White Xmas (raw)

I was never a fan of xmas pudding but every year I looked forward to Mrs Cousin's White Xmas (Mrs Cousin's was my cousin's other grandmother, confusing hey!). Sickly sweet (condensed milk) and coconut flavoured (copha) I can't even picture what she put in hers anymore but I still remember the feeling and the taste as I ate many of them throughout the day. I used to grab one sneakily, ever time I walked past

Chocolate and hazelnut torte (raw)

I was in France this Autumn when I came up with this little recipe. It was Caspar's and my farewell party, we'd been visiting his family for the past 3 months and our time was coming to an end. We invited all our beautiful 'French' friends (mostly expats from the Uk) and I spent a few hours cooking. Caspar: " Don't go over board Anthea, we fly out early tomorrow" but I can't help it sometimes, I just get

Green berry frappe

Many moons ago during the hot Summer months whilst working in my local cafe I invented this frappe. We had your regular frozen fruit frappe on the menu, made with frozen organic seasonal fruit and blended with fresh apple or orange juice but one day I just got a little sick of the sweet fruity flavours and wanted something more healthy and less sweet. It was a hot few weeks and all I wanted

Raw almond mylk

The first time I discovered almond milk I was delightfully surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It was great with breakfast cereal, smoothies and can be used as a substitute in most recipes where you need milk.  

Almond milk is light but nutritious, high in protein, low in fat, is easy to digest, and it is alkalising. Drinking almond milk is a great way

Chocolate beetroot cake

A good chocolate cake is priceless. I'd pay anything for a rich chocolatey slice of divinity. Something that's moist. Something that is rich and has a depth of flavour.  A chocolate cakes needs to have more than one dimension of flavour going on or it can get

Babaganoush

Digging out an old recipes that you used to cook a lot is like rediscovering old cloths that you used to wear. There's something familiar and comforting about them. I recently made this good ol' babaganoush recipe that I hadn't made for years. I first started making it 20+years ago. Now I can't even remember who introduced me to it? It's been that long! I really had forgotten how lovely it is. It's so soft and light and I love the bold flavours - all of my favourite things. The smoked paprika and dried oregano together, the smokey soft eggplant, the tangy lemon and the earthy taste of the tahini, all those flavors remind me of my travels through

Two types of flax crackers - flax, buckwheat herb cracker & rosemary, garlic pepita flax crackers

Flax crackers are a delicious, gluten free and healthy alternative to a normal wheat cracker. Of course you need to have a dehydrator or a friend who has one (and make a big batch together). 

Not only are these crackers satisfying but they are nutritionally fulfilling, after having a couple of crackers one often feels full. You can top them with

Blueberry and banana smoothie with full power

Now that Spring is pretty much here in the Northern Rivers of NSW, I've moved back onto having a smoothie daily.

These warm sunny days bring on an instant feeling of health and the desire to naturally eat more healthily. It's time to shake off the winter habits of comfort eating and being indoors and time to get

Coconut Butter

It's all coco-loco to me!

Coconut oil & coconut butter are different things. The coconut oil is just the fat or oil extracted from the coconut flesh which has been dried (cold pressed extracted makes it 'raw' coconut oil - which I use) . The cacao butter is derived from the cacao bean which is the bean where chocolate comes from.  When the cacao bean has been roasted it becomes a cocoa bean or if ground it becomes cocoa powder. I first discovered

Chocolate salted fudge slice (raw)

This recipe came about by mistake. I was going to a clothes swap and as usual I was doing too much, trying to fit it all in. I actually set out to make a Dragon fruit & Lime pie with a chocolate crust! I realised once I'd over processed the nuts for the base of the pie, that I had to start again! Not wanting to waste such divine ingredients I made a new base and turned the 'old' base into the fudge topping. As is often the case, the 'mistake' turned into

Curried parsnip soup

I'm always on the look out for an interesting new dish.  I'm just not satisfied with the same old flavour combinations year in, year out.  This soup came about a few years ago while I was cooking for a local cafe. I had to cook a different soup every single day throughout the winter, quite a challenge, especially when using organic and seasonal produce. I’d start most days staring at the same produce and have to come up

Tuscan kale is so good for you it just jumps out and says so! Just look at the dark greenness of the leaves! When I first discovered it, other than juicing with it, I didn't really know how to get it and it's goodness into my daily diet. I found it a bit fibrous and chewy. Sometimes I added it to my pasta dishes and found myself comparing it to spinach, which is soft and delicate. Then I discovered

Nona's orange and onion winter salad. (Fight off a cold)

This time of year on the north coast of New South Wales  (Australia) is citrus heaven. There are so many delicious oranges, lemons, limes and grapefuit around. This is a great little salad to take advantage of the abundant and cheap citrus available in winter. This dish brings back so many sweet childhood memories for me. My Nona used to

Cauliflower, caraway and thyme soup

Over looked and over cooked. Cauliflower can be one of those winter vegetables that people don't really favour. I know only more recently that I have discover the beauty of cauliflower. Many of us have been scarred for life with boiled until soggy and mushy cauliflower from the 70's or boiled cauliflower with plastic cheese sauce. I gag and shudder at the thought. 

It was a soup similar to this one that changed my early experiences

Coconut Macaroons - inspired by Christiania, Copenhagen

My husband and our two good friends Tina and Gunnar ate out in a vegetarian cafe in Christiania in Copenhagen. Christiania, according the the little guide book we had,  is the second most visited tourist destination in Copenhagen. It is a free thinking, self governing entity of it's own creation.  There are only three main rules in this

Lentil patties with tomato and onion jam

I was the envy of many girls in high school. At the beginning of the week, I would make a batch of lentil patties and keep them in the fridge for my lunch during the week. Each day I would make a fresh salad of finely sliced celery, a few iceberg lettuce leaves (my favourite, sorry Jamie Oliver!), some tomato slices, and grated carrot. Then at the beginning of lunch time I would run to canteen to beat the queues and buy a

Vegan Parmesan cheeze

I was in England in 1998, working in a vegetarian restaurant called Food for friends. It was a very popular vegetarian restaurant with a history of serving mostly 80's style vegetarian food. It was there, in Brighton, England that I first tasted vegan parmesan. I found it in the health food shop Infinity foods. It was even in the classic parmesan cheese packaging

Mushroom and spinach tagliatelle

Having not long returned from 3 months in the Sth of France this post was cooked, photographed, eaten and inspired by our trip to France. 

What is it about France that makes me eat wheat? Every time I go there it becomes a large part of my diet. At home in Mullumbimby, Australia, I eat Gluten free Rice and Quinoa pasta maybe once a month or our local pizza Milk 'n Honey (the best ever pizza – its bloody good!) probably monthly or when I'm too tired to cook after a long days work cooking or after catering on a retreat for a week. Lets not even mention the

Simple roast vegetable quinoa salad with char grilled zucchini

Quinoa seems to be almost everywhere, everyone's cooking it but still not found in many cafes and restaurants which I find a bit strange. With so many people incorporating it into their daily diet, quinoa's popularity has grown pretty fast in a short time.

Quinoa pronounced 'kinwa'  has been cultivated in the Andean mountain regions of Peru, Chile and Bolivia for over 5,000 years, and it has been a staple food in the diets of the native Indians. The Incas considered it a sacred food and referred to it as

Chocolate sago pudding with coconut custard

Sago: it's definitely worth revisiting, as it has come back into vogue with a contemporary twist. You wont regret it, I promise, even if you some of you have some nasty memories from school diners in the 1950's! 

Chocolate sago is pure indulgence. This version of sago pudding is perfect for the winter palate, it's  wonderfully rich and chocolatey, and has that great comfort food quality that we desire in the cooler months. It will make any chocolate lover gush with

Millet Patties with Beetroot Relish

Reach for the back of you cupboard and pull out the millet. It's the best grain, so good for you. Here is a little beauty for you to share with the uninitiated or just for your lunch. Patties are such an accessible way for people who haven't tried millet to experience it. They are lightly pan fried, usually served with a relish or chutney and some sort of salad. These can also make a hearty little canapé. They also do well on the BBQ

Pea and mint rissotto with toasted pine-nuts

Makes enough to serve 4-6 main portions

As a vegan or vegetarian eating out in restaurants can be an uninspiring event. As meat and fish dishes take the focus and attention of the chefs, vegetarians and vegans (worst still) don't even get a look in. Some restaurants are better than other but for the most part there is very little choice on a menu for a vegan or vegetarian. Risotto is often one of those choices. A vegetarian or vegan risotto done well is

Middle Eastern dukkah with olive oil and fresh bread

Maggie, my mother-in-law, and I shared a passion for food. Both of us shared a flair for throwing food together at the last minute. 

In honour of her life and with gratitude to her for sharing wonderful recipes and a passion for good food, I want to share this recipe with you. 

She introduced me to Dukkah about 12 years ago, and I have passed it onto to many others since. I love how we share recipes and new food ideas

Rich Chocolate Fudge Slice

 

 

Occasionally you meet someone who doesn't like chocolate. I haven't meet one of those strange people for awhile. I don't really understand people who don't like chocolate, it's like we are from two different planets. What's not to like? 

Good chocolate and by that I mean organic, fair traded and if possible raw, is all consuming and divine. It's hard to describe the feel good factor

Mini Lemon and Blueberry cheezecakes

On our last night in Copenhagen with our friends Tina and Gunnar and I wanted to cook them something a bit special. We had eaten in a few raw food cafes during the week and I took my inspiration from

Celeriac Remoulade

 

Life has taken me to France for a few months so some of the seasonal organic vegetables and fruits available are a little different to what you'd find in Australia at present. We are at opposite ends of the the seasons, being the tail end of Winter here. I want to continue my summer style blogs anyway. Wherever I am and whatever season it is, I always eat lots of salads.

When I arrived here in the South of France

Beluga Lentil Salad - Summer Salad Series

 

Everyone goes on about protein these days and these lentil are a wonderful source of it. I just love them because I love lentils. This salad if fresh, quick and light but in a filling way. It make a wonderful lunch and you can interchange the

Boysenberry Chocolate Mousse Pie

 

It's a rare treat in my neck of the woods that we get organic boysenberry. When I saw them in my local health food shop I brought two punnets and took them home with such excitement in my heart. Something new to play with. I had no idea what I was going to prepare but with gorgeous boysenberry it really wouldn't matter. I was going to dinner at a friends house that night so I decided to do

Cucumber, Cabbage and Tomato salad with Black olives - Summer Salad Series No 1

If you are like me, you probably live on salads in the Summer time. I have my classic favourites but love to mix it up a bit and discover new combinations. I challenge myself to use vegetables I don't normally buy. This salad has many of my favourite things in it but somehow it's different