I created this recipe for my October challenge to celebrate Autumn and I was so happy with the result, that I decided to make it again soon. I love Asian soups, such as Phos and Hot Pots, because you can have veggies, carbs and protein all in one delicious bowl, which is warm and healthy too.
2 blocks Extra Firm Tofu (cubed; I used smoked tofu)
2 portions Rice Flat Noodles
Tamari
1,5 Litre Boiling Water
Fresh Coriander
Fresh Mint
Lime Juice
Preheat the oven at 180°C. In the meantime, cut your pumpkin into 8 slices.Bake your pumpkin for 10 minutes, flipping it half way through. Let it cool down and peel it.Chop green pepper, ginger and spring onion. In a small bowl, combine your spices.In a wok, heat up some coconut oil with dried lemongrass, and add in your chopped veggies. Fry for a couple of minutes, until they release their full flavour.Add in your spices and keep frying for about 1 minute more.Stir in green beans and baby aubergines and keep frying for 3-4 more minutes.Add in salt, Tamari, boiling water and tofu, and simmer for 8-10 minutes, until aubergines and green beans are cooked.In the meantime, prepare your rice noodles as indicated in their package, rinse under cool water, and serve in a soup bowl.Pour your Hot Pot on rice noodles and garnish with fresh coriander, fresh mint leaves and fresh lime juice.
This is a very easy, yet tasty, recipe to make. It requires only a very few ingredients and a frying pan or skillet (or an oven, if you prefer it baked).
You can prepare your marinade in advance and marinate tempeh overnight, so you’ll just have to cook it on the next day.
Serves 2, but last time I made, I had it all by myself…
200gr Tempeh
1/4 cup ACV
1 tbsp Tamari
1/2 tsp Cumin Powder
1/2 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Ginger Powder
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Maple Syrup (or a few drops Liquid Stevia, if you want to go sugar free)
Himalayan Salt
Cayenne Pepper
Coconut Oil
Halve your tempeh and then halve each half again.Mix ACV, Tamari, salt, spices and maple syrup/stevia and prepare your marinade.Add tempeh to your marinade, making sure it is entirely covered. Set aside for at least 30-40 mins (or overnight).In a frying pan or skillet, heat up some coconut oil and fry tempeh on each side, until golden and crispy.I love adding some yeast extract to my tempeh, for an extra nutty and cheesy taste…
The first week of October isn’t over yet, so I must continue with my soup challenge.
This one is surely the easiest one so far, and requires just 4 or 5 ingredients:
2 Large Courgettes
2 tbsp Dried Mint
2 cups Fresh, Filtered Water
Himalayan Salt
Optional: Fresh Mint
Bring water to a boil.
Chop your courgettes; place them in a pot and add in boiling water and dried mint.
Cover with a lid, reduce heat to minimum and simmer for about 10 minutes, till tender.
Add salt and blend into a light cream.
Serve straightaway and garnish with fresh mint.
I had mine with some steamed wild rice (see recipe below) and sweet and sour tempeh.
Rinse 2 cups Wild Rice and pour in a large Pot. Cover with 4 cups Fresh, Filtered Water and some Himalayan Salt. Place a lid and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to minimum and simmer for half an hour. Turn off and allow the rice to absorb all the water.This is what the wild rice will look like, once cooked and ready to be served! 🙂
This is a super easy way to cook tofu without adding too many calories.
1 block Extra Firm Tofu
1/4 cup ACV
1tbsp Tamari
½ tbsp Paprika
½ tsp Coconut Sugar or Stevia
½ tsp Turmeric
½ tsp Cumin Powder
½ tsp Coriander Powder
Cayenne Pepper
Black Pepper
Himalayan Salt
Optional: Fresh Rosemary and/or Sage
Pressed and dried Tofu
Press and dry Tofu with some kitchen roll.
Cut into trips and set aside.
Combine all ingredients except tofu in a bowl.
Add in your tofu and allow the marinade to cover it entirely.
I like to use some BPA free sealable bags to prepare my marinade. This is the only it gets into my tofu or tempeh evenly. I know plastic is still to be avoided, but I haven’t found any better replacement yet…
At this point you have 2 options: either you bake it at 180°C for 15-20 mins (flipping half way through), or you fry it with 1 tsp coconut oil. Yesterday night, I went for the second option, as I was starving and needing some extra calories to recover from my back and shoulders workout. As I had some fresh rosemary, sage and thyme in the fridge, I added them to my coconut oil, before frying the tofu.
Here’s the final result
It tastes great with some yeast extract on top! 🙂 🙂 🙂
What do I miss more from my old, unaware, high FODMAP lifestyle than my weekly leek and potato soup? Maybe only my daily avocado… sad story! 🙁
I am a real soup person, as you might already know. Soups are great because: 1) they combine carbs and veggies, so I can get both from just one dish (in theory, you can even throw in your protein as well, but I usually prefer having my protein as a separate dish); 2) they’re typically low in calories, so they fill me up without making me feel guilty; 3) they’re warm and easy to digest; 4) they’re so fun to make!
As Autumn is approaching, I decided to challenge myself by creating one soup a day for the first week of October. On Monday, I made my signature “Mung Beans and Kale” soup (which you can find in my FREE ebook, see the link below). On Tuesday, I came up with my Thai Sweet Potato and Courgette Soup. Yesterday (Tuesday), I felt inspired to try out something new, something that could finally replace my beloved-but-forbidden Leek and Potato soup.
Here’s the recipe (serves 3-4):
3 medium-small Potatoes
1 small Sweet Potato
2-3 cups Fresh or Frozen Spinach (I used frozen)
1 Carrot
1 Spring Onion (the green part only)
3 cups Fresh, Filtered Water
Himalayan Salt,
Nutmeg
Parmesan Cheese (or Nutritional Yeast, for a vegan alternative)
Chop carrot and spring onion.
Place them into a pot, add water and salt and cover with a lid.
Bring to a boil.
In the meantime, chop potatoes and your sweet potato and add to the boiling pot. Add in your frozen spinach,* cover and reduce heat to low.
Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Blend to reach your desired consistency (I left some potato chunks and spinach bits, as I prefer it this way, but you can make it creamier, if you like).
*If you’re using fresh spinach, you want to add it towards the end of your cooking process, or it’ll overcook.
Adjust salt and nutmeg, and garnish with nutritional yeast. Enjoy! 🙂
I don’t really have a sweet tooth, but I love baking. As I felt extremely inspired a couple of days ago, I just ran into my kitchen and get these cookies ready in less than half an hour. Here’s how I did:
Ingredients (makes 4 cookies):
1 cup Oats (use Gluten Free ones, if you want to stay 100% cross-contamination-risk free)
2 tbsp Coconut Oil
2 tbsp 100% Almond Butter
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp coconut sugar
1 tsp True Cinnamon Powder
3 tbsp Raw Cacao Powder
as many as you want Raw Cacao Nibs
Himalayan Salt (just a pinch!)
Optional, 1 scoop vegan protein (vanilla flavour)
Preheat your oven at 180°C.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl to form a dough.
Divide your dough into 4 patties, which you will then spread evenly on a baking sheet.
This is what your cookies will look like, once they’re ready to bake.
Although it’s October, autumn hasn’t officially arrived in London yet.
However, we’ve already started accompanying our dinners with a soup, as we always do when the weather gets colder. We love cooking soups for dinner for 2 reasons:
1) it’s a way of eating warm, comfy food, without adding extra calories to our meal;
2) it’s a fun and easy way to combine carbs and veggies together, so that I don’t have to bother too much thinking about a side dish.
Tonight I’m planning to cook something I’ve never done before: a Low-FODMAP version of a Thai-style sweet potato soup. And, in case you’re wondering, I’m going to have baked tofu as a main.
As many IBS sufferers, I don’t tolerate sweet potatoes in big amounts; for this reason, I’m going to add some courgettes (which I tolerate quite well) to my soup, to enhance its texture, without overloading it with high FODMAP foods.
These are some of the organic ingredients I’m going to use… hopefully the soup will look better! 😀
INGREDIENTS:
2-3 small Sweet Potatoes
1 large Courgette (use 1 medium courgette, if you don’t tolerate them very well)
1 medium Carrot
3 green Spring Onion stalks
1 inch Ginger
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
Himalayan Salt
3 cups Water*
2 tsp Coconut Oil
1 tsp Tamari
Fresh Coriander
Fresh Lime Juice
*If you tolerate it, swap half the water for coconut milk
Chop sweet potatoes, carrot, ginger and spring onion stalks.
Place in a pot, pour water (and coconut milk) and add spices (except black pepper) and salt.
Place the lid and bring to a boil.
In the meantime, chop your courgette.
As the water starts boiling, add in the chopped courgette, place the lid back, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until vegetables are tender.
Blend to reach a smooth cream.
Pour your soup into two bowls, garnish with coconut oil, Tamari, black pepper, fresh coriander and fresh lime juice. Enjoy!
I edited this post after making the soup and to confirm its absolutely nice taste. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any fresh coriander, so I garnished our soups with fresh rocket instead (it’s not quite the same, I know…). We loved it anyway! 😉
The light sucks but this is pretty much what it looked like 😀
