pumpkin seeds

Mung Bean Falafel Bowl with Pickled Rainbow Chard

April 28, 2016 by Anya 11 Comments

Mung beans have been my legume of choice as of late. I love them for their versatility, good nutrition record (protein of course, manganese, potassium, magnesium, zinc, etc.), brief cooking time, and a very fair price tag. They work well for falafel, with very similar properties to chickpeas, albeit lighter in every way. Soaking the mung beans overnight and baking the falafel instead of frying makes them easy on the stomach – I say this because even though I love to get traditional fried falafel when out, it always makes me feel unwell.
These mung bean falafels are made with my favorite spice mix that goes well with their bright, lemony flavor.

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Pumpkinseed Butter Goji Cookies

March 7, 2015 by Anya 22 Comments

I’ve grown very used to making my own nut butters, it’s complete second nature by now. I buy nuts and seeds in bulk, which is cheaper, and blending them up to a buttery stage in my food processor is quick, easy and produces delicious results.

The other day I ran out of my homemade tahini and needed it as an emergency for a recipe, deciding to grab a jar at the store. I got a look at my local health food market nut butter shelf for the first time in a long time and was amazed at the variety of different nut and seed butters on display. A beautiful bright green butter caught my eye – it turned out to be sprouted pumpkinseed butter.

I didn’t buy it that day, but the idea haunted me for a few weeks before I finally gave in and made my own pumpkinseed butter. Mine is not sprouted but toasted, and the color is not as brilliant but still very beautiful. After having it on toast and loving it, I imagined that the butter would be a nice base for baked goods. That’s when these cookies were born.
They are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, with the pleasant addition of goji berries. If you don’t have goji, replace them with other dried fruit, chocolate pieces or nut of choice. Enjoy!

Pumpkinseed Butter Goji Cookies
(loosely adapted from here)

makes 16 cookies

for pumpkinseed butter
2 cups raw pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons olive oil plus more as needed
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

for cookies
1/4 cup oat flour, plus more if needed
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup pumpkinseed butter (see below)
3 tablespoons coconut oil – soft, at room temperature
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup goji berries

to make pumpkinseed butter
1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine pumpkin seeds with 2 tablespoons olive oil and salt in a medium bowl, mix to coat. Spread on a parchment paper covered baking sheet and toast for 10 minutes. Let cool.
2. Place pumpkinseeds in a food processor and grind finely. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil through the funnel with machine still running. Continue to process until a ball of pumpkinseed butter forms. Scrape the walls of the food processor if necessary. Add more oil, 1 tablespoon at a time and continue processing until seeds turn into creamy, runny butter. You’ll need 1/2 cup of it for the recipe, keep the rest refrigerated in an air tight container and spread on toast or use in more baking.

to make cookies
1. Keep oven at 375 F. Combine 1/4 cup of oat flour, brown rice flour, oats and soda in a medium bowl.
2. Combine pumpkin butter, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract in a separate medium bowl and mix to combine.
3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir to combine. If the batter appears too runny, add more oat flour, about 2 tablespoons should be enough. Add goji berries.
4. Prepare a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Using a small (1 1/2″) ice-cream scooper or 2 teaspoons, scoop a cookie at a time and arrange on the sheet 2″ apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges are slightly golden brown. Let cool completely to firm up.

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Lemongrass Mango Curry with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

September 9, 2013 by Anya 14 Comments

This post is also available in: French

This week, I’ve really been craving vegetables – I always do – but it comes in waves, some are bigger than others. This was a particularly big wave, and I wanted something pure, nourishing and full of flavor.

As much as I love Indian food, the thought of curry rarely crosses my mind during the hot summer months. But as soon as the first, brief chill arrives in the air, I quickly start thinking about warming spices. This recipe is far from traditional curry, but a perfect combination of the still summery, raw and crunchy vegetables with the creaminess of fragrant curry sauce. The dish is not entirely raw, as I use roasted pumpkin seeds, which are important for the texture and amazing flavour. You can omit the lemongrass to simplify, if you wish.

I have been using this julienne peeler a whole lot lately to make all kinds of vegetable noodles, which is a fun way to present vegetables in salads and main dishes. It has its advantages over the spiralizer, which I like a lot as well. The peeler makes thicker noodles and works better for softer vegetables such as cucumber and zucchini. It is cheap and doesn’t take up much space in the kitchen. The spiralizer works better with hard vegetables like carrots, or round shapes like beets and turnips.
In other news, our wonderful translator, Géraldine Olivo, who has been supplying Golubka readers with French translations of our recipes, is coming out with a new cookbook. The book is titled Fleurs en cuisine and features recipes that include edible flowers – fresh, dried or in the form of waters and essential oils. It is out on the 12th of September, learn more about it here.

Lemongrass Mango Curry

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 bunch cilantro – hard stems removed
about 1 cup basil leaves, plus handful for garnish
handful mint leaves, plus more for garnish
1/2 garlic clove – minced
1 ripe sweet mango – peeled and pitted
3 lemongrass stalks – chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-inch piece ginger – peeled and minced
1/4 small jalapeno – seeded and chopped
1 teaspoon curry powder or to taste (I used muchi curry)
squeeze of honey
generous squeeze of lime juice
sea salt to taste
1 large daikon radish – thinly julienned
1 medium zucchini – thinly julienned
1-2 red, yellow or orange bell peppers – seeded and thinly julienned
1/2 cauliflower head – chopped into small, bite-size florets

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Toss the pumpkin seeds with olive oil and salt and spread on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Toast for 10 minutes until puffed up and golden.
2. Add half of the toasted pumpkin seeds into a food processor along with the cilantro, basil, mint and garlic. Process until well combined and leave in the food processor.
3. Meanwhile, combine the mango flesh and lemongrass in a high-speed blender, blending until smooth. Strain and discard the solids.
4. Add the lemongrass-mango puree to the food processor, along with the ginger, jalapeno, curry powder, honey, lime juice and salt to taste. Process until well combined.
5. In a large mixing bowl combine the daikon radish, zucchini, bell pepper and cauliflower pieces. Add in the mango-curry sauce and reserved 1/2 portion of toasted pumpkin seeds. Toss well to combine. Garnish with basil and mint leaves and serve.

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Pink Peppercorn Cookies from Small Plates and Sweet Treats

January 9, 2013 by Anya 9 Comments

This post is also available in: French

Aran Goyoaga hardly needs an introduction. Her amazing blog Cannelle et Vanille attracts thousands of readers with its sunny photographs and clever gluten-free recipes. I waited for the arrival of her first cookbook Small Plates and Sweet Treats with little patience, but it was very much worth all of the wait. It is full of the same gorgeous photography and exciting ideas. Everything that I’ve made from the book so far has been more than delicious. Paloma and I cooked the Glazed Apple and Chestnut Bundt Cakes and the Chocolate, Beet and Almond Butter Molten Cakes for Thanksgiving. Then we tried the Chocolate Frangipane and Raspberry Tarts for our New Year’s celebration. Friends loved them all. I also haven’t been able to get enough of the Roasted Parsnip and Apple Soup and these shortbread cookies – they are truly addictive.
Pink peppercorns have become somewhat of an obsession for me lately. They are so good on almost anything – in savoury dishes, as garnish for creamy soups, sprinkled on salads, and as an aromatic, spicy addition to a dessert. In these cookies, the combination of ingredients is mind blowing, the flavour is unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before. I tweaked Aran’s recipe a little by adding pumpkin seeds instead of pistachios and substituting regular butter with nut butters and ghee. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with adding ground pumpkin seeds in place of some flours in baked goods, and I’m really loving the results. Another thing that I’ve been making regularly is pistachio butter. Like any nut butter, it’s easy to make with the help of a food processor and is wonderful on its own or added to baked treats.
Look for many more inspiring recipes in the book.

Pink Peppercorn Cookies
(adapted from Small Plates and Sweet Treats)

makes about 50 cookies

1 cup pumpkin seeds – ground into flour in a food processor
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup gluten free oat flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
2 teaspoons pink peppercorn – coarsely ground in a mortar with a pestle or in a dedicated coffee grinder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons almond butter
5 tablespoons pistachio butter
5 tablespoons ghee
1/2 cup honey or 3/4 cup coconut sugar
1 vanilla bean – seeds scraped out
3/4 cup powdered coconut sugar – for dusting

1. In a medium sized bowl, combine pumpkin seed flour with the other flours, starch, peppercorns and salt. Set aside.
2. Scrape seeds from the vanilla bean. In a bowl of a stand up mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine all the butters with the honey/coconut sugar and vanilla bean seeds and beat until well incorporated and fluffy. Add in the dry mixture and mix everything into a dough.
Alternatively, use a hand mixer to combine the butters with honey/sugar and vanilla seeds and then add the butter mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix with a spoon, then knead with your hands to form a dough. If using coconut sugar, the dough will be drier and slightly harder to combine.
3. Place the dough on a work surface and shape it into 2 logs, about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap them in parchment paper and roll, trying to make the log as round as possible. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350 F. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, unwrap and cut into disks 1/4-inch thick. Place them on a parchment paper-covered baking tray about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes until the bottom is golden. Don’t over bake to prevent cookies from getting hard and dry. The cookies will be very soft when hot. Leave them to cool on the tray for 10 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar. Keep in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

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