Recipes

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

Cooking your own meals and avoiding processed food sets you on the path to good health. To help I’m compiling a list of healthy recipes that I’ve made and enjoyed.

I freeze all my cakes and biscuits the day that I make them (after testing them out of course!) so that they last. These can all be eaten as part of healthy diet – there is no need to be deprived of sweet treats when you can eat things as tasty as this which are made from natural healthy foods and are delicious too!

If there are any ingredients you can’t find in a supermarket, try ordering from the Natural Dispensary (use code ‘linda‘ at checkout for discount).

Click on the image or heading to see the recipe page.

Sweet Things

Apple Buckwheat Pancakes

Delicious! I replaced the coconut sugar with 50g Xylitol and used Rude Health’s Sprouted Buckwheat Flour. Serve with coconut or sheep/goat’s natural yoghurt, berries, flaked almonds, hemp seeds, cinnamon and nut butters.

Healthy Waffles

My daughter loves these waffles – this picture is her version that she made recently. Using oat flour means these are gluten free and easy to digest. We add a little Nuzest vanilla protein which enhances the taste as well as the protein content. We have topped with sheep yoghurt, fruit and chopped nuts.

Raw Superfood Cup Cakes

I recently came across this recipe and thought I would give it a go. There are three lots of mixture to make up, quick and easy if you have a have a good blender. I had too much of the first two layers for the 6 cup cases so I made a couple of extras. Then I found that the icing needed more cacao powder than in the recipe as it was still slightly green and avocado tasting! I added a bit of coconut oil too so that that it would set better. I have to say that the finished cakes were delicious and worth the effort.

Banana Oatmeal Nut Butter Breakfast Cookies

Another recipe that I have made this week is this to use up my slightly over ripe bananas. With the help of a food processor these were super easy to make and are very healthy and tasty.

I used almond nut butter in these but peanut butter would be cheaper and probably equally good.

Coconut Cookies

I did use peanut butter for these cookies which were also popular in my house!

Chocolate Almond Avocado Pudding

I used xylitol for the sweetener in this delicious mousse and used my stick blender which worked really well to give a creamy texture. Delicious & healthy!

Coconut Flour Chocolate Cake

An easy cake to make, it’s grain free & high in protein!

I used a mixture of coconut sugar and xylitol for this cake. For the frosting I used maple syrup with peanut and sunflower butter.

Rye & Banana Pancakes

I made these recently and they are delicious served with some coconut yoghurt and berries.

I used coconut sugar in the amount specified but actually they were a bit too sweet so I don’t think it is necessary – you could always add a drizzle of maple syrup when serving. I used goat’s milk to make these but almond, soy or coconut milk would all work as an alternative.

Coconut Flour Brownies

This delicious brownie is very quick & easy to make in the food processor. I replaced half of the maple syrup with xylitol to reduce the sugar content. If you don’t have avocado oil I am sure that olive oil or melted coconut oil would work well as a replacement.

Sesame Sunflower Chia Bites

Easy to make with a food processor and a healthy high protein snack full of good fats.

No Bake Chocolate Cherry Cheescake

This is a vegan cheesecake that is delicious!

Banana Bread Bakes Oats

I used Vital Protein vanilla pea protein for this recipe. I advise to cut back on the chocolate in this recipe and use cacao nibs to make it more healthy. Serve with coconut or sheep milk yoghurt and berries. Oven cooking is better than air frying in my opinion and the baked oats are equally tasty when cold.

Coconut, Chia & Coconut Porridge

This tasty, comforting breakfast is great for gut health due to its fibre and plant diversity. Adding courgette to porridge increases fibre and texture without altering flavour, while cooking oats in coconut milk and adding chia seeds boost nutrition and support gut health.

Soup

Spiced Lentil & Butternut Squash Soup

This is a tasty recipe with a good combination of protein and carbohydrates – many soups are just vegetables without protein so not ideal for a meal on their own. I didn’t have any Ras El Hanout which is a North African spice mix, so I Googled how to make it. I also missed off Dukkah and it was still great.

Curry

Vegetable Dhansak

You can use any veg for this recipe, when I cooked it with my daughter we used aubergine, mushrooms and lots of spinach (which wilted right down). I think that some cauliflower and/or green beans would have been great too.

Personally I don’t like tomato ketchup but my daughter is a big fan. We use Meridian organic which is the most healthy version of ketchup I can find, it’s in a glass jar – tomatoes in plastic are not good because they are acidic and chemicals can apparently be leached from plastic packaging to acidic food. We used a teaspoon of coconut sugar but I would be happy to leave that out as the ketchup is sweetened.

We served the curry with organic brown basmati rice – soaked all day, rinsed and then cooked in plenty of water and drained to get rid of the arsenic which is naturally present in most rice.

If you are intolerant to tomatoes I think that this curry would work if you left out the tomatoes, tomato paste and ketchup and instead used a can of coconut milk and perhaps a squeeze of lemon juice. Let me know if you try this so that I can post an update!

Massaman Inspired Curry with Sweet Potato & Lentil

This curry is fragrant and delicious and not too time consuming to make. If you want to increase the protein slightly you can sprinkle on some chopped cashews or peanuts at the end.

Pies

Vegetarian Feta Cheese, Sweet Potato & Spinach Pie

This was a great hit with the family. Rather than use ready made pastry for the base, I substituted it with the Chickpea Flour Pie Crust described below. Also, instead of a pastry top, I sprinkled pumpkin and sunflower seeds on top.

Chickpea Flour Pie Crust

I made this recently for a sweet potato and feta pie but it could be used for any savoury (leave out the maple syrup) or sweet dish where you want a nice, healthy but wheat and gluten free pastry. I used half goat’s butter and half coconut butter but either could be used. The chickpea flour is higher in protein than wheat flour and so better for blood sugar levels.

Tempeh

Vegan Tempeh Mushroom Loaf

Tempeh is high in protein & a great meat alternative. Fermented soy is good to include in the diet for its beneficial effect on hormones (especially helpful when oestrogen levels start to drop with age). I used tamari (wheat free soy sauce) to replace liquid aminos in this recipe.

Shakshuka

Smoked Tofu Scramble Shakshuka

We recently enjoyed this recipe for a light dinner. I made some simple teff flour and soy yoghurt flatbreads but I think it would be very nice with brown rice instead. It’s very easy to make your own harissa paste – I found a separate recipe online and used chilli flakes instead of dried chillis to make it.

Tacos

Vegan Mexican Tempeh Taco Meat

I added black beans, peppers and sweetcorn to the tempeh, left out the wraps and served with homemade guacamole, salsa and brown rice.

Bread

Red Lentil Bread Rolls

A good gluten free alternative.