Apple and mango flapjacks

Every now and then I buy dried mango, and then don't quite know what to do with it. I could (and sometimes do) just eat it plain, but these flapjacks proved a delicious way to use it in a slightly different form. Blending oats, apple, dried mango, cashew butter, soya milk and vanilla, this is a simple recipe that creates a delicious whole food snack or breakfast.

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Mango chutney roast cauliflower and broccoli

From mango cookie balls we move to mango roast vegetables! In truth, I made these recipes a few weeks apart but my blogging places them in rather closer proximity.

With thinking about starter foods for Mini Bite, I have had broccoli and cauliflower on my mind lately. This particular recipe is not very baby friendly, but it is a delicious way to boost your intake of the vegetables. Indeed, this reminds me that I don't roast cauliflower and broccoli often enough as they are delicious with an oven-lent crisp.

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Mango cashew cookie balls {vegan + no bake}

I am a big fan of raw fruit and nut truffle balls, but sometimes I like to mix things up a little. These no bake cookie balls take the classic fruit and nut combination - mango and cashew in this case - but add oats and banana to the mix. The result? Soft, chewy cookie balls that are eminently satisfying yet full of whole food nutrition.

With mango and banana in the ingredient list, these could also have been titled 'tropical cookie balls'. They taste of sunshine regardless of what the weather is doing outside. A version with dried pineapple would be equally delicious, or you could use half mango and half pineapple.

These are softer than pure fruit and nut balls but hold together if kept in the fridge. Or alternatively phrased, they are squishable but won't fall apart on you!

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Green tropical pudding

I would apologise for posting near consecutive tropical recipes, but it was 21'C (70'F) in London today. It will be 25'C tomorrow. I think that deserves tropical, given average spring temperatures are more like 14'C.

This recipe uses the mangoes that remained from my recent bulk buy purchase, and in many ways it is a pudding version of the cake I posted last week. I liked the cake more, but this is easier to make - and you can eat it for breakfast. Like the cake, it has a simple, whole food ingredient list. The green colour comes (unsurprisingly) from avocado and that also lends a creamy texture. Banana, pineapple and coconut round out the ingredient list.

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Tropical mango cake with an orange-coconut sugar glaze - vegan and refined sugar free {London marathon fundraising}

In a re-run of the air mile apricots that I turned into apricot-almond cake, I have used my Peruvian mangoes to make a tropical mango cake. It was so good that it may be my favourite baked product of 2015. This doesn't help curb my impromptu imported fruit purchases, but it is a delicious outcome!

I love this cake for lots of reasons, but one of the big ones is the minimal ingredient list. The cake itself is sweetened entirely from the mango and banana, with no added sugar at all. By pureeing the fruit, the cake is also very moist without oil or butter: the only source of fat within the cake is desiccated coconut. This means that if you serve it without icing, this could easily be a breakfast-worthy fruit bread. It also uses spelt flour, which I am a big fan of.

If you do add the orange and coconut sugar glaze - and I recommend that you do! - this turns into something altogether more dessert-like, whilst still featuring basic whole food ingredients. The glaze has nothing more than coconut oil, coconut sugar and orange juice. I sprinkled some extra desiccated coconut over the top, but that is optional.

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Mango, strawberry and sweet potato salad with a 'honey' mustard dressing

Dear readers, this will be a week of short and sweet posts. Our shipment has arrived and our flat is a disaster zone! We are really excited to be reunited with our belongings, but until we get the boxes unpacked and items stowed away, it is an obstacle course getting from room to room. Making dinner last night involved a narrow path from fridge to stove, and shuffling of boxes to get to the sink. It is tricky. I am also unsure why we (I) shipped so much. Living without much for  4 months has changed my views on 'essential'. I could have abandoned a lot more in Perth.

Mango, strawberry and sweet potato salad with a 'honey' mustard dressing

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Chickpea pancake with spicy kale and mango

I didn't intend to share two mango breakfasts this week. In fact, my original plan for this dish was a chickpea pancake with a kale and apple filling. I was going to saute the apple until soft, and perhaps add some nutmeg or cinnamon to the mix. However, it is mango season here - despite the mangoes being imported because the UK is not at all a tropical country - and last week I bought 5 mangoes for £1 ($1.70). I hope you'll forgive me for indulging in as much mango as I can.

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Thai coleslaw with mango

Another month, another cabbage dish! In truth, my vegetable box deliveries gave me a break from cabbage for a while. I was almost starting to want another cabbage to appear...and then one did, and I was reminded of just how large they are, and just how much fridge space they take up.

Happily, I found a way to put this particular cabbage to good use. It was so good, in fact, that Mr Bite labelled the dinner when this appeared "11 out of 10". Definitely a win.

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Alternative green smoothies: sweet potato and almond (banana free!), and banana, mango and kale

I've been getting through a lot of green smoothies recently. In fact, I've started day dreaming about a blender for my workplace, so I can whip one up for my at-work breakfasts, or as a mid-afternoon snack, or an addition to lunch...or any time at all really. Sadly, I don't think that's on the cards, but I'm making the most of weekends and the weekdays I'm home in time to squeeze one in before dinner!

Sweet potato and almond green smoothie

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A final Christmas post - my main meal plans and a raw vegan mango cheesecake to say Happy Christmas

My Christmas food posts didn't stretch to main meal options this year. There is a reason for this, and it isn't just laziness (promise!): others have done a far better job on the topic than I could. Plus, many of the dishes I posted in round-up form last year, and the year before, still look appealing. I suspect you didn't want or need another round-up now.

This year, my own Christmas dishes will make use of Angela's brilliant Christmas-themed menu on Oh She Glows. I separately bookmarked her Best Shredded Kale Salad (with pecan parmesan and cranberries) and Lentil Mushroom Walnut Balls (with a cranberry-pear sauce) as Christmas ideas, and when she included them in her Christmas menu planning post, it was reinforcement that they were meant to be. After Johanna's post on her experience with the lentil balls, I will be following the recipes exactly - I have even tracked down  the required sherry vinegar!

These vegan dishes will be complementing a traditional roast turkey dinner with roasted vegetables (for my family), and an assortment of desserts. My dessert contributions will be a layered twist on the (vegan) Christmas ice cream I shared in 2011, and some homemade chocolates.

With Christmas menu planning done and dusted, my main focus for today is saying happy Christmas to you. Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, winter solstice (yesterday!), summer solstice (also yesterday!), or just plain season.

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Black eyed beans with couscous and chipotle mango sauce

You may remember that six months ago, Mel of Veganise This! kindly sent me a smoky, flavour-filled package. Her gift included liquid smoke, smoked paprika, chile chipotle powder, and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. These ingredients have provided me with a lot of kitchen fun, as well as the ability to make her tofu bacon properly. Tofu bacon is still one of my favourite tofu preparation methods, and I can't see myself tiring of it anytime soon.

Recently, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce have become available in Perth. I've now seen them at two separate supermarkets, and this increased availability has allowed me to experiment more with their use. When ingredients are hard to find, and consequently precious, I became very cautious in how I use them. When they can be replaced more readily, I branch out and start putting them in dishes even if I'm not certain how things will turn out.

Last week, I had chipotle peppers to hand, a mango needing to be used, black eyed beans soaked, and an opportunity to make a dinner for myself that wouldn't be eaten by Mr Bite (he was having chicken). The result was one of the nicest meals I have had to date this year.

The base of this meal is simple: couscous, black eyed beans, vegetables, and some pineapple on the side. The key component is definitely the sauce, which incorporates 2 chipotle peppers, some of the adobe sauce in which they came, and fresh mango. It takes the meal from basic to wonderful.

If you like spicy flavours and a bit of heat, I hope you will enjoy this as much as I did!

Black eyed beans with couscous and 

chipotle mango sauce

This sauce can be used with other dishes

Sauce adapted from the chipotle-mango BBQ sauce at Iowa Girl Eats

Serves 4

Vegan

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Ingredients

For the base -

2 cups cooked black eyed beans

1 cup uncooked couscous

2 carrots, finely sliced

1 red capsicum (pepper), finely sliced

1/2 cup chopped pineapple, fresh or tinned (optional, but enjoyable)

For the sauce -

1 medium fresh mango, finely chopped

2 chipotle peppers with 2 tsp adobo sauce

1/2 small onion, peeled and diced

1/2 cup tomato sauce

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 - 2 tbsp maple syrup

Method

In a large bowl, add 1 cup boiling water to the 1 cup couscous and whisk with a fork. Cover with a tea towl and set aside, fluffing with a fork after 5 minutes.

Roughly chop the chipotle peppers, and then combine all sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cover and bring to boiling point, then reduce heat to low and simmer for approximately 20 minutes, stirring regularly.

While the sauce is simmering, cook the carrots and capsicum in the top half of a vegetable steamer (you could also stir fry them in a non-stick pan, if you don't have a steamer). When the vegetables are nearly cooked, add the black eyed beans to heat them through. Just before serving, add the pineapple to heat this through.

Combine the couscous, black eyed beans, vegetables and pineapple on a plate. Top with the chipotle mango sauce and serve.

I ate this for dinner, and then I ate the leftovers for lunch on consecutive days. I think I could happily have eaten it for lunch and dinner and snacks all in a single day, and only the desire to make it last prevented me from doing so. Mango and chipotle seem to be very good friends, and I think this will be on regular rotation from now on.

I am sending this to Ricki's Wellness Weekend 17th to 21st January 2013.

Do you use chipotle peppers regularly?
What are you like with 'rare' ingredients - do you use them immediately or ration them with caution?

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Christmas food ideas 2012: Brown rice mango sushi

It is possible that this food idea will be better suited to those of you in southern hemisphere climates than northern hemisphere ones. Sushi for Christmas is a bit of an outlandish idea in its own right. If it is snowing outside, adding fresh mango to the mix may seem bizarre as well as impractical.

If you are somewhere cold, this may be one occasion when tinned mango could stand in. Otherwise, a pumpkin and tahini filling was a serious alternate contender for this, and I am pretty sure pumpkin will be easy to come by if it's winter where you are. (If anyone does try pumpkin and tahini, please let me know how it goes!)

In the form I made it, this easy dish has mango, carrot and tofu as the sushi fillings. I used brown rice instead of sushi rice and the result was a meal (or snack) I could happily eat every day. It's not traditional Christmas fare, but mango and Christmas go together in an Australian kind of way, and this would be perfect for any pre-Christmas events when finger food is required.

I actually used pre-flavoured tofu for this. I rarely buy those packets (on account of the cost), but when they're on sale I tend to stock up. This was a Thai flavoured block, which paired perfectly with the mango. If you were using plain tofu, a simple marinade of soy sauce, fresh grated ginger and chilli would work well. That had been my plan prior to finding the flavoured tofu, and I would stir-fry the tofu ahead of time so it can be cooled before the sushi rolling stage.

Really, though, you can modify this dish to suit whatever you have to hand. It is more of a concept than a recipe. You may want to use cucumber instead of carrot (I don't like cucumber), put avocado in (I don't like that either), or even skip the tofu altogether. Sushi is flexible like that.

Brown rice mango sushi

Easy, festive, and perfect for summer (or for dreaming of summer)
Makes about 20 sushi pieces
Vegan

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Ingredients
1 cup brown rice

2 cups water

2 tbsp mirin or rice vinegar

3 sheets nori

1 large mango, cut into thin slices (you can use tinned if necessary)

1 large carrot, cut into thin slices

200g marinated and cooked tofu, cut into thin slices

Method
Ahead of time, cook the brown rice in the 2 cups of water using the absorption method (cover, bring to the boil, reduce heat, simmer for 15-20 minutes). Allow the rice to cool. Stir the mirin through the rice and refrigerate until needed.

Take one sheet of nori and spoon cooled rice into a strip, approximately 2 inches in from one end. Top the rice with sliced mango, carrot, and tofu. Roll in from the near end and use water to seal the other end after rolling.

Repeat for the other sheets of nori.

Allow the sushi to chill in the refrigerator before slicing with a sharp knife.

I am not sure if this will feature on our Christmas day, but it will definitely be appearing again either before Christmas, or as a staple of my summer lunches.

I am submitting this to Healthy Vegan Friday #21, hosted by Gabby, Shelby and Carrie.

Other 2012 Christmas food ideas: Chocolate, almond and goji berry truffle balls, and bejewelled couscous salad.
My 2011 Christmas food posts can be found here. 

How do you feel about non-traditional Christmas foods at Christmas time?

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Quinoa, edamame and mango salad

After a few weeks of bypassing supermarket peaches sold for $14.99 / kg, it was exciting to see early summer produce at my local markets this morning. Peaches were available for $4.99 / kg and mangoes could be purchased for $1.49 each. Just within the realms of acceptable, particularly for November.

A fruit bowl with more than apples and pears!

With a mango begging to be used and a vague desire for quinoa, I decided to make another grain-based, fruit-sweetened, and edamame-containing salad. Today's dish gives a nod to the mango and wasabi sushi salad I ate at Giraffe restaurant in Solihull, and the strawberry containing spin off I made at home last month.

While sushi salad has a base of sticky rice, the quinoa in this dish was fluffy and light. It paired beautifully with the mango, and the mango provided just the right amount of sweetness to the salad. The chilli was subtle but enjoyable, and there was definitely no need for additional dressing.

As a bonus, I am already looking forward to the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Quinoa, edamame and mango salad

Makes 2 large or 4 side-dish serves

Vegan

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Ingredients

1 cup uncooked quinoa

2 cups water

1 chilli, de-seeded (or to taste) and finely diced

1 cup shelled edamame beans

1 cup brocolli florets

1/4 cup bean sprouts

1/2 large or 1 small mango, chopped

1/4 cup watercress sprouts, optional

Method

Rinse the quinoa and then add to a saucepan with the 2 cups of water. Bring to the boil.

When the quinoa is boiling, reduce the heat and add the diced chilli. Simmer, covered, for 10 - 15 minutes.

While the quinoa is cooking, cook the edamame beans for 5 minutes in boiling water. Steam the brocolli for 5 minutes until just tender.

When the quinoa is cooked, add the bean sprouts, edamame beans, and brocolli. Stir through. Spoon into bowls and top with the chopped mango and watercress sprouts.

I am keen to see more summer fruit appear over the coming months (apricots! plums!), but this was a delightful re-introduction to the summer produce I love so much, and a perfect lunch for what has been actually been a rainy, rather than summery, Sunday.

I'm submitting this to Ricki's Wellness Weekend for the 8th to 12th November 2012.

What do you think of fruit in quinoa / rice dishes?

And for my fellow Australians - have you found much summer fruit yet?

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Mango ice cream

Do you remember the raspberry-banana ice cream I made at the start of this year?

I think I've found something better.

With four ingredients, no added sugar and minimal fat, this is incredibly easy and incredibly enjoyable.

Incredibly.

Mango 'ice cream'

Ice cream without cream and sugar? Oh yes. No one will know that this is almost entirely fruit!

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 large banana, peeled and frozen

1 medium mango, peeled, chopped and frozen

About 1/4 cup (2 decent dessertspoon dollops) plain yoghurt*

1 tbsp coconut, optional

*I used homemade natural non-fat yoghurt. I would recommend pot-set or Greek, for maximum creaminess.

Method

Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend to combine.

Serve immediately, for soft-serve ice cream, or freeze in individual serves covered with cling wrap, for a sorbet-like product.

I had half of this straight from the food processor (above), and froze half to eat the next day (below). I thought that the re-frozen half may turn icey and solid, but it worked surprisingly well. After 1 - 2 minutes out of the freezer, it was fine to eat with a spoon.

I'm amazed at how well this worked. And with the simple ingredient list, you can even serve it for breakfast.

I know this because I did.

It was a great start to the day!

Do you enjoy frozen desserts? Any favourite flavours?

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