missed posting here this last week but wanted to take break and disconnect completely over Christmas. Hope you all had a lovely holiday wherever you are in the world. Things are gradually getting back to normal here, although I’ve still got a week before I head back to my little flat in Bath for the next semester.

I may be one of the few who wasn’t eating cookies and desserts aplenty over Christmas, but I promise I’m definitely not feeling smug about it! I would have loved to be eating chocolate and Christmas pudding like everyone else. But I haven’t been feeling my best for a little while now and so I’ve been trying out an anti-candida diet to hopefully bring me back to balance. The diet doesn’t allow any sugars (the only sweeteners I can use are yacon syrup and stevia), including those from fruit, as well as gluten, dairy, yeast, fungi and a bunch of other things.

For a major sweet tooth like me it has to be said it was a bit of a challenge figuring out what to eat, especially when it came to finding a replacement for my daily post-lunch dark chocolate fix.

These zingy little fudge bites are doing the trick of satisfying any sweet cravings nicely, and one is more than enough as they’re pretty rich from the coconut and almond butters.

After chocolate Lemon desserts are always my favourites anyway…

Lemon-Coconut Fudge Bites

Yield: 10 Bites

Ingredients

1/2 C White Almond Butter OR Cashew Butter
3 Tbsp Melted Coconut Butter
Zest of one Lemon
3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 1/2 Tbsp Liquid Sweetener (Agave nectar, Brown Rice Syrup etc.) I used 1T Yacon Syrup + 5 drops stevia
Shredded Coconut for sprinkling

Instructions

Add all ingredients to a glass bowl, except the shredded coconut, and stir well to combine.
Divide between 10 mini silicone moulds OR pour into a dish lined with parchment paper and slice into cubes once set. Sprinkle with shredded coconut and freeze until firm.
These are the perfect consistency straight from the freezer, in the fridge they’re a little too soft for my tastes.

http://www.coconutandberries.com/2013/12/29/lemon-coconut-fudge-bites/

I’m submitting this recipe to the weekly link-up, Wellness Weekends

Today I’ve actually discovered there might be another cause of my health problems so I’m praying that’s the case and I can go back to eating normally soon!

In the meantime, what are your favourite SAVOURY snacks?

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