the cooked and the raw

This is a lovely moist cake for any time of the day. It’s definitely one of those breakfast components that gets me out of bed but I think it’s ideal to conclude a light meal, too. What I like most about this cake is the intense, unique ‘cinnamony apple’ smell that wafts through the house while the cake bakes… As usual I suggest using organic ingredients for a healthier, tastier, and more natural result… ;) 

Ingredients:

4 Golden Delicious apples, cut into chunks

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 cup ground Brazil nuts

1 tablespoon organic baking powder (I used cream of tartar)

1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder

¼ teaspoon whole sea salt

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

6 tablespoons rice malt syrup

½ cup rice milk

Preheat oven to 180° C, lightly oil a 20 cm round cake pan and sprinkle with flour. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Place the olive oil, rice malt syrup and the milk in a blender and blend until combined. Add to the flour mixture and stir well. Fold in the apple chunks and the Brazil nuts and stir gently until they are incorporated into the batter (which should be rather thick). Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for approximately 1 hour (use the wooden stick test for donness). Let cool before removing the cake from the pan. Enjoy!  

This combination of celeriac, apple and cabbage sounds wintery but fresh at the same time… You can probably substitute the celeriac with celery for an even fresher result. I really loved this salad…like any other dish featuring that fabulous root vegetable also known as celeriac! To make this salad I chose organic vegetables (…the apple is organic, too) and organic soy cream.

Ingredients (makes 4 servings):

For the salad

1 small celeriac, peeled

1 green apple, peeled and cored

1 small white cabbage

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

For the dessing

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon powdered, dried mint

whole sea salt (to taste)

ground black pepper (to taste)

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons unsweetened soy cream

Dressing

In a bowl, whisk the olive oil, soy cream (rawists might want to replace this with 4 teaspoons almond butter, mixed with 2 teaspoons water to reach a thinner texture), lemon juice and apple vinegar together, then add the dried mint and season with black pepper and sea salt. Stir and set aside.

Salad

Shred the apple and the celeriac using the large holes of a box grater. Transfer the shreds in to a bowl and stir in the lemon juice to prevent the apple and celeriac from turning brown. Thinly slice the cabbage and add it to the apple and celeriac. Toast the walnuts in a pan for 2 to 3 minutes (rawists can certainly ignore this step!). Add the dressing and the walnuts to the salad and toss gently to combine.