Author: C'est Délicieux.com

Gazpacho Soup

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Can’t be bothered to cook, but can you be bothered to blend? It was one of those days, I was too hot (rare that we are allowed a warm day) and simply couldn’t face standing over a gas cooker getting even hotter! I wanted something cooling, refreshing but packed a bit of punch so luckily I had a selection of tomatoes in the fridge and a few other staples like garlic, onion, parsley and basil and got chopping! This is a lovely, shove it all in the blender/ food processor and turn-it-on recipe. AND what is even better, is that you don’t need to worry about remembering to warm up your bowls! This soup is best served cold with a couple of ice cubes on a really hot day. Here is my take on a summer gazpacho soup.  I think it is slightly up to you what you put in so use the below as your basic guideline and add anything else you might have lying around. Take all the below ingredients and blend, season …

Buckwheat groat granola

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Granola is one of those items in the supermarket that I no longer buy. I have turned into a bit of a refined sugar free bore recently. I think my friends are a bit annoyed I won’t eat certain things. I want to prove to them how easy it is and that I’m not on a diet, just changed my way of eating slightly. We all start the day by either eating or not eating breakfast and I am in the eat breakfast camp; it sets me up nicely for the day ahead. However I can be a little bit boring about what I eat as am obsessed with eating porridge.  I will eat it with all combinations from honey, cinnamon and berries to a nut butter and maple syrup. I hear you probably thinking, how is that sugar free? Well it isn’t. What I am doing in my life now is basically cutting out processed foods and a lot of those contain added sugar. Also with my baking and cooking I am doing it …

Rhubarb and banana muffins

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I found huge stalks of rhubarb in the supermarket the other day and have gone a little bonkers thinking of a million different recipes I could make using this delicious vegetable. My only issue is that in the past I have always cooked this very bitter ingredient with a lot of sugar and I now try to stick to a refined sugar free diet so will have to try a new version. My mum advised me that the best way to deal with rhubarb is to cook it first, then add sweetness, as it sucks up all the sugar and you end up putting in double if you cook it in sugar first. My favourite natural sweeteners are honey, bananas and dates so I thought I could combine all of these to make some little breakfast muffins. I’m always trying to use wholemeal flour when I can but if you want to make this gluten free, swap the flour and baking powder for gluten free flour, and gluten free baking powder. I am also going to …

Apple raspberry roses

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I know these are all over the internet but I have never made them and wanted to see if they were easy to make and a good option for afternoon tea. I love having friends over for afternoon tea and cake, it is always a relaxed affair where you can gobble cake and drink copious amounts of tea and natter about rubbish. Everyone feels happy when they leave too, full of something sweet and delicious and having had a good old chin wag. It means you can include your friends who are parents too as they don’t need to worry about getting a baby sitter and the children are normally delighted to be allowed cake too. The best apples to use are pink ladies as they have a gorgeous red tinge to them which is perfect for the rose petals. Also most of the recipes I found use apricot jam, I didn’t have any so used raspberry, and to be honest I prefer this jam choice anyway. Ingredients: (Makes 8) 2 packets of puff pastry 2 – 3 …

‘Hot’ salad

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The glorious hot weather seems to have disappeared and lunches of cold salads and glasses of rosé feel inappropriate as the wind and rain batter across the window. As a result, I am craving something warm and comforting but have a fridge full of raw veg and don’t want any of it to go to waste. There are a few items I buy every time I go to the supermarket, a lemon, garlic, fresh ginger, onion and bananas. If I have these items in stock they feel a good set of basics for many different recipes including hot drinks like fresh ginger and lemon. Bananas are perfect for a quick snack on the go or let them get a little too ripe and you can make my sugar free banana loaf. So as well as having my supermarket must have purchases I also have a number of store cupboard favourites such as tahini, peanut butter and honey. Honey gets used in place of refined sugar where possible and for the peanut butter and tahini, I …

Coconut & lime chunks

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We have had a few weeks of being really naughty recently, sharing a sticky toffee date pudding in a restaurant then practicing making chocolate fondant for a dinner party. And I must not forget the incredible Toblerone cheesecake I had seconds of at a friends house last weekend. These were all totally delicious but didn’t make me feel great.  The rush of ‘high’ from all that sugar, followed quickly by a real ‘low’ and body slump. So I am on the rampage to revamp our eating style and stay away from sugar and dairy packed foods for a while. I always notice I have more energy,  better skin and sleep well when I have a cleaner diet. When I say diet, I am by no means starving myself, I don’t function well if I skip meals, eat tiny portions etc. If that happens then I am angry, headachy and generally a nasty person to be around. Last night we had a delicious Moroccan stew packed full of root vegetables, spinach and lentils. It was gently spiced with …

Baked falafel on tabbouleh

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I adore falafel but I don’t adore how they are made by frying a lot of good ingredients in oil so I have tried making my own baked falafel which are pretty tasty and not too far off the originals. Also, rather than having them in a pitta bread I have made a tabbouleh salad and drizzled them in good olive oil. Alternatively you could water down a little tahini and pour over the top. A dressing I have used in the past on one of my salads is tahini, apple cider vinegar, honey, splash of water, salt and pepper would be delicious on these. Ingredients: 1 cup dried chick peas 4 -5 tbsp plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 3 large garlic cloves (crushed) 1 small onion or 2 shallots (roughly chopped) 1 tbsp harissa paste 1.5 tsp ground cumin Half tsp ground coriander large handful of chopped parsley 1 tsp salt flakes or half tsp pouring salt Soak your dried chickpeas over night in a bowl of water, making sure that there is at least 2 cm …

Pecan Pie – Deliciously Ella style

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I bought the new Deliciously Ella book a couple of weeks ago and I am slowly working my way through some of the recipes. Here is her original: Pecan Pie This has proved a new favourite in our house, and a real hit at a recent dinner party for those who were lactose intolerant. Rather than making one big tart, I made individual ones and halved the ingredient list as this is rather an expensive list of ingredients unless you are feeding 8-10 people. See below for my version of Deliciously Ella’s mini Pecan pies! Ingredients: Tart base: (makes 4 individual pies) 75g almond flour 63g buckwheat flour 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tbsp honey 2 medjool dates (or 5 normal dates) 1 tbsp coconut oil Oven to 180 degrees and grease the tartlet cases with a little coconut oil. In a food processor blend dates then add rest of mixture and blend till sticky. Divide this mixture into your 4 tart cases and bake for about 12 minutes, you will notice it firms up and starts …

Thai Bang Bang Turkey

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Tonight I am going to a friends house to watch a movie and was asked if I could bring the protein part of dinner. I have been told they will provide salad, potatoes and wine so I had to think of something easy that I didn’t need to cook once there. Thai Bang Bang Turkey is my low calorie, totally delicious and easy dinner protein option! Bang Bang Turkey uses a peanut thai flavoured sauce which you can basically put on anything, I would even have it on toast. That is perhaps as I am obsessed by anything that contains peanut butter. This is also a great dish if you have a few things lying around in the fridge to make a salad and you want a change from a normal chicken salad. I tend to have this cold as I think the sauce works best cold or at room temperature. Ingredients: Turkey/chicken – 400g 1 garlic clove crushed 1 thumb sized grated fresh ginger 1 large bag lettuce 2 carrots 1 cucumber/courgette 5 tbsp peanut butter …

Homemade baked beans

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I stopped eating baked beans a while ago as the amount of sugar in a tin of baked beans can be around 3 teaspoons which is rather a lot for a savoury item. I would also love to eat them on thick slabs of white bread which probably also contained sugar. Bread is one of those items on the supermarket shelves that you can’t quite get one’s head around that there could be sugar in there as it isn’t at all sweet. Have a look at the ingredients list before you buy as there is sugar or glucose in many of them. I am not completely sugar free in my diet but I try to stick to no refined sugar when I can. This way of thinking also stops me from eating a lot of processed food.  A lot of foods have added sugar to help with the flavour, if you cook it yourself you know exactly what is in there and can almost always get a better taste and freshness as a result. BUT.. …