Caramelized onion hummus with seeded flatbreads

Happy New Year 2018 !!!
Christmas is over so as the eating chocolate, drinking prosecco and long sleep in the mornings....
I am going to kick start this January with this delicious hummus inspired by

 15 minutes vegan

and those beautiful organic homemade flatbreads ....

For the hummus you will need: 

2 onions, sliced

1 tin of chickpeas or 300g cooked 

1 clove garlic

2 Tbsp tahini 

juice of one lemon

generous drizzle of good olive oil

salt

Heat some olive oil in a pan, add the onion and slow cook until caramelizes.

Tip the chickpeas into a bowl. Cover with boiling water and allow to sit while the onion is cooking.

Tip drained chickpeas into a blender, half the onion, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and garlic and blend until smooth.

Serve the hummus with the rest of the onions...

For the flatbreads I used:

400g organic seeded brown flour

about 250 ml water

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt 

1 Tbsp sesame seeds

Simply mix the ingredients, form a dough and leave it to rest for a few hours or even overnight.

When you need the flatbreads, heat a non-stick pan , dust a surface with flour, tip the dough on it and divide the dough into 10 - 12 balls.

Roll each ball flat and place them on the hot pan 2 or 3 at the time.

Cook the breads 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until nicely coloured.

I like to brush the flatbread with olive oil before serving.

 Any leftover ? you can freeze them ( never happened to me though ) 

note: the breads have a nice texture, more on a chewy side rather then soft 

  

here are some photos of my Christmas baking that I never had time to publish it:

Gingerbreads

Boozy homemade mincemeat 

Stollen

Yummy food over a busy weekend

It's been a busy bank holiday over here full of celebrating, cooking, eating, laughing, playing and more.
First, it was my 13th wedding anniversary which always involves a special meal and a nice bottle of something bubbly.
The very next day we celebrated my sister in law's birthday in a very nice Italian restaurant.
But that's not all, the day after, our youngest child turned four and that was a busy and exciting day for all of us.
Here is some of the food we enjoyed over the weekend!

Classic hummus in a company of a fresh french radishes 

300 gr cooked chickpeas

1 Tbsp tahini

juice of half lemon

3-4 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Place all ingredients into a food processor and blended until smooth.

Store in a glass jar in fridge up to 3 days.  

Baked squash with roasted veggies 

serve 4

1 butternut squash 

vegetables of your choice: peppers, courgettes, onions, broccoli 

cooked kale or fresh rocket leaves 

pumpkin seeds

salt and pepper

olive oil

Cut the squash into half, don't need to peel it.

Using a knife make a cross cutting at the top, season with salt and pepper and brush it with some oil.

Bake the squash up side down on 180 C for 30 minutes, then add the vegetables and turn the squash over.

Roast everything for further 20 minutes or until the veggies are done.

In a meanwhile, cook the kale and dry-roast the seeds.

Cut the squashes on half lengthwise and serve with the veggies sprinkled with seeds.

 

Strawberry cake 

200 gr fine flour

90 ml oil, I use coconut oil, melted

300 gr fresh strawberries 

2 eggs

90 gr brown sugar or 4-5 Tbsp honey

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla exstract

milk if needed

Place 200 gr fresh strawberries into a blender and blend until smooth.

Chop up the rest of the strawberries.

Place the wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl, whisk all up, add the dry ingredients and a splash of milk if cake mixture is dry.

Add the chopped strawberries and pour the mixture into a bottom loose cake tin, size 20 cm across.

Bake the cake for 20-25 minutes on 180 C.

Serve with custard and some fresh strawberries.

Peanut butter cookies 

220 gr spelt flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 Tbsp peanut butter

2 Tbsp coconut oil

4 Tbsp honey or maple syrup 

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract 

pinch of salt

50 gr chopped nuts, I used pecan 

50 gr currants 

Melt the coconut oil, add the peanut butter and set a side.

In a mixing bowl, place the dry ingredients, add cooled oil and butter mixture as well as the egg.

Mix everything using a wooden spoon.

Add the nuts and currants.

Scoop out a medium size cookie dough, form a cookie with your hands and place it onto a baking tray.

Repeat until you use all the dough.

You can make a pattern on the top, using a fork.

Bake the cookies for 10 - 15 minutes on 170 C.

 

Breakfast blueberry cakes

350 gr self-raising wholemeal flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

150 gr fresh or frozen blueberries

2 eggs

200 gr plain yogurt

100 ml oil

zest and juice of half lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract

100 gr mashed banana

4 Tbsp honey

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, add the yogurt, oil, zest and juice of lemon, vanilla, honey and mashed banana.

Fold in the dry ingredients followed by the blueberries.

Spoon the mixture into a muffin tin ( buttered ) for 12 muffins and bake for 25 - 30 minutes on 200 C.

Get them out as soon as they are baked and cool them down a little bit before eating. 

February Feasts

Energy food is what I need for uplifting during a dismal January and February, this is my typical menu on a good day.  This means I have planed ahead what I am going to eat, creating a list of ingredients, shopping over weekend, soaking the beans and grains, chopping veggies and even cooking some of it in advance ....

Breakfast: smoothie made of pre soaked oats, banana, spinach, blueberries and ground seeds.

Lunch: Hummus, flat breads and sliced veggies.

Dinner: Quinoa, green beans, avocado, tomatoes, fresh chili pepper and walnuts. 

To make the smoothie ( serve 2 ) you will need:

1/3 cup porridge oats

1 banana

handful of spinach leaves 

handful of blueberries

1 Tbsp omega mix seeds

300 ml cold water, more or less 

Blitz all the ingredients in a blender for 30 seconds.

To make the hummus you will need: 

300 gr cooked chickpeas,

3 Tbsp olive oil,

salt and pepper

juice of half lemon

1 Tbsp tahini 

a few sun dried tomatoes, optional

Blitz the ingredients together in a blender until you get the consistency you want.

The flat breads are made of 200 gr wholemeal flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt,

40 gr melted butter and 120 ml warm water.

Mix up all the ingredients using a electric hand mixer.

Leave the mixture on room temperature for 2 hours.

Divide the dough into ten and roll each one to get a flat round disk.

Heat a non stick frying pan and dry fry the breads for 30 sec on each side.

  

To make this quinoa dish you will need:

1 cup of cooked quinoa or 1/2 cup of dry ( cook it by following the instruction on the packet )

handful of green beans

1 fresh chili,

handful of chopped nuts

handful of tomatoes

one avocado, cubed or sliced 

olive oil, salt pepper and parsley 

Thanks for reading! I would appreciate any comments or suggestions from you.