Delicious raw broccoli pesto

I love pesto especially homemade pesto. It´s so easy to prepare with your favourite ingredients, away from all those addictives and without the fat like the ones you find nowadays on the supermarket shelves.

Today I felt like having a pasta dish, and dressing it with pesto, but what kind of pesto, I asked myself!? I was low in ingredients, hadn´t done any groceries, I definetly had to play with, what I had in the fridge.

Broccoli is one of my favourite greens and I always have it at home. I could eat broccoli everyday and never get sick of it.

This mini tree look alike is loaded with health benefits, such as cancer prevention, cholesterol reduction and a powerfull antioxidante. It also helps reduce allergy reaction and inflamation, it´s excellente for bone and heart health, and it plays a good part on body detoxification.  This cruciferous vegetable is a good diet aid, and most important alkalizes your body.

Broccoli is an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, zinc is also contains B1, B2, B3, B6, vitamin C, beta-carotene. It´s high in fiber and low in calories.

You can´t go wrong with broccoli, their yummy =D

 Now! Let me show you how to prepare this delicious pesto!


Ingredients:

300g of raw broccoli florets
4 leafs of fresh basil
2 stems of fresh cilantro
1/2 lemon juice (fresh)
100g of roasted hazelnuts ( leave ou 6 hazelnuts to garnish)
1 clove of garlic
80g of good quality olive oil
2 Tbsp of water 
pinch of himalayan salt
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp of freshly grated sheep´s cheese (Pecorino Romano)

Directions:

1) Throw all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse for about a minute. Add extra olive oil or water if it feels too dry. 
2) Salt & pepper to taste.
3) Garnish with freshly grated Pecorino Romano and some hazelnuts.
4) Serve with pasta, in a salad, sandwich or a wrap.

 As for me, I plan on using it on my gluten free pasta from my favorite site SuperBio, check out the amazing gluten free products.

Hope you enjoy as much I did...

with love, Claudia C.

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delicious brazil nut pancakes - gluten free

After an intense Saturday preparing to welcome the New Year, sunday mornings around here are lazy and quiet.

It´s cold outside, so I look for comfort in my kitchen. I calmly prepare out family´s first meal of the day. Nothing like a good breakfast to replenish and strengthen energy, awaken our body with a nutritious meal, such as pancakes...these are far the menu´s most requested for Sunday´s early mornings.

These pancakes were made with left over the pulp from my homemade brazil nut milk get recipe.
I always use nut milk leftover pulp to create other recipes such as cakes, crackers and hummus. There´s lot of ideas you can grab it off the internet...try it on, you be delighted!

I know, you probably excited and mouthwatering at this moment, to check out this delicious recipe...right? So here it goes...

Ingredients :

200g left over nut pulp (almond, brazil nut, hazelnut, etc)
1 large organic egg
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/4 tsp of Himalayan salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
3 Tbsp of agave nectar or organic honey
50 ml Brazil nut milk or other nut milk
2 Tbsp of melted coconut oil

Topping:

 
1 banana or other fruit of your choise
Nuts or other dried of your choice
Maple syrup / honey or agave nectar for garnish

Brazil Nut left over pulp

Preparation:

1. Mix  all the dry ingredients in a bowl ( pulp, baking soda, salt and cinnamon).Stir until all well combined.

2. Then mix all liquid ingredients (egg, vanilla, agave, milk and coconut oil. Stir well until all is incorporated.

3. Add the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and mix well until I´ts creamy and smooth.

4. Grease a non-stick pan with coconut oil, and heat it up.

5. With the help of a small ladle spoon pour it´s size of creamy pancake mixture in the hot frying pan. You will know when to turn the pancake the other side when it´s forms small bubbles on top, that´s a indicator that the bottom is done.

6. Repeat this step with the rest of the pancake creamy mixture.

7. Serve the pancakes with sliced banana, walnuts and garnish it with maple syrup.

After this delicious breakfast,  you will face this cold winter day, joyfully :)

with love,

Claudia C.




 

Homemade brazil nut milk

Homemade brazil nut milk

I would like to share something especial with you... ready?!!! It´s homemade nut milk....yeah!!! It´s so easy to prepare, very delicious and mega nutritious.


After converting to a vegetarian diet I always looked for healthier options. In Lisbon market´s there´s some types of vegetable milk such as soy, rice and oats ... and later I discovered almond milk! As a big fan of nuts my interest grew for nut milk.

Nut milk is starting to gain a lot of fans in Portugal, you can find them in health food stores and organic supermarkets. In my opinion, this milk is a bit expensive compared to the ones mentioned above, but if done at home is less expensive and amazingly easy to prepare.


Milk made from nuts contains no saturated fats or cholesterol, on the contrary, they have high levels of vitamin E and unsaturated fats. Does not contain lactose (milk sugar animal) or casein (a milk protein animal), is recommended for those who are allergic to soy, but not recommended for those suffering from allergy to nuts.


Most nuts are rich in minerals such as selenium (plays an important role in the production of antioxidants in the immune system and regulating the thyroid), manganese, magnesium, zinc, potassium, calcium and phosphorus concentrations vary depending on the type of seed or dried fruit. In addition, moderate and regular consumption of nuts is associated with the reduction in LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and increased HDL (good) cholesterol, thereby contributing to the prevention of cardiovascular disease.


The best part of this natural drink is that it can be made at home without any effort with no additives or preservatives, and must be stored in the refrigerator to ensure its freshness for 3 to 4 days...

Brazil nuts

First you should choose one of the following nuts or seeds you to prepare your milk: Almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, macadamias, Brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame, sunflower and hemp seeds will do.

If you wish you can also be prepared you nut milk with two different varieties of seeds or nuts, my favourite is brasil nut and hazelnut milk these two combined makes your taste buds go crazy, but it´s really up to you!!!

So roll up your sleeves, and let´s prepare this healthy milk.

Brazil nut milk


Ingredients:

200g of Brazil nuts

550ml of filtered water

1Tbsp agave nectar (honey or a couple of pitted dates)

Preparation:

1. Soak the nuts with filtered water for 8 hours minimum.

2. Once soaked, rinse well the nuts with running tap water.

3. Place the nuts and new filtered water into a strong  blender, and blend it in high speed for 1 minute.

4. Filter the milk into a cloth milk bag ( you can purchase these at ebay or amazon) or simple use a clean panty hose...yes I´m no joking, it does the job right!...these  bags allows to retain the pulp, by squeezing out the liquid...this liquid is your milk!


5. After squeezing out the milk, wash the blender thoroughly pour the milk in and had your favorite sweetener, blend for another 45 seconds to sweeten the milk.  Honey or dates are also natural options to sweeten your milk.


Store the milk in a jug or glass bottle tightly closed, and keep in refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.

Use this magnificent milk for your morning coffee, smoothies, oatmeal, etc..

 

Note: Save the milk´s pulp to prepare pancakes, hummus, crackers and bread!


Enjoy this delightful milk ... and I assure you will never want to drink animal milk again!!!  

Be healthy... xoxo Claudia C