I’m back after a loooong blogging break. My excuse is the one we all make: I’ve been busy.
Busy with what? Well, I’ve moved out of my design studio space. I’d been there for five years, so it was emotional moving on, even though in the grand scheme of things it was the right thing to do.
I’ve been in touch with the lovely Annette from Pure Glow Cleanse about her guest posting some recipes. Pure Glow Cleanse are Perth’s first cold-pressed juice cleanse delivery and I can’t wait to try it out when they launch. More on them soon.
I’ve also been contracting making online stuff at Naked Specs and Stonebarn, as well as continuing with some of my freelance work, so it’s been late nights and a lot of green juice in between, but I’m feeling more and more in balance as the warmer weather approaches.
And with the warmer weather comes summery fruit – my favourites! This salad features sweet strawberries paired with spicy ginger and bitter raddichio leaves to balance out the flavours.
STRAWBERRY GINGER SALAD
3 CUPS SHREDDED RADICCHIO LEAVES 10 STRAWBERRIES, HULLED AND SLICED 1/2 AVOCADO, CHOPPED HANDFUL OF FRESH MINT LEAVES
15 PECAN NUTS, CHOPPED ROUGHLY
DRESSING
1 TEASPOON FRESH GRATED GINGER 1 TABLESPOON OLIVE OIL 1 DESSERTSPOON FRESH LEMON JUICE 1 TEASPOON AGAVE NECTAR OR HONEY
1/2 TEASPOON SEA SALT
To make the dressing, shake all ingredients together in a jar until well combined. Set aside. Mix all salad ingredients together in a separate bowl, and stir through the dressing just before serving.
I’m crazy about carrot cake, but not so crazy about the usual refined, processed ingredients like wheat flour, butter, sugar and cream cheese! Instead, this cake uses beautiful whole foods with beautiful benefits to create a moist, carrot-cake texture such as fresh carrots for a boost of vitamin A and glowing skin, walnuts for vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids and iron and potassium rich dried dates.
This recipe is a guest post I created for bespoke activewear company, Mylo-Dee. Mylo-Dee lets you customise your exercise clothing. You begin by selecting a silhouette (which has been designed with body shape in mind), then select a neckline, sleeves, back & front design details and fabric – all from beautiful French performance jersey, and voila! Your custom design is created and shipped to you. Pretty neat, huh?
Head over to the Mylo-Dee blog to get this carrot cake recipe:
Raw Carrot Cake with Creamy Lemon Icing recipe >
If you are into carrots as much as I am, there’s a great carrot website from the UK full of interesting carrot trivia. For example, in 1600s England, Parkinson, the celebrated botanist to King James comments that ladies wore carrot leaves in place of feathers in their hats – “the light, feathery verdure of which caused them to be no contemptible substitute for the plumage of birds.”
One thing I’ve noticed about myself is that dependent on my mood, texture and surface area makes a huge difference to how much I want to eat carrots. I do love them, (and the massive dose of Vitamin A is always a good thing), but I’m not always in the mood for the heavy crunching; sometimes it can feel a little laborious to get through a plate of carrot sticks.
This recipe uses shaved carrots to break up that heavy carrot density to make it easier to eat and is based on traditional Moroccan flavours. It uses both plumped sultanas and crunchy currants to give a great contrast of textures. A few tips: the fresher and younger the carrots, the better it tastes. And don’t skip the orange blossom water, it’s essential!
MOROCCAN CARROT SALAD
6 – 8 BABY CARROTS 1/3 CUP SULTANAS, SOAKED IN WARM TAP WATER FOR 10 MINS TO PLUMP & THEN DRAINED 1/3 CUP DRIED APRICOTS, DICED 1 TABLESPOON CURRANTS 1/3 CUP FLAKED ALMONDS
BUNCH OF FRESH CORIANDER, LEAVES PLUCKED
DRESSING
1/2 ORANGE, JUICED 1 TABLESPOON OLIVE OIL 1 TEASPOON FRESH, GRATED GINGER 1 TEASPOON ORANGE BLOSSOM WATER 1/2 TEASPOON CUMIN POWDER 1/4 TEASPOON CINNAMON POWDER
1/2 TEASPOON SEA SALT
Peel the carrots, then shave them into long strips using a regular vegetable peeler. Place in a bowl with the other salad ingredients. In a separate bowl, stir all the dressing ingredients together until smooth and then toss through the salad just before serving. Easy!
Is a raw soup really a soup, or is a juice with some salt and herbs sprinkled on top and put into a bowl? I don’t know, but I’m calling it a soup because that’s how I eat it.
This recipe is like locking sunshine in a bowl – the carrot juice is good for eyesight, bones and teeth, liver and nails, skin and hair as well as betacarotene and vitamin A, there’s the obvious vitamin C from the oranges and the ginger, well, it seems ginger is good for you for pretty much everything.
CARROT ORANGE & GINGER SOUP
2 CUPS FRESH CARROT JUICE 2CM FRESH GINGER ROOT, JUICED WITH THE CARROTS
2 CUPS FRESHLY SQUEEZED ORANGE JUICE
1/2 TEASPOON SALT FLAKES
FLAT LEAF PARSLEY, CORIANDER, BASIL OR CHIVES/CHIVE FLOWERS
Juice the ginger with the carrots til you have two cups worth of juice. Then juice the oranges until you have two cups of orange juice. Mix together in a jug, sprinkle in the salt and pour into two bowls. Top with fresh herbs (I used chive flowers and flat leaf parsley because my coriander was dead. I really wanted to use fresh coriander, but oh well).
For a more substantial soup, blend the soup with 1/4 of an avocado.
For a warm soup, gently heat it in a double saucepan over a low flame until it is warm.