Cauliflower Quinoa and Spinach Cakes

I found this recipe on a scrap of paper and I have no idea where it came from. It's fairly straightforward and once the quinoa has been cooked, and the cauliflower, oats and spinach blended, all the ingredients can be combined in a bowl. I made 10 individual cakes and 2 are quite filling. They are best cooked in a frying pan or pancake pan, instead of grilling or baking, with a little oil or cooking spray.

Cauliflower Quinoa and Spinach Cakes
Makes 10 (2 cakes per serving)
Click HERE for a printable recipe card.

Ingredients:
- 180g / 6.5oz quinoa
- 200g / 7oz cauliflower
- 80g / 3oz oats
- 130g / 4.5oz spinach
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 225g / 8oz cottage cheese, low fat
- ground black pepper

Method:
Cook the quinoa. 2:1 water:quinoa ratio.
Separately blend the cauliflower, oats and spinach in a food processor. Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Stir in the cooked, but cooled, quinoa. Add the garlic.

Mix in the beaten eggs, cottage cheese and ground black pepper.

Chill the mixture for 30 minutes in the fridge. Then form 10 balls/patties.

In a frying pan or pancake pan, sprayed with cooking oil or a little olive oil, cook the cakes for 4-5 minutes on either side.

ENJOY!

Click HERE for a printable recipe card.

Nutritional Information:

What to do with all these mushrooms?

Mushroom Recipes

I usually like to eat particular foods – avocados, mushrooms, kale, chocolate, tofu – or sometimes buy too much of one thing and wonder what I’m going to do with the excess. Mushrooms seem to be a common overstock. However, with only 6 calories per mushroom, it's easy to throw a few in some miso soup, mix them with tofu or eggs, or add them to any stir fry, curry or stew.

I thought it would be useful to create a list of foods and recipes that include a particular food so that it becomes easy to cook dishes based on the available ingredients stored in the pantry and fridge.

Recipes by Food

The list isn’t extensive but I will continue to add foods and recipes.

Mushroom Lentil Bhaji

This is the first time I've used garam masala. It's an Indian spice meaning 'hot' (garam) and 'a mixture of spices' (masala). Garam refers to the intensity of the spices rather than the capsaicin content - i.e. not the blow your head off kind of hotness!

I had difficulty finding garam masala in the supermarket but I have since learnt it can be made at home by combining other spices such as: cumin, coriander, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. Here's an Easy Garam Masala Recipe.

If I have a pack of mushrooms, I usually make Mushroom and Tofu Stew. This recipe is similar in that it uses mushrooms, chopped tomatoes, onion, garlic honey, flour and some green vegetables. The only different ingredients are the tofu and herbs/spices (thyme and cayenne pepper) featured in the stew compared with the lentils, ginger, garam masala, turmeric and chili featured in this dish. Although I'm sure tofu would be tasty in this bhaji too!

Mushroom Lentil Bhaji
Makes 4
Click HERE for a printable recipe card.

Ingredients:

- 130g / 4.5oz lentils

- 400g / 14oz / 1 can diced tomatoes (no added salt)

- 15ml / 1tbsp olive oil

- 170g / 6oz onion, chopped

- 2 clove garlic, crushed

- 5g / 1tbsp ginger

- 225g / 8oz mushrooms, chopped

- 1tsp garam masala

- 1tsp turmeric

- 85g / 3oz peas

- 10g / 1tbsp flour

- 30ml / 2tbsp cold water

- 20g / 1tbsp honey

- 1/2tsp chili powder

Method:

Cook the lentils in approx. 3 cups (720ml) water in a saucepan with a lid for 30 minutes, until soft.

Meanwhile, blend canned tomatoes using a handheld blender or food processor so you have a smooth texture instead of liquid and tomato chunks.

In a large pan, heat the oil and cook the onion, garlic, ginger and mushrooms for approx. 5 minutes.

Add the garam masala and turmeric and mix well.

Add cooked lentils, blended tomatoes and peas. Bring to boil for 5 minutes.

Mix the flour with water and stir into the pan to thicken the dish.

Stir in the honey and add the chili powder.

ENJOY!

Click HERE for a printable recipe card.

Nutritional Information:

Black-Eyed Peas Hummus

Another 'hummus' dip but instead of using chickpeas or black beans, this recipes uses a can of black-eye peas and lime juice. I also had some fresh cilantro which I added instead of spices.

All three kinds of hummus dip featured in this blog are quite similar in their nutritional content - about 100 calories per ~65g / ~2oz serving. They don't have any cholesterol and contain less than 1g sugar, if any at all! 13g carbohydrates and 4-6g protein, with black-eyed peas offering a little more protein than chickpeas or black beans. The chickpea hummus has a little more fat, due to the 2tbsp olive oil. 1tbsp oil can be replaced with a tablespoon of bean juice or water to keep fat at 3g per serving.

I prefer to use canned beans with no added salt but sometimes I can't get all varieties of beans with low sodium. The black bean hummus only has 7mg sodium per serving whereas the other two dips have ~170mg per serving. No added salt makes a big difference in nutritional health and very little difference in flavour.

Black-Eyed Pea Hummus
Makes 5 (67g per serving)

Ingredients:
- 440g / 15.5oz / 1 can black-eyed peas
- 15ml / 1tbsp black-eyed peas juice
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 15ml / 1tbsp olive oil
- 45ml / 3tbsp lime juice
- 5g / 1/4cup cilantro, fresh and chopped

Method:
Drain the can of black beans, retaining 1 tablespoon of juice.
Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend together.

Spoon into a container for storage.
Serve with chopped vegetables. ENJOY!

Nutritional Information:

113 ingredients = 60 Recipes

Since starting this Chocolate Spinach blog, I have kept an ingredients list and also an A-Z recipe index to keep track of the dishes I've made and also the foods I've used.

Turns out with 113 ingredients, it's possible to make 60 different recipes! Take a look at previous posts if you don't believe me!

Whilst it's hard to pick a favourite dish (perhaps the chocolate pudding/pie), I have tried to pick a few popular and delicious snacks, main meals and treats and have started to create a list of printable recipe cards.

I fully accept that it can get quite messy in the kitchen and it's not always practical to follow a new recipe from a laptop or iPad. Therefore a simple PDF version of a recipe may help when getting creative in the kitchen.

Below is a list of printable recipe cards which I have started to create. I'll slowly add to the list as I get chance and place links on the Printable Recipe Card page as well as including them in recipe blog posts.

Almond Pie Crust
Almond Cocoa Balls
Banana Oat Pancakes
Black Bean Hummus
Cauliflower and Courgette Bake
Cauliflower Quinoa and Spinach Cakes
Chili Rubbed Chicken
Chocolate Pudding
Indian Spiced Lentil and Vegetable Soup
Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pancake)
Pumpkin, Kale, Ginger, Tofu Curry
Turkey Chili

Miso Black Bean Rice Mix

I usually only eat miso as soup, but mixed with rice and black beans makes a great lunch which can be eaten hot or cold. The rice is tender like risotto and a little green veg together with the sweet corn makes it a well balanced nutritious meal.

Miso Black Bean Rice Mix
Makes 4

Ingredients:
- 7.5ml / 1/2tbsp olive oil
- 110g / 4oz onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 5g / 1tbsp ginger, chopped
- 80g / 3oz kale
- 170g / 6oz pepper, chopped
- 170g / 6oz courgette, chopped
- 85g / 3oz sweet corn
- 425g / 15oz / 1 can black beans (no added salt)
- 45g / 1.6oz brown rice, cooked
- 30g / 2tbsp miso paste
- 120ml / 4floz warm water

Method:
In a pan, heat the oil and saute the onion, garlic and ginger for approx. 5 minutes until clear.
Add the vegetables, black beans and cooked rice.
Mix the miso paste with the 1/2 cup (120ml) warm water and stir into pan.
Cook for 5 minutes until veg is tender and liquid has been absorbed.
Serve hot or cold. ENJOY!

Nutritional Information:

Iced Coffee

 

When the weather heats up, a cool iced coffee is very refreshing and easy to make. All that's needed is a little time as the coffee needs a few hours in the fridge. I first made home-made iced coffee after visiting New Orleans and buying some Cafe Du Monde coffee. Their beignets were delicious!

It can get a bit messy when filtering the coffee but at least I'm left with plenty of granules for the composting bin!

Iced Coffee
Makes approx. 900ml / 28floz

Ingredients:
- 1000ml / 32floz (1 quart) cold water
- 56g / 2oz coffee

Method:
In a tub or bowl, mix the coffee into the water.
Refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Using a coffee pot (turned off), pour the cold coffee through a paper filter. Several paper filters may need to be used as a large amount of coffee granules will be collected.

Alternatively, the cold coffee can be poured into a French press.

Store the cold filtered coffee in a bottle in the fridge. Pour over ice and milk (if desired) to make a refreshing drink.
ENJOY!

Salmon and Cucumber Sushi

After grilling a couple of pieces of salmon with my Asian marinade recipe, I used a fork to flake up the fish and rolled it into sushi. Plain grilled salmon or canned salmon can be used in the sushi rolls; it is not necessary to marinade the salmon.

I'd previously cooked some brown rice, quinoa, and also blended and heated through some cauliflower. I mixed all this together instead of simply using plain rice. The end result tasted great and had a little more variety than regular sushi rice.

I'll most likely alternate between sushi rolls with this version and my tuna and avocado sushi. However, I think I'll be tempted to use blended cauliflower in both recipes as 100g is only 25 calories!

Salmon and Cucumber Sushi
Makes 2 sushi rolls

Ingredients:
- 22g /0.8oz cooked brown rice
- 22g / 0.8oz cooked quinoa
- 150g / 5oz blended cauliflower
- 85g / 3oz salmon
- 30g / 1oz cucumber
- 2 sheets nori seaweed
- 15ml / 1tbsp soy sauce, light (optional)*

Method:
Lay the nori seaweed on top of the sushi mat - rough side facing up, smooth side down. Spread cooked rice, quinoa and blended cauliflower mix over the seaweed.
Add salmon and cucumber close to the edge.

Roll the seaweed using the mat. Wet the edge of the seaweed at the end, so that it sticks and takes a cylindrical shape.
Using a sharp knife, cut into bite-size pieces, approx. 8 per roll.
ENJOY!

Nutritional Information:

Asian Marinade

This marinade is perfect for salmon or chicken. I grilled the fish and meat on the BBQ but it can easily be baked in the oven. I made two lots and marinaded two pieces of salmon and a chicken breast which I cut into large chunks and skewered).

I also pan-fried some asparagus with lemon juice and ground black pepper. The asparagus stalks only need a few minutes to cook so they retain their crunch!

Asian Marinade
Makes 2 (i.e. for two pieces of salmon, or 2 chicken skewers)

Ingredients:
- 15ml / 1tbsp olive oil
- 7.5ml / 1/2tbsp soy sauce, light
- 7.5ml / 1/2tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 0.2g / 1/2tsp brown sugar
- 1/4tsp ginger, fresh or powder
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- red pepper flakes

Method:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

Place salmon or chicken pieces in the bowl and coat with marinade.

Place salmon or chicken and marinade in a ziplock bag, seal and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Grill or bake salmon and chicken.

Serve with asparagus and baked potato. ENJOY!

Nutritional Information:

Lentil, Tofu, Kale Curry

This curry dish highly aromatic and flavourful, due to the use of fennel seeds. As they are cooked they release their flavour, similar to anise and liquorice.

As fennel has such a distinct flavour, half the amount of seeds can be used instead of one whole tablespoon.

This dish is only 198 calories, low fat and a great source of fibre (12g) and protein (15g)! I ate two servings in one day as it was so tasty - a bowl for lunch and another for dinner, along with some soup.

I recently posted another curry recipe that uses tofu and kale: Pumpkin, Kale, Ginger, Tofu Curry

Lentil, Tofu, Kale Curry

Makes 4

Click HERE for a printable recipe card.

Ingredients:

- 130g / 4.6oz lentils (pre-cooked)

- 112g / 4oz onion, chopped

- 2 clove garlic, chopped

- 5g / 1tbsp ginger, chopped

- 1tbsp fennel seeds

- 400g / 14.5oz / 1 can diced tomatoes (no added salt)

- 200g / 7oz kale

- 300g / 11oz firm tofu, cubed

Method:

Cook the lentils for 30 minutes, if necessary.

In a saucepan, sprayed with cooking spray, cook the onions, garlic, ginger and fennel seeds for 5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, kale and lentils. Cook for another 5 minutes until kale has softened and any water has been absorbed.

Blend the mixture with a hand-held blender

Stir in the tofu.
ENJOY!

Click HERE for a printable recipe card.

Nutritional Information: