May 2nd, 2014
Paloma and I are leaving for Russia today, and here is one of the snacks I will be bringing for the long flight. Lately, when flying alone over big distances, I’ve been a fan of giving my stomach a break, just drinking lots of water and munching on some carrots and sliced cucumbers. Airplane meals have always given me a stomachache, and I try to stay away. But having a five year old with me is a much different story. I know that Paloma will require a variety of foods to keep satisfied. For snacks, I decided on carrots, apples, local blueberries (the season is here!), kale chips and these sprouted sunflower seed bars.
Over the years, I’ve become a sprouting fanatic. Knowing how many benefits sprouting or soaking awakens in seeds, nuts, and legumes, I can never bypass the easy and fun process. Recently, I got my hands on unhulled black sesame seeds and was very excited to see how easily they sprouted! As I make most of my nut and seed butters at home, I rarely look at that section in stores. But being so crazy busy with preparing for the trip and the release of the cookbook, I decided to buy sesame tahini instead of making it. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of sprouted everything on the shelves! Even things like Sprouted Pumpkin Seed Butter and Sprouted Chia Seeds – made me happy.
These bars are fantastic to have at home or take on a road with you. You can also eat them broken up with yogurt or any milk of your preference as a sort of granola for breakfast. You don’t have to sprout the sunflower seeds for this recipe, however the process boosts nutrients, improves the taste and eases digestion if you start with good quality, raw sunflower seeds. I usually buy mine in bulk sections of local health food stores with a good rotation or online (nutsonline.com has superb quality products).
In other news, we’ve been working on a cookbook trailer (coming soon!), and Cathryn Fowler, who is shooting it, took the photos for this post.
Farewell! I’ll try to keep Instagram updated with some travel snaps.
Sprouted Sunflower Seed Cocoa Bars
Note: Sometimes make these bars using sunflower seeds only (no buckwheat), or use a mixture of different seeds – sunflower, pumpkin, black and tan sesame, chia, flax and poppy seeds. You can totally experiment with your own favorite combination, just keep the dry to wet ratio according to the recipe.
3 cups dried sprouted sunflower seeds (or just raw sunflower seeds)
3/4 cup cocoa nibs
1/2 cup raw buckwheat groats – soaked in water for a minimum of 1 hour, rinsed and dried completely, or quinoa puffs
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup mini dark chocolate chips (I use vegan Enjoy Life) – optional
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
2 tablespoons brown rice syrup
6 tablespoons coconut oil
large pinch of sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract – optional
1) To sprout the sunflower seeds, soak them in purified water overnight. Rinse and keep covered with a wet kitchen towel for 12-24 hours, until sprouts become visible, rinsing every 8 hours or so. It’s important not to overgrow the sprouts.
2) After sprouting, dry the sunflower seeds. If you have a dehydrator, place them on a mesh screen covered tray and dry at 115F for 8-12 hours. Or simply spread them on dry and clean kitchen towels or several layers of paper towels and leave to dry completely. In the latter case, don’t wait until sprouts become too apparent before drying, as they will most likely continue growing during the drying period. Changing the towels to dry ones will help speed up the process.
3) Mix all the ingredients thoroughly in a large mixing bowl. Preheat oven to 260 F (130 C). Spread the mixture on a parchment paper covered large baking tray into an even thickness. Score/cut into bars by pressing a knife into the mixture rather then dragging it through. Bake for 1 hour. Let cool completely and break into bars.
I like to keep the bars refrigerated for extra crunch.
Tags: breakfast, chocolate, snack, sprouted, sunflower seed
Tweet
July 24th, 2013
Frozen Berry Cheesecake on a Sunflower Crust
Food blogs have become a big part of my life, and there are so many that I look at for inspiration and ideas daily. I often feel like I know some of the people behind them very well, even though we’ve never met. David, Luise and Elsa of Green Kitchen Stories are certainly among those people. Theirs was one of the very first food blogs I started reading and a major inspiration for Golubka.
GKS combines gorgeous photography, amazing ideas, simple and clever recipes, and overall irresistible charm. It is definitely the blog that I cook from the most, and it’s no surprise that I was impatiently awaiting the arrival of their first cookbook Vegetarian Everyday.
The book is absolutely stunning, full of amazing photography and approachable, nourishing recipes. I’ve cooked quite a bit from it – all to delicious and healthy results. Today I will be sharing two favourite recipes – Orange-Kissed Seed Crackers and Frozen Berry Cheesecake.
The crackers became a sort of obsession for me and Paloma and I’ve made them numerous times, using different types of flours like buckwheat, quinoa and spelt. They taste great in all variations and go well with the Sage and Walnut Pate, Rhubarb and Pear Compote, or just about anything else.
The Frozen Berry Cheesecake is made with strawberries in the book, but I used blackberries instead due to the abundance of beautiful blackberries at the local market. And I cannot say enough about the sunflower crust, which is simple and incredibly tasty. Regardless of the type of fruit you use for this cheesecake, it is sure to be a winner and a breeze to make. Paloma has requested that I make it again for her birthday, which is coming in August.
I’ve also made their Quinoa Cakes and Beet Bourguignon, and am intrigued by the Apple Ketchup, Swedish Crispbread, Vegetable Chorizo and Elderflower Lemonade to name a few. Next on my list is the Mascarpone “Beanotto” with Oyster Mushrooms and Spinach.
Thank you David, Luise and Elsa for such a beautiful book! For more amazing recipes, check out Vegetarian Everyday.
Orange-Kissed Seed Crackers
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup flax seeds – ground
1/2 cup hemp seeds
scant 1 cup amaranth, quinoa or almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1. Preheat the oven to 300 F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine all the seeds. Scoop out about a quarter of the seeds and reserve for the topping. Add flour, salt and olive oil to the bowl together with 1 1/4 cups cups of water. Stir to combine. You should now have a loose batter. If it’s not loose enough, add some more water.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour the batter over the parchment paper and spread with a spatula as thinly as you can.
4. Bake for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the honey/maple syrup and orange juice in a small bowl. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, brush the cracker with the orange glaze and sprinkle with the reserved seeds. I also added a handful of pumpkin seeds and a sprinkle of poppy seeds.
5. Cut into 2 inch pieces and bake for 30 more minutes or until crunchy.
Frozen Berry Cheesecake on a Sunflower Crust
for the crust
2 1/2 cups sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons hemp seeds – optional
12 fresh medjool dates – pitted
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
for the filling
2 cups fresh berries such as strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries or frozen unsweetened berries, or other fruit
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup honey or agave syrup
2 cups Greek yogurt (or vegan cream cheese for a vegan version)
to make the crust
1. Toast the sunflower seeds on a baking sheet in a 350 F oven for 6-8 minutes. Let cool.
2. Pulse in a food processor together with the hemp seeds for about 20 seconds, the seeds should be chopped but not powdered.
3. Add the dates, coconut oil and salt and to the food processor and process until the mixture sticks together. Transfer the mixture into an 8-inch springform cake pan and press it against the bottom to create the crust. Place in the fridge while you prepare the filling.
to make the filling
1. Puree the berries (if using blackberries or raspberries, strain out the seeds), lemon juice and honey in a food processor or blender. Pour into a large bowl and add the yogurt.
2. Mix well and pour on top of the crust in the cake pan. Put in the freezer for 1 1/2 hours or until no longer soft.
3. Top with more berries and edible flowers for decoration. Slice and serve immediately or keep in the freezer for a few days, but let it thaw for about 20 minutes before serving.
Tags: blackberries, book review, cheesecake, crackers, recipe, sunflower seed, vegetarian everyday
Tweet
May 18th, 2013
Happy Saturday everyone! Life has been hectic lately, there is still work on the cookbook and many other food related projects going on around here, but I am getting back into the swing of things and should be back to regular posting soon. I’m still spending much of my time cooking and you can see my daily kitchen snaps on Instagram. Meanwhile, here is another exciting guest post, this time from Amy of The Wooden Spoon. Amy lives in Australia with her husband and daughter and is a long time yoga teacher. She shares her fresh, vibrant culinary creations on her blog, along with stories of organic farming and overall sustainable living. Pay a visit to The Wooden Spoon for loads of inspiration and positivity. Here is Amy:
I felt a little like an adolescent school boy asking a young girl he’d been secretly admiring out on a date as as I sat at the computer, trying to write Anya an email. “Errrm…do you…think that ummm…you might…sort of like to hmmm…consider me for a guest post?” I wrote the words without in any way expecting a reply. But when I got one… I won’t lie to you… I had a little dance and said “whooooohoooo!!!” kind of loud. What a dream to be able to post on such a space!
But there began my dilemma. What to post? What do I have worthy of sharing at this wonderful feast that is Golubka…so full of inspired ideas, of beautiful images, of healthful, nurturing, creative and life-giving dishes. What do I have to bring to the table?
While considering a recipe worth sharing I was filled with so many ideas and possibilities that somehow they all got stuck and nothing would come out. I looked to our garden for inspiration… custard apples are in season, the pineapples are ripening, the branches of the lime trees are heavy with fruits, leafy greens are flourishing in our cooling Australian sub-tropical Autumn, but still…nothing. I wanted something special of course, something that would would speak entirely for our kitchen…
and our garden…
Slowly but surely an idea emerged…
and this was it…a salad of sprouted green lentils, sprouted mustard seeds and sprouted fenugreek with a dressing of coriander, mint, chilli and sunflower seeds.
As you might be able to tell from this post I love a big bowl of hearty dahl. This salad combines many of the same ingredients (including the spices) used in a dahl but entirely raw and sprouted. It’s a recipe that needs a few days in preparation because first, you need to sprout your sprouts.
Sprouting is something that has become somewhat of a delight for our two year old daughter, Bhumi. She takes the utmost pleasure in adding water to the seeds and pulses, draining them and then covering each bowl in cloth so they can sleep while they grow. Each day she carefully untucks the cloth and turns them in her hands, singing with excitement over the ‘tails’ that are sprouting from each pulse or seed.
I watch her as she careful removes just one little mustard seed from the bowl and places it in the palm of her hand. “Awwww.” She says. “It’s just a widdle baby.” I feel a shiver of joy and reverence run down my spine. That tiny little sprout she holds in her chubby hand contains within it a seemingly unending array of vitamins, enzymes and amino acids and represents the point of greatest vitality in the life cycle of a plant. The building blocks of health itself.
The inner gardener in me gets a little overwhelmed just at the sight of one big bowl of sprouts…if I was to plant them all I would need fifty, maybe even one hundred times the garden space I have now. But blessedly, I am able to take the nutrients capable of growing into a whole field of leafy greens, and sit down to it at one easy and delicious meal.
Later, in the garden Bhumi stands in awe at the mustard green plants as I explain to her that such a big plant grows from just one tiny seed. Undoubtedly, it is a miracle…every time.
During sprouting, enzyme and vitamin content increase dramatically (sometimes over eight times the nutrient content pre-sprout!). Not only do nutrient values get to kick-ass quantities but all the complex starches within convert into simple sugars, protein is turned into amino acids and crude fat is broken down into free fatty acids (anything simple and free in my books is a winner). This magical and reverential sprouting process takes the nutrients of the seed and pre-digests them for you, making it just that much easier to assimilate and metabolise. This explains why grains and legumes, many of which are common allergens, often do not cause allergies when sprouted.
In our kitchen I try to at least soak (sparking the sprouting process) all of our seeds, nuts, grains and legumes…including whole spices. Todays recipe calls on many whole spices, two of which are entirely sprouted. These two are mustard seeds and fenugreek.
Mustard by nature is very warming, strengthening and stimulating to the digestive system. Like teeny tiny multi-vitamin pills they contain essential B complex vitamins (excellent for vegetarians!), essential oils, niacin as well as calcium, manganese, copper, iron, selenium and zinc. As well as giving a peppery kick to any recipe its added to, mustard can be used for a wide variety of medicinal purposes from cancer to premature balding. If planted in the garden and allowed to flourish into a leafy green it can be eaten to relieve lung infections, colds and coughs.
We have mustard greens growing wildly all over our garden and I have never once purposely planted a seed. They pop up anywhere where we have buried compost (from our food scrap compost or composting toilet) and continue to self seed season after season. We use their peppery leaves in salads, stir-fries and have found it adds an incredible dimension to sauerkrauts and vegetable ferments.
Fenugreek is a sister herb to garlic and is one of the oldest recorded medicinal herbs known to man. To tell you all of its attributes would take me all day so perhaps I will share with you its most notable attribute for being able to alleviate mucous in the body. On a farm community where I lived years ago we would make a strong tea of whole fenugreek and drink it at the onset of a cold. If sufficient tea was consumed then no mucous would show up and the cold would pass in half the time. The only downside (depending on which way you want to look at it) is that it seeps from your pores sometimes for days later, giving you a slightly spicy smell (which some might actually find kind of yummy).
To make your sprouts, simply cover each grain or seed in water and soak over night. In the morning, strain them seperately through a colander and rinse well. If you have specialised sprouting equipment then simply follow the instructions on the package. If you don’t have any sprouting equipment then a wide-lidded jar covered at the opening with some gauze or muslin makes an excellent substitute. In this way the sprouts can be easily rinsed, drained and then stored opening down on a wire wrack.
Personally (because I usually sprout in quite large quantities), I prefer to leave the sprouts in a sieve or colander and simply wrap the entire colander after each rinse in a tea-towel or cloth, placing them in a warm, dark place to rest. It’s best to water your sprouts twice a day, morning or night by allowing water to run freely through them. The more thoroughly and more regularly you rinse your sprouts, the better the flavour.
You can experiment with how long you want to leave your sprouts to grow. Different seeds will sprout at different rates, also depending on external climatic conditions. I find that 2-4 days is usually enough. At that point you might like to place the sprouts on a shallow tray in some gentle light to allow the chlorophyl to come in. Once you’re happy with how far along your sprouts have come, they can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week or more.
Dahl Inspired Sprouted Salad with Coriander, Mint and Sunflower Seed Dressing
Salad
2 small cucumbers, chopped into small pieces
1 stalk of celery, finely sliced (including the leaves)
2 ripe tomatoes, finely and carefully chopped
1 carrot, sliced into small ribbons with a vegetable peeler
1 zucchini, sliced into small ribbons with a vegetable peeler
1 green capsicum, finely chopped
2 big handfuls of sprouted green lentils
1 big handful of sprouted fenugreek
1 small handful sprouted yellow and black mustard seeds
A variety of leafy greens (I used mustard greens, mizuna, lettuce, kale and sweet potato leaves)
Combine all of the finely chopped vegetables with the sprouts and toss. Place on a bed of torn leafy greens.
Dressing
1 cup sunflower seeds (soaked overnight)
1/4 cup hemp seed oil
1/4 cup water
1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped
1 bunch fresh mint, chopped
The juice of two limes
1 fresh red chilli
1 Tbsp coconut sugar
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, soaked overnight
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, soaked overnight
1/2 tsp coriander seeds, soaked overnight
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients together in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth.
I served this salad inside large male pumpkin flowers. Its flavours were a wonderful and exciting combination of sharp and mellow, spicy and cooling, refreshing and light, but simultaneously filling and satisfying. Give it a try, I think you might like it.
Tags: coriander, guest post, mint, recipe, salad, sprouted, sunflower seed
Tweet
