Category: Vegetarian

No fuss pineapple jam recipe

So some of my readers probably know that my family and I have embarked on a permanent lifestyle change.

Other than the social media detox and etc that I mentioned earlier, we have also  removed grains, refined sugar and dairy from our diet. If you want to learn more about our diet (it’s called WildFit) check out my husband’s posts.

That means no rice, no wheat, no milk, no cheese, no candy bars, no a lot of many things.

It isn’t easy and we still find ourselves succumbing to these evil, delicious inflammatory food such as cheeses, cookies, crisps, ramen (happened today in fact urgh), briyani and laksa every now and then but we take solace in that our main everyday meals are 99% of the time – sugar, grain and dairy free. We also drink 2 x 400ml glasses of vegetable green smoothies (minimum 5 types of veges + chia seeds + virgin coconut oil) daily to stock up on micronutrients.

Anyway, Chinese New Year is fast approaching and of course, I had gotten a bit sad that I can’t bake and indulge on my signature chocolate chip cookies and pineapple tarts. Out of desperation, I decided to google for AIP friendly pineapple tart recipes.

AIP you ask? What’s that?

AIP stands for “auto-immune protocol” and it’s a special diet for people with autoimmune issues to get their immune system and gut back to health. Although we don’t have issues with our immune systems, I personally believe the AIP diet is possibly one of the healthiest diets out there. Needless to say, it also fits my no refined-sugar, no grain & no dairy rule.

I stumbled across this recipe and was really intrigued by its pineapple jam recipe. It uses oven with minimal stirring…..well, that sounds amazing!

Ain’t nobody got time standing over the stove stirring jam.

So I tried the recipe out. I used only two ingredients although the original recipe called for date paste (for extra sweetness) and a couple more spices but I don’t think it needs them. Anyway, it’s your call.

Ingredients:

2 ripe large pineapples

1 tablespoon of cinnamon powder

This recipe yields about 350gms of jam.

# – Firstly,  peel and core the pineapples. Google how to peel/cut pineapple if you are not sure how.

# – Then, cut the pineapples into cubes and throw them into your food processor/blender. Add the ground cinnamon too. Blitz till puree consistency.

# – Now pour into a baking tray lined with aluminium foil. I lined my tray 3 times to prevent leakage. Then, put the tray in preheated oven of 80 degrees celcius. Stir once every hour for 4 hours with a rubber/silicon spatula. I advise against using a metal spoon cause it might puncture the aluminium foil.

# – Then, lower the temperature to 70 degrees celcius and leave it in the oven for and extra 8-12 hours. I did it at dinner time then went to bed and woke up next day to the aroma of pineapple jam. See how much liquid has evaporated after a total 12 hours.

# – Scoop the jam into a bowl and let chill in the fridge. It will be even firmer and roll-able after chilling. Taste so yummy!!

There’s really no need to add more refined sugar to pineapple jam. The pineapples themselves are naturally sweet enough and even more so when concentrated.

Hope this recipe will help you who are looking for a fuss free yet healthy pineapple jam recipe.

Next post will be the recipe of the actual paleo and AIP friendly pineapple tarts (I hope). Stay tuned.

Quick and delicious recipe for baba ganoush

How funny is the name baba ganoush? It cracks me up just saying it. Baba ganoush. Doesn’t it give you the giggles?

Baba ganoush.

Apparently it means “pampered daddy” or something like that. Despite its rather comical/badass name, it’s a very delicious dip made with brinjals or aubergines or eggplants, depending where and how you learnt your English.

Ingredients

  • 2 large eggplants
  • 130g tahini (sesame paste)
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
  • 3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
  • 1/8 teaspoon chilli powder
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • a half bunch of flat-leaf parsley or cilantro leaves

    • #1 – First, prick each eggplant a few times.

    #2 – Place the eggplants on a baking sheet and roast in the oven at 190C for 20 to 30 minutes, until they’re completely soft. They should look like this. Remove from oven and let cool.

    #3 – Split the eggplant and scrape out the pulp with a spoon.

    #4 – You will be left with the skin like this. Can throw these away.

    #5 – Throw the scraped pulp in a blender or a food processor.

    #6 – Add tahini. I got my tahini from a grocer, you can try at any expat friendly supermarket.

    #7 – Followed by lemon juice. Yes, yes, I use lemon juice from a bottle! Of course, juice from a fresh lemon is way better :)

    #8 – Don’t forget the garlic cloves.

    #9 – Chilli powder for some kick.

    #10 – And cilantro leaves. I guess you could omit this if you can’t stand parsley/cilantro. That said, maybe you should just omit making baba ganoush altogether? LOL

    #11 – Taste and season with salt and lemon juice, if necessary.

    #12 – Baba ganoush, DONE!

    Serve it drizzled with olive oil. It’s wonderful with crackers, melba toasts, toasted pita chips or even toasted sliced bread. Very flavoursome and quite healthy. In my case I made it to eat with kebab wraps. Delicious!

    # – Lovely in wraps too.

    If you want to make kebabs, I have a recipe here. Happy cooking!

    Making the perfect bowl of cucumber raita.

    I have tried making cucumber raita in the past by simply chopping cucumbers up and chucking them into a bowl of yogurt.

    Easy peasy right? Well the raita always turned out a little water-logged and tasted far too soggy, quite the opposite of refreshing.

    Fortunately, I found a recipe for cucumber raita some time ago which guarantees a raita infused with cucumber flavours and the perfect texture too.

    The secret to a yummy bowl of raita isn’t any special ingredient, instead, it’s the additional methods involved in making it which results in a whole lot of difference.

    Ingredients:

    1 cucumber
    400 grams of plain yogurt
    A handful of mint leaves (optional)
    Salt to taste

    Tools:

    Muslin or cheesecloth (in my case, I bought bandage fabric from Daiso)
    Grater

    # – The ingredients and tools for making awesome cucumber raita.
    Cucumber raita recipe

    # – First, grate the cucumber – skin, seeds, flesh and all into a bowl covered with muslin/cheesecloth/bandage fabric.
    Cucumber raita recipe

    # – Grated cucumber.
    Cucumber raita recipe

    # – Then gather the cloth together and squeeze all liquid into the bowl. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
    Cucumber raita recipe

    # – Pure cucumber juice. What do you do with this green nectar of life? Drink it up of course!
    Cucumber raita recipe

    # – Weigh out 400 grams of plain yogurt – 400 grams to one cucumber.
    Cucumber raita recipe

    # – Dump in the now squeezed up cucumber bits.
    Cucumber raita recipe

    # – Finely chop up the mint leaves.
    Cucumber raita recipe

    # – Throw the mint leaves into the yogurt as well.
    Cucumber raita recipe

    # – Add a pinch of salt to taste.
    Cucumber raita recipe

    # – With a spoon, mix it all up. Stir and stir.
    Cucumber raita recipe

    # – Cucumber raita, DONE! Garnish with a sprig of mint leaf if that’s your kind of thing.
    Cucumber raita recipe

    While you can eat it straight, I like to chill it in the fridge for a couple of hours so that the cucumber has more time to flavour the yogurt. Serve it with curries or use as crisps/vegetable dips. Delicious!