Raspberry Ripple Buckwheat Porridge

July 17, 2014 54 Comments

Does anyone out there latch onto a food and become totally obsessed with it? Do you find it making its way into almost everything you make? Lately, I’ve been riding the buckwheat wagon hard. And although I am not so much into food trends, I predict that buckwheat is going to be the new hotness. You heard it here first.

Okay, maybe it’s just me. This little seed (yes, it’s a seed!) has tumbled its way into my little heart and made a triangular burrow so deep that I can’t imagine what my life was like before it. Those beautiful, variegated, pale green-and-sand coloured pyramids, so humble yet majestic. The way it crisps up in the oven, like teeny, crunchy fireworks. The soft, creamy texture it has after cooking, and how it absorbs so many flavours, leaning either savory or sweet. The rich and nutty flour that turns into noodles, bread, muffins, pancakes, scones and waffles so deliciously.

And while I thought I had buckwheat all worked out, he pulled out his wildcard and now I’m scarfing raw buckwheat porridge like it’s my job. Looking for a power-packed breakfast this summer? High protein, high fiber, gluten-free, versatile, portable, and insanely delicious. It’s also super easy to make, and perfect for those mornings when you need to get outside in the sun as quickly as possible. Obsessed!

How is the porridge raw you ask? The trick to making this treat, is soaking overnight. It’s an easy way to enjoy completely uncooked grains, in their full nutritional force.

The Right Way to Soak
Although soaking grains in pure, un-chlorinated water is good, if you really want to go the extra mile, the key is dropping some acid! And what I mean by that is, adding something acidic to the soaking water, fresh lemon juice and apple cider vinegar being my top picks. For every cup of grain, use 1 tablespoon of acidic medium (don’t worry –the sourness will not be noticeable in the end product, cooked or raw). It also helps if the water is relatively warm, recently boiled but cooled off to some extent.

Suggested soaking time is 7-8 hours, such as an overnight. Leave whatever you are soaking at room temperature. I just keep mine on the counter, covered with a clean tea towel. In the morning, drain the grains in a sieve and rinse well. FYI – buckwheat has a very unique property of making goo. Don’t be alarmed if your groats are on the snotty side the morning after – this is totally normal and it is easily rinsed off.

What these elements add up to, is making the grains far more digestible. Warm, acidic water helps to remove phytic acid, which would otherwise interfere with mineral absorption, and neutralize enzyme inhibitors. Soaking also allows the enzymes, lactobacilli (friendly folk bacteria) and other helpful organisms to break down some of the harder-to-digest starches. Overall, it’s a really good idea, even if you are in excellent health with stellar digestion. It’s these little steps that quickly add up to major life change – I can certainly attest to that.

This porridge was actually inspired by my mother, eternal lover of raspberry ripple ice cream. As a kid, I could never understand how you could waste an entire trip to the ice cream shop on fruit. I mean, really. But I get it now, and raspberry swirling through a blushing pink, creamy, vanilla porridge seems almost too good to be true for breakfast.

If you have never eaten soaked, blended buckwheat before, be prepared for a pleasant surprise. Its mildly nutty, and slightly sweet flavour make it a perfect breakfast food during the warmer months. Plus, it is the easiest thing to whip up, taking less than five minutes from start to finish. The texture is up to you: if you like a chunky porridge, blend it just a little, or if you like it smooth, let your machine run for 30 seconds or so until it is beautifully silky. Even though you can use milk in this recipe, you will certainly achieve a creamy consistency with water alone. That is the magic of buckwheat!

The raspberry is the shining star of this breakfast, giving the porridge a beautiful colour and juicy tartness. If raspberries aren’t in season where you are, use whatever berries or fruit you have. I added a little lemon juice for brightness and cardamom for a richer spiced flavour. This is optional, but really delicious. The frozen banana ups the creaminess, sweetness, and makes the porridge cold, which I really dig, but you could replace it with dates, honey or maple syrup too. The bee pollen is not essential to the recipe, but a wonderful way to boost the nutritional content of this dish even more. If it’s your first time using bee pollen, start small and work your way up. The amount given here is for those just starting out.

Raspberry Ripple Buckwheat Porridge
Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
1 cup buckwheat groats, soaked overnight
1 Tbsp. acidic medium, such as lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp. hemp seeds
½ cup / 125ml milk of your choice or water
1 frozen banana
1 Tbsp. bee pollen (optional), plus more for garnish
juice of ½ lemon
½ tsp. ground cardamom
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

Raspberry Ripple
3 cups 275g raspberries (fresh or frozen, organic if possible)
1 Tbsp. maple syrup

Directions:
1. Cover buckwheat with warm water and one tablespoon of the acidic medium of your choice. Let sit overnight. The next morning, drain and rinse very well.
2. In a blender, food processor, or high-speed blender (this works the best) blend the raspberries and maple syrup until they are liquid. Spoon out about 3-4 tablespoons worth of puree and set aside.
3. Without removing the remaining raspberry puree or cleaning the machine, add in the drained and rinsed buckwheat groats, and all other ingredients. Blend on highest setting until desired consistency is reached (I like mine rather smooth, but some may like a little tooth to it). Season and sweeten to taste.
4. To assemble, spoon some of the buckwheat porridge into a bowl and swirl with about a tablespoon of the raspberry puree per portion, and sprinkle with bee pollen. To make a fancy presentation, use a glass, such as a tumbler. Layer the porridge and raspberry puree, then drag a spoon up the side of the glass, swirling the two shades of pink together. Garnish with bee pollen and a raspberry. Store leftovers in the fridge for up to two days.

Show me your porridge on Instagram: #buckwheatporridge

Early Summer Abundance Bowl

July 6, 2014 32 Comments

Keep it simple. Use what you have. Make it work.

I’ve been staring at these three ideas for the past few hours. In between breastfeeding my baby, laundry, trying to make food for myself, emails, brushing my teeth and changing a couple diapers, I’ve been back and forth to my computer unsuccessfully getting any further with this post.

Then I read it again and realized that the advice that I was trying to give all of you out there was precisely what I needed to hear myself.

My days are so different than they used to be. Instead of being able to play in the kitchen from dawn until way past dusk, I’m playing with my sweet baby. Instead of making food for all of you to recreate I’m making food for us. Unremarkable, perhaps, but there is a turning inwards, a quiet and simplicity that I’m cultivating, or at least trying to. It isn’t glamorous and most of it isn’t worth blogging, but it’s real life. And I am very grateful for it.

Needless to say, meals have been simple and Abundance Bowls have been abundant. I’ve been cooking grains and beans in bulk to use for later, then tossing whatever fresh veggies I have on hand into the mix. If I can bend time and squeak out five or ten minutes worth of creativity, a sauce happens, or maybe a quick pickled condiment. All of a sudden, a pretty boss bowl of tasty, healthy food sits before me and I feel like the luckiest person in the world, living in true abundance. That is what the Abundance Bowl is all about. Keeping it simple. Using what you have. Making it work. And I guess feeling that kind of overwhelming gratitude doesn’t hurt either.

Here we are in the first breaths of true summer. My little family and I are back in Canada for the next little while and it feels amazing to be home. The sun is bright and the river is crisp, gardens everywhere are bursting with fresh food. The Early Summer Abundance bowl celebrates all of it, along with the feeling of luckiness that always pervades my thinking this time of year, as we begin to reap the benefits of the season.

I chose freekeh in this edition, a roasted, immature wheat that tastes deep and rich and is the perfect counterpoint to sweet, young beetroots, earthy radishes and vibrant sprouts. The grain is harvested while still young and soft, then roasted or sun-dried. The health bonus of harvesting immature wheat is that it retains more of its nutrients and proteins than its fully-grown counterparts. It even claims to have fewer carbohydrates than regular wheat because it’s young. It surprisingly has more dietary fiber content than brown rice, plus more calcium, iron, and potassium content.

You can find freekeh at Middle Eastern grocery stores and increasingly at natural and gourmet food shops. Sometimes it is referred to and sold as “Green Wheat”. If you have never tried freekeh before, get ready to freak out. It’s seriously amazing stuff! It cooks up like any other grain, keeps very well in the fridge and can be enjoyed hot or cold. I love it in salads, especially with lots of garlic, olive oil and lemon to balance the smoky flavour.

As I was after a sort of Middle Eastern flavour profile, I chose to make a harissa-spiked chutney with spring onion and dates, which is altogether scrumptious. Leftovers of this are excellent smeared on toast with poached eggs for breakfast, accompanying roast veggies or in an avocado sandwich. The colour isn’t very sexy, but the flavour is oh-my-goodness delicious. And to really take this Abundance Bowl to the next level, I may have put a little seared halloumi cheese in there. Maybe. Oh I totally did.

Early Summer Abundance Bowl
Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
1 cup / 175g freekeh
1 tsp. sea salt
½ block Halloumi cheese (about 125g / 4.5oz)
2 medium yellow beets (red beets will work too)
1 small bunch radishes
a few handfuls of fresh sprouts (I used sprouted black lentil)
juice of ½ lemon
handful fresh mint leaves
cold-pressed olive oil for garnish
1 batch Spring Onion Harissa Chutney (recipe below)

Directions:
1. Place the freekeh into a saucepan and cover with water. Swirl water and rub the grains together vigorously to wash them. Drain and repeat until the water is clear. Add 2 cups water and a couple pinches sea salt. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer until the water is completely absorbed (about 15 minutes for cracked grain and 45 minutes for whole grain). Remove from heat and drizzle with a little olive oil, stir to combine. Set aside.
2. While the freekeh is cooking, prepare the vegetables. Peel the beets and slice very thinly with a mandoline or your excellent knife skills. Place in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil, lemon juice, and a few pinches of salt. Roughly chop mint and fold to combine. Slice radishes.
3. Slice the halloumi and place on a grill pan or dry skillet over high heat. Cook until golden on the underside, then flip.
4. To assemble, place about ¼ of the cooked freekeh in each of the bowls. Add a few slices of grilled halloumi, a handful of sliced beets, a couple radishes, a large handful of sprouts, and a generous dollop of the Spring Onion Harissa Chutney. Serve immediately and enjoy.

Spring Onion Harissa Chutney
Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:
2 large bunches / 400g / scant 1 lb. spring onion (equals roughly 6 cups chopped)
knob of coconut oil or ghee
pinch of sea salt
½-1 Tbsp. harissa paste (depending on how hot you like it)
1-2 large dates, preferably Medjool, pitted
3 Tbsp. cold-pressed olive oil
3 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions:
1. Wash and roughly chop spring onions, including the green tops. Melt a knob of coconut oil or ghee in a skillet over medium heat. Add spring onions and a pinch of salt. Stir to coat and cook until the onions are softened and sweet, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. In a food processor, roughly chop pitted dates. Add the spring onions, harissa, olive oil and lemon juice. Blend on high until the mixture is creamy, but still a little chunky. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Store leftovers in a tightly sealed glass container in the fridge for up to five days.

As for those of you asking about the Potluck Picnic in Toronto, I have made the difficult decision to skip it this year. There are so many things going on in my life (all positive!) but in the name of keeping things simple and quiet, I am honoring the commitment I made to myself to focus my energy on my family at this time. I so much appreciate your enthusiasm, and also your understanding. And of course I look forward to resuming the event next summer!

Show me your Abundance Bowls on Instagram: #earlysummerabundancebowl

Strawberries and Danish Summer Cream

June 22, 2014 59 Comments

To say that Danish people have a strong food culture would be selling it short. Very short. After living in Denmark for nearly six years now, I have had the privilege of witnessing and taking part in many of their passionate and long-established table traditions, celebrating the seasons through what they eat and vice versa. They are proud, and borderline obsessive about certain aspects of their food, and it is this fervour, this dedication, even if it is often for pork products, that I so strongly resonate with and connect to.

When I first met my husband, it drove me kinda nuts how stubborn he was with his traditional Danish meals: “no, this has to go with that. And you need to eat this on top of this in this special way, then cut it like this and put it on this special plate”. Open-faced sandwiches are actually served on their own teeny wooden boards, and have very specific and time-tested combinations of foods that are not to be contested or fooled around with. No. But many meals are like this. The first day of advent, you eat yellow split pea soup. At Easter you have lamb. And as the weather warms up (if it ever does) you have koldskål. Say what? Directly translated, “cold bowl”.

Koldskål, is a beguiling combination of creamy buttermilk, egg yolk, lemon, vanilla and sugar. I know it may sound a little strange, but trust me, it’s heaven. It is often served with Danish strawberries (which, sorry Ontario, are the best strawberries in the world) and always with kammerjunkere: very crispy little biscuits flavoured with cardamom and lemon. Think of them as Danish biscotti. And they only go with koldskål. That’s a rule.

I tried the real koldskål last summer when I was pregnant and feeling very strong urges to eat dairy products. I have to say, as much as I wanted to be against it, the stuff was insanely delicious. Addictive even. And the mere act of slicing up a bowl of freshly-picked berries, then pouring silky white cream across their blood-red facets struck a deep, primordial pleasure chord. In that moment, a voice called out from inside me and cooed in all of its ancient wisdom, that this was going to taste really, really good.

Needless to say, it did and I was hooked. What is not to love about ripe fruit, tangy, cold creaminess and crunchy crumbled cookies? Right. Moving on. Since that fateful day, I’ve discovered that koldskål is very easy to make and can be tweaked a little to be much healthier than the traditional version (which is why I am calling it something totally different). My twist uses sheep yogurt instead of buttermilk, leaves out the eggs and sweetens with maple syrup. The biscuits are gluten-free and vegan and sweetened with coconut sugar. All things considered, this would make a rather respectable breakfast, albeit with a rather hefty dose of strawberries, as I tend to make it.

Now, if I am all for tradition, why I am messing with a perfect thing? Switching out the buttermilk for goat or sheep yogurt? Well, you know my M.O. is to make things both tasty and healthy. In this case, it’s a small change in flavour for a big change in nutrition.

For one, goat and sheep milk are easier to digest than cow milk due to the fact that the protein molecules found goat and sheep milk are smaller and in fact more similar to the protein found in human milk. In addition, the fat molecules in goat and sheep milk have thinner, more fragile membranes – half the size of those in cow milk. This leads to an average curd tension that is literally 1⁄2 that of cow milk (36 grams for goat milk and 70 grams for cow milk). Curds from milk form in the digestive tract or during cheese or yogurt making (anywhere that the milk is subjected to acid). Having less curd tension means that the milk is less “tough”, and easier to digest. Dr. Bernard Jensen (my personal hero) showed that goat milk will digest in a baby’s stomach in 20 minutes, whereas pasteurized cow milk takes 8 hours. The difference is in the structure of the milk.

Goat and sheep milk boast twice the healthful medium chain fatty acids than that of cow milk, such as capric and caprylic acids. These fatty acids are highly antimicrobial. Capric and caprylic acids are used today in dietary supplements to inhibit the growth of Candida albicans and other yeast species. They also boost the immune system and enhance energy.

To serve koldskål in our house, we slice up a large amount of berries and divide them among the bowls. Then each person pours their own cream (obviously, because this is the most fun part) and crumbles the biscuits over top, or leaves them whole according to their liking. The cream must be very cold. The strawberries must be very ripe – none of those ones picked before they are ready and that are still white in the center – no! The red juice must run into the cream as you eat it, swirling about and staining the whole concoction a delicate, blushing pink by the end. Guh. I also like to sprinkle fresh elderflower over the top for fun, since I love eating flowers too. This is totally unnecessary, and completely divine.

Danish Summer Cream
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 cups / 500ml sheep or goat yogurt
1 ½ Tbsp. maple syrup or honey (or more to your taste)
zest of 1 small organic lemon
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

Directions:
1. Stir all the ingredients together, right in the yogurt container if you like. Sweeten to taste. If the yogurt is too thick to pour, add water, a little at a time until the desired consistency is reached (you are aiming for thick cream) Enjoy very cold over strawberries with Lemon Cardamom Biscuits.

Lemon Cardamom Biscuits
Makes approx. 80-90 biscuits

Ingredients:
3 cups / 300g rolled oats (gluten-free, if desired)
1 tsp. ground cardamom
¼ tsp. fine grain sea salt
1 tsp. baking powder
zest of 1 large organic lemon
½ cup / 75g coconut sugar
½ cup / 125ml unsweetened applesauce
3 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
brown rice flour for dusting (any flour will work)

Directions:
1. In a food processor pulse the oats until you have a rough flour. Add the baking powder, cardamom, salt, lemon zest and coconut sugar. Blend for a few seconds to combine.

2. In a measuring cup, measure out the applesauce, then add the coconut oil and vanilla, whisk to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the food processor and pulse until fully incorporated. The dough should be sticky and wet, but not pasty. If it is too wet to work with, add a little more oats or oat flour. Preheat oven to 350°F/175°.

3. Dust a large, clean working surface with flour. Empty dough out on to the floured surface and gather into a rough ball shape. Divide dough into quarters. Working with one quarter at a time, roll dough into a log, approximately 10”/25cm long. Then slice log into ½” / 1¼ cm rounds. Place on a lined baking sheet.

4. Bake biscuits for 10-12 minutes until just turning golden on the bottom, then turn the oven off and let the cookies sit in there until the oven is cool (this step simply helps dry the biscuits out). Once cool, store biscuits in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

To Serve
1lb / 500g organic strawberries, sliced
1 batch Danish Summer Cream, very cold
handful of Lemon Cardamom Biscuits
elderflowers for garnish, if desired

Place sliced strawberries in each bowl. Let each person pour their own cream. Drop biscuits in or crumble them up over the top. Take a deep breath. Enjoy.

If I have learned anything during my time here in Denmark, it’s that traditions exist for a reason. That certain foods taste best with other certain foods and that is just the way it is, no reason trying to fight it. In this case, strawberries and cream and cookies are best enjoyed together, and I am certainly willing to uphold this tradition for the good of us all.

Show me your Strawberries and Dansih Summer Cream on Instagram: #danishsummercream