beet

Buckwheat pie with beets and red onion – GF

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beet pie-2

Buckwheat pie with beets and red onion

Ingredients:
dough:
• 375 g buckwheat flour
• 125 g butter
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
•5 to 6 Tbsp water

filling:
• 4 to 5 red onions
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• salt
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp balsamic glaze (or aged balsamic vinegar)
• 2,5 dl red wine (like cabernet, merlot)
• 400 g raw grated red beet
• 1 big garlic pod
• 3 eggs
• 40 ml cooking cream
• 70 g feta
• fresh thyme
• salt, pepper
• handful of walnuts
• feta, fresh mint and thyme to garnish

Preparation:

  1. Dough: mix flour, salt and baking powder. Add cold butter cut in cubes. Mix evenly with fingers. Add water. Kneed and form a ball. Place in the fridge for at least an hour.
  2. Chop onions. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil, add chopped onions and stir fry for 1 – 2 mins. Add salt and continue stirring. Than add butter and balsamic glaze. Cover for couple of minutes and continue cooking. Start adding the wine, but not all at once. Keep sauteing until wine has evaporated and onions softened.
  3. Grate raw beets. In a big bowl mix grated beets, sauted onions, chopped garlic, eggs and cooking cream. Add feta and thyme. Salt and pepper according to taste.
  4. Take the dough out of the fridge. Roll out in between two sheets of baking paper. Remove the upper sheet of paper and transfer the dough to a pie mold. Bake in preheated vent oven for 5 mins at 190 °C.
  5. Take the dough out of the oven, add the filling and garnish with feta and walnuts in the middle. Put back in the oven and bake for 30 – 35 mins at  190 °C.
  6. When baked, garnish with fresh mint and thyme.

beet pie

This recipe was made for Spar Slovenija and their magazine Dobro zame.

Roasted beet and avocado dip

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Lately I’ve been going nuts about beets.  It’s probably one of the most amazing vegetables. There are so many things you can do with it, be it sweet or savory. And I just love that color!

There’s more on its health benefits in one of my older post. Anyway, raw, cooked, steamed or oven baked. Everything goes. So here it is, my favorite dip/spread.

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Ingredients:

  • 1 large avocado
  • 2 medium size beets
  • 1.5 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1.5 cumin seeds (Cuminum cyminum)*
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • salt
  • some roasted hazelnuts to garnish

Preparation:

  1. Cut beets in quarters, sprinkle with olive oil and bake on low temperature (at 180ºc) until it softens. Cool and peel off the skins.
  2. Finely grind coriander and cumin seeds.
  3. Using a hand blender mix all the ingredients.
  4. Serve with corn tortillas or crackers. You can also use it like this.

 

*more on cumin – carvi – black cumin here.

Green pancakes with quick avocado & beet spread – gluten free

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I started writing this blog because I wanted to give a healthy twist to those traditional dishes. Of course, since I got diabetes, I was mostly trying to find a neat solution to avoid sugar or at least finding an alternative for it. But in the end, everything is sugar. During digestion the food we eat will eventually turn into sugars. The question is how fast? My answer to this is balance. A meal that’s rich in fiber and protein, not only carbs, will rise your blood sugar level much slower and will make you feel full longer. And protein intake can sometimes be a huge problem for vegetarians. I say chickpea, people!

Chickpea is one of those superfoods for me. It has quite some carbs, to give you the energy, but also lots of fiber and protein. Chickpea flour has around 60% carbs, 20% protein and 15% fiber whereas cooked chickpeas will have round 30% carbs, 9% protein and 8% fiber.

When I first heard of Socca that funny word immediately caught my attention. For a reason. Farinata or Cade, as it is also called, is a chickpea pancake brought from Genoa to south of France, Nice and Toulon to be more precise. It’s a street food and there are some variations between the three, but the basic recipe for socca is:

300 g chickpea flour
500 ml water
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
pepper

The batter is poured into a large iron skillet and than baked in the oven at a really high temperature until golden brown.

So, I mixed a bit and came up with this broccoli chickpea gluten free pancakes, that are way better and certainly way healthier than the regular ones using plain white flour. The batter is less liquid so the pancakes will be slightly thicker, but they sure look nice and make a great contrast with the beet-avocado spread.

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Ingredients:

for the broccoli chickpea pancakes:

  • 100 g broccoli
  • 75 g chickpea flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 140 ml milk of your choice (I used oat milk)
  • 2 Tbsp oil
  • 1/3 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 garlic clove
  • salt, pepper

quick beet and avocado spread
(or if you have more time)

  • 1 avocado
  • 1 medium size cooked beet
  • 1,5 tsp coriander seed
  • 1,5 tsp cumin seed
  • juice of half lemon
  • salt

tahini sauce (optional):

  • 1 big Tbsp tahini
  • 1Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 – 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 3 – 4 Tbsp water
  • salt

handful of spinach
goat cheese
roasted walnuts or hazelnuts

Preparation:

  1. Put all the ingredients in the blender an mix well. Let rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
  2. Finely grind coriander and cumin seeds.
  3. Using a hand blender mix all the ingredients for the spread.
  4. Bake the pancakes at medium heat in non-stick frying pan of 20cm in diameter until golden brown. Do not expect paper thin pancakes, they should be slightly thicker.
  5. Spread the beet and avocado on half of the pancake, fill with spinach, goat cheese, tahini sauce and some roasted nuts.

Red DETOX smoothie

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After a busy end of the year and all that feasting and festivity the time has come to start a new chapter. New year – new beginnings, they say. And to start well, mind, soul and body need to be free. And clean. So, for the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to detoxify my body, do more sports and just breathe that fresh winter air. I left out a party or two and switched from wine to smoothies. Since I’ve got this diabetes thing I learned how important it is to listen to my body. Once you do that, you start acting differently and you feel great.

This smoothie has been replacing some of my breakfast lately. It’s really boosting and nourishing. In the morning I sometimes mixed it up with oats and hemp seeds and it was definitely my favorite 5 o’clock thing.

Beet is a great source of folic acid and potassium. It also contains high level of antioxidants and supports detoxification. It has a slightly higher level of carbs than other vegetables (5g carbs/75g), but that’s not much of a problem since it is also a good source of fiber. It can be eaten raw or cooked. Also, and that is something I did not know, leaves were highly appreciated in ancient times. That’s no surprise since they contain up to 25% magnesium. They can be prepared the same way as spinach. Superfood.

Carrot A, B, C, E, K. Nuff said.

Orange is the best winter fruit. I’ve got an orange tree in my apartment and it just started blooming (don’t know how that’s possible), but the smell…it’s amazing. Of course, a super source of vitamin C that will boost your immune system in those harsh winter months and hydrate your body. Just make sure it’s heavy when buying. That means it will be really juicy.

Strawberries are a good source of antioxidants, folic acid and vitamins B and C. They have a high water content and are beneficial for digestion. They also have low glycemic index, so go for it!

Green tea is said to have more health benefits than the black tea which is most widely used. This is due to un-oxidation process which retains more antioxidants and vitamins.

Chia seed has high fiber and slows down digestion. It’s also rich in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, minerals like potassium, calcium and iron. It has high protein content so it is perfect for balancing fruit or vegetable smoothies.

Ginger is a good source of vitamins and minerals. It is considered a medicinal plant in alternative medicine. It’s said to have beneficial effects on digestion, respiratory system and nausea, but its recommended daily amount is between 3 and 10 g. It has a nice lemony, but very sharp taste. When grated and used with fiber it will gradually become even sharper. If you want milder taste, use squeezed (grated) ginger juice only.

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Ingredients:

  • 1 carrot
  • 1 beet (raw or cooked)
  • 100 g strawberries
  • 1 orange
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 2 tsp grated ginger
  • 2 Tbsp chia seed
  • 1 cup green tea

Preparation:

  1. Make 1 cup of green tea and let cool.
  2. Wash and peel all the fruits and vegetables and cut into bigger pieces.
  3. Put all the ingredients into smoothie maker and blend on the highest speed.