Sweet and Sour Tempeh

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…

Mint and Courgette Soup

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! 🙂

Open Your Chakras Mung Bean And Kale Soup

This is definitely my signature soup).

Ingredients (serves 2):

  • 100g Mung Beans (soaked overnight)
  • 2 Carrots
  • 1 inch Ginger
  • 2-3 Spring Onions (the green stalks only)
  • 2-3 cups Kale
  • 2 cups Fresh, Filtered Water
  • ½ tsp Turmeric
  • Himalayan Salt
  • Black Pepper

Chop carrots, ginger and spring onions.

Pour beans, water, chopped vegetables, salt and turmeric in a pot.

Cover with a lid and bring to a boil.

Add kale and simmer for 20-30 mins, until mung beans are soft and tender.

Blend until reaching a rich, creamy consistency.

Adjust salt and pepper.

Serve straightaway and enjoy!

I like to garnish this soup with some fresh rocket and a tiny bit of EVOO.

BBQ Marinated Tofu

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! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Spinach and Potato Soup

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 had it with my BBQ Marinated Tofu and I loved it! 😉

Double Chocolate Oat Cookies

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.

Bake for 12 minutes and let cool down. Enjoy!

Thai Sweet Potato and Courgette Soup

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 😀