Many months ago I posted a chia pudding recipe here and there’s also many, many varieties floating around the internet. Why? One reason may be because it’s a bit trendy. Just like quinoa was a few years ago. And perhaps the other reason is that it is one of these really “handy & portable” foods.
To be honest I don’t make chia puddings on a regular basis, but over the past few weeks I’ve had some serious kitchen and recipe creation inspiration, and this was one of them. (More to follow in the coming weeks as I get time to re test, style and shoot!).
Since I am such a sucker for pretty and colourful foods, when I spotted these gorgeous looking plums, I just had to buy them. A couple where consumed as straight up snacks whereas the rest formed the topping to this lemony chia pudding. However, if you can’t find any plums that look good I think some stewed apples would be equally good too. Might even try that version myself next time, since I’ve been gifted plenty of them!
I have tried a few various liquids to let the chia seeds gel in, but I keep coming back to full fat coconut milk. I just find that it gives the best consistency, compared to other nutmilks. The creaminess reminds me of ris a´la malta, a cooked rice pudding which has then been blended with whipped cream which is usually served cold on Christmas Eve, or as in my family, when I was a child we on Christmas Day. Always made from the leftover rice pudding from the night before.
So… This pudding may get you into the festive spirit (!).
The best thing with this dish / breakfast / snack is that it can be pre-prepared and if you make the chia pudding in a jar then it is easily transportable too.
Lemony Chia Pudding with Stewed Plums
Serves 1
200 ml full fat coconut milk – if you milk is separated you may have to gently heat it first
2 1/2 tbsp chia seeds
juice + zest of 1 lemon
4 small plums, stone removed and quartered
1-2 tbsp maple syrup
Place the coconut milk, chia seeds, lemon juice and lemon zest in a glass jar or in a kilner jar. Mix the seeds and zest into the liquid to make sure that they are evenly distributed. Set a side. You may want to give it another stir after about 10 min, when the seeds have started to expand.
Store the chia pudding in the fridge until ready to eat.
To make the stewed plums; Place the destoned and chopped plums in a small saucepan. Simmer the plums on low heat. Stir on occasion to make sure that they don’t burn. You may need to turn heat down even further.
Keep simmering until the fruit is completely soft and has broken down. This will take about 25-30 min. Add maple syrup to taste. Allow the fruit compote to cool before serving it with the chia pudding.
* My tip is to make the stewed fruit and the chia pudding the night before you intend to eat it. It may take a little forward planning, but once you have that, making this recipe is a breeze. Just stew the fruits at the same time as you are making dinner and assemble the pudding before you go to bed. Then you can get take a few min extra snooze time with clear conscious then next morning…! You can of course serve the fruit compote warm too 🙂
Do you ever end up trying something new because you are stuck with some leftover food and don’t want it to go to waste? I strongly dislike food waste as it is both a waste of money AND resources. In my younger days, I had an aversion to eating the same food more than one day at the time, but having to eat on a budget kind of sorted that issue out…
I came upon this dessert more by chance as I ended up with a bunch of egg yolks after my first meringue making experience. I can’t believe I had actually never made meringues or curd for that matter, before! Both classic desserts and both pretty easy to make. Though if you don’t have an electric beater, like me, I’d suggest you try this lemon-lime curd recipe first.
Once left with my egg yolks and not being sure what to make of them, I went scouting for ideas amongst my many cookbooks. I struck gold with Susan Jane White‘s The Extra Virgin Kitchen! Susan Jane White is a funny, witty cool Irish food writer and The Extra Virgin Kitchen is her debut cookbook.
I have a kind of love-hate relationship with it as the fonts used in it makes the book somewhat hard to engage with… But the few bits I have tried so far have been delicious indeed. So I think I’ll have to revisit it again soon.
You’ll only need five very basic ingredients for this recipe. I’d even go so far to guess that you’ll have them all at home the majority of time so I dare you not to try it sooner rather than later…
The quality of eggs is something I never compromise on. I may not buy everything I eat organically, but eggs I certainly will. There is no comparison in both flavour and colour when you cook and eat eggs from happy hens which are truly free range and get to spend their life outdoors, picking at grass, herbs, worms and whatever else hens eat. I’m super lucky as I can get my eggs from an organic farmer up the road and I’ve seen what a happy life his hens lead. No wonder the eggs taste superior! Their positive energy comes through the food, for sure.
Extensive antibiotic use is a massive problem in the poultry industry. And I recently read an article about the worries that most of the antibiotic resistance we currently see in humans is due to a consumption of animals / animal products made from animals raised on excessive antibiotic use. Not good. Not good at all.
So choose your animal products with care. In doing so we naturally end up eating less, leaving more room for a colourful varied diet made up of mostly plants.
Maybe one day I’ll have my own hens. At the moment it’s not practical due to present circumstances such as, a lot of dogs, foxes roaming around and my bird phobia…
You will have this dessert made in about ten minutes, but you will be preoccupied with it for all of those ten minutes.
Lemon – Lime Curd
Serves 2-4 depending on how much you want to give everyone(!)
6 egg yolks – ideally organic (or home-rared)
5 tbsp coconut oil
4 tbsp raw clear honey
Juice of one lemon
Juice of one lime
Carefully separate out your egg whites from yolks. I usually do this by cracking the egg carefully and then shifting the yolk from one piece of the shell to the other as I let the egg white fall into a small bowl. Set your egg whites aside and place your egg yolks in a small saucepan.
Add in the coconut oil, the honey and the lime and lemon juice. On a gentle heat keep stirring your mix with a whisk. The coconut oil will gradually melt and so will the honey. Keep whisking until you have a golden smooth mix.
You will have to keep up this whisking for approx eight min. This step is important. As soon as you begin to see little bubbles on top keep a close eye on consistency as the curd will begin to thicken.
Once your curd is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, remove it from the heat immediately, before it splits. Pour it into small glasses or bowls and then set aside in the fridge, once it’s cooled a little, to set.
Serve with fresh berries. You can add whipped cream, Greek yoghurt or marscapone cheese if you are that way inclined too.
Recipe slightly adapted from Susan Jane White’s book The Extra Virgin Kitchen
We’re turning one! A little over a year ago this food blog was born. It all started with an idea that it would be so much more fun to cook, photograph and blog about the food I cook in my own kitchen and the type of food I recommend to my clients. Getting a brand new website built last year brought it’s own challenges but has it been worth it? Oh yes. And I hope you think so too.
I’m delighted to have so many people stopping by here each month, a few 1000 of yous now (!) And even more people over on Instagram. Heading for 10K now. This time there was about 500. How things change. So many things has happen this year. So many opportunities opening up. Guest blogging, cooking demos, online programmes (in the pipeline) and new friends. I’m so grateful.
Anyway. To celebrate Straightforward Nutrition’s blog first blogiversary I have teamed up with Waifair.co.uk to give one lucky reader here the opportunity participate in a Giveaway on the blog.
If you want to be in the draw to be given a £150 voucher to spend on kitchen appliances over on their site, this is what you need to do:
I believe sharing is caring and that we can all learn from each other to lead healthier and happier lives, so to be in the draw Leave a comment below, on this post, about the ONE Change you have made to help you live a healthierlife.This could be anything from a change in habit or mindset to making shopping lists /menu plans or what ever it is that you have changed in order to live a healthier life and that you found made a profound difference.
I can’t wait to hear what brilliant changes you have all made! Please note the draw will close on Nov 20th. So do drop us a line before then.
**N.B Unfortunately this competition is only open to Irish & UK residents. I hope I will get an opportunity to run another giveaway in the future for the rest of you.**
I was tossing with the idea of making something savory as to celebrate with but somehow I just felt it would look a little weird sticking a small flag on a slice of pizza… Maybe next year!
These little lemony paleo muffins were actually featured as the recipe of the month on my old website, a long way back. And there wasn’t a pretty picture to go with it then either so what better excuse to make them again. If you like lemons, poppy seeds and want to bake something Paleo and gluten free, chances are you will like these muffins.
As far as gluten free go and baking with almond flour these are very easy and does not have an ingredients list the length of your arm, which is so often the case with gluten free baking. Gluten free baking is an art in itself, and I with confidence, hold my hand up, declaring it’s one I have yet to master. You really need to know what you are doing and, cooks like me which often just “add a little of this” and “a little of that” do better when strictly adhering to someone elses tried and tested recipe.
Almonds are a great source of potassium, magnesium, calcium, zinc and vitamin E. They are also a good source of unsaturated fatty acids as well as protein. If you make your own almond meal from whole almonds, leaving the skin on, you will get plenty of fibre too.
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Makes 8 small muffins (they are seriously filling so no need to stuff yourself)
2 eggs
1/4 cup of oil of your choice – I normally use a nice fruity olive oil but I’d imagine melted coconut oil would work well too.
3 tbsp of clear runny honey – Local & Organic preferably
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice
2 1/2 cups of almond flour – 250g of whole almonds will yield this amount when ground
2 tsp poppyseeds
1/2 tsp of baking powder
A pinch of salt
Lemon zest of one lemon, finely grated
Preheat your oven to 180C. Place eight small muffin cases in a muffin tray. Or use an ordinary baking tray if you don’t have one.
Start by separating the egg yolks from the egg whites. Leave the yolks in one bowl and the egg whites in another one. In the bowl with the egg yolks, add honey, lemon juice, oil and vanilla extract and mix together well. Add in your dry ingredients and mix until you have a stiff batter.
Now proceed to whisk your egg whites until stiff peaks are formed. I normally do this by hand as it is such a small amount. Try using a large bowl so you can get plenty of air in . Or use electric whisks and spare yourself a work out. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Taking care to make sure it gets well blended but try not to be too heavy handed as the air from the egg whites is what will make your muffins nice and fluffy.
Spoon the batter into the muffin cases, filling them to about 2/3. Bake for about 20 min in the oven. After 10 min place a sheet of tinfoil loosely on top to prevent the muffins from burning while they finish baking. They are ready once a scewer comes out clean. Keep a close eye as they get too dry very easily if left in for too long.
Place the muffins on a wire rack and allow too cool completely before tucking in. Any leftover muffins will keep for up to a week if kept in a cool dry place in an airtight container.
Don’t forget to leave a comment below about The One Changeyou have made to make it easier to live a healthier life, to be in the draw for £150 to spend on some useful kitchen appliances to make you cooking easier!
And thank you for stopping by over the past 12 months 🙂
