Freshened Up Walnut, Apple and Celery Salad for Family BBQ

I used to LOVE apple celery and walnut salads that you could but in little pots. The combination of crunchy sweet acidic apple, savory celery and nutty walnuts is one of my all time favorite. However whenever you buy them they are drowned in creamy mayonnaise style dressing... ughhh.  Not only does this dressing often contain dairy or eggs, making it unfriendly for vegans and lactose intolerant, but full of saturated unhealthy fat and god knows what, sugar, preservatives, etc etc...

Fresher lighter better.

So when asked to make a salad for our Family's BBQ tonight I thought I would take this salad and make it vegan friendly and a lot more healthier and in my opinion fresher as its not drowned in creamy dressing. My version has sweet sour dressing with apple cider vinegar which is meant to curb sugar cravings and is sugar free as I use agave.

Freshened Up Walnut, Apple and Cerlery Salad

Ingredients
1 1/2 sticks of celery
1 small sweet onion
1 large Granny smith (you can use other eating apples but prepare for a lesser salad, granny smiths rule)
1/4 cup (heaped) of walnuts
Hand full of raisins
3 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp of agave syrup (or honey)
tsp of whole grain mustard
Salt and pepper

-Mix together 3 tbsp of the agave (reserving one tbsp), apple cider vinegar, mustard in the bottom of your salad bowl and add salt and pepper to taste. Your dressing should be slightly more salty and sour then you would like it as when as the water from the salad will neutralize it slightly.
- Dice apple, celery and onion and add to you dressing, toss so all the salad is coated. The vinegar in the dressing will stop the apples browning and partially cook the onion so it is less harsh.. clever ;)
-Lightly crush walnuts (I used a pestle and mortar) and add to a hot pan with a pinch of salt.

Me crushing some nuts

- When the nuts are lightly toasted add the reserved tbsp of agave stir around your pan for 30 seconds more and remove walnuts from heat into a bowl or plate to cool.
- Once cool add the walnuts with the raisins and toss. Cover and refrigerate till needed, the longer you leave this salad the more the flavors 'get to know each other' and the tastier it will be (like left over chilli and curry)

Wholemeal Banana Nut Cup Cakes with Peanut Butter Glaze

Wholemeal Banana Nut Cup Cakes with Peanut butter glaze..

 I decided to make something to go with my Vegan Frozen Yogurt (recipe in my earlier post) and with a jar of PB in the cupboard and some practically black banana's this was the obvious solution. This recipe is also vegan and creates moist little cakes sticky banana cakes that are surprisingly light and moreish.

Ingredients

Cup Cakes (12)
2.5 Very ripe bananas mashed
1/4 cup Peanut Butter (i used crunchy but smooth is fine, make such it's natural, no added sugar/oil)
1/4 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup almond milk
1tbsp of oil
1/2 cup of whole meal spelt flour
1/4 cup regular whole meal
1/2 tsp baking poweder
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinamon
1 tsp of vanilla extract

-In a food processor, blitz raw sugar till a fine consistency. Add to a bowl with Peanut butter, vanilla extract and oil.
-Cream together (like you would do butter and sugar in a cake) until fully combined. Then add your mashed banana and almond milk and mix together viciously.. cooking can be a work out too.
- Sieve in flours, cinamon, salt, baking powder and discard the husks left in the sieve. GENTLY fold together your mixture, spelt flour is delicate you don't want to over work your batter.
- Spoon mixture into cup cake cases, these cakes don't rise much so fill them practically to the top. I used soft plastic ones so I could remove my cakes with ease but it's up to you.
- Bake at 180 Degrees Celsius in a fan oven till golden and you can stick a tooth pick in the middle and pull it out clean (about 10-15mins)

my banana babies pre-oven

Peanut Butter Glaze   

Ingredients
1 heaped tbsp of peanut butter (again I used crunchy, as that's what I had, but smooth is fine)
2 heaped tbsp of Liquid Sweetener (I used agave syrup)

-Easy as pie, or glaze.. what ever. Just add to a small saucepan, turn up the heat a little and whisk together with a fork. Once combined keep warm over a very low heat until your cakes are done. Whilst cakes are warm divide between them and spread around with a knife or back of a teaspoon.

-Leave cakes to cool and remove from cases, serve with frozen yogurt if so wished.. I did.

First Post, Frozen Vegan Yogurt

Hey First Post WOOO!
And first recipes...

Lately I have been looking into Vegan Dairy Substitutes for yogurts.
Plain Alpro Soya was always a go to however a new brand 'Joya' came on the UK scene. Interested, I gave it a try. 'Joya' has no added sugar so it so it isn't as sweet as Alpro and has a very neutral/bland taste with a slight nuttiness of, you guessed it, soya. However, it is not that pleasant to eat on its own like Alpro is. So obviously when I was presented with this bland 'Joya' I thought, it needs a make over..

Lets make FROZEN VEGAN YOGURT. A sugar free, dairy free, tasty treat.

Sweet Almond, Raisin and Cinnamon Vegan Frozen Yogurt
Ingredients

2/3 of a pot of plain 'Joya' or other dairy free yogurt  (or if you like dairy 0% fat Greek Yogurt)
1/4 cup of Agave or other Liquid Sweetener
1/4 cup of raisins
1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
Hand full of almonds, unbleached
Vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Almond milk (optional bulker)

-Get your pot of yogurt add vanilla, raisins, and sweetener reserving about a table spoon for later. Taste and more or less sweetener to your liking. Set aside.
-Heat a small frying pan and add almonds and a pinch of salt. When you can smell them roasting (a fragrant nuttiness) and they are lightly colouring remove and lightly crush into rustic chunks. I use a pestle and morta to do this.
-Then add cinnamon and a table spoon of sweetener and return to pan to caramelize the sweetener slightly. This only takes about 1 min maximum. Take care not to burn. Remove from pan and leave to cool.
-When cool add to yogurt pot and mix.
-If you want a lower calorie lighter frozen yogurt you can bulk it out with unsweetened Almond milk, I used about 1/3 of a cup. The almond milk as well as being low in calories has a a slight almond taste adding to the taste whilst bulking it out and making it lighter. However, it will lose some of it's creaminess.
-Freeze in pot until set

Mine is in the freezer at the moment will post a picture when it comes out!