Chia Jam

This recipe idea came to me during my recent trip to Australia. I was sitting down overlooking the beautiful scenes of sydney harbor, treating myself to devonshire tea (aka tea and scones with jam and cream). I thought to myself "there must be a way to make jam thicken without adding all that sugar". Fast forward a few days to when I was making my morning smoothie. I added a few too many chia seeds and it became sooooo thick and hard to drink. Voila! I knew what to use. 

Turns out i'm not so quick on the uptake- there seems to be a bunch of recipes online for chia jam. But hey, here's one more for you all from my experiments in the kitchen!

Here's how I made it:

Cooking time: approximately 10 mins

Ingredients:

1 cup blueberries (or berry/fruit of choice)

3 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons coconut sugar

2 tablespoons chia seeds

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

Add all ingredients into a small saucepan.

Place saucepan over medium heat  and cook, stirring occasionally until berries have popped and jam has reached desired thickness (takes approximately 10 mins).

Chill in refrigerator and serve. 

That's it! So simple and quick. Let me know what you think, and if you have any modifications you have made that you loved please feel free to share on this post! 

Pomegranate Dressing

This salad dressing is so delicious! The squeezing of the pomegranate is fun, but can get a little messy so make sure you wear an apron or dark clothing!  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pomegranate seeds (or 3 tablespoons of pomegranate juice)

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 tablespoon raw honey

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Place pomegranate seeds into a sieve. Place over a bowl and begin to squeeze the seeds so the juice pops out (this is the messy part!). Squeeze until all juice has been removed.

Mix the juice with remaining ingredients and serve.

Avocado Lime & Cilantro Créma

This vegan créma glams up salads, tacos, sandwiches, fish, rice and beans etc etc. Most créma's ask for greek yoghurt or sour cream however these are omitted in this version as it is dairy free & the avocado gives it the needed creaminess. Heres how to make it:

Prep time: 5 mins

Ingredients:

1/2 large or 1 small avocado

1/2 cup cilantro (coriander) leaves, pat down firmly

1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 clove of garlic ( slice in half and remove the green center stalk- this reduces the potency)

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1/2 jalapeño pepper

Salt & pepper to taste

4 tablespoons water

Directions:

Using a food processor or an immersion blender, blend all ingredients until smooth. Voila!

Super simple way to glam up a meal.

Cashew Parmesan Cheese

This is super super simple to make and is a delicious alternative to dairy parmesan cheese. I actually like the taste if this even more! It has a nutty cheesy deliciousness. 

I love adding this to salads, sprinkling it on top of avocado toast, cheese alternative in homemade pesto, sandwiches & tacos etc etc. 

Prep time: Just a few minutes!

Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashews

4 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon of salt 

Directions: 

Place all ingredients into food processor and grind until ingredients take on the consistency of fine crumbs. That's it! 

Cashew Cream

Cashew cream can be used for so many delicious recipes, both savory and sweet. I make this basic cashew cream and then will add other ingredients later based on what I am using it for. 

Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashews

Pinch of salt

3/4 cup water

Note: To make a sweet version you can also add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 2 tablespoons of honey, agave or maple syrup.

Directions:

1) Place the cashews into a bowl of water and soak overnight

2) Drain the cashews and place them in a blender with salt and water. Blend until smooth.

Ricotta Cheese

Making ricotta cheese is my new obsession. I had heard how much tastier homemade ricotta was however I always thought it would be too tricky to make. Anything that involves a thermometer and waiting until an exact temperature measurement before adding ingredients just seemed too fussy. But oh how wrong I was! This is so easy and tasty!

Materials needed:

1) Cooking thermometer      

2) Cheese cloth (if you don't have a cheesecloth you can get creative- tights/pantyhose, tea towels or pillowcases would do the trick. Just make sure they are clean!)

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon whole milk. (You can also use low fat, I just wouldn't go below 2% as you need some fat in the milk for this to work)

1/3 cup of lemon juice 

1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Place milk in a saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally until its temperature reaches 195 degrees F. Remove from heat and immediately add the lemon juice and salt. Stir slightly and then leave to sit for 10 minutes. By this time the whey should be separate from the curds. Pour into the cheesecloth and then hang this over a bowl or over the sink. 

Leave hanging for 10-40 minutes depending on the texture of the cheese you desire (10 minutes will be soft and 40 minutes will be firm).