Yay or Nej for Agave?

An ingredient which I have used from time to time as an alternative to honey or white sugar is agave. The main reason I would do this, is that I’ve been led to believe that it’s healthier and better for me than white sugar and is vegan with respects to honey.

However, just a day or 2 ago, someone asked me why it was healthier than sugar, and I was at a loss for words. Totally befuddled, as it was just a notion I had fixated in my head but with no real reason behind it.

My first thought was ‘it’s natural’, but in essence so is white sugar. White sugar comes from the sugar cane, what makes the stuff bad for us is that it’s highly concentrated leading us to excessive portions in relation to what we would if we ate the plant and it’s also highly treated. The same would go for agave syrup. There are no laws or regulations at present which monitor what can be labelled as ‘raw’, it is a relatively new lifestyle as far as the market is concerned. So even a lot of agave syrups or nectres that are labelled as raw, may in fact not be raw. They can get away with labelling raw if the product at some stage of it’s processing, extracting etc was raw.

I then looked at the nutritional content of white sugar, vs agave syrup. Both are entirely made of carbohydrates, and both are predominantly sugary carbohydrates. THESE (i believe) are what causes weight gain. I do believe that saturated fats are also bad for health and attribute to weight gain, but I firmly believe that sugar is the main culprit.

So what are the differences? Well agave has a much lower GI level, keeping blood sugar levels lower and can be a good solution for some diabetics to get their sugar fix. Agave is also sweeter and therefore less is needed. (eatingwell.com)

From my own experience as well, i have found that agave is less addictive. Many of us have heard or read the research papers arguing that sugar is as addictive as heroin, and i support this belief. A while ago, I decided to give up refined sugar to prove to myself I wasn’t addicted, but in fact proved to myself that I had been, and have not touched the stuff since. I had huge headaches and moodswings to begin with, as well as cravings for things I haven’t had in years (i went through a week where I just wanted to binge on mcdonalds). After a week or 2 I felt the difference in myself and my body and I now don’t crave it, but instead crave things like fruits and vegetables to nourish myself with. I can honestly say I don’t often get hungry since not having refined sugar, which is also why I believe it’s one of the main culprits to weight gain (false hunger).

As for agave, I don’t crave agave, or chocolate sweetened with agave. I will eat it and then not have a craving to eat it again, which I think is the yay towards agave.

The ‘nej’, is that it is still very similar to the white stuff, nutritionally speaking. Aside from sugary carbohydrates it has no nutritional value whatsoever. For this reason, I tend to home make date syrup (just blending dates with water), if I want to sweeten something as although high in sugar they also provide me with A LOT of potassium, calcium, iron and protein. They have also not been tampered with (refined or processed) like agave and the white sugar, and are still the way nature intended them to be. This being said, I know in some countries dates can be quite costly, and agave i think is still ok to have in moderation, and it’s a lot easier to moderate when it’s not addictive!

As a disclaimer, I should add I’m not a nutritionist, doctor, dietician etc. I have based all of this information on research and my own experiences and opinions.

RAW Chocolate fudge cake

Raw Chocolate fudge cake

My latest obsession has been avocados, and since I have the continuing obsession with chocolate, I thought it was time to give it (another) try from my previous raw avacado cake (mint choc chip). I have learned a lot since then, with the mint choc chip cake, i can taste the healthiness in it, which I like, and you can taste the avocado. This cake could easily be confused with something that has 10 times the sugar or it’s unhealthy counterpart.

I won’t lie to you, this cake is pretty high in fat (33g actually)….BUT of those fats, 26g are monounsaturated (the ones that help lower bad cholestreol). If you’re thinking ‘that’s still 7g of saturated fats’, then i’m afraid you’re wrong. There are just 2g of saturated fats, 0g of trans fats and the rest are polyunsaturated fats (also helping to lower bad cholestreol levels and good for maintaining and looking after your body’s cells). Not that this cake needs to help you lower cholestreol, since it has none. In fact, most vegans have low cholestreol since animal products are one of the highest sources. In addition one serving of this cake provides you with half of your daily calcium intake, 10% of your potassium, 20% of your daily protein, 20% of your daily iron, 13% of your daily vitamin C and is also rich in Vitamin A and Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.

THIS is a cake to give to your non vegan loved ones, to convince them….or to a friend who doesn’t get enough fruits and vegetables in their diets. Even to your kids (or of course yourself) as an alternative to a sugary, bad fatty dessert.

I am VERY tempted to share the recipe since I’m posting such a convincing argument as to why you should eat it, but not providing you with the how. I have my reasons, which I will reveal at a later date (maybe one of the images is a bit of a clue), I will however give you the list of ingredients, and maybe then you can see this as an opportunity to expand your creativity. All my recipes are created from something I’ve tasted then tried to replicate, sometimes it comes out how I planned, sometimes not. In this case, I had tried to make a raw chocolate cheesecake, however in the end it did not taste like traditional cheesecake (the only way I have really been able to really simulate the TASTE of cheesecake has been with tofu)…but I discovered something new.

So for this cake you will need:

Avocado

Lemon

Cacao (or cocoa if on a budget)

Macadamia nuts

Sunflower seeds

Himalayan salt

Agave

Dates

Dessicated coconut (i just used it for garnish)

I wish you good luck, and if you do have a go at making it, please don’t forget to take a picture and send it to me!

RAW CARDOMOM CACAO MINI DOUGHNUTS, WITH COCONUT FROSTING

It’s certainly been a while, ‘where have you been?’ you may ask…well the question really should be ‘where haven’t you been?’….Poland, Sweden, Finland, Prague, England with a return trip to Prague, Norway and Switzerland on the horizon.

Amongst my travels, I have finally set aside some time to make a recipe and post it for you guys. A blog or a website like this is just a matter of habit.

It is worth noting, that although these are delicious, they aren’t textureally the same as normal donuts, but I have never come across some that are.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe for the raw mini donuts:

For the donut (makes 8):

1 tbsp ground linseed

1/2 cup soaked almonds (or almond flour)

1tbsp water

2 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp raw cacao

6 dried dates

1 tsp cardamom

2 tbsp fresh coconut (not young)

For the frosting:

1 cup fresh coconut

1 tbsp agave syrpup

1 tbsp raw coconut oil or butter

2 tbsp water

Cacao nibs (for decoration)

Method:

1. Mix the linseed with the water and refridgerate for about 10 minutes.

2, When it is a thick liquid, put in the food processor alongside the rest of the donut base ingredients and process until it becomes a mouldable dough.

3. Divide into small balls, and then flatten slightly (don’t make the hole yet!).

4. Blend the frosting ingredients together, then frost the donuts. Use a chopstick to make the holes in the doughnuts,  and decorate with the nibs.

5. Refridgerate for a couple of hours for the frosting to set and enjoy!

Choc

MUSHROOM & BAMBOO JUNGLE CURRY

This clearly dates back to asia, I’m in Helsinki now. Starting to think that maybe a travel blog would be more convenient these days. But life isn’t about convenience, it’s about passion. And yes food, and animals are my passion.

Maybe one day when I have a camera (mine went walkabouts into someone else’s possession a few weeks back), when I get round to getting another one or a decent camera phone, maybe I can do a few veg carving tutorials, as you may have noticed this is garnished with a shrimp…also known as a carrot.

Until that day comes, I’ll stick with what I know and can do which is recipes.

The list of ingredients for this curry is pretty extensive, and a few ingredients (particularly the fresh ones) may not be too easy to get hold of in other continents. However, a curry is a curry and you can adapt it best you can, I’ll even offer a few suggestions 😀

So what is a jungle curry? Well by a definition, as i’ve been told, a curry is a soup with chunks of meat (or veg in our case) with a paste as a base. It doesn’t need curry powder, but the paste are often strong in flavour, typically chili. A jungle curry, is different to a normal curry, as it has no coconut milk. Different flavour and also low fat and low calories, yay!

Ingredients (makes a lot! 6-8 portions):

1 cup of mixed mushrooms (keep small mushrooms whole, and chop bigger mushrooms to be similar size)

1 cup bamboo shoots (you can usually find this tinned in europe at least, if not substitute with another cup of mushrooms)

1/2 cup cubed courgette

1 cup mixed veg (eg baby corn, carrot, greens etc)

1/2 cup lime (thai) basil (you can usually find this in asian grocery stores. If not DON’T substitute for italian basil, or dried basil. You can use coriander, it will have a different taste, but will taste good still)

1/2 cup climbing wattle (i have never seen this in europe. If you’re feeling ambitious you could substitute for nettles. Or omit then to get a similar flavour, when making the paste in step 1, add about 2 inches of lemongrass)

1 tbsp uncooked rice (i used sticky rice, but you can use any white rice. needs to be soaked in cold water for approx 20 minutes)

5 shallots

1 chili

1 tbsp soy sauce (i used a mix of dark with light, but either will work in this recipe)

1 1/2 tbsp mushroom sauce (available at asian grocery stores, or just substitute with extra soy sauce)

1 tsp salt

2 cups water

2 heaped cups spinach/chinese kale (you can use either or both)

Method

1. To make the paste/base, crush the soaked rice, shallots and chili using either a pestel and mortar or mini food processor.

2. Blend the spinach/kale with the water, then sieve through to extract the juice. You may need to get messy and use your hands to squeeze out all of the liquid. If you have a juicer, then you can also do that, but make sure to add the water through the juicer as well, otherwise you will need A LOT of spinach/kale, and it will also be a very strong flavour.

3. Warm up a cooking pot on the stove, and add the curry paste and the juice at the same time (you don’t want the inredients in the paste to fry).

4. Add the mushrooms and bamboo and cook for about 10 minutes until it is boiling, then add the soy sauce, mushroom sauce and salt.

5. Add the courgettes and the rest of the mixed veg ( if using carrots make sure they are quite finely chopped or else they will take too long to cook). Turn down to a medium heat and keep cooking for a few more minutes.

6. Finally, add the thai basil (or coriander) and continue to cook on a high heat until it begins to wilt.

7. Serve with rice and enjoy!

Bangkok Cakes

I’m still missing Bangkok a whole whole lot. It was by far my favourite stop in Asia, it had a real east-meets-west vibe about it. All the culture with all the home comforts.

Before I embarked on my year in Stockholm, I had a cake making urge which resulted in these. They aren’t the neatest piece of work, but I had very little time.

I’m glad I did it though, despite the negative effect it had on my packing, because my new flat doesn’t have an oven! I’m outraged, but thankfully the solution is pretty simple; buy an oven.

The recipe for the cakes was the same as my rose and vanilla cupcakes, minus the rose and plus the gluten! The decorations are of some of my favourite places in Bangkok, and like any city, it’s unique coloured taxis.

Sadly, I can’t comment on how they tasted. My pesky labrador got to them before I’d even finished my dinner, so I guess I should only be thankful that they weren’t chocolate 🙂 But she ate all of them, so I guess they must have tasted pretty good.

Also, I was toying with the photo editor on my computer when I first took these photos about 3 weeks ago. From the tiny previews, I couldn’t tell which ones were the ones I’d been ‘experiemental’ on (to say the least) and which were the ones i’d just given a bit of a retouch and were supposed to be for this post!
I guess it will be a surprise for everyone when I post this, including me!

Polenta Fries

Let’s start with ‘hey’. Been about a month and a half since I’ve posted due to being in Asia, consequently I have zillions of lovely asian inspired recipes to follow on. However, for now I’ll post some of the recipes I’d planned to post while I was away, but due to lack of computer access, I didn’t.

We’ll start with the fact that polenta is not an asian ingredient! African if anything, I’m not 100% sure of that but they seem to like cornmeal over there, and it’s pretty similar.

Normal fries are actually vegan, so this is just a different option, offering different nutritional value and taste. Homemade fries can be healthy if baked, so it’s not necessarily a healthier option.

I hope to gradually start posting more things, but my travels aren’t over, as I move to Sweden this week, so things may still be a little slow. Feel free to check out my instagram; username @xx_lozzy_xx91. I tend to post pictures of travel and food (some of the upcoming recipes are on here already).

It is a good recipe however, for if you’re just getting to grips with how to cook with polenta.

Ingredients:
250ml vegetable stock
65g polenta
2 tsp mixed dried herbs (i used basil and thyme)

Method:

1. Heat the stock in a pan. When simmering, slowly pour in the polenta, and continue to stir so it doesn’t go lumpy.
2.Spread out on a tray to dry out overnight.
3. Cut into fries, and put in the oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

Chow chow for now 🙂 xx

OREO MINI CUPCAKES

This time, I’m in Thailand, Chiang Mai to be specific. To be even more specific, I’m in an internet cafe next to a junior monk who had to point out I was trying to get on the computer while it was turned off.

 

This is another recipe I did before I went away, and added to my recipe bank. I’ve not posted in a week, as I’ve been staying pretty much in the forest, volunteering at a little place called the Elephant Nature Park. I won’t go into too much detail about the volunteering, but I will say, if you truly love elephants and want to experience working with them, this is the best and only place to go. What makes this place different is that the elephants are trained through positive reinforcement, rather than the traditional (and still most common) training technique called crushing, which is beating the elephant into submission. Domestic elephants are part of Thailand’s culture, and while it’s not something I wholly support, I can respect their culture but not their methods, which is why I would recommend ENP. All the elephants have been rescued from cruel situations and roam free over 150 acres of open land. While it would probably not be ethical to realease them into the wild, due to the fact they would probably not survive, this is definitely the closest to it they can safely and happily get.

 

Anyway, enough of that, maybe when I can load my photos i will do a post on it, but oreo cupcakes.

I had fairly recently discovered that Oreos are vegan when making these, and because I like my cooking, obviously found it too plain and conventional to eat them out of the packet. The cases were something I picked up in Lakeland (a cookshop) before I knew I was going to make these, because they were too adorable not to buy. They even had little dome lids. These were one of my favourite cupcakes so far due to the texture of the bettercream. I added just a tablespoon of sweetener which made it very light and fluffy, but omit this if you don’t like artificial sweeteners for health or taste reasons.

 

Ingredients (makes 10 small):

 

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup caster sugar

2 tbsp soy milk

1 cup vegan butter/spread (i used a sunflower based one)(half for cake batter and half for the buttercream)

1/4 cup cocoa (plus 1 tbsp for frosting)

1 cup powdered sugar

2 packets of mini oreos

1 tbsp sweetener such as Splenda

 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream the caster sugar and half a cup of butter.

2. Mix in the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Add the soy milk gradually until it becomes a thick batter.

3. Crush one of the packets of oreos and add to the batter.

4. Spray or grease the cake cases and bake at 180C  for 12-15 minutes.

5. Cream together the remaining butter, cocoa and sweetener for the buttercream. Once the cakes have cooled, pipe on the frosting and top with another mini oreo.

GIANT COUS COUS BEET SALAD

 

If this post seems a little different to usual, it’s because I am not on my own computer. I am in fact, believe it or not sitting at a computer, in a youth hostel in Hong Kong! 

As obvious as it is to me I made this before I left, I realised amidst writing this, that there aren’t any major giveaways if one has never been to Hong Kong. I think the main clue would be that as far as I can tell, beetroot is not a popular ingredient over here. Also the picture is on grass as apposed to a concrete pavement (it’s a concrete jungle which is beautiful in it’s own way) but not much greenery in the area I’m staying.

As I have never intended for this to be a travel blog, I won’t blab on about my travels too much, but despite the excessive amounts of meat that’s on offer, the vegetarian dshes here are more often than not, vegan as well. Me and my friend then noticed, that in asian cooking (authentic asian cooking), there really isn’t much use of dairy. We came to the conclusion that it’s because cows are sacred in their religion (we think) as well as the majority of the substitutes that are often used in vegan cooking, originate and are grown here. I’m mainly referring to coconut and soy.

Travels aside, this was part of my vegan feast (in the previous post). It is very simple, so easy to make, and is very aesthetically pleasing. Went down a treat among my friends and family and also spraked quite a lot of conversation due to the pinkness of it. Aside from cooking the cous cous, this is much more a matter of just assembling it, and is better prepared overnight to let the cous cous cool.

 

Without further ado, the recipe;

Ingredients (serves 4 as a small main):

1 cup giant cous cous

1 cooked beetroot, diced

Large handful of watercress

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 carrot, peeled and spiralled or finely sliced

 

Method:

1. Boil some water in the kettle, and cook the cous cous on a medium heat with 2 cups of water. It should take around 15-20minutes for all the water to be absorbed.

2. Rinse the cous cous under a tap for a couple of minutes, then leave for a minimum of a few hours to cool, but preferably overnight.

3. About 5 minutes before serving, mix the cous cous with the beet, then toss it around a little to allow the beet to dye the cous cous.

4. Finally, add the carrot, watercress and drizzle the lemon juice over to serve.